As a Christian, shouldn’t we be truth seekers? Why are we walking around with our blinders on?

We pride ourselves in Jesus Christ, and if He is the truth, why are we allowing life, friends, media, any influences to blurr our vision? When did we decide we didn’t want to know any more?

The world is filled with grey areas my friend, but what is grey really? Not black (darkness) and not white (the light). So, who do you think joys in this grey? Chatting with a friend earlier today on this very topic, the lover of grey is, satan himself.

It is in the grey that he can convince a Christian that he’s not wrong, but the area he is playing in is neutral, that he’s safe.

Ephesians 6:12 “We war not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places”. What has happened to our leaders, where are our warriors, who wears his helmet and sword these days? “Take on the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of G-d.”

 I’ll tell you where our Christians are, they’re watching soaps, they’re following American Idol, their cares are of this world! My goal here is not to bring condemnation or judgment, my point is simply that our Church is asleep.

Wake up, Wake up! The day is upon us and they continue to slumber.

Revelation 3:3 “…but if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what time I will come to you”. Why would anyone want to be like a Christian, may I ask? The truth is there is little difference today between the heathen and the Christian.

Do you know what Ghandi said? “I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians”.

Ouch! Does that hit anyone to the core? Isn’t our mission to share the word, the love, the saving grace of Jesus? And yet, even non-believers revere our Lord and reject us. Tell me this is not a crime, that this is not a great indicator of our spiritual status?

Oh, but I am saved claims the Christian, when the rapture comes, I am saved. Are you?

Do you know truly that you would be taken up with our Lord or are you hoping as you live in sin? Let’s see what our Lord says on this, shall we?

Revelation 3:15-16 “I know your works, you are neither cold nor hot…because you are lukewarm…I will spit you out of my Mouth” (other versions say vomit). So, our Lord will vomit us, regergetate us, spit us out, because we could not, or rather willed not to be on fire for Him. He even mentions our works, so in that we were doing good things, but that was not enough, because our hearts were not seeking Him. Remember it is not our works that save us!

 If this is not convicting enough, how about the fact that many will call on His name and He will say He never knew us?

Matthew 7:21-23, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name, And I will declare to them, I never knew you, depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness”.

 He is obviously speaking to believers here, those that prophesied, those that cast out demons, but their hearts, their lives were not in parallele to His commands for our lives.

We all have issues and sins that we like to hold on to, we hide them in the depths of our souls, but our Lord knows every thought, every sin, every lying tongue. If you really want to see joy in your life, if you are tired of the depression, the stress, the mess you’ve made of your life, why not just give it to G-d? Why not, commit to Him your life, to give Him hold and control? Dont’ you think that He, being G-d could do much better a job, then you?

If you’re tired of running away, all it takes is a prayer asking forgiveness. Search your heart, there are even lies that you have told yourself, that you may be unaware of, give it all to Him, redeem yourself in Him. Do you know how to do this, it is simple, you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, you ask forgiveness of your sins and you flee those sins, you don’t return to them, you decide to change and in His strength you will be able to do anything.

 Many Christians believe after you pray that sinner’s prayer you’re saved, you’re heaven bound. Yes!  You are saved,  but it is obeying our Father, seeking His ways for our lives, asking His guidance that brings the change we are searching for.  A true relationship with Him!

 G-d gave everyone of us a desires, hopes, dreams! I urge you friends to make a vow to give your life to Him and continue to seek to be like Him, to live your life searching Him, and when you do, you will find Him, joy and so many blessings in your life! Well, as a Christian, a believer in Jesus Christ, a saved individual from my sins, why wouldn’t I want to know the truth on the issues?

Well, this is where we start!  Stepping out of the grey and seeking to be like Him!  Join me, it’s sure to be an adventure!

J. Grant Swank, Jr.

Canon Law Regarding Catholics and Abortion:

“Canon Law 1398 Catholics who have obtained an abortion, or performed an abortion, have excommunicated themselves latae sententiae (automatically by their very action) from the Catholic Church. They remain outside the church until the reception of the sacrament of Penance through a good confession.

“Canon Law 1329 Catholics who are accomplices in enabling and permitting the crime of abortion to occur, who without their assistance the crime would not have been committed, incur the same penalty.

“Canon Law 915 (an exception to receiving Holy Communion) “Others who obstinately persist in manifest grave sin are not to be admitted to Holy Communion.”

All bishops should follow their own Canon Law concerning their constituency and the abortion atrocity.

Roman Catholic Bishop Thomas Tobin sets the morally correct standard. He refused Patrick Kennedy the sacrament in Rhode Island.

Kennedy’s endorsement of child killing is abhorrent to God. It is abhorrent to the Roman Catholic ethical understanding of Scripture—the inerrant, infallible Word of God.

Kennedy favors killing womb infants. That is called “murder.” Female rights have no right to murder.

Therefore, the devil is in the process when mortals slay mortals who are in female bodies. That is not only how Tobin sees it; that is the way biblical believers understand divine revelation.

TV’s The View Whoopie Goldberg had a field day this morning when it came to her understanding of what the church does with its constituency’s views of right and wrong. With that, she went on her evangelistic diatribe about her understanding of Scripture.

She concludes that the Bible allows a human to do what he or she wants to do as long it is in keeping with that individual’s personal communication with God—no interference from churchly organizations or spiritual leaders.

On one part, she is accurate: a mortal can communicate with God and is served the consequences of that via accountability from that God.

But on the other part, she is so wrong. The God of the Bible does not have various moral codes for various persons depending on what they say they “hear” from God. God’s biblical standard is there as an eternal verity; it is not waffling to left or right, up or down.

