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Are you religious?

01 Mar

Are you religious?

Mark​ ​7​:​6-8​

He answered and said to them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written: ‘This people honors Me with their lips, But their heart is far from Me. And in vain they worship Me, Teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’ For laying aside the commandment of God, you hold the tradition of men —the washing of pitchers and cups, and many other such things you do.”

Someone might ask you today what your plans are. You might think it is Sunday; why do you ask because you know you are supposed to go to church on Sunday. Part of you in religious pride probably looked down on them for even asking. That is what thousands of years of religiosity has bred into Christian culture; Sunday is a religious duty of a devout Christian. Sadly these rituals have survived the test of time; so many believe that we earn our salvation by our participation in them. Salvation has no part in your church attendance record, confessional record, or how many times prayers were recited to anyone. Salvation is only found through a humble repentant plea to Jesus Christ for forgiveness of sins and understanding that he did the work you cannot do. Simply stated, repent and believe.

Let me ask you to review your church and your heart. Do you know what most songs will be, what prayers will be recited, what creeds will be repeated, what is expected of you each week? Does your heart tug you to church out of obligation and guilt? Do you understand the Holy Spirit will never guilt you into any means of religious duty? If that is not Him tugging at your soul for religious obligation, the only other option is Satan himself wanting you to feel comfortable and obligated to religion.

Christianity is a matter of the heart alone, and sadly many will perish in religion and the rituals of it. If this describes your Sunday, if this describes your religion, you need to get on your knees before Jesus and plea for him to open your eyes to the truth. That is him stirring this question, that is him pursuing you; respond in a humble plea for discernment of your state of religion. He will open your eyes through your heart to becoming a true disciple of his. You will find yourself eager to go to church on Sunday out of the love you have for him. You will be eager to sing new songs of praise and learn more of him from the teachers he has called for you. Sunday will become a day of joy and never be a day of drudgery religious duty again.

 
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Posted by on March 1, 2015 in Daily Devotions

 

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Go….live…share

07 Nov

Go….live…share

2 Corinthians 10:7-11 Do you look at things according to the outward appearance? If anyone is convinced in himself that he is Christ’s, let him again consider this in himself, that just as he is Christ’s, even so we are Christ’s. 8 For even if I should boast somewhat more about our authority, which the Lord gave us for edification and not for your destruction, I shall not be ashamed– 9 lest I seem to terrify you by letters. 10 “For his letters,” they say, “are weighty and powerful, but his bodily presence is weak, and his speech contemptible.” 11 Let such a person consider this, that what we are in word by letters when we are absent, such we will also be in deed when we are present.

The apostle Paul was an incredibly educated man. He has studied under the greatest scholars, and his knowledge of God’s Word and how to speak were likely unsurpassed. Paul could sway a crowd in any direction that he wished. His letters to the churches were many times weighty and convicting to those who read them, but when he came to town he preached the simplicity of the gospel. His preaching was being attacked by the religious of the day; they said he was hiding behind a pen and likely contemptible in some way. Paul took offense, and knew that God was doing a greater work in the sanctification process of Paul than anyone else understood. God was chipping away at Paul’s pride one big blow after another. Paul never wanted to draw any attention to himself; he had seen Jesus and understood just how little anything that was measured by earthly means meant in eternity. All that mattered to Paul was to share the good news that he had obtained; that salvation was available to everyone, and he as the chief of sinners was the proof to all that would listen.

I look back on my life, and realize how much I understand how Paul felt. I am not “edjumicated”, but I too lived a life full of sin until I saw Jesus and grasped the gospel. I did not have an experience on the road to Damascus, but I responded by accepting the free gift of grace He died for, and realizing that this life was all in preparation for the next. My heart hurts when I see so many that are wound up in the world, wound up in religion, or would up thinking that the world revolves around them. When you truly begin to understand how lost you are without Jesus as your savior and Lord of your life, you begin to live your life for the One who gives you life. You will begin to have a desire from deep within that prods you to share your faith and the gospel that saves. You will begin to realize that church is not about you, but the lost that have found their way there. You will begin to worry only what you can do for Jesus out of a response to the love He has shown you. You will begin to only give yourself to Him for the day, and to try and not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow may never come.

