Tag Archives: Scripture

Are You Talking To Me?

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1 Timothy 6:20-21

Paul ends this letter to Timothy with a warning I think too many Christians don’t think applies to them. And I believe the Church is seeing a negative effect as a result.

Paul says to guard your heart because if you don’t, you are in danger of walking away from the faith. He doesn’t say guard your heart because if you don’t, that means you were never really saved in the first place. He doesn’t say guard your heart because if you don’t, you won’t have an effective testimony.

Some translations say Paul begins verse 20 with the words, “Oh, Timothy.” Don’t you get loving Father vibes from that? Isn’t this the voice of someone who dearly loves and is pleading with his loved one to hang on, make good choices, be careful because the one who loves sees danger ahead? Even if verse 20 in your translations simply says, “Timothy” you can hear Paul’s love for and concern for young Timothy throughout the letter.

Here’s the thing. If Timothy was in no danger of wandering or walking away from the faith, there would be no reason for Paul to say anything. There is clearly a warning concerning a very real danger. For Paul to end his letter this way tells me this is urgent

I say the Church is seeing the negative effect of Christians not heeding this warning because of the false teaching that has infiltrated our ranks and is being accepted as truth. Too many Christians seem to think that because they are saved, God won’t let them go no matter what they do, or believe. So they accept the “godless chatter and the opposing ideas of what is falsely called knowledge” and don’t consider the consequences. They not only do not guard their hearts, they freely give their hearts to the lies.

We Christians, you and I, need to guard our hearts. How? Read the Bible. Do a word search and find all the verses that use the word you choose. Faith? Truth? Repentance? Sin? Hell? Money? Tolerance? Do you know for yourself what the Bible says about these things?

Find a Bible believing church and hold your pastor and teachers accountable for what they say. Ask questions. Research for yourself. Guard your heart.

Turn off the religious channels on your TV. I can confidently say there is more false teaching than truth there. Guard your heart.

Stop spending more time reading about the Bible than you do opening the pages of God’s Word and devouring it for yourself. It’s not up to an author to guard your heart. Guard your own heart.

Quit thinking God forgives all your sin because one day years ago you accepted Jesus as your Savior. Friend, it is true God forgives your sin… if you confess. You ought to be confessing and repenting every time God brings to mind a sin you are committing in the present. Don’t assume He turns a blind eye to any sin. Guard your heart.

I will say this: if Timothy, the young preacher entrusted with overseeing the Church, the spiritual son of Paul needed to guard his heart, I most certainly need to guard mine. I ought to be reading these verses and ask God, “Are you talking to me?”

Do you honestly think He would reply, “No. You’re the exception?”

Faithfulness

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John 17

As I look at the Fruit of the Spirit these past few days I realize Satan is doing a pretty good job of making people believe these qualities are old-school, maybe even laughable. He’s convinced many that love is acceptance; joy can be gained at the expense of others; peace comes only if you agree with their delusion; patience is a one-way street; kindness is weakness; goodness is relative; and faithfulness is unnecessary.

I’m looking especially at faithfulness today, and I got to thinking that it might be a lost art. People aren’t faithful to marriage vows as evidenced by the fact more than half of all marriages today end in divorce – even among Christians. And even some Christians have had multiple marriages like the Samaritan woman at the well.

People aren’t faithful to their children when they adopt a hands-off, gentle parenting mode and expect their kids to raise themselves. Unfaithfulness is seen when parents are absent from the home, when they are too busy to support their children at games or concerts, or when they do attend, their eyes are on their phones.

Being faithful in the workplace? People change jobs like they are playing hop-scotch. The grass looks greener over there, so I’m out!

People aren’t even faithful to a church. Someone hurt my feelings, so I’m going to find another church (until someone hurts my feelings…)

Even being faithful to the Word of God is seen as a negative. Satan suggests we can tout the verses we like, either tweak or ignore the ones that make us uncomfortable, or claim God has a new revelation because the Bible is out-dated for our advanced society.

And yet, Jesus is our example of faithfulness. He was faithful to the Father, to the Father’s will, the Father’s message, the Father’s plan up to and including a very painful and humiliating death on the cross.

Jesus was faithful to His friends. He spoke truth to them, He protected them and provided for their needs. He never let them down, never threw them under the bus.

Jesus was faithful to the Words of God. He never altered the message to please different audiences. He spoke the same truth to lepers, tax-collectors, farmers, as well as religious leaders and even kings. He was always faithful to God’s Words.

The same faithfulness in us is an indication of Jesus’ Holy Spirit in our lives. Yes, that means being faithful to your spouse, faithful to train your children in the way they should go, faithful to those in authority over you, faithful to your Bible believing church, faithful to go and make disciples by standing on the truth found in the Bible. Faithful to God’s will, God’s message, God’s plan, and faithfully obedient to His commands.

