It will only matter who truly followed Christ

Whether you support or oppose Trump, this message urges Christians to examine the spiritual realities behind leadership, deception, and the coming judgment.

I wish I could claim credit for this writing, but it is a transcript from a YouTube video we saw.

God has always been in control of human history from the beginning of time. The rise and fall of nations, empires, and individual leaders has never happened by chance. We may see elections, political campaigns, and public opinion polls. But heaven sees providence, judgment, and divine orchestration.

The Bible is very clear. God raises up kings and he brings them down. He appoints rulers for His purposes, whether to bless or to judge, to guide or to expose. That truth should cause every Christian to take a step back and ask, “Lord, what are you saying through this moment in history?”

When we look at the figure of Donald Trump, we are not just looking at a political leader. We are witnessing the unfolding of God’s sovereign hand in real time. Some believe he was raised up to protect the church, defend conservative values, and fight for truth. Others believe he’s a deeply flawed man whose presence has caused division and moral confusion. But the truth lies not in the emotions of the people, but in the plan of God. And if God has allowed Donald Trump to rise, to fall, and perhaps even to rise again, we must ask ourselves what God is doing, not just what man is saying.

Go back to the Old Testament. Pharaoh was raised up not because he honored God, but because God wanted to show His power through Him. God told Pharaoh, “For this very purpose, I have raised you up that I might show my power in you.” Nebuchadnezzar, a pagan king, was called my servant by the Lord, not because of his righteousness, but because he was used to accomplish God’s judgment against Israel. Even Cyrus, the Persian king, was used to free God’s people, though he never truly followed the God of Israel. This pattern continues throughout scripture.

God does not need righteous men to fulfill righteous purposes. He uses whom He wills. So what about Donald Trump? Can God use someone with a morally questionable past, a prideful spirit, a divisive tone, and a strong personality to accomplish His purposes? Of course, he can.

But here’s the danger. Too many Christians mistake God’s use of a man as God’s endorsement of a man. And that’s where we must exercise biblical discernment. The fact that someone is in power or appears to be a defender of Christian values does not mean God is pleased with them. It may mean God is using them as a test for the nation, for the church, and for the individual believer. This is not the time to put blind trust in a man. It’s the time to open our eyes to what God may be doing through that man.

Sometimes God gives a nation the leader it asks for, not as a blessing, but as a consequence. Israel cried out for a king, and they got Saul. He looked impressive, spoke with authority, and won the people’s loyalty. But inside, he was disobedient, proud, and unfit to lead. God allowed it, not because Saul was the answer, but because the people had rejected God as their true king.

Could it be that Trump is not the solution, but the spotlight, revealing the heart of the church and the soul of the nation? The church must not be naive. Just because someone waves the Bible or uses religious language does not mean they walk in the fear of God. The scriptures tell us that Satan himself disguises as an angel of light. That means deception is not always obvious. It can look patriotic. It can sound moral. It can appear strong. But only those who walk close to Christ will recognize whether a leader is being used by God for redemption or for judgment.

We are living in prophetic times. Every headline, every courtroom decision, every election result is echoing what the spirit is already saying to the church.

Wake up.

Discern the times.

Don’t put your trust in princes, in mortal men who cannot save.

If God has raised up Donald Trump in this hour, it is not for us to exalt him. It is for us to examine ourselves. One of the greatest tragedies in the modern church is how easily we exchange the glory of God for the excitement of politics. We are witnessing a generation of believers who are more passionate about defending a politician than proclaiming the gospel. That should deeply concern us. God never called His people to pledge their allegiance to a man, no matter how charismatic, bold, or seemingly conservative he may be. And yet what we’re seeing today is a disturbing shift in the hearts of many Christians where loyalty to Donald Trump has begun to eclipse loyalty to Jesus Christ. This isn’t about whether you agree with his policies or appreciate his leadership. This is about something much deeper, something spiritual.

When a man is talked about more in churches than the cross, when he is praised louder than Christ, when his critics are condemned more fiercely than sin itself, then we are no longer standing on the foundation of scripture. We are standing on the shaky ground of idolatry. And make no mistake, idolatry doesn’t always look like a golden statue or a carved image. Sometimes it looks like a political banner, a campaign slogan, or an unwavering defense of a leader who has become untouchable in the minds of the people. There’s a danger in elevating any human being to a level where criticism feels like blasphemy.

That is not how God has called us to think. The Lord is jealous for His glory. He will not share it. Not with a president, not with a party, not with a movement. And when the church begins to blur the lines between reverence for Christ and allegiance to a man, judgment always follows. Just look at Israel in the Old Testament. Time and time again, they placed their trust in kings and alliances, thinking they were securing peace and protection, only to find themselves under the hand of divine discipline.

Why? Because they forgot the one who delivered them in the first place.

We have to ask ourselves some hard questions. Are we more broken over the condition of our nation or over the condition of our own hearts? Are we more focused on what’s happening in Washington than what’s happening in the pulpits? Are we more committed to winning elections than winning souls? When the church becomes more energized by political victories than spiritual revival, we’ve lost our way.

God does not need a president to accomplish His will. He needs a holy church that fears Him more than it fears losing cultural influence. Let’s be honest. Some of us have defended sin in the name of strategy. We’ve excused arrogance, dismissed immorality, and explained away division because we believe the ends justify the means. But God never operates that way.

He never blesses compromise. He never uses darkness to achieve light without first exposing the darkness. And he never compromises without first exposing the darkness.

We must remember that truth is not optional. It is the sword of the spirit. And when we lay it down for political gain, we are disarming ourselves in a spiritual war. We can’t fight deception with deception. We fight it with holiness, humility, and the unfiltered Word of God. Now more than ever, we need discernment.

The enemy is not always outside the camp. Sometimes he walks right through the gates dressed like a savior. Satan doesn’t mind using someone who sounds conservative if it leads the church into complacency, pride, or blind loyalty.

That’s why God warns us over and over again, do not put your trust in princes.

Our hope is not in who sits in the Oval Office. Our hope is in the one who sits on the throne of heaven. So if God is sending a prophetic warning in this hour, it may not be about Trump alone. It may be about the condition of our worship. In other words, who do we praise? Who do we trust? Who do we follow when the world is burning?

If the answer is anyone other than Jesus Christ, then we have already traded truth for a lie, and God will not leave that unchallenged. It’s essential that we understand the difference between being used by God and being approved by God. That distinction may seem small, but it’s critical.

All throughout scripture, God has used individuals, some righteous, some wicked, to fulfill His divine purposes. But in no way did that usage mean he condoned their character or blessed their behavior. God can work through anyone, including deeply flawed people, but that doesn’t mean he endorses them.

We must never confuse God’s sovereignty with His approval. When we look at the figure of Donald Trump, we see a man who has undeniably shaken the political landscape and for better or worse disrupted the flow of how things have operated in America for decades. His boldness, his resistance to political correctness, and his stance on certain moral and national issues have attracted many Christians who feel like they finally have someone fighting for their values. In fact, we must face the fact that not everyone fights for their values. Some sects of a society have fallen because of it.

But here’s the danger. Just because someone fights for your values does not mean they walk in the spirit. And just because God uses someone to protect certain freedoms doesn’t mean we should blindly follow them. Let’s not forget that God used Pharaoh to demonstrate His power through the plagues. He used Balam’s donkey to speak truth when Balam himself was disobedient. He used Judas Iscariot to bring about the betrayal of Christ, fulfilling prophecy down to the detail. These people were all used by God, but they were not honored by God for their hearts. In fact, many of them were under judgment. And yet, they were instruments in the larger plan. That’s the sovereignty of God in motion. He uses all things, even those opposed to Him, to bring about His purposes. There are moments in history where God raises up a man not to bless the nation, but to expose it. Sometimes it’s not about building but about revealing. That’s what many have missed. We assume that if God is using someone, it must be a sign of divine favor.

But scripture reminds us that even the antichrist will perform signs and wonders. Even he will gather a massive following. Usefulness is not the test of righteousness.

Obedience, humility, and surrender to God’s word. That’s the true test.

And where those qualities are lacking, we must be cautious, not celebratory.

What we are witnessing may be a divine spotlight. Through Donald Trump, God may be revealing the idolatry in the church, the compromise in our pulpits, the shallowness of our discernment. If we support someone because they hold up a Bible, yet we never question how they live, what they promote, or how they speak, then we’ve lost sight of what matters. The enemy doesn’t always work by opposing the church. Sometimes he infiltrates it by offering a counterfeit champion, someone who looks like a defender but lacks the fruit of the spirit.

Now, this isn’t a call to political disengagement. Christians should care about truth, about justice, about the moral direction of our nation. But we cannot do so at the expense of our calling to be a holy, distinct, and Christ-centered people.

We are not here to serve an earthly kingdom. We are here to represent a heavenly one. And our witness becomes compromised when we excuse sin for the sake of influence or when we defend actions that contradict the very gospel we preach.

We need to step back and ask, are we following a man because we believe he is God’s chosen vessel? Or are we surrendering our discernment because it’s convenient?

Has our admiration become blind? Have we silenced the voice of the Holy Spirit in favor of loyalty to someone who, though used by God, may also be part of His judgment?

These are hard questions, but we must ask them because the health of the church depends on our ability to separate spiritual clarity from emotional allegiance. Just because someone is part of God’s plan doesn’t mean they are walking in God’s presence. We have to come to terms with something many don’t want to hear.

The turmoil in America right now is not just political unrest. It’s spiritual judgment. It’s not merely the result of policy failures, cultural shifts, or leadership flaws. This shaking we’re seeing across every level of society is not accidental. It’s not random. It’s divine.

God is not watching from a distance while a nation spirals into confusion. He is speaking through the chaos. And the question is, are we listening?

When you see a country torn in two, when truth is no longer welcomed, when corruption is celebrated and sin is normalized, don’t be fooled into thinking this is just another political season.

No, this is God removing the hedge. This is what happens when a people blessed beyond measure turn their backs on the One who gave them everything. America isn’t just declining. America is being warned. And sadly, many in the church are still asleep clinging to the hope that a politician or a party will fix what only repentance can heal.

There was a time when God would bless a land because of the righteous remnant within it. But there also comes a time when he allows a nation to be ruled by confusion, by lawlessness, by leaders who reflect the very heart of the people. When that happens, it’s not a glitch in the system. It’s a judgment from God. Read Romans 1. When a society rejects God, he gives them over to depraved minds. over to moral blindness, over to the very sins they celebrate. And when you look around at the state of this nation, it’s undeniable we are already under that kind of judgment.

Donald Trump didn’t cause all of this. Nor is he the solution to all of it. His rise to power was a symptom of something deeper, something brewing for decades. His fall from influence and return aren’t just headlines. They’re a divine mirror. Through his time on the world stage, God has exposed more than just political corruption. He’s exposed the hearts of men and women across the nation, including within the church. How quickly many traded conviction for convenience, traded discernment for loyalty, traded the fear of God for the favor of a man.

This shaking is God’s megaphone. And it’s not just about America. It’s about the church. Judgment begins at the house of God. Before nations are held accountable, God looks to His people and says, “What have you done with the truth I gave you?

What did you do with my Word, my spirit, my son?” And right now, the answer many churches would have to give is sobering. We watered down the gospel. We turned a blind eye to sin. We embraced political platforms more than prophetic truth. We got comfortable in Babylon.

We must not miss what God is saying. If we keep interpreting spiritual warnings as political trends, we will miss the whole point. God is not interested in whether America swings left or right. He is interested in whether His people will humble themselves and repent. If you think a better economy or a stronger border or a louder voice in Washington is the solution, you’ve missed the crisis entirely.

The crisis is spiritual. And only spiritual surrender will heal it. It may be that the Trump era, whether past, present, or future, isn’t about a man’s leadership, but about God’s alarm clock to the church.

He is telling us to wake up, to stop idolizing leaders, to turn from sin, to return to Him. Because when God sends judgment, he always sends warning first. And what we’re experiencing right now may be the last call before the collapse.

