Month: April 2019

Being a Christian in the world today is not something that most non-Christian people look fondly upon. They have preset opinions about what Christians think, do and say. Generally, it is not a religion that is well thought of these days.

In some ways, it is somewhat understandable. That is because the media, schools and other areas of public life where opinions are swayed have been busy representing the worst of the worst about Christians. In many cases, they have identified individuals who have committed horrible crimes or whose actions or words are reprehensible, as Christians when, in fact, they are anything but Christian.

The media rarely goes back and makes a correction when they have made such a false statement. Even the few times that they do, the public’s opinion has already been formed. First impressions are difficult to change even when the impression is based on false information.

Christians are the same as other people. They are sinners. The difference is that true born-again Christians have accepted Jesus Christ as their savior. Jesus has instructed his followers to love one another. He has also told them to forgive those who sin against them. He tells us to do so because he forgave us.

Honestly? It is hard to forgive others. If it were easy, it would be something that everyone does. And yet, very few people are capable, on their own, of offering forgiveness when they have been horribly wronged or hurt.

It seems like, when I read the news, that if a victim is working with the individual(s) who hurt them, it is almost always a Christian who is showing forgiveness and love. Not always, of course, but most of the time.
There are also Christians who have risked and given up their lives to save others who are not Christians. Again, this is a hard thing to do. But Christ followers see the example in that Jesus gave up his life for us while we were his enemies.

We are also called upon to spread the good news of Jesus’ salvation gift. We are to see that the word of this message are spread throughout the world. He tells us to do so because he forgave us. He also warned us that it would not be easy; he told us to pick up our cross daily and to follow him.

At one time, spreading the gospel (good news of salvation) meant traveling to far away places where no one had spoken to the inhabitants about God the father, let alone Jesus and the Holy Spirit. Those who travelled and spread the word often put their lives in peril. Many were martyred for their faith. But the good news is that the Word has been spread throughout the world.

Still there are small strongholds of native population who have never heard the message of salvation. Interestingly, the governments of the lands these small groups inhabit, will not allow missionaries to speak to the native population.

Where Christians are now called to spread the gospel is to their own countries, their own cities, even to their own neighborhoods. So many people have heard about Christians (mostly from the media), but they have not heard the real history of Jesus. It is as if we are now called as missionaries back to the countries that first sent missionaries out to other lands.

Many countries consider themselves post-Christianity. They have moved beyond Jesus Christ. The ones that are not are those where there is real and present persecution of the citizens. Those are the places where people are still actively looking for and finding their Jesus as their savior.

They learn that being saved is not of the flesh but of the spirit. While the government or leaders of other faiths may torture you or put you to death, a Christ follower is assured of eternity in heaven and companionship with God forever.

That is true freedom. That is what Christianity is all about. The media may represent Christ followers as something evil, judgmental and distorted but that is not what Christians are called to do. Nor is it what most Christian are. Most Christians are trying to do what Jesus asked them to do. They fail, of course, from time to time. That is to be expected. Being Christian doesn’t mean you are not still a sinner, it means that Jesus died for your sins and you accepted his gift of pardon.

In most cases, when a true Christian discovers that they have been sinful, for whatever reason, they repent and try to do better and learn not to commit that sin again.

So, Christians, be aware that the world will continue to hate you. The hate is growing. The world doesn’t want to know that they are sinners. They want to believe that they can be their own judges of what is right and wrong based on their own thoughts.

The world will never love Christians. We are still called to love them and to spread the salvation message. While the world will not love Jesus, there will come a day when every knee will bow and they will acknowledge the Jesus Christ is the true King forever and ever. Sadly, for most of them, it will be too late. They will be condemned to an eternity of being separated from God.

It is up to us Christians to spread the news so that even one more individual accepts Jesus as their savior before it is no longer an option.

Matthew 16:24-25

Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it.

I’m very troubled by what is happening to children these days. When I was young, the problems seemed less intense and less prevalent. The problems at home pretty much stayed there and the problems at school where dealt with the teachers and principal. I had problems in both places and, from my experience, they rarely crossed over.

Today, there is so much pressure on children. They are being taught so much and so fast. And yet, they aren’t being taught the basics. The school systems have even decided to stop teaching cursive writing since everything is typed today.

That might be true, but if you want to read original historical documents as they were written, you had best know how to read cursive. It’s almost as if the powers that be want to keep people from reading the lessons of the past.

It also means that these children will not have an identifying signature. Printed letters can be forged easily while cursive writing is much more distinctive and forgeries are fairly easy for experts to detect. How will these children be identified? Will they be assigned a number? Will they somehow receive an electronic implant that identifies one from another?

