Garbage

Garbage. It’s everywhere. We create so much garbage in the course of our day, over the course of a year and over the course of our lifetime. As I drive an hour to and from work each day, I see the amounts of garbage that are along the roads. I wonder how people could be so careless that they just throw it out the window. I wonder how much blows from the speed of the cars and where it originated? How much blows out of the back of garbage trucks that originally picked it up?

Garbage isn’t only trash that we throw away. There a lot of definitions for garbage. Noise can be garbage. Speech can be garbage. Time can be garbage. What we accomplish can be garbage. It reminds me of what the Apostle Paul said, “But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ.  Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ”- Philippians 3:7-8.

All that Paul had accomplished in his life, he counted as garbage in comparison to knowing Christ and Him crucified. What about the things we accomplish in life, do we count on them or count them as garbage in comparison to knowing in Christ?  Are we defined by our status, our belongings, our degrees or our fame?  Or do we see those things as ways to glorify Christ?

Let us not get caught up in what the world defines as being accomplished and instead look at those things as garbage in comparison to the eternal blessing of knowing Christ.

Have a great day and God bless.

Free

Free!  I love free stuff and I bet you do too. When you go some place expecting to pay for whatever service it may be and it ends up being free for some reason, that’s awesome!  Free WiFi, free food, free parking, whatever it might be, it always seems better when it’s free.

Many of the politicians lining up for the next election are offering all kinds of free stuff too: free healthcare, free college education and a whole slew of other free things. Only catch is that someone has to pay for it: the taxpayers. All of those things that are advertised as free really aren’t when you pull back all the layers of the onion.

The greatest free gift is the gift offered by Jesus Christ. The free gift of salvation. There is nothing you have to do to get it, there are no works great enough to earn it. It’s free!  “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” - Romans 6:23. The free gift of eternal life offered up through the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

That free gift of salvation also cost something too. It cost Jesus Christ, the Son of God, His life. It was a cost He was willing to pay because of His great love for us. “But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” - Romans 5:8. It’s free for us but cost Christ His life. It’s the greatest free gift in the history of the world.

Have you received this free gift?  “Because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” - Romans 10:9. The free gift is there and available to you, all you have to do is accept it by faith.  Believe in your heart and confess with your mouth.

Have a great day and God bless.

Security

Security. We all want security in our homes, for our families, in our relationships and in our jobs. We work hard to make sure that our things are secure. We lock our doors when we leave the house and some even go as far as having security systems with cameras and all to make sure we are safe. It’s natural to want to feel secure in our homes and that the things we worked hard to accumulate are well protected.

But what about our eternal security?  What do we have to do to protect that?  Nothing!  Once we have put our faith and trust in the atoning work of Jesus Christ on the Cross of Calvary we are eternally secure. The Apostle John wrote in his first epistle: “I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life.” - 1 John 5:13.  Read 1 John when you get a chance.

Three amazing things happen when we accept Christ as our Savior. First, we are sealed by the Holy Spirit: “In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.” - Ephesians 1:13-14

Second, we are placed in the hand of Christ: “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.  I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.” - John 10:27-28.

Finally, we are also in the hand of the Father: “My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand.” - John 10:29.

Our eternal security is sealed by the Holy Spirit, is in the hand of Jesus Christ and is in the hand of God. All three persons of the Trinity have a part in securing our eternity. If we could do nothing to earn our salvation, we can do nothing to lose it. We would have to be more powerful than all three persons of God. We’re not that powerful.

Have a great day and God bless.

Clingers

Clingers. Did you ever have children that are or were “clingers”?  Maybe they clung to your leg when you were out in public and someone tried to talk to them but they were so shy they just grabbed ahold of one of your legs and hid their face. My little guy doesn’t cling onto my leg because he’s shy, he clings on to my leg because he thinks it’s funny when I walk around and he holds on for dear life.

There are adults that are clingers too. They are extremely needy and though they may not physically cling to you (that would be embarrassing for both parties), they do cling to you emotionally. They seem to be in constant need of someone in their lives emotionally. They tend to drain the person that they cling to.

God does not have this problem, in fact, He prefers that we seek Him to cling to and not the things of this world. At the end of Joshua’s life he instructed Israel to continue to cling to God: “but you shall cling to the LORD your God just as you have done to this day.” - Joshua 23:8.

