Not a Rewards Card, Its a Gift Card

       Today just about every place you go to conduct business has a "rewards program" where you earn extra benefits by doing things that the company wants you to do ..... mostly spending more money.  If you come every day and earn a sticker for purchases, you eventually get a bonus discount of something like that.  It is a way to encourage us to do good things.  We are said to be in the "club" or a part of the "team."   Points are credited to us and we achieve different level of loyalty.  We are attracted to this idea of being able to do things to create a new status level.

In reading Romans chapter 4, Paul is writing concerning "righteous standing" before God through faith in Jesus Christ.  He explains that righteousness is not a level of achievement.  He uses the example of Abraham, father of the Jewish nation,(and more as we will see.)  God made a promise to Abraham that although he and his wife are old, 90 and 100 years, he would be the father of many nations and have more offspring than could be counted.  At one point in the account in Genesis, it states that Abraham believed God and his faith was counted as righteousness.  Genesis 15

  Not that Abraham earned this status of righteousness before God by obeying a set of laws or by earning it as a wage for hard work, but that he believed God.  Righteousness through faith.

The righteousness that was credited to Abraham was a gift and a blessing from God, because of God's grace upon him.  God blessed Abraham because God wanted to.  God has also given us a promise that we can believe. He has given it to us as a gift, not a reward.  

That promise is explained by Paul again in Romans 4:24-25  "23 The words “it was credited to him” were written not for him alone, 24 but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness—for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. 25 He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.


Romans 6:23
For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

God's Kind of Life

     We have so many choices today of how to live our lives.  Even those who are determined to follow the Lord have to wade through so many distractions and temptations that the can easily be fooled and led astray if they are not paying attention and choosing to focus greatly on God's guidance.
     In Psalm 19, the writer begins by reminding us of how the creations of God, even if we just focus on the sky above, tell of the greatness of God, his wisdom, and power.  It reminds us of how he has organized the sun to heat and light each day and for the night to reveal the mass expanse of his knowledge in the universe.
     Then it is revealed that God is also complete in his understanding of how we should live a life free of complication, unnecessary stresses, enlightenment for our minds, and how the most valuable aspect of our lives is our trust in the Lord.  God has not only revealed his identity in nature, but in a special way as he has provided scripture to help us live according to His ways which are the best ways to live the life he has planned for us.
     Following the commandments, precepts, and laws he has revealed to us, provide us with a life free of complication, but also a pathway that will bring us good results even when we do not fully understand where we are headed.  We will also not be guilty of sin against God which bring separation, loneliness, and all else that results from living our lives alone, outside of God's will.
     Let us meditate on and speak into our lives, the revealed, acceptable, and blessed ways of God, our Creator and Lord.

    
   

Psalm 19:7-14English Standard Version (ESV)


The law of the Lord is perfect,
reviving the soul;

the testimony of the Lord is sure,
making wise the simple;
the precepts of the Lord are right,
rejoicing the heart;

the commandment of the Lord is pure,
enlightening the eyes;

the fear of the Lord is clean,
enduring forever;

the rules of the Lord are true,
and righteous altogether.
More to be desired are they than gold,
even much fine gold;
sweeter also than honey
and drippings of the honeycomb.
Moreover, by them is your servant warned;
in keeping them there is great reward.


Who can discern his errors?
Declare me innocent from hidden faults.
Keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins;
let them not have dominion over me!
Then I shall be blameless,
and innocent of great transgression.


Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart
be acceptable in your sight,
O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.

By Grace

If you want to understand what it is to be a Christian or believer in Christ, and want to understand how it is that sin is overcome and salvation is given from sin and death, the best answers can be found in the book of Romans.  I believe the Holy Spirit led Paul to write an extensive explanation with detailed examples and explanations for those of us who ponder this question from every angle.  The answers are explained simply, but our desire to re-state them often gets us into areas of misunderstanding.  Read the book of Romans as a Christian or as someone wanting to understand following Christ.  I have recently had to book read to me online so I could listen and ponder it. What a Blessing!  https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans+1&version=NIV

How do we become righteous before God?  We do not become righteous before God by obeying his commandments and earning righteousness.  It is by God's decision to offer us the choice to depend upon Him.  God's decision to do so is called GRACE and our choice to depend upon Him is called FAITH.  To depend upon God is to give Him Glory and to be fully assured that what God has promised, He is able to perform.

For centuries mankind has struggled with the choice to depend upon God in Faith and receive his gift of Grace.  From the first man and woman we began to reject God's offer of togetherness with Him.  Our spiritual and physical lives have been affected by this choice.  We live in a world that has rejected togetherness with God in return for our selfish desires to make our own decisions toward worldly, temporary pleasures and accomplishments.  The Bible is a way of understanding how we have found ourselves in the situation we have today.

God gave Moses the Ten Commandments and other parts of the Law to show mankind how difficult it is to depend upon our own actions to be righteous... in fact it is not difficult, it is impossible.  All of us fall short of perfection.

God then sent Jesus, the Savior, to prepare a path whereby we could fulfill the requirement of righteousness, once again, not by our own accomplishment, but by by choosing to accept God's offer of grace and by depending on him through faith.  Jesus was born to a virgin woman, and as a human, and took upon the task of perfectly fulfilling of the law, which none of us could do.  He was at the same time God among us in spirit, to offer grace and guidance toward a reconciliation from sinfulness in spirit.  Jesus maintained completion of the law perfectly and then took the death penalty that we deserved because we could not keep the law.  God offered grace to us again and credited us with being righteous by our faith or dependence on the promises of God through Jesus who is God's perfect, sinless man and God's Holy Son in spirit.  We praise Him and keep his commandments because of that gift, not in order to earn it.  


Ephesians 2:1-10

As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

Is God a Fundamentalist?

We have all probably heard negative connotations of the term Fundamentalist as it refers to Christians.  This terms in the common culture has become a buzzword for someone who is hard to work with or even dangerous because their strict beliefs cause them to act in ways that do not mesh easily with the lifestyles of others.  Fundamentalists are often seen as legalistic and unwilling to even try to understand the viewpoint of someone else.  It is definitely a term whose definition itself is very much up for debate.  So to ask the question in the title of this post, we first have to have a definition to work with.  As many do, we go to the Webster Dictionary.

