Our crazy, mixed up world

It seems that we live in a world which is totally out of touch, not only with religion and the Scriptures, but with reality itself! Even everyday news has become more entertainment than actual news! Yes, there are shootings and stabbings and people die every day, some of them too young to believe that they were even in danger. So, what is happening to our culture and the people in it?

Not only in America but all over the world it seems that more emphasis is placed on what you are tweeting on social media sites than what is being done to help the homeless or to straighten out the enormous debt that, not only America has but also exists in other countries! It seems very strange that everyone, people on the street and in the media, seems to be exaggerating even the smallest bit of drivel which is sent out on social media such as Twitter or Facebook!

The strangest part of all of this is that it was foretold in God’s Word nearly two thousand years ago. In the book of 1 John, the apostle John wrote that:

1 John 2:15-17
Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.
And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.

It is true that the words “social media” or any reference to such is not in the Bible, but it is said that “knowledge would increase in the last days“; and with the Internet available to at least one-third of the world’s population, access to knowledge certainly has increased. All sorts of knowledge, good and bad, is available to all people in free countries at all times of the day.

So, just how crazy is our world? Look around on the ‘Net and see or any social media site, even on the news you can see all sorts of behavior that is or would be in that category. Why is all of this happening now? Because, we are very close to the end of the church age or the age of Grace, whichever you choose to call it. How close, I can’t say. Make sure that your destination is with Jesus because eternity is a very long, long time to be without love or hope or light or compassion or any of the goodness which comes from God! None of those will be available in outer darkness where Satan and his followers will be.

There are only two sides to every conflict, one is good and the other is not. Black and white, yin and yang (except that the sides don’t have parts of the other in them), death or Life, so….choose. lifeordeath

I am nothing but…

Forgiven

By my Creator and Savior, Jesus the Messiah! Amen!

Free from ?

We celebrate our nation’s freedom in a few days, specifically on July 4th. But…what about your freedom in Christ? Do you celebrate that? Can you even tell me when you became free? To be honest, I can’t give you the exact date or day that I accepted Jesus into my life. Because, I have been baptized many times in my life thinking that I had accepted Him when I had not or at least I didn’t act like it much afterward. Oh, I would go to church regularly and occasionally read my Bible..for a while. Then, I would go back to doing other things and finally drop away from walking with Him even on a weekly basis.

So, even though I am a pastor, I can’t tell you definitively when I became a child of the King. I do know that I began walking with Him more on a daily basis when my son was born, almost 18 years ago. When I realized that my son wanted to be a Christian, at the age of six, I knew that I needed to get closer to Him so that I would be a better role model for him. When I began preaching about six years ago, I began reading the whole Bible through from beginning to end at least once every year. So I have grown closer to Him over the years, but I still can’t give you a date for my salvation.

The freedom that I have in Christ is that I don’t have to remember the day or the date of my salvation because my name is in the Lamb’s Book of Life! He freed me from the life that I had been living before, even though Satan still brings depression into my life some days I have His strength to get through it. Some days it is very hard, some days it isn’t so bad, but as long as I pray and keep my faith at the front of my mind I can get through it.

I had a night or rather an evening of this spiritual warfare just last night! I felt like I wanted to die! I was angry over nothing at all, yet I kept praying for strength and protection. I don’t think my faith was very strong at the time because it took over two hours for my anger to subside and my feelings to get back to normal. Why did that happen? I have no idea. I had not been preaching at a revival, even though I attended one earlier this week. I have been thinking about having a revival at our church this summer, so maybe that is why I was attacked. Only God knows for sure.

Yes, we as Christians are free from the slavery of sin and its consequences through Jesus and His sacrifice for us, if we will believe in Him and what He did. Can we walk away from the salvation offered to us? Yes, you can if you haven’t accepted it truly and in your heart repented of the sin that you were in before, you can walk away but why would you? Unless you truly enjoy being controlled by that type of behavior and the emotional ride that it gives you, I really don’t see the attraction. Drug users and alcoholics usually are so thankful that Jesus saved them from that life until they don’t go back.

But…of course there are a few who slide back into the “life” of whatever it was they were in before and there are some who actually walk away from the Holy Spirit’s call to come to Jesus. The book of Hebrews states that “there is no sacrifice for those who trample the blood of Jesus“, the King James Version of the Bible states that this book was written by Paul and the language is certainly like his in other books. Whoever wrote it, the Holy Spirit inspired them with the words and the wisdom of God.