The psalmist also spoke of clinging to the Lord: “My soul clings to you; your right hand upholds me.” - Psalm 63:8. “I cling to your testimonies, O LORD; let me not be put to shame!” - Psalm 119:31.

What are you clinging to - other people and the things of this world, or are you clinging to God and His promises?  He desperately wants you to cling to Him. The things of this world, people included, will pass away, but the promises of God never will. Choose to cling to Him and you will never be disappointed.

Have a great day and God bless.

The Sun and the Son

The sun. I know it’s out there even if it hasn’t been seen in a while. It was out for about an hour or so last week and the forecast says it should be out tomorrow and the next day possibly. Even though it hasn’t physically been seen, I know it’s there.

Just like I don’t physically feel the earth rotate every day and I don’t physically feel it revolve around the sun every year, I know it does. I know the sun is there because it’s lighter during the day than it is at night and it gets warmer too. I don’t have to physically see it to know it’s true.

The Son. I know He’s there even if I have never physically seen Him. He was here for about thirty-three years about two thousand years ago and the Bible says He’s coming back soon. Even though He hasn’t physically been seen by me, I know He’s there.

That’s what we call faith. Just like we have faith that the sun is going to rise each morning and we are going to make one trip around the sun each year even though we don’t see it or feel it, we know that Jesus Christ lived and still lives today even though we don’t see Him.

It reminded me of the words of Jesus to Thomas after the Resurrection: “Eight days later, his disciples were inside again, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you.’  Then he said to Thomas, ‘Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe.’  Thomas answered him, ‘My Lord and my God!’  Jesus said to him, ‘Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.’”- John 20:26-29

The writer of Hebrews says it best: “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” - Hebrews 11:1. The whole of chapter 11 in Hebrews tells us of the faith that the heroes of the Bible had in God. Do you have faith that the Bible is true?  Do you have faith that Jesus Christ is who the Bible says He is?  And do you have faith that He is coming back again to receive His Church and then the judgement?

Have a great day and God bless.

Dry Seasons

Dry. It’s not really a word that can be used for our neck of the woods right now. I’ve never seen it rain so much in North Carolina for the twenty-three years I’ve been down here. It seems like it rains five or six days out of the week, every week!  And it’s been like this for about six months or so now. When will it be dry again?

I don’t know when it will be dry again but when it does dry out we’ll probably complain that we need rain, that’s just how we are: complainers. We go through the same things in our spiritual lives as well. We have seasons of great blessings and then we have seasons of feeling like those blessings have dried up. Those dry seasons are hard.

When we go through those dry seasons in our spiritual lives, it’s easy sometimes to question where God is and why He is letting us go through this.  We wonder if we have done something wrong or if He is mad at us or even if He’s abandoned us. He hasn’t left us or abandoned us, He’s just silent for some reason. His Word says that He will never leave us or forsake us and we have to trust in what He’s doing during that time.

I think of King David and so many of the Psalms that he wrote during his life when he felt that God had left him. That time period when he was anointed king even though Saul was still on the throne and was trying to take David’s life. David spent most of that time in hiding or on the run and he questioned where God was and why He was letting this happen.

I think of the story of Job. I think of Habakkuk and his question to God: “O LORD, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not hear? Or cry to you "Violence!" and you will not save?” There are so many Biblical examples of people feeling like God was distant and not listening to them. You shouldn’t feel like you are the only on that has gone through this.

Keep calling out to God during your dry season. Keep praying that He will open your eyes to why you may be going through this. Keep the faith that He will never leave you or forsake you. The blessings of rain are coming and your dry season will soon be over.

Have a great day and God bless.

Fear

Fear......it is a liar (according to singer Zach Williams). Fear......you don’t own me (according to singer Francesca Battistelli).  There a lot of things to be afraid of if you watch the news anymore. We are all afraid of something. Some people have extreme phobias that keep them almost frozen in their tracks.  How do we get past our fears?

The Bible gives us many Scriptural truths about fear. But, as Christians, how do we take those truths and apply them to our lives?  It’s easy to read them in our Bibles and say, “that is so true” and then never take what we read and put it into action. It takes real faith to transfer our fears to God and let Him control what happens.

