Silent Worship

We sing a song in worship, “The Heart of Worship.” This song speaks about what is left when the music is gone, and we are left with only our voices lifting praises to God. But what happens when all sound is gone, and we are faced with moments of silence? How do we worship God in silence?

I have witnessed worship offered to God by members of our deaf community while at First Baptist Roanoke when they host our SBC of VA Homecoming. While those around them are singing, they are awash in the vibrations of the sound waves, but they are not actually hearing any sound. Still, they worship. They worship just as strongly and honestly as those of us who can hear, and they are often moved by the moment of worship just as those of us who hear are moved by the music of worship. They sing. Either with their voices or with their hands or with their bodies, but they sing, and God finds glory in their worship.

Psalm 37:7 tells us to come before our Father in silence.

Be silent before the Lord and wait expectantly for Him;

There is no need for idle speaking. We do not need to try entertaining God with fancy words or phrases and there is no need to try to convince Him of our cause. Come before Him. Speak truth. Speak from an honest heart and wait. Praise Him for Who He is! Ask for forgiveness. Ask Him to fulfill your needs. Then wait.

I knelt in silence this morning in a quiet place. I allowed the Spirit to wash over me. I could hear things in the distance, but I tried to concentrate on the silence and tried to hear what God was speaking to me. I saw walls in my life that needed to be torn down if I was going to run to God with abandon. I heard God calling to me and reminding me that He is not only my God, but I am His son. He purchased me with the blood of Jesus, and I now belong to Him. I owe it all to Him. I prayed in silence for our country. A country that has been silent far too long, and I asked God to allow the voices of the people of the United States to be opened in worship once again. I prayed for our church. I prayed for the church. I prayed for revival. I prayed for our brave men and women who fight for our country and those who are just as brave, if not more so, who fight for our faith on the mission field. I prayed for the lost to come to the Savior that I know. But the silence was not truly silent.

The moment I stopped listening to the world around me I began to listen to the Spirit within me. I began to hear the voice of God, and I started to hear His call. I began to understand what He wanted me to do and where He wanted me to go. I truly began to worship. I began to commune with my God. The still small voice of my God began to speak louder and more clearly the longer I sat in silence. And I began to worship.

My world is filled with music. My world is filled with sound. Radios, music players, videos, the voices of people, televisions, music I have written, and the sounds of God’s creation surround me. There is nothing wrong with sound, but for a little while each day, we need to push the world away. We need to strip worship down to the bare minimum and have communion with God. And we need to listen to what God says and do what He says to do.  After all, worship is about God, not me or you. Worship is vertical, not horizontal. Worship, just like life, is about bringing glory to our Father. To bring glory to God, we must bring something of worth. We must bring a genuine love for God. We must worship and go to Him in desire, not duty. We need to pray with concern, not guilt. We must desire to worship for we are created for worship.

As Matt Redman said in his song:

When the music fades all is stripped away
And I simply come
Longing just to bring something that’s of worth
That will bless Your heart

Don’t wait for Sunday morning to come to worship. Worship every single day in the silence of your prayers and be amazed by the glory of the Father.

The Heart of Worship

Love

Love! When we think of February, we always think of love. We think of Valentine’s Day and the love in our lives. We think of our true love, our children, and our families. We think of the things we love to do, places we love to go, and things we love to eat.

Christians think of the One who loved us before we loved Him. In 1 John 4:19 we read, “’We love because he first loved us.” I don’t know why He loves us. I know we are His creation, but at some point, you would think He would just wash His hands of all humanity and start again. But He didn’t. He doesn’t. He continues to love us.

We all know the verse. John 3:16 says, “’For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life.” I still can’t imagine that kind of love.

I am grateful for it. I accept it. I rejoice in it. But I don’t understand it.

I love my wife and would give my life for her, but she is not the rotten, evil, undeserving, hating person that I was when God loved me before I loved Him. His love is unimaginable. His love is far greater than any love we can ever give in return.

Isn’t that something we should share? Love. Burt Bacharach said, “What the world needs now is love sweet love.” The beetles sang, “All you need is love.” Most of the songs written are written about love. If the world knows that love is so important, shouldn’t we share the greatest love of all?

You say, “I’ll be rejected.” Yes, you are probably right, but isn’t it worth the risk? Besides, you are not the one being rejected. They are rejecting the love of God not the love of man. Still, they need a chance. They don’t deserve it, but they need it. We didn’t deserve it either and we certainly needed it.

