Salt & Light Blog

Pray for Everyone, Including That Person You Hate.

10/31/2015

1 Timothy 2:1-8
One day when I was out walking, I asked God to tell me who needed prayer so that I could pray and share Jesus them. God said, “All of these people need prayer, they all need me.” Every person you see is in need of something. No one, not a single person has it all together perfectly. The second chapter of 1 Timothy begins with an exhortation to action. Verses 1-3 read,
“First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, 2 for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. 3 This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, 4 who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.”
You mean God wants us to pray for mean people, people who are better off than us, and people who don’t agree with us? Yes. Not only those people but the people who govern us. Regardless of party affiliation or if we like them or not, they need prayer and we are called to pray for them. They probably need much more prayer than many people. They lead stressful lives fraught with responsibility. Our prayers for them result in our ability to lead peaceful lives. You just can’t feel hostility toward someone you are earnestly praying for. Our prayers for others benefit them, but they also benefit us, and it pleases God! Jesus wants every person to be saved and understand the truth.
We are supposed to pray for everyone that includes our enemies. I’ve heard the cop out that we do not have to pray blessings for them. People can be very creative about praying for people who harm them. Such as, praying that they will pay for their evil, or that they will see how they have hurt us. But that is not what The Lord tells us to pray. In Matthew 5:43-45 Jesus says,
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.”
To be the sons of your Father, means we love and act the way God does. We share His nature and exercise His Spirit. God loves our enemies, and so then should we. We want for them what God wants for them and that means we want them to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. We want them to know Jesus. So that is what we pray for, we pray for their salvation. Verses 5-8 read,
“For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, 6 who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time. 7 For this I was appointed a preacher and an apostle (I am telling the truth, I am not lying), a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth.
8 I desire then that in every place the men should pray, lifting holy hands without anger or quarreling;”
So many people do not know that Jesus wants to have a relationship with them, that God wants to shower them with blessings. Maybe they don’t know because we are sour-faced around our enemies. Maybe we are enemies to our enemies. Someone has to tell them about Jesus. Someone has to tell them the truth. Someone has to love them the way Jesus wants us to love them. We may be the only people who can show them who Jesus is. We are the ones who can pray for them. We are the ones who can tell them. Romans 10:13-17 says,
“For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
14 How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? 15 And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” 16 But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?” 17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.”
Do you pray for everyone? Does everyone include the mayor, governor, and president? Does everyone include the man who punched you, the cop who gave you a ticket, and the waitress who was rude to you? I encourage you, if you haven’t prayed for them before, begin now. See how God will change your heart for them. See how He will take the chaos and anxiety out of your mind when the enmity you once felt for someone is replaced with genuine love and care. You will love because as you prayed for them The Lord replaced your thoughts, and feelings with His mind and perspective.

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The Law Does Not Save, Jesus Does