The shaking in this nation is not a call to fight harder in politics. It’s a call to fall lower in repentance. We are living in a time when the church is being tempted to trade its prophetic voice for political power. The call to holiness, the urgency of the gospel, the clarity of truth.

These things are being pushed aside by a desperate desire to remain relevant, influential, and aligned with whoever promises to protect our interests. That’s not the mission God gave us. The church was never called to be a political machine. We were called to be a light in the darkness, a pillar of truth, a prophetic witness to a fallen world.

But somewhere along the way, we decided that if we just attach ourselves to the right people, the right policies, the right personalities, we can preserve our influence. And in doing so, many have compromised the truth.

Truth is not negotiable. It’s not something we bend or soften depending on who’s in office. The Word of God is not Republican or Democrat. It’s not American or European. It is holy, eternal, and unchanging. And when the church begins to adjust its message so it doesn’t offend the political figures it supports, that’s not wisdom. That’s disobedience.

We cannot afford to soften our preaching just to maintain political access. God doesn’t honor compromise, no matter how strategic we think it is. He honors obedience. And if our loyalty to a candidate prevents us from calling out sin, then we’ve already surrendered our authority.

What has happened in recent years is that many pulpits have gone silent, not because there’s nothing to say, but because speaking would cost them something. Churches are afraid to speak out on issues of integrity, pride, immorality, and division if doing so would reflect poorly on the politicians they support.

That’s not boldness. That’s cowardice. And it reveals where our trust really lies. Are we trusting in Christ or in political figures?

Are we depending on the spirit of God or on the power of earthly influence?

Jesus didn’t die so we could preserve a culture. He died to save sinners. He didn’t come to install a government. He came to establish a kingdom. A kingdom not of this world. And yet many believers are acting as if our mission is to defend a temporary system rather than proclaim an eternal truth.

We have confused preserving Christian comfort with fulfilling the great commission. And because of that, we’ve allowed ourselves to excuse behavior that under any other circumstance we would condemn.

We must be honest. If the same arrogance, dishonesty, or immoral behavior came from someone outside our political tribe, we’d call it out immediately. Because it comes from someone we believe is on our side, we justify it. We explain it away. We say, “Well, at least he’s fighting for us.” But friends, God never calls us to defend sin because it’s politically useful. He calls us to stand for righteousness regardless of the cost. And that’s the challenge in this hour.

Will the church be the church? Will we be a people set apart? Or will we become a religious extension of a political campaign? God has never needed a president to accomplish His will. He needs a people who fear Him more than they fear losing popularity.

He needs leaders who are willing to speak the truth even when it’s not convenient. Even when it offends their own base, even when it costs them influence and friends and maybe even their position.

We are in a moment of decision. Will we uphold the gospel with integrity, or will we dilute it for access? Will we honor Christ with undivided hearts? Or will we keep sacrificing the truth on the altar of political expedience?

Because one thing is certain. If the church refuses to speak truth now, we may find ourselves irrelevant when the culture finally crumbles. Silence in the face of compromise is not neutrality. It is betrayal.

There’s something stirring in the spirit of the age. Something that feels like a final warning. The events unfolding in the world, the chaos in society, the division in families, the upheaval in government. It all points to a deeper shaking.

And many believers sense it. They may not be able to explain it, but they feel it in their bones. We are not living in normal times. We are standing at the edge of something eternal. And the window of God’s mercy is beginning to close.

Donald Trump, for all the controversy and commotion surrounding him, may not be the main character in this unfolding drama. He may simply be one of God’s instruments to wake the church up before it’s too late. His unexpected rise, his unrelenting presence in public discourse. None of this is accidental. It’s part of a divine pattern.

God often uses disruptive figures to shake His people out of complacency. He will sometimes raise up someone who doesn’t fit the mold, someone who turns the system upside down. Not because that person is righteous, but because the people have grown numb to righteousness.

God sent prophets to Israel, not always to comfort them, but to confront them. And sometimes when they stopped listening to the prophets, he allowed kings and rulers to take the stage. Not to save, but to sift. What if the era we’re witnessing is not God exalting a man, but God exposing a nation? What if Trump’s time in power and the reaction to him is meant to reveal what’s truly in the hearts of Americans, especially professing Christians.

Look at what has happened. We’ve seen churches split, not over doctrine, but over politics. We’ve watched believers attack one another, not over sin, but over party loyalty. We’ve seen pastors compromise their message, Christians compromise their character and the world looks on in confusion because those who are supposed to represent Christ have gotten lost in a sea of slogans and campaign rallies.

If that doesn’t tell us something is wrong, we are beyond blind.

This moment is not about Trump. It’s about time. God is not measuring our faithfulness by how loudly we support a candidate. He is measuring our readiness by how urgently we repent, how deeply we obey, and how boldly we proclaim Christ.

The storm we’re seeing isn’t just cultural. It’s prophetic. It’s the sound of God warning His people that judgment is at the door and grace will not be offered forever. We are approaching the midnight hour and what we do in this season will echo into eternity.

If the church continues to sleep through the warning, if we keep arguing over temporary things while eternal souls hang in the balance, we will stand before God one day and answer for our silence. This is not the time to double down on our political strategies. This is the time to fall on our faces in repentance. God is giving us a window, a short one, to turn from idols, to turn from compromise, and to fix our eyes back on the cross.

We are being tested, not by the world, but by the Lord Himself. He is watching to see whether His people will awaken before the judgment fully descends. The shaking in the economy, the moral collapse in society, the hatred, the deception, the confusion. These aren’t just warning signs. They’re acts of divine mercy.

God always warns before He judges.

And this may be our last warning. Whatever happens in the future, it will not change what God expects from His people. He’s not looking for political warriors. He’s looking for spiritual worshippers, those who will not bow to the golden calves of power, comfort, or control, those who will stand for truth, preach the gospel, and live holy lives even when the world burns around them.

When the final trumpet sounds, it won’t matter who led the nation. It will only matter who truly followed Christ.

Do you love?

Maybe it’s time to do a quick checkup on our love? If we hate anyone, we go against Jesus’ command to love with all of our heart, soul, strength and mind.

Someone once told me they couldn’t love a particular kind of person. I told them about Jesus’ command, also saying God didn’t ask us to like or love people’s behavior, but that we should love the person and pray for that person. It’s important to know the difference and act accordingly.

So I repeat the question, do you love? Completely?

Brandon Robbins talks about false teachings

Youtube has a lot of videos, some good, some not so good. Brandon Robbins is a pastor/teacher who freely shares deep spiritual insights on a myriad of subjects. This video was one that we thought very helpful in learning ways to further study the Bible accurately. Hope you gain something that will encourage you in your study.

Discernment – What to think about

It is of utmost importance to pray for discernment from God to confirm what is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, and praiseworthy. Then, we should make the habit of keeping our minds centered, through Jesus, and think about those things. If we think of things that are negative, then our minds are not centered on what God wants us to think about. sharinHislove.com

Philippians 4:8
Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.

Continue reading “Discernment – What to think about”

The Deadliest Form of Fake News, and How to Identify Reliable Information

12.5.2023

No one likes to learn that there may be errors or falsehoods in their religions, traditions, churches, or personal beliefs. We should find ways to determine the accuracy of our research, use those that we trust, and seek to understand what religions teach or believe to accurately discuss or write concerning those subjects.

An article How to Identify Reliable Information, addresses this topic: 

https://www.stevenson.edu/online/about-us/news/how-to-identify-reliable-information/

 “Whether you are a journalist, researcher writer or someone in the professional fields, it is important to know how to identify real information and use it accurately. That is our real challenge in the 21st century – Lee E Krahenbuhl, Communication Studies Program Coordinator

With the infinite amount of information online, it can be difficult to decipher what is true and accurate and what is not. Once you know the trick to identifying reliable information, you can quickly determine if what you are reading is accurate or not.

What is reliable information?

Reliable information must come from dependable sources. According to UGA Libraries, a reliable source will provide a “thorough, well-reasoned theory, argument, based on strong evidence.”

 Widely credible sources include:

  • Scholarly, peer-reviewed articles and books
  • Trade or professional articles or books, magazine articles, books, and newspaper articles from well-established companies
  • Other sources like websites and blog posts can be dependable but require further evaluation.

You may be asking yourself, “what source is best for me?” Depending on the type of information you need, your sources may vary. Look at journal articles and research-based reports. This is because those types of sources typically include more information on the topic at hand.

How to identify reliable sources

What makes the source reliable?

To determine whether a source is reliable or not, you must look at certain criteria. That criteria are as follows:

Authority:

  • Who is the author?
  • What are their credentials?
  • Do they have knowledgeable experience in the field
  • What is their reputation?

Accuracy: Compare the author’s information to that which you already know is dependable.

  • Are there proper citations?
  • Is the information biased?
  • If so, does it affect research conclusions?

Coverage: Is the information relevant to your topic and does it meet your needs? Consider what you need such as statistics, charts, and graphs.

Currency: Is your topic constantly evolving? Topics in the news require sources that are up to date.

The importance of reliable information

The Internet is scattered with biased, misleading, and altogether incorrect information and that is why it is important to follow the above criteria. The importance of using reliable sources truly boils down to effective communication. If your knowledge is based on unreliable information, you will not be a trustworthy asset.

Credible communication is key in discussing a subject. That is why you should not just grab any information off the Internet. Using unreliable sources results in negative consequences.

Credibility is especially important because using unreliable data can cause questions that may undermine your reliability and may cause others to rely solely on their own opinions rather than factual data.

Using credible sources for information will increase your reputation and trustworthiness. An article by the Ivy Business Journal supports this idea by expressing that trust is a key factor in building loyalty, increasing credibility, and supporting effective communication. It is important to develop your skills in identifying reliable resources, because it will help you become an effective communicator, reader, and/or writer.

Truth

With all that is going on all over the world, listening to others, watching tv, or receiving information from a myriad of sources, it is often difficult to determine what is “truth”.

It is very important to ask God for guidance of our every thought, words, and actions.

There’s a fork in the road.

If we choose the way of personally accepting Jesus (which is the decision to do everything through love, and as a result gives us a new heart-set), then we don’t ever have to go down the road of destruction that the other decision leads to.

OBEDIENCE – The way to true freedom

Genesis 3:

 5 God knows that your eyes will be opened as soon as you eat it, and you will be like God, knowing both good and evil.

Adam and Eve got what they wanted:An intimate knowledge of both good and evil.

But they got it in a distorted and painful way. satan had twisted their thinking by telling them they could know the difference between good and evil by doing evil.

We sometimes have the illusion that “freedom” is doing what we want. God says true freedom comes from Obedience and knowing what NOT to do.

The restrictions He gives us are for our own good, showing us how to avoid evil.

We have the freedom to walk in front of a speeding car, but we don’t need to be hit to realize that it would be a foolish thing to do.

Don’t listen to satan’s temptations to experience evil in order to learn more about life.

satan used a sincere motive to tempt Eve–“you will be like God, knowing both good and evil”

To become more like God is the highest goal of humanity.

It is what we are supposed to do.

But satan misled Eve on the right way to accomplish this goal.

He told her that you become more like God by defying God’s authority, by taking God’s place and deciding for yourself what is best for your life.

You become your own god.

But scripture clearly states that to become like God is not to be God Himself.

Rather, it is to reflect His characteristics and recognize His authority over your life.

Like Eve, we often have a worthy goal but try to achieve it in the wrong way.

It’s like paying off an election judge to be voted into office. Serving the people is no longer the highest goal.

The ultimate goal of self-exaltation is rebellion against God.

As soon as we begin to leave God out of our plans, we are placing ourselves above Him, which is exactly what satan wants us to do.

In the lion’s den

The angel that came to Daniel in the pit did not kill the lions he simply closed their mouths and stood with him in the midst of terrible danger.Meshach, Shadrach, and Abednego were not saved from the fire they stood in the midst of it with their savior. Moses and the Israelites did not have the Red Sea removed from in front of them it was simply parted for them to walk through. Silver is refined in the refiner’s fire and it’s only finished once the Refiner’s reflection can be seen in the silver. Grapes are crushed under foot to produce the sweetest wine, and olives are pressed in order to extract the purest oil.What makes you think that we are any different? We will walk through this tribulation, many will fall away because they stand on sand not the Cornerstone, Yeshua and scriptural truth, The WORD.

