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  How? How on earth did the church of the living God devolve into such a place that the best hope it could offer it’s ‘participants’ was a light ‘dusting over’ that still left so called ‘believers’ imperfect, flawed, and sinful? What happened to the promise of becoming a ‘new creation’ (2 Cor. 5:17) and being miraculously transformed by the power of God’s Spirit of grace as we became conformed to the likeness and image of Jesus Christ, the ‘firstborn of many brethren’? (Rom. 8:29) Instead of issuing the same admonition that Jesus taught” “Repent...Follow Me...and Go and sin no more”, we teach people that can’t really happen so just ‘try and dial it down some, join a local church and get busy serving God with your gifts and talents’. And when we are reminded as to what kind of church Jesus is coming back for, “holy, blameless, not having spot or wrinkle or stain” (Eph. 5:27), we have convinced ourselves, or ‘believed the lie’ (yesterday’s message) that we could never be ‘holy enough...
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  Say it isn’t so! Am I reading this verse correctly where “God is going to send a ‘misleading influence’ that will cause people to ‘believe a lie’...which in turn it will lead to their eventual destruction?” (2 Thess. 2:11) [You really need to look up that verse in other translations to get the full impact of what is being said here - https://tinyurl.com/fyx4vj2h ] I am indeed...reading that passage correctly, as hard as it is believe and process. But if it's of any help, you might interpret this as another way of saying ‘When God gives us what we want’. ....No, my friends...it’s not an uncommon thing for God to allow us to choose, and then after we make the wrong choice...He gives us what we asked for. I guess that is why we are often reminded to ‘choose wisely’ (Yesterday’s message). Take a close look at this text there in 2 Thess. 2:9-12; and please beware that once you have read it, you are without excuse and cannot say you did not know this was in there. (You might also ma...
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  It would seem to me that one of the more risky moves God ever took when He created humanity was in giving us the freedom to choose. I mean really...when you think about it, the stakes can be so high and the consequences of making the wrong choice so grave...why take those chances? Now I’m not about to try and answer for God on that one, but there is no denying how we see throughout scripture where God was continuously calling His people to ‘choose for yourselves this day...whom we would serve’ (Josh. 24:15) It began with a single, simple command (and choice) in the Garden of Eden and it boiled down to just one tree that Adam and Eve were told to not eat from (Gen. 2:17). They made the wrong choice. (Gen. 3:4-8; Rom. 5:19) We would read much later where Moses was speaking on God’s behalf giving millions the freedom once again...to ‘choose life and good ... or death and evil’, along with ‘blessings and cursing’...then being encouraged to ‘choose life so that both you and your desc...
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  It’s the ‘little foxes that spoil the vine’...(Song of Solomon 2:15) I bet you have heard that phrase before, yes? How easy is it for us to dismiss or set aside those small, little ‘besetting sins’ (Heb. 12:1) in our life because really...they aren’t all that bad (in our eyes-Rom.10:3), especially when you compare it to ‘how you use to live’...or perhaps compared to others, right? (Luke 18:11) But heaven forbid we turn a blind eye to the sins of those evil gang members, sex-traffickers, pedophiles and axe-murderers that come across our borders. Yet... that root of bitterness or greed that you are hanging on to, or maybe that ‘critical spirit’ and sarcasm and envy you continue to struggle with...’meh...not that important given none of us are perfect’, right? And by-golly if an adulterer or homosexual shows up at our church, they best get themselves down to that altar and ‘repent’ if they plan on sticking around here; but that pride and jealousy that resides deep in your heart?.......
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  “We must pay the most careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away.” (Heb. 2:1) If God thought it wise to put warnings in His word about being careful to do as He asks of us lest we ‘drift away’...do you think He did so knowing there was a potential danger that we could actually do that - ‘drift’ away? And what does that even mean, to ‘drift away’? A simple definition for the word ‘drift’ is - ‘to be carried slowly by a current of air or water’. Did you catch the use of the word ‘slowly’, as we all know how subtle drifting can be? Have you ever been sitting in a canoe or small boat on the lake, maybe toying with some fishing gear or scrolling through your phone and you look up, only to discover that the spot you were in 30 minutes ago is much further away than you could have imagined? Or maybe dozing off on an air mattress catching some sun rays...and the same thing happens? I find it interesting how that definition uses both air and water...
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  You’re driving down a two-lane country highway and occasionally pass vehicles coming from the opposite direction. In Texas, it seemed to be the custom to give a subtle wave, maybe just raising two fingers up off the wheel to those drivers you passed.   And as most of us know...it's easy at times to get  distracted with any number of things while driving. Let’s be honest here...who has not ever had to make a quick correction when you found yourself ‘drifting’ into the other lane, thankful there was no collision with an oncoming car? And whether there is/was an oncoming 18-wheeler that you avoided missing head-on, or not... you still make the adjustment with your steering wheel because everyone in their right mind knows that driving in that other lane is extremely foolish, dangerous,(not to mention illegal) and could prove to be fatal. Can I state the obvious here and say that meeting a truck or any vehicle head-on while both are traveling at 60mph would most likely ...
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  “Take up your bed...and walk” (John 5:8). This is what Jesus told one paralyzed man who had been afflicted for 38 years. We know from what we read in all four gospels that Jesus healed countless numbers of people who were blind, deaf, paralyzed, along with healing all manners of sickness and diseases (Matt. 15:30-31). And as I mentioned the other day, there were two specific incidents where we get to listen in to the exchange of dialogue that Jesus had with these two particular lame men. The first one ...I mentioned above, and the other one is recorded in Mark 2:1-12. By all visible accounts, neither of these two men were able to walk in the manner in which they were created to walk. But that is not to say they did not want to walk like ‘normal’ people walk; they simply were unable to do this on their own. And simply ‘wanting’ or desiring or yearning to walk was not enough to make it happen. I’ve never been paralyzed but I wonder if a lame person ever lays there in bed or while ...
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