I have always thought that both fear and worry were wasted emotions. There is nothing we can do about the things we worry about or the things we fear might happen, it’s usually not in our control anyway. Most of the things we fear and worry about never work out as bad as we fear or even come to fruition.

The Bible uses the phrase “fear not” 365 times; one use for every day of the year. What if each day we woke up with the mindset that on that particular day, we are not going to fear anything because God told us specifically for that day not to fear?

Here are some good verses about not fearing anything and trusting in God: “The LORD is on my side; I will not fear. What can man do to me?” - Psalm 118:6. “Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.” -Matthew 10:31. “"Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” - Luke 12:32.

I know it’s hard not to fear things in life: getting sick, losing loved ones, having something happen to our children; but our faith in God must be greater than our fear of life. Hand your fears over to God and let Him work things out, He wants what’s best for you. Strengthen your faith in God by overcoming your fears, because in the end, fear is a liar and fear does not own you.

Have a great day and God bless.

Overwhelmed

Overwhelmed!  We’ve all been there at some point in our lives. The word means something different to each of us and we all have a different tolerance level before we feel overwhelmed. It’s a word I’ve heard multiple times in the last few days and I felt like it was something God wanted me to share.

It started on Monday when my good friend and former college teammate, Peter Pessetto, discussed being overwhelmed on his Facebook Live chat that day. He was coming at being overwhelmed from a business standpoint and how he coaches his clients through the feeling. From his standpoint he instructs others to use that feeling of being overwhelmed as a chance to keep pushing through it and not letting off the gas, so to speak. Peter said it could be a time of growth and reflection on priorities if those in that position lean into the feeling and keep working to get through. I agreed with where he was coming from in regards to his topic.

I started thinking about the feeling of being overwhelmed from a spiritual standpoint and if the same instructions would work. Many times when we, as Christians, get to a point of feeling overwhelmed, the first thing we do is to try to fix it ourselves. We look for ways to solve whatever is causing the feeling of being overwhelmed. We depend on self instead of depending on God. It is normally because of decisions we have made that we are in the position of feeling overwhelmed to begin with.

Jesus said to His followers, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." - Matthew 11:28-30. As Christians, we need to step back and actually take our foot of the gas and go to God with the burdens that overwhelm us and let Him carry those burdens. Just like He traded places with us on the Cross, He is willing to trade yokes with us as well.

Are you overwhelmed today?  Does life feel like it’s too much for you to handle?  We serve a God who is waiting to take your burdens from you and give you His rest instead, all we have to do is ask. If He was willing to die for you, He’s more than willing to take your burdens too.

Have a great day and God bless.

Broken

Broken. Things in this world get broken all the time, especially when you live with a three year old. Most of the time things are broken by mistake, sometimes they are not. But it’s not just kids who break things, adults do it too. My nephew broke his ankle playing basketball about a month ago and it definitely wasn’t on purpose. My truck is broken right now because it’s just old and things like that happen.

People get broken too: physically, emotionally and spiritually. Sometimes our brokenness is because of the decisions we made and the actions we’ve taken. Sometimes it’s God breaking us because our hearts have become filled with too much pride and we need to be humbled. Brokenness isn’t always a bad thing. We may need to be broken to be built back up again better than before or we may need to be broken so the light of God can shine through our cracks.

The idea of being broken reminds me of the song from Matthew West called “Broken  Things”. Here’s one of my favorite parts of the song:

“The pages of history they tell me it’s true
That it’s never the perfect; it’s always the ones with the scars that You use.
It’s the rebels and the prodigals; it’s the humble and the weak
All the misfit heroes You chose
Tell me there’s hope for sinners like me.”

The Bible also talks about the broken and the humble. “He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.”  - Psalm 147:3. “For the LORD takes pleasure in his people; he adorns the humble with salvation.”  - Psalm 149:4. “Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.”  - Matthew 23:12.

Are you broken spiritually right now?  Is it of your own doing or has God broken you so His light can shine through the broken pieces. Either way, let this be a time of praises to God because He is getting ready to heal your brokenness and use your experience in a mighty way!

Have a great day and God bless.