Paul is only worried about living his life for Christ. Paul is only worried about being the same in person as he is on paper. Are you the same person outside of the church for that hour on Sunday morning? Are you living your life with eternity in mind? Colossians 3:2 Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. Do that for today; live for Him today; be the person He wants you to be wherever your feet find you today. Share the Good News that Jesus Christ came for everyone; everyone that will repent and believe in him shall be saved. Go…live….share.

 
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Posted by on November 7, 2014 in Daily Devotions

 

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A pill or the Gospel?

13 Aug

John 8:12 Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.”

Many of us this week have been affected when one of our stars fell with Robin Williams committed suicide. He was truly one of the greatest comedians ever, and brought laughter to us when we may have needed it most. Laughter is many times the best medicine for whatever troubles us, but even the one who was so gifted, battled inner demons that brought about addictions and depression resulting in suicide. His smile hid an inner indescribable pain that only a few knew. I have heard the argument of which came first, which fed the other, the addictions or the depression. I have been open about my struggles with anxiety and depression, for I have seen how many people seem to want to hide it. I do understand that only others with these struggle can comprehend these struggles. Over and over again I hear “I don’t get it”, but to those that share your struggle, it is an open door to share and encourage each other. I look back at my life before Christ with all the partying in so many ways; I do believe I too was hiding my problems and self-medicating with drugs and alcohol. By the grace and mercy of God I walked away from that lifestyle when I was set free through understanding what Jesus Christ did for me on the cross. That does not mean I still do not struggle with anxiety and depression, it means that I deal with it differently than hiding from it by any means of bad habits; I go to God with it in prayer and his Word. He is allowing it in my life for a reason; that reason may be for me to see my need for him in my life; you cannot do life alone.

The Bible tells us in Matthew 6:34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. What is worry anyway? Worry is truly about a future event that may NEVER happen anyway. This worry can lead you down that dark road to depression and means to cope with that worry. Depression can be described as a dark cloud looming; many times it lies on the horizon and seeks to cover the sun. What disperses clouds; what do meteorologists tell us day after day? “When the sun finally burns off the clouds or the fog”. Light dis-spells darkness; the two cannot co-exist at the same time and place. When the darkness rolls in, and it will, you must seek God in prayer and his Word to strengthen the Light living inside of you to burn through the clouds. Depression is fought in the Word of God!!!!!!!! I fully understand there is clinical depression, and modern medicine has a pill for everything, but you must seek help; you cannot do life alone, and Satan’s dark cloud will seek to rob you of the joy of life. If you battle depression, if you are unhappy with life, seek FIRST the only thing that can eternally change you; the Gospel. True change only begins with Jesus Christ. You may find a pill that makes you feel happy for your time here, but your soul needs the Healer to last an eternity.

 
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Posted by on August 13, 2014 in Daily Devotions

 

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We are all sinners

25 Jun

We are all sinners

CH Spurgeon – The holier the Christian becomes, the more readily he perceives his imperfections and the wickedness of his sins, and sin, instead of becoming more bearable to a Christian, becomes growingly more and more intolerable.

Mankind is NOT inherently good; mankind is inherently evil. That is a painful statement to make, but it is a necessary statement to understand for Christianity is built upon it. If we seem to think that we are really good at heart, why would Christ come and die on the cross? If Christ died on the cross to save us from sin, was he only dying to save some of us? The closer you draw to Christ, the deeper your understanding of sin; the more painfully you begin to understand your sin-state; but also how much more you rejoice at the Atonement of it by your Savior.

Oswald Chambers devotional yesterday digs deep into this.
This is a reprint of My Utmost for His Highest:

