Monthly Archives: January 2016

“Just Follow Me” Jesus said

Matthew 5:11-12 “Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. 12 Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

What were Jesus’ first sentences as he began his great Sermon on the Mount? “To all of you that are struggling right now, hang in there, for it gets better. For all of you that are seeking to live Godly lives, your eternal rewards will be great!” He begins his sermon with the attitudes that describe how we live our lives; how we are viewed by worldly and heavenly standards. If we are seeking to please the world, even in seemingly heavenly duties, Jesus knows our hearts, and tells us later in his sermon that our reward is temporal, worldly finite if you will. (Matthew 6.) As he begins this great sermon, his plea is that if he has revealed truths to us, that we proclaim those truths to the world. However by God’s design, through any means he chooses, proclaim what he has given you, for he may be using you to reach another. He tells us to live our lives as a light to the world (Matthew 5), and even later in Matthew’s gospel (chapter 10), he tells us to proclaim our faith from the rooftops, shouting to the world.

He also tells us at the beginning of his great sermon, that this faith, and proclamation of it in our words, deeds, and lives, will come with a cost. Matthew 5:11 “Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. 12 Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. The entire Bible, front to back, is filled with those who suffered for their faith in every way imaginable. All through the New Testament is Jesus’ proclamations, the apostles testimonies, and countless accountant of those that suffered, and even those that were not willing to pay the cost. Jesus told us following him comes with a cost many times. Even as he chose his twelve apostles, they were given an instant decision to walk away from their lives; Matthew 4:19 Then He said to them, “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.” 20 They immediately left their nets and followed Him. Can you imagine walking away from your life in an instant decision that will define the remainder of your life? There is immeasurable weight in that accountant alone. Jesus tells us to lay down our cross, our lives for him, every, single day. How many times do we rush into the day with our list of duties, yet never pursued him in prayer and his Word to see if our list, matched his list for the day? How will we know, if we don’t pursue Him at all?

I am surely not qualified by worldly standards to proclaim anything to you. I am surely not qualified to argue theological implications of Biblical proportions of any worldly event with you. I laugh at how caught up we get in politics, media drama, others lives, others failures, others accountants that they will have to answer to God to, yet we don’t see the plank in our own eye. If we will worry about our own selves, and only our relationships with God, the simplicity of the Bible becomes clear. Luke 10:21 In that hour Jesus rejoiced in the Spirit and said, “I thank You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and revealed them to babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Your sight. If you will just seek God with all your heart, mind, body and soul, the rest of your life, your critics, your worldly view will be seen through the lens of the gospel, and it all will become clear. “Just follow Me.”

I wanted to send out this video about our house church that we are starting this week, because so many of you that follow this ministry, are not involved in social media.

Dana and I are opening our home to anyone who wishes to go deeper with their relationship with Jesus Christ; to abide in him and live their lives as disciples.

We are calling it OneSimpleChurch.

If you want to know more, contact me at my personal email woodsracer2001@yahoo.com

You may click on the link below to view.

No Excuses

Acts 9:1-2 Then Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest 2 and asked letters from him to the synagogues of Damascus, so that if he found any who were of the Way, whether men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.

How many of us has Satan won a great battle with a lie of deception? How many of us has he convinced that we cannot be used by God because of the sins in our lives? How has he convinced us that we can’t follow the tugs on our hearts for discipleship, because we listen to the lie of our past? The is a great difference in the understanding of our sin, and Jesus’ ability to forgive our sins, past, present, and future. God has let you go down every path in your life, many times those paths he uses for good and to draw others to Himself through your testimony. When Satan comes at you with accusations, God through his Spirit will use that conviction to draw you closer to Himself through prayer and his Word. Satan’s plans backfire when you don’t flee because of those memories or current struggles, you pursue God with a vigor and renewed strength. God used one of the most vigilant persecutors of Jesus’ followers, to becoming on of the greatest apostles and writers of the New Testament. Paul went from killing the church to leading the church.

I always think of this list in the Bible of those the world called failures, and God called his disciples. God can use you too!