Giving When You Can’t Be Repaid

I saw this story on Facebook and it’s just too good not to share. I don’t know what this guy’s religious beliefs are, but he was such a shining example of being God’s hands and feet. What he did was put the words of the story in Luke 14 into action and I’m not even sure he knew it.

This is what Luke 14:13-14 - “But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just."

So here is the story I’m referring to. On Super Bowl Sunday of this year, a man in New York City reserved a room at a rooftop bar in downtown Manhattan. He went and bought seven or eight New England Patriots t-shirts and walked around the streets of the city inviting homeless men to a party.

He asked them if they were cold and if they were hungry and then invited them to join him in watching the Super Bowl at the place he reserved a room. Of course, the homeless men were a bit suspicious of the invitation, especially with the cameras rolling. But they soon accepted the invite and made their way to the party.

For about four hours, these homeless men were able to get out from the cold, gain a new t-shirt and fill there bellies with great food. All of this at no cost to them (they had no way of paying anyway). They were in that bar with so many people that had never been in their situation, yet no one seemed to even notice they were there.

I was just so impressed by the way the guy went out of his way to give to these men a short period of time that they could never ever repay him for. The end of the video showed these homeless men in tears for what that guy had done for them out of sheer grace. They did nothing to deserve being invited and had no way to pay for the things they were given . Much like God’s grace toward us through Jesus Christ.

This man was an example of Luke’s story above, but he was also an example of Christ (even if he didn’t know it). How are we being an example of Christ in showing grace to those that can do nothing for us in return?

Have a great day and God bless.

God’s Will - Part 7

“He who hesitates has lost!” My dad used to always say that to me when I was playing sports. What he meant was “do something” and not to just wait. That thought goes right along with our seventh and final message about God’s Will for the Christian life.

The first five posts were about what the Bible says about general things that are God’s Will for every Christian’s life. Yesterday we started looking at one of two ways we can find the specific Will of God for our individual lives. Yesterday, the post told us we are to renew our minds and stop acting like the world. We need to be in God’s Word so that He can speak to us about what He wants us to do.

Today’s point is that as we wait and look into God’s Word we need to do something. Our Scripture comes from Ephesians 5:15-17 - “Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil.  Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.”  Making the best use of the time so we can find God’s Will.

It reminded me of Tim Tebow’s story. Growing up he went on family mission trips to Central American countries and worked with kids. He was doing something and making good use of his time as he waited for God to show him His specific will for his life. On his mission trips he was especially drawn to the children with special needs and this became his specific will for his life.

Every year, on the Friday night before Valentine’s Day, he holds a global prom night called Night to Shine for kids around the world so that they have a special night just for them where they are celebrated and made to feel like royalty. The event was held in 655 churches in all 50 states and in 24 countries. To see videos of these children as they walk down the red carpet and people are cheering for them just brings tears to your eyes. Tim found God’s Will for his life because he didn’t wait, he made good use of the time in this evil world.

As you wait to find God’s Will for your life, “do something”, and in that time of action, God will show you what He is to have you to do. I hope you have enjoyed this little series on God’s Will.

Have a great day and God bless.

God’s Will - Part 6

Do you like to read?  My beautiful bride loves to read and always has a book that she is working through, usually with a couple of more waiting in the wings. She is a regular at the public library checking out and renewing books.  We are going to focus on that word “renewing” for this post.

So far we have looked at five things that the Bible instructs us to do because they are the will of God for the Christian’s life. We are instructed to be holy, to be witnesses in our world, to rejoice always, pray without ceasing, and give thanks in all circumstances, to submit to authorities and yesterday the video message was about honoring our employers. All of these are generalities for every Christian to follow. But what about God’s will for our lives as individuals, how do we find that?

The final two posts, today’s and tomorrow’s, will be ways in which we can seek God’s will for our lives that is specific just to us. We find the first way in Romans 12:2 - “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”  If we want to find the will of God for our lives we have to be different, we can’t be like the rest of the world.

We will never find God’s will for our lives if we spend the majority of our time doing the exact same things that the world does. We will never find His will in the examples shown on tv sitcoms, in how the world tells us we should live in commercials, or the lies that the more we have the better life will be. We won’t find God’s will at work, on the golf course, or in the mall; not that any of these are bad things in and of themselves.

