Sheep Food

  Jesus went to ‘boot camp’ immediately after He was baptized by John in the Jordan River. (Mark 1:12-13). I’m led to believe His hair may have still been wet. What do we like to do these days with newly baptized converts? Oftentimes, we get them ‘plugged in to ministry’ with the hopes they will ‘grow in Christ’ and keep coming back. We seem to think it’s important for folks to begin exercising their ‘giftings’ for the kingdom of God, so we get them singing or playing drums or guitar or working in children’s ministry, etc. I’m not here to debate common church practices today and what churches should or shouldn’t be doing. But I do think we have missed some vital parts that have crippled many sincere converts and if we are not careful, we could make them a ‘two-fold child of hell’ that Jesus accused the Pharisees of doing with new converts. (Matt. 23:15) So just what is this ‘boot camp’ I speak of? I would submit to you for prayerful study that it has everything to do with te...

  So why do you suppose so many sincere believers hit a wall in their walk and come to a place where they are convinced that ‘Christianity is not working for them’? I would submit that some vital steps were left out in their early training and they are paying for it down the road. Imagine if you would a young 18-19 year old signs up to enlist in the Navy or Army and envision themselves working in a Special Forces outfit like the S.E.A.L.S or Rangers. Then, by some fluke mistake their paperwork gets lost or mixed up and it is just assumed they have gone through their basic training (which they haven’t) and are then deployed on some special mission overseas. Next thing you know, they are being sent home in a body bag having had their head blown off the first week after they were deployed. What happened? Probably the same thing that happens to many converts today who are encouraged to go out and ‘fulfill their destiny in God’ before having even dried off after their water baptism....

  It was an interesting observation that Paul pointed out there in Romans 2 that can easily go unnoticed if we are in a hurry to ‘finish the chapter’ so we can check off our daily Bible reading box. It came right after that verse where he states that “not the hearers of the law who are just in the sight of God, but the doers...of the law will be justified.” (13). Yeah, that one makes our heads hurt as well. But, he continues on... “...for when the Gentiles who do not have the law, by nature do...the things in the law, these, although not having the law, are a law to themselves who show the work of the law written in their hearts...” (13-14) God said He was going to do that, you know – write His law on our hearts and minds, and then cause us to ‘do them’. (Heb. 10:16; Ezek. 36:26-28). Take a second and go mark that passage from Ezekiel in your Bible if you would. It’s a good one. ;-) So now we have these Gentiles (non-Jews) coming to the Lord and being filled with God’s Spirit. ...

  “Turn the other cheek”, Jesus taught. “Love your enemies, bless those who curse you and do good to those who hate you”. (Matt. 5:38-44). I don’t think that is the message any of us really like to hear, is it? Especially when we are wronged by people who have hurt us. Am I right or am I right? And yet, how did Jesus demonstrate God’s love toward us? “While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” (Rom. 5:8; John 3:16) It’s called showing ‘mercy’ and is the what ‘loving your neighbor’ embodies, and even more so- it is what God’s law encompasses as explained in the parable of the good Samaritan. (Luke 10:-25-37). Jesus told the inquisitive lawyer who was asking what he must do to inherit eternal life... that he in turn must ‘do this and you will live’. (28). Do what? Go and show mercy – “Go, and do likewise.” (37) You have to admit, Jesus was pretty consistent with His messaging. “As I have loved you... you also love one another. By this all will know you are My disciples.....

  “Go...and spend no more!” Is it possible that just maybe...we were taught wrong when it comes to some of our basic Biblical lessons? You know, like this idea of how we ‘are sinners’ vs. we ‘were sinners’? I’ve used this illustration before and will take the liberty to do so again today. A young adult has a spending problem with their credit cards and rack up insane amounts of debt that will be nearly impossible to pay off given the high interest rates they are being charged. Discouraged and feeling quite defeated, they humble themselves and go to their parents seeking help. In an unanticipated act of kindness, Mom and Dad offer to pay off all their child’s debt with one single payment, being able to do so given their boundless wealth. But there was a condition attached to this act of charity and it was a request that their child would forego the credit cards, as in tear them up and use them no more. The adult child agrees to do so...in principal. However, instead of gettin...

  Some 430 years after God established a covenant with Abraham, He set a law in place, and the law came through Moses. (Gal. 3:17; John 1:17). And what was the purpose of the law? It was added because of transgressions. (Gal. 3:19). Isn’t that why most laws are enacted, to curb bad behavior so that consequences might be administered if those laws are not obeyed? And isn’t the general purpose of a law aimed and keeping order in a society and protecting people? It was no different with God’s law. If I sound like I’m circling back and repeating myself here, it is for good reason. I don’t know how else to say this without sounding arrogant, but I am telling you in Jesus’ Name... many of us have failed to grasp the relevance of God’s law today, and many are suffering because of it. (Hosea 4:6). There is a lot I still don’t know, but I have never been more certain of anything in my life when I tell you that this is no ‘small thing’ that we have overlooked in our basic Bible foundation...