10/30/2015

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1 Timothy 1
Why do you care about the True Gospel? Do you care about it? Why should we? Because the Gospel of Jesus Christ brings people to salvation. But some people come into the church and teach some things that have nothing to do with the Gospel. They speak endlessly with intricate opinions that seem important, but are not. They cause arguments in the church rather than discipleship. They teach doctrine that is not Salvation through Jesus Christ only. They teach works rather than faith. Those people cannot be allowed to spread their deadly confusion in the church. Verses 1-7 say it this way,
“Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by command of God our Savior and of Christ Jesus our hope,
2 To Timothy, my true child in the faith:
Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.
3 As I urged you when I was going to Macedonia, remain at Ephesus so that you may charge certain persons not to teach any different doctrine, 4 nor to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies, which promote speculations rather than the stewardship from God that is by faith. 5 The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. 6 Certain persons, by swerving from these, have wandered away into vain discussion, 7 desiring to be teachers of the law, without understanding either what they are saying or the things about which they make confident assertions”
We do not teach, evangelize, or do good works to gain a reputation for ourselves, we do these things because Jesus loves us enough to save us and we in turn love others the way He loves us. Our love for them wants them to be saved. But some people teach the law from a muddled perspective. They do not understand what the Law is and they teach it, as if it a list of rules and rituals that we are meant to tell others to follow. The Law is not for us, and it is not for us to make people follow.
Verses 8-11 read,
“Now we know that the law is good, if one uses it lawfully, 9 understanding this, that the law is not laid down for the just but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who strike their fathers and mothers, for murderers, 10 the sexually immoral, men who practice homosexuality, enslavers, liars, perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine,11 in accordance with the gospel of the glory of the blessed God with which I have been entrusted.”
Believers are already made just, the price for our sin has been paid by Jesus Christ. In Him, we have fulfilled the requirements of the Law. The Law is there for those who do not keep it and have not been made just by Jesus. You see no one can keep the Law. Romans 3:19-20 says,
“Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. 20 For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.”
You see the purpose of the law is not to make people righteous, but to make us aware of sin. Paul says that these teachers and their excessive teachings and misunderstanding of the law are teaching unsound doctrines. They are illogical and erroneous. That is why those who teach them must speak in endless circles. If they tried to lay out their arguments in a straight line they and their student’s would find the faults. The contentions to the law are pointless. But the Gospel is not. Teachers of the law try to get people to behave in a certain manner and hope that they will get into heaven. These theories have people working to be good enough, hoping and trying to become good people.
The Gospel teaches that Jesus loves you and when you believe He is who He says He is, He will change you and make you like Him. He came to make bad people, righteous. He didn’t come to make people follow the law. He didn’t come for people who think they are following the law. Luke 5:27-32 reads,
“After this he went out and saw a tax collector named Levi, sitting at the tax booth. And he said to him, “Follow me.” 28 And leaving everything, he rose and followed him.
29 And Levi made him a great feast in his house, and there was a large company of tax collectors and others reclining at table with them. 30 And the Pharisees and their scribes grumbled at his disciples, saying, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” 31 And Jesus answered them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. 32 I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.”
Before Paul met Jesus and was transformed by the truth, he followed the Law. He said, that he followed the law as well as any man could, he was blameless under the law. (Philippians 3:6). Yet, Paul was a sinner. He called himself the foremost of sinners. He did horrendous things to the Church as he persecuted them so fervently that he was infamous among the Christians for it. It was not the law that saved Paul and made him righteous. It was Jesus Christ. Verses 12-17 read,
“I thank him who has given me strength, Christ Jesus our Lord, because he judged me faithful, appointing me to his service, 13 though formerly I was a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent. But I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief, 14 and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. 15 The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost. 16 But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life. 17 To the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.”
Paul was great at keeping the law, yet he was still the foremost of sinners. It took Jesus to save him. If we had to be good before Jesus could save us, what would be the bid deal of the Gospel? Jesus forgives sins and makes us righteous and in doing so His character is revealed. There would be no mercy if He only saved those who were really good people. Mercy is for those of us who deserve punishment. There would be no grace if He only forgave the sins of people who could somehow die for their own sins. Romans 5:20-21 says,
“Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, 21 so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
The law is powerless to save. The Gospel of Jesus Christ on the other hand is powerful! Look how the message puts Romans 5:20-21.
“All that passing laws against sin did was produce more lawbreakers. But sin didn’t, and doesn’t, have a chance in competition with the aggressive forgiveness we call grace. When it’s sin versus grace, grace wins hands down. All sin can do is threaten us with death, and that’s the end of it. Grace, because God is putting everything together again through the Messiah, invites us into life—a life that goes on and on and on, world without end.”
As believers, it is our job to guard the sanctity of the Gospel. We are entrusted with it. We cannot sit idly by and let people teach that we have to follow rules and rituals, and know a thousand facts about the ancients and the mysteries they represent. That has nothing to do with the Gospel that Jesus, the Son of God was born, lived perfectly, laid down his life, and rose from the dead in order to pay the price for our sins and reconcile us to God. If someone is teaching something else, then we have the responsibility to fight to get them to stop, if they refuse then they have to be forced out of the church in order to stop poisoning the vulnerable among us who will follow them to Hell by the blasphemy they teach. Verses 18-20 say,
“This charge I entrust to you, Timothy, my child, in accordance with the prophecies previously made about you, that by them you may wage the good warfare, 19 holding faith and a good conscience. By rejecting this, some have made shipwreck of their faith, 20 among whom are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme.”

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You are Never Alone

10/29/2015

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Be strong and courageous. Do not fear or be in dread of them, for it is the Lord your God who goes with you. He will not leave you or forsake you. Deuteronomy 31:6

