Tag Archives: Christianity

Child-like Faith

Posted on by

And Jesus said,
“Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child
shall not enter it.” (Mark 10.15 ESV)

A few weeks ago we were watching a story on the evening news about a
car that had hit a motorcycle.  The motorcycle was on fire, and its rider was trapped under the car.  The flames were consuming the bike and had spread to the engine of the car, and yet, people were desperately trying to get the young man out from under the car, thus putting their own lives in danger. Dozens of people rushed to the car, lifted it up so that another man could pull the injured rider to safety, set the car down, and backed away from the dangerous fire.  It was an act of selfless heroism.

 As I sat in my recliner watching this unfold I just kept saying, “That is unbelievable!  In today’s world you just don’t expect people to react like that.” I was truly pleasantly surprised that people would rally together, put their lives in jeopardy, and then do what was necessary to save someone else’s life.  No sooner had the words left my mouth when my seven-year-old son said, “Dad, isn’t it great that God sent all those people to help that man!”  Needless to say, I now was speechless.  Child-like faith has a way of putting things into perspective.

 In Mark 10:15, Jesus tells us to enter His Kingdom we need child-like faith.  Children believe what we tell them.  The Bible says God is gracious, merciful, kind, loving, generous, our defender, supplier, and meets all our needs.  In spite of this, adults tend to get caught up looking at the problem instead of the problem solver.  We end up focusing on the seen rather than unseen.  We walk by sight rather than by faith.  Children do not have that problem–they simply believe what they are taught and walk by pure faith.

 As you go about your day, keep your eyes of faith open to see the wonders which God is working all around you. You never know, it might be your hands that God uses to rescue someone from perishing.

10 Life Changing Quotes

Posted on by
Reply

For many years I have enjoyed reading anything and everything by Warren Wiersbe. I began reading his books long before I became a pastor, and they are still a tool I use today in my Christian walk and in preparing sermons. If you want to grow as a Christian, I would encourage you to start reading any of his books. Some of my favorites are from his “Be Series.”

Last Wednesday Jayson Bradley posted “10 Dynamic Warren Wiersbe Quotes.” Because of the great influence Dr. Wiersbe has had on my life I wanted to share these quotes with you.

Here are 10 inspiring Wiersbe quotes:

1. “The Christian life is not a playground; it is a battleground, and we must be on our guard at all times.”—from The Bumps Are What You Climb On

2. “This modern emphasis only on personal salvation makes us lose sight of the grandeur and glory of God’s church. I am not minimizing our personal experience with Christ, but I am affirming that it is not the primary goal that God has in mind. He is building His church. He is building up the Body of Christ. The glory and greatness of our personal salvation is but a reflection of what God is doing corporately in and through His church.”—from Prayer: Basic Training

3. “You don’t have to read very far in your Bible to discover that God forgives His servants and restores them to ministry.”—from Be Amazed

4. “The immediate purpose of prayer is the accomplishing of God’s will on earth; the ultimate purpose of prayer is the eternal glory of God.”—from On Earth as It Is in Heaven: How the Lord’s Prayer Teaches Us to Pray More Effectively

5. “For the most part, the people we serve in our congregations don’t look like Josephs, Esthers, or Davids, nor do we; but the same God who glorified himself in the lives of ‘ordinary people’ in ancient days will glorify himself in our lives today if we will trust him.”—from 10 Power Principles for Christian Service

6. “God’s people don’t live on explanations; they live on promises.”—from Be Heroic

7. “We may be statistics and numbers as far as the world’s computers are concerned, but we are precious individuals as far as our Shepherd is concerned. He knows his sheep personally.”—from Be What You Are

8. “Satan wants us to think that our ‘disobedience detours’ must become the permanent road for the rest of our lives, but this is a lie.”—from Be Obedient

9. “The most important meeting we as leaders attend is that daily personal meeting with the Lord, before the day begins, when worship and meditation increase our faith as we receive the orders for the day.”—from On Being a Leader for God

10. “If you serve only to earn a salary, you will never do your best as long as you think you’re underpaid. If you minister to get recognition, you will start doing less when people don’t show their appreciation. The only motivation that will take you through the storms and keep you on the job is, ‘I’m serving Jesus Christ.’ “—from On Being a Servant of God

Follow this link for more of Dr. Warren Wiersbe’s books on Amazon.

