Month: July 2020

Accepting that you are a sinner is not that easy. You must look hard at yourself and stop comparing your failings to that of others.

Sin isn’t a matter of who is worse and who is better. Sin is failing to live up to the goodness and perfect standing of God.

We are all of us sinners. Not one is better than the other. Our sins may be different but our sin nature is not. In God’s eyes, all sin is abhorrent. All sin keeps mankind from communicating and having a relationship with our Father.

We were doomed to live eternally separated from God. This wasn’t how it was supposed to be, it was our own choice. We had no way out, no do-over, no doing of good deeds to earn our forgiveness.

God wanted a way for us to be reunited with him. The sin of the world had to be paid and not one man, woman or child had the ability to do so. They could not do it for themselves, let alone for everyone.

God himself, in the person of his only son Jesus, had to come to the earth and be born just like everyone else.

Jesus came in humble fashion, born to low income and young parents. He was born in a manger because there was no room for him elsewhere.

That epitomizes the how the world first received him. There was no room for a savior in the life of man. No one wanted to be reminded that they had failed and could not fix it.

At that time, just like now, there were those who thought the way they lived was sufficient to make restitution with God.

That is a false theology. Mankind can never fix the damage they have done to themselves and to the entire creation. The universe is falling apart because of us and Jesus was the only individual born on this planet who could fix it.

Jesus is fully man and fully God. That concept is something that humans cannot understand. That is okay because we are only human and cannot fathom the existence and magnitude of God.

Jesus preached love and understanding. He showed people that their lives were entrenched in sin. At the same time, he told them how they could be saved from what they had done.

He then took the necessary step to pay for our sins. He was sinless and yet he accepted the punishment for all of the sins of man, past, present and future. He hung on a cross in disgrace. It was the most painful and humiliating of deaths.

He gave up his life and went to the grave. Then, as he was God, three days later he resurrected himself.

He had conquered sin by living sinlessly and accepting the price as death. By coming to life again, he conquered death. He had fixed the breach between God and man. He removed the curse of death from mankind forever.

He offered this forgiveness and restitution at no cost to everyone. He still does. It is free and you can be free of the consequences of sin by accepting Jesus, his forgiveness and his salvation.

Romans 8:1-4

Therefore there is now no condemnation [no guilty verdict, no punishment] for those who are in Christ Jesus [who believe in Him as personal Lord and Savior].

For the law of the Spirit of life [which is] in Christ Jesus [the law of our new being] has set you free from the law of sin and of death.

For what the Law could not do [that is, overcome sin and remove its penalty, its power] being weakened by the flesh [man’s nature without the Holy Spirit], God did: He sent His own Son in the likeness of sinful man as an offering for sin.

And He condemned sin in the flesh [subdued it and overcame it in the person of His own Son], so that the [righteous and just] requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us who do not live our lives in the ways of the flesh [guided by worldliness and our sinful nature], but [live our lives] in the ways of the Spirit [guided by His power]

More and more, I’ve noticed a tendency of Christians to try to blend into the world’s society. They are looking for ways to appeal to other people. They think that by changing their message or how it is presented will accomplish this.

It may bring more individuals to your church but, in the meantime, you will have strayed from the message that God has given to Christians to spread to the rest of the world. Your church may become more successful and you may be more popular, but at what cost?

This is something that more and more churches are doing as well. I’ve noticed it in my own church, which purports to preach a conservative theology while maintaining liberal love. To be honest, I don’t even understand that statement, but it is what the senior pastor has stated.

However, he is moving ever so slowly into a gray zone where what he is preaching is wrapped around what society calls social justice. As a pastor, he should know that the only true justice is from God.

We are to love one another and be kind to each other. What we are never supposed to do is to alter the words of God. We are never to interpret them to mean something more popular or to mean less than it actually says.

God’s world is eternal and it is the only real truth. He is the one to judge us. He has given us rules for society to live by and has given us the ability to mete earthly justice according to those rules. Adding more is to try to make his words less.

Who are we to do this to God?

He is watching and he knows what we do. He knows what we are thinking. He knows what is right and what is merely done for show.

None of us is immune to his judgement and each of us should be ready to face him. We are all filthy in his sight and we are guilty.

Christians who alter his words are treading a fine line. They say that they know Jesus and that they are following him. If they stray from the words and meanings of the Bible, it shows that they never really knew him at all.

The sad thing for those individuals is that they think something that is not true. They will face his judgement and he will tell them, “I never knew you.”

That doesn’t sound horrible, but it is the worst thing a so-called Christian can face. It means that you never truly accepted his gift of salvation and that you never followed in his footsteps.

Just calling yourself a Christian is not enough. Thinking that you grew up in a Christian home or a Christian society, is not enough.

