Sheep Food

  Let’s pretend for a moment if we could...that the bible really is the authentic ‘Word of God’ and every word written down there is fully genuine and able to be trusted as ‘truth’.   I know...a lot of you just thought to yourself that you don’t have to ‘pretend’ because you already do believe that. Truth be told, I’ve been in more than one church service before where all the people are led into holding up their beloved books and reciting together an audible affirmation that they do indeed believe that very thing...declaring in unison that it is indeed the ‘infallible Word of God from God to us’. I don’t want to take any liberty here to in an attempt to ‘humanize God’ or to personify him in silly ways....but I would imagine if there were ever a time where God was inclined to ‘spew coffee all over his screen’...it would be when He hears those collective chants of affirmation and declaration. Did Jesus not turn to one group and ask: “Why do you call me Lord, Lord and not do the things

  The picture I shared here with today’s post...caught my eye a week or two ago when I saw it posted on a friend’s FB page. Take a moment to read through that again:   “People swear they’re fighting demons when the whole time they’re fighting the consequences of their choices.”   Here’s something for us to chew on: Why can’t it be both?   Yeah....I’m gonna ‘go there’ today....once again. We need to. Ignoring this topic does no one any good at all. In fact, it is probably the reason so many people today are suffering in the ways they are, and that includes countless folks sitting on church pews and who have their names on church rolls.   Demons. Devils. Evil and unclean spirits. The powers of darkness. (Eph. 6:12)   They are not just some figurative characters woven through the poetic language of fictional tales and old time bible stories.   They exist and are quite real.   To be consumed or overly preoccupied with them is unhealthy. But to ignore them is even far worse.   Not

  I have heard for years people refer to that scripture in Eph. 1:17-18 where Paul was praying that God might ‘give to us the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him...the eyes of our understanding being enlightened...”.   I just never really understood or fully comprehended what he was talking about...until that prayer got answered, for me, and my ‘eyes were opened’.   Can I just tell you up front...we don’t figure out anything on our own when it comes to understanding this bible and the mysteries of God’s kingdom. Oh, we can study and memorize and quote scripture all day long. We can immerse ourself in language school and study the ancient languages to ‘better grasp’ what the original text had to say. You can have more degrees than a thermometer in theology and still...’not get it’.   Jesus told a group of studious rabbis that despite them studying scripture diligently in search of true life, they would never experience life until they first came to Him. (John 5:39

  There is a reason they are referred to as ‘unbelievers’.  They don’t believe. Not hard to figure that one out, is it. That’s not to say they don’t have generic or vague ‘personal’ beliefs about ‘some god’ out there; but they tend not to align themselves with the teachings of Christ and the message of the cross. A message that is ‘foolishness to them who are perishing’, Paul wrote. (1 Cor.1:18). He would later explain the reason for their ‘perishing’ is because the ‘god of this age has blinded the minds of them who do not believe from seeing the light of the gospel’. (2 Cor. 4:3-4). He said their ‘minds had been veiled’ - but....but...when one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away’. (2 Cor 3:16)  It's the growing number of ‘unbelieving-believers’ out there that concerns me.  Yes, you read that correctly- unbelieving believers. They are quick to say they ‘believe’, but their actions and lifestyles and their ‘fruit’ suggest otherwise. (Tit. 1:16). And for the record, fruit-in

  Three young, athletic men line up on the starting blocks of an Olympic sized swimming pool. They are hoping to qualify for a special-ops team the Navy is developing. At the sound of the whistle, they are to dive into the pool and see how many laps they can swim beneath the surface before coming up to breathe.   The whistle shrieks, followed by the simultaneous splashes of all three swimmers hitting the water at the same time.   At the halfway mark of that first lap to the other end, the swimmer in lane 1 comes up gasping for air looking exhausted and a bit frustrated with himself. He pulls himself out of the pool with his head hung low as he meanders back to the starting blocks.   The swimmer in lane 2 makes it all the way to the end of the pool, and on the turn to come back...stops and rises to the surface with an audible gasp as his lungs are demanding to be filled with air. He too, lifts himself from the pool and walks back to the same starting blocks breathing heavily, yet wat

  So what exactly is ‘sin’?    I mean really...can you define it in simple terms so that anyone can understand it and then relay it to others so that they too would comprehend what sin is?  We hear professing believers openly admit how they ‘sin daily’. If you are one of those people who do admit to continue being a ‘saint who sins’, can I ask just what that means to you and what exactly are you doing that constitutes being ‘sin’?  In yesterday’s post, I gave two examples of what many presume to be sin, and since they are subject to those two examples regularly, they just automatically assumed they were sinning. Yet, as I pointed out, Jesus would have been subject to those same two areas as well, yet He was without sin. You might want to read that post if you missed it.  I’m sure many have been groomed to embrace the definition that sin is ‘missing the mark’. We are then told that is akin to an archer pulling that arrow back on his bow and hitting the target but not hitting the bul

  To borrow a well-used phrase: “I may have been born at night, but I wasn’t born last night.”  I’ve been around the block a few times. I’ve been in plenty of church circles over the years...even pastored one myself for 17 years. I’ve seen a few things, both good and bad. And I have, like everyone else, fallen short...way short. (Want to see my scars?)   But this talk about folks being set free from sin and actually being able to go and ‘sin no more’ can really hit a nerve in us and not set well. Have you ever asked yourself why that is? Truth be told, the spark that initiated this blogging of mine that began some 620+ days ago originated with a ‘discussion’ I was having with someone regarding what Jesus taught in John 8:32-36.   Jesus stated ‘most assuredly’ ...that “whoever commits sin is a slave to sin”. (8:34)   He goes on to say that a ‘slave does not abide in the house forever...but a son abides forever.” (35)   Looks and sounds like a pretty defining line of distinction t

  Do you realize how far the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ has veered off, been hijacked, diluted, and rendered powerless?   This ‘falling away’ (2 Thess. 2:3) has become so dramatic - that for anyone to come along and even suggest...that a born-again believer, who has been made a new creation, conformed to the image of Christ, filled and empowered with the One who raised Christ from the dead... could actually be free from the bondage of sin and walk like Jesus walked ...and go and sin no more...is considered to be heresy, false doctrine, and simply impossible.   And yet, scripture teaches just that very thing...and that the truth will set us free. (John 8:34,36; 2 Cor. 5:17; Rom. 8:29; 1 John 2:6; John 5:14; Matt. 5:48; Rom. 8:9-11)   Paul gives a chilling warning that in the last days with the increase of all kinds of ‘unrighteous deception that will be prevalent among those who perish’...that the reason they perish is because they did not receive the love of the truth, that

  Does. He. Know. You?  That really is the question we should be asking.   I am familiar with that ‘go to’ line of asking others: “Do you know Jesus?” But I would contend that the more important question is...’Does He know You?’   It sounds like a rhetorical question on the surface, meaning it really not need be answered directly because we would assume the answer is ‘Yes’, since God knows everything and everyone.   Yet, twice in the NT, Jesus addresses this point in a very sobering manner. Both are recorded in the gospel of Matthew.   Towards the end of His ‘Sermon on the Mount’ recorded in chapters 5,6, & 7, He is nearing the end, wrapping up his message with some serious pointers. He makes it known that this ‘path’ that leads to eternal life is not a very wide one. He indicates that not many will walk this path, especially when you compare it with that ‘broad way’ that the majority of people will be on; a well-traveled road that leads to an apparent ‘wide gate’ ending in ‘de