Tag: Good News

Does anyone go the second mile anymore?


There is a passage in God’s Word which speaks of going the second mile with someone. Do you know anyone who does that anymore? Do we, as Christians and believers, go the second mile with anyone or do we just give them a platitude to help them and pray for them and send them on their way?

We are being unfair and disingenuous in our faith if we do and being lukewarm in our walk with Christ too! He doesn’t want lukewarm Christians! Can we become more active in our faith and in our service to Him and to others as well? It is necessary for ALL Christians to get more involved in their faith and in the work of the Church, especially now, since we are coming to the end of the Church age.

I know, many preachers and so-called prophets have been saying doom and gloom for many hundreds of years, but if you read and study the prophetic books (Daniel, Ezekiel, and Revelation) you get an eerie feeling that you are reading today’s headlines! That is why I am saying that we must wake up and begin letting people know, whether they really believe it when you tell them or not, but they need to hear the news of Christ and how they can be saved from the wrath to come!

We need to go the second mile to help someone who is a new Christian as well. Show them how to study the Bible, help them to understand some of the hard teachings in it because if we don’t, who will? Many pastors don’t have the time these days with all of the functions going on at church, such as weddings, funerals, baptisms, study groups, etc., their time is further taken up by preparation of the sermons which they deliver during the week and every Sunday. It is up to us, each of us who may be born-again Christians, to teach and instruct our children and those new to faith in Christ. Help them to understand the fantastic gift that they have, give to them by God through Jesus!

Going the second mile with someone who is hurting from a divorce or the loss of a job or a family member, this is what Jesus would do so doesn’t it stand to reason that He would expect it of us as well? We are not perfect, we are not destined to become “gods” at some point, we are His bond-servants because of His love for us and our duty to Him. The perfection of God and His creation is that it is unchanging. He loves us with a love that is above anything that we can understand, for no reason except that He wants to love us that way!

In some things moderation is good, like eating, rest, recreation, exercise, and finances. But when it comes to spiritual warfare, moderation is a sin. When it comes to believing the Bible, moderation is a sin. When it comes to loving the Lord, moderation is a sin! We have to go full-throttle, not just ten percent in our service to Him, in our belief in Him and in our love toward Him!

If you are a Christian, your life is in Him, so it should be all in Him not just a little bit or once a week. God doesn’t want someone who begins on a row, like a planter planting a field, and then quits a few feet down the row. We can’t expect someone else to take up our slack because we get tired of being the one who is making the sacrifices or taking the time to do things. How much food would we have to eat if every farmer just planted a quarter of a row and no more?

If Jesus and His disciples had not made all of the journeys that they did to tell people of the Good News, there wouldn’t be a church today! If they had sat down only five miles outside Jerusalem, none of Paul’s letters to the churches would’ve needed to be sent or written! We need to have that enthusiasm and drive to get the message out to the world, even if it is just through the medium of pages like this. Pray about what you can do, how to do it and get started!





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Are you a fan or a follower of Jesus?


Many of the disciples were followers of Jesus and the Word confirms that there were at one time or another about seventy of them. Were they fans or followers or true disciples?

Those who fall into one category or the other out of those three show three different levels of commitment. The fans of Jesus and his teachings were the ones who were with Him daily and tried to understand His teachings. The followers were the crowds which went with Him hoping for a miracle or some food or both!

His true disciples were the ones who went out and preached the Word and the good News of redemption through belief in Jesus and the Father Who sent Him. In the book of Jeremiah, there are a few verses which illustrate what following means, it is in chapter 6 and verse 16: “Thus says the LORD, “Stand by the ways and see and ask for the ancient paths, Where the good way is, and walk in it; And you will find rest for your souls.” Even though it says that, at the time, the Israelites said to him that they would not walk in it.

There are many who find the right path but for one reason or another, they decide not to walk in that path. Some reasons that I have heard are “it is too hard”; “I don’t want to right now, I am having too much fun”; “Following Jesus requires too much time and effort”. If that were the real reason, no one would ever follow Him.

How can we follow Him and be a disciple of His instead of a fan or a follower for our own reasons? In today’s language being a follower could mean that you know about Jesus and everything that He did. You have been to church, you have listened to sermons and even read some scripture about Him, but do you follow Him?

Are you classified as a fan of Jesus? Fans know their teams and the stats well. They know about all the things that their favorite team does and each team member and their statistics. Some might be able to tell you how many children some of the team members have who are married. In reference to football fans, they can tell you everything that each player did in college and in their rookie season. But what happens when your favorite team starts to lose or has a losing season. If they have a losing season or two, their fans tend to trickle away and lose some enthusiasm for them.

What happens when life gets a little tough, do you fall away or do you cling to Jesus? What do you do if the road that your life with Christ is following gets a bit bumpy or hard like a mountain trail? Do you feel the need to get off? Our trail that we are following is not easy because Jesus said that He did not come to make things easy but that He would ease your burden by taking the weight of sin off of your shoulders. He did not say that you wouldn’t sin but that you would not be tempted beyond what you are able to bear.

How many fans get to play in the Super Bowl? (Answer: none) What about true followers, do they get to play in games like that? No, because they are not players or professional football/baseball players, they religiously follow the game and its players but they can’t play.

What about Christians? Do we get to play? Let’s look at what it takes to be in the game as a true follower of Jesus: 1. I have given my heart to Jesus; 2. I read my Bible daily and study it, praying over the passages so that I can understand; 3. I pray about little things in my life as well as BIG things so that God knows my heart in these matters; 4. I ask God to help me to understand and know what He wants me to do with my life after He has changed it and decide to live my life for Him from that point on.

The problem is that there are many people who are in church and have been in church for many years and yet are still “fans” and not followers. Even though they do many of the things which followers do, their hearts are still “far from me” as Jesus said. How can we get back from that far country to the place where we belong?

The only way to get back from that far country is to humble ourselves and admit that we need to get back in the first place! Once we do that, we can become followers of Jesus and our new life will keep us in that place close to Him. Then our lives will be even more useful and productive, not only for God’s kingdom but for our own walk with Him daily as well.

In many ways, our lives are mirror images of the world in which we live. Some of us live in the world and have very little to do with church and its doctrine which is preached there. Even if we come to church, there are things which are said there that we don’t agree with so we tune them out entirely.

When we look forward toward the years that we each have left or think that we have, what do we see? Do we see a life full of promise like we did when we were young? Or do we see the end of our lives approaching and decide to wind down like a toy and “take it easy for a while”?

We were not made to “wind down”; our lives are to be useful to Him regardless of our age or our point in life. He decides when our time comes to “wind down” from this life, but that still doesn’t mean that our life will end. You have an appointment with eternity and where that appointment takes you is your choice.

The narrow road following Christ will lead to eternal life and service to Him that will never be boring, the broad road leads to destruction. On which road will you be when it is time to meet Jesus?