New Year’s Eve 2018

It’s almost over!  2018 comes to an end tonight at midnight. Tomorrow starts a whole new year. Does it really make that big of a difference?  I’ve never been that into the big deal of a new year. It just means I’ll struggle for the next couple of months to remember to write ‘19 on things instead of ‘18. I’m sure I’ll be crossing the wrong date out for a while.

The beginning of a new year is usually a good time to start over and do the things this year that we promised ourselves we would start doing last year. We’ll get in better shape, we’ll lose weight, we’ll save more money, read more books, and so on and so on. This week will start one of the busiest sign up times at gyms across the country only to be abandoned by March. Why do we do this?  Because our will power just doesn’t match the effort needed to fulfill the promises we make to ourselves. As the old saying goes, “our eyes are bigger than our bellies!”

This transfers to the Christian life as well. We say we’ll attend church more regularly, we’ll read our Bibles more, we’ll do a better job praying or we will share the Gospel with others every chance we get. All great things to strive for as a Christian, and I wish you all the success of accomplishing them this year if they are your goals. But we can’t do any of them in our own strength, we must let the Holy Spirit work in us to convict us to follow through on them. As Jesus told his disciples in the Garden of Gethsemane, “the spirit is willing, but the flesh is week.

Spend time today praying that God will show you what He wants you to let the Spirit work on this year in you. “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.” Luke 11:9.

Have a great last day of 2018 and God bless you in 2019.

Rejection Hurts

Rejection hurts!  It is something all of us deal with throughout our lives, some are rejected more than others, but we have all faced rejection. We may be rejected as children by our parents because we are unwanted. Or maybe we are rejected from sports teams because we are not athletic enough. We face rejection from the opposite sex as we grow up and want to start dating. Colleges reject us because we aren’t intelligent enough to meet their requirements. Or we may face rejection from employers because we don’t have enough experience. Whatever the situation, we all face rejection.

Most of us are strong enough to face rejection and move on in life, whether it is finding a new hobby, a new relationship or a new job. We make it and still thrive in whatever new endeavors we move on to.

However, there is a future date in everyone’s life where if you are rejected there is no further opportunity. The Bible tells us that we will all stand before God one day and give an account of our lives. Those that accepted Christ’s saving actions on the Cross will be accepted because of their position in Christ. But there is going to be another group that didn’t accept Christ’s free gift of salvation and they will be rejected. They will here the most horrible five words spoken in the Bible, “Depart, I never knew you.”

That final rejection seals their eternal destiny in a place called hell. A place created for Satan and his demons and not for man. People will ask, how could a loving God send people to hell?  God doesn’t send anyone to hell but the devil and his demons, everyone else chooses to go there by not accepting Christ as their Savior here on earth. That decision needs to be made now because you won’t get that opportunity when you stand before God, your fate will have already been sealed. I pray you bow your knee and confess Jesus Christ as your Savior now because you will either do it know on your own or you will do it before Him later, but it will be too late.

Have a great day and God bless.

Be Positive

Be positive!  If you can be anything in this world, choose to be nice. I’ve seen that meme on Facebook quite often. I would say, be nice, but also be positive. There is so much negativity in this world it is hard sometimes to be positive. Admittedly, I get caught up in the negative things of this world and it’s hard to always be positive, but as Christians, we have so much to be positive about.

I mentioned in my video yesterday that I gave up Facebook for a while because of all the negative things I was getting caught up in and decided to come back to make a positive page that I could share everyday. But I made three promises to myself that I would stick to when I came back. First, I wouldn’t share any posts that were political or would cause division. Second, I would no longer comment on any of the negative posts and if someone wanted to argue I would not respond. Last, I would start Between Two Trees so that I could share Biblical truths and positive words on a daily basis.

Some people might wonder, “Isn’t sharing your faith a possible cause for division?”  Yes, but it’s different because it’s not based upon my opinion, it’s based upon the Truth of God’s Word. That makes it automatically divisive right there. The difference is that it’s God’s Truth verses Satan’s lies, it’s light verses darkness and it’s the holy verses the unholy.

The author of the Book of Hebrews wrote, “For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” - Hebrews 4:12.
I share the Word of God because it pierces the heart and soul of those that hear it. People aren’t going to hear the Truth unless somebody shares His Truth.

Be positive in this negative world. Be a light in the darkness of this world. And be Holy in this world that celebrates the unholy.  Share the Gospel of Jesus Christ, not to divide, but to reconcile.

Have a great day and God bless.

Finish Strong

This time of year can be very hard on those that have lost loved ones this past year. I saw many posts on Christmas of friends and family mentioning that this year was different than the last year because someone in their lives were missing.  It makes my heart hurt for them because I know how they feel to miss loved ones.