Whoopie always has a good old time of it when trying to make deity out to be a Nice Guy on everything from communion altars to sex. In that she makes a lot of viewing friends for they likewise serve a deity who is totally into relativism, discounting absolutes.

However, Tobin is in line with the true understanding of Scripture when he holds the line on not permitting those who claim to be “Christian” yet murder to have Communion. They in no way have the ethical right to partake of the body and blood of Christ. That is atrocious in itself.

Think about it: Did Savior Christ suffer severe mistreatment on the cross in order to share His body and blood with persons who slay children? I don’t think so.

Did Christ stretch His holy presence on Calvary, permit nails to be driven through His hands and feet, then endure the spear slice in His side to allow pious appearing church goers the honor to partake of the sacrament representing that redemptive offering?  I don’t think so.

Did Christ anywhere in His public ministry ever teach that slaughtering womb innocents is okay if it is not in a person’s life plan?  I don’t think so.

Would to God that more clergy kept the same biblical standard that Tobin keeps. All spiritual leaders in the Christian tradition should obey God, His moral base and instruct those under their care to do the same.

“Sorry, you can’t chalk it up to an ‘imperfect humanity.’ Your position is unacceptable to the Church and scandalous to many of our members,” Tobin told Kennedy.

Stay the holy course, Tobin. Stay the holy course.

FOOTNOTE:

The Bible speaks of a fetus as a person, not simply tissue that can be discarded if found to be a bother or nuisance. Since the fetus is a person from the moment of conception, then the destroying of the fetus is killing a person.

“In the past, some people have mistakenly speculated that perhaps the body might be in the process of formation for some time, and then ‘God breathes a soul into it.’ They had it backward. The life that is present forms matter into a body for itself’” (Joseph Breig, “Life Forms Matter,” The Catholic News, Jan. 24, 1974, p. 8).

“Your hands shaped me and made me. Will you now turn and destroy me? Remember that you molded me like clay. Will you now turn me to dust again? Did you not pour me out like milk … and knit me together with bones and sinews? You gave me life and showed me kindness, and in your providence watched over my spirit” (Job 10:8-12 NIV).

“Before I was born the LORD called me; from my birth he has made mention of my name…and now the LORD says–he who formed me in the womb to be his servant…” (Isaiah 49:1, 5).

“The word of the LORD came to me, saying, ‘Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations’” (Jeremiah 1:4-5).

In the following passages we note that personality is ascribed to the unborn.

“For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that fully well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be” (Psalm 139:13-16).

“Sons are a heritage from the LORD, children a reward from him” (Psalm 127:3).

Exodus 21:22-25 relates how Israel was to judge a circumstance relating to the death of the unborn:

“If men who are fighting hit a pregnant woman and she gives birth prematurely but there is no serious injury, the offender must be fined whatever the woman’s husband demands and the court allows. But if there is serious injury, you are to take life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, wound for wound, bruise for bruise.”

All of the latter deals with unintentional hurt that comes to a pregnant woman; how much more will divine penalty come upon those who intentionally discard the fetus? The Gospel of Luke ascribes personality to the fetus within Elizabeth:

“When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit… As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy” (1:41, 44).

Mere tissue does not leap for joy; only personhood leaps for joy. The Bible regards the fetus as having personality. In Galatians, Paul speaks of himself as a person while still in his mother’s womb, but more a person consecrated by God for a holy mission (compare Jeremiah 1:5 for the same accent):

“But when God, who set me apart from birth, and called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son in me so that I might preach him among the Gentiles…” (Gal. 1: 15-16).

Since the Bible regards the fetus as personality, then the aborting of the fetus is murdering personality.

Some verses from Scripture dealing with murder are then appropriate for study, such as Genesis 9:6: “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made man.” Also, read Exodus 23:7: “Have nothing to do with a false charge, and do not put an innocent or honest person to death, for I will not acquit the guilty.” Note I Peter 4:15: “If you suffer, it should not be as a murderer…”

If the Republic returned to the biblical definition of personhood, we would defend every womb child.

John Adams said the following:

“Our Constitution was made only for a religious and moral people. It is wholly inadequate for the government of any other.”

Andrew Jackson said the following:

“The BIBLE is the rock on which our Republic rests.”

Daniel Webster:

“If we abide by the principles taught in the BIBLE, our country will go on prospering.”

“For all the talk of freedom and self-determination, the abortion movement is at its heart a movement denying rights to a silent segment of humanity and soliciting public sanction, support and subsidy to its own cause” (Donald P. Shoemaker, ABORTION, THE BIBLE AND THE CHRISTIAN, Hayes Publishing Co., 1976, p. iv).

Now if you talk to my wife, she would claim that I am very much like the character Ebenezer Scrooge during the Holidays. I personally have no warm feelings towards any particular holiday and yes that includes Christmas.

This proclamation makes many friends and family cringe. They don’t understand how I cannot enjoy the day that Christ was born. But I see little attraction to this day, or others, marked on a calendar. I think that it’s great that others enjoy observing them and I will probably start when I have kids, as it creates a memorable way to teach them, but for now they serve no real purpose in my mind. So I will continue wandering around the house, muttering things that are best summarized by, “Bah Humbug.”

However, this past Sunday I was reminded of a very interesting fact; the definition of Ebenezer.

“The men of Israel rushed out of Mizpah and pursued the Philistines, slaughtering them along the way to a point below Beth Car. Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen. He named it Ebenezer, saying, “Thus far has the LORD helped us.””- 1 Samuel 7:11-13

An Ebenezer is marker, or reminder, that God has helped us to a particular point. This concept of “Ebenezer” is a better definition of what the holidays should be.

With Thanksgiving upon us, the importance of being thankful has been especially laudable in recent years, as everyone has been forced to make tough financial decisions (some more than others). Though universally what we should be thankful for is that we have survived another year and that God has provided our basic necessities.