Larissa C. Clark

Is once saved, always saved biblical?

video
once saved always saved
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ANSWER

Once a person is saved are they always saved? Yes, when people come to know Christ as their Savior, they are brought into a relationship with God that guarantees their salvation as eternally secure. To be clear, salvation is more than saying a prayer or “making a decision” for Christ; salvation is a sovereign act of God whereby an unregenerate sinner is washed, renewed, and born again by the Holy Spirit (John 3:3Titus 3:5). When salvation occurs, God gives the forgiven sinner a new heart and puts a new spirit within him (Ezekiel 36:26). The Spirit will cause the saved person to walk in obedience to God’s Word (Ezekiel 36:26–27James 2:26). Numerous passages of Scripture declare the fact that, as an act of God, salvation is secure:

(a) Romans 8:30 declares, “And those He predestined, He also called; those He called, He also justified; those He justified, He also glorified.” This verse tells us that from the moment God chooses us, it is as if we are glorified in His presence in heaven. There is nothing that can prevent a believer from one day being glorified because God has already purposed it in heaven. Once a person is justified, his salvation is guaranteed—he is as secure as if he is already glorified in heaven.

(b) Paul asks two crucial questions in Romans 8:33-34 “Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.” Who will bring a charge against God’s elect? No one will, because Christ is our advocate. Who will condemn us? No one will, because Christ, the One who died for us, is the one who condemns. We have both the advocate and judge as our Savior.

(c) Believers are born again (regenerated) when they believe (John 3:3Titus 3:5). For a Christian to lose his salvation, he would have to be un-regenerated. The Bible gives no evidence that the new birth can be taken away.

(d) The Holy Spirit indwells all believers (John 14:17Romans 8:9) and baptizes all believers into the Body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12:13). For a believer to become unsaved, he would have to be “un-indwelt” and detached from the Body of Christ.

(e) John 3:15 states that whoever believes in Jesus Christ will “have eternal life.” If you believe in Christ today and have eternal life, but lose it tomorrow, then it was never “eternal” at all. Hence, if you lose your salvation, the promises of eternal life in the Bible would be in error.

(f) In a conclusive argument, Scripture says, “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38–39). Remember the same God who saved you is the same God who will keep you. Once we are saved, we are always saved. Our salvation is most definitely eternally secure!

Despite the clouds

Written by Blake Rackley)

(Forgive typos…Today has been long. Well, this year has been long.) So much is weighing heavy on the hearts of others. This week I listened to those who grieve the loss of identity, the loss of love, the loss of faith, and the loss of purpose. So many questions that have so few answers or at least answers that satisfy and calm their fears. They feel aimless and stuck. Maybe you feel similar. Maybe it is your job, the future, a relationship. You simply feel stuck by not knowing what decision is the “right” decision so you make no decision at all. Maybe you are nursing scars no one see. Maybe you are bleeding from wounds that do not bleed crimson and bandages do not help. The running theme of many who are experiencing this level of pain is that they do not want to burden another person with their “stuff”. Sadly, they suffer in silence and feel totally alone. Think for a moment. Have you ever seen a lone goose? A solitary, Canadian, turd dropping, Christmas goose flying all by their lonesome? My guess is that you haven’t. If you do, that is one lost goose. They are most always in a flock. They take turns with the burden of leading. They encourage by those obnoxious honks. They rest often. They have a destination, but it is often arrived at in the company of others. They will fly despite the clouds and gloom around them. They will fly at times in the rain, but they seek shelter together. They do not feel the need to do anything singularly. Why then do we believe we have to do anything by ourselves? We are called to bear one another’s burdens. So, I’m calling my brothers and sisters in Christ to help those around them. Sit with them. Eat with them. Shelter with them. Listen to their story. Encourage them with hope. But more than anything, fly with them through their clouds of depression, anxiety, abuse, loss, hopelessness, and failure. We all are more likely to fly on, fly farther, and fly with purpose when we have others behind us despite the dark clouds hanging over us. Quit saying, “If you need me, I’m always here.” They will almost never call you. If we want the world to know we love Jesus, we must intentionally bear the burdens of others by vulnerability and loving one another.

Don’t Find Fault

by Bryan Lowe

“You may think you can condemn such people, but you are just as bad, and you have no excuse! When you say they are wicked and should be punished, you are condemning yourself, for you who judge others do these very same things.”

Romans 2:1, NLT

One of the spiritual diseases endemic to the Christian believer is “fault finding”. For some reason, (and I’m still trying to figure out why), is we have a strong inclination to pass a judgement on people (those whom Christ died for!)  We don’t throw stones (far be it from me)– however, we certainly do and will point fingers. And perhaps we feel that its our religious duty, or maybe even our ministry (!).

Almost always, there a sense of certain and attainable righteousness. or our generated holiness involved. This should not be dismissed or overlooked. Because I believe I am right, and have religious grounds, I put all of the “evil sinners” on trial, and then I pronounce my verdict. (And they certainly deserve whatever I decide.)

Much of the same type of thinking was used in Romans 2.  Paul castigates those who were judging others. He goes on a scathing and sizzling rebuke directly at those who were destroying others by their overly-righteous attitude.

” And we know that God, in his justice, will punish anyone who does such things. 3 Since you judge others for doing these things, why do you think you can avoid God’s judgment when you do the same things? 4 Don’t you see how wonderfully kind, tolerant, and patient God is with you? Does this mean nothing to you? Can’t you see that his kindness is intended to turn you from your sin?.”

Romans 2:3-4

Without a doubt this whole subject is highly complex and nuanced. Hundreds of verses should be worked through. But this blog is not that place. However, I will advance this– I read this written by the Desert Fathers.

“Correct and judge justly those who are subject to you, but judge no one else. For truly it is written: ‘Is not those inside the church whom are you to judge? God judges those who are outside’.

Macarius of Alexandria, 296-393 AD



A Simple Poem of a Quiet Wisdom

Pray, don’t find fault with the man who limps
Or stumbles along the road
Unless you have worn the shoes that hurt
Or struggled beneath his load
There may be tacks in his shoes that hurt,
Though hidden away from view
Or the burden he bears, placed on your back,
Might cause you to stumble, too.
Don’t sneer at the man who’s down today
Unless you have felt the blow
That caused his fall, or felt the same
That only the fallen know.
You may be strong, but still the blows
That were his, if dealt to you
In the self same way at the self same time,
Might cause you to stagger, too.
Don’t be too harsh with the man who sins
Or pelt him with words or stones,
Unless you are sure, yea, doubly sure,
That you have no sins of your own.
For you know perhaps, if the tempters voice
Should whisper as soft to you
As it did to him when he went astray,
‘Twould cause you to falter, too.

5 WAYS TO USE YOUR SUFFERING TO LEAD OTHERS TO CHRIST

When was the last time your suffering led others to Christ? Ever since I scribbled these words, they continue to stare me in the eye—expecting a response.

The truth is I don’t know if I’ve ever prompted anyone to step closer to the Lord by how I handled sorrow. Pain tends to compel the crabby in me – enough to blame someone else for my suffering.

I doubt I’m alone. When in pain, it seems only human to default to finger-pointing—including at God.

“Are you heartless, or are you just incapable of healing my chronic pain, God?”
“If the store had posted a warning sign, I wouldn’t have slipped on the wet floor.”
“We got into the accident because you ran the red light!”

Jesus modeled suffering in a radically different way. The Son determined to live and die by glorifying the Father, even while enduring crucifixion and its excruciating pain. Jesus carried Himself with such dignity, it forced a handful of witnesses to face their own day of reckoning.

More on this later.

As a Christian, I aspire to emulate Jesus in every way—including during life’s harrowing moments. Don’t you?

The good news is learning to suffer Jesus’ way is doable. If it wasn’t, the Bible wouldn’t have recorded the following five principles He demonstrated while crucified:

  1. Non-Defensive
    When those around Jesus did nothing but revile Him, He didn’t defend Himself. Neither did He attack them back (1 Peter 2:23). Jesus stayed silent (Isaiah 53:7). By doing so, He fully exhibited trust that God would avenge Him without having to do so Himself (1 Samuel 24:12).

Do you know how hard it is to clamp your mouth when you’re being assailed? I do. As a therapist, I strive to not defend myself if something I say riles up my client. It doesn’t matter how innocent my intentions might have been. If there’s a part of the client who finds my words offensive, my job is to listen and process that experience with the client. Defending ourselves is improper for therapists to do because that’s hardly what any client needs. Ever.

Like Jesus, you and I don’t need to engage in self-defense even if someone decides to harass us in our pain. The Lord is still the most powerful Avenger there is (Psalm 94:1). The One who sees everything will make things right in due time (Ecclesiastes 3:11).

  1. No Pity Party
    Every group of people surrounding Jesus mocked Him mercilessly:

Passersby (Matthew 27:39-40),
Spiritual leaders (Matthew 27: 41-43, Luke 23:35),
Roman soldiers (Luke 23: 36-37),
And the two criminals condemned to death alongside him (Matthew 27: 38, Matthew 27: 44, Mark 15:32).
But even though their derision must have hurt, what might have stung even more was the roaring passivity of Jesus’ own loved ones. A tiny band of followers, including His mother, a few other women, and the apostle John, all witnessed Jesus’ abuse and humiliation—but none of them said a peep (John 19: 25-27).

If it were me bleeding on the cross? Hearing vicious sneers, coupled with my support system’s sustained silence, would’ve easily triggered a serious self-pitying episode.

Not Jesus. Never once did He pull a psalm-style lamentation of how long will you let these guys pummel me like this, Lord, when I did nothing to provoke them? Scour every book in the Bible, Old and New Testament combined, and you’ll find zero mention of Jesus crying on the cross. None.

Crucifixion is likely the most painful way to die ever invented, yet the Son of God shed no tears. Why?

Because Jesus refused to indulge in a pity party.

Self-pity sucks all of the attention to ourselves—This hurts so bad! Why hasn’t anyone checked up on me? Does anyone even care? Because the whining in self-pity repulses everyone else, pity partiers tend to cry all by themselves. Their act makes it impossible for others to respond with compassion.

Let’s resolve to ban any pity party even if our suffering feels unjust.

  1. Selflessness
    Because Jesus squelched the temptation to pity Himself, He allowed the love of God to fully commandeer His attention.

Even though breathing—let alone speaking—would’ve wrecked His body with more unimaginable pain, Jesus intentionally did the following. He spent the energy to instruct His disciple, John, to care for His mother, Mary, from that point on (John 19:26-27).

Such selfless love!

A friend demonstrated how striking it is when we mimic Jesus’ winsome attitude. This fellow believer suffers from pancreatitis. She spent three weeks at the hospital for a major surgery. She has steadily lost weight and has to eat through a feeding tube for six months—yet, despite all the mental and physical pain she has to endure, she cares enough to ask how I’m doing.

Anytime we attend to another person, regardless of the intensity of our pain, we’re gently leading that person closer to our Father. That’s because only God’s love can inspire us to exhibit the unselfish love of 1 Corinthians 10:24—including in the midst of our suffering.

In this me-first world, such outrageous benevolence creates an unforgettable impression. It may even compel the recipient to investigate, “why are you so kind?”

At which point we can smile and explain: Christ in us, the hope of glory (Colossians 1: 27).

  1. He Sought Proper Help
    There’s another reason I cherish the friend I mentioned above: she recognizes her limits. She didn’t conceal her need due to pride. Instead, she reached out to me and confided in me about her medical struggles. And when I offered to intercede, she gladly received my prayer.

How many are too proud to disclose our needs to each other?

My friend sought appropriate assistance because she needed it. In doing so she modeled after Jesus, who also appealed for help while on the cross.

