Tuesday, October 1, 2013
Sunday, September 29, 2013
All Families of the Earth be Blessed.
Genesis 12:3 And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee, and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed. These words spoken to Abraham so many years ago are very special to me. Especially when I think about the fact that I fall into the category of "all families of the world". I am so glad that this blessing God was telling Abraham about was revealed to me at a young age. But the important thing is that it was revealed to me. Be thankful that God reveals his love for you no matter if you are seven or seventy.
I believe that every human being born has a need in their life that only God can fill. Some have referred to this as a "God shaped vacuum". Steve Saint writes about the time he spent with the Waorani Indians of Ecuador who killed his missionary father Nate Saint, Jim Elliot and three other missionaries who were trying to make contact with them to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Steve said that when the Waorani were asked about their concept of a higher power they said that they did believe in a higher power and when they found a stone that would make a good axe head or other tool in the jungle they believed that the higher power had left that for them to find. So a previously uncontacted tribe who hadn't heard the Gospel still had an idea that there was something bigger at work in their lives. Is this enough to bring salvation? I don't know. That's why it is important that the message of Christ be carried to every soul. I think we as Christians are not concerned as we should be for the Great Commission. I'm afraid we take salvation for granted. We need to remember that if it were not for missionary work most of us Gentiles would not know about Christ and what he did for us on the cross. Sometimes we operate as undercover Christians seemingly afraid to talk about our faith to others. I must admit that I need to be more diligent in this. I shudder to think about souls in Hell because I failed to point them to a loving savior.
This is my prayer: God our Father, Thank you for Jesus, your blessing to all families of the earth. Forgive us for failing to be lights to all we meet, shining on the path that leads to your Son Jesus and his perfect sacrifice. Give us a sense of urgency for the spread of the Gospel and let us be willing to die for it if we must as many before us have. Give us faith, strength, wisdom and understanding to help us do your will. You told us in your word that the "fields were white for harvest" Let us be willing to work. In the lovely name of Jesus, Amen.
Let's make it our business to populate Heaven by finding new pilgrims and helping them make progress.
I believe that every human being born has a need in their life that only God can fill. Some have referred to this as a "God shaped vacuum". Steve Saint writes about the time he spent with the Waorani Indians of Ecuador who killed his missionary father Nate Saint, Jim Elliot and three other missionaries who were trying to make contact with them to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Steve said that when the Waorani were asked about their concept of a higher power they said that they did believe in a higher power and when they found a stone that would make a good axe head or other tool in the jungle they believed that the higher power had left that for them to find. So a previously uncontacted tribe who hadn't heard the Gospel still had an idea that there was something bigger at work in their lives. Is this enough to bring salvation? I don't know. That's why it is important that the message of Christ be carried to every soul. I think we as Christians are not concerned as we should be for the Great Commission. I'm afraid we take salvation for granted. We need to remember that if it were not for missionary work most of us Gentiles would not know about Christ and what he did for us on the cross. Sometimes we operate as undercover Christians seemingly afraid to talk about our faith to others. I must admit that I need to be more diligent in this. I shudder to think about souls in Hell because I failed to point them to a loving savior.
This is my prayer: God our Father, Thank you for Jesus, your blessing to all families of the earth. Forgive us for failing to be lights to all we meet, shining on the path that leads to your Son Jesus and his perfect sacrifice. Give us a sense of urgency for the spread of the Gospel and let us be willing to die for it if we must as many before us have. Give us faith, strength, wisdom and understanding to help us do your will. You told us in your word that the "fields were white for harvest" Let us be willing to work. In the lovely name of Jesus, Amen.
Let's make it our business to populate Heaven by finding new pilgrims and helping them make progress.
Friday, September 27, 2013
Wednesday, September 25, 2013
My first post.
Once upon a time, many years ago (nearly two thousand) there was an elderly man who knew a great Truth. He had taught this great Truth for many years and the Truth brought great joy to those who learned it. See, he learned the Truth from the Truth when he was a young man. But one day the elderly man looked around him and saw that many who had known the Truth were laying it aside and learning new ideas. Soon the Truth was pushed far to the backs of their minds and the people were learning more and more about the new ideas and remembering less and less about the Truth. This troubled the man. He knew that others had already written the Truth down but, he felt compelled to record the Truth on paper and so the Truth was the Word and the man began to write: In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
The elderly man was John the Apostle and at the time he wrote his version of the Gospel, the false teachings of Gnosticism were spreading rapidly in the Christian world. The idea that many who were once believers in Christ were embracing a new belief system that denied the deity of Jesus and held that the way to true enlightenment was the gaining of knowledge was more than John could bear. So the Holy Ghost moved on John and he wrote down The Gospel of Jesus Christ in a way that no other could compare with. We may never know how many souls were saved by John's Gospel, but we do know that it has been a light to many a sin darkened soul and a source of sound teaching for centuries of Christians.