The world might look at your faithfulness as archaic, but they will also see someone with integrity, someone who is different, better than they. They will see Jesus.

That’s what Jesus prayed right before He went to the cross. May God continue to answer that prayer in my life and yours.

Smart Enough

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Genesis 3:1-6

When you were young and your mother told you the red coil on top of the stove was hot so you shouldn’t touch it or you’d get burned, you had a choice. Some of us took our moms at her word and avoided the red coil. Some of you might be wearing the scars from the burn, or at least remember the pain you felt when you questioned the truth of what Mom said, and decided to find out for yourself.

One criticism of Christianity is that we simply believe the Bible as true without questioning it. The critics imply that we are not intellectual or just gullible or that we are missing out on the enlightenment of the universe (or some such nonsense).

Consider what questioning God’s Word did for Eve. Satan planted a seed of doubt. But instead of going back to the Word of God, she began to use her own logic. The seed of doubt grew to rejecting God’s Word, and to sin.

I will not apologize for believing the infallibility of God’s Word. I will not be intimidated by the intellectual sounding arguments of some. I will not even consider any other so-called truth.

I don’t need to touch the hot stove to see if what Mom said was true.

God, who created me, inspired His Words to be written down so that I can hear and accept the warning, so that I could hear and accept His grace. His Words are true because God is true.

I’m certainly not smarter than God. But I”m smart enough to take His Word for it.

Stay On The Ship

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Acts 27

I was talking to my pastor yesterday about how easy it can be to believe a lie. If you take time to listen to people who reject God, you being to understand their point of view. That can be a good thing, and I hope we are all investing ourselves in people we love and who are rejecting God. But when our understanding of their viewpoint becomes acceptance, we have a problem.

Paul was heading to Rome to be tried for bogus crimes the Jews made up to get rid of him. The ship he was sailing on got caught in a hurricane-force storm that pummeled them for weeks. The soldiers did everything they knew what to do to save the ship from being torn to pieces. They naturally feared for their lives, so Paul encouraged them with a word from God:

But now I urge you to keep up your courage, because not one of you will be lost, only the ship will be destroyed. Last night an angel of the God whose I am and whom I serve stood beside me and said, “Do not be afraid, Paul. You must stand trial before Caesar, and God has graciously given you the lives of all who sail with you.” So keep up your courage, men, for I have faith in God that it will happen just as he told me. (Acts 27:22-25)

In other words, stay in the ship and God has promised me you will be saved. Some of the sailors panicked, however. In their minds, and from what they believed about ships and storms, they determined the better option was to escape to land by lifeboats. They began to lower the lifeboats with the intention of abandoning the ship, in opposition to the Word of God.

When Paul saw what they were doing, he said to the centurion guarding him:

Unless these men stay with the ship, you cannot be saved. (Acts 27:31b)

So the ropes were cut, the lifeboats dropped empty into the raging sea. And although the ship was lost, not one of those men lost his life.

I think the moral of the story is the Word of God. Do you believe it or not?

We must sift everything we hear through the words God spoke. We must shape our world-view, our morality, our stand on what is right and what is wrong, our definition of sin and its punishment, our understanding of grace and mercy and love, through the lens of Scripture.

We all hear things from time to time that sound reasonable, maybe even scriptural. And maybe we think: “Ok. I can see their point. Maybe they have something there.”

BUT WAIT!

Before you go any further with that thought you better ask yourself: what does Scripture say? Not just a random verse taken out of context. What does God really say, how did it play out in the lives of the Old Testament Jews, how did Jesus embody the words spoken by the prophets?

Dear ones, there is one Truth. Anything that veers from that Truth is merely opinion and is nothing to stand on. Anything that is not Truth is a lie.

There is one salvation. There is one ship. To attempt to save yourself any other way is death.

I can confidently say that Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life and no one goes to the Father without going through Jesus. I can say you must be born again. I can say that faith comes through hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

I can tell you that Scripture is God-breathed and it is the first and final authority.

I can say those things unapologetically, having built my life on the truth of it, because those words are in the Bible and the truth of them is demonstrated in those precious pages, and in my life.

Again I ask you concerning to the Word of God: do you believe it or not? Your life depends on your answer.

It’s A Famine

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I King 17:1-6

We live in a dry and barren land, don’t we? So many people are trying so hard to be “somebody,” they debase themselves for clicks and likes. If you can stomach it, scroll through Instagram. You’ll see many, many people sitting in their cars with their phones propped up on the dash, staring into the camera and moaning, wailing, emoting about some perceived injustice they’ve just experienced. You might hear others proclaiming their “truth” as though anyone actually values their opinions. Or, if you’re lucky, you might even find someone purring and licking their hands like a kitten.