Fundamentalism - a movement in 20th century Protestantism emphasizing the literally interpreted Bible as fundamental to Christian life and teaching, the beliefs of this movement : adherence to such beliefs. The second definition is: a movement or attitude stressing strict and literal adherence to a set of basic principles.

Since this is not a complete and thorough examination of a topic, but a blog post, I'll keep it simple and let this become a conversation starter.  I'll skip any examination of the "movement in 20th Century Protestantism" and simply say the topic of whether the literally interpreted Bible is fundamental to the Christian life started long before the 1900s.   The topic of "literally interpreted" is also one that has many shades of understanding. The other topic that has been debated is the nature of the Bible itself and whether it is a collection of philosophical and declarative writings of men or whether it is a collection of writings that came from the mind of God himself written down by men under his influence.

When it all boils down to it, the debate of fundamentalism is a debate over the Bible.  So what is my understanding?  I would base my understanding on the physical and spiritual aspects of my search for truth that I believe we all should be on in this life.  

Is the Bible reliable?  Has it changed over the years? Why has the specific collection of books been preserved and others not included?  Does the Bible have a cohesive message that does not contradict itself?

Do the spiritual promises in the Bible hold true in our life experience?  As you can see, the questions are endless and there is a constant battle to not be prejudiced toward the physical experience of life over the spiritual experience of life.  There are answers to these questions, however, in spiritual and physical resources.  

Some of the best research on the consistency of the Bible over the centuries comes from Josh McDowell. He was a skeptic who set out to disprove the reliability of the Bible to his Christian friends and has spent a lifetime gathering evidence which shows the uniqueness of the Bible is the areas of circulation, translation, surviving persecution and surviving manuscripts.  These are scientific studies not opinion papers.

The question of the spiritual reliability of the Bible is the area that we can all spend our lifetimes realizing.  Study of the Bible is in one way an intellectual endeavor, but in the spiritual realm it is an opportunity to encounter God himself.  By adopting the teachings of the Bible into our lives, we step into God's plan.  Then you can experience for yourself the interaction with God that has captured the lives of people for centuries.

My experience has been this:  The Bible is the word of God, meaning God caused men to capture and record exactly what he wanted to be passed along to people in future years.  The spiritual promises in the Bible, in my personal experience have been proven over and over to be true.  To experience the spiritual nature of the Bible, you must give yourself to living this life of obedience and seeking God, interact with God through prayer, and reach the point of receiving the Good News or gospel which changes your standing in the spiritual world, allowing God to become the one who has ownership and spiritual authority over your life.  At that point, and not before, your ability to experience the spiritual life described in the Bible becomes very evident and clear.  Now I am spiritually in God's Kingdom, but physically in the world which rejects God.  This provides a constant struggle and opportunity to rely on God spiritually until my physical existence is passed. Then more of the promise in the Bible is realized, the physical struggle is over and the spiritual existence begins.  But the final promise is yet to come.  The Bible that has revealed to me God's promises over my lifetime tells me that at a future point, the physical world that rejects God will be destroyed completely, and that a new physical world will be created again with those who are spiritually aligned by faith in God to live in a non-divided world where physical and spiritual existence will be centered on God as it was when God first created the world.  

This is where I am on my search for truth.  I understand and try to follow the Bible in a logical and faithful way, not applying ridiculous standards of verbal legalism, but believing what is clearly stated as fact.  I believe the Bible and in that way, I believe God and I both are fundamentalists.

Blog Returning from Summer Vacation

I have been absent from my blog for the summer but plan to begin again in a week or so in September.  I have read a few other blogs, especially those that I somewhat disagree with.  It helps me to clarify my understanding on issues.  After doing so, here are a few things I am considering writing post about.  Feel free to suggest or critique these topics.  Have a great end to summer break.

Is God a Fundamentalist?

Should we interpret the Bible for ourselves?

Who should not feel comfortable in our church?

Do we want God to be for us?

As you can guess there will be a little twist to what these titles appear to be about.  If you have any more suggestion for topics let me know.  See you in September
Kyle

Soloman's Greatest Decision

2 Chronicles 1. Solomon son of David established himself firmly over his kingdom, for the Lord his God was with him and made him exceedingly great.

Soloman's approach to begin leadership of the people of Israel is revealed in 2 Chronicles chapter 1. Soloman led commanders and leaders, heads of families and the whole assembly to the place where the tent tabernacle that Moses had used in the desert was kept at Gibeon. There was also the bronze altar there and Soloman, along with all of the leaders, offered 1,000 burnt offerings to the Lord.

He did not begin by trying to demonstrate his power or superiority to his new subjects, he began by leading them to be submissive to the Lord.

After watching a year of supposedly future leaders campaigning for president, the message seems to be that in order to lead, you must overpower your adversaries and make sure that everyone believes that you have all the answers. This was not Soloman's approach. He believed the God's power is needed to achieve greatness.

God came to Soloman and told him to ask for his heart's desire and the God would grant it. As most of you know, Soloman didn't ask for wealth or power, but for wisdom to lead God's people. God gave him great wisdom and insight and in addition blessed him with power and wealth that still has not been matched today. In today's money, Soloman's personal wealth was twice that of the next-wealthiest person in history. According to www.wealthresult.com which gives the top 10 - wealthiest people of all time,

number 4 was Andrew Carnegie whose personal worth was $300 Billion dollars (Carnegie Libraries all over the country and more),

number 3 was Mansa Musa I $400Billion Malian Empire 1280-1337 made a pilgrimage to Mecca with 12,000 slaves each of whom carried a 4 lb gold bar. He gave great gifts to each town along the way so much that he destroyed the economy of each area he passed through.

(Bill Gates was not mentioned, but I believe he stood at 450 billion dollars at one time)

Number 2 was John D. Rockefeller founder of Standard Oil Company worth $664 Billion dollars. He retired 40 years before he died and spent the time setting up foundations to fight diseases and was instrumental in the eradication of hookworm and yellow fever.

Number 1 was King Soloman whose worth was estimated at 2.1 trillion dollars in modern money. He received 25 tons of gold every year for the 40 years of his reign. Everything from cups and utensils to his Throne and footstool were made of solid gold. The throne had 6 stairs and 12 lion statues of solid gold and were inlaid with ivory. This wealth does not include the money made from business ventures, trade or the tribute paid to him by the princes of Arabia. There was no one as wealthy as he was.