We are living in much different times than John but, people continue to be led away from the Christ and Christian living at an alarming rate. Never before history has so much information, so many ideas and thoughts been as accessible as they are now. No longer do you have to drive down to the public library and look up information in the Encyclopedia Britannica. Now you can learn virtually anything you want to know form your seat on the school bus, the restroom at Speedway or your booth at Taco Bell by typing a few words into your i Phone. You can sit on your porch and have a conversation with people anywhere in the world. Now we known that technology itself is not evil. It's not an issue that we have such easy access to information but, the information we access is where trouble rolls in.
A man walked around on the street of a major city and asked random people questions like, Who is the Vice President? Many didn't know. Some were asked who was their favorite president in history? Several answered Benjamin Franklin. But most could tell him the name of a popular actress' boyfriend. What if the same people were asked questions about Solomon or the Apostle Paul? What if the questions were asked to some of us? Do we know more about Nascar and Hollywood than we do the book of Genesis? Do we keep closer tabs on the basketball season than we do what's going on in our country? Somewhere in the flood of information we have completely lost sight of what's important. So often God's Holy Word sits idle on the shelf with a layer of dust while we root around in this worlds dirt like a pig in a turnip patch." Ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth" (2 Timothy 3:7). What kind if ideas are you getting exposed to? Are they rooting out good solid truth in your mind and in your life? Did you one time have good solid faith? Were you grounded in well established Biblical doctrine? Has something changed? If so what caused the change. It's not too late to look back and see where you may have gone astray. Choose carefully what you allow into your mind by way of music, video, social media, conversations with coworkers/classmates, texts/emails,books magazines. Keep yourself sanctified from the filthiness of the world. Sometime after you read this post I hope you will turn off everything that might distract you, get down somewhere and talk to God, then get up and read a few chapters from the book of John. Until next time keep your mind focused on Jesus and keep making progress.
The elderly man was John the Apostle and at the time he wrote his version of the Gospel, the false teachings of Gnosticism were spreading rapidly in the Christian world. The idea that many who were once believers in Christ were embracing a new belief system that denied the deity of Jesus and held that the way to true enlightenment was the gaining of knowledge was more than John could bear. So the Holy Ghost moved on John and he wrote down The Gospel of Jesus Christ in a way that no other could compare with. We may never know how many souls were saved by John's Gospel, but we do know that it has been a light to many a sin darkened soul and a source of sound teaching for centuries of Christians.
We are living in much different times than John but, people continue to be led away from the Christ and Christian living at an alarming rate. Never before history has so much information, so many ideas and thoughts been as accessible as they are now. No longer do you have to drive down to the public library and look up information in the Encyclopedia Britannica. Now you can learn virtually anything you want to know form your seat on the school bus, the restroom at Speedway or your booth at Taco Bell by typing a few words into your i Phone. You can sit on your porch and have a conversation with people anywhere in the world. Now we known that technology itself is not evil. It's not an issue that we have such easy access to information but, the information we access is where trouble rolls in.
A man walked around on the street of a major city and asked random people questions like, Who is the Vice President? Many didn't know. Some were asked who was their favorite president in history? Several answered Benjamin Franklin. But most could tell him the name of a popular actress' boyfriend. What if the same people were asked questions about Solomon or the Apostle Paul? What if the questions were asked to some of us? Do we know more about Nascar and Hollywood than we do the book of Genesis? Do we keep closer tabs on the basketball season than we do what's going on in our country? Somewhere in the flood of information we have completely lost sight of what's important. So often God's Holy Word sits idle on the shelf with a layer of dust while we root around in this worlds dirt like a pig in a turnip patch." Ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth" (2 Timothy 3:7). What kind if ideas are you getting exposed to? Are they rooting out good solid truth in your mind and in your life? Did you one time have good solid faith? Were you grounded in well established Biblical doctrine? Has something changed? If so what caused the change. It's not too late to look back and see where you may have gone astray. Choose carefully what you allow into your mind by way of music, video, social media, conversations with coworkers/classmates, texts/emails,books magazines. Keep yourself sanctified from the filthiness of the world. Sometime after you read this post I hope you will turn off everything that might distract you, get down somewhere and talk to God, then get up and read a few chapters from the book of John. Until next time keep your mind focused on Jesus and keep making progress.
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