One wonders what is next. Will they simply stop teaching children to read and write at all as, by that time, you will be able to listen to lessons and input your answers verbally. Will only a certain class of individuals be allowed to learn to read and write and gain the knowledge, insight and critical thinking that comes along with reading the written word?

That reeks of a class of rulers and a class of those who are ruled. Those who are allowed to learn and those who are kept in place by lack of knowledge.

This has happened before. One need only to look to the Medieval period. The peasants were kept in bondage because they didn’t know that there was anything else for them. The ruling class may have had its share of individuals who didn’t bother to learn but that was their choice. The information was there waiting for them.

William Tyndale was burned at the stake for daring to translate the New Testament of the Bible into the common English language. Why? He did so so that everyone could read the message of freedom and salvation available to them. They could read that, in God’s eyes, we were all equal. The act of translation was called heresy and he was killed for it.

Today, it is easy to see that the ruling class of that time was threatened by the message of the Bible being put in the hands of common folk. We know this because we can read the history of the story. Without being able to read, our children will be back in the position of the peasants of yesteryear. The simply will not know.

That troubles me immensely. We learn from our past mistakes. We learn from our past triumphs. Without knowledge of the past, we seem doomed to make the same types of mistakes over and over again.

The mistakes today can, and probably will, come with a greater consequence. We are a people who can create global catastrophes. With very little effort, a devastating world war could be started which could wipe out most of humanity as well as other life on the planet.

That doesn’t surprise me, actually. When I read the Bible, I see that just such a time and day is coming. There will be a day when mankind uses its weapons to destroy much of the life on earth.

There is nothing that can stop it as it is what mankind has been barreling toward. We have been on this path since the Garden of Eden. We Christians can keep praying that God bring the message of salvation to the whole world. We should pray that anyone who will be saved before the Great Tribulation comes upon us, will hear the message of Jesus Christ.

It is our job as Christians to spread that message. It is good to help the poor, to give shelter, food and comfort to those who need it. It is also true that the most precious thing you can do for an individual is to share the good news of salvation.

The Bible tells us it is better to lose the body than to lose the soul. That applies to everyone regardless of their station in life and what their worldly needs are.

My church is trying to reach individuals by doing things for them. Loving them when it is the least thing that they expect. They are showing Christ’s love to them. The only problem is that many of the congregants are hesitant to share the message of salvation.

Helping the poor is good. Feeding their body is necessary. Christians are very good at sharing and helping. I can’t imagine what this world will be like for that brief time in which Christians are no longer able to help. It will be a terrible and desolate time. A time when it is person against person. The hate and anger that fills the soul of those who are left will make the world a horrible place to live in.

Just remember, feeding the soul and spirit is the most important thing you can do. Sharing the love of Christ in what you do for others is good. Just be sure to share the message of salvation while you are doing so. Just tell them about Jesus. Don’t force it down their throats or make it a requirement for them in order to receive assistance.

I know that, for the most part, I am preaching to the choir. However, for a sizable number of Christians, this is a message that is needed to be heard. Don’t be afraid to witness to individuals. All you have to do is tell them about what Jesus has done for you. It is called your Testimony. Just share that and it will be heartfelt and, most times, listened to.

There will others who resist hearing and so, stop talking. Either you are not the one to give them to good news or they have hardened their hearts and necks and will not listen to anyone who speaks of God. I feel bad for them as God will only strive with an individual for just so long. After that, unless there is something so devastating that happens to them that makes them seek God, it will not go well for them.

The one sin that God cannot forgive is an individuals failure to accept Jesus as their savior. That is what, in the end, will doom people to an eternity of suffering.

Let’s do our part to reduce that number. If the message is not told, then it cannot be heard.

Romans 10:9-15

If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.

As Scripture says, “Anyone who believes in him will never be put to shame.” For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile — the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”

As human beings, we are built with a need for acceptance and love. Even those who say they don’t, at heart, still care and want others to care about them as well. We feel the lack of something important in our lives and try to look for the answer in the world around us.

It is a never-ending search because, no matter how much someone else professes to accept us or to love us, there is a part of them that is held back. That is because we are also born with the need to put ourselves first. It is that instinct for self-preservation that allows us to survive in a world that is often hostile and unloving.

There are some people who are born into families that are loving and giving. There are some of us who have families that have no love, no community, no sense of putting the family above themselves, even for a short time. There are some who are born into abusive families that cause pain and humiliation and a sense of failure for those who are part of it. I think most families are a little bit of all of these things.