I spend a lot of time talking about my life verses. Here they are again. Mark 12:30-31 “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. The second is, Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other command greater than these.”

We are to love. If we love, we will share. If we do not, we have broken a command from God. In fact, we have broken His greatest command.

Love God. Love People. Everything we do starts with a love for God. Worship. Giving. Prayer. Growth.

It continues with the love for people. We don’t love the sin in their lives. We love the value they have as Imago Dei. They are created in the image of God and have value to God. We should value them as well. That is a real problem in today’s society. We no longer value all human life. We think some people are disposable. Whether they are so evil that we think they cannot be saved or whether they have chosen to rebel against God and like Pharoah have hardened their hearts to Him or whether they simply haven’t been born yet. We do not have the right to give up on or throw anyone away.

We must love the way God does. We must see them beyond creation and see them as believers. As children. God’s children. A brother and sister in Christ. God’s family. No one is excluded. There is room for all who believe, but how can they believe unless we tell them?

Love for people is shown in our actions. Missions. Prayer. Outreach. Friendship. Relationship. What we do shows people how we love.

February is the month we celebrate love. Take time and share love with people this February and put your love into action. Share the gospel with someone. God will do the rest.

A New Heart

We are approaching the new year of 2024, and this is the time of year when everyone begins to make resolutions. We want this new year to be different or should I say we want to be different? We are not pleased with certain aspects of ourselves. We feel the need to be better. We can easily identify things about ourselves that are less than perfect. But how do we become a better version of ourselves?

Look at Psalm 51:10.

Create in me a clean heart, O God,

And renew a steadfast spirit within me.

David is coming before God full of guilt and ready for confession. There is no doubt he has sinned. He has been called out. He committed adultery with Bathsheba and murdered her husband, Uriah. God knows. He knows. The world knows.

He has run long enough and now is backed into a corner. He can pretend innocence no longer. But instead of simply confessing his sin and asking for forgiveness, David asks to be remade. He wants his heart to be recreated perfectly. His sinful self needs to be made new so he will no longer be a slave to sin.

A sacrifice would be a temporary fix. His next sin would place him right back in the same position. Not measuring up. Missing the mark. Forgiveness without change leaves one wanting. David cannot just confess and be forgiven; he needs to be renewed. He needs to be recreated. He needs to be purified.

We do this when we ask Jesus to be our Lord and Savior. We ask to be made new. We must desire to take every thought captive for Christ. (2 Cor 10:5) We must desire to be clean, pure, and holy. Set apart for God. Change doesn’t just come from confession. It comes from purging all that is within. As Paul said in Galatians 2:20, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live but Christ lives in me.”

Jesus paid our debt of sin with His sacrifice and now we must undergo the change required to be His. Too many believe they can follow Christ without undergoing an inner change, but that implies they are fine the way they are. Why would we follow Christ if this were true?

As we look at this New Year and vow to change our diet, our exercise habits, our attitude, or charity; why not look at giving ourselves to Jesus and allowing Him to make real changes. We not only need to change the way we behave but we need to be changed by God Himself. He has given us a way to do this through Jesus, God the Son.

Will you ask God to create in you a clean heart? Confess your sin. Accept Christ as Lord. Submit to His authority. Be adopted into God’s family. Be completely changed.

This year could be a New Year, a changed year. This could be a year like no other.

Yet He Himself Bore Our Sickness

I love the words of Isaiah 53:4 for they remind us of Christ’s giving himself for us. He bore our sin. He suffered, bled, and died for us and through His resurrection, we are reconciled to the Father. But even though He died for us, it was not for us He died. Christ died for us so that the Father could be glorified. We receive the blessing of being reconciled with God through our salvation, but through our salvation, God is glorified.

Isaiah 53:4

⁴ Yet he himself bore our sicknesses,

and he carried our pains;

but we in turn regarded him stricken,

struck down by God, and afflicted.

Jesus paid the ultimate price to free us from the debt of sin. He gave His life to release us from the curse. He not only died but He suffered. And in the sadness of His death, we should be grateful that we have salvation in His resurrection.

But are we grateful? Do we thank Him for His sacrifice? So often the answer is a resounding, “No!” In our sin, we look at the cross and think that somehow, He deserved the punishment of God. He shouldn’t have said what He said. He shouldn’t have done what He did. He brought it upon Himself and He deserved it.