Holidays serve as easy reminders of time passing and of times of reflection. Christmas, New Years, Good Friday, Easter, and Fourth of July are some times that should make us stop and pray a prayer of thanks for our blessings and make these times more than just holidays, make them Ebenezers of our lives.

It’s my intention to not ‘do’ many videos at all, but, this one I think needs viewing.

J. Grant Swank, Jr.

He faced twenty years for being accused of a heinous crime.

I was substance abuse counselor at the jail at the time of his admittance.

“I fell to my knees. I cried out, ‘If there is a God, help me. My life is over.’” That was the agonizing prayer of the young, white felon.

“Then I opened my eyes. I stared into the corner of my cell. There was this Bible.”

When I first met Stan, he was walking down the jail corridor to his work station. In his hand he held a Bible. At first glance, I asked him, “Why are you reading that book?”

“Because it helps me,” he answered in a low-key voice.

The next day I asked him the same question. I got the same answer.

The next day I asked him once again the same question. Once again, I got the same answer.

The next time I asked him, getting the same answer, I told him I was one with him. I informed him that I am a Christian.

With that, we became conversational friends in jail.

One day we were talking about the strength the Word provides us when under pressure. He obviously was under a severe strain with twenty years in prison in front of him.

“The more I read this Book, the more the outside world recedes. Now I have read it through three times. I can honestly say that with this Book in my heart, I don’t care any more about the twenty years. If it’s twenty years behind bars, then it’s twenty years behind bars. I accept it as God’s will.”

It is amazing how the Bible can insulate a soul for sound mental and emotional health. The Word is powerful. It can redeem and cleanse. It can rejuvenate and implant hope. It can retrain thought patterns and emotional networks. It can perform miracles.

Stan was experiencing in jail all of these changes within his very person. From the first night, slamming his body against the cell floor in desperation, to this moment of confessing liberation, he had traveled quite the inner journey.

Being in ministry for nearly half a century, I could trust this man to be relating to me the whole truth. He had no reason to fabricate. If he had tried to fabricate, it would have shown itself without doubt, considering the twenty years in prison that was hanging his life.

I promised him that I would intercede for him in my own humble prayers. He thanked me sincerely.

We continued our friendship. Though I was employed in a secular position at the jail, yet there were opportunities for me to speak with Stan, even though briefly, about grooming his soul in the Holy Spirit’s presence.

I could not get over his words about the outside world receding the more he immersed himself in the Word. I thought of how many believers outside jail could come upon such release if they only took the time to do as Stan.

Our lives are so filled with nonsense and worldly lures.

We don’t know the freedom that we could experience if we only immersed ourselves in the Bible with greater discipline. Instead, we content ourselves with a five-and-dime religion of superficial spirituality. Television, MP3s, chit-chat on cell phones, trivia, movies and all the rest of our culture’s sidelines keep us away from soul depth.

Stan came upon God’s treasure house only because his crime had corralled himself inside a jail cell with a Book. That became his key to real-life freedom.

He was imprisoned in a July. By a miracle, the next February he was released. There is no human explanation. It is sheer miracle. It is nothing but the divine hand.

Years have passed.

Stan has proven over time his surrender to the Christ he met in the Book. Today he is a model believer, happily married and rearing a family, serving in his local church and witnessing to the power of God to set a prisoner free.

This past weekend, we were blessed to participate in a seminar hosted by a local Southern Baptist Association. We worked through our past; the significant events, the hurts, the pain, the lessons learned, and what the future may look like because of our past. It was a very good exercise. As you can see from the photo, it was a very colorful exercise as well.

We started out listing chronologically on post it notes all the significant events in our lives. We posted these notes to a piece of poster board. Some of these were positive events, some were negative. The significant events are the yellow post its. There were a lot of significant events in my life, both positive and negative. The pastors at my table shared our significant events in our lives with each other. Next, we took pink post it notes and wrote painful experiences on them, and placed them on the poster board. I did this chronologically again, so the pinks on my board cover some of the yellow significant events. These events were also shared. We could hear the sniffles of the ladies in the room. We manly men did not cry, though. Our homework that night, was to discuss the board with our spouses. We had a list of categories, and we were to categorize the events in our lives. Some examples are: Divine contact- was God putting this person in my life for known/unknown reasons? Negative preparation-was God allowing me to go through this painful time to prepare me for some future event, either painful or positive. These categories are the little dots on the post it notes. It helps us to see that God is in control. We say this all the time, but this helped us to visualize this theological truth.

Saturday morning, we took the blue post it notes and labeled the lessons we had learned from the painful and significant events in our lives. This helped us to see if we are truly seeing that God is in control, teaching us, and shaping us into the image of Christ through the events in our lives. This step was discussed among the tables as well. Our last session of the seminar had us dividing our events into chapters. These are the green post it notes. My chapter headings were: Experiencing but not learning; learning from experience, but not applying the knowledge to life’s situations; applying the knowledge gained from my experiences; and passing on the knowledge gained from past and future experiences.  We ended the seminar by challenging and commissioning one another to make the next chapter of our life/ministry one that is learned from and passed on. It was a good exercise and I hope to continue to catalog , learn from, apply, and pass on my knowledge from my experiences. How about you?

I wrote this while ago . . . but it is worth reposting with a few additions . . .

The other night, I was talking with my husband about a teaching I heard on end times, one area where there seems to be more theories than mosquitoes on a summer night in the Deep South; all fighting for life. Okay maybe not that many, but sometimes it feels like it.