I’ve also seen where some people have passed away over the last couple of days, people I know and people I have never met. Life is fragile and we never know when the end will come for each of us. We do know that it will come at some point unless the Lord comes back again soon. So the question is: how are we living in light of that fact?

Unlike a race that has a finish line where you know how much further you have before completing the race, life doesn’t give us that option. It can be hours, days, months or years. We just need to keep running until that time comes. I don’t know about you but I want to finish strong!

The Apostle Paul told Timothy that he had fought the good fight and he had finished his race. That which the Lord had placed in front of him to accomplish had been completed and Paul finished strong. We have that same opportunity to finish strong or we can give up and quit the race that God has placed before us.

It reminded me of a sermon I heard a couple months ago up in Christiansburg, VA preached from the book of Philemon. The focus was on the last four people mentioned in the letter: Epaphras, Mark, Aristarchus and Demas. Of those four men, three finished strong but Demas did not. We know from Paul’s second letter to Timothy that Demas abandoned Paul and chased after the love of the world. He didn’t finish strong.  He lost sight of the race and chased after the lies the world has to offer.

As we come to the end of this year, let us make it a priority to finish 2018 strong. And let us make it a priority in our lives, not knowing when it will end, to finish strong. To complete the race that God has placed in front of us so that on that day, we can stand before God and hear those words that every believer longs to hear, “Well done good and faithful servant.”

Have a great day and God bless.

Christmas Letdown

Oh, the letdown!  The day after Christmas, sometimes starting Christmas evening, is such a letdown. Since Thanksgiving, everything has been geared toward the celebration of Christmas. The shopping started, travel reservations may have been made, deciding what to cook and so on and so on. And then it’s over in a blink of an eye!

Some of us may have had to head back to work today and that made Christmas night all the less enjoyable. Some of us may be heading to the landfill to throw away bags of wrapping paper and loads of Amazon boxes. Even more may be heading back to one of the stores to exchange that gift that makes you wonder if people even know who you are and what you like!

It got me thinking about Mary and Joseph and the day after the birth of the promised Savior. They had all the shepherds show up that first night to welcome the new born King, offering praises and stories of the news from the angels out in the fields. That very first night was an exciting time and then the next day everyone was gone and it was just the three of them. The gift of God had arrived and it was celebrated and now it was back to the normal life, somewhat.

Now that the celebration of Christmas is gone and we head back to our normal lives for another year, we still have reasons to celebrate Christ. Just like Mary and Joseph, life goes on the same as it was, but completely different than it was, because the Savior was born. The Gospel of Luke tells us that Jesus grew and became strong, filled with wisdom. And the favor of God was upon him (2:40).

We should strive to do the same: grow spiritually, become stronger in our faith and be filled with wisdom of God’s Word. The results will be that the favor of God will also be upon us. Don’t let today be a letdown, our work has just begun.

Have a great day and God bless.

The Word Became Flesh

Christmas Eve. For the past week we have looked at the truth about Christmas and the birth of the Savior from the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. We looked at the purpose of His Incarnation, His Crucifixion, our Salvation and God’s Glorification. We looked at the meaning of the swaddling clothes and the Old Testament prophecy of His birth.

We sometimes celebrate His birth with the misunderstanding that this was the beginning of His existence, but it was not. The Gospel of John tell us that He has always existed. In the beginning was the Word (Jesus),and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Christ always existed from eternity past and was with God and the Holy Spirit before the creation of anything that existed (1:1). His death on the Cross was not the end of His existence either; He lives today!

“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” (John 1:14). It’s hard to grasp that God was willing to leave the throne of heaven to become like His own creation so that He could save us from our sins. While on earth, He was still fully God as well as being fully human. He still knew all things but still got hungry and tired.

That baby in the manger that we celebrate at Christmas became the man that was despised and crucified on the Cross. “He came unto His own and His own received Him not” (John 1:11).  There is no Christmas without Jesus Christ!  He is THE reason for the season.

Have a Merry Christmas and God bless.

Prophecy of the Christ

The birth of the Savior was found in the prophecy of the Old Testament.

Isaiah 7:14 - “Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call Hid name Emmanuel.”

Psalm 72:9-10 - “May desert tribes bow down before him.....May the kings of Tarshish and of the coastlands render him tribute; May the kings of Sheba and Seba bring gifts!”

Numbers 24:17 - “I see him, but not now; I behold him, but not near: a star shall come out of Jacob, and a scepter shall rise out of Israel.”

Jeremiah 23:5 - “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land.”