And then we discover the great love He has for us. Our eyes are opened to the reason He died. We feel the Spirit move within us and it all becomes clear. He didn’t deserve to die. We did. He didn’t deserve to suffer. We did. In Christ’s shame, God the Father turned His face from God the Son and He turned it to us. The creation. And through Christ’s resurrection, the curse of sin was broken, and we could finally be reconciled with the Father. And in our salvation, God is glorified.

God’s Promises

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Do you always keep your promises? God does!

1 John 4:8 “But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love.”

If my mom told me she would be at my concert, I could trust her to be there. If my dad told me we were going to work in the garden in the morning, guess where we were at sunup. My parents kept their promises. There we some I wished they would not have kept. “You are going to get it when we get home.” There were some I was excited about. “What do you want for Christmas?”

There were some promises they simply couldn’t keep. Sometimes circumstances got in the way. Sometimes life threw a curveball. My parents loved me, but they were human just like the rest of us. Sometimes money got in the way. Sometimes work got in the way. Sometimes it was impossible to keep a promise.

God has given us many promises in His word. Some are listed below and unlike me or my dad or my mom, God’s promises never fail. He always keeps His word.

He promises to never let the enemy pluck us from His hand (John 10:28-29). Once we believe, we are secure in our belief. That doesn’t mean we will not wander or sin. We will. We do. But we are promised to always be His if our faith is real.

He promises us eternity with Him in Heaven (1 John 5:11). There is a continuation of life with Him, but it will not be like this life, it will be perfect. It will be the way it was intended when God made Adam. We can count on His promise. He will take our corruptible selves and change us into the incorruptible. He will usher us into His presence, and we will live a sinless life with Him.

The problem we have is we take things out of context.

Luke 12:19 says, Then I’ll say to myself, “You have many goods stored up for many years. Take it easy; eat, drink, and enjoy yourself.”’

Doesn’t this sound like a wonderful thing? God tells us to, “eat, drink, and be merry.” Go ahead. Have a great time. You’ve worked hard and deserve to take it easy. But this is not what God is saying at all! In the next verse we see the completion of the idea. “But God said to him, “You fool! This very night your life is demanded of you. And the things you have prepared — whose will they be?” Luke 12:20. This parable is not about retiring and living the good life until the end of your days. It is about storing up riches in heaven instead of storing them up on earth. Does this mean to forsake planning for the future? No! It means to not forsake doing God’s work and only concentrating on how to live an easy life here.

But don’t always expect things to go your way either. I saved and worked for retirement and after 32 years teaching public school, God called me into the ministry. Not only that, He called me to an area of ministry where I didn’t want to serve! I love what I am doing for God. He knew I would. I thought retirement was what was next. He knew I had more to do. I just didn’t have a clue. That is how it often works out. We follow God wherever He leads with not so much a clue as to how it will turn out. But if we join God in what He is doing, it always works out for His glory.

Still, we prefer to take things out of context. We want things our way. We work hard to make God’s word say what we want it to say instead of simply doing the hard thing and following God’s word.

“God is love.” But God is not just love. He is also righteous, jealous, and merciful.

We love 1 John 4:8. “The one who does not love does not know God, because God is love.” We tell each other that “God is love.” How could He reject anyone when He loves everyone? He is the embodiment of love. But what about verse 9. “God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his one and only Son into the world so that we might live through him.” Without the Son, there is no life. God loved us to the point of giving a gift, a way out of sin, but we cannot assume His love will save us without accepting the gift from the Son. You see, God is love, but He is also jealous, and He will not share us with anyone or anything. He is righteous. He will not allow us to enter into His presence without being cleansed from our sin, and that can only be done through the blood of Christ and our accepting Him as Lord and Savior. He is holy. He alone is worthy of being praised. When we take pride in the work we have done, we have done it for ourselves, not for Him. Yes, He is love, but He is not only love.

God is sovereign. He is always in control. Things don’t always go our way but they always go His way, even if we get in the way. Adam sinned. Man fell. Jesus came, died, arose, ascended. We can be made whole again through faith in Christ. God’s way prevails.

There it is. God’s promise. He will get His way. He has made a way for us. Jesus is the way. There is only one way. Jesus. And don’t forget, God always keeps His promises.

