School Starts

Well, it’s that time again; school starts this week in our county. Summer has flown by it seems. My daughter enters her junior year.  Somehow time rocketed me from holding her in my arms as a baby and now riding with her as she learns to drive my car!

We have to prepare our kids for school and I am not just talking about composition books, pencils and backpacks. Little by little we see the right to free speech being given only to those who talk about things other than Christ. When my daughter began high school three years ago, I went to the orientation, as I will do tomorrow, to meet the teachers. In one classroom we entered there was a young lady teacher which had a computer monitor facing the line of parents waiting to talk with her. Her background picture was a scantily clad young man lying on a lounge chair in a provocative pose. Several parents were raising eyebrows and some just smiled. When I got to talk to her, I called her over to the other side of her desk away from the line not to make a scene. I asked her, “Ma’am, with all the issues we have had in this county with students being busted for sexting (sending sexy pictures over cell phones), do you think this picture is appropriate in this classroom?” She immediately apologized, “I did not do that, some student did that and I do not know how to fix it.” I said, “I know how to fix it and will be glad to change it for you.” She said, “Oh, no, I have called the school computer techs and they are coming to fix it.” I said, “Well, in the mean time I would turn the monitor off or at least away from the public eye if it were me.” So she turned it around.

Our kids are not allowed to wear tee shirts that reflect their faith in Christ and Christian teachers are not allowed to express their belief in Christ to students, but some teachers can express anything else they want with them apparently. One teacher made it a point to tell the kids last year he was an atheist and the state has no problem with that, but let one tell the kids they are Christian and the school board calls them on the carpet and lawsuits are threatened!

 “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first,” Jesus said. You and I as Christians are being labeled as haters today by those who oppose us. I have no intention of trying to force my faith or belief upon anyone and I have no intention of compromising the Word of God in order to please them either. Each passing year brings new battles to the public arena against Christ and His followers and will continue to do so until He comes back. I remember some of the last words Jesus spoke while here; “I do not pray that You (Father) take them out of the world but that You protect them from the evil one.” Pray for the teachers and the kids; Lord knows they need it.

Terrible Weekend

What a terrible weekend, especially for my best friend. I had to conduct the funeral for his wife. We have been friends, brothers I would say, for years. Fighting fires and running ambulance calls and even scuba diving to locate drowned victims, we have been through a lot together. His wife was a wonderful person and we are dear friends with them and their adult daughter. I never expected to have to do such things when I answered the call to pastor. I am not to be pitied however. My friend and his daughter are the ones who have suffered the blow. When I got the call I was shocked. Immediately asking God, “Oh Lord, what can I do? What do I say?” It took a while for it to sink in and after being with him in his home it was evident that the Holy Spirit was doing a great job of comforting him and his family.  

Death is certainly not a respecter of persons. Old and young, good and bad, healthy or sickly; it comes to each. Solomon said, “None of us can hold back our spirit from departing. None of us has the power to prevent the day of our death.” God lets people die because He said He would. After putting Adam in the Garden of Eden God gave him this warning: “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”  It just does not seem fair that God would punish every human, by letting us die, just because one of us disobeyed Him! After all, my friend’s wife had nothing to do with Adam messing up, why should she die for it?

Well, God does not deal in fairness but He does deal in justice. Any Gospel that does not include Gods judgment is not a true gospel. In order to administer justice in the form of punishment for sin, death of the body was required; not death of our spirit. Although all human bodies will die, (or be changed from mortal to immortal), only the death of one human body paid the price of sin required by God in order that our spirit would be rescued from death (salvation). That was the body of the Lord Jesus, the Christ.

My friend’s wife believed in Christ, she trusted He would save her; and He did. Her body died but she lives on! Death no longer has reign over her. Were it not for the Cross and Calvary, death would be the final horrible state of humanity. Because Jesus lives, we will live; if the same Spirit that raised Him lives in us. It is like the church sign once read; “Born once, die twice. Born twice, die once.”

Making Promises You Can't Keep

Have you ever promised something that you could not do? We all have, whether we admit or not. The reason is that our intentions are good but sometimes things happen that are out of our control.

The Apostles promised Jesus they would never leave Him, in fact they all said as Peter did, “We will go with you and die for you if we have to.” They were sincere in their hearts, but fear of death got the best of them. Jesus asked them, “Couldn’t you men keep watch with me for one hour?” He was praying in the garden and the enemy was on the way. “Watch for them,” He said. They went to sleep.

Jesus never fired them though. He came back to them just as the enemy was coming upon them. Have you ever denied Christ? Have you ever intended to do something for Him you never did? He will forgive you too. Be careful when making promises. St. James says that we should understand that we can only do what God will allow us to do.

Tune in next week for more truth: if you can handle it.

Why Me?