Noah was a drunk! (Genesis 9:21)
Abraham thought he was too old! (Genesis 17:17)
Isaac was a liar, just like his Dad! (Genesis 26:7, 20:2)
Jacob was a liar & a schemer! (Genesis 27:19 and many more!)
Leah was plain (ugly?)! (Genesis 29:17)
Joseph was abused! (Genesis 37:18f and many more!)
Moses had a speach problem! (Exodus 4:10)
Gideon was afraid! (Judges 6:27)
Samson had long hair and was a womanizer! (Judges 16:17, 14:2, 16:1)
Rahab was a prostitute! (Joshua 2:1, 6:17)
Jeremiah and Timothy were too young! (Jeremiah 1:6, 1 Timothy 4:12)
David was an adulterer and a murderer! (2 Samuel 12:9)
Elijah was suicidal! (1 Kings 19:4)
Isaiah preached naked! (Isaiah 20:2-3)
Jonah ran from God! (Jonah 1:3)
Naomi was a bitter widow! (Ruth 1:20)
Job went bankrupt! (Job 1:13-19)
Peter denied Christ! (Matthew 26:69-74)
The Disciples fell asleep while praying! (Matthew 26:40-43)
Martha worried about everything! (Luke 10:40-41)
The Samaritan woman was divorced, more than once! (John 4:18)
Zaccheus was too small! (Luke 19:3)
Paul was too religious! (Philippians 3:4-6)
Timothy had an ulcer! (1 Timothy 5:23)
*AND*
Lazarus was dead! (John 11:1-44)

Into the Desert

Acts 8:29 Then the Spirit said to Philip, “Go near and overtake this chariot.”

The stresses and strains in my life right now are enormous. The burden that God has laid on my heart for a church that teaches discipleship is at war with the responsibilities of the world. The burden that God has laid on my heart to challenge the level of your heart for God is at war with who am I to ask that of you? The burden on my heart to teach the whole Bible full of the promises of God, along with the conviction of God, is at war with a society that cannot handle the truth. The burden that God has placed on my heart for repentance from the pulpits is at war with the level of my sin in one. The burden that God has placed on my heart to preach his Word, wins the war of any reason to keep silent. I am held accountable not only for what I say, but the words that he lays on my heart that I do not utter; I do not preach to seek to make you my friend, I preach to point you to Jesus and to become another disciple of his.

This passage in Acts of Phillip and the Ethiopian eunuch, or dignitary if you will, is an incredibly deep passage on many levels. There are so many sermons of the applications to our lives on how Phillip and the dignitary handled what God laid on their hearts. All throughout this passage (Acts 8:26-40) is an underlying tone of obedience to our Lord; not one of delayed obedience, but immediately. Phillip was called by an angel to go out onto a desert road while he seemingly was having a successful ministry in town, but he promptly followed his calling. The eunuch was a treasurer, possibly one of prominence and traveling with guards, but surely not alone, for he was reading the scripture to his companions. When Phillip approached the chariot, would they not likely considered him an intruder? Possibly, but the eunuch was obedient to the Spirit of peace that he was feeling toward Phillip, and asked him to join and explain the text. God places those around you, then he prepares their hearts, just as he prepares yours. They will receive what you have to say because God has prepared them, to hear Him, through you. Phillip was heavenly whisked away after preaching God’s Word and baptizing the dignitary so that his heart would be transformed into a disciple for God in his country.

God wants to use you too. God wants you to have an obedient heart that genuinely seeks him with all you heart. God wants you to experience a level of intimacy, love, power, and provision like you only dream of. He wants you to seek Him early every day in prayer and his Word. He wants you to share with others what He lays on your heart. He wants you to put Him first on your list, but until you do, he will only give you glimpses of himself. Matthew 6:33 Seek Ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. The Christian life at it’s core is obedience; without it you are lost, but with it you are saved for eternity with the One who died to give you that possibility. Once you grasp sin, the gospel, and sovereignty, your life will be changed forever to a heart that will follow him into a desert to preach what he lays on your heart.

State of the Union

Proverbs 16:9 A man’s heart plans his way, But the Lord directs his steps.

Yesterday I found myself reflecting some of my last year; I found myself going back into this ministry for a timeline of my life; my memoirs if you will. Almost at the anniversaries of some big events; stepping down as a pastor at Lakehaven, and the injury to my good arm which required surgery. Stepping down out of the pulpit was the hardest decision EVER in my life; I have only talked to one person who truly understood, for they stepped out of the mission field; I saw their pain in tears, and heard the fear in his voice. I have to answer for that decision before God. The surgery broke me financially, stripped me of my most prized possession, and parked me in a chair for two months to think. Returning to work too early to survive monetarily has left me broken again physically; damage to my arm again has me the weakest I have ever been in my life, physically handicapped to a degree; God has taken mighty blows to my pride, my biggest sin. I have seen the struggles of anxiety and depression increase greatly. I have labeled them my “thorn in the flesh” because they torment me, but I know it is because my heart is not of this world.

