Where's Mine?

One of the most misunderstood things the Bible teaches us about God, our Father, is that He is "no respecter of persons". Most people seem to think that whatever God does for one person, He will do for the next person. People either go around mad at God because they think He did something for someone else and didn't do it for them, or their faith is shaken because they've been waiting for years for God to do something for them because He did it for someone else.
God certainly is no respecter of persons. He doesn't love one more than another, nor does He show favoritism to anyone. He is, however, a discerner of persons! In other words, He knows us intimately and judges us each on our own merits. I can't claim the blessings someone else gets if I'm not doing what that person is doing. Am I faithful, forgiving, merciful and generous? Am I faithful in prayer and Bible study? If that other person is and I'm not, how can I expect God to do for me what He does for them?
I know that the same blood of Jesus saves us all and His righteousness belongs to us all the same. I know that we are not saved by our works, but by faith. But I also know that God won't bless us if we are sinning and being unfaithful to Him. We can, through our actions or inaction, cut off the flow of God's favor! If one person is faithful and one is not, the unfaithful person can't expect the same blessings that the faithful person is receiving even if they quote "God is no respecter of persons" all day long!
I know that sometimes we have to be patient and wait upon the Lord and the things we ask for don't always appear immediately. But shouldn't we take a good close look at ourselves every now and then to make sure that what's holding up our blessing isn't us?!

I've Fallen and I Can't Get Up!

Remember that old TV commercial where the sweet old lady falls down and can't get up again so she calls for help on her little electronic device (or whatever it was they were hawking). She just sounded so pitiful saying "Help! I've fallen and I can't get up!" She was just lying there helpless waiting for someone to come along and help her up. The gist of the commercial was that she would have been in very dire straights had she not had that little device with her that allowed her to call for help. She could have laid there for many days crying out for help and no one outside her house would have been able to hear her. Thank goodness for that little device!
There have been times in my Christian life when I felt like I had fallen and couldn't get up. Ever been there? Lying there in the floor crawling around helplessly wondering if anyone could hear your cries for help? Wondering if anyone would care even if they did hear! I've been there! There's an old Merle Haggard tune called "I'm Always on a Mountain When I Fall" and that seems to be the way with me. When I fall, I fall far! It never seems to be the little stumble and spill that others take; It's from the rim of the Grand Canyon to the floor below!
The Bible warns us "Let Him that thinketh He standeth, take heed lest He fall." I Cor. 10:12. Sometimes we start thinking that we've made it, that we've got it all figured out. The next thing we hear is our faces hitting the floor. The good news is that we do possess a device much like that little old lady had. It enables our cries for help to be heard far beyond our own doorway; far, far beyond! It's called prayer. And it always finds the ear of someone who cares. Sometimes, whether out of shame and embarrassment or out of stubborness, we are relunctant to push the button and cry out. But, hey, it's either repent and ask for help or lie there in the floor forever! I've cried out so many times now that it's not even funny anymore. But never has God, my father, ever once chided me for falling or failed to rush to my rescue. He's so wonderful!
Maybe this all seems like I'm rambling, but I just feel like there's someone out there right now who's fallen and can't get up. I want you to know that you're not the Lone Ranger and you don't hold the record for falling down.

Convenient Excuses

Jesus said "These things I do, you will do.". Jesus said "They will lay their hands on the sick and they will recover.". Jesus said "Whatever you ask in my name, believing, you will have it.". These statements of Jesus are simple and to the point. They are not shrouded in mystery; they are plainly spoken and easily understood. And yet we come up with all kinds of excuses why we can't do what He said we could do! We say that this person remains sick because God is working out something in their life. We say that God doesn't heal anymore, that miracles were just to prove that Jesus was God. We say that we don't know everything that God is doing and it may be His will that this person be sick for awhile to teach them something.
I say, BALONEY!!! Let's be honest! We make excuses because we don't really believe what Jesus said. We make excuses because we think it's just too good to be true. We make excuses because we're afraid we'll try it and it won't happen and then we'll look foolish.
The simple truth is that we can do what Jesus said we can do (actually, we must do what Jesus said we can do!). We have many "religious" leaders who have conned us into believing that we need to let them explain the scriptures to us because they are "more knowledgeable" about the things of God than we are and they say we can't do those things that Jesus said we could do. (Sounds like the same trick the priests pulled on people during the Dark Ages to me!) We believe them because we think they are smarter than us (just because someone "sounds" smart doesn't mean they are smart). When will the people of God quit listening to these excuse-makers and believe Jesus?! Don't expect me to believe your human reasoning instead of Jesus' plainly spoken words! When Jesus says I can, all your reasons why I can't don't matter!