I pray that those of you who read my blog will come to know Jesus as your Savior, no matter what your religion or faith may be now. He is the only One who can forgive you and cleanse you of your sins so that you are welcomed into Heaven. Don’t wait, seek Him out today. Amen. john317

Understanding your role (part 3)

I didn’t realize that my sermon was quite so long, so I am having to add another post to finish it. I hope that you enjoy it. Remember, the first part is at http://inhisservicetilhecomes.com.

Part 2 was published on this site, so it should be easy to put them together. Try to read them in sequence so you get the context of the whole sermon.

This is the final piece so here it is:

In other words, do what Jesus did in that He took care of those having faith in Him with prayer and supplications often and He healed their afflictions in so much that it would give glory to God the Father. Of course, He kept himself from the sins of this world which is nigh impossible for us to do except that we have to live in the Word and be praying to God for the strength to do so while we are present in this body.

Why does James call us to be strong in our faith and our walk with Jesus? Because of the witness that we have by claiming Jesus as our Savior. If you aren’t living out your faith on a daily walk with Him, then how will people be able to tell if you are a true Christian?

Charles Haddon Spurgeon said it like this when he preached from this chapter:

“It is your faith which is tried. It is supposed that you have that faith. You are not the people of God, you are not truly brethren unless you are believers. It is this faith of yours which is peculiarly obnoxious to Satan and to the world which lieth in the wicked one. The hand of faith is against all evil, and all evil is against faith. Faith is that blessed grace which is most pleasing to God, and hence it is most displeasing to the devil. He rages at faith because he sees therein his own defeat and the victory of grace. Because the trial of your faith brings honour to the Lord, therefore the Lord Himself is sure to try it that out of its trial praise may come to His grace by which faith is sustained. It is by our faith that we are saved, justified, and brought near to God, and therefore it is no marvel that it is attacked. Faith is the standard bearer, and the object of the enemy is to strike him down that the battle may be gained. It is by our faith that we live; we began to live by it, and we continue to live by it, for “the just shall live by faith.” Hold fast, therefore, this your choice treasure. It is by faith, too, that Christians perform exploits. Faith is the conquering principle: therefore it is Satan’s policy to slay it even as Pharaoh sought to kill the male children when Israel dwelt in Egypt”.

(http://biblehub.com/sermons/auth/spurgeon/all_joy_in_all_trials.htm)

In conclusion, we are to live out our faith daily, sometimes hourly if the temptation is ongoing, so that we will be counted as God’s adopted and influence others to want what we have found in Him! Amen?

Understanding your role (part 2)

The first part of this series, if you will, can be found at http://inhisservicetilhecomes.com. It is part of a sermon which I did this past weekend about our service to God and our role in that service. I pray that you will all take it to heart and read both.

C. Faith adopts God’s eternal perspective in both poverty and riches (1:9-11).

In both poverty and riches we have nothing to boast about in God’s sight. Even those who have little, such as a homeless man or woman, if they place their faith and hope in God then they are as rich as anyone else! The rich man doesn’t have anything to boast about beyond this life, because God owns all of the riches and the universe itself! In God’s eyes and by His reckoning, even a rich man is poor if he has placed his faith in his riches. But, by placing your faith in God a rich man will have eternity to praise God for His love and his salvation which came to us all by Jesus Christ!

D. Faith perseveres under testing, not blaming God for temptations (1:12-18).

The 12th verse begins with the word “Blessed”, this reflects the understanding that a person who walks in the paths set by the Lord, sees his plight or his troubles in terms of the hope that he has in Christ, awaiting him in eternity. So by that measure, the present troubles seem fleeting and of no effect. When you compare your life, even to one thousand years, every problem fades into the background. How much more it would do so when compared to an eternity with Jesus? That is why the Word says that our life is like a puff of wind or smoke or like the grass which is green and beautiful one day and dried up and burned the next. Faith grows as it is tested just as a tree’s roots grow deeper when it is exposed to the wind. Sometimes the testing is like a gentle breeze and we get through it will little effort or prayer even. Some days, our testing may be like a rushing mighty wind blowing against a tree or a house and unless there is a good foundation or much roots in the One Who can hold you and take you through this day or trial, then you may fall. But, God will not allow a person who trusts in Him to fail or fall.

E. Faith obeys God’s word, even when provoked (1:19-27).

In verse 19 and 20 there is a bit of wisdom that all of us need to carry with us every day: “Let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath; 20 For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God” I believe that this is the very reason that God made us with two ears and two eyes and only one mouth because if you hear the things which are being said and notice those things which are happening around you, then when you do speak you should speak from wisdom, God’s Wisdom, and not your own.