What Are You Afraid Of?

We each have the choice to live our lives in fear or to live our lives in faith.

Isaiah 41:10 “Do not fear, for I am with you; do not be afraid, for I am your God. I will strengthen you; I will help you; I will hold on to you with my righteous right hand.”

Are you afraid of cicadas? Not me. I kind of like the weird, big-eyed, screeching bugs. I like finding the shells stuck to trees in my yard. But if you live in Cincinnati the cicadas are a big problem right now.

A man was driving with his windows down and he approached a swarm of cicadas. One flew through the window and struck him in the face. He in turn struck a utility pole and totaled his car. He was not seriously injured for the safety belt and air bag worked just as they were designed. Upon investigation, the police released a statement advising drivers to drive with their windows rolled up. I hope everyone has air conditioning in Cincinnati.

You and I may not be afraid of cicadas, but I am sure we are afraid of other things. Most of us have been afraid for over a year with the COVID 19 pandemic.

We were afraid to touch the gas pump, shake hands, go outside, stay inside, go to church, the grocery store, or get together with friends and family. We were afraid to go to the park, the beach, or go fishing alone. We were afraid to go to work, so we stayed home and did video calls while wearing comfy pants and telling the kids to be quiet because daddy was working. We were afraid to hug our loved ones or stay in the same room with our pets because they could be carriers of the virus.

We wore masks, deep cleaned our homes, left our shoes outside, and washed our hands until there were no natural oils left in our fingers.

We are afraid of all kinds of things. Snakes, spiders, heights, the dark, closed in spaces, flying on airplanes, or riding roller coasters. We are afraid of our kids growing up and leaving the faith, not having a job, being homeless, doing drugs, having a bad marriage. We are afraid of cancer, dementia, getting fat, heart disease, or losing our hair. Life is full of fear!

What does God have to say about being afraid?

Isaiah 41:10 “Do not fear, for I am with you; do not be afraid, for I am your God. I will strengthen you; I will help you; I will hold on to you with my righteous right hand.”

What or who is stronger than God? Nothing! No one! God promises to be there for us in all things. He tells us not to fear because He will give us strength, help, and will hold on to us.

I remember being a little boy and holding on to my dad’s hand. There was no point where I felt safer than when dad held my hand. He was the biggest and strongest man in the world. I wasn’t afraid of anything when he was around.

Isn’t that what God is saying? I am the biggest and the strongest and you have nothing to fear when I am around. And, oh yeah, I am always around.

Our God is sovereign. He is in charge. That doesn’t mean we always like what is happening to us. Sometimes we are placed in difficult situations. If there were not religious wars after the reformation, people of faith would not have fled to North America. That doesn’t justify religious wars, but it helps us understand why people would want to leave their homes in Europe.

Look at Romans 8:28 – “We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.”

We may be afraid of bad things happening to us, and we know that bad things will happen to us. But God tells us that those things will always work out for the good of those who love Him. We become terminally ill, and a child accepts Christ. We lose a job and another is found so easily that we are certain God’s hand was in it. We suffer a heart-breaking end to a relationship only to find that person we had prayed for all along.

COVID has been terrible. Still, it brought some people back to their faith. It enabled some churches the ability to reach more people with the gospel message than ever before. It brought together the medical community in an effort to develop vaccines for COVID that may lead to great advances in the treatment of other diseases as well. Some parents are more in tune with their children’s education than ever before. Some discovered that working from home showed them how important their families are and they never want to give up that time away from them again.

Fear. It has no place in the life of a Christian for our God is with us. He supplies all. He protects all. And even if He doesn’t save us from the fire, He promises something far better in the life to come. What are you afraid of? Have you talked to Him about it? He died so He could hold your hand and pull you through the flames. Talk to Him. He’s here right now.

The Border

Listen to the Podcast of this blog here.

A border is necessary for a country to be a country, but should it be open to everyone or should there be a process?

Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. John 14:6

COVID

As I come to the end of my mandatory two-week COVID hiatus, I have had quite a bit of time to reflect. Between low-grade fevers, body aches, a persistent cough, and a never-ending cycle of naps, I have watched the news and become especially interested in the crises at the border. No mater your views of amnesty, or whether the border should be more secure or more porous, the bottom line is that people want to come to the United States.

Why Do They Come?

