Accidental but on purpose


Many of the things which happen in our lives seem to fit this description. We think of them as accidents but later realize that God had a purpose in it all along. Depending upon the outcome of the “accident”, it could be good or bad in your life or your vocation. All of which is under God’s control whether it feels that way at the time or not. Like, Jesus meeting the Samaritan woman at the well. He knew that she was going to be there before His disciples went into town. He also knew that she was in spiritual need of what He could tell her and reveal to her.

WomanbytheWellDid He really have to leave Judea in order to get to Galilee? Kinda. According to some maps I have looked at, yes He did have to get out of Judea to get to Galilee, but He didn’t have to go through Samaria. Many people went the long, long way around to get there. But Jesus had a mission and a purpose for what He did.

Why do I bring this up? Because, it is something which all of us need to do. Some of us may do this on a daily basis, some may only try to do it when we feel the need for it. God gives each of us a purpose when we become His children. Sometimes that purpose is our life’s work, sometimes that purpose is part of our daily lives. In either case, we should be seeking His Spirit and His guidance in all of these things that we do. Especially when it comes to posting something on Facebook or even on a blog.

Why? Because something posted online, just as something that is said, can’t be undone. You can’t really take it back entirely. It may have been copied by someone and posted somewhere else, but it may still be out there and it can cause more hurt if it was something that should’ve been between you and God and nobody else! Talk to Him about it, pray about it, regardless of how hurt you may feel DON’T post it to a public forum like Twitter or Facebook.

I have been learning this lesson for many days and I am still learning it, trying to get it completely embedded into my mind so that my brain won’t forget it…ever! The only thing which I can ask of anyone who knows what this is about is forgiveness and to give you my utmost and most humble apology.

Psalm 51


Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy loving-kindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions.

2 Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.

3 For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me.

4 Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest.

5 Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.

6 Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts: and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom.

7 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

8 Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice.

9 Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities.

10 Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.

11 Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me.

12 Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit.

13 Then will I teach transgressors thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto thee.

14 Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, thou God of my salvation: and my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness.

15 O Lord, open thou my lips; and my mouth shall shew forth thy praise.

16 For thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it: thou delightest not in burnt offering.

17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.

18 Do good in thy good pleasure unto Zion: build thou the walls of Jerusalem.

19 Then shalt thou be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness, with burnt offering and whole burnt offering: then shall they offer bullocks upon thine altar.

Memories


Life is full of them. From small victories like seeing your child take their first steps or seeing your child being born to later ones like playing with grandchildren or watching your son or daughter get married. There are many more memories than these and they are strewn in all of the nooks and crannies of our lives. Some of them we can remember vividly and some not so much. It seems that the more years you have on your plate, more of those memories show up as the “not so much” bunch.

Oh, I can remember some of the times from school, high school and sometimes even some from grammar school. The recent memories like what did we get at the grocery store day before yesterday are pretty fuzzy and not available to me clearly. What did I do last weekend, other than preach a sermon on Sunday morning? What was that sermon about?

Unless I wrote it down, I can’t tell you anything about it. I barely remember which part of the Bible it came from. These are the issues that I am beginning to deal with on a daily basis and I didn’t think I was going to get to this point until maybe twenty more years had passed, at least I had hoped for about that much time.

I am writing this post, not so much to bring hope to others but to ask for your prayers for me. I don’t want to forget like this. Memories allow us to enjoy our life that was, when we can remember it. Old memories, those from more than five years ago at least I can remember pretty well. This has me concerned. Not worried exactly, but concerned. Thank you all in advance for praying for me.

So what are you reflecting?


 

are-you-a-reflection

Are you a dull mirror which barely reflects your God and His Glory which is in you? Or are you a mirror turned toward itself, which only reflects itself into infinity? Which are you?

Think on this the next time you go to church or read the Bible.

 

 

 

 

Identity….what is yours?


In America and in the rest of the world, people tend toward identifying themselves either by their occupation or by their “lifestyle” choice or choices. So, what kind of identity do you have? Is it one that you would be proud to show others or is it one that is looked down upon because it hinges on your beliefs rather than your lifestyle?