Christians seem to disagree more than agree about the various aspects of our faith. What gives us our name, Christ, we agree on but outside of Him most beliefs are up for discovery; end times, hell, salvation by election, prosperity, authority, role of women, and state of church to name a few. The array of denominations and new ones popping up testify to the extent of our dissentions, but that isn’t how it should be. 1 Corinthians 3:3-7

In this life, disagreement will always be there because we are all in the process of learning but it shouldn’t divide us but unite. Dissensions can be beneficial in that they remind us not to put our trust in man’s words, doctrines or interpretations but to rely on God. The thoughts of man are futile, but God’s Word is perfect pure truth. Psalm 94:11, 12:6

But if we are all reading the same Bible how can we have so many different theories?

For several reasons, but I think one is about trust. If we depend on God to be our Teacher of His Word and not humans we move closer to truth and not farther away. There is one truth and He wants us to know it. The problem is many believers trust people instead of God. Therefore you get a multitude of philosophies and interpretations. How many are learning from God verses from highly esteemed teachers who are just passing along their limited understanding? That system gets us further and further from the truth. It’s like the game of whispering a secret from ear to ear around a circle. In the end it is quite humorous because the statement is much different than how it started. You have to go back to the source to know what was really said. Dwelling in the Source, the Word, you’ll start to see the multitude of lies out there being taught and believed by many.

Many believers aren’t sitting alone with God and diving into the Word with the Spirit as their teacher. There is often the accompaniment of a teacher, commentary or study guide. Not that anything is wrong with these at certain times, but if we rely on them to show us the truth, we aren’t relying on God and probably will be misled. It’s necessary to be with God alone on a regular basis and spend significantly more time with Him listening to His pure words without man’s interpretation than any other source to establish Him as the source of truth in our lives.

In Matthew 23:8, 10 the titles teacher and Rabbi denote authority in the area of instruction. The Rabbi held an honorable place in the synagogues and he was seen as the authority and expert in spiritual matters. When Jesus came, He took the place of the teachers who held that superiority as noted in the verse. Christ alone became The Teacher having preeminence in instruction about Him and His kingdom. He gave each one of us the Holy Spirit to teach us. 1 John 2:27 The Spirit gives us understanding of passages, applies them to our lives, prompts us to dig deeper, and takes us into the depth of God’s Words. If we trust Him to teach, ask for understanding and wait on His instruction, then He is faithful to teach us what we need to know when we need it know it. No one can teach us like He can because He knows exactly where we are at, how to build our understanding, write it on our hearts, and how to explain it so we understand. Jesus came and made everything personal including instruction. Galatians 1:11-12

In contrast, Paul tells us that God appointed teachers in the church. 1 Corinthians 12:28 However, this role doesn’t contain the authority of what Jesus spoke about in the previous verse. If so the verses would be contradictory. Teachers among the brethren are simply that, our brethren. All they say is secondary to our Teacher’s words. Growing up I had two brothers. No doubt in certain areas they were knowledgeable and I could learn from them, but they didn’t hold the authority, wisdom and overall instruction that my father did. Though they had points of enlightenment, they were young and immature like me and often lead me down the wrong path. It is the same within God’s family. For a healthy family, our Father, God, should hold the role as the utmost Teacher in each one of our lives. Both can’t hold first place. We need discernment in listening to others and that comes from spending time in the Word with the Spirit as our Teacher. It’s critical for the strength of His body, the true church, that each one of us builds our foundations on Him and not each other. 2 Timothy 4:3

The Word says that each one of us should be able to teach. 2 Timothy 2:24 That skill is a hint to how we should be spending our time. Students learn from the Master teacher not other students. From our fellow comrades, we share an insight, see another side of an issue, or get confirmation, but we have One, who is our Teacher. Learning from others and disagreement can be healthy, enriching, and a wonderful experience as long as our trust is in God for the source of truth and not man.

Without God’s Word no one can know the truth. There is one truth. The only way to gain truth is by spending time with Him alone one-on-one. I believe He designed it this way to draw us near to Him because He loves us. The one-on-one time builds trust and intimacy which lead us to fulfilling the first commandment and our ultimate eternal purpose – to abide with God in a unity of truth and love.

God isn’t limited by our educational backgrounds. He is able to teach each one of us one-on-one. He is God after all. Yet, if we don’t believe we won’t find. Our minds will be closed off and we won’t seek. We can’t get frustrated by the diversity or throw our hands up and think, how can I know? That mindset is counter to God’s will for us. We will never have the full picture but we can get continually closer. He wants us to know. He wants us to seek and to learn from Him. We have been given the Spirit to teach us and we need learn to hear His voice and to trust Him to do His job.

3 John 1:4 I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth.

I wanted to clarify a couple things about my last post.  I want to start by stating a couple of ABSOLUTES that I follow in my life.  I try my best to approach these ‘absolutes’ with the heart and mind like a child would have.

#1. God is Good! Nahum 1:7

#2. He is able to do more than I would ever dare to ask or hope. Ephesians 3:20

#3. Jesus said that we could ask anything…ANYTHING!…in His name and it would be given.

I don’t know why people who follow Jesus, who have faith for healing, and who pray for healing don’t receive it sometimes.  I don’t have that answer.  But, because of the 3 things I stated above I refuse to say that it was because God didn’t want them to have it.

In all honesty, God can do anything He wants.  If He wants me to have cancer, and He wants me to die because of that cancer, then who am I to question God.  But, I refuse to believe that might be the case because that type of belief gives me room to not pursue with all of my heart that which Jesus paid for on the cross.

I personally believe that God doesn’t want anyone to have cancer, the same way He wants everyone to be saved…yet, people are still perishing and will go to Hell.  Why do people still get cancer and die when prayed for? Why are people still going to go to hell? I don’t have those answers.