When you make plans for success, begin by submitting yourself to God, not asking God to help you in your plans, but totally submitting to God's plan and he will overwhelm you with blessings beyond compare suited specifically to you.  It will be the wisest decision you can make.

Car Radio

   

My life is filled with sound.  My life is filled with music.  One of the things that I often like to do is to sit in silence and drive in silence.  If someone is with me in the car, I like to talk to them, but when I am alone, I like to sit is silence.  The reason is that when I am silent, my thoughts are free to run.  God also speaks and leads my thoughts when I am silent.  Depending on the tendency of your thoughts, you may or may not like to have silence.

     My daughter played a song for me called "Car Radio" by Twenty One Pilots.  It discusses, in rhyme, the situation of someone who is forced to let their thoughts run because someone stole their car radio.  Their  thoughts run from something great to something violent in a dream, to something terrifying, and to understandings of the meaning and purpose of life all the while the driver is proposing that he really should replace the car radio that was stolen so that the sounds would give him the option of taking a little control back of where his mind is going.  But at the same time, he admits that the music and sounds that keep his mind from going everywhere also keeps him from thinking and that thinking is a good thing.  Here is the central part of the song...

There are things we can do
But from the things that work there are only two
And from the two that we choose to do
Peace will win
And fear will lose
There's faith and there's sleep
We need to pick one please because
Faith is to be awake
And to be awake is for us to think
And for us to think is to be alive
And I will try with every rhyme
To come across like I am dying
To let you know you need to try to think

We often recognize those things in our lives that have taken control, sending our minds racing and we don't know how to get them to be quiet.  They pop up in our consciousness, they bring fear and keep us from truly living.  If we don't know how to get rid of them, we try to run or we try to drown them out with other things so we don't have to deal with them.   A time comes to deal with them so we can stop running and start resting. Hopefully someone will steal our car radio and we are forced to realize we need to do something.  Faith in God brings the presence of God,  The presence of God brings peace, Peace replaces fear. 

2 Timothy 1:7King James Version (KJV)

7 For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.

God's word explains that process of ridding ourselves of the thoughts that bring fear or situations that cause us to get wrapped up in too many things is a simpler process than we think  To rest our thoughts and actions in faith in one who has power to take care of all of those details and to teach us how to overcome with His authority.

Don't ignore, stop thinking, and go to sleep,  or just turn up the radio!

Faith is to be awake
And to be awake is for us to think
And for us to think is to be alive

Find the Truth of finding peace by seeking the Prince of Peace, Jesus. 

The Captives

As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. Ephesians 2:1-3

What a revelation. We have all lived in sin, apart from God. No one was exempt (except Jesus) and we all deserved to die like convicted criminals in a spiritual court. We all have a need to be released from the state of guiltiness. Some of us lived in that state longer than others, believing that the pleasures of a sinful life would not lead to death and destruction of our life now and eternally. Didn't we start to get clues? Couldn't we sense that we were in way over our heads? The stress and pressure of trying to control every aspect of our future and present was sending us into depression, ruined relationships, addiction to idols and substances of every sort that gave a temporary hiding place but released us back into the chaos of trying to take care of ourselves and trying to find the rest that our inner souls told us was out there somewhere. We ignored our spiritual lives like it was a fairy tale which truly intelligent people just didn't fall for. And we were not in a neutral land where cause and effect determined our outcome, we were being manipulated without our knowledge like a maze where the pathways are constantly changing in order to bring confusion, madness and eventually a loss of hope that there is a way out at all. We gave in and determined that a confusing maze with no ending is not that terrible of a place for a worthless, accident of existence like me. Then......BOOM....we are locked into the prison.

But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. Ephesians 2:4-10

We were rescued, not by our own power, but by Christ who offered us freedom. By changing our allegiance from ourselves and the dark world to an allegiance to Christ and his victorious path. A gift from God for one who is not a worthless accident of nature, but a creation of the most high God for a purpose that reaches to eternity.

Christ did not come to make bad people good. He came to make dead people wonderfully alive and to set the captives free. To give life instead of hopelessness. Hallelujah, praise the Lord.

No Worries

A phrase I have heard more often in recent years is "No Worries." I don't know if it is a hang on from The Lion King's "Hakuna Matata" or from the Australian culture, but it is growing in popularity. For a people with this new phrase, we spend a lot of our time doing just that... "WORRYING."

Matthew 6:25-34

25 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life[a]?

28 “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? 31 So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

In a country with so much plenty, we may find that we do not worry about these particular things in our lives. Food and Clothing are still a basic necessity, but we have replaced these things with other things to worry about. We forget the first line which says, "Do not worry about your life." Whatever the needs are God cares for you and will make sure you have what you need to live the life he has planned.

Maybe the verse could tell us to not worry about your job or not to worry about school. Maybe it could say do not worry about your family or not worry about where you will live. Most would consider these things as very important need in our lives as well. How much time do we spend worrying when it does not good?

Why do we worry? Maybe its because there are certain things that we consider important and rightly so. There come times, however, that we see circumstances that threaten our ability to have these things. We worry when we believe that we will not be able to provide these necessities through our own efforts. That means we have been trusting that our own efforts will bring the things we need. And there is the problem. Who do we trust to provide for our needs? Ourselves? Often there is nothing that we can do about the situation under our own power. We worry and can not add a single thing to solving the problem. Many times that is when we realize that we have been relying on the wrong power. I know God does not normally cause food, clothing, and houses to drop from the sky. He usually provides ways for us to grow or purchase food, build or purchase a house, or provides a job to obtain funds for these things. He does this because at the same time he is leading us to learn and grow and draw closer to that which is most important... our relationship with and knowledge of Him. Can God miraculously bring food from the sky? Just ask Moses and the Israelites who were knee deep in quail and manna. Just ask Elijah who was fed by Ravens. Can he miraculously provide shelter? Just ask Jonah who had a vine grow up to protect him from the sun? There is no end to God's ability to provide for us. But if we are trusting in ourselves instead of Him, there is a bigger problem... our relationship and priorities.