Some people hang their life, their identity on their occupation. Some do so to the point of obsession and it is so ingrained within them until when they retire…they die. Because they don’t know what they are or who they can claim to be when they let go of their occupation. Then you also have people who claim to be molded into a lifestyle based upon their preference for a sexual partner. Huh?

Sex doesn’t govern nor determine who or what you are? Neither does your job or occupation! God placed us here for one purpose and that is to bring glory and honor to Him in everything that we do! Sex was given to us as a means of pleasure but also of procreation and deciding to be with someone of the same sex as yourself doesn’t allow for creating another person! Your choice of “partner” doesn’t dictate your life or your lifestyle any more than your hairstyle would.

God loves us but we should not be defined by our sinful choices in life, no matter what those choices might be. Jesus died for each person alive and those to come. He didn’t die for a murderer or a fornicator or even a lawyer or a cowboy! He died for you! He paid the penalty for your life’s choices, your sins, your weaknesses so that you could gain His righteousness and be forgiven of those sins!

Life choices, whether they are good or bad, do not place you into a certain slot in life. What you do about those choices by choosing to follow Jesus or not determines your outcome in life or rather at the end of your life. Since this life is the “training ground” for eternity, we should be searching for our real and actual Savior in this life. Not fitting our daily lives into a mold or behavior that we feel is right for us, but seeking His life and His Kingdom so that we can be right in His sight one day.

By following your own choices and feelings in this life and letting those choices shape your life rather than searching for the Savior and Creator Who can give your life a real purpose and meaning, you are missing out on so much more than you realize. Sports and horses or Facebook and Twitter are distractions just like Pokemon and other games which take your mind away from meaningful pursuits like getting to know Jesus!

I know, Jesus is boring and bland and nobody wants to learn about Him much less follow Him daily. But consider this: what will your life’s interests do for you in eternity? Our lives are pitifully small in length in comparison to eternity, so if your interests and your passion in this life doesn’t involve knowing and getting to know Jesus then what will your eternity look like?BreadofLife

Something to think about before next Sunday’s sermon.

Is your life…broken?


Have you ever wondered exactly why things work for some people and not for others or maybe even for you? I will admit that I have felt that way and wondered about it many times. So…why are some lives lived in relative ease and comfort and some have to struggle to make a payment on their car or have enough to buy food? The answers unfortunately are not easy nor are they provided for us within the pages of Scripture.

Broken&shatteredYes, sometimes life does feel cracked and broken and many times it hurts. It hurts in ways that we don’t understand, if we aren’t the ones hurting. It also makes life seem very selective and unfair in the grand scheme of things too. What can we do about it? In most instances not much. Depending upon your determination and your training or education, you do have the ability to make enough money to live comfortably. Of course, there is also the opposite of that coin as well.

Why bring this up? Because many of us live broken lives but we try to show the world the “life” that we wish we had. This is why so many people have so much credit card debt. They are trying to live rich on a paycheck life. Granted it will work for a little while, but not for very long. Just as listening to a sermon will not magically save your soul, neither will living in debt make you rich!

We are rich in Christ because He is the Creator! He owns all of the gold in the universe as well as all of the other wealth in it, but we aren’t to live on Earth as if we own it too. Be satisfied with your life as if you are rich, but don’t try to live like a rich man on the salary of a cashier! Because it just isn’t possible!

We have broken lives because many of us are just that…broke! Stretch your hand out and up to your Savior so that He can lift you into His home and His life because that is the only way of living life as a child of God.

God is here every day


Some people know this for sure and many more doubt that He even cares, but He does. He loves us and gives us grace and strength for each day and the problems which come to us on a daily basis. How do I know this? Because there are stories in the Bible about Him being there in the fire with the three men in Babylon when they were thrown into an oven because they would only worship God! He is with us during our trials too!

It doesn’t matter what kind of trial we are going through or whatever problem we are having, He is there. Even when there is more going on around us than we can see or imagine, He is there. Why am I reminding you of this? Because of the times which we live in today. There are some tough times coming and some which are already here, but by leaning on Him every day, each of us can get through those troubles.