On the surface, it seems as though Jesus’ words to the Father conveyed a son’s protest for his dad’s abandonment (Matthew 27:46). However, notice that Jesus directed His plea to God in a transparent and respectful manner. Contrast this attitude to many who, in their pain, give God the silent treatment or curse Him instead—like Job’s wife, for instance (Job 2:9).

The Lord will never forsake anyone who seeks Him (Psalm 9:10). So, if you want your suffering to count, never abandon the God who has loved you with an everlasting love (Jeremiah 31:3). Then, seek proper help—in the spiritual, physical, as well as emotional realm.

  1. He Forgave Fiercely
    Forgiveness benefits the forgiver. We don’t forgive for the sake of those who wronged us, but for our own (Matthew 6:14-15, Luke 6:37). But if this truth is applicable to humans, then it applies to Jesus, too, given his status as fully God and fully human (John 1:1, John 1:14, Philippians 2:7).

https://thechristiannerd.tech.blog/

Is He Your Friend, or a Doctrine?

 

“A rule I have had for years is: to treat the Lord Jesus Christ as a personal friend. His is not a creed, a mere doctrine, but it is He Himself we have.”

  ~D.L. Moody

Friendship with God can be a liberating secret. It releases us from the terrible bondage of religion and ritual with all its negative connotations. Intimacy with our Lord will carry us beyond creed or doctrine to the place of true communion.

It’s not that the Law is bad, but in the intense light of God’s grace it’s a poor substitute. We value legalism, and that is precisely what we believe when we bypass the relationship. Doctrine is a good servant, but a poor master. Grace always trumps legalism.

We evangelicals talk big about “a personal relationship.” That is indeed crucial. But few be the believers that walk in a daily friendship with their Savior. That is truly a tragedy.

“I no longer call you slaves, because a master doesn’t confide in his slaves. Now you are my friends, since I have told you everything the Father told me.”

John 15:15, NLT

Friendship with Jesus will bring true guidance. He shares secrets and wisdom to his friends. We are brought into a true knowledge of the Kingdom through the relationship of friendship with the King. We are not slaves– or drones, slavishly serving out of slavish fear.

We are His friends.

Jesus wants to confide in us; sharing mysteries hidden by time and sin. And his kingdom is full of amazing perplexities! He is looking to bring us into a willingness of a daily communion.

He will heal our wounds, and forgive all our sins. He is truly our savior as well as our friend.

Friendship comes with a price. It means we are now tethered to the Lord. That can get old, especially when I want to do my own thing. I will continually have to lay things down, and choose to accept tether and follow Him.

But my soul now has a best friend.

I don’t know

I feel the most unsettled when I’m uncertain about the future.Many of you are also probably facing circumstances that have left you feeling caught off guard and unsure about what tomorrow holds. So many times I find myself bracing for impact when I check my daily news feed. If there’s one word that seems most certain to describe the times we are living in, it’s “uncertain.”There are thousands of scenarios that evoke these feelings of uncertainty, fear and exhaustion from life not being like you thought it would be.Whatever your situation, you probably feel like you can’t change it, but you still have to live through the realities of what’s happening right now. Sometimes you just have to walk in your “I don’t know.” The Lord makes it clear in His Word that things will not always go as we wish they would in this life. The crucial detail for us to have peace in the middle of everything we face is to stay close to the Lord. We think we want comfort in the “I don’t know” times of life. But comfort isn’t a solution to seek; rather, it’s a byproduct we’ll reap when we stay close to the Lord.I wish I could promise you that everything’s going to turn out like you’re hoping it will. I can’t, of course. But what I can promise you is this: God is close to us even in our “I don’t knows.” God has lessons for us that are crucially important for our future, and we’re learning them in the middle of our “I don’t knows.” God has a strength He must prepare us with, and the training ground is here in the “I don’t know.”This time isn’t a waste, and it’s definitely not pointless when we are walking with God. Let’s cry out to God, declaring that this hard time will be a holy time, a close-to-God time. And let’s choose to believe there is good happening, even in these places. We can rest in the knowledge that wherever God is, good is being worked.-What difficult “I don’t know” season are you walking through today?

Lysa TerKeurst

PROVERBS 31 MINISTRIES

The Power of Broken Prayers

Clarence L. Haynes Jr. is a speaker, Bible teacher, author and co-founder of The Bible Study Club

How do you approach God and people when your faith is small, when you can’t believe and when you wonder if God is even listening?

That’s why I want to encourage you today to pray broken prayers. Consider this passage in Luke:

“While Jesus was in one of the towns, a man came along who was covered with leprosy. When he saw Jesus, he fell with his face to the ground and begged him, ‘Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.’ Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. ‘I am willing,’ he said. ‘Be clean!’ And immediately the leprosy left him” (Luke 5:12-13).

There was something about this man that I think you can relate to. He was broken by life because he was a leper. We are not sure how he caught leprosy, but nevertheless he had it and it was a terrible disease. To be a leper in those days was to be an outcast. I will spare you the details of the horror of this disease, but beyond the physical pain and suffering there was the mental pain and suffering because no one wanted to be around you. Lepers were shunned and people thought they were cursed by God and their leprosy was a result of their sin. Some scholars say a leper couldn’t come within six feet of any other Israelite and within 150 feet if there was an east wind blowing (I guess this was the original form of social distancing).

In our story, this leper comes to Jesus. He was sick, probably in pain, and shunned by the outside world. In one word he was broken. In his place of brokenness he cried out to Jesus for help and Jesus responded.

How Does This Apply to You?

There are usually two ways we end up in positions of brokenness or helplessness. In one instance you are doing everything right. You are living right. You are giving right. You are serving. You are following God, obeying his word and doing everything you are supposed to do – and all of a sudden you get hit with life, leading you to a broken place. 

On the flip side, maybe you are doing everything wrong. You’ve made a series of bad decisions and choices and your life feels like it’s falling apart. Everything is breaking down around you and you don’t know what to do. You too are in a broken place. 

You see, it does not matter how you got there, you end up just like the leper. Whether it’s by your own fault or no fault of your own, you are in this place of desperation and brokenness. What do you do?

The Power of the Broken Prayer

What I love about this story is the way the man came to Jesus. He came and threw himself at his feet. He came humble. He came honest and he came broken. He didn’t even pray what would be considered a faith-filled prayer. He said Lord, if you are willing. In essence he was saying I know you can, I just don’t know if you will.

His prayer was not coming from a place of expectation, it was coming from a place of desperation. In other words, he came to Jesus just as he was. Unclean, rejected, desperate, broken and out of this place he cried out to Jesus. He was offering what I would consider a broken prayer, yet this prayer had much power in it.

Lessons from This Broken Prayer

1. Come to Jesus Just the Way You Are 

Too often we make the mistake of thinking we have to come to Jesus with everything right. The same mask we wear into church on Sunday morning we take into prayer and into the presence of God. If I could encourage you with one thing let it be this. Stop thinking you have to always have it all right. Don’t fall into the trap of thinking you have to have your faith right, your worship right, you have to pray the right words and when you do then God will hear you. That is not what God responds to.

You can come to Jesus just as you are, broken and all, with the mask off and pour your heart out to him. Broken prayers aren’t perfect prayers, but they come from a place of humility and honesty and that is exactly what God wants. 

Psalm 51:17 – “The sacrifice you desire is a broken spirit. You will not reject a broken and repentant heart, O God.”

2. God Doesn’t Only Respond to Our Faith, He Also Responds to Our Brokenness 

There is something amazing in this story of Luke that if you read too fast you will miss. Before Jesus healed him, he touched him. Remember this was a man who was shunned by society. Who knows how long it had been since someone had touched this man?

Before Jesus addressed his obvious physical need for healing, he addressed the less obvious emotional need to be touched. We already mentioned earlier that this man did not pray a prayer of great faith, yet Jesus responded. This tells me that God not only responds to your faith, he responds to your brokenness as well. Jesus could have healed the man first and then touched him, but he didn’t – he touched him first.

That is why it’s ok to come just as you are. Don’t worry about having everything all neat and buttoned up, God will respond to your broken condition.

3. When You Touch the Heart of God, It Will Move the Hand of God

Luke 5:13b – “’I am willing,’ he said. ‘Be clean!’ And immediately the leprosy left him.”

I believe the reason why Jesus moved in this man’s situation is because this man touched his heart. When you touch the heart of God, it will move the hand of God. You must also be mindful of something. When you pray broken prayers, sometimes God will change the situation instantly which is what happened here. However sometimes the situation may remain the same, but he will change you instantly. At the place of brokenness, you are laying it all down and asking God to move on your behalf as he sees fit. The beauty of the broken prayer is that you may come to God broken, but you will walk away whole.  

If you are sick you may walk away healed, but even if God doesn’t heal you, walk away whole.

If you are discouraged you will walk away encouraged.

If you come with no faith you walk away believing God to do great things in your life.

If you come with no joy you walk away with joy unspeakable and full of glory.

If you come with no peace you walk away with peace that passes all understanding, even in the midst of brokenness. 

The beauty of the broken prayer is that God takes it, strengthens you and gives you the confidence to know that God is going to bring you through. 

Final Thought

I don’t know what feels hopeless, broken, or desperate in your life today. I do know that if you will pour it out humbly and honestly, God is waiting to touch you, heal you and restore you. You are reminded from Scripture to cast all your cares upon him because he cares for you. The situation you are in today matters, and Jesus is waiting with open arms to touch all the broken places in your life. However, it begins when you take the mask off and begin offering up those broken prayers.

How to define and apply love in our lives

Matthew 22:37-39
New International Version
Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’

God’s plans give us hope and a future

Jeremiah 29:11-13
New International Version
For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.
Read at Bible Gateway
Read all of Jeremiah 29

The perils of disapproving God

NOVEMBER 8, 1998

The Perils of Disapproving God


Paul’s teaching about why a society degenerates into unrestrained, debauched, destructive evil is unlike any analysis you would read today. One of the reasons for this is that when a society is sinking into moral decay, one of the traits of that decay is the inability to see what is happening. The social mind becomes so defective in the moral decadence that it doesn’t have the categories or the framework to recognize evil for what it really is.

We do live in such a day. The inability to render sound moral judgments is evident almost wherever you look. Which makes this passage of Scripture one of the most relevant and needed texts in all the Bible for our day — precisely because it seems so foreign. Today, if something doesn’t seem spiritually or morally foreign, it is probably part of the blind and decadent atmosphere we breathe, and therefore of no real use to us, no matter how good it makes us feel.

What we need is a word from outside our defective world and our depraved thinking. We need a word from God. And we may certainly expect such a word to be very strange, because we have become strangers to the reality of God in a very self-absorbed age.

What we have in today’s text is a list of twenty-one ways of sinning or twenty-one kinds of evil. And what I think we should do is notice, first, why Paul gives us this list and where such evil comes from. Then we should look at the list itself and ask why it’s here. Then we should ask what the solution is to these kinds of things.

Why Do We Have to Deal with Evil?

So, first, where do the evils listed in verses Romans 1:29–31 come from? It all started back in verse 18 where Paul gave the reason for why the gospel of the gift of God’s righteousness is so desperately needed. You recall that he said in verse 16 that the gospel is “the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.”

“We need the righteousness of God because it is the only thing that can protect us from the wrath of God.”TweetShare on Facebook

Why? Verse 17: “For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, ‘But the righteous shall live by faith.’” In other words: The gospel is the power of God to save believers because in it God gives us what we need and could never produce on our own, namely, his own righteousness. The righteousness that he demands from us he freely gives to us, if we will trust him. This is the great biblical truth of justification by faith.

Then in verse 18, he tells us why this gospel of the gift of God’s righteousness is so desperately needed: “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness.” We need the righteousness of God because it is the only thing that can protect us from the wrath of God. And we need to be protected from the wrath of God because we are unrighteous by nature and suppress the truth of God. By nature we don’t like God and we don’t want him in our lives. I tremble just to say it.

