Change

Change. I’m not talking about “the times they are a changin’” as Bob Dylan sang about, although I could. It’s that time of the year where you see visible changes almost every day. The temperature has changed in the mornings. The leaves are changing colors. The amount of daylight is changing. We can all see a change in our world during this time of the year. We can feel it, we can smell it and we can taste it (if you’re a pumpkin spice addict). What about you, can people see a change in you since you have become a Christian?

For the most part, when we put our faith in Jesus Christ as our personal Savior, there is no physical outside change that happens. You don’t get this glow that appears around you, nor do you get a halo that shows up over your head. It may put a smile on the face of someone that was once always sad or grumpy, but other than that, nothing physically happens. The change that takes place is usually internal. “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” - 2 Corinthians 5:17.

I think of the story of the Apostle Paul in the book of Acts. How he went around arresting people of “the Way” and putting them in prison because of their belief in Christ. But, when Christ showed up on the road to Damascus, a change occurred in Paul that would change the history of the world. There was an immediate change in him after those scales were removed from his eyes three days after meeting Christ. The change was so drastic, people had a hard time believing it was true. “And immediately he proclaimed Jesus in the synagogues, saying, ‘He is the Son of God.’ And all who heard him were amazed and said, ‘Is not this the man who made havoc in Jerusalem of those who called upon this name? And has he not come here for this purpose, to bring them bound before the chief priests?’” - Acts 9:20-21.

Can you remember back to when you accepted Christ as your Savior, are you the same person you used to be, or has there been such a change in you that people are skeptical?  We should see a change from who we once were, to who we are now. Our thoughts should be different, our words should be different and our lives should be different. Are you different now that you met Jesus?  Have you changed?

Have a great day and God bless.

Hardships

Hardships. Have you ever wondered why God allows you to go through things that are hard in life; trials and tribulations you thought you would avoid once you became a Christian?  Why do we suffer the same things that those that don’t belong to Christ do?  Shouldn’t we have an “advocate” that protects us from these types of things?  We go through divorce, financial issues, the death of loved ones, the loss of jobs just like the rest of the world does, but why?

One of my favorite section of verses in the Bible gives us insight as to why we go through trials and tribulations as Christians. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as we share abundantly in Christ's sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too.” - 2 Corinthians 1:3-5.

There are things in my life that I wish I never had to go through and I hope I never have to go through them again, Lord willing. But those trials and tribulations produced in me the ability to comfort those that go through it after me. How much easier is it to talk to someone who has lost a spouse if you have lost one too? Or how much can you comfort someone going through a divorce when you have already gone through one yourself?

Sometimes the trials and tribulations that we go through aren’t always about us. How we handle those trials can serve as a witness to our faith in Christ to those watching who are not believers. It can also serve as an experience for a future event involving someone else that goes through the same trial. The Bible never promises us a trial free life, it actually promises the opposite, “I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world." - John 16:33.

Are you going through trials and tribulations now brothers and sisters?  What can you do to be a witness for Christ through the midst of it?  What can you learn from it to support other who will go through the same thing later?  “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.”- Romans 8:28-29.

Have a great day and God bless.

Embarrassed

Embarrassed. Have you ever done something out in public that was embarrassing and you looked around to see if anyone else saw you do it?  That happened to me tonight. I was at a hardware store and was loading the things I bought into the trunk of my car. I picked up one of the items that was extremely heavy and when I did the big metal cart that it was on rolled right into my shin. If you have ever been hit in the shin, you know that feeling of instant pain (even after playing soccer for 20 years, it still hurts).

So after I got all of the stuff in my trunk and limped my way over to where you return the carts in the parking lot, I made my way to my car. With my shin still stinging from getting hit, I decided I would pull up my pant leg to make sure I didn’t cut myself. As I bent over to look at my leg, I opened the car door and the corner of the door hit me right in the forehead. There was no cut on my leg, but now I have a big cut across the left side of my forehead. After the sudden flood of pain that came from hitting my head, I realized I was in the middle of a parking lot, so I looked around to see if anyone caught this comedy show.

I didn’t see anyone in their cars laughing hysterically, but they could have been doubled over in the passenger seat trying to catch their breath. Even though it didn’t seem anyone witnessed that event, I was still embarrassed by the stupidity I had just taken part in. I got in the car real quick and found some napkins to stop the bleeding. The bleeding stopped before the feeling of being embarrassed did.

The Bible tells us of a group of people that will one day feel that same embarrassment as I did today, except to a much greater degree and with a more serious consequence. “Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?' And then will I declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.'” - Matthew 7:21-23.

The embarrassment of thinking that you are a Christian because of your works will one day be exposed on that fateful day. Those that did not have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ will be turned away. Those that believed their “works” would be enough to save them will face the embarrassment of being not known by the Savior. There will be many in that day who had masqueraded as Christians only to be exposed that they truly were not. Don’t be those people! Stop relying on your works to save you and give your life to Christ.

Have a great day and God bless.

Firsts

Firsts. Today was a day of firsts. We had a soccer game this morning with the U5 team my son plays on. We have eight players on the team and only three play at a time. All eight players were able to score a goal today, three of them scored a goal for the first time this year. Our best player, who could have scored twenty goals himself, was very unselfish by getting the ball to the goal and letting the other players score. I’ve never seen a four year old be so concerned about his teammates. It was an awesome show of putting others before yourself and a four year old helped us to remember that.

