Monthly Archives: September 2016

Heart Attack

Mark 3:3-5 And He said to the man who had the withered hand, “Step forward.” 4 Then He said to them, “Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?” But they kept silent. 5 And when He had looked around at them with anger, being grieved by the hardness of their hearts, He said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” And he stretched it out, and his hand was restored as whole as the other.

What stands out to you in that passage? Jesus was in the midst of trying to explain how the Sabbath was made for man, by God for man, an example of rest, not the regulations or laws that the religious had put a burden on people. The burden of the law has taken all God had designed away from the Sabbath. But….because God stood in their midst, he was giving them the example of how he was above their religiosity of the Sabbath. Mark 2:27 And He said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath. 28 Therefore the Son of Man is also Lord of the Sabbath.” Jesus had asked them a direct question, and you can just feel the pride in their lack of response; you can just feel the pomp of their hearts with the most basic understanding of the Sabbath Law #1, you don’t do anything on that day, good or evil. Who was this guy to ask them about honoring God in their traditions? Who was he to question what Moses had given them? Even as Jesus used David their King as an example, their hearts were so prideful they could not see Who stood before them. Their hearts were hardened to the truth, and it both angered and saddened Jesus at the condition of their heart.

What does God think of your heart? Psalm 44:21 Would not God search this out? For He knows the secrets of the heart. That is where the simplicity of Christianity is missed, the simplicity of the gospel added to, as the heart strays towards religions obligations of duty. We blow it as bad as the Pharisee’s; we have our “to do” list to get into God’s favor, to earn our way into heaven. We pridefully sit on our church attendance records, our list of good deeds, or even many times just our supposed lack of the level of the sins of others, we feel holier than some evil among us. Does Jesus have righteous anger at our level of religiosity? Does Jesus see the pride of the Pharisee within us? Sadly……most likely he does. Religion and it’s laws will send many to Hell, even in the greatest falling away in many of religions largest sects will miss heaven due to missing the simplicity found in the Gospel, that Jesus paid it all, a debt we cannot earn in any way. John 14:6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.

The simplicity of the true Christian, a disciple of Jesus Christ, is found in the humble heart that seeks him daily in prayer and his Word. The simplicity of his gospel is found within the pages of his Word, and the disciple seeks to know more of him, to follow his will for his life each day, and there is peace that guards one’s heart from the evil of this world. We live in an increasingly evil time, Satan’s power is peaking before his final fall. Jesus wants your heart, an intimate relationship with the Creator of the universe, an abiding walk to be used to encourage others of the hope you possess in Him. Is Jesus angry at you? Is he mad at the religiosity that your heart possess? Humble yourself in a repentant plea to the Lord, asking for forgiveness and seeking to know him on a level your heart has never known.

A Slice of Heaven

1 Peter 2:11 Beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul,
I grew up with a priceless childhood as a kid on a farm in the country of NC. That feeling for nature, for the woods and fields, is the same tug that many have for the sea. You really can’t describe it, but it is a trait God has placed within you, a peace within you that comes when you spend time there. My surroundings changed in my lifetime; the farm was swallowed up by communities, the woods leveled and the fields filled. The constant drone of people going somewhere is the sound from my front porch; this is no longer home, no longer how I wish to live, and the tug to find a place for my boys has been the number one goal of my life for the past five years. They are like me, the same DNA, and we all desire that place of peace that we have had glimpses of together; our little peace of heaven in the middle of nowhere.

This scripture above has deep meaning to me, a reminder to me, that this place is not my home. Peter uses two words, sojourners and pilgrims, to remind us that we are just passing through this place. Will my little piece of heaven even remotely compare to Heaven? NO! Peter is reminding us that all we face here is temporal; all the pain and struggles of this life are just temporary, for this life is temporary, and this life is preparation for the next. That is one of the biggest struggles for the Christian is to avoid getting consumed by the woes of this world, that are only specks of sand in the hourglass of eternity. Peter was reminding the Christian to live with eternity in view; to ignore the lusts of the world (for they are countless), and to live and represent Christ when the struggles of life come. He goes on to remind Christians that they are being viewed by those on the outside, those without faith, on how they handle every situation in life, especially the tough ones. 12 having your conduct honorable among the Gentiles, that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may, by your good works which they observe, glorify God in the day of visitation. The apostle Paul wrote of how Christians are viewed to the church in the epistle of Colossians; 4:5 Walk in wisdom toward those who are outside, redeeming the time. 6 Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one. The weeks like we have had in my own city this week, the strained relations between races, and between authority, are critical when we look at our behavior and speech as Christians; we are under the microscope of how we handle these situations.

