Sheep Food

  Little different direction on my post today.   First thing is I realize FB is not a place people turn to or scroll through looking for meaning and purpose in life. I get it. I was reluctant to start posting these daily ‘messages’ here for that very reason. But I felt a compelling to do so and will continue to do so until I feel a need to stop.   Yes, I know they are ‘lengthy’ to some. I make no apologies or excuses for that. Part of my reluctance to using this platform was based on my own previous experiences of stopping in here on FB. It can often be out of boredom or maybe to see ‘what’s happening in the area’, etc. I could find myself in times past scrolling…come across an inspirational post or verse or quote and think to myself “Oh, that is really good!”   Then I’d scroll down further and watch some silly stunt performed by a pet or drunk college student that was posted. Moment lost.   But I do feel that those who are coming and reading it daily are doing it with purpose

  “I am not perfect!”   How many times have we heard that phrase roll off the lips of some high profile celebrity who is needing to quickly do ‘damage repair’ to their image following some well publicized stunt or ‘sin’. It’s like they are stating the obvious for …what reason? Who ever suggested they were perfect and what does that have to do with the situation at hand? Kudos to them for coming forward and if their hearts are truly sincere, we can only pray that the experience has humbled them and turns them towards a healing path. This is not about judging them.   The past few days, I’ve been discussing what sin is, and isn’t. Today we will look further in to what sin actually is and why do we ‘Christians’ do it?   I can already hear some of you muttering under your breath answering: ‘because we are sinners and nobody is perfect!”   O-kayyy….so let’s unpack this and break it down using scripture to examine how we may possibly have been ‘led astray’ in our thinking.   For starters,

  “One plants, another waters, but God gives the increase”. (1 Cor. 3:6)   It’s been said that many of the things that God has or initiates, Satan has a counterfeit for. I can see where this is true in many instances. Paul was of course referring to himself sowing God’s word and confidant that others would be along to water it. That is my prayer with these daily postings as well.   But the enemy is no stranger to doing the same kind of work. I need only to point you to the parable of the wheat and tares in Matthew 13 where a man planted a field of wheat and while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way.” (vs. 25) Jesus would later explain that parable to His disciples and made it clear that the devil was the ‘enemy’.   But it’s important to note that the enemy did this while others ‘slept’.   We’ve been talking the past few days about what sin is…and is not - as in the idea of: Is it a ‘sin’ to have bad thoughts’? Hopefully that has been cleare

  Back for a ‘second portion of sin’?   Ha…you could run with that in several directions. Might take a read over of yesterday’s post if you missed it before starting this one. ;-)   We have been examining from the Word just what sin is…and isn’t. According to 1 John 3:5, sin is ‘lawlessness’. And people who practice lawlessness are not in a good or ‘safe place’. Matt. 13:41 warns us of the end of the age when ‘reapers’ are sent out to gather up all who practice lawlessness. It’s like you have a ‘bulls-eye’ on your back and sin gives place to the enemy to come in and devour. Which is why scripture admonishes us to avoid, flee from, and ‘sin no more’.   Need I mention you cannot possibly do that unless….you are abiding in Christ? As in not just ‘saying you believe’ in Him, but actually following…abiding…obeying Him. All other avenues will lead to destruction. Period. (Acts 3:22-23) ( 1 John 3:6)   As long as we are walking/abiding with Him, God sets a hedge of protection around us

  “Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.” (Ps 51:5 NIV)   “There is none righteous, no, not one…for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (Rom 3:10,23)   This is God’s assessment of all of humanity, not mine. We all stood condemned and death and judgment was already on us. (John 3:36 Rom 5:12)   Sin was the problem.   And God had the solution.   Where we get things confused and mixed up, is understanding how that ‘solution’ actually works. One might conclude today that many church members believe that earplugs are the solution to a noisy muffler when it comes to ‘fixing sin’.   Consider this: A young adult gets into some credit card trouble racking up an amount of debt they are being buried under and unable to pay back. Broken and desperate, they humbly call home for help. And Dad/Mom show mercy, write a check and pay off the debt with the hope their child has learned a lesson.   O Happy Day!   But now, instead of ridding thems