Then, this afternoon, the very first friend I ever had in my life posted pictures of one of her birthday parties and tagged me in the post. It was so awesome to go back to those days and remember first friends like that, especially when you haven’t seen them in almost 30 years. We remember the things that happened in our lives that were “firsts”. They tend to stand out so vividly in our minds. “Firsts” are important to us and they are to God.

“Honor the LORD with your wealth and with the firstfruits of all your produce” - Proverbs 3:9. God wants the best of what we have. He wants us to bring to Him the firstfruits of our lives. He doesn’t want what is leftover, like an afterthought, He wants the best. He wants to be first and foremost in what we give to Him. He wants to know that we see Him as the most important part of our lives. When we give Him what we have left, we show Him that what we want is more important to us than what He has commanded us to give.

“Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.” - James 1:18. The Bible describes believers as Christ’s firstfruit. Christ, himself, is also described as the firstfruit of the Resurrection as a promise that we too will be resurrected when the time comes. “But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.” - 1 Corinthians 15:20.

Just like we remember the things in our lives that were “firsts”, God wants to be first in all that we do and say.

Have a great day and God bless.

Fall

Fall. I have to admit this is my favorite time of year out of all of the seasons. No, it’s not because of anything flavored with pumpkin or spice; I don’t even drink coffee. I love the smell of fall. I love the cool mornings and the warm afternoons. I love the smell of burning leaves (weird, I know). I love sweatshirts. Fall brings back a lot of memories for me growing up in upstate New York. Fall isn’t quite the same down here in North Carolina. Fall doesn’t show up like it does in New York.

The changing of seasons remind me of the main theme of the Bible: death and rebirth. “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” - John 12:24. You can’t have a rebirth unless you first have a death. Living in farm country, it’s easy to understand the saying of Christ. In order for the rebirth of the wheat, the seed has to be put in the ground to die so it can once again bear fruit.

“Jesus answered them, ‘Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.’” - John 2:19. Jesus understood that for Him to be reborn into glory, He was first going to have to pay the penalty for sin and die a substitutionary death on the Cross. It would only be after His death that He could bear much fruit. That fruit is you and I when we accept Him as our Savior.

We are told that, we too, must die. Not physically, but spiritually. “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.” - 1 Peter 2:24.  We have to die to the sin nature we have and take on the righteousness of Christ. Have you died to sin?  Have you been born again?

Have a great day and God bless.

Suspenders

Suspenders. I ran across an older gentleman today waiting on my flight in the airport. He looked like we was a war veteran of some sort. He wasn’t old enough to be a WWII veteran and looked like he may have been a Korean War vet. He had a Navy hat on and he reminded me of my grandfather because of a certain item of clothing he was wearing. I remember him always wearing a pair of suspenders. The guy I met today not only had on a pair of suspenders, but he had on a belt for extra security.

One of my former bosses used to always use that expression “belt and suspenders” when he discussed making sure we had all our bases covered. This gentleman was definitely a “belt and suspenders” kind of guy. It made me laugh and think about my grandfather. Some people are just programmed that way in their preparation and some people are not.

I’ve heard people explain our eternity the same way. That we can either be prepared for eternity (belts and suspenders) or just take our chances and see what happens. I have heard it said that “I would rather believe that the Bible is true and accept it by faith and put my trust in Christ only to find out after I die that it wasn’t true, than to not believe it and find out too late that it is true.”

“Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?' And then will I declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.'” - Matthew 7:21-23.

Those will be awful words to hear. Being “religious” or “spiritual” won’t save you. Having a relationship with Jesus Christ by accepting His work of salvation by faith is what saves you. Not going to church, not giving money, not singing in the choir or any other religious work will save you. Only Christ and Him alone.

Have a great day and God bless.

Good News

Good news. Sometimes in the midst of getting bad news over and over again, God breaks into your world and brings you a bit of good news. Even things that we feel have no way of turning out for the good, God answers prayers and shows up right on time and with just what you need. My wife and I have experienced this very thing just this week. When we felt everything was against us, God showed that He was for us. “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?” - Romans 8:31.

God shows up throughout the Bible in times of despair and hopelessness to bring good news. In the most evil of days, the days of Noah, when all the earth was doing what it felt was right in their own eyes, God showed up. He chose a man named Noah to bring the good news of His salvation. Noah preached that judgement was coming, that repentance was need and the only salvation from the coming judgement was an ark. In the end, only eight people accepted that good news and the rest perished in the flood.

Another time came when man was once again far from God, even though they thought they were as close as they could ever be. During that time, God sent the Good News of His one and only Son, Jesus Christ. And just as Noah preached, so too did John the Baptist and Christ Himself; repentance was needed and judgement was coming. The only way to escape the coming judgement was to accept the Good News of Jesus Christ.

The Good News has come and the promised judgement is coming too. Have you heard the Good News?  Christ came into the world to save sinners and by believing in His death, burial and resurrection you can be saved from that coming judgement. Have you accepted Christ as you Savior?  He wants you to accept His Good News.

Have a great day and God bless.