For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Seek His Kingdom... God's Plan not our Plan

Seek His Righteousness... Surrender our will to His and rest in God's Presence and Peace


Then let God provide and rely on him by stepping back and NOT relying on ourselves. God will bring us what we need today and tomorrow to survive in this troubled world and survive in a great and mighty way... that we may have life and have it in abundance.

     

Take Heart!

Who's out there?  Who is causing this trouble? What should I do?

These are a few questions that I know are going through the hearts and minds of people today as we watch the news reports of shootings and riots around the world.  So much confusion and anger.  So much fear.

The first response seems to be to try to place blame.  Racism, Religious Terror, Bigotry, Insanity, Criminal Activity, the list seems endless.  Have people gotten so bad in the past 50 years that there is no hope?

My friends on social media are dividing into camps and fear is causing them to lash out against other people.  I have tried not to join the mudslinging, but have inserted my understandings into the conversation.  The problem is that the true solution to the problem is one that many of them do not want to hear or do not want to trust.

So to save a lot of space, here is my understanding.  It is based on what I have learned over the past 40 years.  Muslims are not terrorizing the world.  Christians are not the source of the unrest around the globe or even in our own county, cities, and towns.  Phobias about different races are not at the center of killings.  I am not saying we are not seeing these things, but that we are aiming at them when we should be understanding the source of evil.

I have seen that as a world full of people and especially as Americans largely ignore or flat-out reject the spiritual aspect of our lives.  We all have a physical, mental / emotional, and spiritual aspect of existence.  Because we trust so heavily in the physical and mental, we do not trust the spiritual.  It has taken me decades to realize that focusing on the spiritual aspect of life in the same ways I do physically and mentally provides a balance and wisdom that eliminates so much confusion.   The reality of this is explained in the Bible in Ephesions 6:10-20
which says:

10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood,but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

In other words,  the evil one in the world that the Bible identifies as Satan is the one who is behind the so-called Muslim Extremist, or the Right-Wing Extremist who kill indiscrimately and then kill themselves.  Or even the riots that grow out of uncontrolled anger and domestic disputes that end in murder-suicide.  Why do so many mass murderers kill themselves?  I think that Satan hates even them and once he has enough control over them to cause them to commit these crimes, he definitely has enough control to cause them to destroy themselves as well.  He is a manipulator of lives and walks into the lives of those who do not oppose him.

In John 10:10 the scriptures describes Satan as a thief and says John 10:10

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. 

If this is the identifying mark of the "Thief" then he is definitely taking control of people who are not paying attention to their spiritual lives.


The second part of that scriptures gives the solution to this problem. Our spiritual aspect of life encompasses our alignment with good and evil. Because of the schemes of Satan, we must always be on guard to keep ourselves aligned with God in order to have peace within us and in order to keep the evil of the world from destroying all of us.


John 16:33 says

“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”One by one, some people of the world are letting fear tell them that physical and mental efforts will overcome evil. But physical and mental efforts will only overcome evil when the spiritual part of us is aligned with the one who has already overcome evil. That is where the power to change the world lies.


God, who is good and all-powerful, has given us the opportunity to provide ourselves as a gateway for good to reign. He should be invited to control our lives in such a way that He is living in us and we in Him. When more and more of us turn our spiritual lives over to the one who lies, kills, steals and destroys, then that is the gateway for an evil world to prosper.

if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land. 2 Chronicles 7:14

The answer begins with those who truly seek the Prince of Peace and not the Prince of Darkness.  We must seek God the Father and reject the Father of Lies. We must actively turn to God and admit that the power we need comes from Him who has all power and more importantly, give God permission to use our lives to bring about a healing of our land.  Humbling ourselves is very difficult.  Prayer takes discipline and patience. But these are the ways to seek the face of God and ask him to heal our land, our families, and our future.  Take aim, not against flesh and blood, but against the true enemy in spiritual realms, but take heart, He has overcome the world!

Follow Directions to Find Direction

     We recently received a do-it-yourself doghouse kit for "Baby" the new dog in our family.  As we opened the box it said all you need is a screwdriver.  We looked for directions but found that it only had a set of pictures on the side of the box with one-sentence instructions for each step.  Fortunately, the process was so simple that those were the only instructions needed.  The house went together quickly and easily.  Many men are teased for their approach to such projects thinking they don't need to read the directions and that they can figure it out for themselves.  I remember putting together the baby crib for our first daughter and realized that the company must have put in some spare parts.  Later, once I read the directions, I had to disassemble the bed and put the parts where they were supposed to go.
     I think a lot of adults treat their Christian life that way.  We may have attended church and been taught from the Bible as children and, upon reaching adulthood, we believe we know what we are supposed to do in every situation.  We have heard about Jonah and Moses and David.  We have heard the parable of the sower and the lost sheep.  We know most of the 10 commandments, but not the order.  Many of us feel like we can get through just fine and can go to a pastor if things get confusing.  But I have learned that we miss a lot of things in life and and up with a lot of spare pieces left over when we don't seek God's directions in His word every day.
     The Bible is not only the words of God, but is the living Word of God.  It is the Voice of God in our lives.  It is another avenue of communication used by God for our daily direction.  When you read your Bible every day, God brings to you the words AND the understanding to interpret it into your current situation.  He "speaks" to us about our present needs and decisions on a spiritual level.  The Bible also gives us wisdom that comes not from current culture, but from the everlasting, infinite, creator of the universe.  It is wisdom that can be trusted to always be correct.  Proverbs 9:10 -"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom."
     Time and time again I see adults who believe they "know" God.   Many of them know about God, but haven't communicated with Him in a long time.  When someone asks if I know someone, they usually mean, "Do I spend time regularly with them", or "Is this person a regular part of my life."   They usually don't mean, "Have I learned things about this person in my past."   In order to know God and have Him as the guiding influence in my life, I have to keep in regular communication with Him.  Otherwise, he is just a philosophy or a life-goal.  God is the divine person after whom we were spiritually created.  He is active and speaks through His living word.  We should seek that word daily and pray to Him in the same spiritual way He speaks to us.
     The Bible includes direction for our life, it is true, but by reading and studying it, God speaks to us about today and uses the time we dedicate to His word as a time to connect with us and allow us to know Him more.  We learn how powerful He is and how loving He is and how dependable He is.  He is our direction, He is our knowledge of everything, and He is our daily existence..... or as He said, "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life."  The direction to go leads through Him.
   

