A Whisper Away

Greetings:

 

            A Pastor asked a little boy if he said his prayers every night, “Yes sir,” the boy replied. “And do you say them in the mornings too?” the pastor asked. “No sir,” the boy replied. “I ain’t scared in the daytime.” By: Tal D. Bonham.

            Being frightened is part and parcel of the human experience. Evolutionists would claim, being frightened is simply experiencing primordial programming linked to our ancestry of apes in fight or flight mode. Being afraid is our natural way of self-protection. It has nothing to do with God or any other physical qualities other than what evolution has given us.

            But fear comes in many shades of color; there is fear of death or being injured. There is fear of a more subtle kind like; riding a rollercoaster, or getting close to a wild animal in a zoo. There is the fear a young man experiences when he is asking a young woman out for the fist time. There is fear of pain, the fear of joy, and the fear of love and the fear of hurt, both mind and body.

            We fear because we don’t understand, what we fear is usually something new, never experienced before. Fear is part of darkness, someplace we can’t see or grasp. Fear stops us from moving forward because darkness hides the path forward. Darkness embodies the unknown and humans call out to God from the blackness praying for deliverance.

Light takes the fear away, gives understanding and truth showing the clear path ahead. Light brings knowledge of God and His ways and a close security of well-being. Perhaps the joke is so far from the truth, but a subtle way of saying. Like a child, I’m comforted by the light, because I see God next to me, and He’s a whisper away.

Don’t

Don’t search for sorrow in me.

It’s not sorry you’ll really see.

 

Don’t look for hate living in me.

It dwells elsewhere other than me.

 

Don’t look for pride in my life.

Pride pulls away, never the right.

 

Don’t make envy a cause for concern.

We each have a course we must learn.

 

Don’t make violence a tool of convenience.

Peace with others, it’s a better ingredient.

 

Don’t wish for the world, given a chance.

Ask for a life where wisdom is enhanced.

 

Don’t make life a reason for not living.

Live for God, his love’s forever giving.

 

Don’t create language expressing evil.

Make words of hope filling all people.

 

Don’t pity me; I’m free from the world.

You too can be free from life’s heavy toils.

 

Don’t fret over time spent on worldly cares.

Live for Christ, there’s little time to spare.

The Christian Experience

Greetings:

Harry Lieberman once wrote, an American is a guy that sips Brazilian coffee from an English cup while sitting on Danish furniture after coming home in his German car from an Italian movie, and then writes his congressman with a Japanese ball point pen, demanding he do something about all the gold leaving the country.
Kind of hits the nail on the head in describing an Americans. We’re a mix nation of different cultures coming together within a set boundary creating a powerful nation of peoples. Our heritage stems from our belief, “All men are created equal in the sight of God.”
Most of these folks call themselves Christians, but a Christian is much like the American as described earlier. He or she worships in buildings made by cheap labor supplied by the Mexicans who are mostly Catholic, using wood cut by Presbyterians, fastened to concrete poured by Baptist, decorated by stain glass windows from the Church of Scotland. Alters are fashioned by Episcopalians overlooking the pews built by Amish sitting within a building topped with a steeple built by the Assemblies of God. They all raise their voices to God in praise from hymnals written by Methodist, and read from bibles printed by non-denominationalist publishers. Church of Christ preachers use modern day Pentecostal sermons, which were first given by the Church of England ministers hundreds of years ago. All the parts are interchangeable as to who built what, or wrote what, but they all come together to create the Sunday worship experience; if I left one or two out just plug them in somewhere.
They all bring a slightly different view of God into their worship, He changes marginally from denomination to denomination, but they all agree on one thing, He changed from the Old Testament to the New Testament, even though He says, “I change not!” No matter what the buildings look like, or the seats we sit in, and songs we sing, Christ is and has always been the same yesterday, today and forever. He is one God with one heritage and one message, Repent.

Perspective

Greetings:

 

            An employer interviewing an applicant remarked, You ask high wages for a man with no experience.” “Well,” he relied, “it’s so much harder to work when you don’t know anything about it.”

            We know this is simply a funny story about perspective. The perspective of the boss is, the young man starts at the bottom showing what he has what it takes to make it to the top, and that includes wages. The perspective of the beginner is, he should make more at the beginning because he has the extra burden of learning the job on top of his regular duties.

