Sheep Food

  Personal experiences, beliefs, and opinions are just that- ‘personal’. So are man-made doctrines and traditions (Mark 7:8-9). No one is faulting you for having those...as most of us do. But where we get into trouble is when we ‘lay aside’...God’s word and hold up our personal beliefs and/or experiences above what God says; and we do that more often than you might imagine. How many people are out there today who have little or no faith at all in God because one time they ‘prayed a prayer’ and nothing happened...and therefore they figured this talk about a ‘loving God’ and ‘answered prayer’ was nothing but a feeble myth for desperate people? Or how about those passages that suggest anyone who abides in Jesus ‘no longer sins’ or has ‘ceased from sin’ because they’ve been ‘born of God’ (1 John 3:6,9; 5:18; 1 Pet. 4:1-2). And yet...I’ve had people tell me: “Well I don’t know anyone who lives like that!”...as if their personal assessment supersedes what God’s word has clearly stated. ...

  From what we read in our Bibles...there is an inheritance awaiting those who have been sanctified by faith in Christ (Acts 20:32; 26:18). We are also informed from this same Bible that those who continue to live according to the ‘flesh’...will NOT...be recipients of any inheritance (Gal. 5:21; Eph. 5:5; 1 Cor. 6:9-10). If you just read that and then immediately...felt some ‘kick’ within you, and you wanted to pop up and make the point that this has nothing to do with you being ‘saved’...would you take a moment and ask yourself why you felt threatened by what I just shared from your Bible? And why was that the first thing your mind went to, your being ‘saved’ or not? Let’s turn and read Gal. 3:26-29. First thing right out of the gate there, Paul writes: “For you are all children of God through faith in Christ Jesus.” Now that sounds comforting because it makes sense where one needs to be a child in order to be an heir to an inheritance, in most cases. And since you have profes...

  Is it possible that loving anything... more than we love God...could cause us to ‘lose our inheritance’? I mentioned this yesterday, citing how Esau, the brother of Jacob, pretty much forfeited his inheritance by selling his birthright to Jacob for a single bowl of stew. And let me assure you, God was not pleased with that attitude at all. (Gen. 25:29-34; Rom. 9:13) I know conversations like this can trigger lots of people for a host of reasons. But ignoring what the Bible tells us does no one any good at all. And contrary to that old saying ... Ignorance is NOT bliss...when it comes to things that matter. For some of you, your mind immediately goes down that path of wanting to question (or debate) the possibility that believers can ‘lose their salvation’. Have you ever asked yourself why is it...that so many sincere people today in our churches are constantly needing reassurance that they are indeed ‘saved’, even though they struggle often with thinking they are not, or at lea...

  I’m guessing that I have photographed more weddings over the years than what I have officiated. Yes, for those who may not know, I use to pastor a church and have presided over ‘tying the knot’ for a good number of couples out there. And one of the customary steps I always tried to get done with any couple who came and asked me to officiate their wedding was to sit down with them for a few weeks to meet in what is commonly known as pre-marital counseling. I usually would experience at the start of each session, a sense of overwhelming inadequacy as I looked into the eyes of these (usually) young lovebirds who I told them up front that they were about to commit what I called a ‘VUI’ (vowing under the influence). They were going to stand before God, family, and friends and make the most outlandish promises to each other that they could have no way of fully understanding or appreciating given their current state of love and infatuation. Of course they would vow to love and stick wit...

  There is a ‘coming to Jesus’ moment that many of us have experienced in days gone by. And then...there is a...’coming to Jesus’ encounter that forever changes the trajectory of your life. I know that may be confusing to some...but if/when it happens to you, you’ll know what I’m talking about, trust me. It’s not like we haven’t seen that before in the Bible. Moses is the first one who comes to mind, for me at least. Born as a Hebrew, he was raised in the home of Pharaoh’s daughter but certainly knew where his heritage lay. And at the age of 40, he stepped up to ‘help’ a fellow Hebrew out until that blew up in his face and off to the backside of the desert he goes for forty years (Ex. 2) Then there was Peter who showed great signs of zeal and devotion, as he too...stepped up to ‘help’ Jesus out with his own sword, after vowing to ‘die for Jesus’. But within hours ...Peter would be denying to a crowd of strangers that he even knew Jesus. And let’s not forget Saul, a devoted Pharise...

  So there goes Paul again...quoting from that Old Testament as if it might have anything to do with us NT believers today.... “Come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord...and I will be a Father to you and you shall be My sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.” (2 Cor. 6:17-18) This seems to be a reoccurring theme, or ‘call’ ...that we hear God make throughout the Bible. I mean, from the very beginning, God called Adam out from hiding behind the bushes in his nakedness (Gen.3). God would later call Abram out from his native homeland and family in order to follow Him so that He could establish covenant with Him and to be the Father of a nation in relationship with Himself (Gen. 12). And then there were the several million descendants of Abraham who were now living as slaves in Egypt (Ex. 3:7-8). God then raised up Moses to lead the people out where their lives of slavery would be a part of their past as He led them into a land of peace and rest where He could bl...

  It is the will of God for you and I to be holy. (1 Thess. 4:3) And Peter makes it clear that we ought to be holy in ‘all our conduct’ since He (God) is holy (1 Pet. 1:14-16). Oh, but you say someone told you that we could ‘never be holy enough for God’? That’s interesting, because our Bible seems to suggest otherwise. What do you think Jesus came to do? He came to ‘save’ us and to transform us as we are conformed to His image and likeness, as we become a ‘new creation in Christ’ (John 3:17-18; Rom. 8:29; 2 Cor. 5:17). And He raised the bar pretty high, telling us in Matt. 5:48 that we were to ‘be perfect as our Father in heaven is perfect’. But please don’t fool or discourage yourself by believing you can do this on your own ‘trying harder to be better’. I should also add that this process of becoming ‘holy’, which we call ‘sanctification’... is supposed to take place BEFORE...He returns, given the fact that He is coming back for a bride/church that is ‘holy, spotless, and bla...