The Effects of Suppressing the Truth of God

So what Paul does in the following verses is describe for us the effects of suppressing the truth of God. He wants us to see all the evil of the world as a river that flows from this spring. Reject God, suppress God, distort God, recreate God in your own image to your own liking, and the effect is worse than we expect. And the thing that is worse than we expect is that God joins our crusade against God, as it were, and delivers us into the debasing effects of our own rebellion against him.

We’ve seen it three times. In verse 23, we exchange the glory of God for images, and verse 24 says, “Therefore God gave them over to the lusts of their hearts.” In verse 25, we exchange the truth about God for a lie, and verse 26 says, “For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions.” And today in verse 28 we see it again: “They did not see fit to acknowledge God (or literally: they did not approve to have God in their knowledge), [therefore] God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper.”

This is what Paul means by the wrath of God being revealed (verse 18): God’s wrath is being revealed against the world, as human beings all over the world set their affections on other things more than on God. God’s response to this worldwide disloyalty and treason against our Creator is not, first, to send us to hell, but to see that we sink into the swamp we have chosen.

This is what I was referring to at the beginning when I said that Paul’s teaching about why societies often degenerate into unrestrained, debauched, destructive evil is unlike any analysis you would read today. Today you might hear someone say: “Okay, America, you have built your bed of secular, God-belittling relativism and amorality, so now sleep in it.” But that is not what Paul says here.

He says something far more horrifying about God’s wrath. He gives us his analysis of our situation in four steps. Just take verse 28 from today’s text to see all four. First, he says that the root problem is that we don’t like having God in our knowledge. “They did not see fit to acknowledge God.” That is the fundamental problem in the world. That is the essence of the human condition. We don’t want God. We want self-determination and self-exaltation. That was the first sin in the garden. And that is the root of all evil today. We do not want to know God or have him in our lives.

The Depth of our Sin Deserves Divine Judgment

The second step of God’s analysis is that God, in an act of judgment (recall the revealing of “wrath” in verse 18), withdraws his common restraints on our rebellion and gives us over to sink in the swamp we have chosen. This is what you will not hear in any social analysis today. Who today has the God-centered realism to say: The depth of our sin does not just deserve divine judgment, it is divine judgment? That is what Paul says. You can’t really understand America (or any other country) today without this revealed truth. Even if we tried to boast over God that at least we have our self-determination in rebelling against God, God would answer, “You think so? Think again.”

“Wherever we are sinking in sin, it is because we have jumped off the rock of the glory of God.”TweetShare on Facebook

The third step in Paul’s analysis (in verse 28) is that the effect of God’s giving us over and removing his common restraints (see Genesis 20:6) is that we are imprisoned by a “depraved mind.” “God gave them over to a depraved mind.” Our minds become more and more defective in sin. Not only do we use them to sin, but we can’t even think clearly about sin. We can’t recognize it. It’s as if we turned away from God and fell in love with the African black fly that carries the roundworm that causes river blindness, and then God gave us over to the fly and the worm — and the blindness — so that all we can do now is fondle the fly (of sin!) and keep trying to convince ourselves that it’s a precious tuft of velvet.

The fourth step of the analysis (in verse 28) is that our defective mind produces all kinds of evils. Paul goes on to list twenty-one of them as samples. So now we have our answer to the first question, namely, where does such evil come from? It comes from: (1) our desire not to have God in our knowledge; and (2) from God’s judgment on mankind to give us over to sink in the swamp we love; and (3) from the depraved or defective mind that we sink into.

Failure to Love God Breeds Evil

So now we can ask the question: What is this list of evils? What are we to make of this long list and why is it here? Let’s read it again. Verse Romans 1:28–31:

God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper, being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful.

Of course, a person could raise an objection against Paul here: This is not the way all unbelievers are. Some are very conscientious, law-abiding, philanthropic, courteous, decent people. Yes, that’s true, and Paul knew it was true. He was quite aware, for example, of the Stoics of his own day — people like Seneca and later, Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius, who prided themselves in not being like this list of evils, and yet, who were not Christians.

Downward Spiral

No, the point of this list is not to say that every society that refuses to love the true God will look just like this. We know this because, in verses 26–27, Paul says that homosexual desire is also a result of not loving God above other things, and being handed over by God, and yet Paul clearly does not think that every unbeliever has homosexual desires.

Similarly, here in verse 28–31, when he says that all these sins are the result of refusing to acknowledge God, and he doesn’t mean that every unbeliever, or group of unbelievers, has all these sins or in the same measure. Instead, these are samples. They are the sort of thing that comes from rejecting God, and the more God gives a people up to their own unrestrained depravity, the more their society will have these sins in greater and greater measure.

Sunk in Sin

So what’s the point of listing all these sins? The point, I think, is to give us enough examples to show that virtually every form of evil has to do with God and comes from failing to know him and approve him and love him above all things. In other words, he gives us a sweeping array of evils to awaken us to the fact that the ruin of any area of life is owing to the abandonment of God. Verse 28: they did not want God in their knowledge, therefore . . . and then he gives his list of evils.

In other words, the point of the list is to connect God with every sin in the world. And we’ve seen that the connection is twofold: every sin is rooted in our preferring something else to God; and every sin gets worse as God takes away his restraints and gives us up to sink in the swamp we have chosen.

If America has the highest murder rate in the western world, it has to do with God. If our executives are greedy, it has to do with God. If our politicians are deceitful, it has to do with God. If we gossip about each other behind the back, it has to do with God. If our talk show hosts are insolent and boastful, it has to do with God. If our children are disobedient to parents, it has to do with God. If we are untrustworthy and don’t keep our marriage vows, it has to do with God. If we are blind to obvious wrongs and are unloving and unmerciful, it has to do with God.

That’s the point of this list. Wherever we are sinking in sin, it is because we have jumped off the rock of the glory of God.

How Do We Battle Destructive Evils?

Which brings us finally to the third and last question: What is the solution? How shall we battle back against these destructive evils in our own lives and in our culture? The answer is what the whole book of Romans is about. But let’s close by looking at three great reversals.

  1. We need the reversal of God’s wrath against our unrighteousness.
  2. We need the reversal of God’s handing us over to a depraved mind.
  3. We need the reversal of our mind’s moral decay so that it can be renewed for right and proper use in God’s service.

The good news is that God has provided every one of those reversals. You do not have to sink any further if you will embrace God and his provision. The key verse for the reversal of God’s wrath against us is Romans 1:17: In the gospel of Christ, “the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, ‘The righteous shall live by faith.’”

In other words, the righteousness that God demands from us, he freely gives to us, if we will turn back to him and trust him to be our greatest Good. And if you have the righteousness of God, you are not under the wrath of God anymore — a very happy reversal!

God Grants Righteousness

The key verse for the reversal of God’s handing us over to a depraved mind is Romans 6:17: “Thanks be to God that, though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were handed over [same word as Romans 1:28].”

“The righteousness that God demands from us, he freely gives to us.”TweetShare on Facebook

This is the exact reversal of the handover in Romans 1:28. Here it is to a form of teaching that is true and holy, not false and dirty. And notice that it is God who does it. “Thanks be to God,” Paul says, that you became obedient to this teaching. God gives us over to truth and righteousness as much as he once gave us over to sin.

Finally, the key verse for reversing the defectiveness of our minds is Romans 12:2: “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.”

Receive the Reversal

When God has given us his righteousness by faith in Jesus, and when he has handed us over to a new teaching of truth and begun to make us obedient to it, then, little by little, we are transformed in the renewing of our minds and the long list of sins in Romans 1:29–31 becomes shorter and weaker to the glory of God.

This is the key to life. This is the message that we take to the neighborhood and to the nations. I call you and urge you to receive these three reversals from the hand of God by faith: (1) the reversal of God’s wrath through the gift of God’s righteousness; (2) the reversal of being handed over to depravity through being handed over to truth; and (3) the reversal of a depraved mind through the transformation of a renewed mind.John Piper (@JohnPiper) is founder and teacher of desiringGod.org and chancellor of Bethlehem College & Seminary. For 33 years, he served as pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church, Minneapolis, Minnesota. He is author of more than 50 books, including Desiring God: Meditations of a Christian Hedonist and most recently Providence.

Who is in you!

You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.
1 John 4:4

Remember this verse as we go into the next year!

May God bless all of you, as we embrace Him and each other.

Love embraced

Praying for all

who embrace love in every aspect,

daily.

Praying that we all

come back to the basics

of seeking God first

and loving each other!

A Call to Love

If there was ever a time when we are called to show an extraordinary display of love for God and each other, it is now. I’ve been questioning what we as Christians are doing to show love during these hectic times.

Reading the following scripture, I tried to put a filter in place to determine whether modern-day Christianity actually survives the test of Jesus’ definition of love. Let’s read this together and ask the Holy Spirit to help us answer that question.

The Great Commandment

 Matthew 22 (English Standard Version)

34 But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together.

35 And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. 

36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?”

 37 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 

This is the great and first commandment. 

39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 

40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

Along with these scriptures, we would be remiss not to read and understand God’s further definition of love.

1 John 4:20 (English Standard Version)

20 If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.

So, let’s ask ourselves:

  1. Do we treat everyone with this kind of love? Does it matter whether they have the same color of skin as ours, speak with the same language that we use?

2. Are we prejudiced in any way?

3. Do we encourage hate of any person?

4. Do we support bullying?

5. Do we reach out and pick up the peaceful person that was just beaten down–by fists or guns–or words? Or do we join in?

6. Do we judge a person by whether they are poor, or not?

7. Do we act out, in any way, with disdain, judgmental thoughts or actions, or do we try to understand a person who is different from us? who may have a different religious affiliation? a different way in describing their belief system? Or do we think that we are the only people who have all the answers?

8. Do we agree that requiring servitude by anyone is ok? is loving? is the way Jesus would treat people?

I think this is a somber time in all of our lives when we should quietly sit and reflect on these questions. If we fall short of the definition of love as Jesus describes it, we have an imperative to go to Him and ask forgiveness, turn away from that wrongful attitude, and humble ourselves as we seek God’s guidance in remedying our actions. That way He will be glorified rather than being ashamed of us.

Are we really Christians?

If we don’t display the love and light from our Lord, then we should stop using His name–in vain!

Your sister in Christ,

Sharon

DON’T STROLL THROUGH THE SWAMP

“You’re gonna regret it!” I waved away the warning without turning around. What was to regret? I took the shortcut.

I was on my way to a picnic. The tables sat on the other side of a marsh. The parks department had kindly constructed a bridge over the marsh. But who needed a bridge? I ventured in. The mud swallowed my feet. Squiggly things swam past me. I think I saw a set of eyeballs peering in my direction. I backpedaled—flip-flops sucked into the abyss. I exited, mud covered, mosquito bitten, and red faced.

I walked over and took my seat at the picnic table. It made for a miserable picnic, but it makes for an apt proverb. Life comes with voices. Voices lead to choices, and choices have consequences!

~ Max Lucado

From God’s With You Every Day

We are the World! Happy New Year!

Praying for blessings to all of you around the world. May we all come together to find what is best in each of us. Love surely is better than hate. Working together, standing together, loving together will make the difference. If you are upset about something, find your voice. Go on Twitter, Facebook, start a Website, care and share positive ideas and progressive thinking instead of crying in a corner. We can all light the place where we stand and that light will shine enough to change things.

Be blessed with much love, joy, and happiness!

Sharon & Erick

We are the world!

There comes a time when we heed a certain call
When the world must come together as one
There are people dying
And its time to lend a hand to life
The greatest gift of all

We can’t go on pretending day by day
That someone, somehow will soon make a change
We are all a part of Gods great big family
And the truth, you know,
Love is all we need

We are the world, we are the children
We are the ones who make a brighter day
So lets start giving

Losing my religion for equality

Although this article was published in 2015, when I discovered it today, I thought it important to share. ~ Sharon Rule

Jimmy Carter
Published: April 27, 2015 – 11:12AM

Women and girls have been discriminated against for too long in a twisted interpretation of the word of God.