  This morning, thousands upon thousands of pastors around the state and countless more throughout the country are most likely giving final thoughts or a look-over to the message they will be delivering soon to their congregations.   Better make it good….you only have this 30-45 minute window to make an impact and get that seed planted and message across. Then you hope and pray.   There is so much I could say here but will refrain and stay on task. :- )   Interestingly, there are plenty of verses in the bible that addresses teachers and pastors/shepherds. Many of them warn us to be on guard against false teachers and such. Jesus made it clear there would be no shortage of them and that would even come in ‘His Name’ leading many astray. (Matt 24) He would describe them as ‘wolves in sheep’s clothing’ and yet did not seem overly concerned with them as He said it would be clear by the fruit in their lives as to whether they were of God or not. (Matt 7:15-20)   James advises that many

  “Therefore you shall be perfect just as your Father in heaven is perfect.” - Jesus (Matt 5:48)   I would not list ‘mind-reading’ on my resume as a skill set that I possess, but I’d bet many of you when you read that verse immediately thought to yourself: “That certainly does not mean what it says!”   To which I would ask: Then why did He say that?  “Well…first of all, nobody is perfect and that word in the Greek actually means ‘complete’”, you might respond with.   Ok…so we are to be ‘complete’ just like our Father in heaven is ‘complete’. (whatever that means)   But for the sake of the posting today, I’ll stay with the word ‘perfect’. (and I don’t think it implies that I will shoot par golf every time I play or that you will make every basket you ever throw, or get a 100% on every school test you take, etc)   But Jesus still said it: “Be perfect…”.   And we know when He ‘says things’, Satan comes immediately (Mark 4:15) to either snatch the Word from your heart if you don’t und

  I am no theologian. Nor have I ever been to seminary.   And I have no problem admitting there is much…I do not know. I may struggle at times trying to convey something that I see or have learned.   I often identify with that blind man we read about in John 9. He was just sitting there one day…being blind. Jesus approached him, made some ‘clay’ with his spit and some dirt, rubbed it on the blind man’s eyes and then told him to go to the Pool of Siloam and wash. For some reason, scripture includes the meaning of the name ‘Siloam’ as meaning ‘sent’.   We are then told in verse 7 “so he went and washed, and came back seeing.” His neighbors were a bit taken back and perplexed and asked what happened.   He told them, repeating the account and being told to ‘go wash…so I went and washed and I received sight.” (vs 11)   And it only got more complicated after that. It created quite a stir there in the community. The theologians were brought it to investigate and again, he recounted the

  We are told that when Paul and Silas went to preach the gospel in Berea that those there ‘received the word with all readiness…and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so.” (Acts 17:11)   That is a good thing…to search the scriptures daily when you hear something taught…to see if it is true or not. And just in case there is any misunderstanding here, the early church folks did not have a ‘bible’ like we do…as in a New Testament. So the ‘scriptures’ they studied would have been from the Law and prophets. At some point, they would study the gospels and letters from Paul and others that began to circulate, and which would eventually become our NT. Just wanted to clarify that. ;-)   Let me ask you this- if you consider yourself to be familiar with or a student of….the bible… You most likely have a basic framework of understanding in varying degrees. I’d assume you have been taught a doctrine that lines up with the teachings of the church you associate

  Years ago, when we drove from Paris into Dallas, we’d take 82W out and at that time we would have to drive through Honey Grove and then Bonham and any other little towns along the way.   These roads were for years, the lifeline of these communities as it brought business in to local shops and diners.   But then, we got smart and made our roads bigger and faster and built them around the towns so we didn’t have to be bothered with stoplights and such. We could get to where we were going….faster…quicker and uninterrupted. It is…the American Way.   In traffic design lingo…it’s called a ‘bypass’. You just lay down the new roads around the towns so as to ‘bypass’ all the traffic and things we don’t need to be slowed down with. Makes sense.   Oh….there are those few folks who choose the scenic drive and opt to stop in small towns and take in the sights. But the majority of us…ain’t got no time for that.   I’m afraid over the years, we’ve done with the American Gospel what we did with

  Perhaps you saw this photo in the news recently. Apparently the driver of this truck was committed to trusting his GPS device to get him where he needed to go.   I have no idea what the outcome was or how they ‘fixed’ this problem; but the photo speaks volumes.   And it’s not the first time where someone made the news for doing the same thing…trusting their GPS device in spite of all common sense and instinct from within yelling to ‘turn around’. (This photo was taken in China, bytheway)   Don’t get me wrong…I love my map-apps on my phone and use them regularly. But I also love a good atlas/map that I can open up and hold and spread out and examine up close and even mark with a pencil if needed. But what do you do when the two disagree?   I’ve shared with you here previously of an incident when years ago our family was on a road trip, and my mom questioned my dad as to where he was going and if he knew where he was going. His classic response was legendary: “I’m just following t