Reconciling Yourself to the Fact of Sin
This is your hour, and the power of darkness —Luke 22:53
Not being reconciled to the fact of sin— not recognizing it and refusing to deal with it— produces all the disasters in life. You may talk about the lofty virtues of human nature, but there is something in human nature that will mockingly laugh in the face of every principle you have. If you refuse to agree with the fact that there is wickedness and selfishness, something downright hateful and wrong, in human beings, when it attacks your life, instead of reconciling yourself to it, you will compromise with it and say that it is of no use to battle against it. Have you taken this “hour, and the power of darkness” into account, or do you have a view of yourself which includes no recognition of sin whatsoever? In your human relationships and friendships, have you reconciled yourself to the fact of sin? If not, just around the next corner you will find yourself trapped and you will compromise with it. But if you will reconcile yourself to the fact of sin, you will realize the danger immediately and say, “Yes, I see what this sin would mean.” The recognition of sin does not destroy the basis of friendship— it simply establishes a mutual respect for the fact that the basis of sinful life is disastrous. Always beware of any assessment of life which does not recognize the fact that there is sin.
Jesus Christ never trusted human nature, yet He was never cynical nor suspicious, because He had absolute trust in what He could do for human nature. The pure man or woman is the one who is shielded from harm, not the innocent person. The so-called innocent man or woman is never safe. Men and women have no business trying to be innocent; God demands that they be pure and virtuous. Innocence is the characteristic of a child. Any person is deserving of blame if he is unwilling to reconcile himself to the fact of sin.

 
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Posted by on June 25, 2014 in Daily Devotions

 

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He is risen indeed.

17 Apr

He is risen indeed.

Matthew 28:5-7 But the angel answered and said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. 6 He is not here; for He is risen, as He said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay. 7 And go quickly and tell His disciples that He is risen from the dead, and indeed He is going before you into Galilee; there you will see Him. Behold, I have told you.”

What do you believe regarding Jesus Christ conquering death; do you believe that he arose from the grave so miraculously that his clothes still lie undisturbed on the third day just as was prophesied? Do you believe that death has no power over him? Do you believe that he conquered death for you? Do you believe in what we are celebrating this time of year? If you say that you believe in Jesus, but yet not all that the Bible teaches about his virgin birth, sinless life, and that he arose from death after three days in the tomb; you are living a lie and making a mockery of your faith and Jesus Christ; repent for the kingdom of heaven is near.

Paul addresses this directly; Paul speaks to those that say He did not arise. The Corinthians were teaching a mix of faiths; they were teaching that Christ only arose spiritually; not physically. They were teaching what maybe made more sense and required less faith. 1 Corinthians 15:12-20 Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? 13 But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. 14 And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. 15 We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. 16 For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. 17 And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. 18 Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. 19 If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied. 20 But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. Christ arose physically! Left a cave without a trace; conquered death for he created life; conquered death so that you have the opportunity for eternal life. Do not be eternally mistaken on how you view Christ’s death; it gives you life, or your mistake takes it from you.

 
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Posted by on April 17, 2014 in Daily Devotions

 

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Ain’t no joke

01 Apr

Ain’t no joke

John 6:63 It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life. 64 But there are some of you who do not believe.” For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe, and who would betray Him. 65 And He said, “Therefore I have said to you that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted to him by My Father.”

It is April Fool’s Day; the day of you can tell any lie, or claim any thing as long as it is followed up with the disclaimer, “April Fools.” It is mostly all good harmless fun, and a break from the monotony and stress of life. All jokes aside, are you secure in your eternal destiny? Do you understand that religion will not get you there? We have been studying at church the book of Philippians, and part of my preparation led me to study religious growth recently. An alarming trend is that 1 in 5 claim “no religion,” but of that group, 68% claim to still believe in God. That statistic baffles me on many fronts. Claim Christianity, yet no proof of their faith evident in their lives? Claim faith in God, yet indecisive on what form of God, or what blend of religion? Do they just believe their religion will get them into heaven, or any form of paradise when they die?

Religion, and any form of it that places you in the center of it, will be the key to eternal punishment, and not paradise. If at your core you believe that by ANY work on your own, that you earn ANY merit with any form of any God, you WILL pay eternally for your mistake. They key to heaven is only through the understanding of Grace, and that is through the provision of God and his son, Jesus Christ. 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. If you think that your church attendance record gets you to heaven; if you think that being more of a “good” person than bad, or even just not as bad as the other guy, you are sadly wrong. Going through ritualistic acts that make you appear religious, only makes you appear religious to men; that is called religiosity and opens the doors to the pit below.