            We all would like the world to work like the vision of the beginner, but reality is a teacher of common sense. Reality teaches us that the beginning of something is full of learning and surprises; it’s an opportunity to explore the boundaries of our abilities. In the beginning, we learn what we’re good at and what is beyond our reach; we find the safe zone and exist between the parameters. The more we are willing to spend time learning the more expanses our parameters become.

            It’s the same with God; the beginning of our learning is full of work and trying to understand His will. We start our journey with God wanting to know everything at once, but struggle to grasp simple concepts presented before us. The job we’re given by God from the beginning is to go though all the material presented before us, categorize it, examine it, learn the relevant parts, and discard the bad information. That is God’s perspective.

            Man’s perspective is like the beginner in our story, they want all the rewards in the beginning, with little or no effort involved. God is the governor of reality, and although the reward is there for everyone in the end. The work is important to ensure we’re successful and we’ve achieved all that is between the parameters set by God for us.

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The Better Man

Greetings:

 

            Billy Graham once wrote: “Until we solve the human equation called man and get him straightened out, we will never have a peaceful world. You’ve got to build a better man before you can build a better society.”

            The human equation was the creation of Christ. It was the beginning formation of a new and different experiment for the heavens. Humans were made unique beings unlike the usual angel, cherubim, or seraphim. Man’s existence was out of the realm of the usual sphere where all the other creatures dwell. The whole physical creation might have been confusing to the angelic creatures in the beginning. It may have been threatening to some of the common dwellers of the eternal kingdom.

            It may have become a challenge to portions of the angelic realm; the more rebellious may have concluded they had little recourse but to end the experiment. Destroy the man-creature at any cost, maybe even believing they would be doing Christ a favor in the process.

Sound far-fetched? The bible says men would destroy men believing they were doing God a favor, and we know a third of the angels followed Satan in rebellion.

Are we the problem with the world, or is there another influence contributing to the corruption of society?

            The better man is the one that has devoted his or her life to Christ. Scripture also tells us this is only the beginning of our creation. We are to become new creatures it says in 2 Corinthians 5:17; new to earth and new to heaven. We will then have the better man and the better world.

Paths in the Sea

Greetings:

In the 1800’s Matthew Maury noticed the expression “paths in the sea” in Psalms 8:8 (written 3000 years ago). He said, “If God said there are paths in the sea, I am going to find them.” Muray then took God at His word and went looking for these paths, and we are indebted to his discovery of the warm and cold continental currents. His book on oceanography remains a basic text on the subject and is still used in universities. (Scientific Facts in the Bible) by: Ray Comfort.
Is it possible, we as a society have such abject disdain for God’s true word, we can’t see scripture in the same way earlier explorers did? Are we so arrogant in our belief, we‘re the superior beings on the planet, there’s nothing to learn except what comes from man’s mouth.
The bible is full of undiscovered truths; even today if you’re willing to believe the words you read, they’re new discoveries waiting to be uncovered. One mans willingness to take God at His word gave us knowledge we depend on today. If all men or women had that attitude, we would be rich with the knowledge of God in our homes and cities.
Even the simple truths are rare gems in today’s society it seems. Man stumbles over god’s word like a blind Shepard on a steep rocky path. Man doesn’t know where he’s going in scripture so he makes his own truths believing God doesn’t mind. God’s truths are His truths and man’s beliefs are mans truths. God’s truths came long before man was created and there’s nothing we know today He didn’t know before man was even a thought in His mind. God’s word is full of unseen truths, but you won’t find them through man, only searching the bible.

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Two Loves

Greetings:

It is said, there are two loves from which all good and truth come: Love to the Lord and love to the neighbor. And there are two loves from which all evils and falsities come: the love of self and the love of the world.
The love of God is the one thing we as humans desire more than anything. Even when we deny His existence we feel the need for a creator. As humans we often make things up like, “evolution” but the truth is always pressing hard against our natural instincts. The love from Christ has no bounds; it’s the axis of creation and the reason we exist.
The love of our neighbor seems harder to ignore, its in-your-face all the time, and we’re constantly reminded of the need in which many find themselves. It’s our duty to help those in need, but we’ve put neighbor above God. Loving God brings natural benefits to society; loving neighbor above God brings calamity to our culture and its eventual downfall.
The love of ourselves is the direct result of putting God at the bottom of the list. The love of the world and its shiny bright objects is an enormous distraction from God’s true purpose for man.
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could shut our eyes and ignore Satan for a moment? He is behind the love of the world and self, but you’ll never convince those that are mesmerized by those bright shiny objects called man’s traditions.