Micah 34:23 - “But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from old, from ancient days.”

Ezekiel 34:23 - “And I will set up over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he shall feed them: he shall feed them and be their shepherd.”

Isaiah 60:6 - “They shall bring gold and frankincense, and shall bring good news, the praises of the Lord.”

Hosea 11:1 - “When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son.”

Isaiah 9:6 - “For unto us a child is born, to us a sin is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”

There are no prophecies about Muhammad (Islam), Joseph Smith (Mormonism), Charles Russell (Jehovah’s Witness) or Siddhartha (Buddhism). The only one who was promised and came was the Savior, Jesus Christ.

Swaddling Clothes

“You will find a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger.”  That was going to be the sign to the shepherds to show that what the angel said about the birth of the Savior was true. Such an innocent line in Luke,  but filled with so much meaning when put in its context.

It is believed that these shepherds outside of Bethlehem weren’t just average, everyday shepherds, they were temple shepherds caring for sheep that were ready to deliver lambs for the sacrifices. When these lambs were born and inspected to make sure they had no spot or blemish, that they were perfect lambs, they were wrapped in swaddling cloth to make sure that they did not become flawed in any way. These lambs were needed for the temple sacrifices and these shepherds would make their living from the birth of these lambs.

So when the Angel of the Lord told them that the sign that the Savior was born was that they would find him wrapped in swaddling clothes, this would have had a completely different meaning to them than it does to us. See, they would have automatically associated this to mean that the baby Jesus was truly the Lamb of God, perfect and spotless. They may not have known what the full meaning was and that He was going to be the perfect sacrifice, but they knew He was born spotless and pure.

The cousin of Jesus, John the Baptist, had this understanding about the Christ. When Jesus came on the scene at the Jordan River where John was baptizing Jews, he stopped and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.”

The One who started off in this world wrapped in swaddling clothes, ended up being the perfect sacrifice for our sins. Born amongst the new lambs, God’s Lamb was treated just like the sacrificial lambs born to the shepherds in the fields outside of Bethlehem. The major difference was the animal sacrifices only covered the sin of the people, while the sacrifice of the Lamb of God removed their sins, as far as the east is from the west.

Have a great day and God bless.

Truth About Christmas - Part 6

Dreams, angels and one furious king. After the wise men had delivered their gifts and worshipped the child King of the Jews, they received a message by the way of a dream telling them they were not to go back to King Herod as requested. Herod had instructed them to return and tell him the whereabouts of the child so he could go and worship him. If he really wanted to worship Jesus, he would have went along with the wise men.

The wickedness inside of Herod’s heart didn’t want to worship the One who would take his place, he wanted to get rid of him. When the wise men did not return, he was furious and decreed that all the male children of Bethlehem and the surrounding areas be killed in hopes this would eliminate the threat to his throne.

Knowing the heart of Herod, God sent an angel of the Lord to Joseph telling him to flee with his family to Egypt to escape the slaughter of innocent boys. After Herod had died, the same angel appeared to Joseph once again, this time in a dream, telling him it was safe to return to his hometown of Nazareth.

Luke tells us that Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man. All of these events happened exactly the way they did so that the fulfillment of prophecy could prove that this child, Jesus Christ, was the long promised Messiah that Israel had been waiting for.

Have a great day and God bless you during this Christmas season.

Truth About Christmas - Part 5

The wise men finally made it to Jerusalem. After about almost two years from the appearance of the star, the wise men finally made it to where they would find the answer to the meaning of the star. We can assume that it took nearly two years to get there because in Matthew 2:16, King Herod orders all the male children ages two years old and younger be killed. If the star had only been a couple of months earlier, why kill children as old as two?

Not knowing where to go and who to go to for information about the appearance of the star, they decide to go to the king to find out about the King of the Jews. Not knowing the answers to the questions of the wise men, King Herod inquires of them when the star appeared and then sent the scribes and chief priests to learn more information. The king’s scholars point the wise men in the direction of Bethlehem because of the prophecy in Micah 5:2 and the wise men leave to find the baby.

At some point from their journey from Jerusalem to Bethlehem, the star appears once again over where they would find the baby.  The star lead them to Jesus, not to Bethlehem, but to where Jesus was.  Bethlehem is never mentioned again after King Herod sent them in that direction other than killing the male children there and the surrounding areas .  If Jesus was still in Bethlehem, the appearance of the star would not have been necessary. But Jesus wasn’t in Bethlehem.