God knows where you are, knows what you are dealing with, knows the pain or joy you have, knows the struggles and sins, knows the level of love or ignorance you have for Him. There are no secrets from God, he knows the “why” of everything in your life. Psalm 44:21 Would not God search this out? For He knows the secrets of the heart. We in our limited understanding of God, cannot fathom the power and sovereignty he has over us, but we are his creation. If he can breathe a star into existence, how simple the details of our lives must be. You are right where He has designed or allowed you for this moment; there is an indescribable peace in that small glimpse of understanding his sovereignty. Countless times through history people will share their intimacy with God during some of their greatest struggles in life. The Bible is full of such accounts of men and women who have sought God for help during tribulations. During these stressful and or painful times, we seek God wholeheartedly because we don’t know what else to do. We have his bottom, and the only thing we can do is to look up. The Creator of everything uses strains to draw us closer to him. Isaiah 55:8 “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord. 9 “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts.

I have days I just want to end it all, I beg for God to make the struggles stop, days I just want to be alone and hide from life, but I know he has a purpose in all of it. All of these tribulations just increase the fire in my bones to share with you what I possess in Him. The fire in my bones to push you to seek Him with all your heart; I know many of you feel it but are denying it because you know the price that comes as a disciple. You would rather be comfortable in religion, and live for the world the other 6.5 days per week. Do you know the scariest verse in the Bible? Matthew 7:21 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. I am not afraid to preach the whole Bible; Jesus talked more about Hell than he did Heaven. I did not go into ministry, I do not seek to live my life as a disciple of Jesus Christ to make you like me. I simply desire for you to spend eternity in heaven with me and your Savior, the one who died for you. I have such a fire in my bones to preach repentance to a sinful nation I cannot contain it. The state of our union is a nation that has turned it’s back on God and is beginning to see the judgement of God because of it. The call for the American Christian is to stand for truth, no matter what the cost. The call for the disciple is to lay down their life for the One who gives them life. Will you unite with me in standing for what you say that you believe? God is tugging on your heart…..will you respond?

5th Gear Faith

Matthew 12:30 He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters abroad.

Get out of neutral
Put your faith in gear
Live your daily life
Without any fear.

Begin to be bold
Begin to prepare
Look who is around you
Opportunities to share.

A testimony he has given you
Your life lost in sin
Then you found Jesus
That is how you begin.

You can’t remain in neutral
You must move forward you see
Christ demands action
If not backsliding you’ll be.

Every day seeking Him
Closer than the day before
Every day wanting Him
Seeking more and more.

He says we will find him
When we seek with all our heart
Promises made and kept
From us he will not depart.

Passivity is not discipleship
His last words were go share
To spread the good news of him
To do it every where.

Your circle of influence
Is all around you each day
He has given you a testimony
He is showing you the way.

Be bold and share today
Be encouraged by him to speak
His uplifting works through you
Will encourage the weak.

Put your faith in gear
Be a disciple of Jesus today
He died for all of us
He has paid the way.

How will they hear
If you don’t talk of him today
How will they know him
If you don’t tell them the Way?

Outside Disciples

Matthew 10:34 “Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword.

Are you an outsider? Do you feel as though friends, family, and those around you treat you differently now? Do you feel as though your heart for God and your faith has left you an outsider from those you once held dear? It is a painful reality of a true disciples life; it is a reality of feeling as a stranger in a land you once called home; it is a reality of solitude, of feeling only intimacy with your Savior and those who share the same passion for him as you. A disciples life, is in reality a lonely life, one that has truly forsaken one’s life, to gain eternal life. 39 He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it.

I was reading Paul’s epistle to the Galatians; of how they were an early church who Paul had delivered the Gospel to, and now they found themselves being led astray by false teachers. There was a group teaching them they had to become circumcised to really be saved, they had to obey the law Jesus fulfilled. Judaizer’s were likely manipulating many of the Gentiles hearts, preying on the weaknesses and telling them what they wanted to hear. It would seem right for us to have to do “something” in order to be saved; that belief alone goes against all that Jesus came, died for, and rose from the dead conquering death; that is a works belief system of faith. Paul told the Galatians how they were being led astray. Galatians 4:16 Have I then become your enemy by telling you the truth? 17 They make much of you, but for no good purpose. They want to shut you out, that you may make much of them.

Was Paul who had brought the Good News to them, now being treated as an outsider? Was he bold enough to tell them the truth, to hurt their feelings, to be held accountable only to God and not friendships or family? Do you know that Jesus also said to his disciples in Matthew, as he sent them out into the world, the trouble, persecution, and division they will face? 35 For I have come to ‘set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law’; 36 and ‘a man’s enemies will be those of his own household.’ 37 He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. Jesus asked them of their level of love, their level of commitment, and warned them of persecution; he told them they will be outsiders against the world. He told them only a few houses will welcome them, but to shake the dust off their feet when they didn’t. Are you willing to live this life as an outsider; forsaking the temporal worldly pleasures for eternal paradise? Are you willing to be a true disciple of Jesus Christ?