Ding Dong

 

  Click to watch scene from Wizard of Oz

     In a climactic moment of the Wizard of Oz,  the Wicked Witch of the West has Dorothy, the Tin Man, Scarecrow, Cowardly Lion ,and Toto trapped in the Castle by her Soldiers and Monkeys, and is preparing to kill them.   Not only that, she tells them that "The last to go will see the others go before her, and her mangy little dog, too."  She is preparing to execute Dorothy's friends in front of her.  Truly a wicked thing to do.  She starts with Scarecrow and brings fire from a nearby torch to set him on fire which she does as she laughs a wicked laugh.  In an attempt to put out the fire, Dorothy throws water on the scarecrow, which spills onto the witch.  Dorothy doesn't know it, but water causes the witch to melt, thereby saving them all from death.

     In her final words, the witch is astounded that a sweet little girl trying to help her friend causes the destruction of herself and her plans. Wicked Witch of the West: You cursed brat! Look what you've done! I'm melting! melting! Oh, what a world! What a world! Who would have thought a good little girl like you could destroy my beautiful wickedness? Oooooh, look out! I'm going! Oooooh! Ooooooh!
The soldiers, realizing the witch is gone, begin to celebrate their freedom and pledge their allegiance to Dorothy who has saved them also. "Hail Dorothy, the wicked witch is dead!"

      The eye-opening truth is that we are confronted with wickedness in our world everyday.  We are sometimes unaware that the battles we face are "not against flesh and blood,but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms." (Ephesians 6:12) The powers of wickedness are very real and as a society we are fighting it less and accepting it more. Americans are becoming the soldiers and monkeys who do not want to follow evil but feel trapped and have aligned with the enemy looking for a way to survive. They are so happy when they are rescued from the trap of evil's domination and are set free to live. It must begin with our own individual lives.
The truth is that evil spiritual authorities have gained control because we have given them control. We have given them control by accepting evil practices into our lives. If we give evil a foothold, evil has authority to take control of all of our lives and then our communities followed by our nation.

     How is evil destroyed? The witch wanted Dorothy's power held by the ruby slippers. She was unable to take the power unless Dorothy was destroyed and the life was gone from her. Satan wants to take our power, the power we have been given as we possess the Holy Spirit in our lives. Our power is stronger than evil. "I give them life forever and they will never die, no one can snatch them from my hand." John 10:18. And evil is defeated as easily as throwing water on a fire for those who have aligned themselves with the power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The power of Satan melts when sprinkled by the blood of Jesus.
     Who would have thought that good could destroy wickedness so easily. The power comes from those who possess the presence of the Holy Spirit within their lives because they have become devoted followers of Jesus. As the power destroys evil, the presence of the Holy Spirit brings peace and eliminates fear. Peace of knowing that the wicked witches of sin, abuse, sexual entanglement, addiction, and more can be melted away with a continual washing of forgiveness and restoration.
     "Hail Jesus, You have given us freedom from evil !" Although evil attacks constantly, there is no fear. I love the part of the movie where the Good Witch tells the Wicked Witch without an ounce of fear, "You have no power here!, Be Gone, Before Someone Drops a House on You!" That is the way we can approach the attacks of Evil, knowing we possess the power that so easily overcomes. Our everlasting life begins on earth and continues throughout our lives and into eternity when we spend forever with God in Heaven. Then our hearts can rejoice that we have left this world of evil attacks and can say, "There's No Place Like Home!"

Why follow?

The question of why to follow Jesus has come to the forefront of several conversations I've had recently.  The latest one began a facebook discussion about children being scared into making spiritual decisions by threats of Hell.  Everyone in the discussion agreed that this is not the way to share the gospel with children.
Because of the limitations of the facebook format, I wanted to expand on the discussion but not take up my friend's entire page.  Here is what I wanted to add.

The statement in a meme was, "If you need the threat of eternal torture to be a good person, you are not a good person."

This was not created by my friend but has been passed around.  My problem with it is that it pre-supposes the wrong question on many levels.  During our good discussion, it was revealed that many had experienced well-meaning church people who had boiled the entire Christian experience down to "Be Good or you'll go to Hell."  This is still the wrong understanding.  The part that is wrong is probably not the part you think I have a problem with.  The part that is throwing us off here is the "Be Good" part.

     I believe that if you asked Billy Graham if he considers himself a good person, he would say "NO."  Billy Graham knows better than anyone else what goes on and has gone on in his mind and his life.  Although Billy Graham strives to live a life that pleases God, he knows that the ability to live that way does not come from his efforts to "be good."  It does not come from him changing his ways because he fears Hell.  I believe he would tell you that "there is no one righteous (good), no not one." (Romans 3:10.)   The "goodness" in his life comes from his reliance upon God to live through him.  He has given up his own life in order to ask God to bring him a better one.
     God is the only truly "good person."   It cannot be coerced, at least not for very long, because we are imperfect.  Without a reliance upon God, we eventually hurt others, and ourselves.  Even our reliance upon God is imperfect and we do "bad things."  God resets us when we realize our imperfectness and turn to him to find the source of goodness.  When asked why I follow God, I don't begin with "because I fear Hell."  
     It's like asking someone why they are eating and they respond, "Because I have heard so many horror stories about people starving to death."  I usually eat  because of the wonderful, sweet, experience of eating and the fact that it fulfills a basic desire of my creation.  Its the same reason I follow God.  Sometimes I eat ice cream and sometimes I eat oatmeal, but I don't eat out of the fear of starvation.
     I am glad someone taught me that the result of not eating is starvation.  I am glad someone taught me that the result of not following God is to be separated from Him once this earthly life is over.  In both situations, it is a truth I understand, but not a fearful, daily motivating factor in my life.  I have experienced great food that sustains me and also brings me pleasure.  I have experienced the great joys of living according to God's plans which also sustains me and brings me pleasure.