I’m not sure about you but there are times when I feel very alone. I feel the need to talk to someone and can’t think of a solitary person to call. It is a lie, that I am alone. It is an attack the enemy tries on me time and again. But I know the truth. Believer, I hope you know the truth too. You are not alone. Is the enemy telling you that you have no friends. He’s a liar,
In John 15:14-16 Jesus said,
“You are my friends if you do what I command you. 15 No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. 16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.”
Consider that! Jesus Christ, The Lord of Heaven and Earth, the One True god and King of kings not only calls you a friend, but He chose you to be His friend. And God is always with you. No matter what you go through or what you do, God will never abandon you. You may walk away from Him, but He won’t give up on you.
Deuteronomy 31:6 records that promise.
“Be strong and courageous. Do not fear or be in dread of them, for it is the Lord your God who goes with you. He will not leave you or forsake you.”
God is holding onto you. You are safe in His Hands. And there is nothing and no one that can force you away from Him. In John 10:27-30, Jesus said,
“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand. 30 I and the Father are one.”
You can talk to Him anytime. God is always there for you. He wants you to talk to Him. He understands and He wants to help. In Hebrews 4:14-16 Jesus is described as our High Priest, those verses say,
“Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. 15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. 16 Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”
God is with you, not just close to you, not only near to you but actually in you! John 14:15-20 reads
“If you love me, you will keep my commandments. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, 17 even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.
18 “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. 19 Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. 20 In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.”
That is amazing! Believer, you do not have to feel alone, God is with you. He is in you and you can talk to Him anytime about anything.
I am not knocking the importance of friends or fellowship. The Bible has a lot to say about that as well. You are an important part of the Body of Christ, the church. You have Sisters and Brothers all over the world. We are commanded to love one another, (John 13:34-35), hangout with one another, praise God together, go to church together, (Hebrews 10:24-25), help each other (Galatians 6:2), and be united in mind and Spirit. (1 Peter 3:8).
If you do not have a church family, you are missing out on a huge part of your Christian walk. I encourage you to find a church and become a part of them. My church family are some of the most important people in my life. We don’t just meet once or twice a week for “church”, we enjoy life together. They are my friends, my brothers and sisters, they are people who I could not live without.
Don’t give into the lie of loneliness, when the fact is, as a child of God, you are NEVER alone. And if you are not content with having The Lord of Lords as your friend, you will never be content with anything. This is a beautiful promise, and truth. Praise God for His friendship.

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You are not just any Creation. You are God's Workmanship!

10/28/2015

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I believe it is important to understand the distinctiveness of who you are when you are in Christ, so that you live up to who you now are in Him rather than continue living as who you used to be. Ephesians 2:10 reads,
“For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”
You are God’s creation, His workmanship. This verse isn’t merely talking about how God created you as He created all people, knitting them together in the womb with specific parents and ancestry. That is true, He did that for you too. But in Christ Jesus you have been created new, you are a new creation. (2 Corinthians 5:17). And He has made you specifically and specially with at least one gift and made to do good things. (1 Peter 4:10). Some translations of the Bible translate the word workmanship as masterpiece. And Believer, I think you are a masterpiece, carefully crafted by the Creator of the entire universe. He created you lovingly, carefully, and purposely. His masterpiece! Not just an assembly line pop art project but a masterpiece!
What are some masterpieces you can think of? DaVinci’s The Mona Lisa? Beethoven’s 9th Symphony? Van Gogh’s Starry Night? You are more amazing and beautiful than any of those pieces. You are an intricate, complex, beautiful, and wonderful work.
Job 10:10-12 reads,
“Did you not pour me out like milk
    and curdle me like cheese?
11 You clothed me with skin and flesh,
    and knit me together with bones and sinews.
12 You have granted me life and steadfast love,
    and your care has preserved my spirit.”

Psalm 139:13-15 says,
For you formed my inward parts;
    you knitted me together in my mother's womb.
14 I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Wonderful are your works;
    my soul knows it very well.
15 My frame was not hidden from you,
when I was being made in secret,
    intricately woven in the depths of the earth.”
God, Our Father, Our Creator, Our King, loves us deeply. He made us. He has plans for us. He chose us.
Psalm 139:16-18 says,
“Your eyes saw my unformed substance;
in your book were written, every one of them,
    the days that were formed for me,
    when as yet there was none of them.
17 How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!
    How vast is the sum of them!
18 If I would count them, they are more than the sand.
    I awake, and I am still with you.”
Can you even imagine how many grains of sand there are on a small area of beach? Yet God’s thoughts of you outnumber them! He loves you that much! He knew you and loved you before you were born. He knew who you would be and ordained your days. We’re not talking about just anyone here, but we are talking about The LORD! Wow! That blows my mind.
That is really deep love. If King of Kings loves you that much, what right do you have to disagree with that love? Maybe you are reading this and you are not a Believer. Maybe you wonder if God loves you that much too. Yes. He does. (Read here to find out about that love.)
And when you are a believer you are not who you were anymore. God no longer sees your sin (the wrongs you commit like lying, complaining, or stealing), or your tendency toward sin (called the flesh). He made you a new person! 2 Corinthians 5:16-21 says,
“From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. 18 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; 19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. 20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. 21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”
Workmanship of The Lord, you are amazing! Every day you are being made more and more like Jesus, more and more beautiful. 2 Corinthians 3:17-18 says,
“Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 18 And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.”
The Spirit is in you. He is inside you! The Lord God is within you. (Romans 8:11). His transformation, workmanship is noticeable. Galatians 5:22-23 describes it like this,
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.”
As God’s workmanship there are many amazing things about you. One of them is that you have been given gifts and power. You were made for the purpose of good works and He gave you the ability to do those things. Believer, be who you were created to be, a masterpiece, God’s own workmanship. Do what you were created to do, good works for God’s glory.