It’s like I’m a gambling man.  I’m going to go all in on the side that I have the best chance of winning…in this example, getting healed.  Matthew 11:12 talks about taking the Kingdom by force, and faithful praying is forceful!!

Yes, we all have to die.  God Himself limited us to 120 years.  But, why do we accept cancer and other diseases that cause insurmountable amounts of suffering, as okay ways to die.  I am sure that these diseases will continue to take the lives of faithful followers of Christ.  But, just because it claims one life doesn’t give us the right to pray for ‘whatever God wants to do.’ God did what He wanted to do.  He came to earth and paid for all iniquities and transgressions.  And, then He left us in charge to go out and claim what He paid for.  WE OWE HIM WHAT HE PAID FOR.  He is not here to claim it, it is up to us.

How would you like to pay for a car in full by emptying your bank account, but, due to circumstances, the only way you get to enjoy the car is if your friend picks it up for you.  All they have to do is go to the dealership, ask for the keys to your car, and drive it home to you…but, they never even went to the dealership because they thought you might not want it…WHAT? You paid for it up front and in cash, but you might not want it.  That’s crazy!…C-R-A-Z-Y!!!

Again, I don’t have the answers to all of the hard questions.  And, I’m not trying to search out those answers.  I will just stick to the absolute truths in the Bible.  Due to the busyness of the world, I have a hard enough time going after the Truth with all of my heart, so I don’t have time to waste throwing in my own ‘what-ifs’ and ‘it didn’t work that way for them.’

Right now, there is a friend of my wife’s family who is a younger man (45-55 yrs old) who has been told he has  just a few months to live because of cancer.  He has a two children I think, and both are still in high school. I will never agree with the thinking that Jesus paid for all iniquities except his, and that God wants him to leave this world with two children whom he is still raising. I can’t!   His name is Kevin.  Kevin’s life may very well depend on my faith to live.  Please join with us in praying for his miraculous healing!!

Redemption – Obedience – Grace

The Master of Self

Grace

Answer the questions, which follow the Scripture Verses below.

John 1:14-17 John expresses the grace of the Father, both in Jesus and us.

¹⁴And  ²⁵³² the Word  ³⁰⁵⁶ was made  ¹⁰⁹⁶  ₅₆₃₃ flesh,  ⁴⁵⁶¹ and  ²⁵³² dwelt  ⁴⁶³⁷  ₅₆₅₆ among  ¹⁷²² us,  ²²⁵⁴ (and  ²⁵³² we beheld  ²³⁰⁰  ₅₆₆₂ his  ⁸⁴⁶ glory,  ¹³⁹¹ the glory  ¹³⁹¹ as  ⁵⁶¹³ of the only begotten  ³⁴³⁹ of  ³⁸⁴⁴ the Father,)  ³⁹⁶² full  ⁴¹³⁴ of grace  ⁵⁴⁸⁵ and  ²⁵³² truth. ²²⁵  

¹⁵John  ²⁴⁹¹ bare witness  ³¹⁴⁰  ₅₇₁₉ of  ⁴⁰¹² him,  ⁸⁴⁶ and  ²⁵³² cried,  ²⁸⁹⁶  ₅₇₅₄ saying,  ³⁰⁰⁴  ₅₇₂₃ This  ³⁷⁷⁸ was he  ²²⁵⁸  ₅₇₁₃ of whom  ³⁷³⁹ I spake,  ²⁰³⁶  ₅₆₂₇ He that cometh  ²⁰⁶⁴  ₅₇₄₀ after  ³⁶⁹⁴ me  ³⁴⁵⁰ is preferred  ¹⁰⁹⁶  ₅₇₅₄ before  ¹⁷¹⁵ me:  ³⁴⁵⁰ for  ³⁷⁵⁴ he was  ²²⁵⁸  ₅₇₁₃ before  ⁴⁴¹³ me. ^{3450  16}And  ²⁵³² of  ¹⁵³⁷ his  ⁸⁴⁶ fulness  ⁴¹³⁸ have  ²⁹⁸³   all  ³⁹⁵⁶ we  ²²⁴⁹ received,  ²⁹⁸³  ₅₆₂₇ and  ²⁵³² grace  ⁵⁴⁸⁵ for  ⁴⁷³ grace. ^{5485  17}For  ³⁷⁵⁴ the law  ³⁵⁵¹ was given  ¹³²⁵  ₅₆₈₁ by  ¹²²³ Moses,  ³⁴⁷⁵ but grace  ⁵⁴⁸⁵ and  ²⁵³² truth  ²²⁵ came  ¹⁰⁹⁶  ₅₆₃₃ by  ¹²²³ Jesus  ²⁴²⁴ Christ.

Scripture Text – [KJV – with Greek Reference Numbers]

Q-7 from John 1:16

What is it we have all received from Christ’s fullness?

Q-8 from John 1:16

Why do you suppose we have received this gift from Christ?

Q-9 from John 1:17

What was given by Moses and why?

Q-10 from John 1:17

What was given by Jesus Christ and why?

Q-11 from John 1:17

What was the purpose of one and then the other?

Philemon 25 Paul’s beautiful salutation to Philemon should be ours to each other.  

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen.

Q-12 from Philemon 25

Can you appreciate what Paul was saying in this verse when he said “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen.” If so, describe what that might have meant for the recipient.

I must say that I enjoy the gospels a lot more than all the stuff about Paul.

I totally understand some of his reactions but so many things he says or the way he deals with events surprises me.

I am actually puzzled by the reasons why people chose to keep this rather than other writings. I like to listen to how people talk rather than what they say, what they don’t chose rather than what they do or when they remain silent. It tells a lot more about them. And I think that the fact that Paul’s writing were kept tells a lot about the spirit of those who made this choice.