Some come because they love us. They want what we have, be that money, medical insurance, housing, work, freedom of religion, a better quality of life, or the right to elect representatives. They want the same opportunities and freedoms we too often take for granted. Some come to escape persecution. They simply want to live their lives with the rights God has given to us all.

Some want to come here because they hate us. They want to make easy money, break our laws, and take advantage of our citizens. Some come here because they hate what this country stands for and want to bring it to an end. We represent what they can never be. They view our wealth as debauchery. They view our freedoms as excess. Our freedom of religion threatens what they believe so, we too, are a threat. Our freedom of speech allows different views to be expressed that are contrary to what they want to be said. Some spread lies about us to control us or to destroy us. Some believe the lies they spread and view us as evil. No one is made to come here.

Border Crisis

There is a crisis at the border. Can we vet the people who are coming? Can we test them to make sure they are not advancing the pandemic? Can we make sure their motives are pure and they are not coming to prey on our citizens? Can we support them with jobs and help if they need it? Can we offer support and protection to those who are escaping persecution?

A caravan coming to the United States.

I have a friend in El Salvador who would love to come to the United States. She is a schoolteacher and has lots to offer the U.S. if she could come. She can’t. You see, in El Salvador, schoolteachers are in demand. El Salvador will not allow her to come, and the United States will not allow legal entrance without the proper documents. Coming illegally is her only choice.

The crisis at the border is complex and can very easily bring out the best and the worst in ourselves. Few want to abandon those in need, but few want to support those who create the problems for those trying to escape. Everyone knows we have problems. Our country is not perfect. We are sometimes selfish. We are sometimes self-absorbed. We want to be best, and we want to be first, and sometimes that brings out our most undesirable characteristics. And still, no one is made to come here, but many want to.

I wish I had answers to these questions. I wish I could solve the crisis at the border. I wish I could figure out a way for my friend to come. I can’t. I can certainly see both sides of the argument. And I can see something else as well. There is another border that is free to cross.

No one is forced to become a Christian.

Some people love us. They see how we put others before ourselves. They see how we are often the first on the front lines of natural disasters. They see how the Southern Baptist are there with Disaster Relief feeding the hungry and helping to clean up after hurricanes, fires, and other disasters. They see the instant hospitals erected by Franklin Graham’s Samaritan’s Purse. They receive a shoebox at Christmas that open the door for a relationship with Christ. They come to our churches for financial assistance when they need help keeping the lights on or the water running. They see us love them when our churches buy medical debt so they will not be laden with a huge hospital bill. They visit our food pantries when they don’t have enough money to feed the kids.

Samaritan’s Purse mobile hospital.

Some people want what we have. They see how strong we are as we sit beside a loved one as they die in the hospital. They see us pray and claim God’s promise of eternal life. They see the peace we have when we face a crisis. They see the congregation and the pastor vow to reopen after a gunman kills believers in a worship service. They see the church rally after having to close after a COVID outbreak. They see us forgive our leaders when they fall to sin and prove they too are a work in progress.

Some will come to a worship service to find what we have. Some will listen at a Celebrate Recovery meeting and finally break the shackles of addiction by becoming a slave to Christ. Some will listen to the message at a revival or read the words in the Gideon Bible that will lead them to Jesus. Some will watch us pray before a meal at a restaurant or watch us pray as an athlete lies in pain on the field of competition. But no one is forced to become a Christian.

Some hate us. They are disgusted by our prayers. They feel we are praying at them instead of praying to God. They hate our songs because they feel convicted at the attitude of worship. They feel uncomfortable or even angry when they live in a way that is contrary to what our God says. They want to force us to place a badge of acceptance, or even celebration, on their lifestyle even though we wish them no ill will.

Of course, we are not perfect. We make mistakes. We say things that are hurtful. We sometimes react in anger or fear when we are told to react in love. We allow ourselves to become self-absorbed and find ourselves living in our own little world with no realization of how our words or actions can be offensive. We fight back because we think we are being rejected when it is really our God who is being rejected.

Everyone is Welcome

Sometimes we think we can decide who can be a Christian and who cannot. We want to close off God’s borders and say, “you can’t cross over.” We somehow think we have been chosen because we are better than others and we justify their anger by acting the way they expect.

