Category Archives: The Gospel

The Bible and Truth

7 Replies

If you read Psalm 119, you have to admit that the psalmist sure loved Scripture. Just in verses 41-48 we see him say God’s Word is his salvation, his answers, his hope, his liberty, and his testimony. Scripture means everything to the psalmist.

In Jeremiah 29-30 we hear the prophet telling us we need to recognize God’s voice apart from the lies, and obey it. He says God punishes the liars and those who believe the lies. And God delights in blessing His obedient children.

Paul, in his letter to Timothy, tells the young preacher that the law is good, if it is used lawfully. Then he goes on to list the sins that the Law addresses and condemns. These, he says, are contrary to the glorious gospel of Christ. (from I Timothy 1)

There are a lot of opinions being thrown out there these days concerning right and wrong, concerning God among other gods. But there can be only one Truth.

Do you know it when you hear it? We’ve got to be reading the Bible. We’ve got to pray for understanding. We’ve got to think about it, memorize it, talk about it, use it, and love it.

It’s God’s Word to us. It’s personal. It’s relevant. And it’s True.

Dear Father, my prayer today is for all of the busy people reading this blog who feel they don’t have time to spend in Your Word. I pray that you would put a burden on their hearts that can only be lessened by opening their Bibles and hearing what you want to say to them. Give us all a hunger to know you better through the words you inspired men to write for our benefit. Help us to be so familiar with Scripture that we can recognize Satan’s lies, and stand for the Truth. Help us to look forward to spending time in the pages of our Bibles every day. May it be as natural and as necessary as breathing.

My Heart

2 Replies

Earlier this year a friend of mine posted a picture on FaceBook of her twenty-something son, standing on the beach, a beautiful sunset behind him, looking lovingly into the eyes of another young man. Below the picture she had written, “Comments welcomed.”

My heart broke as I remembered her son who had been a student of mine in middle school. A quiet, shy, nice boy. A really good boy from a good family.

One of the comments I read said, “The heart wants what the heart wants.” And it made me think of Jeremiah 17:9: The heart is deceitful and desperately wicked above all things.

There is nothing in our hearts that want to obey God’s Law until that heart is given to God. Without a repentant heart we are self serving, ego driven, self centered people looking out for number one. Like Muslims who obey Allah so they’ll be surrounded by virgins when they die, or Christians who go to church for a worship experience.

A true believer obeys God for Jesus’ sake. They go to church, resist sin, share the Gospel, not for what they gain, but because they just love Jesus so much they can’t help themselves. They don’t go to church to be entertained or to avoid hell. They go to church to give God the worship due Him.

Scripture tells me to guard my heart. And the best way I know how to do that is to give it to God. Take myself, my control, my desires, out of the picture. I want to love Him like He deserves to be loved, serve Him like He demands, fellowship with him through prayer and reading His Word like he longs for me to do, and share Him with those who don’t know Him because he died for them.

Here’s my heart Lord. Guard it. Use it. Take it. Keep it beating or don’t. It’s Yours. For Jesus’ sake.

How Do You Know What is True?

1 Reply

Satan has been twisting God’s Truth since the garden when he told Eve God didn’t really mean what he said. “You won’t really die,” was the lie that changed everything.

Jeremiah, in chapter 14, asked God not to be mad at the people, saying the prophets were telling them they were ok. God said – “my prophets aren’t telling them that. The people are believing a lie.”

No different than today.

The Truth of Scripture is being twisted, and edited, and denied. So how do you even know what’s true any more?

Well, are you reading and studying God’s written Word? Do you pray over it, think about it, talk about it? Are you familiar with the things God inspired men to write for your benefit? God isn’t going to let you believe a lie if you include him in your search for Truth.

You might not like what you read in the Bible. It’s not politically correct. You might recognize yourself as a sinner damned to hell. But you don’t have to be.

The Truth is Jesus died to forgive your sins. He went to the cross so you don’t have to pay the debt you’ve accumulated. He is eager to mark that debt “paid”, if you’d only ask Him to.