When the wise men arrived, Jesus was no longer a baby. It said the child was with His mother. This means he was independent of her or else it would have said the mother was with the child. The wise men found them in a house and not in a stable, another way we know they were no longer in Bethlehem. Finally, the wise men offered their gifts directly to Jesus showing that He was old enough to accept them Himself.

The text of Matthew never says that there were three wise men, only that the wise men gave three gifts: gold, frankincense and myrrh. There could have been four, five or six wise men, we don’t know but we always assume three.

Tomorrow we will look at the final part of the Christmas story.

Have a great day and God bless.

Truth About Christmas - Part 4

Beautiful star of Bethlehem. At the same time that Luke’s version of the birth of Christ is taking place and the angels are informing the shepherds of the birth of the Savior, Matthew is telling about additional events taking place hundreds of miles away that same night. As the angelic host lit up the sky around the shepherds, a beautiful star was over Bethlehem for all the world to see and it caught the attention of wise men in the East.

Chapter two of the Gospel of Matthew gives us further insight into the events that took place on that fabulous night. Wise men, probably astronomers, noticed something different in the sky that evening. The East probably meant somewhere around Babylon, present day Iraq.

Because they were “wise men” they searched for a meaning to why this magnificent star appeared in the night sky on this specific occasion. This led them to the scriptures of the Old Testament and possibly directly to Numbers 24:17 that the star had come from Jacob and the scepter from Israel.

It would have taken a considerable amount of time from the appearance of the star until they made there way to the location of the star they saw that night. First, they had to find out what the star meant, then they would have prepared for such a journey and finally they would have made the 600-800 mile journey by land. In all, it probably would have been between eighteen to twenty-four months before they made it to Israel.

Tomorrow we will look at what happened when the wise men finally made it to King Herod to inquire of the appearance of the star.

Have a great day and God bless.

Truth About Christmas - Part 3

They needed to follow the Law. Now that Jesus had been born to Mary and Joseph, His parents were under strict requirements to follow the Law of Moses. Mary and Joseph were both decedents of David, meaning they were Jewish and had to follow the Law.

Found in Leviticus 2:2-8, the Law said that any woman that bore a male child was ceremoniously unclean for seven days. Then on the eighth day, according to the Law, Jesus was brought to a rabbi in Bethlehem and circumcised. Mary would then have to go through another thirty-three days of purification to be considered completely clean.

So after a total of forty-one days, Mary, Joseph and Jesus leave Bethlehem and travel to Jerusalem according, once again, to the Law. The Law stated they were to present the first born male child to the Lord and offer a sacrifice. The sacrifice of two turtle doves shows just how poor Joseph and his family was because that was the minimum sacrifice that could be made.

Luke 2:39 tells us that after the sacrifice was made in Jerusalem, that Mary, Joseph and Jesus left Jerusalem and went home to Nazareth. They did not go back to Bethlehem. They went home, not to the inn. This means within the first two months of Jesus being born they are back home in Nazareth. This will have significant importance when we look at the wise men and their introduction into the story tomorrow.

Have a great day and God bless.

Truth About Christmas - Part 2

Imagine the darkness of night being interrupted by the bright glow of an angelic being that you have never seen before. When I talk about darkness of night, I mean pitch dark, not living in the suburbs dark. It was out in the country dark, nothing but light from the moon and the stars. And then all of a sudden....BAM!  This angelic being that you have never before witnessed shows up out of nowhere. They may have heard of angels, but they had obviously never seen one.

These lowly shepherds were so frightened by the appearance of this angel that even the angel of God had to start out by reassuring them to “fear not”. I’m sure that the shepherds didn’t automatically just go, “Oh, okay, we’re good now.”

The angel of God gave them a message of utmost importance; the Savior, that the entire nation of Israel had been waiting for, has now arrived. The angel gave them specific instructions of where to find the baby and in what condition they would find him in. As soon as the announcement was made, the entire sky was lit up with the angelic host of heaven giving praises to God. If the shepherds were afraid at the appearance of just one angel, I wonder what their fear level was raised to when this happened?

I have always wondered why the God of Creation chose the lowest class of society, shepherds, to receive the announcement of the birth of the long awaited Christ. Why wasn’t it announced to the royalty of the times or the religious leaders of the day?  The answer is simple, God chose to announce the birth of the Savior to those that were going to be just like Jesus Christ, a shepherd. John the Baptist announced, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.”  Christ himself said, “I am the good Shepherd. The good Shepherd lays down his life for his sheep.”

Christ was the Shepherd King and those that first proclaimed the birth of the Savior were the shepherds. Luke 2:20 says “the shepherds returned and glorified and praised God for all they had heard and seen.”  Besides the angelic announcement to them, the shepherds became the first to spread the Good News of the Savior’s birth.  The lives of these men were changed and they couldn’t do anything but share what they had seen.