  You go to church faithfully every week, and your neighbor doesn’t go at all. By chance, you both get stopped for speeding within a mile of your homes on the same day this week, maybe within an hour of each other...by the same traffic cop. Your neighbor is issued a speeding ticket with a $225 fine. You, on the other hand tell the officer that you go to church and believe in Jesus, before apologizing to him for speeding. He in turn gives you a warning ticket and sends you on your way. No ticket, no fine...and your record stays clean. In what world, does this even make sense or sound like ‘justice’? And yet, that is pretty much the ‘spin’ many ‘Christians’ today offer up to explain, if not justify, why they continue to sin on a regular basis. “Everybody sins because we are sinners! Nobody is perfect, even ‘believers’; we are just forgiven and our sins no longer count against us because of what Jesus did on the cross. We just get off because we go to Him and tell Him we are sorry a...

  Those 2-letter words, like ‘if’, can often come back to bite you; you know? That word (if) in particular packs a wallop of truth. First of all, it implies ‘conditions’ are attached to whatever statement it precedes. “IF... you do this, then I’ll do that.” So allow me to ask a relatively simple question for anyone who professes to be a believer and follower of Jesus. And while I generally tend to shy away from the topic of who is ‘saved’ or not, and focus more on the subject of ‘abiding in Christ’ (John 15:1-8), my question today is this: Outside of being ‘cleansed by the blood of Jesus’ (‘through faith’), what chance does a person have of inheriting ...or entering the kingdom of God? Hopefully you said ‘none’. So now look at 1 John 1:7 as we are told: “IF...we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.” Now back up and read verse 6 as it also begins with an ‘If’. What are we ...

  “But we’re not under the law anymore...we're under grace! It say so right there in Romans 6:14.” (yesterday’s ‘morning nugget’ in case you missed it) And I will be the first to agree with you on that assessment. But I would also then direct your attention to Gal. 5:18 for further clarification as we are told: “Those who are led by the Spirit...are not under the law.” I’ll give you a moment to put those two together, with a spoiler alert: These two passages are NOT in conflict with each other. Which then leads to the question of how does one know if they are truly being ‘led by the Spirit’? That would be a great question to address since that is how we can know who the true ‘children of God’ are – they are the ones who are ‘led by the Spirit’. (Rom. 8:14; John 10:27; 13:34-35) One clue we are told is those who ‘walk in the Spirit will not fulfill the lust of the flesh’. (Gal. 5:16). And in doing so, they fulfill all the righteous requirements of the law. (Rom. 8:4) Yet most a...

  Disregarding or ignoring laws is never a wise idea, whether you agree with them or not. That would include traffic laws, civil and criminal laws and yes, even the ‘law’ of gravity. It’s easy to identify folks who have done this too. I see a lot of them that continue to run red lights just because they were in a hurry. Folks who ‘have no king’ tend to do ‘what is right in their own eyes.’ (Judges 17:6; Proverbs 12:15; 14:12; 21:2) That usually does not end well. But what about God’s laws? Is it possible we ‘people of faith and grace’ have done that ourselves...’set aside the commandments of God’ (Mark 7:8-9) as if they did not apply to us anymore? “What law”, you ask. The one God set in place 430 years after He established covenant with Abraham. He added it because of sin. (Gal. 3:17,19) And one of the things Jesus made rather clear at the onset of His ministry was He had not come to do away with or to abolish God’s law, but rather to fulfill it. (Matt. 5:17). For some peculia...

  God is not an American. I know...hard to believe and some might even take offense to that. Something else we might want to consider is the fact when God sent His Son Jesus into the world, He did not do so with the intent of ‘Making Israel Great Again’. Jesus came to save a people lost in darkness and bound by sin, and His message was clear: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” (Matt.4:17). And He was very open about the fact that “His kingdom was not of this world.” (John 18:36) In order to see ... and enter His kingdom, a spiritual rebirth would need to take place. (John 3:3-7). Paul would later point out that those who continue to practice the “evident deeds of the flesh” nature would NOT inherit this kingdom. (Gal. 5:19-21; Eph. 5:5; 1 Cor. 6:9-10) Yes, as believers, we are instructed to pray for all men, for those who are in authority so that we may lead a ‘quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence.” (1 Tim. 2:1-2) But we are also cautioned about bec...

  As many as us have come to discover over the years, when we don’t take care of our physical bodies, suffering will often occur. (health related issues) On the other hand, as many have come to learn, if/when we do take care of our bodies, suffering will often occur. And it helps to know the difference. I’ve learned an awful lot about this kind of ‘suffering’ since I began working out in a gym with a trainer about six weeks ago. (7 .7.24 Blog Post) So it is in the kingdom of God. When we continue to sin, suffering can be expected. (Rom. 6:23; John 5:14). Be not deceived...sin opens the door to the enemy and God’s wrath. (Eph. 5:6; 4:27; 1 Cor. 11:30-32; Gal. 6:7-8) But when we ‘suffer in the flesh’ as we follow God’s Spirit and put to death the very nature that causes us to sin, making us susceptible to temptation...then genuine transformation will result. Because those who have ‘suffered in the flesh have ceased from sin’. (1 Pet. 4:1-2) This... is the kind of ‘suffering’ w...