You have to know Jesus, you have to have accepted him, you have to ask him into your heart and you need to learn to follow the example he has provided.

Turning away and, even worse, leading others astray is something that God condemns. It won’t matter on Judgement Day, if you try to say you knew Jesus. Even Satan and all his demons know Jesus as well.

If you believe that you are a Christian or that your church teaches correct theology, measure against the Bible and not against what society says is true. You can only serve one master, God or Satan. If you are not serving God, then you are following Satan and doing his bidding.

Think about that for a minute. No matter what good you think you are doing, it will only be used to serve your master. Goodness isn’t in the sight of the world, it is in the sight of God.

All your efforts will ultimately be futile. Look first at yourself and get right with God. Then you can look outwardly to help others.

If you are walking towards destruction, those that follow you will also be destroyed. If you are walking towards heaven, you can tells others about it and set them on path to meet God. He is the only one who can provide salvation through his son, Jesus.

That is the truth and justice we should tell others about.

Matthew 7:21-23

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.

Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’

Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’

I don’t deserve God’s favor. There is nothing that I have done in my life that rates so high that God would look at me and say, you deserve to live with me forever.

Even though I am a sinner, God still loved me. In all my mess of life, in all the horrible things that I have done and thought about doing, God still loved me.

He loved me enough to sacrifice his son for me. The only way I could come before God, in all of his glory, was to be cleaned. I couldn’t do it by myself.

Living a “good life” and being kind to others isn’t enough. We all know what goes through our minds. We all know how often we give in to temptation. It doesn’t matter if the temptation is small or large, we still know when we have done something that isn’t acceptable.

Society has come up with a new way of defining acceptable. Apparently, whatever you think is good, is good for you. It doesn’t seem to matter if that “good” is harmful to others, you have to think and fend for yourself.

This is a way of covering up sin. That is all that it is. It is making excuses and allowing people to think that they are not doing something that is evil to God.

Of course, those individuals either deny that God exists or allow each person to define God as they wish to do so. That way, no one is accountable to a set of pre-ordained rules, they are the ruler makers themselves.

If they want to do something that is against their own rules, well, they can just redefine their rules and go on their way. If you don’t see a problem with this, then look again.

This is the slope of sin. It can start out small and then snowball into horrific and evil deeds. That is why we are seeing so many awful things on the news. So many people are hurting and killing one another without remorse.

They used to call these people sociopaths but now it is more widespread. Evil is out in the open and is acceptable to most. After all, what you call evil, I can call good.

The sad thing is that the one true set of rules is reviled. God gave us ten commandments. There is nothing about these rules that people should object to. They are rules that make sense and provide safety and love for one another.

Of course, we none of us can keep those rules. We are sinners. Give us a set of rules and we will look for ways to break them and then, to justify what we did.

That is why we are in the position with God that we are in. He can’t have a relationship with us because he is good and we are evil. He is clean and righteous. We are filthy and loathsome.

He had to give us a way to be cleaned. He sent his only son to live among us. Jesus lived with the same temptations and withstood them. Then, although he was the only individual to live without sin, he willingly gave up his life so that his sinless blood could cover our sins and wash away our filth.

He then rose from the grave to defeat sin and death. He gave us a promise. If we believed in him and gave our lives to him and lived to his purpose, our sins would be covered and forgiven. If we did this, we would live in heaven with God forever.

The only thing I had to do was to accept him. Then, to turn from my sins and live life as he had shown us. While I don’t have to do good works to earn salvation, I have found that I have a desire to do good and not evil. I fail often, but Jesus picks me back up and puts me back on his path and forgives me.

This is the God that I serve. He doesn’t require sacrifices, he gave the greatest sacrifice imaginable. He wants us to love one another and live in harmony.

This is the beauty and the promise of heaven. Those who accept Jesus will eventually live in the most wonderful place. If you want to live there, too, the same promise is there for you. Just turn to Jesus, accept him as your God and savior and, with his help, turn your life around and live for him.

Romans 5:12

Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned.

There seems to be many people who are announcing that they are ashamed of how they were made. Whether it be the color of their skin or who their ancestors were, it doesn’t make a difference. By the same token, there are those who take pride in their lineage, as if they were personally responsible for it.

Shame and pride are two sides of the same coin. It focuses attention on the individual and not on God.

You see, God made us perfect in his sight and that is the only vision that is really important. Whether you are one color or another, regardless of where you were born and who your forefathers were, God made you just as you are.

There is no shame and there is no pride in this for an individual. It is what it is. It is the work of the hand of God and it is good.

I will not be ashamed of my background but I will not take pride in it, either. There was a point in my life when I let things of the world dictate who I was. I carved my niche in life based on what society thought of me.