In today’s world, many people from their teens on up to their thirties are addicted to a game called Pokemon GO. I am sure that you have heard about it, if you haven’t bumped into some of them playing it. Anyway, I was wondering why we can’t get our church members involved in chasing after Jesus in the same way?

behold i am with you alwaysWhy? Because, Jesus told us to take the gospel into all of the world…so what better way to do it than to tell others about Him as you go about your day? Why do we, as Christians, decide not to tell others about our Lord and Savior? Is it because we are afraid of what they may say about us being so pushy with our faith? Probably. In today’s society we are so caught up in being tolerant and politically correct until we barely talk to each other at all! We message each other on Facebook and Twitter, occasionally we will have a sit-down talk with someone over lunch or dinner, if we can put our phones down long enough.

We don’t talk to each other anymore and that is one of the drawbacks of our cellphone crazed culture today! Me message each other even when we are sitting at the same table! Relationships are being torn apart because of this and it seems that nobody is even noticing. It isn’t news because it isn’t bloody or it doesn’t involve a gun, but it is causing our society to fracture and come apart. If the same thing were happening to the ice in the Antarctic people would be rushing to find a fix for it!

I am not going to place blame here, but it does fall squarely on our media-intensive phones, regardless of the make or model! If we were stuck with “old phones”, such as a flip-phone, things would be a little better because they weren’t media phones. But, those don’t sell to a younger crowd, they sell to older people like myself (even though I do have an Android phone).

God is present in your life every day, whether you acknowledge Him or not. You are breathing because of Him, you are alive because of the function of your heart and your lungs and because of His Grace. So why can’t we give Him praise every day? In our life and in our walk through this life, at work, at home, at play, on vacation, we should be seeking Him in all of the things which we see around us and in what we are doing. Why? Because He is there and in your heart, if you belong to Him!

Don’t leave Him at the church or in the Bible after your study time, take Him with you so everyone around you can see Him too.

What more can be done?


CallofDutyIn today’s society, whether it is in America or Europe or the Middle East, many prophecies are coming to pass or have come to pass in the last century. Some of them have been noticed for what they are but many of them have not. The wars which began in Europe and ended in the Middle East in the first couple of decades of last century began the fulfillment of the prophecies concerning the Jewish people.

This year, we are in what was foretold to be the last Jubilee year for the Jewish nation before the Messiah comes. Which coming are they speaking of? Will this be the True Messiah or will it be the antiChrist claiming to be their Messiah? Will this Messiah show up this year or will it be in the next seven years? Truly, nobody on Earth knows for sure.

According to the Bible, there are few prophecies left to come true before the Second Coming of Jesus. Some of those things which are to happen are the apostasy or falling away from the faith and a global war. These may begin to happen prior to the calling away of the church and those who have died believing in Jesus or it may not. We just don’t know the timing of this exactly.

The fall feasts or Holy Days of the Jewish people give some clues but they aren’t concrete. So…what more is there to do? Keep watching and studying the Scriptures. Looking for signs which point to prophecy being fulfilled or even some of the judgements being carried out which happen in the first few chapters of Revelation. We, as believers, should keep a close eye on the news with our knowledge of God’s Word as a filter so that we may be able to see things that will happen before others do.

God loves humanity and He will give them, meaning those who don’t believe, every chance to come to know Jesus. But at some point He will tell Jesus to go and get My people. Some say it will be too late for people to change at that point but I don’t believe that God will turn away from those who are left behind. He will still be working to draw more to Himself, even if they are under the eye of the antiChrist at the time.

I don’t mean that He will save everyone but He will save those who will give their hearts to Him and serve Him. God knows exactly who they are and He will get their attention even during those trying times. People who claim to be Christians will be forced to prove it with their lives or take the mark of the Beast. If they do, they have turned away from Jesus and they are not Christians. If they refuse to take the mark, then at that time they will be killed. All of this is in the book of Revelation, which I am not going to give chapter and verse here. The entire story plays out during the first sixteen chapters and finalizes from chapter seventeen to 19 when the battle is over, at least for one thousand years. Chapters 20 through 22 detail some of what will happen at the end of that thousand-year reign of Jesus. Just read it and pray about your part in the time leading up to all of this.