Once you realize that God pursued you, such as the passage in John above; you will be humbled to the point of living your life for the One who gave you life. Revelation 3:20 Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me. You didn’t find God, he found you, and wants you to live your short time here serving him, so that he can reward you eternally in heaven. It is liberating to understand Grace, to understand the trap found in religiosity, to see and feel what God gives you in a relationship with him. We all will kneel before him on judgement day; we will either kneel forgiven in our understanding of grace, or condemned by any other means. That ain’t no April Fool’s joke.

 
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Posted by on April 1, 2014 in Daily Devotions

 

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In Your name we play

22 Mar

In Your name we play

Colossians 3:23 Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men

It is Springtime, so that means it is baseball time at our house. We changed our boys over to a new league called Stewards of the Game this year. We had heard nothing but good things about it and that they had a Christian theme. We had no idea of their bold statement of faith until we attended the mandatory parent night before meeting the coaches. The leader of the organization spoke repeatedly about his faith in Jesus Christ, and using the game of baseball to glorify Jesus Christ in how the boys handled themselves on the field. Devotions before practices, prayers before and after games, and conduct becoming a Christian at all times. We have been beyond impressed to say the least so far this season.

I also have this scripture on the side of my work truck and it is how I try to run my HVAC business. Everything I try to do to the best of my ability, and know that my CEO is above monitoring my every move at work each day under His name. How you conduct yourself in your every day activities is the largest reflection of who you truly are. Do you think anyone “judges” you because you are at church on Sunday? Do you think they “judge” you because they know you went to church on Sunday, and then acted like that on Monday? When you read this passage in it’s context, you realize Paul is talking about the family dynamic. Paul is talking about who knows us best; knows us at our best, and at our worst, and when our best is an act. Paul also tells of the promise and the warning in the next passage; 24 knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance; for you serve the Lord Christ. 25 But he who does wrong will be repaid for what he has done, and there is no partiality.

Are there evidences of what you proclaim on Sunday? Are there proofs in your every day life of Jesus Christ? What did you do yesterday, that anyone who met you might think that you were a Christian? James 2:17 Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. 18 But someone will say, “You have faith, and I have works.” Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. Would it be too much to ask to proclaim your faith in some way today? It could even be on a baseball field. The Stewards always close their prayer with these words; “It is in Jesus Christ name we pray, it is in Jesus Christ name we play.”

 
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Posted by on March 22, 2014 in Daily Devotions

 

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One day at a time

07 Mar

One day at a time

James 4:13-14   Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit”; 14 whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.

At this stage in my life, I am at a place in my life I never could have possibly imagined being. When my dad started our HVAC company over 20 years ago, I had dreams of building that company to sell as an early retirement to “enjoy” life. God reached out and got ahold of my heart and life almost 10 years ago; He gave me an eternal focus and security, and my plans changed. That company that was once a huge asset, is now just a job that just puts bread on the table. The plans of early retirement have faded, and now my only focus is to remain in the center of God’s Will for my life each day. My responsibilities in life have changed, my focus in life has changed; I now seek to draw closer each day with my Savior and to spread the Good News about him to all that will listen. He has prepared their hearts, I am just a messenger that seeks to share the eternal hope and security that lies in faith in Jesus Christ; this hope will not fade as everything in this world will one day. Matthew 6:9 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; 20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

I see so many that pursue nothing but gain measured by worldly standards. I see so many that pursue the stuff that only brings temporal pleasure; it hides deeper pain that soon resurfaces that brings the need for something new to start the cycle again. There is nothing in this world that will ever fill the void in your heart except eternal security in Jesus Christ. Everything you are working so hard for is trying to fill a bottomless pit. The pit has no need to be filled; lay the Cross over it and walk into eternity and live your life for the One who gave paradise to you. When you truly get that understanding; when you truly not only claim Jesus Christ as your savior  but as your Lord, your life and your views of it will change. You will see how all of your life is woven with Christ; you are, and you have, nothing without him. You too will seek to draw closer and closer to him each day. 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. Look so deep into eternity that you are only focused on today.

