Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Thank You! Thank You! Thank You!

Here we are again at that time of the year when just about everyone is giving thanks for all their blessings. Don't we have so much to be thankful for, especially when we don't deserve many of these blessings? We could take the time to thank ourselves, our parents, our friends, our family members, our business associates or maybe even strangers for all these blessings, but when it's all over and done with, we need to give thanks to Almighty God.

The good book reminds us, Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him and bless His name. (Psa. 100:4) Are we truly practicing this is our lives this very day? Sure it's hard to give thanks when we just lost our job, or one of our loved ones have died, or our own health is failing us but Jesus Himself proclaimed, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” (Heb. 13:5b) Is this not one of the most comforting passages you could ever read in your life? We can take this one to the bank, so to speak, because of the person who made the promise.

Looking back over this past year we can see where we have grow, both physically and spiritually. We can also look back and see all the opportunities we let slip out of our lives because we hesitated or just plainly refused to accept them. At the same time we were given opportunities that we grasped with thankfulness and ended up making a wonderful difference in someone's life. This is truly what our pilgrimage on this earth is all about. We need to be busy making other people's lives more enjoyable, more meaningful and more spiritual.

We cannot do anything about the past, but we can begin making wonderful plans for this upcoming new year. What are your plans? Have you set any goals? Do you even see the need for improvement in your life? If we have made plans or set goals, are they obtainable? Let's seek to encourage one another to stick with our plans and to set the kingdom of God on fire by our ongoing participation and willingness to serve one another and all mankind. Go in Peace & Prosper and in everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. (1 Thes. 5:18)

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYBODY!

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Adding to or Subtracting from the Word of God! Why or Why Not?

Everyone likes a good book. For those of you who are avid readers, what would happen if one day you pick up your favorite book to read it again and the chapters were different. The book had been shortened or lengthened and the author's name had been changed. Would this matter to you? Would it change the content of the book to maybe make it read completely different? Any change to the book would alter its meaning and could change the whole outcome of any story.

God has written a book called the Bible. Over the years man has re-written it and called it a paraphrase. Is a paraphrase the same thing as the original text? Webster defines a paraphrase as a free translation or explanation. What about a translation? To translate means to render from one language into another: interpret. Don't you like this terminology a lot better than paraphrase? This means that the many scholars that translated the Old and New Testaments took it from the Hebrew and Greek and put It into English so we could read it ourselves. Does this mean that some of the original meaning could be lost? There is a chance that this could happen but if God knew this translating was being accomplished so that more of the world could hear the gospel don't you think He would have put a stop to it if it was being translated incorrectly? Just a thought!

Over the years, man has put some very unusual twists on different portions of God's word. For example, some say that all a person has to do to be saved is believe or have faith or just confess Jesus. We know that all these are true but none of them alone has saving power. Would you say that man has added to or taken away from the word simply by misinterpreting It? Could be!

We need to know what God's word plainly states about adding to or taking away from His inspired word (Deut. 4:2; 12:32; Prov. 30:6; Jer. 26:2; Rev. 22:18, 19 and Gal. 1:8, 9). If you have ever wondered about these scriptures, hopefully by rereading them you will have answers to your questions. Have a blessed day & always remember that God is in control.

His humble servant!


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Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Action Packed Heroes

In our world today we are filled with action packed heroes. Names like GI Joe, Spider Man, Superman, Iron Man, Transformers and the lists go on and on. The problem with all these actions figures is that they are not real. Our children and grandchildren are growing up believing they can become one of these figures when they get older. Is there anything wrong with wanting a hero you can turn to anytime for anything? Absolutely not! What we need to be teaching our young folks is that Jesus is an action packed figure and He can be their hero too.

A hero is a man of distinguished courage. I don't know of anyone that can fill those shoes better than Jesus Christ. He showed his compassion for the leper by cleansing him of his leprosy (Mk. 1:40-45) and He was willing to use His power to heal the man with the withered hand (Mk. 3:1-5). Is that action packed enough? Can any of the above mentioned heroes do that? Of course not! And they never will either.

How about when Jesus was asleep in a boat and a tempest arose which put a real scare in His disciples. What did He do upon their request? He spoke and the winds ceased to blow and the seas became like glass (Matt. 8:23-27). Now if that is not action packed enough, we will never know what action packed truly means. Isn't Jesus the type of hero we want our children growing up believing in? He is a hero who will never let them down but will always be with them through life's entire journey.