Honestly, it didn’t think much of me. My parents were born in poverty and I and my family didn’t have money or live in the best parts of town. I was ashamed that I had so few clothes (one pair of pants, two shirts and a pair of sandals) to my name.

I was ashamed of so much of my life but at the same time, I took way too much pride in my intellect. I could run rings around most people and did so for the fun of it. Looking back, if there was shame to be had, it was based on my pride.

However, when life fell apart for me, it was not my background and intellect that brought me down. It was my spiritual debasement that led me into all kinds of problems and sorrows.

When I had come to the end of my line and, rather than falling into pieces completely, I reached out to the hand that was being held out to me. There was someone who told me that he would save me and all I had to do was grab his hand and accept his help.

His name is Jesus and he brought me up from the depths of despair. He looked at me in all of my sin and still thought I was beautiful. He gave me a way to have my sin washed away, so that my shame could leave me and I could stand before God, pure and whole, clean for the first time in my life.

The shame that I should have felt, prior to meeting Jesus, was about the inside me and not the outside. It was how I chose to spend my life and where I let my thoughts lead me that were the problem.

Anyone who is focusing on their outside or that of someone else, is avoiding their true failings. They will point here and there to keep from seeing the truth. The truth is that they are completely responsible for their own sin. No one else has made them a sinner. If someone forces sin upon you, it isn’t your sin, it is theirs. Even so, we all sin and we all know it.

To talk about shame or pride is not what God wants from us. He wants us to love each other as we are. He wants a relationship with us. There is only one way to get to that point and that is through the salvation that Jesus offers. He is the only truth and the only way to reconciliation with God.

Before pointing out shame of others, look at your own spiritual situation. If you are not saved by Jesus, then you are spiritually dead to God. Once you are saved and living the life that Jesus showed to us, you will look at others differently.

You will not shame people, you will love them. You can love them because Jesus loved you in the midst of your sin and he loves everyone equally.

Psalm 139:13-16

For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.

I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.

My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.

Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could just ask God to heal us each and every time we were sick? Even better, wouldn’t it be fantastic if there was no illness, no sorrow, no death?

Sadly, that isn’t the case right now. We have all sorts of grief and calamities to beset us throughout life.

Some people blame God when things aren’t going exactly as they wish. They never look to see that the root of the problem is in themselves and throughout mankind.

God made us perfect. He gave us a beautiful garden to live in. He gave us dominion over the entire planet. We were to be caretakers. We were to multiply and live in peace with ourselves and with all of God’s creation. He gave us just one rule. Don’t eat of the fruit of one tree. The rest of creation was available to us, but not that one tree.

Of course, it didn’t take long before mankind broke that rule. Since then, mankind has broken every single rule God has ever told us to follow.

There’s something about the human heart that wants what it does not have. It seems that we covet what is there for the taking even if we hurt everyone and everything to get it.

We see this happening every single day. People are banding together to hurt one another and to either take or destroy the things that belong to others.

They are deciding who is worthy to live, based on their own criteria. You may be deemed unworthy based on your political beliefs, your skin color, your economic status, or even your religious beliefs. It can even be as simple as being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

It feels as if the creation is going crazy. They make excuses but, at the heart of it, it is evil. Hurting others and destroying are not things that God wants from his children. He wants us to love one another.

Satan is at the root of death and destruction. Those who are involved in what is going on are doing so at the behest of their heart’s master. Either God is your Lord or you have accepted Satan to serve. It is either one or the other.

It has gotten so bad and has such an effect on me, I have had to stop watching or reading the news. It has become a physical illness and I need to step back and know that God is in control.

Spending my time watching the evil unfold will not change anything. A better use of my time is to spend that time in prayer, asking God to save mankind from the evil that is all around us and within us.

I know, however, there is coming a day when mankind does attempt to destroy one another. If God doesn’t step in to stop it, we would do so.

I am beginning to wonder if this is the beginning of that time in mankind’s history.

While it is sad to see, I know that at the end of it, heaven awaits for those who follow Jesus and have accepted his sacrificial gift of forgiveness.

When that time arrives, the heavens and earth will be remade and, once again, it will be perfect. There will be no more sickness, no more death, no more pain, and no more sorrow.

Living through the terrible days that lead up to that time is a small price to pay. Having to make sacrifices and even give one’s life is something to glory in rather than to cry about. God sees us, he knows what we are going through. For those who have accepted Jesus, God is now their father.

He wants only good for us and, when we suffer for the sake of his name, the rewards we receive in heaven will be overwhelming. It is for us to look to the future, knowing the present is just a moment in time. The future is eternity and eternity will be beautiful.

I’m looking forward to that time and hope that more and more people will accept Jesus and join me in heaven for eternity.

Revelation 21: 1-4

Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea.

I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.

And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.

‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”