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How to be Saved by Jesus

10/27/2015

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God loves you very much! He adores you!
God loves you so much that He gave His Son to us, so that we could live forever in relationship with Him. (John 3:16-17).
John 1:14 says,
“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.”
The Word is a name for Jesus. Jesus, the Son of God stepped out of Heaven and became a person and lived as a person, but He never once did anything wrong. Those wrongs we do like lying, complaining, stealing, gossiping, and killing are called sins. Jesus never did. But every one of us has. (Romans 3:23).
The Bible says the payment for sin is death. (Romans 6:23). Jesus took on all our sins, (2 Corinthians 5:21), and paid the price for us, and He gives us eternal life for free! We can’t earn it, no matter how hard we try. We just can’t be good enough to earn salvation from death and go to Heaven forever with Jesus. (Ephesians 2:8-9).
Romans 10:9-10 tells us what we need to do to receive that wonderful gift.
“because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.”
Really! All you have to do is say as a commitment that Jesus is now in charge of your life, He is your Lord God and believe that He resurrected from the dead. That is all and you are God’s child, saved. If you did that, I would love for you to please contact me and let me know. But more importantly you need to connect with a Christian church so you can learn all about Jesus and grow into who He created you to be.

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Praise The Lord, Sometimes He Says No

10/27/2015

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Jeremiah 29:11-14 on Photo of Trees at Sunset by Donna Campbell

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you, declares the Lord, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, declares the Lord, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile. Jeremiah 29:11-14

Map of the Decapolis

I was reading this morning in Mark 5 verses 1-20 about Jesus freeing the man from the demon called Legion.
Verses 1-6 describe the state of the man before he met Jesus.
“They came to the other side of the sea, to the country of the Gerasenes. 2 And when Jesus had stepped out of the boat, immediately there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit. 3 He lived among the tombs. And no one could bind him anymore, not even with a chain, 4 for he had often been bound with shackles and chains, but he wrenched the chains apart, and he broke the shackles in pieces. No one had the strength to subdue him. 5 Night and day among the tombs and on the mountains he was always crying out and cutting himself with stones. 6 And when he saw Jesus from afar, he ran and fell down before him.”
It is not the man who speaks to Jesus, but the demon who recognizes Jesus, calls Him Son of the Most High God, and begs Him not to torment him. He then begs him not to send him out of the country but to send him into a herd of 2 thousand pigs. The demon was one demon but many and Jesus gave him permission to enter the pigs, which went over a cliff and drowned in the sea below. Verses 14-17 tell us what happened next.
“The herdsmen fled and told it in the city and in the country. And people came to see what it was that had happened. 15 And they came to Jesus and saw the demon-possessed man, the one who had had the legion, sitting there, clothed and in his right mind, and they were afraid. 16 And those who had seen it described to them what had happened to the demon-possessed man and to the pigs. 17 And they began to beg Jesus to depart from their region.”
The change in the man was so big that the people were afraid. Jesus power and authority was obvious. These were not Jewish people. They may have heard of Jesus and they may not have, but they didn’t know God or anything much about Him. Perhaps the fact that a herd of two thousand pigs had just run over a cliff and died carrying with them a huge amount of money scared them about losing any more money to this Jesus. But whatever the case, they wanted to stay in their sin and begged Jesus to leave.
There was a lot of begging, first the demon, then the people of Gerasenes. And Jesus gave them what they begged for. Verses 18-20 continue the narrative.
“As he was getting into the boat, the man who had been possessed with demons begged him that he might be with him. 19 And he did not permit him but said to him, “Go home to your friends and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.” 20 And he went away and began to proclaim in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him, and everyone marveled.”
I’ve been a Christian since 1977. I cannot tell you how many times I’ve read this. But this morning The Lord revealed something to me I had never caught before.
After the man has been healed, he begged Jesus to allow him to go with Him. This seems like something that would be God's will. Let me follow you, learn from you tell people everywhere that you are Messiah! Yet, Jesus told the man no. He said, “Go home to your friends and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.”
I can try to imagine, that I would be really disappointed, and knowing me I would wonder why I wasn't good enough to be one of his close followers. But this guy went home and he did what Jesus told him to do. He proclaimed what Jesus had done in the Decapolis, which was ten Greco-Roman cities located in Eastern Palestine.