Jesus is the Way, the Truth, the Life, and no one, not even you, will go to God without Him. There is no other name – not Mohammed, or Buddha, or some positive energy – that can save.

No other name!

Please read the Bible. It’s God’s word to you. But don’t just read the parts that don’t offend you, or those that make you feel good. Read it all. It’s the only way to be able to recognize when Satan is twisting the Truth.

Don’t miss out on what God wants to say to you today.

Hands in the Air!

Leave a reply

I was raised in the era of Green Stamps. If you are a Baby Boomer, you probably remember those stamp books, too. Kids, they were like those points you rack up by shopping at the grocery, or like frequent flier miles. You earned them when you spent money. Then, and this was fun, you poured through their catalog and picked out things you could “buy” when you redeemed your stamps.

Hang on. There’s a point to this.

Time might be one of God’s special blessings. Yet I know I am guilty of squandering it away. I sit in front of the TV, or curled up with a book, or surf the net. None of these are sins necessarily. Unless it is time I could be spending with an unsaved friend talking about my Savior.

Paul tells us, in Colossians 4 to redeem the time. Cash it in. Use it by walking “in wisdom toward those who are outside.”

Time is precious. But it is also fleeting. I might die today. Or I could live a few more decades. The reality is, no matter how many years I spend in this skin, it is a blip in eternity. Whether you believe the earth is thousands or billions of years old, that too, is a blip in eternity.

I like watching cooking and baking competitions on TV. Chefs and bakers can create amazing dishes in a short period of time. And I notice that during the last few seconds of their allotted time the pace quickens, the hands shake, the focus is laser sharp until the host says, “Hands in the air.”

I’ve never seen a competitor surf the net during those last few important seconds.

Dear one, the clock is ticking. We, unlike the TV participants don’t see the clock or hear God counting down the seconds. But rest assured, He is counting. Time will end. We have now to make the best of it, to finish strong, to redeem the time.

Let’s cash in our Green Stamps for the prize set before us. Let’s redeem the time we have today by reaching out to a lost soul in Jesus’ name and for His sake.

Father, may your children be excited about sharing you today. May we use every second you give us in ways that please and honor You. And may a heart be drawn to You because we didn’t waste an opportunity to talk about You, the One who loved us, who gave Himself for us, and who longs to forgive that person you’ve laid on our hearts.

What’s The Loving Thing To Do?

2 Replies

Paul begins the fifth chapter of Ephesians with a challenge for us to imitate God as dear children. Walk in love, he says. And some would like it better if he had just stopped with that thought.

But he didn’t. In verse three he starts talking about sin: fornication, foolish talk, coarse joking, jealousy, idolatry. He warns us against participating in any of it.

Walk as children of light, he says. Have no fellowship with the unfruitful work of darkness, he says. Then  he adds: but rather expose them. (Eph 5:11)

Is it possible to walk in love AND expose sin as sin? Friend, that’s the only loving thing to do. Tolerance is not love. It’s not love to turn a blind eye to or accept a sin that will usher someone into hell.

Paul compares light to darkness. You do know, don’t you, that darkness can never win over light? When you turn on the light switch there is never a struggle as to whether the darkness will disappear. When light is present, darkness can’t be.

So if we walk in the Light which is God in us, sin will be exposed. The only way we don’t expose sin is by hiding the Light, keeping it to ourselves. Satan loves it when we do that.

So here’s how much I love you: Homosexuality is sin. Abortion is sin. Lying is sin. Looking at porn or watching ungodly TV shows are sin. Having sex outside of marriage is sin. Laughing at dirty jokes is sin. Hatred, unforgiveness, jealousy, greed, drunkenness, gluttony, are all sin.

And if you are guilty of sin you need the Savior. You need to ask God to forgive you and change you so that you don’t repeat the sin. You need to surrender to God, plain and simple.

My prayer is that we will all imitate God in our walk today. May we love our family members, our neighbors, our friends with the same kind of love God loves. May we lovingly identify sin and introduce them to the One who loves them and gave Himself for them so that they can walk in the Light here and in eternity.

