Sheep Food

  So exactly how can a person truly know if they have indeed, given their ‘whole heart’ to the Lord? (Yesterday’s post) Many new and sincere ‘believers’ are quick to profess they have done just that – ‘given their heart to Jesus’, but how can one really know if they did? We can easily develop our own sets of criteria to attempt to assess that; certainly you have used them yourself in times past. Maybe it’s been the ‘tears and goosebump gauge’ where you experience tender emotions when you hear certain hymns or are visibly stirred in your emotions during a moving sermon at church. Others would point to the ‘speaking in tongues-ometer’ which in their eyes is a clear indicator. Let’s not forget the ‘seniority status factor’ where one cites how long they’ve been a deacon or a church member or how they are a ‘multi-generation-member’ of such and such church. Of course they gave their whole heart to Jesus...how dare anyone question that. Yet, Paul would. (2 Cor. 13:5) Not surprisingly...

  A dear friend of mine shared this image that I reposted here today. So much truth shared in that simple illustration. If only we could ‘see it’, receive it, and then walk in it, Oh the freedom we might truly experience. This may come as a shock to some of you reading here today, but we don’t get to ‘set the terms’ as to how a person is ‘saved’ or what criteria determines who a ‘Christian’ or ‘disciple of Jesus really is. God does. He’s the one who sent His only begotten Son to ‘save’ us and He paid a great price in order to make that happen and provide the opportunity for us to be become a child of God. (John 3:16-17; 1:12) We can have a lot of ‘zeal’ for God and be sincere in the things we do and say; and at the same time we can be sincerely wrong. (Rom. 10:1-3; 1 Cor. 13:1-3; Matt. 7:21-23; 2 Tim. 3:5; Titus 1:16) That passage there in Romans 10 is interesting where Paul was alluding to the ‘zeal for God’ that many of the Jews had, but it was not ‘according to knowledge’. H...

    There are times when it is a convenient copout to ‘plead ignorance’ to get you out of a jam. “I just didn’t know”, we tell them. There are those who live by that mantra of ‘ignorance is bliss’. And I think many of us understand that. The problem is though, it no longer works with God. Paul was pretty clear there when he was addressing the folks down in Athens who had quite the collection of ‘gods’ they were worshiping, pointing out one altar dedicated to ‘the Unknown God’. (Acts 17:23). He was there to ‘enlighten’ them. I mean, that is what we as believers are called to do, is it not...to ‘go out into all the world and ‘enlighten’ those who still walk in darkness? (Matt. 28:19) Yet a rather glaring problem exists within the ‘church world’ today and that is many sincere believers will be the first to tell you they continue to ‘sin, stumble, fall, mess up’ on a regular, ongoing basis. What is tragic with that admission is most of us have been taught that this is ‘normal’...

  So this idea of ‘walking in the light as He is in the light’...is that really a thing? Is it even possible for us to do; or is it like so many of those verses we read in our Bibles that just have such a good, ‘holy sound’ to them where we nod our heads in agreement and whisper a barely audible ‘Amen’, but continue to fall way short in ever really doing that; or any other number of commands and admonitions we read in those pages? There was a reason James writes that if we are just ‘hearers of the word’ vs ‘doers of the word’, then we deceive ourselves. (James 1:22). And as I have mentioned before here, deceived people usually don’t know they are deceived. That too, ‘is a thing’...God’s people being easily deceived. Which is why we probably read repeatedly to ‘be not deceived’ throughout the NT. I would agree there are probably different levels of ‘deception’. And I’m applying that towards self-deception. On the milder end of that spectrum, I’m thinking along the lines as to ho...

  I don’t know where you personally stand on this idea as to whether God still ‘speaks to us’ today, because opinions on that can be all over the place. But it really should not be that strange of an idea if you give it some simple thought. I mean, IF...He really is who He claims to be (our creator for starters), then why is it such an outlandish, off-the-wall concept to believe that He might care to speak to His children in ways we can understand? And if you are going to point to all the ‘nut cases’ out there who claim ‘God told them this or that’, as a reason to quickly dismiss this idea...well, you are going to have to find a better excuse than that to prove God does not talk to His people. Jesus said His sheep ‘hear His voice and follow’. (John 10:27). The writer of Hebrews tells us three times in a row that if ...’we will hear His voice, not to harden our hearts’. (Heb. 3:7,15; 4:7) The problem I strongly suspect is we really don’t want to hear what He has to say these days ...

  Don’t love the darkness more. That really ‘is a thing’ for countless numbers of people, according to what Jesus told us in John 3:19. Apparently there is a choice involved here...and we can choose to come to the light; or we can choose to stay or remain in the darkness. He almost made it sound like an indictment of sorts when He proclaimed: “And this is the condemnation, (or verdict)...light has come into the world, ...and men loved darkness rather than...light.” He even told us why that was...”Because their deeds were evil.” In that very next verse Jesus takes it a step further when He goes on to say that not only do those people ‘love the darkness’, but they actually ‘hate the light and...will not come...to the light.” (20). Would you care to guess why? They continue to ‘practice evil’ and simply don’t want that ‘evil exposed’. They actually prefer to remain in darkness; and I hope you know by now we are talking about ‘spiritual darkness’. There is so much woven through the ...

  “Big things come in little packages”. Ever heard that line before? I know I have and it was usually around this time of year when I was growing up and had high hopes for a certain gift to show up under or near the tree on Christmas morning. And upon first inspection when we came down on Christmas morning, if I did not see any package that could possibly hold what I was longing for, my hopes were quickly dashed. Don’t judge me, I bet it happened to you as well. I think at times, my parents even detected the increasing disappointment that was building and would mutter something to that point reminding me big things coming in small packages. They were usually alluding to a ‘note’ that was craftily wrapped and when opened, it directed me to some other part of the house where once again, all was right in my world when I discovered my wish had been granted. How fitting...that a similar scenario which most likely has taken place in countless homes around this time for years, is simil...

  For years, I was one of those guys who changed my own oil on all our vehicles. I had the ramps to drive the car up on, the pail to collect the old oil, the wrench to loosen the filters and the container to store the old oil. I even had a few old shirts and jeans that I wore when I took care of the dirty job that it was. I say ‘dirty’ because I rarely could get the task done without having grimy engine oil run down my arm because I was unable to get that plug out fast enough. I have not changed my own oil for years as it dawned on me at some point in time that it was well worth it to drive in to one of those stations and pay someone else to do it. Granted, one of the reasons I did it myself for so long, like many people do...was money was tight for the longest time, and you just do what you have to do to save money. What is funny is even to this day, when Kathy, my wife, wants me to start getting rid of old, worn out shirts or jeans, I remind her that I might need to use thos...

  It wasn’t a gender reveal those shepherds were privy to on that dark night when angels appeared before them as the glory of the Lord shined bright about them; it was a birth announcement declaring that Christ the Savior had been born. And following that announcement, we read where a crescendo of voices arose praising God and saying: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth, peace and good will toward men!” (Luke 2:9-14) This had been foretold hundreds of years previously as the Prophet Isaiah penned these words: “For a child will be born to us, a Son will be given to us; and the government will rest on His shoulders; and His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.” (9:6) The One who would bear the title of ‘Prince of Peace’ would indeed usher in an era where all people of every tongue could experience the true peace that passes all understanding. Of the numerous things we are told that Jesus came to offer us, peace was one to be d...