  Yes, having the right kind of fruit... really matters! If we learn nothing else from the parable Jesus shared in Luke 13:6-9, it is this lesson: The size of the tree did not matter, nor how long it had been there, or how beautiful the leaves appeared or how thick and plentiful the branches were. There was no fruit so the tree was ordered to be ‘cut down’. (7). Fruit matters. (Matt. 3:10; 7:17-20) Here’s a little ‘secret’ I have come to discover – We are incapable of producing the ‘fruit’ that God is looking for (John 15:4-5). It matters not how much you desire to have this fruit or how hard you work at trying to be...’more patient, more kind, more gentle’. Even when we make small strides in ‘doing better’ in these areas, rarely does ‘that fruit’ last. And did I mention the fruit God is seeking should ‘last’? (John 15:16) The only way genuine fruit can be produced in our lives is something has to ‘die’ first. (John 12:24; 3:30). Only then, is room made for God to produce and c...

  Morning Nuggets   Paul, in his second letter to the Corinthians, admonishes us to “ Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you? Unless indeed you fail the test?” (2 Cor. 13:5)  Does such a ‘test’ exist for us to examine ourselves? Well, there is the ‘fruit test’ that scripture addresses consistently. And then there is this passage from John: “Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. He who says, “I know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him. He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked.” (1 John 2:3-6) How’s that ‘perfected love’ in you coming along? Good thing we are allowed to take tests over when we fail...while there is still time.

  I mentioned at the close of my post yesterday that it (the post) was my 1000th post since I started writing, or blogging, about the things I was gleaning from God’s word these past four years since I had my personal ‘spiritual awakening’ back in March of 2020. Hence, the Roman numeral ‘M’ added to the image of a ‘scribe’ today. ;-). I only mention this in hindsight because nobody knows better than I, how incapable I am to have maintained such a task of waking up early every morning the past several years and writing, at length, with much scripture included, all that I have shared here. And if you would indulge me, I would like to use today’s post to pause, and reflect on what a journey this has been. I have said all along, I have nothing to prove to anyone, nor am I ‘seeking a pulpit’. Yes I pastored a church for 17 years and have shared with you that I 'hit a wall’, and felt like I ‘crashed and burned’ back then. I ended up in a dark place, lost my way, having lost sense of t...

  Maybe the little guy in this video clip is familiar to you? :- ).  (Video format was not able to be uploaded to this blog post, just the screen shot, sorry) Pardon the poor quality but I used my phone to record that clip that comes at the tail end of a 30 second spot that was made over 10-15 years ago, I believe, for a medical outfit. You can easily find it by typing “Injured, injured bad!’ in the search bar on YouTube. It’s one of those lines that has circled back over and over in our family over the years for some strange reason. In no way is the adorable expression emitted from this young lad intended to make light of any injury, but it’s hard not to smile when you hear and watch him utter that phrase...”He was injured, injured bad!” The word ‘injure’ means ‘do physical harm or damage to someone’. To be injured is obviously something that no one relishes because it hurts, and the pain and damage can be real, deep, and long lasting. ‘He was injured in a motorcycle wreck...

  Yes, we live in dark times; as has every generation before us lived in or faced dark times. I still remember the decade of the 1960’s, being only a child then, but this country in particular went through some very dark times. There were three notable assassinations from ’63-‘68, an ugly war that was ripping this country’s soul to shreds, horrible hatred erupting in the south as the spirit of racism and hatred was rearing its ugly head once again, and a drug culture rose to new levels influencing a new generation of young people. But then there are still folks alive today who would tell you of some pretty dark times this country went through back in the ‘30’s and 40’s as our country went through a difficult depression which then fed into a major war that drug us across two oceans in the opposite direction. My decade of the 1960’s pales in comparison, I would think, to what was happening back then as surprise attacks and atomic bombs and the horrors of the Holocaust darkened ou...

  That line where Jesus said we were going to be ‘perfect as the Father in heaven is perfect’, (Matt. 5:48), He was really kidding, right? He was using symbolic language there and just wanted us to have sincere intentions, right? I mean, nobody can be ‘perfect’ as we all know, right? It seems we have a story recorded early on back in Genesis 2, shortly after God created man and set him in the garden, there was a warning given. Maybe ‘warning’ is too strong a word, or maybe not strong enough? You tell me; but you can read there in Gen 2:16-17: “And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, ‘of every tree of the garden you may freely eat but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” We are not given tons of information here, other than what is recorded, and I often have wondered if Adam, at this point in time, even understood the concept of ‘dying’ since death had not yet become a part of their existenc...