When I was a child, my family was more balanced though there was definitely an element of physical abuse that went beyond the bounds of loving reprimands. Once my parents divorced and I lived with my mother and siblings, the dynamic of our family went from somewhat balanced to one of abuse and a lack of caring for each other.

I’ve talked previously about my abuse by my mother and how it led her to give permission to my older brother to abuse me as well. It wasn’t too far a step for him to attempt to sexually assault me as well. This started when I was when I returned from a short time I spent with my father. I recall the first time it happened. My mother went to sleep and left us up to watch television until our bedtime. My brother handed me a book and commanded me to read it out loud to him. It was a pornographic book about the incestuous relationships of a man with his mother, his sister, and even his own daughter.

I struggled to read a bit to him because I didn’t understand the physical acts that were described. I was pretty naive in those days and had not been taught about normal physical relations let alone perverted and abnormal ones.

All I knew was that I hated reading it and wanted to get away from him and so I did. Even at so young an age, I somehow understood I had to keep him at arms length. From that night forward, I placed a chair under my bedroom door. And, yes, he did attempt to enter many times. Perhaps he hoped that I would forget but I did not. I would not fall asleep until I knew that he had gone to bed.

My world turned upside down that night and from then on, I spent my waking hours trying to stay away from our apartment until I knew that my mother was home and I would be safe. It took its toll on me. I no longer cared what I looked like and started to gain weight. I didn’t care about going to school and so I didn’t. All I cared about was staying safe.

It got worse when he invited his friends over. They would get high and it was suddenly three against one. Or it would have been if I didn’t have the public library as my safe haven away from the abuse of my home. I spent many days and evenings there and the librarians were kind and accepting. I was able to continue to educate myself though the books that I read.

There came a time when my hate of my life led me to a more dire solution. I’ll talk about that at some point in the future.

This went on for almost two years. It finallyimproved when my brother moved out of the house for good. I would have been in my junior year of high school if I hadn’t stopped taking classes or even showing up for school at all.

With him gone, my desire to go to school resurfaced. I was able to work with a counselor to take classes at my own speed. I would finish many semester classes in one to two weeks. By the end of that junior year, I had caught back up and was able to attend my senior year in a regular classroom environment.

While my schooling was back on track, I was still feeling shame, self-hate and anger. You might think I would have talked to my mother during the years my brother was still at home. I actually did try but she blamed me and not him. She told me I was exaggerating and she then increased his ability to punish me, based merely by the look on my face and not my actions or words.

However, with him out of the house, I no longer felt trapped. I was afraid that he might return but I was getting older and knew that I would be able to move out at 18 if I graduated and could get a job.

In the end, that turned out to be unnecessary. My brother overdosed on heroin and passed away. His funeral was the day of my high school graduation. I remember getting the call from his friend at the emergency room. He told me that my brother was dead.

I was with my one close friend and she got her mother to take care of my little brother while I saw waiting for my family to come for me. They didn’t. As I sat for hours with my friend on the stairway, all I could think was that I was free. I never needed to fear him again. It was difficult to feign the sorrow my other family members felt when, deep down inside, I was feeling the first bit of joy I had had in many years.

A few years later, I was driving down the street and saw someone who I thought was my brother. I started shaking so bad I could barely pull over. I had to sit for about a half an hour telling myself that he was dead, he would never hurt me again and the fear that I felt was just in my mind.

I was lucky, I know. He was never successful at raping me. However, he did instill fear, shame, and hate that colored my relationships with men.

When I became a Christian, I had the mental knowledge that God loved me and that what had happened was not my fault. It took many years and many problems in my life for me to finally shed those horrible fears and hate. The self-hate was the hardest because somehow, in my mind, something about me had invited my previously loving brother to, in my mind, become what amounted to an animal.

While I am no longer in that place, I will admit that I always look askance at men and their motivations. I am always really careful about putting children in their care. I know that these days, one has to have the same concern about women. I don’t think it is wrong to feel the way I do. I never want to be an adult who looks the wrong way while a child is being abused.

I think this is something that God wants us to do. He does not want us to ignore the pleas and needs of children. He wants us to love them and care for them. He wants us to teach them what is wrong and what is right according to the Bible. We are responsible for raising godly children. We are held accountable for doing anything to harm them.

I’m glad that this is so important to God. He is now my Father and he provides all the love and care that my earthly family did not. He teaches me to live with love in my heart towards others which is something I had never learned before. Without him, I was mired in anger, shame, hate and self-loathing; with him, I am able to rise above the things of the past and soar with him to find new ways to live the way he wants me to do and to love others and myself as well.