I HAVE been a practising Christian all my life and a deacon and Bible teacher for many years. My faith is a source of strength and comfort to me, as religious beliefs are to hundreds of millions of people around the world. So my decision to sever my ties with the Southern Baptist Convention, after six decades, was painful and difficult. It was, however, an unavoidable decision when the convention’s leaders, quoting a few carefully selected Bible verses and claiming that Eve was created second to Adam and was responsible for original sin, ordained that women must be “subservient” to their husbands and prohibited from serving as deacons, pastors or chaplains in the military service.

This view that women are somehow inferior to men is not restricted to one religion or belief. Women are prevented from playing a full and equal role in many faiths. Nor, tragically, does its influence stop at the walls of the church, mosque, synagogue or temple. This discrimination, unjustifiably attributed to a Higher Authority, has provided a reason or excuse for the deprivation of women’s equal rights across the world for centuries.

At its most repugnant, the belief that women must be subjugated to the wishes of men excuses slavery, violence, forced prostitution, genital mutilation and national laws that omit rape as a crime. But it also costs many millions of girls and women control over their own bodies and lives, and continues to deny them fair access to education, health, employment and influence within their own communities.

The impact of these religious beliefs touches every aspect of our lives. They help explain why in many countries boys are educated before girls; why girls are told when and whom they must marry; and why many face enormous and unacceptable risks in pregnancy and childbirth because their basic health needs are not met.

In some Islamic nations, women are restricted in their movements, punished for permitting the exposure of an arm or ankle, deprived of education, prohibited from driving a car or competing with men for a job. If a woman is raped, she is often most severely punished as the guilty party in the crime.

The same discriminatory thinking lies behind the continuing gender gap in pay and why there are still so few women in office in the West. The root of this prejudice lies deep in our histories, but its impact is felt every day. It is not women and girls alone who suffer. It damages all of us. The evidence shows that investing in women and girls delivers major benefits for society. An educated woman has healthier children. She is more likely to send them to school. She earns more and invests what she earns in her family.

It is simply self-defeating for any community to discriminate against half its population. We need to challenge these self-serving and outdated attitudes and practices – as we are seeing in Iran where women are at the forefront of the battle for democracy and freedom.

I understand, however, why many political leaders can be reluctant about stepping into this minefield. Religion, and tradition, are powerful and sensitive areas to challenge. But my fellow Elders and I, who come from many faiths and backgrounds, no longer need to worry about winning votes or avoiding controversy – and we are deeply committed to challenging injustice wherever we see it.

The Elders are an independent group of eminent global leaders, brought together by former South African president Nelson Mandela, who offer their influence and experience to support peace building, help address major causes of human suffering and promote the shared interests of humanity. We have decided to draw particular attention to the responsibility of religious and traditional leaders in ensuring equality and human rights and have recently published a statement that declares: “The justification of discrimination against women and girls on grounds of religion or tradition, as if it were prescribed by a Higher Authority, is unacceptable.”

We are calling on all leaders to challenge and change the harmful teachings and practices, no matter how ingrained, which justify discrimination against women. We ask, in particular, that leaders of all religions have the courage to acknowledge and emphasise the positive messages of dignity and equality that all the world’s major faiths share.

The carefully selected verses found in the Holy Scriptures to justify the superiority of men owe more to time and place – and the determination of male leaders to hold onto their influence – than eternal truths. Similar biblical excerpts could be found to support the approval of slavery and the timid acquiescence to oppressive rulers.

I am also familiar with vivid descriptions in the same Scriptures in which women are revered as pre-eminent leaders. During the years of the early Christian church women served as deacons, priests, bishops, apostles, teachers and prophets. It wasn’t until the fourth century that dominant Christian leaders, all men, twisted and distorted Holy Scriptures to perpetuate their ascendant positions within the religious hierarchy.

The truth is that male religious leaders have had – and still have – an option to interpret holy teachings either to exalt or subjugate women. They have, for their own selfish ends, overwhelmingly chosen the latter. Their continuing choice provides the foundation or justification for much of the pervasive persecution and abuse of women throughout the world. This is in clear violation not just of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights but also the teachings of Jesus Christ, the Apostle Paul, Moses and the prophets, Muhammad, and founders of other great religions – all of whom have called for proper and equitable treatment of all the children of God. It is time we had the courage to challenge these views.

Jimmy Carter was president of the United States from 1977 to 1981

May 4 2015

Want equality for all? Then spurn organised religion.

This story was found at: The Age

Why I love Christmas

When Christ was born, so was our hope! This is why I love Christmas. The event invites us to believe the wildest of promises! He did away with every barrier, fence, sin, bent, debt, and grave. Anything that might keep us from him was demolished.

He only awaits our word to walk through the door. Invite him in. Escort him to the seat of honor, and pull out his chair. Clear the table; clear the calendar. Call the kids and neighbors. Christmas is here. Christ is here. One request from you, and God will do again what he did then. He’ll scatter the night with everlasting light. He’ll be born in you.

Let “Silent Night” be sung! Every heart can be a manger. Every day can be a Christmas.  The Christmas miracle—a yearlong celebration! ~Max Lucado

The Heart of the Human Problem

The sinful nature is the stubborn, self-centered attitude that says, “My way or the highway.” The sinful nature is all about self: pleasing self, promoting self, preserving self. I have a sin nature! So do you. Under the right circumstances you will do the wrong thing. You’ll try not to, but you will. You have a sin nature. You were born with it. The heart of the human problem is the problem of the human heart!

Christmas commemorates the day and the way God saved us from ourselves. The angel speaking to Mary in Matthew 1:21 says, “. . .you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”

Each of us entered the world with a sin nature. God entered the world to take it away!

~ Max Lucado

Worried Enough to Pray?

by Max Lucado
Last week’s blog struck a nerve. I wrote a piece entitled “Decency for President.” The premise was a simple one. Shouldn’t a presidential candidate who claims to be Christian talk like one? When a candidate waves a Bible in one speech and calls a reporter “bimbo” in the next, isn’t something awry? Specifically, when Donald Trump insists that he is a Christian (“a good Christian” to use his descriptor) and then blasts, belittles, and denigrates everyone from Barbara Bush to John McCain to Megyn Kelly, shouldn’t we speak up?

If the candidate is not a Christian, then I have no right to speak. But if the candidate does what Trump has done, wave a Bible and attempt to quote from it, then we, his fellow Christians need to call him to at least a modicum of Christian behavior, right?

Again, I struck a nerve. More than three million of you read the article in the first 36 hours! Thousands of you weighed in with your comments. They were fascinating to read. (Not all of them pleasant to read, mind you. The dozens of you who told me to stick to the pulpit and stop meddling in politics– I get it. By the way, I’d like to invite you to attend our services. My upcoming message is “Kindness”.) Detractors notwithstanding, your comments were heartfelt and passionate.

I detected a few themes.

You have a deep sense of love for our country. Patriotism oozed through your words. You cherish the uniqueness and wonder of the USA. You have varying opinions regarding leadership style, role of government, and political strategy. But when it comes to loving the country, you are unanimously off the charts.

You have an allergy to “convenient” Christians. You resist people who don the Christian title at convenient opportunities (i.e., presidential campaigns). You would prefer the candidate make no mention of faith rather than leave the appearance of a borrowed faith that will be returned to the lender after the election.

You are concerned, profoundly concerned, about the future of our country. The debt. Immorality. National security. The role of the Supreme Court. Immigration. Religious liberty. The list is as long as the worries are deep.

So where does this leave us? When a person treasures the country, but has trepidation about its future, what is the best course of action?

Elijah can weigh in on this question.

He lived during one of the darkest days in the history of Israel. The Northern Kingdom had 19 kings, each one of whom was evil. Hope had boarded the last train and optimism the final flight. The leaders were corrupt and the hearts of the people were cold. But comets are most visible against the black sky. And in the midst of the darkness, a fiery comet by the name of Elijah appeared.

The name Elijah means, “My God is Jehovah.” And he lived up to his name. He appeared in the throne room of evil King Ahab with a weather report. “‘As the LORD, the God of Israel, lives, whom I serve, there will be neither dew nor rain in the next few years except at my word’” (1 Kings 17:1).

Elijah’s attack was calibrated. Baal was the fertility god of the pagans, the god to whom they looked for rain and fertile fields. Elijah called for a showdown: the true God of Israel against the false god of the pagans. How could Elijah be so confident of the impending drought? Because he had prayed.

Eight centuries later the prayers of Elijah were used as a model.

“The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective. Elijah was a human being, even as we are. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops” (James 5:16-18).

James was impressed that a prayer of such power came from a person so common. Elijah was “a human being” but his prayers were heard because he prayed earnestly. This was no casual prayer, comfortable prayer, but a radical prayer. “Do whatever it takes, Lord,” Elijah begged, “even if that means no water.”

What happened next is one of the greatest stories in the Bible. Elijah told the 450 prophets of Baal: You get a bull, I’ll get a bull. You build an altar, I’ll build an altar. You ask your god to send fire; I’ll ask my God to send fire. The God who answers by fire is the true God.

The prophets of Baal agreed and went first.

“At noon Elijah began to taunt them. ‘Shout louder!’ he said. ‘Surely he is a god! Perhaps he is deep in thought, or busy, or traveling. Maybe he is sleeping and must be awakened.’

“So they shouted louder and slashed themselves with swords and spears, as was their custom, until their blood flowed. Midday passed, and they continued their frantic prophesying until the time for the evening sacrifice. But there was no response, no one answered, no one paid attention” (1 Kings 18:27-29).

(Elijah would have flunked a course in diplomacy.) Though the prophets cut themselves and raved all afternoon, nothing happened. Finally Elijah asked for his turn.

“Then Elijah said to all the people, ‘Come here to me.’ They came to him, and he repaired the altar of the LORD, which had been torn down. Elijah took twelve stones, one for each of the tribes descended from Jacob, to whom the word of the LORD had come, saying, ‘Your name shall be Israel’” (1 Kings 18:30-31).

Elijah poured four jugs of water (remember, this was a time of drought) over the altar three times. Then Elijah prayed.

“LORD, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, let it be known today that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant and have done all these things at your command.   Answer me, LORD, answer me, so these people will know that you, LORD, are God, and that you are turning their hearts back again” (1 Kings 18:36-37).

Note how quickly and dramatically God answered.

“Then the fire of the LORD fell and burned up the sacrifice, the wood, the stones and the soil, and also licked up the water in the trench. When all the people saw this, they fell prostrate and cried, ‘The LORD—he is God! The LORD—he is God!’” (1 Kings 18:38-39).

“Pow!” the altar was ablaze. God delighted in and answered Elijah’s prayer. God delights in and answers our prayers as well.

Let’s start a fire, shall we?

If your responses to my blog are any indication, you are anxious. You love this country, yet you are troubled about the future. You wonder what the future holds and what we can do. Elijah’s story provides the answer. We can pray. We can offer earnest, passionate prayers.

It’s time to turn our concerns into a unified prayer. Let’s join our hearts and invite God to do again what he did then; demonstrate His power. Super Tuesday, March 1, is the perfect day for us to step into the presence of God.

Dear Lord,

You outrank any leader. You hold sway over every office. Greater is the occupant of Heaven’s throne than the occupant of the White House.

You have been good to this country. You have blessed us in spite of our sin and guarded us in spite of our rebellion.

We unite our hearts in one prayer. Let your kingdom come. Let your will be done. Please, speak through the electoral process to reveal your leader.

This we pray in the name of Jesus,

Amen

© Max Lucado
February 29, 2016

The Lost Art of Listening

Incourage.Me

I was listening to a podcast recently by two of my favorite human beings — Emily P. Freeman of Chatting at the Sky and Myquillyn Smith of The Nesting Place (this podcast is called, Hope*Ologie and I recommend it as a sort of Vitamin D for the soul). Anyway, they were each taking a turn answering listener questions but soon discovered that while one was sharing their answer the other was inevitably not listening because they were too busy trying to think up their own answer.

It made me laugh.

It made them laugh.

Listening to friends laughing while you’re folding laundry is a great way to start a week.

But it got me thinking.