 
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Posted by on March 7, 2014 in Daily Devotions

 

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Way back when……

07 Feb

Way back when……

Romans 10:6-10   But the righteousness of faith speaks in this way, “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’ ” (that is, to bring Christ down from above) 7 or, ” ‘Who will descend into the abyss?’ ” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). 8 But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith which we preach): 9 that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

So many times this ministry is early morning; a time of reflecting on my quiet time with God before facing the day. This morning I had a later start, and I had a scripture that I was searching for that took some time to find above. It was after prayer, that I found it. As the day went on, this passage preoccupied my thoughts for much of the day. It is the Gospel found, and the means of attaining it, through a humble confession to it. Following the tug that God places on your heart, your heart yearns for it and you either answer that tug He places there, or you deny it, or find false hope in attaining it in religiosity. You will pay eternally for your mistake in that false hope.

God has placed such a burden on my heart this week for the lost; even greater is the direct ministry need for our youth. I am stepping way out of my comfort zone trying to learn about children and youth ministry for our church; I am seeking counsel from those that are gifted in that area, for I am not. It is painfully clear that I am not gifted in that area to be honest. I look back at those that invested in me in my youth, and even subconsciously, how large a role they played in my life even when I was running fast and far from God. Did anyone invest in you for Christ early in life? Did you come to know Jesus Christ as your Savior, only to turn your back on him like I did? He will take you back; he never really left you to begin with. He has been there all along pricking you where it hurts as you lived your life of sin. He was your conscious talking to you all the while you were trying to silence him in so many ways. Stop trying to silence him and confess to him your sins, and plea for him to forgive you for them; he will.

How can we as parents not seek to invest in our kiddo’s? How can we as parents not seek to share with them the eternal hope found in faith in Jesus? Moses stressed to Israel the importance of investing in our children in Deuteronomy 6:7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. There are so many children out there facing so many things that we cannot imagine. There is so much more to see than what you see. How can we not take any and every opportunity to present that eternal hope found in the Gospel? How can we not give them something through Christ that gives them what they cannot attain here? God is truly burdening my heart for our youth. If you remember when someone invested time with you at an early age sharing the Gospel; shouldn’t you make that eternal investment yourself? If you are just feeling convicted for the life you have led since that investment, repent and believe on the One who will always forgive you when you ask. Even if you left him since childhood. It is never too late.

 
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Posted by on February 7, 2014 in Daily Devotions

 

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Kiddos could teach us a thing or two

04 Feb

Kiddos could teach us a thing or two

Deuteronomy 6:7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up.

We have completed our first vision phase at Lakehaven Community Church, which has allowed me to move onto the next step of the vision. The next step is the reworking of the Sunday School and youth programs for a central focus. All aspects of our youth programs should work together, and have a common theme. In vision casting, if the program does not move a step closer to the goal, it is moving a step away. What would be our central vision? It is found in the scriptures before this one above, that Moses wrote to the Israelites. 4 “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one! 5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. 6 “And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. Everything we do must point them to the greatest commandment found in verse four. Everything we do must point them to Jesus Christ who provided the way for us to reach our God that we love with all our heart, soul, and strength.

What was Moses saying here? You shall remember all that God has done for you and your people. You shall never forget all that He has done for you. It shall be shared with your children. God shall be such a focus in your home that all of your home seeks to know and share their love for him with each other. He shall be so central in your home, so central in your daily life, that He is a part of your every day. How will you praise him in the morning; how will you praise him during the day; how will you praise him in the evening? This is much more than blessing each meal, this is having a heart such as verse four. This is not religiosity, this is a relationship. It is not a heart bound in religion that meets the law of habits and requirements, it is a heart full of the joy of being His child, and redeemed by his Son Jesus Christ.

Mark 10:14 But when Jesus saw it, He was greatly displeased and said to them, “Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them; for of such is the kingdom of God. 15 Assuredly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will by no means enter it.” 16 And He took them up in His arms, put His hands on them, and blessed them. There is a simplicity found in our children for which we as adults have much to learn. The ways of the world have yet to deeply corrupt their minds. They accept and know God with a purity that we can only desire. They have such great faith that God can show us himself through them. They trust, know, and love their God and Savior with the purity found in verse four. We must seek to be like them in that purity and love; and seek to exemplify it in our home every single day.

 
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Posted by on February 4, 2014 in Daily Devotions

 

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