Philippians 3:12-14

Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.

Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

There are altogether too many people who represent themselves as experts in one or many subjects yet who are not experts at all. They simply say things that others want to hear. Since their audience is already on board with what they have to say, no one will question them no matter how illogical their statements may be. That is, except for those who think differently. Those individuals are ridiculed, made fun of, or simply dismissed as being too dim to understand the wonderful concept that is being put forth.

This is a day when knowledge seems less important. It is, in part, because our schools have focused on social issues instead of teaching students how to think for themselves. Those of us who are older or have been taught by their families the true meanings of right and wrong, seem out of step with the rest of the world.

There are those who are still brave enough to confront false information. I don’t know for how long that will continue. If you step too far out in correcting popular thought, you run the risk of being threatened and having your family hounded or even risk losing your life.

I don’t know how things have gotten so far out of control. I stopped paying attention a few years ago and then, this last year, I opened my eyes up once again. I was shocked to see how rapidly mankind is descending into chaos. How we can applaud the taking of a baby’s life (by its mother) and yet condemn those, because of their religion, that try to help people and raise them from poverty into sustainable life.

Our priorities are skewed. We aren’t truly looking out for one another anymore, that is, if we ever really did so. I think we did. I know that my country went to war to help other countries from being put under the boot of tyranny. The brave soldiers who lost their lives did so to help those who could not help themselves.

Even in our own history, so many young men (and some women) risked their lives to stop slavery. They saw the evil of trying to say that one person can own another and were willing to, and did for many, put their lives on the line.

So, I’m inclined to think that people have, in the past, helped one another and loved those that they didn’t know. They were willing to put their own needs aside and give to those who had even less.

How often does that happen today? There’s at least one individual (on Youtube) who runs around giving money to others. While I applaud the action, the reason behind it is probably not love, it is probably to get “subbies” and “clicks” which means money to the individual. How much, I don’t know. However, it is enough to make me think that their motives are not altruistic.

There are still individuals and churches who do things for others without expecting anything in return. The churches ask their congregants to join in and find the joy of giving (of time and/or resources.) There is so much more joy in giving than in receiving. Though I must admit those who are desperately in need do need to receive more than they give.

I recently talked to someone who told me that they were in too much pain to go out and spend time helping others. I suggested perhaps financial assistance. They told me, rightfully, that because of their physical problems, their finances were tremendously strained. I acknowledged the difficulty of their position and then suggested something that all of us can and should do for others. Pray for them and, if you are able to do so, share with them the love, sacrifice and saving power of Jesus Christ.

There is no reason why we Christ-followers cannot do those things. We are always so hesitant to talk to others and, please, if you say to someone you will pray for them, do it. Don’t talk the talk. You need to walk the walk.

My husband and I find time to pray for people without telling them at all. It isn’t necessary to tell them to hold them up to God and ask him to give them peace, health, even a job. There is no request for something which is good, that God will not listen to. He doesn’t always answer the way we want him to but he does listen and his answer is what is truly needed.

This brings me back to my beginning paragraph. Many Christ-followers are not aware of what the Bible tells us about being a Christian and doing what God has asked us to do. As an overall church, we are lacking in knowledge about the things that we profess to be the greatest and most important part of our lives. Still, many of us hold ourselves out as experts in our religion.

It behooves us to study. We need to read our Bibles. We should find a Bible believing church that truly follows Christ. If we find a problem in our church, take it to the head pastor to solve.

I’ve done so recently. I questioned our pastor (who is Biblical scholar) about a sermon and made a suggestion. I was given an answer of sorts but it may be that I didn’t make clear what my question was really or, perhaps, I need to dwell on his answer and ask God to make it clearer to me. In many ways, it was enough that the pastor did respond and, more importantly, that I got past my reluctance (even some fear) to approach him. In the past, I’ve had the opposite reaction from a pastor of another church.

So, we have to be bolder and, at the same time, we have to become educated in God’s word. The world may consider you ignorant, crazy or stupid. I don’t care what the world thinks about me in this matter. I know that I will one day stand before Jesus on Judgement day. On that day, I don’t want my fear of what others thought of me to have detered me from following Jesus commandment to share his love to others and to spread the good news of salvation throughout the entire world.

2 Timothy 3:10-17

You, however, know all about my teaching, my way of life, my purpose, faith, patience, love, endurance, persecutions, sufferings — what kinds of things happened to me in Antioch, Iconium and Lystra, the persecutions I endured. Yet the Lord rescued me from all of them.

In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evildoers and impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, and how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.