Because some days I think friendship feels like that — one person sharing and another person thinking about what they’re going to say. Instead of listening to what’s being said.

Some days a friend is trying to share and instead of laying down all the things we’re mentally fiddling around with and focusing our heads, hearts, eyes, and mouths at our friend, we’re actually preoccupied with a sort of mental gymnastics planning what WE want to say next.

Sometimes I imagine those conversations like this:

Friend: Gah, I’m so sad today. I feel stupid and dumb at my job, and there’s this weird nagging loneliness I can’t seem to shake.

Me: (internally thinking: Oh man, I know EXACTLY how that feels — this week has been the WORST. Just wait till I tell her about how I blew that deadline and how I’m sure my boss thinks I’m stupid and why won’t my kids go to bed on time anymore.)

Friend takes a breath: —-

Me: Oh man, I know EXACTLY how that feels — this week has been the WORST. Just wait till I tell you about how I blew that deadline and how I’m sure my boss thinks I’m stupid and why won’t my kids go to bed on time anymore.

Friend: (stranded and without a way to steer the conversation back to the encouragement they so desperately need just feels even lonelier instead).

The thing is, sometimes it’s not our turn to talk.

“Lead with your ears, follow up with your tongue, and let anger straggle along in the rear.” {James 1: 19-21, MSG}

Sometimes, listening is the most powerful gift we can give a friend. Especially when they’re trying to share something that feels vulnerable to them or that feels vulnerable to us — for example, when they feel misunderstood and they’re trying to tell us about it.

Because sometimes our determination to speak before we’re properly done listening is an act of self-defense. We load our responses, our arguments, and our words up in front of us to block out what’s being said and lob our own point of view out into the conversation instead.

Nothing will shut down true communication faster.

But nothing will disarm a friend more than the grace you grant them when you listen with palms up and walls down — inviting their hurt or their joy, their exhaustion or their delight, their fear or their fun, into your own self so you can understand it from the inside out.

Nothing is more powerful than giving someone the gift of truly hearing them without tagging on your own conditions, explanations, or justifications.

Here are three easy ways to put this into practice:

1. Listen to the whole story before you start formulating a response.

2. Ask follow-up questions.

3. Repeat the key parts of what you heard, empathizing with them.

Question for you: What makes you feel truly heard? Let’s crowd-source some of the best ways we can revive the lost art of listening well. 

You are loved!

Just wanted you to know

on this day,

and every day,

You are loved.

Not only by your creator,

but by me.

Have a blessed Valentine’s Day,

knowing,

no matter what,

YOU ARE LOVED!

Overcoming discouragement brings great blessing

 Are you a “big picture” person?

(My Note: Considering the previous message on the site today, I think this one was also “right on” and meant for me to contemplate today.  Funny how that happens, huh?)

Who but God goes up to the heaven and comes back down? Who holds the wind in his fist? Who wraps up the oceans in his cloak? Who has created the whole wide world? What is his name — and his son’s name? Tell me if you know!

Proverbs 30:4 NLT

Impressive panorama

When people understand events clearly, we often say that they “see the big picture.” This passage in Proverbs makes the point that the clearest view of the “big picture” will always include God. The sequence of rhetorical questions helps us consider the awesome identity and capacity of God. Much like the litany of questions that God showered on Job (Job 38:1-41:34), these push us toward humble and silent worship.

Agur was feeling overwhelmed (30:1), insignificant (30:2), and limited (30:3). But when he turned away from his smallness to contemplate God’s greatness, an atmosphere of confidence filled the rest of the chapter. He began with a little picture, no bigger than himself, but he soon looked at the big picture and forgot that he was weary and worn out. God gave him a new and refreshing point of view.

WISE WAYS  One of the best remedies for a weary and tired spirit is to contemplate the majesty and greatness of God. How have you found that to be true?

Dear Lord, when I look at all you have made, I know it makes me feel smaller, but it also fills me with wonder over how great you are! I worship you.

Adapted from The One Year® Book of Proverbs by Neil S. Wilson, Tyndale House Publishers (2002), entry for January 30.


Content is derived from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation and other publications of Tyndale Publishing House

Merry Christ mas to all of you!

More of Christ!

In Bethlehem, the human being who best understood who God was and what he was doing, is a teenage girl in a smelly stable. As Mary looks into the face of the baby.  Her son. Her Lord.  His majesty—she can’t take her eyes off him.  Somehow Mary knows she’s holding God. So this is he. She remembers the words of the angel.  “His kingdom will never end!”

He looks like anything but a king. His cry, though strong and healthy, is still the helpless and piercing cry of a baby. Majesty in the midst of the mundane.  Holiness in the filth of sheep manure and sweat.  Divinity entering the world on the floor of a stable, through the womb of a teenager and in the presence of a carpenter.

God came near!

“And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end.

Luke 1:33″

~ Max Lucado

It seems today is the day to emphasize “Forgiveness”

forgiveness5

Everywhere I turned today, I ran into new tidbits about “Forgiveness”.  I don’t believe in coincidence, because I believe in the verse Romans 8:28  which reads . . . And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. NIV

So . . . it seems He is trying to bring home to me a truth that needs to be reexamined!

forgiveness6

dont-judge1forgiveness4

forgiveness God's promise

forgiveness3

 

Forgiveness is an act of love and obedience

It isn’t dependent on who the person is, what the person has done or how many times they have done it.

In fact it really has nothing to do with the person who hurt you.

It is all about you and your relationship with God.

I’m so thankful that He loves me enough to command me to do this. Because at the end of the day I know I can say, “God of second chances and new beginnings … here I am again, Please forgive me…

Daniel 9:18

We make this plea, not because we deserve help, but because of your mercy.

Today is your best day

In God we boast all day long, And praise Your name forever.

Psalm 44:8 (NKJV)

Here are four reasons why today is your best day.

– Today is your best day because you are here. God has placed you in this moment of time for a purpose, and the things that happen to you today will be an unfolding of that purpose.

– What happened to you yesterday, however easy or difficult, was used by God to help prepare you for what He has for you today.

– God will use what happens today to prepare you for what He has for you in future days.

– God has used your past and worked it all together for the good, and He will use this day to add to the good that He has already worked in your behalf.

If you are in Jesus Christ and your heart is committed to God’s plan for your life, it means that today is your best day.

Today is your best day because you can grow a little more in your faith, a little more in your maturity, and a little more in your intimacy with Jesus.

Today you can take another step higher as He takes you from glory to glory; take another step deeper as you grow in His love; take another step further as you obediently walk with Him.

Today is your best day because it has brought you one day closer to the coming of the Lord.

Devotional excerpt by Roy Lessin, from his new book Today is Your Best Day.

Deliverance from Fear

“I sought the Lord, and he answered me; he delivered me from all my fears.”
Psalm 34:4

 Prayer positions us to receive the peace of God. It is when we seek Him that we see Him. It is when we see Him that we are secure. As we travel across the choppy sea of life’s circumstances, we can become dizzy and fearful if we look down at the water of wonder. But if we keep our eyes fixed ahead on a stable object, we remain secure and feel safe. Jesus is our immovable object of belief. He is our secure Savior who is there for us when fear assaults our attitude and threatens to highjack our heart. When we seek His face He reciprocates by flooding our countenance with His peace. He replaces our furrowed brow of fear with a calm face of faith. He gives the righteous a radiant face that is never to be covered with shame. The Lord hears our prayers by extending His peaceful presence.

No one has ever been sorry for seeking the Lord. It takes time and effort but it is your best investment. Process your problems with prayer and you will be the most productive. We cannot come to the best solutions in our own strength. One dimensional problem solving only leads to average results at best. Why be satisfied with a perspective limited to your experiences, intelligence and giftedness? It is seeking the Lord that unlocks a treasure trove of truth that leads us to possibilities we would never imagine on our own. The fruit that comes from replacing fear with faith is unlimited. We can rest assured as the Almighty leads us down a new path. This is what may happen in the process of seeking your Savior. He delights in determining a better way for you.

This next season of your life is the Lord’s reward for your faithfulness all these years. You have sought Him unashamedly and obediently. Money has not been your motive. Pride has not prodded you. Fame has not been your forte. You have sought Him with your unselfish service. You have sought Him with your humble obedience. You have sought Him by ministering to the needs of others. Because of your faithfulness in seeking Him, He has grown your faith and marginalized your fears. Therefore, see this next season as an extension of His blessings. There is no need to fear because God is near those who seek Him. There is no safer or more secure place to be than in the process of seeking Him.

Moreover, God expects to hear from you before you can expect to hear from Him. If you restrain prayer; He may refrain grace and mercy. The more you think upon the Lord, and less of yourself, the better off you become. Seek Him, lose yourself, and you will discover the best way. Furthermore, there is no need to fear your next transition as your Heavenly Father has your hand and He is guiding you. There is no need to fear the cessation of this phase of your career as He is in control. There is no need to fear the breaking off of a relationship as He is in the business of mending broken hearts. There is no need to fear provision for your family as God is your provider. Seek Him and He will deliver you from your fears. Seek Him and you will be secure in Him. Seek Him before, during and after trouble comes. Then the process of seeking the Lord becomes second nature to your soul. Then fear fails its mission. Indeed, seeking Him fossilizes your fears!

Taken from Reading #23 in the 90-day devotional book, “Seeking God in the Psalms”… http://bit.ly/bQHNIE

Prayer positions us to receive the peace of God. It is when we seek Him that we see Him.

Are you filled with Joy?

Are you filled with joy?

I have told you this so that you will be filled with my joy. Yes, your joy will overflow!

John 15:11 NLT

Full Joy

In many ways, we live in bleak times. Millions feel disillusioned with life while millions more feel uncertain about the future — especially young people. Many of you in Generation X have been victims of a great social experiment in which parents who never grew up cast aside time-honored moral values and, in the phrase of the 1960s, did their own thing.

Nevertheless, there is someone to believe in, something to grasp, and someone to trust. You need to go to the next letter of the alphabet, to Y — as in “Why do I exist. Why was I created? And what am I living for?”

According to Jesus, you were created for joy. “These things I have spoken to you,” Jesus said, “that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full.”

The things Jesus spoke of were His teachings about bearing fruit. We were created to bear fruit for God, which essentially means to become like Jesus: His mind becomes our mind, His purpose becomes our purpose. And there’s only one way to produce such luscious fruit, according to Jesus: “Abide in Me” (John 15:4). This is the secret of spiritual growth and the key to overflowing joy. Are you bearing spiritual fruit?

Adapted from Breakfast with Jesus by Greg Laurie (Tyndale House) p 246-48

Content is derived from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation and other publications of Tyndale Publishing House

Christ in You!

When grace happens, Christ enters.  Christ in you, the hope of glory!

For many years, I missed this truth.  I believed all the other prepositions:

Christ for me, with me, ahead of me.  But I never imagined that Christ was in me.

I can’t blame my deficiency on Scripture. Paul refers to it 216 times.  John mentions it 26.  No other religion or philosophy makes such a claim.  No other movement implies the living presence of its founder in his followers.

Muhammad does not indwell Muslims.  Buddha does not inhabit Buddhists.

Influence?  Instruct?  Yes.  But occupy?  No.

The mystery in a nutshell is Colossians 1:27:  “Christ is in you!”

The Christian is a person in whom Christ is happening!  We sense his re-arranging.  He’s turning debris into the divine, a pig’s ear into silk purse.  Little by little a new image emerges!

God’s Grace!

From GRACE

~ Max Lucado

Faithful Perseverance

You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised. For, “In just a little while, he who is coming will come and will not delay.” Hebrews 10:36-37

The greatest example of Christian perseverance for me is Sister Alice Yuan from China. Her pastor husband, Allen Yuan, was imprisoned for almost twenty-two years for refusing to join the government controlled church in the middle 1950’s. She says:

“When my husband Allen was sent to prison in April 1958, I was told that I would never see him again. I felt completely miserable and continually blamed God. The future looked so terribly bleak. I had the care of six children and my mother-in-law. I was only earning 80 cents a day. How could I keep my family alive on that?