There is a peace, there is a glimpse of His peace, the peace of the Holy Spirit living inside of you, when you begin to understand this is not your home. Philippians 4:7 and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. We will only be here for 120 years maximum, so we understand that life is temporal here. We will spend eternity somewhere, either Heaven or Hell, but that is our final resting place. When we place our faith in Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, the eternity in our hearts that he places there at creation, begins to focus on paradise eternally. That glimpse of heaven can outweigh any trial of life, and is incomparable to any slice of heaven you think you find here.

Repentance

Matthew 4:17 From that time Jesus began to preach and to say, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

I sat on the front porch early this morning, an incredibly Fall feeling peaceful morning, and even in prayer, I just could not shake the overwhelming feeling of the word repentance. This feeling has a deep personal conviction, for the sins that I struggle with on many levels, but it seems to also be a broad stroke of society, a society rebelling against God. I tweeted, “Societies problem today is not a division nationally, locally, or even individually, but a division of our souls against God.” I look inward at myself, I look at the things I know about me that only God and I know. I look at how those struggles effect my daily walk with him, my thoughts, and even my actions that play out every day. My struggles with sin reflect who I am on the inside, even to the point that others may see my inner struggles played out unknowingly. Sin has it’s hold on each of us; we are born into sin, and the rest of our lives we will struggle with it. The difference in our lives, temporal and eternal, is if we understand the Gospel of Jesus Christ; that he died to forgive our sins, past present, and future, and by the righteous act, we are justified to a Holy God. There is nothing we can ever do to get into heaven outside of the understanding of that gospel. John 14:6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.

These protests, turn riots, are the proofs of how far as a society we have moved from God. We have leaders that do not have God; we have leaders that are rebelling against God, and our nation is in moral decay, steep in sin, and God is letting his judgement fall on us. Do we really think this is some coincidence of this violence in our city; a city at the center of a national debate on moral character, and Biblical values? Do you think a movement that had a theme, now has stretched outside what it stands for, protesting against itself? Do you think it is a coincidence that the liberal leaders become spineless cowards in the face of critical times in leadership? Do you think that the nations problem, now local problem, now is more than an individual problem; a problem so deep it is truly the level of sin, and the lack of God? The problem is you and me, and the lack of repentance within ourselves, and the lack of truth being preached from the pulpits. We have become a society that is reaping what we deserve; the acts of God will always accomplish his purposes, and his purposes are always to judge sin, and to draw us closer to him that see that.

Change begins within us, one person at a time, and it begins on our knees, asking God to forgive us for our sins, and to help us be more like him, and less like us.

Nobody Else Can Hear

Matthew 6:5 “And when you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites. For they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward.

You will never know God until you loose the religion in your prayers, praying from your heart, and not your head. You will never impress God by prideful sounding beautiful prayers that impress all that may hear, full of poetic sounding words that have religious overtones. You will never have the anointing of the power of God on your life, when you seek to draw attention to yourself by your ability to pray impressive prayers. But………God will draw you into an intimate, abiding, relationship through a humble heart that only seeks him. God will absolutely blow your mind when you realize the tangible evidence you not only feel in your soul, but witness the evidences of him around you; results of prayers from the heart, and not the prayers of the head. People that desire to hear from God, have never listened for God. People that seek to know God’s will for their lives, have only added religions obligations to their lists of how to accomplish their will, for their lives. Likely, they have even prayed many prayers asking God to help them along their way.

Jesus condemned the religious leaders of the day here. He pointed out how all of them that prayed to be heard, they had that as their only reward. Their “Thee’s and Thou’s and Art’s” were beautiful prayers that left many amazed, and marveled at their supposed godliness, but God was not impressed, and told them to enjoy their only reward, the accolades of men, not God. Jesus told those in this Sermon on the Mount, that he desired intimacy. He desired private prayers of the heart, to have an intimacy that was heavenly. 6 But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you. That reward that he speaks of, is always just between you two. There are many times are others that he will allow you to witness of it to; he uses your answered prayers to encourage others to abide in him, but the intimacy of those answered prayers you can never properly articulate, because it is a heavenly bond created by the Creator.

Jesus wants the relationship with you, not the religion by you. He wants you to walk so closely with him that you begin to understand by glimpses he gives you of his sovereignty. John 15:5 I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. He wants to give you tangible evidence of his control of the universe. With these revelations, through this intimate, heartfelt, abiding walk with him, comes the peace that only he can provide in this crazy world we live in. He then uses that peace that you possess, to draw others to him through your life. It all begins with prayer, heartfelt pleas to a heavenly Father, when nobody else can hear.