Tomorrow we will look at the movement of Jesus and His family to fulfill the Law after His birth.

Have a great Lord’s Day and God bless.

Truth About Christmas - Part 1

The truth about Christmas. Over the next couple of posts, we will use the Gospels of Luke and Matthew to piece together the actual events that surround the birth of Jesus Christ. During this time of year we see a lot of representations of what happened that first Christmas, but are they accurate?  Movies, television shows, Christmas carols and nativity scenes all try to give us an understanding of what happened, but we will look to the truth of God’s Word to find the answers.

The first thing we will look at is when was Jesus really born. Was He born during the month of December?  Was it cold and snowy when He arrived?  The answer to both of those questions is “no”. Jesus Christ was probably born sometime in the spring between March and May.

We know from Luke 2:1-15 that the shepherds were watching their flocks at night. Under normal circumstances the shepherds would have put their flocks in a sheep fold and been done with them for the night and would have gotten some sleep. But the fact that they were watching their sheep means there was some extenuating circumstances: the sheep were pregnant and about the have their lambs. This would have kept the shepherds on high alert and some of them would have been awake while the others slept; taking turns on watch during the night.

So, it turns out that as these shepherds were watching their sheep that night awaiting the birth of the lambs while the birth of the Lamb of God was about to take place a short distance away from the fields outside of Bethlehem were these shepherds were.

So why do we celebrate the birth of the Savior on the 25th of December every year?  It was instituted by Pope Julius I in 385 AD to challenge the celebration of the pagan and immoral Roman god Saturn called Saturnalia. Festivities included the exchanging of gifts, gambling, sacrifices to Saturn and societal role reversals. Pope Julius felt that celebrating the birth of Christ shortly after the celebration of Saturn would challenge the Roman belief system of multiple gods.

Tomorrow we will look at the announcement of the arrival of the Savior to the shepherds by the angelic host and the response of those shepherds.

Have a great day and God bless.

Black Ice

Black Ice. Probably more dangerous than driving in the snow itself. At least with the snow you can see it. Black ice just comes out of nowhere when you least expect it. The longer we drive in winter conditions, the more wisdom we gain where the black ice might be: around curves, under tree-lined areas and so forth. But sometimes you just aren’t expecting it.

It happened to me this morning driving in to work. Having driven the same route all week, I knew where the tricky spots were going to be, but I got too comfortable with my driving. I was driving along and came to a bridge that had not been icy all week and when I hit that area my truck went almost completely sideways. Luckily there was no one else around me and I was able to quickly get it back under control.

Life happens the same way sometimes. We have an understanding where the tricky spots in our lives are and we take precautions with them, but sometimes we get way too comfortable with life. We just end up going through the motions out of routine and then all of a sudden, what we should have been prepared for and on the lookout for, catches us off guard and sends us spinning. Sometimes we gain control back right away and other times it may send us into the snowbank and needing help from others to get out.

The Bible warns us multiple times to “be ready” and to “be alert”. God wants us to understand that the devil and his demons are going to do anything they can to trip us up. They know that if we fall into some sort of sin that it will ruin our testimony to others. As Christians, we are instructed to always be ready and always be on alert so that we can avoid the dangers and pitfalls that may be in our path.

However, that does not mean we are to live our lives in fear!  The Bible also encourages us to “fear not”!  That phrase, fear not, occurs 365 times in the Bible; one occurrence for every day of the year as a daily reminder that God doesn’t want us to live in fear. Being alert and being fearful are two different thing. The Word of God tells us to be ready but not to be scared.

Keep your eyes out for black ice this winter and keep your eyes out for the “slippery slopes” in your life as well.

Have a great day and God bless.

Giving

“It is better to give than to receive.”  How many times have you heard that in your life?  As a kid I thought that was the stupidest thing ever said. How can it be better to give than it is to receive?  Now that I’m older, I find that statement to be one of the truest things I have ever heard. What a difference age and wisdom makes.

It’s that time of year when we give each other gifts, things we wouldn’t normally buy for ourselves but would love to have someone else give us for a gift. We get caught up in the spirit of giving, especially to our children, to bring them happiness, only to have those gifts lose their luster a couple of weeks later.

In the past week or so, there have been at least three instances of famous rich people paying off items on layaway at various Walmart locations across the country. Names like Tyler Perry, Kid Rock and the owner of Jimmy Johns have made the news for paying off hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of layaway items. I think it is wonderful that they use their financial blessings to bless others that may be in need.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t have hundreds of thousands of dollars to pay off layaways at Walmart.  But I do have the means to pay for someone’s lunch behind me in the drive thru or someone’s coffee at the gas station or maybe all I can afford is a warm smile and a “hello”.  We all have opportunities this holiday season to give back just a little bit to brighten someone else’s day.  It may not seem like much to us in comparison to the amounts given by others, but it may mean the world to the one we bless.