     Finally, the biggest misunderstanding of the statement that started this discussion is that it pre-supposes that the goal of Christianity is to become a good person.  There are plenty of people trying to be a good person.  They are kind to others, they love and protect animals, they take care of the environment, and they try to give good and uplifting advice that they hope will keep others from making mistakes.  I think Christians should do the same things.  But God's priority for our lives is not to be a good person foremost.  That is where the "love your neighbor" part come in.  But first and foremost He has a different goal.
     Jesus said, "I have come that you may have life and have it in abundance."
God gives us the opportunity to follow him not to be good, but to be alive.  Our imperfection and failure to be good all the time has already negated our ability to survive spiritually in the presence of a perfect God.
God in his own goodness gave us the opportunity to give up our lives in exchange for the perfect life lived by Jesus.  Then we can have life and survive in the presence of a perfect God.
   
Jesus did not come into the world to make bad people good.  He came to make dead people live.
That is why I follow Him.

 

Didn't Men Write the Bible? Why Trust it.

     One of the most commonly made comments made recently in discussing Jesus has been from people who have said, "I can't trust everything in the Bible because it was written by humans."   Others say, "I heard that the Bible has been changed over the years."  I want to give some thoughts in the shortest way possible in this blog so I will try not to elaborate too much, but that is not the correct understanding of the Bible.

The Bible was written down by humans.  God the Holy Spirit guided the writers so that they wrote exactly what was to be written down.

In my scripture reading today, Peter, who was an eyewitness and follower of Jesus for 3 years, was present at the crucifixion, burial and resurrection of Jesus wrote this about scripture in 2 Peter 1 about how the scriptures came to be given to us.

12 So I will always remind you of these things, even though you know them and are firmly established in the truth you now have. 13 I think it is right to refresh your memory as long as I live in the tent of this body, 14 because I know that I will soon put it aside, as our Lord Jesus Christ has made clear to me. 15 And I will make every effort to see that after my departure you will always be able to remember these things.

16 For we did not follow cleverly devised stories when we told you about the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ in power, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. 17 He received honor and glory from God the Father when the voice came to him from the Majestic Glory, saying, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.” 18 We ourselves heard this voice that came from heaven when we were with him on the sacred mountain.

19 We also have the prophetic message as something completely reliable, and you will do well to pay attention to it, as to a light shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. 20 Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation of things. 21 For prophecy never had its origin in the human will, but prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

Hasn't the Bible changed over the years?  Amazingly very little.  The transmitting of scriptures has been miraculously preserved in accuracy.  There are more examples of scriptures preserved from the Bible than any other book by far.  These go back to within 100 years of the original writings nearly 2000 years ago. Early Greek historians and philosophers have less than 100 examples of their writings preserved and most are copies from over 1000 years after the original writings.  Therefore it is difficult to compare to the originals.  Scripture that are less than 300 years after their original writings are number over 25,000 examples and more are being found all the time.  The earliest example comes around 75-100 years after the original writings.  Therefore it is easier to compare modern Bibles to original texts and they have been found to be over 99.5 percent accurate.  The Bible has not been changed over the years.  Other historical writings that are still read today have a much less accuracy due to careless copying.  the earliest remaining manuscripts from Aristotle comes from 1400 years after it's writing and the number of ancient manuscripts is less than 50.  Numerous changes due to copying have been found in Aristotle's writing compared to the originals.


Here is a more in depth discussion
https://s3.amazonaws.com/jmm.us/Bibliographical+Test+Update+-+08.13.14.pdf

Josh McDowell is an authority on this and related topics.  www.josh.org

Here is a 30 minute video you may enjoy by Josh McDowell that answers a lot of questions.
http://www.josh.org/video-2/can-i-trust-the-bible/

The New Testament contains eyewitness testimonies that were undisputed by those who heard them.  

Archaeology continues to support much of the old and new testament scripture.

Since this is not a place for long explanations I just want to encourage you, that if you have any of these questions about the uniqueness of the Bible, don't believe someone who has never looked into the topic.  Explore some of these links.

God's word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.

Let's Give a Great Big Hand

John 13:34-35
“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

When asked what is the greatest commandment, Jesus responded that it is "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and mind and that the second greatest is to Love your Neighbor as Yourself."   

He said that all of the other commandments hang on these two commands.

If you love your neighbor as yourself, that means you don't put yourself above anyone else.  We all take care of ourselves.  It is natural to eat when we are hungry.  It is natural to put on a coat when we are cold.  It is natural to rest when we are tired.  That is the way we take care of ourselves.   When our neighbor is hungry, what should we do?   When our neighbor is cold, what should we do?  When our neighbor is tired, what should we do?  

Love is not always a word the describes emotion, it is also an action word in many cases.  This is one of them.

If someone has a need, it is important to pray for them.  It is even important to tell them that you are praying for them.  By praying we are agreeing with God in the plan that He has to take care of their needs.   The next step, however, is to try to determine what God's plan is for you in this situation and whether it involves us being the giver of that care.  We pray to ask God to change our understanding and lead us to be a part of His plan.  Sometimes that means that we Love our Neighbor by following God's leading to practically help.    
     When I was baptized, I remember that the first thing the Pastor asked me was, "Doesn't it feel wonderful to follow God's commands for our lives?"  It does.  When God leads you into a situation to know someone's needs, it is our time to ask God, "Are you leading me to help by giving?"  I am sure that we cannot help every situation we become aware of.   As Christians we must become accustomed to asking and listening for the Holy Spirit to tell us what to do and then do it.  If we are following the plan of God, He will provide the necessary means to fulfill the plan.  We will be blessed as we learn to fulfill God's plan for our own lives.  Doesn't it always feel great to help someone?  That in itself is part of the blessing.  I do not subscribe to the teaching that we should give so that we will be given material things in return from God.   I do believe that seeking and acting upon God's plan in our lives creates a deeper relationship with Him and that is always a blessing. 
     When we see our neighbor is hungry, we love them by giving them food.  When we see our neighbor is cold, we love them be giving them a coat.  When we see that our neighbor is tired, we love them by helping and giving them rest.  When we see that our neighbor is lonely, we love them by spending time with them.  

This is such a simple lesson to understand and such a difficult one to put into practice.  
Do we ask the question "What if I don't have enough food to share?"  If it is in His plan, He can feed the 5,000 with loaves and a few fish. (Mark 6:30-44)   "What if I don't have clothes to spare?"  Didn't the Israelites spend years in the desert with clothes that never wore out? (Deut 8:4)   What if I am too tired to help them?  We are reminded that those who wait upon the Lord, (follow His Leading) will renew their strength, will run and not grow weary, will walk and not grow faint. Psalm 40:31

Take Action when you see a need. Pray and allow the Holy Spirit to guide you.