Pardoned or Paroled?

Some people think that God pardoned their sins when He saved them. They seem to think that God just said "I understand that you can't pay for your sins and since I'm a loving, merciful God, I'll let it all slide this time. You're sins are pardoned." No fuss, no muss, no need for shed blood or a Saviour. No need to be faithful or holy or righteous. God signed the pardon and they can live any old way they want.
Some people think that God paroled them when He saved them. They feel like they have to watch every little step they take lest they sin again and thereby violate parole. God is watching very closely to catch them so He can ship them off to Hell.
What extremes! And neither one is right! The Bible doesn't say we were pardoned or paroled. It says we were bought with a price! God didn't just "let sin slide"; Someone had to pay. Jesus shed His blood for us; He paid the debt we couldn't pay! And God isn't looking over our shoulders just waiting for us to "violate parole" either. He said He doesn't want us to sin, but if we do, we have an advocate with the Father - Jesus Christ! If we repent and ask to be forgiven, Jesus is faithful and just to forgive us!
We need to stop getting off into extremes. There's a ditch on both sides of the road, you know! Stay with the word of God, not someone's opinion of the word of God. It really is a simple gospel, but it's not a cheap gospel!

Have Your Cake and Eat It Too

There's an old gospel song that says "Everybody wants to go to Heaven, but nobody wants to die." Ain't it the truth! Let me add to that: Everybody wants a Saviour, but nobody wants a Lord; Everybody wants to be in authority, but nobody wants to be under authority; Everybody wants their sin debt paid, but nobody wants to hear about the blood; Everybody wants God's covenant blessings, but nobody wants to keep the covenant. I say everybody, but actually there are a few who want what God wants. But the great majority (Christians and non-Christians) want to have their cake and eat it too. They want what they want, but they're not willing to do anything for it. "Paying the piper" is so politically incorrect! The government owes them a living and God owes them a blessing.
Well, guess what?; The government may give them a living and ask nothing in return, but God will not. Salvation is the only thing that's free and even that requires that a person repent and have faith to believe! Jesus said that anyone who follows Him must deny themselves and take up their cross daily. God the Father said that He would bless those who keep his commandments and walk upright before Him.

Back to the Garden

When Adam and Eve were placed in the Garden of Eden, they had a choice: will I depend on God and trust Him to take care of me or would I rather be my own boss and make my own way? We all know what decision they made. We have all criticized them for doing what they did and "making it hard on the rest of us".
When Jesus died and offered His blood on the mercy seat in Heaven, God accepted that sacrifice as the payment for the sin of the whole world. Anyone who accepts Jesus as their Lord and Saviour is forgiven of sin because of Jesus' sacrifice. We are given the free-will decision to accept Jesus' sacrifice or reject it. Do we not then have the same decision to make that Adam and Eve had to make in the Garden? Sure we do! Do we trust in God and let Him be our master or do we live our lives dependent upon ourselves?
Christians have made the decision to trust in God and let Him be Lord of their lives, but guess what? Christians have to make that same decision every day! Not that Jesus is their Saviour, but that we will trust in Him and let Him be Lord of our lives! We are tempted every day to take matters into our own hands instead of letting God handle everything. Paul tells us to offer ourselves as living sacrifices every day unto God!
We can't blame everything on Adam and Eve. We can stay in the garden of God's love and blessings if we decide every day to let Jesus be both Saviour and Lord!