We will only find God’s specific will for our lives by renewing our minds, by changing the way we think. We will find it by putting in the effort to study God’s Word and living out the general wills that we have already looked at so far. When we renew our minds and stop following after this world, God will reveal to us what He has for us to do. But we have to be willing to change and willing to put in the work to seek His will.

We cannot think we will find God’s will just by going to church for an hour each week and then living like the rest of the world the other six days and twenty-three hours the rest of the week. We have to diligently seek after God and He will show us His will for our lives.

Have a great day and God bless.

God’s Will - Part 4

The post a couple of days ago on the will of God about witnessing in our world used the phrase from scripture, “beautiful are the feet”. Today’s post will focus on the toes, stepping on them. It is not the aim of this topic to single out any particular political party as being right or wrong, it solely about following God’s will based upon His Word.

We go back to Peter’s first epistle, chapter 2, verses 13-15: “Be subject for the Lord's sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme, or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good.  For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people.”

The assumption people make is that we are to submit to and obey everything that the government does, but that is not what this is saying. It’s context is that, as Christians, we should always look to do good and follow the laws that are in place. The government’s purpose is to reward the good and punish the evil (seems to be opposite of that today).  We should always strive to follow the laws because by doing so we are doing God’s will.

But what if the laws of the land go against God’s Word?  What do we do then as Christians?  We should always follow God’s Word and obey Him over the law.  When the council of the chief priests summoned Peter and the other apostles before them to command them to stop preaching the resurrection of Jesus Christ, Peter answered them by saying, “we must obey God rather than men”. He gave us the answer to what we are to do when having to decide between the Laws of God and the laws of men.

In the end, we should do the best we can to be good citizens by obeying and submitting to all the laws of the land that do not go against the Word of God. In this way, we are fulfilling to will of God in our lives. As the Apostle Paul said in Romans 13:1-7, “Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God.”

God’s will is for us to be holy, to witness in our world, to rejoice always, pray continuously, be thankful in all circumstances and now submit to authorities. This is God’s will for you and me.

Have a great day and God bless.

God’s Will - Part 3

Holiness. Witnessing. Those were the first two topics we looked at that are the will of God for the Christian life. We have five more to go. Today we go back to Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonians for the third way in which we fulfill the will of God. This one is just one sentence out of a whole paragraph that could be argued as God’s will for our lives.

If you get a chance today, read 1 Thessalonians 5:12-22 in it’s entirety to get the whole context of what Paul is saying to the believers in Thessalonica.  But for this post we are going to look at just one sentence, three short verses, to see God’s will for our lives.  “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” - 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

We get three commands in one and once again Paul makes it a point to specifically tell us that these things are the will of God. First, we are to rejoice always!  That’s hard to do, if we want to be honest about it. It’s hard to rejoice in a broken relationship, it’s hard to rejoice in the illness of a loved one and it’s hard to rejoice in the death of those we love. But we are expected to rejoice because this world is not our home. This life is the worst it will ever be for a Christian. For the non-Christian, this is the best life will ever be. So rejoice!

Second, we are to pray without ceasing. That phrase “without ceasing” means that we do it in all circumstances. When we wake up, when we drive to work, while we are eating, when we face issues, and before we go to bed. Our prayer life is our direct connection to the will of God. I wish my prayer life was better than it is (just being honest).

Finally, we are commanded to give thanks in all circumstances. We have so much to be thankful for, I couldn’t even begin to list all the things in this little post. Our family started something new this year; at the end of each week we write on a piece of paper the things we were thankful for this past week and put it in a jar. Our plan is to go back through them at the end of the year and remember all the things God blessed us with in 2019.

Rejoice always!
Pray without ceasing!
Give thanks in all circumstances!
This is the will of God!

Have a great day and God bless.

God’s Will - Part 2

So, we know that the first thing that God wills for our lives is to be holy. We saw that in 1 Thessalonians yesterday. Today we’ll look at the second will God has for us as Christians. It’s not as obvious as yesterday’s was, but we will see it pretty clearly once we dive into it.

The second thing that God wills for our lives as Christians is to witness in our world. We find it in 2 Peter 3:9 - “The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.”  Now just looking at that from the outside, one would question how that is God’s will for the Christian life.