“For God so loved the world, He GAVE His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.”  That is the ultimate act of giving, when God gave us His Son, in the form of a baby, that would grow up to live a sinless life and die on the cross of Calvary in our place so that we can be given the gift of forgiveness of our sins. There is no better gift ever given in the history of the world than Jesus Christ.

I hope you have accepted God’s gift. It’s a gift, meaning it’s free, all you have to do is accept it.

Have a great day and God bless.

Seasons

I have to admit that winter is not my favorite season. I highly dislike the cold weather and the snow that it brings. It is one of the main reasons I looked to leave New York and relocate in the south. Even though our winter season is much shorter and milder than it is in the north, it still brings back bad memories of all the snow shoveling I had to do as a kid.

If I had to choose, I would say that autumn is my favorite season followed by summer and spring. I like the warm days and cool mornings/evenings. I like the smell in the air, the colors of the trees and the memories of soccer seasons gone by. It may be one of the oddest things you hear all day, but I love the smell of burning leaves!  Crazy right?

Even though I dislike the winter season, I have a great appreciation for it because I know that it was instituted by God. There is a reason for the four seasons most of the world goes through. It is a reminder of the cycle of life: birth, maturity and death. The book of Ecclesiastes tells us that there is a time for all things.

1 For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:
2 a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;
3 a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;
4 a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;  - Ecclesiastes 3:1-4

Life brings us through all seasons and so does our lives as Christians. There are times when we feel reborn with a new zest for life and the things of God. But there are also times when we feel spiritual dead, times when God feels distant and our Christian lives feel like they are in a rut. Be encouraged that it is just a season. It’s not the end and just like the four seasons that we experience, there is a time when your current season will come to an end and a new season will begin.

Have a great day and God bless you in whatever season you are in currently.

White Out Conditions

It was snowing so hard yesterday that I could not see the road in front of my house nor the road behind my house and both of them are not more than 100 yards away. It was a “white out” at times during the day.  I went out early to shovel off the side porch and brush off the cars but the effort was futile. We probably got another six to eight inches after that.

The snow does make everything look so clean and pure in comparison to what it looked like the day before. On Saturday everything out there was dead and brown and just looked dirty like fall usually looks, but when I woke up Sunday morning everything looked clean and new. I started to think about what the Bible says in Isaiah 1, “though your sins be like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow”.

The sin in our lives makes us like the deadness of fall, but the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from our sins and makes us as white as snow and alive again. “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).  We have that access to God because of the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

I am thankful that the “white out” I experienced today brought me back to God’s Word so that I could praise Him in this storm and thank Him for what He has done for a sinner like me. That because of Christ, He has “whited out” my sins and erased them from all record and declared me to be righteous. It was nothing I have done but all what Christ has done in my place. Have your sins been “whited out”?

Have a great day and God bless.

Bread of Life

Well, it’s the morning of the big storm coming through western North Carolina and by now the store shelves must be empty. I’m not sure why everyone rushes to the grocery store before storms, everyone must build up a huge appetite from all the shoveling. The bread shelves are empty, the milk cooler is down to just coffee creamer and the egg area is wiped out. Makes me wonder if everyone eats French toast during snow storms.

I have to admit, my wife went to the grocery store this week too, but it was her normal weekly trip and we didn’t get anything out of the ordinary because of the storm. From what I hear this trend of emptying out grocery store shelves is also starting to move to other parts of the country.

Although the grocery store shelves may be empty of bread by now, Jesus says that “He is the bread of life and whoever comes to Him shall not hunger.”  We may constantly have to go back to the grocery store for physical bread as it runs out or turns bad, we never have to worry about the spiritual bread turning bad or ever running out.

The nation of Israel wandered through the wilderness for 40 years as they were being punished for their lack of faith in God. But God did not leave them out there to perish, He provided fresh manna for them daily to meet the needs they had for just that day(and twice on Friday). They did nothing to earn that grace from God, but because of His love for His people, He provided for them.

Just like God continued to provide for the nation of Israel with heavenly manna while they wandered through the wilderness for 40 years, God will continually provide for His children with the bread of life; Jesus Christ.

Have a great day and God bless.