The Proof is in the Pudding

Remember the old saying "The proof is in the pudding."? The saying means that in the end we'll know what the truth is. As human beings, we can't see the end from the beginning. We are bound by the laws of space and time. Many times what we believe at the beginning is proved to be untrue by the end result.
This is my answer to those who refuse to believe in God, Heaven, Hell and Jesus. I can witness to them, I can explain what I know to them, I can read them the Bible and I can tell them of my personal experiences. Some believe, some take my words into consideration and some refuse to even entertain the possibility of God, Heaven or Hell.
The proof is in the pudding. The day will come when we will all know for sure because we will all see with our own eyes. Unfortunately, it will be too late then to make a decision. The object of the exercise is "do you have faith to believe without the benefit of seeing?". Will you believe God just because He said so, or do you require sensory proof? God is looking for people who take Him at His word.
The proof is indeed in the pudding and the pudding is almost done. It's too late to believe once the end result is revealed. God is looking to see who can walk by faith, not by sight.

More Than That

"I fall to the ground
‘Cause I want to be better
Though You take me as I am
You deserve more than that"

"More than That" by Monk and Neagle


I love the last two verses of that chorus. It reminds me that, although God accepts me as I am, He deserves much more than I give Him. He deserves my everything. He deserves my absolute best. He deserves to be first in all things.
The Bible says "Let everything that has breath praise the Lord". Everything that has breath owes the Lord praise because He gave them breath. God has given us life and we are mistaken when we think that our lives are our own. He gave us life so that we could serve Him. If I gave you $100 and told you to go buy me a gift, but instead you bought something for yourself, you would be a thief. You would have stolen my money because you didn't use it for it's intended purpose. We are thieves when we use life to please ourselves instead of God.
We should always be striving to be better because God deserves the best. He wants us to be the best we can be and He has given us everything we need to grow and mature. He'll take us as we are, but He deserves more than that.

Real Peace

We Christians talk a lot about having the peace of God. But I have noticed that we don't always seem to live in that peace. Jesus said He left us His peace, but He commanded us to "walk in it". Living in peace is a matter of faith. Staying in peace is a matter of decision. Some people know that Jesus gave peace and they claim His peace by faith, but they never really decide that they will stay in it. It's hard to make a decision in the middle of hard times. Circumstances tend to blur our vision and make it easy for our flesh to control us. Make the decision now that when uncomfortable circumstances arise, you will walk in God's peace by faith and stay in His peace no matter what. And then stick with it!; Don't give up! Learn to rest in the peace of God. And this is His peace: knowing beyond a shadow of any doubt that His promises to you are true (the Bible say they are yes and amen) and He is well able (and willing) to take care of you through any trouble you may encounter. You can go through anything if you are confident that He is there with you, working out everything for your good! This is my favorite verse in those times: "This I will declare of the Lord: He alone is my refuge, my place of safety. He is my God and I am trusting in Him.".
A lot of people say they have faith and are walking in God's peace, but at the first sign of trouble, they throw up their hands in despair. Either that or they hold on for a while only to let fear talk them out of their peace. You can never walk in peace aside from faith and you certainly can't walk in faith if you give in to fear. Fear and faith can't exist together; one or the other will rule you.

Who Do You Blame?

If someone offered you an umbrella to use in a rain storm and you said "No, thanks.", who's fault would it be that you got wet walking in the rain? It would be your fault for refusing to accept the protection you were offered! Protection is worthless if not accepted and put to use. Yet almost everyday, I hear people asking why God let a particular thing happen to them. I ask them if they pray or go to church or try to live holy lives and they say they don't. Some don't even confess to believe there is a God. (It seems that the only time some people will acknowledge the existence of God is when they need to blame Him for something!) God promises to take care of His children, not someone else's children. If you don't belong to Him, why would you expect His mercy and protection?
Someone once said that our lives are like a car we're driving. We won't let God drive because we think we're better at it than He is. We even tend to relegate Him to the back seat and if He tries to warn us of danger, we call Him a "back-seat driver" and ignore Him. When we wreck our car however, the first thing we do is look in the back seat and ask Him "Why did you let this happen?". Ain't it the truth! Another wise person said "Never give the devil a ride because he'll always want to drive.". Did you ever look to see who's driving your car?
God's promises are always true (the Bible says they are yes and amen), but only to those He promised them to. That's where people get confused. A lot of people are claiming things that don't belong to them and then they get mad when they don't get them! God wants us to come under His protective wing and be forgiven and safe, but He is not responsible if we decide not to come. Jesus is our refuge, our place of safety. If you put your trust in Him, you can claim the promises of God and be sure they will overtake you. If you decide against Jesus, your on your own. We need to stop blaming God for our own mistakes.