You would ask, “if He wishes that no one should perish and all would repent and come to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ, doesn’t that happens before we are Christians?”  You are correct!  But God wants us to be a witness in our world so that we can share the Gospel and others can come to that same saving knowledge. That is God’s will for our lives: that we would share the Good News with others so that they too may be saved.

The Apostle Paul said it best, “How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?  And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!" - Romans 10:14-15.

Has anyone ever told you that you have beautiful feet?  You do if you preach the Good News of Jesus Christ!  That is God’s will for you; to witness to your world about what Jesus Christ has done for you.

Have a great day and God bless.

God’s Will - Part 1

God’s will. What is it and how do we find it?  I mentioned in a video a couple of weeks ago that there are really two aspects to God’s will. First, there is a corporate aspect that God has a will for all Christians to follow. Second, God has a specific will for our lives as individuals. I can’t help you with the second one (that’s between you and God), but I can help you with the first one.

God lays out specific actions for the lives of His children that he wants us to perform. We find at least seven of these in the New Testament. Over the course of this week we will look into what God’s will for our lives as Christians should be based upon His Word and not our own opinions.

The first will God has for our lives can be found in 1 Thessalonians 4:3-7.  “For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God; that no one transgress and wrong his brother in this matter, because the Lord is an avenger in all these things, as we told you beforehand and solemnly warned you.  For God has not called us for impurity, but in holiness.”

Isn’t it awesome that the beginning of verse three actually tells us that what is following is the actual will of God!  How can we get that wrong?  Sadly, we do get it wrong because our will of selfishness fights against the pure and perfect will of God. However, we are instructed to live holy lives, controlling our own bodies from committing sexual immorality and not acting like the unsaved world acts.

Why should we take this seriously?  Because God has called us to holiness and not to lives of impurity. That is the first will God has for your life: Be holy because God is holy. How can we preach of a holy God if we are not trying to live holy lives?

Have a great day and God bless.

Big sin verses little sin

Is there a difference between big sins in our lives and little sins in our lives?  Maybe there is when we look at one another and judge the severity of sin, but God sees all sin as just that: sin. We like to judge sin like a skyline view of a city. Each building is a different sin and we judge it based on the height of it. God looks at sin like a bird’s eye view of a city. He looks down on the buildings and the height of each one can’t be differentiated. They all look the same to Him just like sin does.

One of the kings of Israel, Jehu, looked at sin from a skyline perspective and it cost him dearly. Jehu was one of only four kings that was actually anointed to be king (Saul, David and Solomon were the others). With his anointing came specific instructions: eliminate the descendants of Ahab and Jezebel and wipe out the pagan religions in Israel.

Jehu had no problems with the first instruction, he eliminated the house of Ahab and Jezebel and even took it too far by eliminating the servants of their household as well. But that wasn’t the issue. When he came to the second instruction of eliminating the idol worship in Israel, he only choose the big sin. He wiped out the Baal worship but allowed the worship of other false religions to continue.

He chose the big sin to eliminate but left the little sin to continue on in his nation. Because of this mistake, God limited the length of time his family would rule on the throne of Israel to just four generations.

Do we do the same things in our lives?  Do we eliminate the big sins in our lives but let the little ones continue to live in our hearts?  Does that little sin keep us from the full blessing of God?  God sees no difference between big sins and little sins, to Him they are just sin. Let’s be vigilant to work on keeping all sins out of our lives by confessing them daily.   9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.  “If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.” - 1 John 1:9-10

Have a great day and God bless.

Trust in Me

“Trust in me”. That’s from one of my favorite Disney movies, The Jungle Book. I loved the original animated movie and I love the new version that came out a couple years ago with the real life Mowgli. I even bought the soundtrack because the songs are awesome. The new version was on last night, so of course I watched it because the kids were in the room. They didn’t watch any of it but I watched the whole thing for them.

I never realized how much the snake, Kaa, was so much like Satan. It was the voice of a woman in the new movie but was a man in the original. Her voice was so calm and so relaxing it almost lulled you into a trance. Satan works the same way, slowly lulling you to relax your guard and do something against God’s Word.

Kaa uses that famous line, “you can trust me”, while all the while knowing that her plan was to slowly strangle Mowgli to death. Satan tries to do the same thing to us, slowly luring us into sin. First, it’s just something small and then the sins continue to progress into something worse and worse. The whole time lying to us that we can “trust him”.