Buttinsky

Be honest: are you a buttinsky?  Well, are you?  Can you not let someone finish their sentence without trying to finish it for them?  What if someone is having a conversation and you aren’t involved, do you have to join in with your thoughts?  If you answered yes to either of those two questions, you are a buttinsky!

I have to admit, sometimes I’m a buttinsky.  My name is Paul, and I’m a buttinsky. That feels good to get that off my chest. You should try it too if you’re a buttinsky. I butt in more than I should sometimes, especially with my wife and I want to publicly apologize for doing that to you baby doll!

What is it about not being able to just be patient and letting the person finish their thought before we have to bust in with an answer or solution?  Why do we feel we have to take part in everybody else’s conversation when we haven’t been invited in?  I think it’s because we want to show other people how much we know about whatever subject is being discussed.

Yesterday I shared my favorite section of Scripture and how it relates to every person that has a past, present and future. I left out the very best part of Ephesians 2 because I wanted to cover it today all by itself.  After the first three verses tell us about how separated from God we were, the start of verse 4 has the two best words in the Bible: BUT GOD!

No matter how evil we have acted and how separated we are from God, He still loves us enough to “butt” into our lives when we are at our farthest from Him. When we are dead in our trespasses and sins, God butts in!  When we follow the course of this world, He butts in!  When we are disobedient and children of wrath, God butts in!

Has God “butted” in to your life yet?  Is there a moment in time where you can say, “God butted in to my life right here and thank God He did?”  God wants to be a buttinsky, but not for the reasons we do, He wants to butt in because He wants your life to be radically changed. Let today be the day He “butts” in.

Have a great day and God bless.

Past, Present and Future

Past, present and future. No, I’m not talking about verb tenses for all my English teacher friends out there. I’m talking about life like I always do. It is something that every single one of us has in common with one another. We all have a past; good or bad or even both. We are all currently in the present. And we all have a future.

A few weeks ago I shared with you “my story” and how I came to know Christ as my personal Savior.  When I share my story at churches, I always bring it back to Scripture and how my story (and your story) relates to the Bible. This is what makes the Word of God real in people’s lives. The Scripture I use is my favorite part of the Bible: Ephesians 2:1-10.

The first seven verses of Ephesians 2 gives us a Biblical look at who we were, who we are and who we will be.

Verses 1 through the first half of verse 5 tells us who we once were. The Apostle Paul uses phrases like: dead in our trespasses and sins, sons of disobedience, following the passions of our flesh, following the desires of our body and mind, and children of wrath.  We all have those things in common no matter how we grew up. God still sees most of the people in the world this way unless they have accepted His Son.

The second half of verse 5 through verse 6 God tells us of our present standing if we have been saved. We are made alive in Christ and are no longer dead, He has raised us up and He has seated us in heavenly places. All of these things are done by Him and are not of works that we can do.  Thank God He is in control.

Verse 7 gives us a hint of our future. He has saved us so that in the coming ages He is going to show His children immeasurable riches of His grace and kindness toward us because of what Christ Jesus has done in our place. Oh happy day!  If that doesn’t make the hair on your arms stand up you better check and see if you have a pulse. Or maybe you better check your spiritual standing with God.

I don’t know if there are many better passages in Scripture for the Christian, but if you have one, I would love for you to share it in the comments section below and tell me why it means so much to you.

Have a great day and God bless.

Money or Meaning

Money or meaning?  Pay the bills or find joy in what you do?  I had a wonderful woman ask me those questions at church Sunday night. Her dilemma was to stay in a job to be able to help pay the bills or take a job that brings her joy and is more meaningful. I think at one time or another we have all been in that situation. Some people are lucky enough to find joy and meaning in their work that also pays the bills.

I didn’t have the answer to that question for her and I don’t have that answer for you. Every situation is different for every person and there is not a cookie cutter response that I can give. However, there are some questions I asked her and you can ask yourself.  “How do you know that the job that will bring you joy and meaning also won’t pay the bills?”  “What can you do to reduce your debt so that you don’t have to worry about the lost income?”

Money is an important part of our lives that is needed to make ends meet, but money should not be the top priority in our lives. God does bless some with wonderful incomes and some He does not. God knows who is capable of managing His money and who cannot. “To whom much is given, much is also required.”  All things are given by God and also belongs to Him. So in actuality, what He blesses us with should be used to then bring Him glory by how we use it.

The Bible says “For the love of money is the root of all evil.”  Many people get that wrong; that money is evil, but that is not what the text says. It says that the “LOVE” of money is the root of all kinds of evil. It’s the greed of wanting more money that leads to all other type of evil things. Having money is not evil. Loving money over all other things is what is evil.