Sometimes I can relate to his feeling or behavior although I don’t think it is the smartest (hey, I am not always brilliant) and sometimes I wonder if what he did or said was truly inspired. I mean I don’t doubt that he wanted the best and was sincere but I can totally see how the apostasy may have come from what he said and how he said things.

And no I don’t blame Paul for the Apostasy. Things are hard to figure out when you only can rely on your relationship with God. I have a hard time keeping my life on the right track I can’t imagine what it would be like to keep a new born church members in the fold and not let them run in the wilderness. He did a very impressive job but I can’t help but be hurt by his view on the position of women in society for example. No wonder we have such a hard time today.

I am not really sure how I feel about yesterday’s sermon. I did say that Christ the King Sunday is the hardest one for me to preach each year. Some years I just skip it! The response from the congregation is fascinating. Some think it one of the best sermons they have ever heard and others think completely the opposite. Ah, the life of preaching! This is the kind of sermon that is worth blogging about, though. I hope you can appreciate the diversity of thought and opinion in this church!

Welcome back, brothers and sisters!!!

Today we are going to discuss the parable of the wedding banquet.  This is a parable that Jesus spoke to the chief priests and Pharisees of the temple.  The parable is as follows:

“The kingdom of heaven is like unto a certain king, whcih made a marriage for his son, And sent forth his servants to call them that were bidden to the wedding:  and they would not come.  Again, he sent forth other servants, saying, ‘Tell them which are bidden, ‘Behold, I have prepared my dinner:  my oxen and my fatlings are killed, and all things are ready:  come unto the marriage.”  But they made light of it, and went their ways, one to his farm, another to his merchandise:  And the remnant took his servants, and intreated them spitefully, and slew them.”

“But when the king heard thereof, he was wroth:  and he sent forth his armies, and destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city.  Then saith he to his servants, ‘The wedding is ready, but they which were bidden were not worthy.  Go ye therefore into the highways, and as many as ye shall find, bid to the marriage.’  So those servants went out into the highways, and gathered together all as many as they found, both bad and good:  and the wedding was furnished with guests.”

“And when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there was a man which had not on a wedding garment:  And he saith unto him, ‘Friend, how camest thou in hither not having a wedding garment?’  And he was speechless.  Then said the king to the servants, ‘Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness;  there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’  For many are called, but few are chosen.” – Mattew 22:2-14 (KJV)

Brothers and sisters, let’s break down the parable, staring with the cast.

The king of the parable represents God the Father.  The son that the king has arranged a marriage for is Jesus Christ.  The bride to be is the church of Christ, which is all who live in the Lord.  The servants that were sent out to invite the guests represent the prophets.  The first group of guests that was repeatedly invited was the Israelites, God’s chosen people.  Remember, that though many prophets were respected and revered for a time, they usually ended up being persecuted/killed by the very people they were trying to reach with God’s message.

The second group of guests are the Gentiles, or the non-Jews.  When the Jewish people repeatedly rejected the Father, His word, and ultimately Jesus Christ and the Gospel He shared, the Gentiles were blessed with the opportunity to receive the Gospel and to receive Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior while also receiving the gift of salvation that is found only in the only begotten Son of God.

Why was the one guest in the parable cast into outer darkness for not having on a wedding garment?  The answer is simple.  Do you know what the wedding garment is that the guests were to be clothed with?  Consider the following scripture:

“I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my God;  for He hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, He hath covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels.” – Isaiah 61:10 (KJV)

You see, beloved, in order to attend the marriage of the Lamb of God, we must be attired appropriately.  We know that the only person we can get the appropriate attire from is Jesus Christ.  Why?  Through Jesus our sins are washed away, our hearts are purified, and we are clothed with the robe of righteousness.  The person in the parable without the robe of righteousness was a person that had not given their life to Jesus Christ, and was subsequently not wearing the necessary robe of righteousness.  Therefore, the inappropriately attired guest offended the king (God the Father). 

Brothers and sisters, there are people in this world who call themselves Christians, yet Christ is not found anywhere in them.  Such people often assume that going to church, periodically praying, and sometimes reading the bible and quoting chapter and verse is sufficient.  These are usually people that rejoice in sin Monday through Saturday, while attempting to live a Christian life on Sunday.  These are referred to as Sunday Christians, or Convenient Christians, and they do not have a place at the Lord’s table.  Why?  Beloved, Jesus Christ is our Lord and Savior 365 days/year and 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.  Likewise, we are to be His servants at all times as well, living obediently and faithfully in serving Him.  Unfortunately, some are not sincere in their service to the Lord.  Jesus spoke of such people when He said the following about the day of judgment:

“Not everyone that saith unto Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter into the kingdom of heaven;  but he that doeth the will of My Father which is in heaven.  Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name?  and in thy name have cast out devils?  and in thy name done many wonderful works?’  And then I will profess unto them, ‘I never knew you:  depart from Me, ye that work iniquity.” – Matthew 7:21-23 (KJV)

You see, beloved, while we can fool our fellow man into believing that we are someone we are not, God always knows who we are.  God knows our hearts and knows all there is to possibly know about us.  A few acts, or a few words, do not make a faithful and obedient servant in Christ.  A faithful and obedient servant of the Lord lives in service to Him at all times, while also having the Lord in his/her heart at all times.  We love His word, regularly study it, and He writes it into our hearts.  We take every opportunity to share the Lord’s love and word with anyone we can reach.  We are never ashamed to confess to others that Jesus Christ is our Lord and Savior, and Jesus is not ashamed of presenting us to the Father and speaking on our behalf.  Beloved, let’s live Christ in our lives all day, every single day.  Let’s study His word regularly as diligent students, and let’s do His work always as faithful and obedient servants are to do.  The Lord has already given us everything by blessing us with the gift of salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior.  Let’s show Him how much we appreciate His sacrifice, His love, and His forgiveness by doing His work and will unceasingly and with a glad heart.