Culture Is Redefining What’s Right, Wrong

Posted on by
Reply

Lillian Kwon’s article on Jonathan Falwell’s Mother’s Day sermon is fantastic and something every Christian needs to hear!

Joining pastors throughout the country in denouncing President Barack Obama’s support for same-sex marriage, Pastor Jonathan Falwell told thousands from the pulpit that they must protect the biblical definition of marriage, even if the culture and the president tries to redefine it.

“We’ve got to protect marriage; we’ve got to protect our families; we’ve got to protect the Church,” Falwell, senior pastor of Thomas Road Baptist Church in Lynchburg, Va., preached Sunday. “I don’t care what the world says; I don’t care what the culture says; I don’t even care what the president says. With all due respect … the Bible says that God made them male and female and the two shall become one flesh.

“Marriage is between a man and a woman, period,” he said to applause from the congregation.

Falwell, son of the late Dr. Jerry Falwell, had pondered and prayed about whether to continue his message series on “Holy Wars” or preach on something more pertinent to Mother’s Day on Sunday.

But he was convinced that there was no better day than Mother’s Day to talk about marriage and family especially at a time when those institutions are being attacked, he told the megachurch of some 20,000 members.

“We’ve got to understand that indeed we are in the midst of a battle … the battlefield is something that is very, very real in our lives,” he preached. It’s a battle that rages in our hearts, souls and minds, he added.

Satan, Falwell warned, is trying to keep people from enjoying God’s great blessings.

Reading from the New Testament, Galatians 5, Falwell listed adultery, fornication, uncleanness and lewdness as sins.

God, he stressed, provides a “very clear understanding so there is no gray area” on sexual sin. But the culture is redefining what a sexual relationship should be like, he lamented.

“We’re redefining what is right and what is wrong,” he said. “God knew that we were going to live in a culture today just as many in that day were living in where we redefine what sin is, where we change the idea of what sin is so that we can make room for the things that we want to do,” the Virginia pastor said.

“It’s easy when we understand that adultery is wrong and fornication (any sexual relationship outside of the bonds of marriage) is wrong but if we can change the definition of fornication then we can open all kinds of doors and that is where we live today.”

He continued, “When we do that …. when we begin to make cases for and explain away what the Bible says, then we begin to destroy our very souls and the battlefield is raging and Satan is winning.”

Americans are split on whether homosexual behavior is a sin. According to LifeWay Research, which surveyed more than 2,000 Americans in September 2011, 44 percent say it is a sin and 43 percent disagree. Among born-again, evangelical or fundamentalist Christians, 82 percent call it a sin.

While exhorting the congregation to stand on the Word of God and be clear about what the Bible calls sin, Falwell urged caution.

“What is vitally important to understand is that while we stand on truth, we must speak the truth in the love of Jesus Christ,” he stressed. “There is no room in today’s culture and there better not be any room in the Church today to attack people who disagree with us. Rather, let them see the love of Jesus Christ in us.

“I will tell you this, that God loves homosexuals just as much as He loves Baptists. Jesus died on the cross for every single one of us.”

The message Christians should be spreading is about the gift of eternal life, he urged.

“Yes, the Bible does call sin sin but let me reveal to you through the Word of God not what God says ‘no’ to but rather what God gives us the opportunity to say ‘yes’ to and that is the incredible gift of God’s eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

Here is the link to read the entire Christian Post article: “Jonathan Falwell: Culture Is Redefining What’s Right, Wrong“

Are You Peculiar?

Posted on by
1

My wife sent me this devotion from worshipfilms.com entitled “Are We Peculiar at All?”

In Titus, it says that God sent Jesus to “purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.” The word for peculiar in the Greek literally means His own possession. What is being communicated is that we are peculiar, and we act peculiarly because God owns us, we belong to Him. So, the question for us to consider is: are we actually peculiar? As a Christian, does my life stand in significant contrast to the rest of the world? And in what ways should we be peculiar?