Do you control your money or does your money control you?  That is one of the most important questions that Dave Ramsey asks in his book “Total Money Makeover”. We live in a world that pushes us to have more, want more and buy more by selling us on the lie that we will be happier. Don’t drink the Kool-Aid!

Have a great day and God bless.

Traffic Jams

There have to be few things in the world that rank above traffic jams as the worst things to deal with. I hate having to sit in traffic and it looks like that is going to be my lot in life for at least the next 18 months. My main route to work has been shut down for road work, serious road work, like tear up the whole road and redesign it kind of road work.

Because of this road work, hundreds if not thousands of people have to find new routes to work and it makes things a mess. All of these detours are causing traffic jams all throughout the city. Everyone just ends up sitting bumper to bumper waiting. Have I said that I hate waiting in traffic jams?

I have taken multiple detours trying to find a route that causes me the least amount of pain. My choices are either take the highway with everyone else and just sit and wait until we move or take the backroads through the city and hit a couple of dozen stoplights. I have been taking the backroads and find it the safest route even though it might not be the fastest.

Has God ever thrown traffic jams in your life?  Things that seem to get in the way of where you want to get to?  They always seem to come up just when you think everything is going along smoothly, then all of a sudden BAM!  It ends up being a total shock to the system.

Maybe the detours come in the form of a divorce, or health issues or the loss of a job. All things that can really throw you for a loop and feel like a major traffic jam in your life. You know - things that cause life to all of a sudden come to a drastic stop. How do we deal with these things as Christians when they happen?

We keep moving forward no matter how slow the pace may be. We have a destination that God is leading us to and our job is to trust him and just keep moving forward. There may be detours he wants us to travel because the original road may have been leading towards something dangerous. Trust Him because He sees things well ahead of what we do. He is not limited by time like we are, He sees all things throughout time.

Traffic jams while driving, just like traffic jams in life, can be frustrating and test our patience, but we just need to remember that reaching our destination safely is more important than reaching it quickly.

Have a great day and God bless.

Fishing

I miss fishing when I was younger. My godfather Chris used to take me fishing all the time when I was a kid. He would take me to different locations and we would spend the day together fishing. I may have fished a handful of times since then. I miss it and wonder if I should take it up once again.

I don’t think it’s as much about catching fish (I don’t eat fish), but more about the wonderful time spent with others that you take fishing, like your children.  To be able to spend a couple of hours just out there by a pond or river with your kids away from the distractions of the television or tablets seems rewarding in itself.

More importantly than catching fish, as Christians we should be fishing for men. Jesus Christ summoned Peter and Andrew away from their profession of fishing to follow Him as disciples. He told them “follow Me and I will make you fishers of men”.  He calls us to do the same thing when we become believers.

Don’t let your argument be that you haven’t been called to the ministry or to the mission field. Your world is your mission field and your life is your ministry. Are you casting your nets in the waters you live in?  First of all, are you casting your nets in your own house?  Are you making sure your family is following Christ?  Second, are you casting your nets at work, where you spend most of your day?  Just like Jesus mentioned that the harvest was ready, so are the fishing holes. People are starving for truth and if you know Christ, you have the truth to give.

Have a great Sunday and God bless.

Relationships

We all love being in relationships. We develop relationships our whole life. Relationships come in all different shapes and sizes: family relationships, intimate relationships, friendships, relationships with coworkers, etc.  Our first relationship comes as children with our parents. Not long after that our children form relationships with their siblings, grandparents and aunts and uncles. Then our friendship circle gets larger until we find the one!  And then we start a relationship that trumps all others.

Why are we so desperate for that relationship bond with others?  It’s because we are created to have relationships. We are relationship-oriented people. We were all created by God who desires relationships.

God has always existed, from eternity past, in three persons: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, yet he created man so that He could have a relationship with him. That original relationship was not corrupted by sin. Adam and Eve communed with God face to face.  Then the sin of Adam and Eve marred that relationship.

Ever since that day, God has been working to resume that relationship with man once again. In the Old Testament that relationship hinges on the sacrificial system. In the New Testament it hinges on Christ.  For some, sin keeps that relationship with God from happening. God desires a relationship with His creation. He wants to commune with us once again.

There is a God shaped hole in man’s heart that can only be filled by a relationship to Him. Man tries to fill that hole with many other things: money, fame, drugs, alcohol, sex and so on. But only He can fulfill that missing relationship.

Do you have a relationship with Him?  He wants one with you. He created you and knows how to fill that hole in your heart. Does it feel like something is missing in your life?  It’s Him, He’s what’s missing. If you need help finding Him, let me know, I’d love to introduce you to Him.

Have a great day and God bless.