Beloved, if you have not yet received Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, but you would sincerely like to, then please pray the following prayer:

“Lord God Almighty, I know that I am a sinner and that I am lost.  I know that I need to be saved from sin, but I also know that I can’t save myself.  Lord Jesus, I know that only You can save me.  I know that you paid for my salvation with your own life and blood on the cross.  I know that when You rose from the grave on the third day, you provided everlasting life to all who trust in You.  Right now, I lay down my life and let go of my pride, my vanity and every other sin that has kept me from You.  Lord Jesus, I now completely trust my life to You.  I open my heart to You, Lord.  Please come into my heart.  Please forgive me of all of my sins, and please accept me as Your child.  From this point on, I commit my life to You.  Please guide me and provide me strength as I begin to live the rest of my life for You.  In Your precious and matchless name I pray. Amen.”

I you just prayed that prayer, honestly seeking the Lord, then you are now saved.  The robe of righteousness is now available unto you, and though you will still face adversity in this world, you now have the Lord with you to face and overcome anything that comes your way.  Nurture your relationship with the Lord by talking to Him often through prayer with thanks and supplication, while also studying His word.  Ask the Lord to guide your every path, and follow the path that He sets before you.  You no longer serve the sins and lusts of this world.  Your chains that tied you to the things of this world have now been broken.  Serve the Lord with all your heart, and always seek His will in all things.  Welcome to the family:-)  Know that the angels in heaven are rejoicing at your decision to give your life to the Lord!!!

I want to thank you all for joining in on today’s discussion.  I hope you will be able to join us for tomorrow’s next message.

I hope you have a wonderful and blessed rest of the day.  Remember, you are loved by the very Creator of earth, the heavens, and all life with a love that is perfect, complete, and powerful beyond our present ability to fully comprehend.  Precious one, He made you in your mother’s womb, and you are very special to Him:-)

May the Lord bless you, keep you, guide you, and make His face to shine upon you and your loved ones always.

Your brother in Christ,

Rev Jason Thurwanger

Elhanan
Was a son of Jair’s
Who slew like David
Anak’s heirs-
Titan men
From days of old,
Whose lofty minds
And hearts were cold.

Like Lahmi-
O that foolish foe-
Who mocked the Lord
With words of woe.
His pride-lust
And his scand’lous ways
By Elah’s grounds
Would end his days.

War-prone how
He towered high
As humble lad
And Lord drew nigh …
And just as he
Was weapon clad
A fatal blow
Came from the lad!

And so before
The desert plain
Dagon’s pride
By God was slain
Prefiguring
What was to be:
A future Christ
And victory.

-jwm

This started off as a comment on a post by Jasmine at Joyfully Home, but I just kept going on and on that I thought I’d make it a post of my own.

Her post was about girls who want to fulfill God’s plan for Biblical womanhood, but have grown up in a broken home.  This is a topic that is quite close to my heart, since I come from quite a broken household.  My Mom is twice-divorced, and my sister and I (who have different dads) have lived with her in a fatherless household for quite some time now.  Neither of our dads are very active in our lives, and due to their own lifestyle choices (drug abuse on the one hand, alcoholism on the other), we’ve decided to keep our communication with them to a minumum.

Being twice-divorced, my Mom has adopted a feministic man-hater attitude that is very skeptical to my newly found Biblical ideas of marriage and family.  I continue to pray for her, that she may become the spiritual leader (a motherly one) that our household needs.

That said, Mom has been very accepting of my “career” choice as a stay-at-home daughter, possibly because she has it in her mind to support her children in anything they want to do, but as such, she’s made it much easier for me to learn the art of homemaking at home.

Multigenerational faithfulness is a blessing of a concept –but we have to realize that multigenerational faithfulness has to start somewhere. If not with your grandparents, it has to start with your parents. If not with your parents –it has to start with you. Because if you don’t purpose to instill a legacy of faith into your children, they will come to the same place as … other young women floundering for lack of a biblical home environment to flourish in.

In other words, if you can’t change your current household, you can start working on your future one.  My Mom isn’t all too encouraged to get us to church on Sunday, let alone lead us in family worship, but she’s more than willing to influence my future family in any way that she can, just to see that I have a “better” life than she did.  Sometimes I get discouraged because we don’t get to church or my family insists on watching a TV show that my conscience advises against, but I know that my mom still wants to see multigenerational faithfulness take place in our family, just based on the fact that she lets me stay at home to become the wife and mother that I pray I’ll someday be.

I love her so much, and I really don’t know what I’d ever do without her.  God bless her, and all the other amazing mothers out there.

Mark 7:25b-30
A woman whose little daughter was possessed by an evil spirit came and fell at his feet. The woman was a Greek, born in Syrian Phoenicia. She begged Jesus to drive the demon out of her daughter. “First let the children eat all they want,” he told her, “for it is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to their dogs.” “Yes, Lord,” she replied, “but even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.” Then he told her, “For such a reply, you may go; the demon has left your daughter.” She went home and found her child lying on the bed, and the demon gone.

I wonder if I would have the wisdom of the Syrophoenician woman when Jesus speaks to me in parables because I consider myself very dumb when I read passages like this one selected above. This lady came to Jesus in pain and had a desperate need for Jesus’ miraculous touch on her daughter who was demon possessed. However, she was not Jew and Jesus was there to save the lost sheep of Israel. Would she have any place before a foreign God whose objectives seemed different? In times of desperation, do we seek anything that will give us a solution to our problems?