That’s the loving thing to do.

Jesus

Leave a reply

Jesus.  Name above all names. Beautiful Savior, Glorious Lord. Emmanuel, God is with us. Blessed Redeemer. Living Word. (Naida Hearn)

My year long Bible reading plan had me reading several passages this morning as usual, and today they were all about Jesus. Isaiah’s words, in chapter 53 of his book, are written as though they had already happened. They paint an accurate picture of Jesus’ work on the cross. It was a done deal thousands of years before Jesus took on human form. You’ve got to read this chapter. It’s amazing. It’ll make you love Jesus even more. “… the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all”. I can’t help but praise Him!

Psalm 113 tells us to do just that. Praise Him. He deserves to be praised.

Then I turned to the third chapter of Paul’s letter to the Ephesians. The apostle reveals the mystery hidden in ages past, and that is that salvation through Jesus isn’t only for Jews. Believers of every nationality are fellow heirs, of the same body, partakers of God’s promise! More reasons to praise Him!

And Paul encourages us to know the love of God through Jesus, that Christ might dwell in our hearts through faith. “That (we), being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height – to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that (we) may be filled with all the fullness of God.” (Ephesians 3:18-19) My praise continues!

Jesus. Name above all names. Beautiful Savior. Glorious Lord. Emmanuel, God is with us. Blessed Redeemer. Living Word.

You Aren’t God

4 Replies

The Bible talks a lot about how we should consider our “selves”. I know modern psychology, and Oprah, and Joel Osteen, and the like say we need to feel powerful, and able, and special, fulfilled, and important. But I see the Bible telling us something quite different. I see Scripture saying we are helpless, sinful, depraved, that we need someone outside ourselves to save us from drowning.

Modern psychology does not work. We are a people drowning in a sea of “self”. People who are angry, depressed, anxious, violent, and who keep looking within themselves for answers because that’s the popular notion are looking in the wrong direction. How many people are medicated today because of psychological problems from eating disorders, to sexual confusion, anxiety to clinical depression? Even children are given pills for psychological problems.

Our children are taught that they are the most important entity in their own lives. So, when a police officer tells a young person to stop, to put their hands in the air, or to drop a gun, we end up reading about a shooting because the young person feels he is above the law. We hear about unspeakable crimes against children, against women, against the elderly because someone has considered their own desires more important than anything else. Abortion? Don’t get me started.

I was reading in Isaiah this morning and was impressed by God’s take on the whole thing. Chapter 45:9-10 tells us what is created has no business questioning the Creator. 47:10-11 says when we say, “I am, and there is no one else besides me,” evil will come upon us.  Proverbs 26:12 says a man who is wise in his own eyes has less hope than a fool.

These verses are only a few throughout the Bible that warn us about the foolishness of focusing on ourselves. Isaiah 48 spoke to me about who God really is. He is the Creator. He alone is God. And everything he does points to the fact of his absolute superiority.

Isaiah 46:5 asks a redundant question. Do I really want to put myself up next to God to establish equality? Do I really?

This just occurred to me as I was thinking about this subject. When a counselor or a pastor tells us to change our thinking about ourselves by telling ourselves how wonderful we are, we end up repeating things like:

I am powerful.

I am capable.

I am good.

I am worthy.

And in doing so, we replace the Great I AM with a counterfeit. Satan wins. We lose.

May you see yourself through God’s eyes today. You are someone who is lost, who is vile, who is powerless, and someone Jesus felt was worth dying for. Let him transform you into someone truly powerful and capable and good and worthy when he pours Himself into you, when HE gives you everything you need to face this day and its challenges.

There is nothing you can do for yourself that he can’t do so much better. After all, he’s God. And you’re not.

God Bless America! Why?

3 Replies

Do you pray that God will once again restore the United States of America to a nation under God? Why do you? Why is it we want our leaders to once again recognize and honor the One True God? Is it so we won’t have to fear imprisonment for loving Jesus like some in our world fear? Is it so that the USA will be restored to its former position of military and economic superiority? Is it so our children will not have to suffer at the hands of ungodly men?