That was God's will and I would venture to say that He brought many people to the knowledge that Jesus is the son of God. He followed God's will over his own will and God used him. The people in that area knew him as the demon possessed man that couldn't even be restrained with chains, who lived in the tombs and was crazy. They could see the change in Him after his encounter with Christ. His proclamations of God's mercy to him probably changed the lives of many people. If God had given the man what he begged for, I believe the only life changed may have been his. He would certainly not have had the huge impact on his home region.
Making Jesus our Lord means giving up our will for His, giving Him the right to be the Master of our lives. In Luke 9:23-25 Jesus says,
“And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. 24 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. 25 For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself?”
What is it, you have begged for and The Lord has said no to? Have you considered that God has something better for you? Have you considered He has great plans for you? Isaiah 55:8-11 reads,
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
    neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.
9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
    so are my ways higher than your ways
    and my thoughts than your thoughts.
10 “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven
    and do not return there but water the earth,
making it bring forth and sprout,
    giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,
11 so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;
    it shall not return to me empty,
but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,
    and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.”
We can be so disappointed sometimes when we do not get what we want, even when that thing seems to be something God would want. But trust Him. He knows what He made you to accomplish. He knows your gifts. He knows how to bring you to a place of strength and power in Him.
Jeremiah 29:11-14 says,
“For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. 12 Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. 13 You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. 14 I will be found by you, declares the Lord, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, declares the Lord, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile.”
Go ahead and ask the Lord for what you want, but don’t give in to despair if He says no. His no is only a yes to something better and greater.

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Cowardice is a Sin

10/26/2015

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Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. John 14:27

Did you know that the Bible lists cowardice in the same category as murder, sexual immorality, and sorcery?
Revelation 21:8 reads,
“But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death."
Wow! Fear is as bad as killing? How is that? I know that fear stops you from trying, which stops you from accomplishing. Fear keeps you from enjoying life. Fear stands between you and the gift on the other side of the fear. I know this from personal experience.
Years ago, I was afraid of everything a person could be afraid of. I could not enjoy life because I was only able to watch from the sidelines. One day, God told me to go on a mission trip to The Amazon Jungle of all places. Could any place have so many things I was afraid of all together in one place? That trip changed my life. Every day of that trip I had to do things that scared me like climb ladders, step over a gap, climb steep hills, and deal with bugs. As our trip neared its end, we were enjoying a day of sightseeing. We were visiting a shop right on the river. There was a tall rickety old bridge leading back from that shop into the jungle. People were walking along the bridge and I was afraid to cross it. I wanted to do it but I couldn’t make myself move, so I settled for waiting for the others to return. Well one man, decided I was not going to miss and it sternly encouraged me to take the walk along the bridge with him to join the rest of the group. He told me my fear was based on imagination and not reality. I took a deep breath and walked along that rickety old bridge, and there around me were beautiful towering trees and a plethora of birds I had never seen. A monkey moved along the tree tops above us. At the end of the bridge was a lovely little lagoon type of area with giant lily pads, gorgeous flowers, and caiman swimming through the dark water. It was breathtaking! I stood there and marveled at the God’s creation. No description of it could ever have done it justice. I would have missed out on that blessing had I given in to the fear. I would have missed out on the entire trip had I let fear stop me. Before that trip I was afraid of EVERYTHING. After that trip, fear couldn’t stop me from anything.
Fear is not from God. Fear keeps us from doing God’s will, enjoying His gifts and experiencing His fullness.
2 Timothy 1:6-7 reads,
“For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands, 7 for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.”
We have The Holy Spirit! That Spirit is powerful, we have love, and we have self-control. Some versions of the Bible read sound mind rather than self-control. Fear is the antithesis of power, love and sound mind or self-control. Fear is a timid, loveless, and turbulent mind. We have nothing to fear! Fear is part of a life without God. God loves us, He holds in His arms, Our Papa.
Romans 8:15 says,
“For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, "Abba! Father!"
Do you remember when you were little; you knew if Daddy was there, all was right with the world. He told the monsters under the bed to get out. He held you when you were scared. And when he held you there was nothing in the entire universe that could hurt you. Your Abba, your Father in Heaven is holding you tightly in his arms. Nothing can take you out of His mighty hands. John 10:28-29 reads,
“I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand.”
He will not let anyone hurt you. He will not let the enemy touch you! The enemy will taunt you, he will threaten, he will lies to you but he can’t touch you. You are safe in your Daddy’s arms!
1 John 5:18 says,
“We know that everyone who has been born of God does not keep on sinning, but he who was born of God protects him, and the evil one does not touch him.”
What is fear keeping you from doing? What is it you are afraid of happening? Change? Death? Maiming? Is any of that a real fear? Are you imagining what will happen if things go wrong? That is worrying. That’s not reality. Where are those thoughts originating? Those are not from God! Remember God didn’t give you a Spirit of fear. Remember the enemy wants you to fear. The Bible tells us not to worry.
Philippians 4:4-7 reminds us,
“Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. 5 Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; 6 do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
He didn’t promise nothing bad things would not happen to us but He did promise to be with us regardless (Hebrews 13:5). He promised that everything works for good to those that love the Lord and are called according to His purpose. (Romans 8:28)
Don’t let fear stop you. Don’t spend your time imagining “what if”. If you fear something remember the enemy doesn’t want you to live a victorious life and he wants you to be afraid. That’s probably a good reason to overcome your fear and do whatever it is, the enemy doesn’t want you to do.
Before He went home, in John 14:27 Jesus said:
“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.”
Don’t ignore that gift. I challenge you today; Do the thing you fear. Do it now. Let the enemy know he can’t touch you. Do what you are afraid to do and accomplish what it is you are afraid of doing. See what wonderful thing God has in store for you and for your world.