We are to lay aside all sinful behavior, which would shine a dim light on your witness if you were still doing it and people know that you claim to be a Christian. As Jesus said, “take up your cross and follow me”; your cross is your burden or your temptation which comes back to taunt you which you have to conquer through faith and perseverance. As James writes, “if you are hearers only” then what are you doing with your faith? He writes that we should be doers of the Word as well as hearers because by living your faith out in public, others will see that you are actually living by what you claim!

Hearing the Word of God on Sunday only would be like “a man who looked at himself in the mirror and then immediately forgot what he looked like”. But, when you hear the Word and then continue to study it daily and walk in that faith which it brings to fruition, then you will be blessed indeed.

If you are religious or only act that way for gain of some kind, and yet you don’t watch what you say or how you say it, then you are deceiving yourself and your own heart and your so-called “religion” is useless and in vain. Everyone will be able to see that you are not really being true to what you claim to be.

You will be seen as someone who claims to be rich even when they have nothing to prove it to be so! A hypocrite. Pure religion with faith in Jesus Christ is undefiled before God and the proof of it is this: To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep yourself unspotted in the world.

See the Lord do this thing….

1 Samuel 12: 14-16:

14 If ye will fear the Lord, and serve him, and obey his voice, and not rebel against the commandment of the Lord, then shall both ye and also the king that reigneth over you continue following the Lord your God;

15 But if ye will not obey the voice of the Lord, but rebel against the commandment of the Lord, then shall the hand of the Lord be against you, as it was against your fathers.

16 Now therefore stand and see this great thing, which the Lord will do before your eyes.

Samuel said these words in front of the people of Israel when they crowned Saul their king, because they wanted a king like everyone else had. They didn’t want God as their King! God is very patient with us, even when we reject His rule in our life. He doesn’t smite a person dead when they foolishly shake their fist at Him and ask for Him to strike them dead. That doesn’t stop them from being foolish enough to do it though.

God is not a man. He is not made in our image as many seem to try to mold Him that way, we are made in His Image! Thankfully, God has enough patience with humanity to allow us to keep living and hopefully we will learn about Him enough to feel the need for Him to rule in our hearts the way that He should!

As in Proverbs it says: “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom“. Fear in this context is respect or reverence not fear as in scared of or afraid! Being a child of God brings joy into your life, knowing that He is always at your side. He, our Creator, is on your side and always near you, no matter what the circumstances may be! We are beloved by God Himself, whether you have given your heart to Him or not! He doesn’t wish that anyone should go into Hell forever, but by your choice of not giving your heart to Jesus and asking Him to come into your life it is you who chooses that path for eternity!

God created mankind to be in fellowship with Him all of the days of our lives. But..it was our choice to remain in that relationship with Him and everyone knows how that turned out! Through Jesus our Savior, each of us can change that situation and get back into fellowship with God. All that is required is that you believe in Jesus’ sacrifice for your sins and ask Him to save you from your old, sinful life.

That is it! That is all that is required and its all that you or I can do to become a child of God! No amount of money or works in this life can get you righteous enough to be allowed into Heaven. Only the blood of Jesus can cover your sins and mine so that God sees His righteousness instead of our rags! You only have this life, however long it may be, to get this done so please don’t wait. None of us is guaranteed tomorrow, so please seek out your Savior today and ask Him to come into your heart to change you into the person that God knows you can be.

The wonder of Joy

joy In many ways when we come to know Jesus, we are joyful in that knowledge that we have our salvation granted through Jesus our Savior. We are very much like a small child, giddy and so happy that our Savior loves us enough to grant us our salvation through His blood, His death and resurrection! So…what happens after you find that you need to learn more about Him and learn to listen to Him every day?

It seems that many people don’t experience that joyous wonder like a child. They understand that they need Him and they ask Him into their hearts. But sometimes our church or others in the church who should shepherd them toward their Savior drop the ball. Many people end up just standing in ankle-deep salvation for many years and some never get past that point.

The joy of knowing Jesus and knowing that you have been saved through His sacrifice in your place should carry you through for many months until you begin to mature as a Christian. But how do you do that? The same way you get through any learning situation, by study, prayer and by seeking His advice for your life every day. It is a daily walk with Him after all, and just as any relationship…it needs to be cultivated and nurtured.

He is your Creator and your Savior and that relationship should be one that continues all through your life, day in and day out. Sounds boring, but think about Who you are having a relationship with! He is the Creator, the Son of God, your Savior and the second Person of the Trinity! Could there be anyone in the universe who could possibly be more interesting?

If you are wondering how you could get to know Him, READ the Bible! God inspired the writers and disciples to tell you about Himself and His personality. Yes, sometimes He is demanding but it’s because He expects us to obey Him, just as we expect our children to obey when they learn the rules about being in your house! Life, as a child of God, is a learning process and it is one that takes a lifetime! You can’t get a version of it which is a digest version, it is a day by day, week by week learning process which is very much like our own lives.