"And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith." Gal. 6:9-10

It May be Dark, but it's Not Too Late

It's not too late.  It's not a lost cause. It's not hopeless.  It's not too far gone. 

     When we are in a relationship with someone, not matter what kind, it often seems like there is no way to repair the damage when the relationship is broken.  Marriages end, children are estranged from parents for decades, and people die having never restored themselves to each other.  We see this so often that we believe that all relationships are like that.  That is not true.
     First of all, most relationships that are broken and not repaired are that way because one side or the other refuses to restore the relationship.  It may be out of anger or the feeling that a restored relationship will only bring a return of the problem that began the rift in the first place.  In order for a relationship to be restored, there has to be several changes.  A change must come in the situation and a change must come in the mind and heart of those in the relationship.
     The situation could be an argument that resulted in statements being made that established hurt feelings or a refusal to associate with the other.  The situation could be a stance on an issue that is outside the bounds of one person's acceptable living limits.  The situations are usually real problems, but are not always unchangeable.
     The other change takes place in the heart of those involved.  We have to be willing to listen and understand.  Possibly a misunderstanding has taken place and can be corrected.  Possibly the situation is exactly as it was originally understood and a change in the situation must occur.  Then a decision can be made as to whether the relationship is worth the surrender of the stand we have taken.  
     All of these scenarios involve an evaluation of something we hold dear, our control.  Our ability to decide what we want.  Sometimes that is the source of our broken relationship. 

There is one relationship, however that has a different set of rules.  Our relationship with God.  When there is something wrong with our relationship with God, it is easy to figure out where the change needs to happen.  Why do I say this?   
God never changes.  



Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. James 1:17

God is never unfair. He is perfectly just based on the way He designed the universe. He made the rules.

No matter how much we want to have a say in it, they are already set and do not change.


God always forgives someone who honestly asks Him for forgiveness. No matter what it is. But we have to be the ones to change. We have to REPENT or change our ways and ask him to forgive us.

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 1 John 1:9


God has already sacrificed in an order to restore the relationship.

but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Romans 5:8


Whether we are spending our lives not in a relationship with God because of anger or because we feel unworthy or because we are in a situation that is against God's universe, the fault is not God's. We can be consumed with the desire to control our own choices, but ultimately they must align with God.


We must confess that Jesus is Lord of all including us. We must recognize Him and be willing to give up control.


Next we must ask forgiveness and for restoration of the relationship. He has promised to say yes.


"If you confess with your mouth "Jesus is Lord" and trust in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved."


The relationship is maintained just like most other relationships. Talk together often. Learn everything you can about each other. Choose to do things that improve the relationship whenever you can.


It's not too late.

Lead us, Deliver Us

     God is big enough.  He can handle it. We don't need to lie to him about our problems.  He already knows them.  He is not shocked or upset because of our failures or struggles.  He doesn't look down in dismay when we tell him about the sins that we just can't seem to get out of our lives.  Even though we hide them from everyone in the world, God knows and understands the problems even better than we do ourselves.  These is no deep, dark secret that he doesn't already know.
     God is strong enough.  He doesn't love us only when we keep his commandments.  He is there to save us because he knows we can't fight such huge opponents on our own.  The very thing that we believe is coming between us and God is the thing that He is ready to destroy for us.  There is no sin that he cannot remove from our lives.  Sometimes we ask him to take it away, but we keep reaching out and taking it back.

     How do we overcome a problem that we know God wants out of our lives, but that seems to be un-fightable?

First we have to trust that God CAN remove it.  Begin with a moment in time where we approach God in prayer and say, "Lord,  I admit that there is this sinful part of my life and I ask you to forgive me for participating in it."

"If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and cleans us from all unrighteousness."
1 John 1:9

At this immediate moment that sin is forgiven.  God promises it.  Do we immediately loose our desire to do it again?  Not always.  Especially if we have accepted it into our lives many times. We must continue to go to fight, but not the way we did in the past.  Every time the battle comes back, we must not gather our strength to overcome it, but immediately take it to our champion of spiritual battles and turn it over to him.  Jesus fought temptation with prayer and scripture.  That is our way as well.  Victory over sinful things is a definite thing when God is doing the fighting on our behalf.  " Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil.12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Ephesians 6:11-12

The most important struggle against sin takes place in our hearts and minds.  Allowing ourselves to fantasize about sinning is the best way to return to sin and give in to temptation.  Once we have agreed with God that this must be removed from our lives,  the enemy returns to the spiritual battle of temptation.  We fight it with immediate prayer and a call to our God to take up the battle in our minds.  Don't wait to pray.  Do it immediately when temptation strikes.  Step aside, close your eyes and say, "God the temptation is here, the battle is yours and I trust you right now."

We must also make changes in our lives to keep that sin from approaching us.  If we have struggle with abusing substances, we must remove them from our houses and ask others to keep us away from them.  If we struggle with a relationship that is inappropriate, we must remove those people from our interaction and stop allowing ourselves to "enjoy" the sin  in our minds.  If we have issues with inappropriate internet pictures and temptations, we must move our computers and only use them in public areas with others in the room.

God alone defeats sin.  We fight it successfully only with His strength.  We also fight it with trusted believers who are also calling on God's power in our behalf.   Stop trying to fight on your own.  Ask God to take over and destroy your enemy of sin.  It will be a constant battle, but will get easier as we develop the response of going to God immediately on a regular basis.

When Jesus prayed to God the Father, he said, "Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil"  He knew that constant spiritual war raging in the hearts and minds of those on earth and that the power of God can subdue it.  Pray and Surrender to God's Power.  You will be overjoyed at the change in your life.