Hezekiah got me thinking with his prayer concerning an enemy who was threatening to destroy Israel. First, he acknowledged that all the other gods in the world were not gods at all. Then, in Isaiah 37:20 we read that Hezekiah prayed the following:

“Now therefore, O Lord our God, save us from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you are the Lord, You alone.” (I added the bold print)

If you are praying for our country so you can be comfortable in your pew on Sunday morning, save your breath. God is intent on saving souls, even those who consider themselves enemies of the United States. He went to the cross for Muslims, atheists, Buddhists, those intrenched in ISIS, and those who simply ignore Him. And he wants them to come to Him no matter what it takes. “God so loved the world…”

If Americans elect leaders who fear God, who are intent on honoring and obeying Him, He will bless. Look how many times he did that for Israel in the Old Testament. And, if God blesses this nation as a result of our obedience, the rest of the world will have to sit up and notice. They will have to admit that the God of the Bible is the One True God. And hearts will turn to Him in response.

That’s got to be our prayer. If God can reveal Himself through a nation that turns to Him, I pray it’s us here in the USA. And if the nations will turn to God through our suffering, may God give his people the strength and ability to suffer gladly for His sake, so that the people of the world see Jesus.

Hezekiah reminds me that it’s not about blessing a nation for the sake of a nation. It’s about blessing a nation for the sake of turning hearts to the Savior.

I am challenged to make this my prayer:

God, bless America so that other nations will recognize and turn to You, too.

The Bottom Line

Leave a reply

Solomon, in chapter 12 of Ecclesiastes, gives us the conclusion of his active study of life, of wisdom, wealth, and happiness. He looked at nature in his quest for truth. He studied humanity. He looked at eternity. He spared no expense. And this is what he found to be true:

“Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is man’s all. For God will bring every work into judgement, including every secret thing whether good or evil.” (12:13-14)

The bottom line is this: God.

Period.

The most important thing in this life is one’s relationship with God. Fear of God. Absolute surrender to God.

Because in the end, every human who ever lived will stand before God in judgement. Every thought, every action, the good and the bad, the public and the private will require accountability.

When it’s my turn, I want God to look at me and see Jesus’ righteousness. I want him to attribute Jesus’ work to me. I certainly don’t want to stand before him on my own authority, on my own terms, based on my life. Just the thought of that scares me to death.

I am grateful to think that I can stand before God with confidence, because I have recognized that I am a sinner. I have asked God to forgive me, and I have accepted God’s grace: the forgiveness of my sin paid for by my Savior, God’s Son, Jesus Christ.

I want God to see me through Jesus’ blood. Then and only then, will I hear those precious words, “Well done, good and faithful servant. Welcome home.”

Being A Christian

Leave a reply

Faith may be believing in things you can’t see, but there is nothing unseen about living a Christian life. Paul, in Romans 12, tells us to be transformed by using our minds. He says God gives his people gifts. We need to recognize ours and use them.

The list of things Paul says to do require intention, thought, action. Being a Christian is not praying a prayer, then saying, “Whew! I dodged that bullet! No hell for me,” then continuing life as usual. In fact, if that is your experience I question your salvation according to Scripture.

Being a Christian does begin with faith, and with repentance, with accepting Jesus’ work on the cross on your behalf. But Scripture tells us a natural outcome of your salvation is a changed life, something people can see.

Being a Christian involves radiating Jesus. It’s the person who studies God’s Word to show himself a child of God, one who loves, is kind, diligent, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord, rejoicing in hope, patient, prayerful, giving, humble. The list goes on.

Being a Christian doesn’t mean walking around with a sappy smile on your face and saying, “God bless you.” It’s getting your hands dirty, using your mind by studying God’s Word. It’s about reasonable service to the One who saved you.

I hope you take time to read Romans 12 today and allow Paul to challenge you in your walk with the Lord. Let’s not conform to the world, but be transformed into the people God delights in using to reveal himself to those around us.

And may He find us faithful.