  Regardless of whatever your beliefs are concerning the ‘afterlife’, and/or what it means to ‘enter the kingdom of heaven’...our personal opinions as to who actually ‘goes in’ ... or ‘how’ one enters...really don’t matter in light of what God’s word has to say on the subject. And Jesus sounded rather firm when He made it known: “Not everyone who says, ‘Lord, Lord’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who DOES THE WILL of My Father in heaven.” (Matt. 7:21) I know...that’s a tough one to get around or ‘spin’; although I have heard on occasion some suggest Jesus was talking more about ‘living the abundant life’ when He speaks of entering the kingdom...and that He was most likely not talking about being ‘saved’ and ‘going to heaven’ after you die. Yeah...whatever.... Now for anyone who has even a remotely sincere interest in understanding truth and don’t feel compelled to water down or ‘deconstruct’ God’s word, one would think that understanding what the ‘will of the Father’ is....

  For as insanely expensive that the price of beef has risen to over the years, it’s amazing how much ‘red meat’ is strewn everywhere these days for people to have feeding frenzies over. I’ll give you a moment with that one. By the way, how do you like your red meat? Do you have a weakness for that meat that is seasoned heavily with political intrigue and wrappings and such? You know...wanting to get to the ‘meat of the issue’ and find out who is really behind the ‘deep state’. Maybe you're more of a slow cooker type...savoring a ‘Christian Nation’ here in America while endeavoring to get all the right righteous people in key positions so we can ‘make America great again’? Or is your red meat of choice wrapped up with all the internet ‘medical experts’ who are convinced ‘someone’ out there is trying to kill you with all their food dyes and vaccines and think you should be loading up on ivermectin. I’m sure you are familiar with those whose meat is the sizzling social issues of th...

  I believe the case could be made that many in the ‘church’ today...fail to grasp how serious God is about this ‘go and sin no more or something worse may come upon you’ bit that we read about in scripture (John 5:14). Allow me, if you will...to use a sensitive illustration... If you consider yourself to be a ‘Christian believer’, and you have a spouse (who also claims to be one as well) who struggles with lust and infidelity...just how long would you tolerate their repeated acts of unfaithfulness and adultery? Do you take the ‘spiritual high road’ and keep ‘forgiving’ them over and over because...after all... nobody is perfect, just forgiven; and we are all saints who sin’? I think you know the answer to this question, especially if you read the text from yesterday in 1 Cor. 5...and how sin (all sin) must be dealt with since it is likened to ‘leaven that spreads through the whole loaf’ (6). Trust me when I say I know how delicate this whole subject matter is, because countless p...

  My dad served in the military for 30 years as a dentist. One particular memory I have while growing up was when he would bring home some color slides that he would load up in his slide projector and have us boys sit down to watch. They were pictures of the most hideous mouths you had ever seen. I mean, we are talking close up color images of rotten teeth and mouths devoured by gum disease. Why, you ask... would he subject three young boys to such images? He wanted to get across to us what could happen if we didn’t take good care of our teeth. Let me assure you, on those evenings we were subjected to viewing those images, (that I can still see in my head today)...we would spend an extraordinary amount of time that night brushing our teeth furiously...before we went to bed. When I was back in Texas and spending much time taking pictures with my cameras, one particular event I found myself photographing annually in the local schools were these presentations put on by local law o...

  “Who told you that?!” (Gen. 3:11) Who told you ...that you would always be a flawed human being with a sinful nature for whatever remaining time you might have here on earth? Who told you...that you would always ‘sin’ on this side of heaven’? And while we’re at it....who told you that Christians are no longer ‘punished’ for those sins they will continue to commit because ‘Jesus took all our punishment on the cross for past, present, and future sins’? Is it possible that just maybe many sincere ‘believers’ today might have ‘believed a lie’ that Paul warned would happen in 2 Thess. 2:9-12...and will end up ‘perishing’ because of it because they did not receive nor have a ‘love for the truth’? It certainly would not be the first time this has ever happened. Let me assure you today that the last thing the ‘god of this age’ wants any professing believer to ‘see’ or ‘come to the knowledge of the truth’ on...is the fact that their freedom was purchased by the One who came to set all ...

  (Part 4). “You can lead a horse to water...but you can’t make him drink.” If there was one lesson that the modern church today has failed to learn, it is the one we will spend some time reading about today; but before we open up to Numbers 13-14, let’s review Exodus 23:20-33 one more time. God was laying out the plan to His people, through Moses, a plan I might add...has spiritual relevance for everyone who claims to be ‘of Christ’ today, since you’re a ‘seed of Abraham and heirs according to the promise’ (Gal. 3:26-29) The days of God’s people living as ‘slaves’ were over. And He was going to send an ‘Angel’ to lead them into a new land where they would experience peace and rest, along with safety and prosperity. (Don’t let that last word rattle you either, 3 John 2) Do you know what makes a person a ‘slave’... in God’s eyes? Answer: Anyone who commits sin (John 8:34). And the whole reason Jesus came to earth was to ‘set the captives/slaves free’ (Lev. 26:13; Luke 4:18; John 8:...