   

Nanny 911 and the Children of God

     So many times, I have learned about God in a new way by observing the lives of children in relation to their parents.  James Dobson related a story of taking his child to get their booster shots and how the child begged him to be removed from the painful situation, but as a father he knew it needed to be done.  Recently, one of my daughters related her viewing of the show "Nanny 911" where parents bring in a child behavior specialist (the nanny) to help "fix" a bad family situation.  She said the Nanny usually gave the parents advice on how to set rules and boundaries for their children to help them grow into responsible adults.  My daughter pointed out to us her understanding of the things her mother and I had done to give her guidance and that she now can see a little clearer the reasons. 
     I find myself more and more relating to the children in these stories and even more relating to my daughter's experience of coming to an understanding of the reasons that God takes us through painful times.  I have often spoken to people who acknowledge God and like an infant, they stubbornly remain angry with God for something they had to go through or are going through now.  The younger you are, the less you see that your life is continually molding you and strengthening you.  If you always avoid the pain, you do not see the benefits of God's path.  You do not develop the quality of trust in God which brings peace to your life.  You do not develop the coping strategies or the ability to see and avoid future trouble.  You are stuck in fear with no guidance out the other side. 
     God have given us simple ways to go through troubled times, but sometimes we do not believe it can be that simple.  Or sometimes we refuse to let go of our own plans and turn every moment and every pain and every fear over to God.  Trusting God is NOT logical in the setting of our life.   But at some point you will face something that defies the ability to reason your way out.  You will be stuck and at that point, you must ask God to do something supernatural.   You must ask him to take control of everything, but most importantly to take control of YOU.  You must cry out to God and ask him to step into the situation whether it is logical or not and just be God.  If he wasn't someone who could do that, then He is not who he promises to be and not the one to whom I have trusted my life and soul to.
     There have been times in my life, many that most people do not know about, but times when I have bowed down to the floor, or I have raised my hands in the air and verbally asked God to take over and bring all those involved into his presence where evil and confusion can not exist.   I have asked him to control the spiritual realm around me which is where most of our pain begins.

"12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places." Ephesians 6:12

We struggle with things we do not understand, but we must ask God to struggle with them, because He does understand them and overpowers them easily. We must ask him to do so continually. He is God and we are not. In our submission He takes over and becomes our strength and it is a wonderful thing to experience. The confusion in your life subsides. The temptations that run rampant become less and less visible to your eyes which are filled with the blinding light of God's peace. We start to learn that things are a lot easier when we do not act as children do and try to take control of that which we are not yet ready to handle. If we are going to be God's children, then let's run to him crying with our hurts and fears. Let's trust that he truly has the answers and the ability to fight off the things in this world that scare us. Then the boundaries and rules God has outlined for us become a guiding rope along the path of peace.

The More Excellent Way

Now you are Christ’s body, and individually members of it.  And God has appointed in the church, first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, administrations, various kinds of tongues.  All are not apostles, are they? All are not prophets, are they? All are not teachers, are they? All are not workers of miracles, are they?  All do not have gifts of healings, do they? All do not speak with tongues, do they? All do not interpret, do they?  But earnestly desire the greater gifts.

And I show you a still more excellent way.   1 Corinthians 12:27-31

.   This is right before the Bible chapter often called the "love chapter." It sets the context for the verses many of us are familiar with. The setting or context as you can read above is........ the church of Jesus Christ.

It says that we are individuals, but are part of a body. God gave us functions so that we could work together like body parts work together. We have to be individuals, different from each other. We are not all preachers, not all teachers, not all prayer warriors, we are gifted for specific tasks. We have these gifts, but we should also aspire to the greater gifts that God has given us. These are the things that join our body parts together and connect us in order to properly move and serve. What is the "more excellent way" that He will show us?

Lets keep reading ..

Here is my translation of 1 Corinthians 13

If I am gifted to be a great preacher, but do not have love, I am just a lot of noise. If I have the gift of great insight and knowledge; and if I have strong faith, so as to move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. And if I give all my money, sacrifice my time, and give my life over, but do not have love, it profits me nothing. The gifts I have, even if they are used, cannot help without love among the members of the body. How do I act in love so that all of God's gifted parts create a functioning body. Here are some rules about the love that connects us as a body.  We are to aspire to live out this greatest of gifts.

Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not offended, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Love never fails;

Our knowledge and faith will eventually not be needed. Our gifts of preaching and teaching will eventually cease in the light of God's glory. For we know in part and we prophesy in part right now; but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away. They are gifts God has given us to help us learn the greater gifts. They are teaching tools like you would give to a child. When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known. Then we will realize what was most important and what was only temporary. But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but even faith and hope will be fulfilled in the presence of God along with all of the ministry and gifts we worry over today, but the greatest will remain forever.  The greatest of these is love.

Open Heart Surgery

No, I am not in a medical crisis.

I am not in a crisis at all.  I am in awe of the endlessness of God.

If you are a Christian who is seeking to know God deeper every day, I have reached a couple of points of discovery I want to share.  First of all, there is no end to "knowing God."  I don't know if there is an end to the things God will allow us to "know about" Him.  Both searches I am sure will last a lifetime and possibly eternity.
      The word "knowing" can mean different things.
I can know facts.  I can correctly recall and use truths about things and people and even God.
I can also know people.  That doesn't mean I know everything about them, but that I have met them and can, because of experience of being with them,  guess what their thought and actions will most likely be in given circumstances.  I can even know God that way up to a point.
     But I have noticed that my best friends are not only those people that I know a lot about or even know  personally enough to predict their actions and thoughts,  but they are the ones whom I trust to let know about me.  I have revealed to them the contents of my heart and have allowed them to hold my heart in their hands knowing they will do everything to protect it.  These are people whom I have connected deeply with.... my family, my wife, and longtime friends.
     This is also God.    Recently I experienced a moment that revealed to me that there are parts of my soul that I have neglected to give God permitted access to.  Not on purpose, but I had not said, "God this vulnerable part of me is yours to use."  I reached this understanding after a period of time where God was challenging me to speak to him about things that I had no control over anyway.   In a way, God was showing me that "Hey, you can't do anything about this, and you still haven't asked me to get involved."  When I did, I was also challenged to discipline myself and ask myself to come beside God and Bless Him.  To do and say something to God that was from me personally.  I trusted Him with my emotions and they were richly increased in depth.  I trusted Him with my family, and our relationships became richer.  It was as if there had been a blockage in the flow of His love in the deepest parts of my heart.  I am still seeking to continue this deeper relationship and allow him to unblock parts of my heart and in some ways, I was responsible for removing the blockage that I had put in place.
     I have heard several people say that after they heal from open heart surgery, they feel better than they have for decades.  I believe I am having the same experience spiritually.
Trust God with the deepest part of who you are.  He will infuse your spirit with His love and closeness like never before.