It’s nothing new, it all started in the Garden of Eden when he lied to Eve over something that seemed so insignificant. “Did God really say.....?”  That’s his way into our hearts, asking us if what we believe is really what God said. He tried it on Christ too, but all three times Jesus answered him with the exact words of God!  We should know God’s Word so well that when the temptation comes, we can say, “thus says the Word of God”.

Have a great day and God bless.

The Wall and the Book

A wall and a book. First, let me tell you about the wall. I was driving to work yesterday morning and I flipped over to the classic country channel and heard a song by the Statler Brothers called “More Than a Name on a Wall”.  It was the first time I had ever heard it but it immediately meant a great deal to me.

The song is about a mother visiting the Vietnam Memorial Wall in Washington, DC with a pencil and a piece of paper to make a marking of her son’s name from the wall. She talks about how much more he was than just another name on a wall. She talked about how special he was to her and how much she missed him.

It meant something to me because I lost my father to the effects of Agent Orange from his time fighting in the Vietnam War. Although his name will never be on the wall in Washington because he didn’t die in the war, about ten years ago we did go to Washington for a ceremony for those that loss their lives because of the war later in life. It was a very touching event.

Most of us will go through life and never get our names enshrined on any type of wall or monument, and most of us are too old to win any trophies, even if they are just participation ones. But there is one place that we can still make sure our name appears and it’s the most important place of all: the Lamb’s Book of Life.

Now let me tell you about the Book. This book holds the names of all those that have put their faith and trust in Jesus Christ as their Savior. Once your name is written in this book, you will spend eternity in the presence of the Father and the Son. If you are not found in the Lamb’s Book of Life, you will be cast into hell to spend eternity in anguish and torment.

I don’t need any more trophies at my age, my best trophy is that my name is forever written in the most important place of all; the Lamb’s Book of Life. Is your name there?  If it is, I look forward to spending eternity with you. If it’s not, now is the time, today is the day of salvation. I would love to show you how to make sure your name is there.

Have a great day and God bless.

Addicted

I’m an addict!  There, I said it. I’m addicted to my smart phone. I’m sure I’m probably not the only one out there that has this same problem. We have become a society of instant gratification and constant entertainment and I am one of those that have this addiction. My wife lovingly pointed it out to me just the other night.

I come home and instead of having a conversation with her, I’m on my phone. Instead of playing with the kids for the short time that I get to see them during the day, I’m on my phone. Yes, it’s been a long day and I just want to veg for a while, but that is no excuse for the amount of time I spend on this stupid little contraption.

It is so easy to get trapped into scrolling and scrolling through social media like Facebook not realizing how long you have been looking at it. Or maybe it’s a certain game on your phone that keeps you sucked in for long periods of time. It’s addicting and it’s a problem. It’s a problem for me and I’m sure it’s a problem for many others.

The Apostle Paul told the believers at Colossae to “make good use of the time”. There are better ways we can make good use of the time than being on our phones. Our marriages depend on it. Our children depend on it. It’s time to work more on my relationships and spend less time on the smart phone.

Have a great day and God bless.

An Anchor for the Soul

Who’s your anchor?  As Christians, our eternal, heavenly anchor is our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We have a hope in Him that is a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul as the writer of Hebrews tells us. But who do we have as our earthly, spiritual anchors?  Notice that I said anchors and not just a single anchor.

It is important that we have earthly mentors in our lives that guide us spiritually and act as anchors to keep us safe in times of storms. Most of the time our anchors are our spouses, or our parents, or maybe even our grandparents or pastors. But there will come a time in our lives that one of them will no longer be there to guide us through life. That is why it is important to have more than one and it’s even similarly important that they are from different generations.

One example in the Bible showing this need is the relationship between Abram and Lot. Abram acted as Lot’s father figure and was the one that Lot spent almost all of his early life with. Abram was Lot’s only anchor. But when things got too big for them to stay together, Lot left and went to the big cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. He lost his anchor in Abram and started hanging around the wrong crowd that offered him no spiritual guidance. Lot didn’t finish as well as he had started because he lost his anchor in Abram.