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You Can Do What Jesus Did, He Promises!

10/25/2015

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John 14:12-14 is popular for a few reasons. It reads,
“Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do,because I am going to the Father. 13 Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.14 If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.”
It is very powerful. It isn’t about prosperity. It isn’t about winning football games or climbing mountains. It is about evangelism. It is about obeying Jesus' command to love people and leading them to God. When Jesus said this, He was answering Phillip’s request to see The Father, during a conversation about following Jesus.
Verses 4-11 precede these verses and gives us the context,
“And you know the way to where I am going.” 5 Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” 6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”
8 Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.” 9 Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 10 Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works. 11 Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves.”
Jesus wants us to follow Him. Following Him means walking as He walked, doing as He did in His name and by His authority. He is our God, our King, Our Lord and Master. So when we go where He goes we act in His authority, we act in His name.
In order to really read the passage in its full context we also need to see what Jesus said after this amazing promise. Verses 15-17 read,
“If you love me, you will keep my commandments. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, 17 even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.”
What great things are you asking in Jesus’ name? Are you loving Him and keeping His commandments? Are you revealing The Father to world by living for Jesus through The Spirit? That is at the heart of this passage. It is not about asking for stuff, or asking to be successful. It is about loving people by doing what Jesus did.
What did He do? He loved people. He was moved by that love to action. If they were hungry He fed them. If they were sick, He healed them. If they were broken, He restored them. If they were alone, He befriended them. If they wanted to know God, He taught them. He tells you and me to do these things as well. He equips us to do them and He even promises we’ll do more than He did.
Does your mind lie to you and tell you that you aren’t good enough to do the works Jesus did? Are you filled with doubt about who you are? Maybe you think that only some people are able to love others the way Jesus did. Perhaps you imagine only the very best Followers can heal or prophesy or do that most miraculous work of all, lead someone to the saving grace and truth of Jesus. But that is a lie.
1 John 3:19-22 reads,
“By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him; 20 for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything. 21 Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God; 22 and whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him”
God is greater than the lies and doubts of your heart. He promises again that whatever we ask we receive. Let’s look at the context of this promise too. Is it about wealth? Is it about achievements? It is about love.
Verses 16-18 pave the way for this beautiful promise,
“By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. 17 But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? 18 Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.”
It is about living out that love the way Jesus did. It is about obeying Jesus. The passage continues with verses 23-24.
“And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us.24 Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God, and God in him. And by this we know that he abides in us,by the Spirit whom he has given us.”
You are called for a great purpose. It is a purpose much greater than sitting in a church pew. It is a call bigger than inviting a person to church. It is a job more wonderful than giving the waitress a tract. You are commanded to love others as Jesus loves you. He didn’t love in a small way, He loved in a big way. He spent time, He healed, He spoke truth, and He laid down His life. You are commanded to love the same way. You are commanded to reveal God to the lost by loving the way Jesus did.
John 15:12-17 reads,
“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command you. 15 No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. 16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. 17 These things I command you, so that you will love one another.”
So go, love, bear abiding fruit. Go, lay down your life for the lost. Ask Jesus to let you heal people. Ask Jesus to speak the truth to people through you. Ask Jesus to allow you to feed the hungry and warm the cold and comfort the hurting. Ask Jesus to save people. He will. Love them the way Jesus loves and see what Jesus will do.

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Adoption: What it Means for Believers

10/24/2015

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1 Peter 1:3-5 on photo by Donna Campbell

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, 5 who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. 1 Peter 1:3-5

I know that we just did a devotional dedicated to being sons and daughters of God, but I was going through my friend’s Facebook notes and wanted to share this from my dear friend, author Andrea Barringer.[1] (Bible Verses are added to the note by me).
Adoption
This morning I was thinking about adoption. It's something that has been on my heart since I was a child. It's not the kid's fault that they were born into a situation where their original parents couldn't support them due to any number of circumstances. Why should the child suffer the consequences? Don't they disserve love as well? Thankfully, Jim also supports the idea of adoption and it may be something we do later on in life when our daughter is in college.