“Simon, Simon! Indeed, Satan has asked for you, that he may sift you as wheat” (Luke 22:31 NKJV)

One phone call can change your life; forever. One call bearing bad news and your life will never be the same. You are going through life doing the best you can and then, “Ka-pow!” A regular Monday or a lazy Tuesday with no expected events and then suddenly it happens. You can’t help but ask, “Why me?”

Now you may be a Super Saint and not say it, but for the rest of us, we generally have that thought. Job had a good life up until the day Satan asked to have a go at him. Peter loved Jesus and felt that he would even give his life for Him. Then Satan asked to have a go at him as well. The mysterious thing is, God let him. Why would God do such a thing? I don’t know. But He did it.

There are a lot of unanswered questions in regards to what God does or does not do. Even if we had the answer it would still not make sense to us. God has His reasons for doing what He does and allowing what He does. You and I just have to keep trusting Him. It is hard for us to accept that God has enough confidence in our trust in Him that He would allow such things to happen. But He does.

So the next time, or for the first time, the “thing” happens to you, or perhaps it already has; remember that it was run by God before it ever came upon you. Take out a coin the next time you need a reminder: In God we Trust.

Live and Learn

Those who learn from the lessons of life will join the others who are wise. (Proverbs 15:31 The Voice)

Things happen; we all realize that many of those things that happen to us personally are out of our control. We also know that the things which happen to us are not out of God’s control. When we think about some of the good things that happen to us it is easy to believe that God had a hand in it, but when bad things come our way it is harder to accept that He had anything to do with it. Truth is, nothing comes into our lives that He did not first know about. We may be surprised but He never is.

Life 101 is what I call life lessons. As long as we are alive we keep learning, or at least we should be learning. We can either learn from those things that come upon us or we can get angry about them, grieve over them, pretend like they never happened, or just try to forget them. The Bible teaches us what to do; learn from them. Some things happen because of poor choices or decisions we make; learn from them. Wise people are those who have not only gained knowledge in certain areas but know how to apply it in their lives.

God wants us to grow spiritually and one way we do that is by learning how to see things from His perspective. The next time something happens to you take a moment and seek to find out what lesson God would have you learn from it.

What Will It Take?

John 4: 4 (New Living Translation, NLT).

“Will you never believe in me unless you see miraculous signs and wonders?”

Seeing is believing; something I have heard a lot and more than likely so have you. With all of the technological advances in media today seeing can be deceiving. Computers have made it possible to create images that are manufactured and not real. Hoaxes and deceptions, magicians that make a living by causing us to not see things as they are but as they would have us believe they are. My point is, we can be fooled and are many times and therefore we have become skeptical of even what see this day and time.

Thomas was not willing to put his faith fully in Christ until he was able to “see and touch” the wounds of our Savior. It is interesting to note that Jesus never rebuked him for wanting to be sure but rather submitted Himself to the test. “Go ahead Mr. Thomas; put your finger in the nail wounds and the laceration in My side.” That was all it took for Thomas to conclude; “It is really You Jesus! You are actually back from the dead!”

What will it take for you today? What will it take before you believe that Jesus is real? That the Bible is true? That salvation is not just a religious term but actual rescue from hell? That you need to be saved?

What will it take for you to believe that God really loves and cares about you? That He really is concerned with those things that trouble you? That He really is willing and able to heal you, comfort you, protect you, guide you in your decision making, and can do that which you think is impossible?

Remember what Jesus told Thomas? “You are blessed Thomas because you have been able to do this, but the ones who will really be blessed are those who will never have the opportunity to do what you have done; yet they believe in Me anyway.” (My paraphrase of course).

A Declaration Of Independence

Galatians 5: 1 (New King James Version, NKJV).

Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.

While in England many years ago my wife and I had lunch at a little cafe on Bentwaters Royal Air Force Base where my brother was stationed. They had British civilian waitresses working it. It was on the Fourth of July and there was a little carnival set up on the base just across the field. The waitresses were wearing “Uncle Sam” top hats decorated with stars and stripes. As one came over to us I asked her, “What do you think about all this celebration on the base here?” She simply said, “It’s a slap in the face it is!”

I thank God for our independence here in America. I am as big a Patriot as you will find. I come from a long line of military men. My dad and six of his brothers were all in World War II at the same time. I served in the Army as well. My brother retired from the Air Force. My son is serving in Kuwait with the Army today. We are proud to be Americans. For the life of me though I cannot imagine our forefathers intending our independence to be independent from God. They wanted freedom from religion and God led them to pursue it. We all need freedom from religion but we need dependence upon Christ.

Gods intent for mankind is to be free from religion but not from Him. The Apostle Paul referred to himself as a “slave to Christ.” Religion is of man but Christianity is of God. Religion brings bondage, Christianity gives freedom; free from religion. Jesus came that we may be set free from sin and eternal death. Salvation cannot be earned but is a free gift offered to us. The Cross is the true Statue of Liberty.

Why not pledge your allegiance to Christ today and declare your independence from sin?