Let me give you 5:

 1. Our love for one another.You might say “There are people at church that I am close to and love, I would do just about anything for them.” That is awesome. But it’s not peculiar. You could go to a Jewish synagogue or a Muslim mosque or an Elks Lodge and probably find people that would say those same words.

Jesus said in Matthew 5:46, “If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that?”

What IS peculiar is when you can be around that person in the church that has talked bad about you behind your back, and love them the same as you do your close friend. It gets peculiar when you can love the brother that has done you wrong in a business deal that way. It’s peculiar when you genuinely love and spend time with that person that everyone thinks is really hard to be around, or the person that’s boring, or the person that smells bad.

2. Our ability to forgive. A forgiving spirit is not something that we get naturally. It does not come from our human nature. The ability to truly forgive people on a consistent basis for wrongs they have done is peculiar, and it is one evidence that God owns us, that we are His possession.

Forgiving people is not easy. It is the grace of God that enables us to do it. But we have to do it. Jesus said in Matthew 6: “For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.” That’s one of those verses that we like to water down, but Jesus meant what He said. Personally, I have found that it is a lot easier to forgive people that have hurt me, than it is to forgive people that have hurt my kids or my wife. But we don’t get a free pass on any of it. We have to lean into God’s grace until we get there and fully forgive.

How do we know we have really forgiven? I heard Joy Dawson say one time that we know we have forgiven when we no longer feel the need to tell someone else about the wrong done to us.

3. The way we spend our money. You might say “I give some money to the church, and if a friend of mine is really hurting, I try to help them out when I can.” Great, but it’s not peculiar. The Jewish guy gives to his synagogue, the atheist gives to United Way. Is there are sharp contrast between the way we allocate our resources and the way our non-Christian neighbors allocate theirs?

You might be thinking, “You are focusing on an external thing. Stuff like that has to come as a fruit of our internal relationship with God.” And that is absolutely true. But it is also true that we have a tendency to ignore the whispers of the Holy Spirit when it involves things that cost us something. The Holy Spirit is not going to force His way. You can resist and He will leave you alone. A lot of times we use logic and our own reasoning to talk ourselves out of being obedient to God. And when we do that, we miss out on the chance to be peculiar, to act in a way that demonstrates God’s ownership over our lives.

4. The way we use our time. Think through your calendar for a typical week. Then take a best guess at what one of your non-Christian neighbor’s calendars looks like. If the main difference is that we go to church while they go to the Moose lodge, and we go to life group while they go to book club, and we play church league ball while they play city league, and everything else is pretty much the same, that is not peculiar.

There should be a major lifestyle difference between us because our lives are focused on those things that God says are important to Him. Of course, we have to provide for our families. Of course, we have to invest time in our children and each other. But let me say this clearly: if we have been a Christian for years, and our lifestyle is completely focused on our family unit and getting our needs and wants met, something is wrong – that is not New Testament Christianity.

Donald Miller said, “The most difficult lie I have ever contended with is this: life is a story about me.” We should be living a lifestyle that spends a substantial amount of time reaching out to others. Maybe that takes the form of taking time to have coffee or lunch with a friend who doesn’t know Jesus. Maybe it takes the form of investing time and energy to raise money so that someone you have never met can have a place to live. Maybe it means investing time in kids that don’t have a dad or mom in their life. God may call you in any number of things. But the bottom line is that our calendars should look peculiar, they should be in sharp contrast to those of unbelievers. It’s like the old saying “If you were on trial for being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you?”

5. The way we handle adversity. These are tough times for most people. And I believe that it is God’s desire that we be a source of strength, steadiness, and encouragement to our non-Christian neighbors. If we can lean into God ourselves, and draw on the strength and peace He gives us, then we will be peculiar in a time when people are overwhelmed and lost.

Let’s live our lives in such a way that without any words, everyone around us knows that we are God’s peculiar possession, that He owns us.