I’m not saying there isn’t some good content in social media. But I am saying you don’t have to look very hard to find the under-belly, the pathetic attention seekers whose lives have no meaning apart from what they hope will be their ticket to fame and fortune.

“Maybe my next video will go viral.”

These lost souls and those who contribute to their delusion with clicks and likes are starving to death. They feed on the ridiculous, the immoral, the delusional.

Garbage in. Garbage out. There are millions of people who are spiritually and emotionally starving themselves while living in the richest country in the world.

When God sent a famine to punish Israel, one man was not effected. Elijah, a man of God, allowed God to feed him. Morning and night, Elijah ate all that God provided.

Can you say the same? Do you, morning and night, devour God’s Word? Do you communicate with God through quiet prayer and allow Him to feed your soul?

I’m not talking about podcasts, books, and blogs (yes, this one included) that comment about the Bible. I’m talking about YOU opening YOUR Bible and reading for YOURSELF what God has written to YOU. If you allowed your best friend to eat three meals a day for you while you fed on sand, you would die. If you allow your pastor or teacher read the Bible for you… same.

A spiritual, emotional, and moral famine is spreading throughout our society. You can choose to feed on the food of fools, or you can feast on the bounty that is God. One choice leads to death. The other to life.

I think you know which choice I’m praying you’ll make.

Cover Them

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Numbers 4

When the Israelites moved, the Levites needed to be very careful to protect the most holy things used in worship. They covered the Ark with the shielding curtain, the table of the Presence with a blue cloth. Then they put the utensils, bowls, etc. on top of the table and covered it all with a red cloth.

The lamp stand was wrapped in blue cloth as were the gold altar and articles. Even the ashes were protected by a purple cloth. Then everything was covered with top layers of sea cow hides.

The Israelites were told by God to first protect the most holy things, then they were ready to get on the road. Nothing, not a dent or scratch or smudge, was going to harm the most holy things as the Israelites followed God.

What does that have to do with anything? I’m not sure we are as carful to protect the holy things of God today. What about our hearts, our minds, God’s Word, the light He has called us to be to the world, the Gospel of Jesus? Do we cover those things in prayer and Scripture before we follow God into our day?

I’m afraid too often we start our days without giving a thought to the most holy things. I’m afraid we go into worship services with such a casual attitude the most holy things are exposed to the elements of the world. I’m afraid the most holy things are dented, scratched, and smudged by our neglect.

The Jews were intentional about covering the most holy things. I wonder if we shouldn’t learn from their example.

How Do You Know?

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1 Corinthians 11

I’m asking an honest question, the answer to which I do not know. Paul, in 1 Corinthians 11:2-16 gives instructions to men and women concerning worship, prayer, and hair. He clearly says women ought to be wearing hats. It would appear Paul is saying a woman shouldn’t be seen without a hat.

Paul instructs women to never cut their hair, and men to keep their’s short. So why aren’t we doing those things?

We insist women not teach men or be pastors because Paul instructed such. What makes 11:2-16 different? How do you know?

As I think about this, I don’t remember Jesus speaking to the issue of women wearing head coverings. And I can’t think of a time when He addressed the command that women remain silent. Do you know if there is anything in Scripture that explains why we take one of Paul’s commands literally, and it’s permissible to dismiss another?

I know we all have opinions about these things. I have my own. And I’m not promoting burqas or demanding we women stop cutting our hair. I don’t want to get into an argument about the role of women in the church. I just want to know why we treat the issues differently when Paul addressed them both in the same way.

And rather than me spouting my opinion, I need help finding Scripture that backs up what Paul is saying. How do we know, according to Scripture, when to hang our hats (pun intended) on a few verses, and when to ignore them?

I love how God continues to challenge me in my walk with Him. I know He’s doing the same for you. And if we can help each other, according to Scripture, we are living the Church. So let me ask you again,

How do you know?

Don’t Bow

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Daniel 3

So, King Nebuchadnezzar had a huge statue built, as high as the lighthouse on Saint Simons Island. You couldn’t miss it! Then, the decree went out – you WILL bow down to this idol, or die.

You probably know the story. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego refused to bow. When everyone else hit the ground when the music played, those three young men stood tall. They must have stood out like those brave athletes who refuse to bend a knee during the National Anthem. Kind of hard to miss.

Got me to thinking about other formidable idols being erected today: transgenderism, homosexual marriage, pronouns, abortion, climate change, COVID, socialism, progressive Christianity, wokeness…

Lots of idols there!

In fact, there are so many it seems people are walking on their knees, bowing here, bowing there. They exist in a constant state of surrender to this idol, and to that. Less and less people are standing tall.

The threat of punishment is real. And getting more real every day. So what’s a person to do?