Another example is the story of the child king of Judah named Joash in 2 Kings. He was hidden away in the temple for six years and grew up only knowing the high priest Jehoiada. Jehoiada was Joash’s only anchor. When Joash began to reign at the age of seven, he followed the spiritual advice of Jehoiada and thrived as the king of Judah. But when Jehoiada died at age 130, Joash surrounded himself with the wrong people and had lost his anchor. Just like Lot, Joash started strong but did not finish well.

Who are your anchors?  What would happen if you lost one of them?  Would you have other anchors to keep you close the the Savior when the storms of life come your way?  Make it a point to have multiple anchors in your life over multiple generations.

Have a great day and God bless.

God is Good

God is good. All the time. We had a great message yesterday at Church about the importance of prayer in the church. We went through multiple sections of scripture showing different ways that prayer was important and the different aspects of prayer by members of the church.

But one section of the scripture that we looked at yesterday really stuck out in my mind and I felt the Holy Spirit really speak to me when I read it. It wasn’t even the main point of the sermon but as we read through it I knew it was God’s message to me for today.

Each time we sit in church or in a Sunday school class, God has a different message for each person that is present. He speaks to us through His Word to meet our needs for the things that we are going through in our lives. We never know what we may be teaching or what we may even be preaching that is going to meet someone right where they are.

Our job is to go into God’s house ready to hear from Him each time we are there. It may be from a teacher, it may be from the preacher, or it just may be through a simple conversation with someone else between services. Whatever the situation, or the messenger, God is good all the time and He is always ready to meet our needs in His time.

So, what was the scripture that hit me today?  A simple message of the Gospel found in just a few verses in 1 Timothy chapter 2: “This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.  For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,
who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time.”

Have a great day and God bless.

Sticks and Stones

Sticks and stones. You know how the rest of it goes, “they may break our bones, but words will never hurt us!”  I remember that was our parent’s advice they gave us when bullies use to pick on us. They lied!  Words do hurt and most of the time they hurt worse than physical scars.

Proverbs 18:21 says that “death and life are in the power of the tongue”.  What a true statement that is ( everything in the Bible is a true statement). The words that come out of our mouth have such power on the people that we are speaking them to. They have the power to build up or they have the power to destroy.

How do we speak to those around us: our spouses, our kids, our friends and our co-workers?  Do we think about what we say and how it is going to effect them before we let the words come out of our mouths?  Are we always sarcastic in our responses and is the other person taking it as sarcasm or are we killing them with our words?

Or words are the most powerful things we have. We speak about 5000 of them a day. Are they being used to edify others?  James wrote “but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.  With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God.  From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so.” - James 3:8-10.

Have a great day and God bless.

Groundhog Day

Happy Groundhog Day 2019!  Well it was just reported that spring is on its way because Punxsutawney Phil did not see his shadow this morning. It always made me wonder because the first day of spring is a set day on the calendar and it is coming no matter what he says. I know, he predicts the weather until spring!

This day always reminds me of the movie Groundhog Day with Bill Murray. It’s such a funny movie. I’m sure most of you have seen it but if you haven’t here’s what it’s about. A weatherman travels to cover the event and ends up waking up everyday on Groundhog’s Day to relive that day over and over again. Each day he tries to improve on the day before.

He spends each day trying to better himself in order to win over the female reporter that is with him because he falls in love with her. Finally, at the end....... well, I won’t ruin it for you if you haven’t seen the movie. If you have seen it, you know how it ends anyway.

Life doesn’t work out that way for us. We don’t get to live the same day over and over until we get it right or get what we want. We only get one chance at this thing called life. It will come to an end for each of us one day and then the Bible says it is followed by the judgement.

The Book of Proverbs gives us a lot of wisdom about how we are to live this life. Here are just a few:

“Hear, my son, and accept my words, that the years of your life may be many.” - Proverbs 4:10

“For whoever finds me finds life and obtains favor from the LORD,” - Proverbs 8:35

“Whoever pursues righteousness and kindness will find life, righteousness, and honor.” - Proverbs 21:21

Jesus also speaks a lot about life in the four Gospels. He speaks of how we have to make a decision to follow Him in this life because it will be too late after we die. Have you made that decision?  We don’t get a “do-over” in this life like Bill Murray did in the movie Groundhog Day.

Have a great day and God bless.