“When it all became too much for me, one night I heard a voice: ‘My child, I have everything in My hands. These things come from Me.’ I replied, ‘If these things come from You, please protect me and my family. Do not allow me to dishonor Your name. I want to serve You and glorify Your name’

“Then I received peace in my heart. I was encouraged by Psalm 68:19, Praise be to the Lord, to God our Savior, who daily bears our burdens. In those difficult years, people let me down, but God never abandoned me. But he did put me through trials.

“The first trial was the struggle to survive. I was only earning 80 cents a day. How could we get by on that? But God took care of us, in the same way that he took care of Elijah. He promised to be my shepherd and provider.

“One evening, my mother-in-law said that there was no food anymore in the house. The next morning, at five to six there was a knock on the door. ‘Are you sister Alice?’ asked a woman in her sixties, whom I didn’t know. ‘God wanted me to give you this.’ She put a package in my hand and disappeared. When I opened the parcel I found there was rice in it and some other food and a banknote to the value of about four month’s salary of a professor! Praise the Lord. Where man comes to an end, God begins! This was only one of the many miracles which kept us alive all those years.”

RESPONSE: Today I will not complain about discomforts but thank God for all His blessings!

PRAYER: Lord, You desire faithfulness and perseverance. Help me develop these qualities in my life.

“But my righteous one will live by faith. And I take no pleasure in the one who shrinks back.” But we do not belong to those who shrink back and are destroyed, but to those who have faith and are saved. Hebrews 10:38-39

“The second trial came from the Communist party. Every day for nineteen years, I had to report to the police station, where for six hours, they put pressure on me. They said that I would never see my husband again, that I should divorce him and that I should give up my faith. With God’s help I kept going. Praying with my eyes closed, I endured the interrogations every day.

“The third trial consisted of the hard work. After I had been pressured by the security police for six hours, I still had to work for eight hours to earn a living. I had to push handcarts filled with building materials. The carts were much too heavy. I was completely exhausted and was already tired before I started. In the winter, it was even worse. Sometimes I had to shovel cement up onto a floor above my head. The work was dirty, hard and cold, but I achieved my quota. The others were surprised and wondered where I got the energy from.

“The fourth trial had to do with my natural desires. I was thirty-nine-years-old when my husband was taken away. The authorities put me under pressure to marry someone else. All my papers would be changed, so that I could start a new life without all the difficulties. I was offered money and clothing. God loved me so much that He gave me the strength to resist all these temptations. When I prayed to God, He gave me everything I needed, and even more than that.

“My favorite text is Psalm 68:6, God sets the lonely in families, he leads forth the prisoners with singing.”

It is a miracle that her husband, Allen Yuan, got out of the labour camp alive. In December 1979, he was released after twenty-one years and eight months. He was then sixty-five years old, thin but still healthy. At an age when many people are enjoying retirement, Allan again took up his vocation as a pastor. He died on August 16th 2005 at the age of ninety-one. Alice joined him in heaven in early August 2010 to hear her own “Well done!”

RESPONSE: I resolve to persevere, with faith in a good God, through all the trials that come my way.

PRAYER: Lord, may all Your children experiencing severe persecution today be filled with faith and refuse to shrink back. Help me to emulate these great examples of faithful perseverance.

Standing Strong Through The Storm (SSTS)
A daily devotional message by SSTS author Paul Estabrooks

© 2011 Open Doors International. Used by permission

LOVE YOUR ENEMIES

This message makes me stop and think.

Do I really love my enemies?And better yet, who are my enemies? Do I really have any?

First of all, we are so blessed that we do not have to endure the kind of persecution referred to in this story. But if we did, what would be our attitude? our response?

On a routine day, how do we respond to our neighbors when they do something that displeases us?

Do we vent to them?

Take it out on them?

Are we passive aggressive?

Do we fuss and fume about it in our homes?

Do we love, instead?

Food for thought!

~ Sharon

But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you… Matthew 5:44

Perhaps the most difficult of Jesus’ commands is to love even our enemies. A true Christian always seeks another person’s highest good—even when mistreated. Brother Andrew says “The Christian’s only method of destroying his enemies is to ‘love’ them into being his friends.”

Romanian pastor, Dr. Paul Negrut, was visiting an old friend in Romania named Trian Dors in his humble home. As Paul entered, he realized that Trian was bleeding from open wounds. He asked, “What happened?”

Trian replied, “The secret police just left my home. They came and confiscated my manuscripts. Then they beat me.”

Pastor Paul says, “I began to complain about the heavy tactics of the secret police. But Trian stopped me saying, ‘Brother Paul, it is so sweet to suffer for Jesus. God didn’t bring us together tonight to complain but to praise him. Let’s kneel down and pray.”

“He knelt and began praying for the secret police. He asked God to bless them and save them. He told God how much he loved them. He said, ‘God, if they will come back in the next few days, I pray that you will prepare me to minister to them.’” Paul continued, “By this time I was ashamed. I thought I had been living the most difficult life in Romania for the Lord. And I was bitter about that.”

Trian Dors then shared with Paul how the secret police had been coming to his home regularly for several years. They beat him twice every week. They confiscated all his papers. After the beating he would talk to the officer in charge. Trian would look into his eyes and say, “Mister, I love you. And I want you to know that if our next meeting is before the judgement throne of God, you will not go to hell because I hate you but because you rejected love.” Trian would repeat these words after every beating.

Years later that officer came alone to his home one night. Trian prepared himself for another beating. But the officer spoke kindly and said, “Mr. Dors, the next time we meet will be before the judgement throne of God. I came tonight to apologize for what I did to you and to tell you that your love moved my heart. I have asked Christ to save me. But two days ago the doctor discovered that I have a very severe case of cancer and I have only a few weeks to live before I go to be with God. I came tonight to tell you that we will be together on the other side.”

RESPONSE: Today I will destroy my enemies only with love.

PRAYER: God give me Your kind of love for my enemies—so they too will love You.

Standing Strong Through The Storm (SSTS)
A daily devotional message by SSTS author Paul Estabrooks

© 2011 Open Doors International. Used by permission

Every day, we are closer to Home!

By Max Lucado

Too seldom do I hear thunder and think “Is that God?”

I’ve been known to let a day pass, even two days, without a glance to the eastern sky. Let’s do better!

Colossians 3:2 reminds us to “Let heaven fill your thoughts. Do not think only about things down here on earth.”

Blessings and burdens. Both can alarm-clock us out of slumber. Gifts stir homeward longings. So do struggles. Every homeless day carries us closer to the day our Father will come.

The Bible tells us God will wipe away all tears, there will be no more death, no more sorrow, no more crying, no more pain.

All of that gone forever. Write checks of hope on this promise! With Paul in Romans 8:23, we “wait anxiously for that day when God will give us our full rights as his children.”

Every day—closer to home!

From Come Thirsty

A Huge Asset

As followers of God, you and I have a huge asset.  We know everything is going to turn out all right!

Christ has not budged from His throne, and Romans 8:28 has not evaporated from the Bible.  Our problems have always been His possibilities.

The kidnapping of Joseph resulted in the preservation of his family.  The persecution of Daniel led to a cabinet position.  Christ entered the world by a surprise pregnancy and redeemed it though His unjust murder.

Dare we believe what the Bible teaches?  That no disaster is ultimately fatal?

In 2nd Timothy 4:18 the apostle Paul wrote his final words from a Roman prison, chained to a guard, within earshot of his executioner’s footsteps.   Worst-case scenario?  Not from Paul’s perspective.

He wrote: “God is looking after me, keeping me safe in the kingdom of heaven.  All praise to Him, praise forever!”

Paul chose to trust his Father.  May we do the same.

 

~Max Lucado

Those who trust in God are no longer guilty

The worst sin

What is the worst sin we can commit?

And when he comes, he will convince the world of its sin, and of God’s righteousness, and of the coming judgment.

John 16:8 NLT

What would you consider the worst sin you could commit? Adultery? Stealing? Murder? You might be surprised by the answer the Bible gives.

The worst sin — and the one with the most far-reaching consequences — is this: to refuse to believe in Jesus Christ.

Jesus taught that the Holy Spirit convicts guilty men and women of sin “because they do not believe in Me.” (John 16:9) On that final day, it will not so much be the sin question as it will be the Son in question. All sins can be dealt with and forgiven if we believe in Jesus.

We must not forget that knowledge brings responsibility. It is a grave thing to shake off the conviction of the Spirit.

Jesus said the Spirit came to convict us “of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged” (John 16:11). The ruler or prince of this world, Satan, was judged at Calvary. When Jesus went to the cross and died in our place, Satan lost his death grip on humanity.

The spirit convicts us of sin, righteousness, and judgment, but He wants most of all to give us assurance of forgiven sin. Why not let Him do what He really desires to do? Why not come to Jesus? Or if you have already done that, help someone else to follow your example.

Adapted from Breakfast with Jesus by Greg Laurie (Tyndale House), pp 222-24

Content is derived from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation and other publications of Tyndale Publishing House

Take out the Trash

Who wants to live with yesterday’s rubble? 

Who wants to hoard the trash of the past? 

You don’t, do you? 

Or do you?

I’m not talking about the trash in your house, but in your heart. 

Not the junk of papers and boxes but the remnants of anger and hurt. 

Do you rat-pack your pain? 

Amass offenses? 

Record slights?

A tour of your heart might be telling. 

A pile of rejections. 

Accumulated insults. 

No one can blame you. 

They’re innocence takers, promise breakers, and wound makers.  

They’re everywhere and you’ve had your share.

Jesus answered Peter’s question in Matthew 18:21 and 22 when he asked:  “Lord, how often should I forgive someone who sins against me?  Seven times?”  “No, not seven times,” Jesus said.  “Seventy times seven!”

Do you want to give every day a chance?  

Jesus says to get rid of the trash. 

Give the grace you’ve been given!

~ Max Lucado

From Great Day Every Day

Grace in vain

“As God’s co-workers we urge you not to receive God’s grace in vain.” 2 Corinthians 6:1

There is a vanity associated with someone who has been saved by the grace of God, but who does not appropriate the grace of God. Ironically, they believe in Jesus for the forgiveness of their sin, but they do not behave like they believe. Pride has a way of working itself back into the good graces of a life that is not governed by God’s grace. Humility, on the other hand, flourishes in the hothouse of a heart that appreciates and applies God’s grace.

We are all in danger of forgetting how faith in Christ changed us and brought us into a place of grace. The flesh forges ahead of faith and facilitates graceless living. Before we know it we are back to bad habits, putting grace on the back burner of our belief. Hence, we need reminders of the transformational work of the Holy Spirit that seizes the heart of a life in submission to Almighty God. Grace empowers a humble heart.

“They worship me in vain; their teachings are merely human rules.” Mark 7:7

Furthermore, grace becomes vain when it is crushed under the weight of loveless legalism. Grace converts knowledge about God into knowing God. You are protected from man-made rules that grasp God’s glory when you use grace as a filter for your faith building. For example, your family may need your financial support, so make sure you do not feed the poor in Africa and ignore your relatives at home. Legalism is hard and inflexible—grace is gentle and moldable. Legalism lacks compassion—grace gives grace.

Graceless living loses Christians creditability. Are you a church member who gossips in the name of prayer or are you a gracious saint who prays with quiet confidentiality? Are you a religious person who holds a grudge or are you a gracious Jesus follower who forgives freely? Are you a proud and self-centered believer or a sinner saved by grace? Praise the Lord, that we the redeemed are a container and dispenser of God’s grace. You are a cherished co-worker with Christ—His grace grows in your humble, teachable heart.

“But He gives a greater grace. Therefore it says, “ GOD IS OPPOSED TO THE PROUD, BUT GIVES GRACE TO THE HUMBLE.” James 4:6, NASB

Prayer: Heavenly Father, by faith I receive Your grace, so I can extend Your grace.

Related Readings: Proverbs 3:34; Matthew 22:12; 1 Corinthians 3:9; 15:2

from:  http://www.wisdomhunters.com/2012/07/grace-in-vain/