Make sure about which side you are on before things get really bad.

Nothing good…


It seems that many in the church today have not realized that nothing good can be done…apart from God and His Strength! Can we do any amount of good in this life without Jesus? I don’t think so. Jesus said that we could do nothing without Him, particularly anything good in this life. Why? Because, as a branch can produce nothing apart from the tree or the vine that it grows from, we can produce nothing for God’s Kingdom without being attached to Jesus in our walk with Him!

Can churches and the people in those churches do much good in their community? Yes, they can and they can do much more if they are doing it for God’s Kingdom! Not for fame or for promotion of the church or the people in the church, but simply for God and for His purposes. Churches have done much to damage the image of Christians in the past and we need to be working toward changing this.

Many of the past “atrocities” that ISIS claims were done by Christians actually were done by the church of that time. I am not trying to point fingers or place blame, but the “dark ages” were times of persecution by the church, but not just toward so-called “unbelievers”. At least one Christian was persecuted and burned at the stake by the church for just having an English translation of the model prayer given by Jesus to His disciples!

During this time period, services were done in Latin and the people were not allowed to have translations in English. Which is why Tyndale determined to translate at least the New Testament into English and was working on the Old Testament when he was arrested, tried for heresy and burned at the stake after he was strangled. So, as you can see, the church has done some terrible things in its time as well. All in the name of God and the faith.

Please, make sure that your faith is grounded in Jesus the Christ and His resurrection. Don’t place your trust in man’s religions and rituals because they are like the flowers in the field, they will wither and die in His Light of truth! God’s Word is the only Truth in this world and the salvation that belief in Jesus brings is the only path to eternity. Any other path is just a dusty trail which leads to death.

Persecution


PersecutionTodayToday just as in times past, persecution is like gas on a fire or fertilizer for plants in regard to the number of believers. The church grows! No matter where the persecution may be or what form it takes, people notice how believers have faith and joy in Jesus! Then they turn to their faith and realize that they don’t have that. No other faith offers that joyous hope in Jesus because there is no hope of eternity in anyone else!

Hundreds of years ago, persecution caused the church to grow. Even at the end of the first century after Jesus’ burial and resurrection which was why John was exiled to Patmos, there was much persecution but believers didn’t give up their beliefs. No matter what they were threatened with, they still held onto their faith in Jesus. Many were killed, martyred in horrible ways which I won’t describe here, but they still held to their faith!

Nobody would hold onto a lie or a fantasy and die because of something that they knew wasn’t real! All but one disciple of Jesus died a martyr’s death in one way or another. Some were beheaded, some were crucified or run through with a spear or sword, but all but John died this way. They tried to boil John in oil but by a miracle, it didn’t work and he died of old age.

If you truly want to know how many of the believers died, read the Book of Martyrs. It will strengthen your faith and make our sufferings look mild in comparison. Does persecution cause people to turn to Jesus? Yes, it does! Many do, even today, although they don’t want it to be known because they would be killed if it became public knowledge. Are Muslims coming to Jesus? Yes! Are others coming to know Jesus? Yes!

Why? Because they see the joy that people have in Him, even when they are poor or persecuted for their faith. It is a joy which defies human comprehension because to someone without faith in Jesus, this joy makes no sense at all! Just as the Bible says, to the world our faith is foolishness.

To someone who is drowning but may not know it, a rope tossed to them will be flung aside. A float will be ignored until they realize that they truly need it. It is the same with someone who is living without Jesus. Until they realize that they NEED Him, they will go about their life with no worries. Until that point that God touches their heart and they know that they need Jesus, they will refuse to pay attention to any part of the Bible!

The image above shows that it is happening today and even though those in the picture may not look joyous in their time of persecution, their hope is still in Jesus. It is the reason that they are being killed, because of their belief in Him. Could we be brave enough to stand and declare our faith in the face of being burned or shot? I don’t know. God would give each of us a measure of faith and strength in that time of testing but to tell you that I could face it without fear and trembling? I just can’t say. Seek Him today so that your faith will be made complete in Him.