The fact remains, no one is forced to become a Christian. No one is forced to believe in Christ or to follow God’s commands. Everyone is welcome. We even desire for them to come. There are no border walls. In fact, there are no borders. But there are rules. You cannot come to Christ without believing in him. The Bible is not a salad bar where you pick and choose your way to Jesus. You come the way you are. You come broken, poor, helpless, looking for a home, searching for peace and for strength. You come looking for a better way of life, for fulfillment. No one forces you to come. You just come. No one says you can’t, Jesus died for each of us. He opened the border. With Him, there is no border crisis.

Where is Your Trust?

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There will be many times that you’ll be required to trust others. Is there one person in whom you can always place your trust and never be disappointed?

Psalm 9:10, “Those who know your name trust in you because you have not abandoned those who seek you, Lord.”

Welcome to 2021 and the government of the left. For a while, at least, the government of the right has been put on hold. I have been told by many after the latest presidential election that God is on the throne. It is a reminder that God is sovereign and that His will is being done. The funny thing is this, I was told the same thing after the 2016 election. It seems many of my friends are trying to make their will God’s will instead of the other way around. It as is though we say, “If my party wins, it is God’s will, and if my party loses, then God is still sovereign, and can accomplish His will regardless of who is in power.”

Does God care?

I am not saying that God doesn’t care who our leaders are, but he does accomplish His will no matter who is in office. His abilities are not dependent on political parties, or governments, or nations, or any other man-made construct. An attribute of God is omnipresence. Part of God being omnipresent is having the ability to accomplish His will anywhere.

For the Christian, this is a comforting thought. Everywhere you go, God is with you. For the unbeliever, this is equally discomforting. There is no place you can go where God cannot find you.

I remember a story of two pastors watching a tennis match. Both players were excellent players. Just before the match started, both players walked to the bench and bowed their heads in prayer. One pastor looked at the other and said, “Who do you think will win?” The other pastor replied, “The one with the best back-hand.”

I doubt God cares much about who wins a game or receives a medal, but I imagine those involved in the games believe very much that God empowers them to train, work-out, and win. I may not see God moving in their lives, but I am sure they can see Him clearly. A senator or representative may not be able to restrict God’s will, but I am sure God can use them to accomplish His will whether they want to be used or not.

Even though I believe God uses both believers and unbelievers to accomplish His will, I still will not put my trust in that leader. But if I were going to put my trust in government, it would be necessary to understand that powers change. Leaders change, ideas change, and in today’s thought, morals, and truth change. Not everyone will agree with my views, and while government may satisfy for a moment, it will eventually fail my expectations.

I may put my trust in family.

I know we like to think our families will always be honorable, faithful, and loving but I know of very few families that exist without “family squabbles.” In some families fighting is the rule rather than the exception. When the matriarch or patriarch of the family dies and the glue that holds the family together is now gone, we sometimes see betrayal and fighting in the family. Without that one person the family falls apart. Blood is no longer thicker than water. 

Trust in church leaders, educators, doctors, all have the same thing in common. They are human and fallible. They will fail and they will fail you. They cannot help it. They are not perfect.  Even the best of us fail and we are judged for it.  In fact, those who live a moral standard far above the others, are judged most harshly. They have the greatest distance to fall and the world takes delight in watching them crash-and-burn.

Trust in God.

Those who know God, find comfort in Him. They find comfort during persecution. He is their refuge. He is their strength. They have experienced God change their lives and change their hearts. Those who do not know Him cannot see what He has done and have no experiences to draw from. To them, He simply doesn’t exist, and short of the movement of the Holy Spirit, they will never see Him for who He is. The Christian can see that He never fails and never leaves. To others, He was never there. 

You do not have to be persecuted or poor to know God. The rich and powerful can know Him too, but they must refuse to put their faith in any other or anything. Like all Christians, they must make God first in their lives and trust Him. They cannot trust money or power. For many of us, this is not an issue. Just like the children’s song says, we lean on Him because, “We are weak and He is strong.”

We trust God.

We trust God because He is righteous, and He is truth. He is never wrong and never deceitful. He judges fairly. We will all be judged, but those who believe and trust Him now, are already forgiven. Will the unbeliever be found guilty? Yes. Will the believer be found guilty? Yes. The difference is the believer has already been forgiven of his debt.