That idea made me start thinking. If I adopt that means every blessing that I bestow on my own child/children has to be the same for my adoptive child. For example, if Jim and I have a will in which we would leave our earthly possessions to our daughter we would also have to include our adoptive child into that will. If you didn't do that, it would show that perhaps you didn't truly treat them like your own child. Likewise, you wouldn't introduce your adoptive child as "This is _____ my adopted kid". You would introduce them as "This is my child, ______".

When you adopt you are saying with your heart, soul and mind that the child is yours. Fully yours. And just as when you wish to adopt a child the child also has to accept the offer. You can't storm into a place and say to a kid "I'm adopting you whether you like it or not". That wouldn't be very loving, now would it?

This may all sound like commonsense.

Of course all of this made me think of the FACT that I have been adopted into God's family. Galatians 4:1-5 says,
“I mean that the heir, as long as he is a child, is no different from a slave, though he is the owner of everything, 2 but he is under guardians and managers until the date set by his father. 3 In the same way we also, when we were children, were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world. 4 But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.”
God paid the price of adoption and truly accepts me as one of His own. My name is written in the book of life (that will). With my name being on that book of life I am granted eternal life with Him in heaven. (Luke 10:20, Revelation 20:15). I get His love, grace, mercy, etc. But as I said earlier, with every adoption the kid has to make a decision, whether to accept it or not.

God offers salvation and a true relationship with Him as our heavenly Father, but we have to accept it. If not, we just don't get those gifts. We don't get to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. John 1:9-13 reads.
“The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. 11 He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. 12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.”

And, as with most huge families there WILL be a huge family reunion. If you have lost someone recently like a child, parent, spouse, or grandparent I know you are hurting. But just as when we buy our plane ticket to go to a much anticipated epic family reunion we will get to do the same once we are in heaven as long as those loved ones were adopted into God's family. We WILL get that epic family reunion in heaven. There are a lot of people that I miss, mainly my Abuela (grandma). I know I'll see her again, for she too, was adopted into God's family.

It's comforting to know that God's love for us is real. It's wide. It knows no depths. I am thankful for His love for me.

[1] You can find Andrea’s book Into the Trenches on Amazon at http://goo.gl/2XHZov

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Salvation: What About Children And Those Who Can't Understand?

10/23/2015

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By Jim Barringer

What happens to a very young child who dies before having the chance to hear, understand, or accept the gospel? Based on what we know about the character of God (merciful and just), most of us would find it impossible to believe that God would send such a child to hell. However, based on what we know about sin and salvation, specifically that there is only one name through which we must be saved, we're led to an answer we don't particularly want to accept. So how do we reconcile what we think the Bible says and what we think God must be like? Is it possible that the Bible speaks to this issue more clearly than we realize?

First, I would like to show that God, in his sovereignty, chooses to overlook the guilt of those who are not capable of understanding right from wrong. Based on my reading of the text, I would conclude that this extends not just to infants, but also to children (up until they can understand the gospel message) and also to anyone with a sufficiently strong mental handicap. John 9 tells the story of Jesus healing a man who had been born blind, which leads to a confrontation between Jesus and the Pharisees. At the end of the conversation, he drops this nugget on them: "If you were truly blind, you would have no guilt; but now that you say 'We see,' your guilt remains" (9:41). In the Greek, it actually says "you would have no sin." The person who is truly blind, who is genuinely unable to see spiritual truths, has no sin or guilt. Guilt only arrives at the moment that a person becomes able to comprehend the truth, and refuses to acknowledge it.

You'll note here that the "age of accountability," as this concept is commonly called, is not really an accurate way to describe what Jesus is talking about. I say that because he's not talking about an "age," per se, but a state of mind at which a person understands and has the ability to say, "I see." I see right from wrong; I see that I'm a sinner; I see that sometimes I do things that hurt other people. A child who can understand that can probably understand the gospel message too. Once a child understands the gospel message - once he has "ears to hear," to borrow another phrase from Jesus - that's when he's responsible for what he does with the knowledge. Before that time, he's blind, and "if you were truly blind, you would have no sin."

How do I know this is the right way to interpret Jesus' words? Because it's identical to what Paul writes in Romans 7:9-10. "I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died." What was the time in Paul's life when he was alive without the law? It was the time when he was truly spiritually blind, before he had the ability to understand right from wrong. And he says the same thing that Jesus does: "When the commandment came" - when he gained the ability to say "I see" - "sin came alive and I died." Sin and guilt were born in him once he could understand the law, but before that happened, he was alive apart from the law. The word "alive" here is very important because in Paul's writings it always refers to the state of being saved - compare with Ephesians 2:1-5 and Colossians 2:13.