Of course we know they cannot see Jesus but they can't see those other action packed heroes either. If we don't begin teaching them the truth about the true hero we will have fallen very short of the goal God has intended for all of us.

Action packed living with Christ!

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Saturday, November 21, 2009

A Battle for the Mind

“Let the mind of the Master be the master of your mind”
The source of the above quote is unknown but the quote itself makes absolutely good sense. The mind is very fragile in and of itself and needs to be looked after with great care. It is of the utmost importance that we feed it with the correct nutrition so that it will remain physically, mentally and spiritually in tact. Most of us have been around individuals who no longer obtain these capabilities. It is a very sad sight to behold but it could possibly happen to each of us sometime in the future. When we see these people we must learn to be very tolerate and understanding of their behavior. At this point in life it could be said that these people are no longer able to make intelligent decisions for themselves or anyone else. Also at this point the mental capacity of their minds are unable to reason with reason. The saddest part of this loss is that most of these individuals are unaware that anything is wrong.

Whether or not any of us want to admit it, there has been and always will be a battle for our minds. It began when God created man and it will end when He sends His Son back to this earth for their souls. Some will joyfully be added to His heavenly kingdom while others will depart into everlasting darkness. This is why is it imperative that we all seek the Master now to be the master of our minds. It could be that later on we will not be afforded this luxury.

One of the faculties of the mind is perception; being able to perceive things. In Luke 9:47 Jesus used this when a dispute rose up among the disciples as to who would be the greatest in the kingdom. We have the ability to perceive things and sometimes we do it correctly and at others times we don't. Another faculty of the mind is that of remembrance. Paul instructs Titus to use this as Titus is to remind the Christians on Crete to be subject to rulers and authorities, to obey, to be ready for every good work. Sometimes we need to be reminded of such things too. As Paul is writing to the church in Rome is uses his mind in order to reason between giving in to the works of the flesh or submitting himself with his mind to God. Of course we know that he committed to the latter only by the grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord. When we are caught between the two desires, we must do as Paul and use our mind to reason with and make the right choice. In Nehemiah 4:6 we see where the Jews were rebuilding the wall in Jerusalem with much opposition and ridicule, but they completed the task because they had a mind to work. In other words, they had desire. We too can accomplish much in our service to the Lord if we have the desire to work in His earthly kingdom.

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A Work in Progress

Surely you have heard of the song, “He's Still Working on Me.” It is usually sung with the younger children in the church family, but it applies to every Christian, or it should.

CHORUS:
He's still working on me to make me what I ought to be.
It took Him just a week to make the moon and stars,
The sun and the earth and Jupiter and Mars.
How loving and patient He must be, He's still working on me.
1. There really ought to be a sign upon the heart,
Don't judge her yet, there's an unfinished part.
But I'll be perfect just according to His plan
Fashioned by the Master's loving hands.
CHORUS:
2. In the mirror of His Word reflections that I see
Make me wonder why He never gave up on me.
He loves me as I am and helps me when I pray
Remember He's the Potter, I'm the clay.
CHORUS:

As God's children we want to acquire a greater knowledge of Him and His word. This is accomplished by reading and studying His inspired word on a regularly basis. We need to realize that God is willing to work with us as long as we allow Him to do so. He will not force anything on us that we do not want but He will always strive to give us what we need as we search the scriptures daily with a ready mind (Acts 17:11). How awesome is that?

We shouldn't beat ourselves up because we are not growing spiritually at our pace. It could be that God is not ready to reveal to us some truths or aspects of His word due to the simple fact that we might not be able to digest it yet. We must be patient and wait on the Lord! We must also be careful not to bind on others what we think should be bound, because it might be contrary to the word of God and we are doing it out of ignorance. Of course our motives are pure but so was Paul's in the persecution of Christians.

God wants everyone of us to come to a saving knowledge of His Son Jesus Christ. For many this is still very much a work in progress because they have not yet seen the need for a savior. For those of us who have been redeemed by the precious blood of the Lamb, we acknowledge that our walk with God is a daily progression.

You might not see yourself as a diamond in the rough, but God sees you that way and He wants to shape you into a spiritual jewel that is worth much more than any material treasure. Are you willing to surrender to the Master's Touch and become a work in progress? I pray so!

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