Cobwebs

Greetings:

 

            Billy Graham once wrote: several years ago I was to be interviewed at my home for a well – known television show. Knowing that it would appear on nationwide television, my wife took great pains to see that everything looked nice. She had vacuumed, dusted and tidied up the whole house and had gone over the living room with a fine- tooth comb since that was where the interview would be filmed. When the film crew arrived with all the lights and cameras, she felt that everything in the living room was spic and span. We were in place along with the interviewer when suddenly the television lights were turned on and we saw cobwebs and dust where we had never seen them before. In the words of my wife, “I mean that room was festooned with dust and cobwebs which simply did not show up under ordinary light.”

            This is a wonderful illustration of our lives. It shows, no matter how hard we try we simply aren’t going to be spiritually spic-and-span under the light of Christ’s words. His doctrine is the clarifying light of our conscience; can it bare the scrutiny of scripture? Have we done due-diligence searching for the will of Christ? Have we compromised too often with doctrine? Are we too willing to accept any explanation to avoid the reality Christ has a way for us to live and we’re not living in that way.

            It’s our duty to Christ to do all we can to fulfill our agreed upon obligations with Him. True, we can rid our lives of all the cobwebs, but we can make an extra effort to find them and make corrections. We are expected to do at least this; it’s the minimum that will be accepted by Christ.

            For too long man has obfuscated his duty to Christ, replacing it with traditions of men. It has grown so bad,

 man no longer fears Christ. Christ promise to us; he will return one day, when that day happens; how filthy will your physical house be?

 

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Notice

Greetings:

 

            I received a notice in the mail the other day saying our car insurance was due. It happens every month it seems we get the same notices about one bill or another. It’s common to receive a notice from someone informing us of upcoming events like, paying bills. It’s a warning something needs to happen to avoid something else, maybe worst from happening. Or it could be telling someone an agreement is about to come to an abrupt end.

            Notice could mean, you’ve noticed the hair style on your wife, or the new perfume she’s wearing. If you didn’t you may be put on notice of an abrupt end. Or your husband’s new rod and reel he didn’t inform you he was going to buy. Women may notice the barbeque pit that magically appeared in the backyard, or the new tools that keep popping up. Once again, notice is a warning something is about to happen, ambe something bad, men.

           When it comes to God, we’re all on notice. We’ve been on notice for thousands of years. Nothing has happened yet, but the notice says, it’s coming and it’s coming when certain conditions are met. We need to know what those conditions are to be completely informed of Christ coming so as to be prepared. Unlike bill paying where we often receive a second notice or even a third; we have only this one notice from Christ.

            This world has been put on final notice. Its people have been given all they need to meet the conditions of the agreement between them and Christ. It is now time for us to heed the warnings. We’ve been put on notice; Christ is coming soon under His conditions.

Child of God

Greetings:

 

            A four-year-old was praying one night, having been listening at church: “And forgive us our trash-baskets as we forgive those who put trash in our baskets.”

It’s a cute story that helps us be reminded we need to always be forgiving. Sermons I’ve done in the past, I’ve reminded folks forgiveness isn’t a request from Christ; it’s an absolute and interracial part of being a Christian. Christ reminds use in Matthew 6:14 to be forgiven, one must forgive all other first.

            I have found throughout my years as a Minister, folks can easily forgive the small things, but it’s much harder for them when it’s something major. At the same time, they’re undeniably miserable because the issue haunts them at every turn. Bitterness can lead to bitter hate towards someone. It can even contribute to sickness and distress.

            Finding peace from the agonizing hate, is forgiving others, no matter the trespass, you have to let it go. No matter the hurt one suffers from another’s action, you have to make your mind let it go. Folks I’ve talked with that have done this say,” It was like lifting a giant weight off their shoulders.” That weight was Satan pressing down on your life, squashing it away with bitterness. Once you forgive, life begins anew, and you look at the world a whole lot differently.

            Christ forgave each of us; we put him on the cross because of our sins. How much more of an offense can someone do to another and still be forgiven? I know they’re those that feel as though they are justified by their bitterness, but who is all that pent up hate and hostility hurting; I suggest, only you.

            Be like the child and be the best Christian you can be, even if you don’t understand it all. Be innocent, be child like in your love for one-another, be the forgiving child of God.

 

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