The joy of knowing Jesus is like the joy of bringing home your newborn son or daughter. It or rather they are new in your life, you are new at learning how to handle your relationship with them or Him. As time goes on and you learn more about Him, the joy should grow into a deeper love and a deeper relationship…but there should always be a bit of joy in it from day-to-day!

Words and learning

In the Bible, there are many words. None quite as omnipotent as believe although faith comes in really close. Depending upon which term that you look for or even which translation you are using, they will show up more in one or less in another. My point is this: the words that we should be using and allowing to help us to grow our relationship with Jesus are not important.

The real clincher is your attitude in your relationship with Him! Do you take it seriously? Do you take the Bible seriously and as the Truth? Finally and most important, do you believe that the Bible is the Word of God, inspired by the Holy Spirit to be written by men? If your belief in God’s Word and it’s inspiration by the Holy Spirit is strong and you have your faith in Jesus as the Son of God and your Savior then go out and tell the rest of the world!!

The time that we live in is filled with those who deny that Jesus is the Son of God and those who deny that the Bible is truly the Word of God. Yet, nearly seventy percent of Americans claim to be Christian in their faith. If that were true, why do so many churches have so few people in them on Sunday morning?

There are many studies about the decline of churches and church attendance in America and around the world. One startling outcome is that America is actually behind India and China in attendance! What happened? At the beginning of the 20th century there were 27 churches for every 10,000 people in America, now we are down to 11 per 10,000. And those eleven aren’t full on Sunday morning, so what has happened?

While it is true that the book of Revelation speaks of a falling away in the faith by the faithful, I don’t believe that this is happening at this time. It seems that we need fresh ideas in the church to draw more people to church, but most importantly we need to get back to the Bible and study in it’s wisdom. Teaching our congregations more thoroughly about Jesus and His Father. We don’t need social media nights or fireworks or “eating meetings” to bring people in because the Bread that they need to be digesting is the Word of God! The Bread of Life itself!!

Bible school and teaching teens about Jesus is wonderful and it should be done during the summer. But, we should also have a night or two during the week to teach parents and grandparents about Jesus, not just during one twenty-five minute sermon on Sunday morning. After all, they are raising or helping to raise the next generation coming into the church, so they need to learn just as much or more than the young people do.

Is it possible to teach parents and grandparents about Jesus and God and the wisdom found in the Bible? Of course it is, if they will attend and come to learn. The churches are becoming sparse and many people in the next generation won’t be coming or even be a member of a church if we don’t teach them more about Jesus and why He came to save us! He didn’t do it because it was going to be fun, He came because He loves each and every person on Earth so deeply that He was willing to give His life for each of them!

The Way

IamtheWay

What about the rest of the family?

You know, in church and mostly in scriptures such as the New Testament, we only hear about Jesus but Mary and Joseph had other children too. Two of them in particular are highlighted in the New Testament and they are James and Jude. Both are half-brothers to Jesus and they became believers in Him as well as leaders in the church.

It is hard for us to realize that even though He was the firstborn son of Mary, that she actually had some other children too. James was the leader of the church in Jerusalem before his death and he wrote the book of James too. I a preaching this Sunday, tomorrow, from the first chapter of James and he has some interesting advice for us as Christians. Particularly about how we exercise our faith in Jesus and learn to be more like Him.

Even though he is referred to as the half-brother of our Lord, they were raised together just like any other children. To the community, they were brothers since few people knew about the Parentage of Jesus being the Son of God. Only his parents who raised him and Elizabeth and Zachariah and John knew Who He was prior to His resurrection. In spite of some of the “books” which were written about His life as a boy, which were false by the way, Jesus did not create small animals and bring them to life to play with. These books are nonsense and fantasy, nothing more.

James teaches us today that we must bear up under persecution and testing in our life to prove our faith in Him. Just as gold is purified when it is in the fire, we are brought to our best when we use our faith to strengthen our walk with Him, especially when we are under stress because of the world we live in. We are expected to exercise our faith just as we exercise our muscles, making it stronger and more durable in times of trial. Therefore, when trials do come we will be able to bear up in faith and lean on Jesus and His strength for our support.

Jesus did not say that we wouldn’t have trials in this life, He said when trials come and when you fast, be of good cheer because He has overcome the world and its troubles. We are to have faith in Him and lean on His strength and the wisdom from God’s Word, not on our own strength and wisdom. Jesus will give us the strength and the ability to get through our trials, whatever they may be, as long as we have faith in Him.

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