Look at this portion of Scripture. You’ll find the answer. Those brave young men were able to stand strong because they truly trusted God. They trusted God whether they lived or died. They trusted God whether they were heading for hardship, or whether God would deliver them. They trusted God.

The result was, they were thrown into the fire with the intent it would kill them. But the fire didn’t kill them, did it? In fact, the fire didn’t even touch them even though they were walking right in it. And… the most amazing part of it… Jesus was right there walking in the fire with them. The king and his men actually saw Jesus in the fire with them. They saw Jesus.

So many of us don’t let Jesus do that for us. And sadly, we don’t allow Jesus to be seen by those who want us to surrender to their idols.

We surrender to the idol of transgenderism when we call a woman “him” because she mutilates her body and pretends to be male. We bow to the idol of progressive Christianity when we sing the songs that glorify our own feelings, when we accept the downplaying of sin in favor of “love.” We bow at the feet of government when we allow ourselves to be manipulated into closing the doors of our churches, keeping ourselves quarantined and isolated, wearing masks that do nothing but make us fall into line, and putting untested chemicals in our bodies because someone erects the idol of “science.”

We’ve all done it. We bow, and keep bowing to idols unseen, yet as real as Nebuchadnezzar’s giant idol in ancient Babylon where Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego refused to bow. Can we join together, support one another, and change that?

Let’s stand on the Truth God has revealed in His Word, exactly as He has revealed it in His Word. Let’s not fear those who would have us bow to the prince of this world, because…

greater is He who is in you than the one who is in the world! (1 John 4:4)

Kindling For The Fire

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Jeremiah 36-39

Does it shock you that King Zedekiah could cut off a portion of God’s Word and throw it into the fire? He cut off one section at a time until the whole scroll was destroyed. Can you believe this man’s audacity? His blatant disrespect for God’s word is astounding.

When I was in pre-school our Sunday School teachers, Aunt Minnie and Aunt Rose taught us to never set anything on top of our Bibles. They had us practice stacking books so we would learn to place the Bible above all others. Aunt Minnie and Aunt Rose would not be happy with Zedekiah!

But, as always, God asks me to dig a little deeper. I am right to be appalled at Zedekiah’s unbelievable rejection of God’s Word. But am I as appalled at my own?

You don’t reject God’s Word, Connie. You read it every day. You write what you’ve learned about what you’ve read every day. You even throw it out into cyber-space, praying someone will be drawn closer to God through your blog. You teach Sunday School, for crying out loud. You haven’t rejected God’s Word. You proclaim it every day.

Ain’t I special?

But God doesn’t let us pat ourselves on the back very long before He slaps us in the face:

What about those thoughts you have that dishonor me? Did you cut out Philippians 4:8 and throw it into the fire? How about Matthew 10:37-39? Aren’t you more concerned about offending your family than you are about being true to Me? That’s a hard verse. Maybe it’s just easier to cut it out of Scripture and throw it into the fire.

Ouch.

I can condemn old Zedekiah all I want. But I don’t think God included this account in His Word so we could point fingers at some guy who’s been dead for thousands of years.

I hear God asking me today: How chopped up is your own Bible, Connie?

If we are cutting out portions of God’s Word because we don’t want to deal with the Truth and we don’t like what it’s telling us about ourselves, we might be preparing the kindling to start the very fire that will torture us in eternity.

Don’t Make The Same Mistake

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1 Kings 13

Once again I am reminded how dangerous it is to believe everything you hear. The prophet heard from a man claiming to be a prophet, that God had changed His mind. The prophet believed what the man claiming to be a prophet said. And the prophet died.

There are many people claiming to be what they are not: experts, authorities, messengers of truth. But they are nothing more than evil liars, knowingly and unknowingly.

They speak convincingly about gender issues, about loving America, about when life begins, systemic racism, Marxism and socialism, and about how foolish you have to be to believe the Bible.

They even re-write the Bible to defend their depravity. They take over our pulpits and classrooms. They flaunt their sin, demanding everyone bow at their altar of sin. They hijack our stores, our TV shows, our news media, and our government. Then they persecute those who dare to speak against their agenda.

The prophet we read about today made a fatal error. He didn’t go to God to find the Truth. He simply accepted what was told him.

Don’t make the same mistake. Yes, the voices are loud. Yes, they can sound convincing and make you think you’ve been wrong all along. That’s why you have got to go to God for the Truth.

Read the Bible for yourself, asking God to reveal Truth. Then read it again. Study it. Dig deeper. Pray over it. Don’t take my word, or the word of your pastor for it. Don’t listen to the TV preacher or read your favorite “Christian” author. READ GOD’S OWN WORDS.

God IS Truth. He lovingly provided the tangible access to the Truth in the Scriptures He inspired. Why would you believe anything or anyone else?

The prophet died because he simply believed what he was told. Don’t make the same mistake.