Again, Paul reiterates this idea that knowledge of right and wrong are what cause sin and guilt to come into our lives. In Romans 4:15, he writes, "For the law brings wrath, but where there is no law, there is no transgression" - no sin and no guilt. Now, Paul doesn't mean that people who have never heard of the Bible get a free pass. He explains earlier in his book that anyone who tries to be a good person is showing that they understand right and wrong and that they have a functioning conscience. He's talking only about a situation in which no law, not even a conscience, exists inside a person's head. For those people, there is no transgression.

In the very next chapter, Paul teaches the same idea with more emphatic wording. "Sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law" (Romans 5:13). Did you catch what he said? In situations where there is no law in a person's life, where there is true spiritual blindness that prevents understanding of the law, God sovereignly chooses not to count sin as sin. He has a special grace and mercy for people who are blind and unable to know true right from wrong, in that he doesn't count their sins against them.

In the chapter after this, Paul explains, "The wages of sin is death" (Romans 6:23), and thus any soul which is guilty of sin is deserving of eternal punishment. Yet the entire point of Paul's teaching on the law, and of Jesus' teaching on blindness, is that blindness and guilt cannot coincide with each other. Simply put, a soul which is blind cannot ever be guilty of sin, because "if you were blind, you would have no guilt." Only the arrival of knowledge of right and wrong, and the mental faculties to comprehend such, lead to true guilt. As a general rule of thumb, if a child is unable to understand the gospel, he's probably still under blindness and thus not guilty before God, according to what Paul and Jesus have written.

But wait a minute. Doesn't the Bible teach that the only way to be saved is to go through Jesus? How could a child possibly make it to heaven without professing saving faith in Jesus?

Let me reframe the question. Check out Ezekiel 18:4, where God says, "Behold, all souls are mine; the soul of the father as well as the soul of the son is mine: the soul who sins shall die." This tells us two crucially important things. First, all souls are the default property of God. They only have to be redeemed from darkness after a person sins, but before that, they belong to God - "all souls are mine." Secondly, note that God does not hold any child guilty for his ancestor's sins, not his father's and not Adam's - "the soul who sins shall die." This becomes really obvious if you read the rest of the chapter in context. So no, children are not born guilty of Adam's sin, or guilty of any sin at all. They're born with a sin nature, which will drive them to sin as soon as they understand right from wrong (which was Paul's lament in Romans 7), but before that point, as long as blindness persists, "sin is not counted where there is no law." And if "the soul who sins shall die," then the soul which is not counted guilty of any sin...must live.

That is the bulk of the detailed Biblical exposition on the matter. The case seems airtight, drawn from both testaments and from the words of Jesus himself. Consider also Jesus' words in Luke 18:15-17: "Now they were bringing children, even infants, to him, that he might touch them...but Jesus told them, 'To such belongs the Kingdom of God.'" This often gets paraphrased as "Let the children come to me," but the "children" he was speaking of were infants, and Jesus said, "This is who the Kingdom belongs to." It's not as ironclad a proof text as Paul's writings from Romans, but it sure does make you think, doesn't it?

Now I want you to do some math with me. Planet earth is now (as of last week) home to seven billion people, of whom approximately 1.5 billion are Christians. That's a mere 21.4% of the world's population. If heaven and hell are in a race for souls, it sure seems like hell is winning. I don't know what I think about an eternity where hell outnumbers heaven by more than 3 to 1. But this teaching about children changes everything. If we truly believe that life begins at the moment of conception (Psalm 139), what does it do to our numbers if God gets every fertilized egg that didn't implant, every miscarriage, every stillborn child, every infant, every toddler who ever lived? It makes heaven a whole lot more full, that's what. After all, the Kingdom belongs to them anyway.

That's the essence of the argument, and I've forced brevity upon myself. What I'm getting at is this: every human life is the property of God (Ezekiel 18) until it sins and requires ransoming. A child is "alive apart from the law" (Romans 7) because "if you were truly blind, you would have no guilt" (John 9) and "sin is not counted where there is no law" (Romans 5). God sovereignly chooses to excuse any and all sin as long as a child exists in a state of true spiritual blindness. But "now that you say, 'I see,' your guilt remains" (John 9) because "when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died" (Romans 7). Prior to that, though, "To such belongs the Kingdom of God." I hope that I've given you much to think about.

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Pray for Everyone, Including That Person You Hate.

The Law Does Not Save, Jesus Does

You are Never Alone

You are not just any Creation. You are God's Workmanship!

How to be Saved by Jesus

Praise The Lord, Sometimes He Says No

Cowardice is a Sin

You Can Do What Jesus Did, He Promises!

Adoption: What it Means for Believers

Salvation: What About Children And Those Who Can't Understand?

Donna Campbell

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