For all sin there is consequence. Sin may be forgiven but the consequence remains. God will forgive us for murder, but we may still have to go to prison. God will forgive us for infidelity, but our family may fall apart. God will forgive our sin, but we must trust Jesus as Lord and Savior. Government, education, money, power, family, church leaders, the voice of the majority, social media royalty, or God. Where are you placing your trust today?

New Again

Didn’t see it. There’s still time!

What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done; there is nothing new under the sun. Ecclesiastes 1:9

While we were in lockdown, new species were being discovered. Imagine that! After all these years we are still discovering new things!

Solomon said, “There is nothing new under the sun.”

There is nothing new in this world, but we still haven’t seen it all. I have walked on volcanic sand on black beaches in El Salvador, but I have never seen an active volcano. I have seen icebergs fall into the sea, but I have never walked on one. I have been out of the country, but I have never been to Europe. I have witnessed babies, puppies, cats, and calves being born, but I have never seen the birth of a star.

There is so much to marvel at in this world. The natural beauty of this world is truly something to behold. I would love to see and experience it all before I die, but I know I will not. There simply isn’t enough time or money to do it all.

Popa langur primate

Look at what Solomon said, “There is nothing new under the sun.” He was one of those blessed people who had the time and resources to do it all. What did it gain him? Nothing. Those experiences are great…..for a moment. They don’t last. The memories stay with us forever and with those we experienced them with, but even with pictures or videos, we can never fully share them with people who were not there.

What does last? A relationship with God. Loving and being loved by God gives our experiences meaning. We have a reason to live. We don’t just live for a picture or a memory. We live to be with, and to glorify, God. We share our story with others. We share the peace God has given us. We share the fulfilment we have in Jesus. We share our reason for living.

Birth of a star

Here is a plus. When we die we gain a new body. When Jesus comes again, our body is glorified, and we live for all eternity with Him. Where? Heaven on earth. We come and we go. We work and we play. We worship and serve God. And we are served by God. Wow! That last part is hard to understand, but God has been serving us since day one. He provides. He protects. He loves.

We have all eternity to experience the wonders of this world!

We have all eternity to experience the wonders of this world. Everyday is filled with discovery. It never gets old. There is always something new each day. And the best part? It is no longer marred by sin. It is perfect. Jesus died to restore us and to restore all of creation. We will get to go to those places we have never been and to see those sights we never got to see. Touch, taste, and smell the things we have never before experienced. And as we enjoy these things, we love the God who made it all. This is heaven. Worship, work, play, relax, relate, love, discover!

Hide and Seek

Hide and seek is a game God never plays. He knows where we are at all times.

If we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. 1 John 1:7

Do you hide your true identity? Do you pretend to be something you are not? Is there something about you that you never want anyone else to know?

I had a professor in seminary who said that it was easy to pretend to be a Christian. Learn the buzz words, act like you care, and pretend it is not about you but about Jesus.

The problem is that you can fool some of the people some of the time, but you can never fool God.

God the creator knows us like no one else. He knows our faults, our failures, and our fixations. He knows our temptations, our tests, and the traps we fall into. God knows us and we cannot hide from him. We may try and we may even convince ourselves that we are successful, but we are not. We are falling for our own lies. Liars have a tendency to fall for lies. We begin to believe what we say is true and we believe that God believes it too.

We often believe our own lies.

In 1 John 1:7 we find that if we walk in the light with Jesus, He will cleanse us from all sin. We find fellowship with others because we all believe and we all know where we have been. We have all been changed. We all know it is not about where we have been but where we are going.

The world has a hard time with this for they have not been changed. They do not have the experience of the Spirit. They know Jesus but the do not know Him. And in society today, a lie is not a lie if you believe it to be true because truth is subjective. What is true for me is not true for you. We try to manipulate God by changing truth. This is another game God does not play.

We try to manipulate God by changing truth.

I heard a story about a man who died and went to Heaven. Jesus said, “I never knew you” and denied him entry into Heaven. The man said, “But I identify as a Christian,” and Jesus answered, “We don’t play that game here.”

Stop playing games. God is not going to be fooled. Let others see who you are. Be changed by the Spirit and become who God wants you to be. It all begins by accepting the grace of Jesus and finding the only truth. The truth of Jesus. John Newton, the writer of Amazing Grace said,

“I am not what I ought to be, I am not what I want to be, I am not what I hope to be in another world; but still I am not what I once used to be, and by the grace of God I am what I am”