What Jesus asked her was whether it was right for him to turn his attention to the gentiles before he was done with the Jews and her response showed him that she knew Jesus was here to save sinners, not just a race of people. She must’ve noticed it in the sarcastic language Jesus used to describe gentiles or in his manner of speaking but her answer was apt. I often feel like a servant before Jesus, my Lord, whose crumbs I am not fit to take. In Christ, we have victory from the dominion of sin and suffering because through his death and resurrection, we have the hope of eternity. We all have needs and I know today the Lord speaks to me as clearly as he speaks to you that he wants for us to put our faith in him and know that he will answer our pleas in an amazing way!

In His Loving Service,
Vineet

Man Made Beauty or A Concrete Jungle?

⁷ To all who are in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.⁸ First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world. ⁹ For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of His Son, that without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers, 

        If you have accepted Jesus as you Savior and Lord of your life, You are beloved by God. God does love the whole world and gave his Son that people should repent and be saved, but there is a special relationship that he has with those whom are called his beloved. He has poured his Spirit into us! Something that he does not do with those who don’t trust in Him for Salvation. Not only are we now the beloved by God, but He also calls us to be saints! Can you believe it? God actually looks at you, because of your faith and trust in Jesus, and calls you a saint. That’s grace! This is challenging to me because I don’t always act like it. But I take comfort in the fact that God calls me a saint whether or not I act like all the time or not. “Grace and peace” – In short, you need God’s grace before you get the peace. It is God’s grace, his unmerited favor toward those who believe and trust in him, that causes the peace of Christ to dwell in and guard our hearts.

      What an awesome thing to have said about you! “Your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world.” And it is for this very reason that Paul is constantly making mention of them in his prayers. When someone is filled with the love of Christ their prayer life naturally flows to other people. 1 John tells us that You can’t love God and hate your brother, because if you say you love God and hate your brother (or anyone for that matter) then the love of God is not in you. Yikes! This is one of the reasons that we at Refuge Church take prayer so seriously, not only because God has given us free and constant access to such an awesome God through his Spirit, but it’s through the prayers of his saints that he chooses to accomplish his will! Crazy! God actually desires to have relationship with us and prayer is a huge way in which we get to commune with Him. 

Grace and Peace

Monday

PRaP 11-23-2009

“Preparing to Give Thanks”

I bet you didn’t know there was a preparation process you needed to go through to give thanks?  Well just like that dinner that will be prepared on Thursday here in the United States there requires some prep work.  OK, here we go first thing you do is make a list of things you are thankful for.  You don’t go shopping without a list because if you do you will get things you don’t need.  Am I right?  Next prioritize your list from most important to least important to you.  I don’t know about you but I have enough knowledge about my store that I prioritize my list by isle.  Lord please don’t let them change the isles I will never get my shopping done!  Now those of you that have a list of hundreds of things for the sake of the people joining you for the Thanksgiving Day feast please narrow it down to like your top 5 and then take the rest to the Lord on your own prayer time.  I mean come on there is food to eat and football to watch and kids to play with and so much more to numerous to mention things to do.  Oh and come on you still have to make the Christmas shopping list don’t you, and no; socks and underwear are NOT the perfect gift to give during a multi-family Christmas get together for your 15 year old child.  Grandma I know you like to give gifts they need but how would you like it if we bought you granny panties for Christmas for you to unwrap in front of the entire family?  Give it to them as a side gift and let them know that it is something you think they will need.  I bet they will appreciate it more.  Oh wait, no I wont go there.  Now this is the season for giving thanks to the Lord for His blessing upon us so be sure you have prepared to give Him glory.

Matthew 26, Mark 14, Luke 22

Matthew 26:17
[ The Lord's Supper ] On the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Where do you want us to make preparations for you to eat the Passover?”
Matthew 26:16-18 (in Context) Matthew 26 (Whole Chapter)

Mark 14:12
[ The Lord's Supper ] On the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, when it was customary to sacrifice the Passover lamb, Jesus’ disciples asked him, “Where do you want us to go and make preparations for you to eat the Passover?”
Mark 14:11-13 (in Context) Mark 14 (Whole Chapter)

Luke 22:8
Jesus sent Peter and John, saying, “Go and make preparations for us to eat the Passover.”
Luke 22:7-9 (in Context) Luke 22 (Whole Chapter)

Jesus Bless you,

Pastor Steve

We’ve covered the prophecies concerning the coming Messiah healing the blind and deaf in earlier weeks.  This week we will look at the prophecies that the Messiah would also heal the mute.  If you have been following this series, by now the following prophecy from the book of Isaiah, written hundreds of years before the birth of Jesus, should be familiar:

Say to those who have an anxious heart, “Be strong; fear not! Behold, your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God. He will come and save you.” Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; then shall the lame man leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute sing for joy. For waters break forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert;  [Isaiah 35:4-6 ESV]

We’re going slightly out of order as we should probably handle the healing of the lame first, but we’ll take care of that in a later installment.  The point is that God let his people know hundreds of years before the birth of Jesus that the Messiah would accomplish the following miracles:

• Heal the blind
• Heal the deaf
• Heal the lame
• Heal the mute

We turn once again to the book of Matthew for examples of Jesus healing the mute:

As they were going away, behold, a demon-oppressed man who was mute was brought to him. And when the demon had been cast out, the mute man spoke. And the crowds marveled, saying, “Never was anything like this seen in Israel.”  [Matthew 9:32-33 ESV]

Then a demon-oppressed man who was blind and mute was brought to him, and he healed him, so that the man spoke and saw. And all the people were amazed, and said, “Can this be the Son of David?”  [Matthew 12:22-23 ESV]

Once again, we see the miracles of Jesus forecast hundreds of years before his birth and recorded by a prophet of God.

Return to the Monday Morning Prophecy index page.

Image courtesy of Abby Reed