Season to Season

Ecclesiastes 3
1 To everything there is a season, A time for every purpose under heaven:
2 A time to be born, And a time to die; A time to plant, And a time to pluck what is planted;
3 A time to kill, And a time to heal; A time to break down, And a time to build up;
4 A time to weep, And a time to laugh; A time to mourn, And a time to dance;
5 A time to cast away stones, And a time to gather stones; A time to embrace, And a time to refrain from embracing;
6 A time to gain, And a time to lose; A time to keep, And a time to throw away;
7 A time to tear, And a time to sew; A time to keep silence, And a time to speak;
8 A time to love, And a time to hate; A time of war, And a time of peace.
9 What profit has the worker from that in which he labors?
10 I have seen the God-given task with which the sons of men are to be occupied.
11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also He has put eternity in their hearts, except that no one can find out the work that God does from beginning to end.
12 I know that nothing is better for them than to rejoice, and to do good in their lives,
13 and also that every man should eat and drink and enjoy the good of all his labor–it is the gift of God.
It is hard to explain when God places the change of seasons in one’s heart. We all have likely, hopefully, felt them, and it is hard to somewhat explain the work God is doing inside of us. I sat on the porch this morning, prayerfully contemplating this bend inside of me that I feel. The coolness of the morning almost seemed as though a confirmation of a work He is doing. God is never going to leave you comfortable, never going to let you become stagnant, always going to stretch you beyond your comfort zone so that you may realize how you need to rely on him, and not your own strengths. God brings about seasonal changes within you, to bring about change, to wrought out the work of sanctification in your life; he let’s some things die, so that others may grow, just as he does throughout nature.

Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived, pens out his deepest feelings, struggles, anxieties, reflections, questions, and conclusions throughout the book of Ecclesiastes. This book has always tugged at me; the depth of his struggles amidst incredible blessings display the incredible power of God working within his mind and soul. The depth of the struggles, or wrestling with God if you will, present the need of God amidst the greatest blessings of God. At no point in anyones life, including the most worldly blessed in Biblical history, are we apart from the daily need for God, the daily desire for God, the daily understanding it all passes through his sovereign hands.

If you are struggling today, know that Solomon did too. Commit to spend some time in this book that he penned, a book of his struggles with all of life too, and realize he realized that life is all about one’s heart for God, in the midst of everyday with or without him as the focus of one’s life. The glimpse of sovereignty that may come with it, will give you more peace about it, and allow you to pass more smoothly from season to season.

If You Believe

Romans 4:18 who, contrary to hope, in hope believed, so that he became the father of many nations, according to what was spoken, “So shall your descendants be.”
I chose that scripture, for the first six words; “contrary to hope, in hope believed.” Contrary to what you believe is holding you back, what the world’s viewpoints and standards may impute, is your faith strong enough to press forward with God? Do you have the faith to move forward in your faith, stepping out into the unknown? This world and Satan is bent on beating you down and keeping you down. John 10:10 The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly. Satan seeks to weaken your faith, for your faith encourages others around you. Satan seeks to get you to focus on all the worldly problems around you, to keep your eyes off the security and hope of eternal paradise. Satan seeks to occupy your mind with covetousness and worry for what may come tomorrow, when tomorrow may never come. Satan seeks to point out all that is wrong, to weaken your faith in trials, all the while keeping you focused on the problem, and not Jesus.

The context of this passage is where Paul is talking about the patriarch of great faith, Abraham, and how his faith was accounted to him as righteousness, and not all the Jewish traditional laws, a deep discussion at that time, and even today, for what we believe our works earn our way into heaven. Think about the simplicity, the understanding that a 100 year old man cannot get his elderly wife pregnant; that is impossible by all natural sense, yet Abraham believed, he had a heavenly hope grounded in faith, and knew God could do the impossible. 21 and being fully convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform. God has no limitations, and the level of your understanding of his omnipotent power is the gauge of your faith; how big is your God?

Paul rolls beautifully into those of the faith, those that suffer for their faith, those that understand a sovereign God is in control of their lives, builds through them through the tough times in their lives. Romans 5:1 Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. 3 And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; 4 and perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us. The level of your faith, the greater the glimpse he gives you of his sovereignty, the stronger you become in the trials of life. The stronger your faith becomes, the greater your witness of him to all he places in your circle of influence. Jesus did not die on a Cross for you be comfortable in your Christianity, he died for you because he loved you, and his call for you is to love him just as completely; to take up your cross and die to life each day, to live your life for him each day, to be so intimate with him you are abiding in him, a peaceful walk of the disciple, one who has the faith to believe he is in control and do all things, nothing is impossible with a God who performed a miracle through Abraham, that same God can do all things through you, if you believe.