Sheep Food

  When God made it known to Adam and Eve early on that ‘in the day that you eat off that one tree in the garden...you shall surely die...’ (Gen. 2:17) ...who was the first one on the scene to cast doubt on what God said and then actually twisted it around to say just the opposite in order to deceive Eve? It was the ‘crafty serpent’ who appeared asking: “Did God really say this...?’ (Gen. 3:1). Then, after some subtle twisting of what God said, the serpent flat out told Eve...’you shall surely not die!’ (2-4). Yes, that would be the same ‘serpent’ John wrote about in Revelation 12:7-9, who was cast down from heaven, a.k.a. ‘Satan’ and the ‘Devil...who deceives the whole earth’. So when both Adam and Eve ate off that tree, we are told: “the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew they were naked...” (Gen. 3:7). Prior to this ‘incident’, they knew no shame (Gen. 2:25), but now ...when they heard God’s voice as He walked through the cool of the day there in the garden, they...

  One of the many things we can give God credit for...is the fact that when He begins to deal with ‘sin and sinners’, He usually starts with His own people first. Before He pours out His wrath on all those ‘wordily sinners’, He first begins by calling out the sin in His own ‘camp’ (Joshua 7). When Israel continued to rebel against God’s law, they crossed a threshold and suffered the consequences for it, as the prophets of old warned would happen (Jeremiah, Isaiah, Ezekiel). God brought Babylon in to destroy the city and the temple before the people were taken into ‘captivity’ for 70 years. (Did you catch yesterday’s message, by chance?). Then, after those 70 years passed, God called His people out of Babylon because next on the list was Babylon itself who was going to suffer God’s wrath (Jer. 50-51). Interesting historical side note here- but less than 5% of those exiles in Babylon heeded God’s call to ‘come out’. I only share that because we read in Revelation 18:1-5 where Go...

  I’ve said it before and will say it again: God is not out to ‘get you’; But He did send Jesus to ‘get you’. (John 3:17-18) ...And what is so troublesome is many in the ‘church’ today...still don’t ‘get it’. “But if you will not hear it, My soul will weep in secret for your pride; My eyes will weep bitterly And run down with tears, Because the Lord’s flock has been taken captive.” (Jer. 13:17) Who...did Jeremiah say was ‘taken captive’? In the book of Isaiah, we read in chapter 5... a sobering passage that reveals how God deals with His ‘vineyard’, when He came looking for ‘good fruit’ but found only bad fruit (5:2-4). It says that God was going to ‘take away its hedge, and it shall be burned and trampled down’ (5). Then, in verse 7 we are told who this ‘vineyard’ represents – the ‘house of Israel’, which is oftentimes, a picture or ‘type’ of the church (God’s chosen people). Would you now please read vs. 13 aloud as we learn who are ‘taken into captivity’. Does your Bible say...

  God’s assessment of mankind: “They don’t know where to find peace... They have no fear of God at all.” (Rom. 3:17-19- NLT) So why do you suppose there is ‘no fear of God’ today? The answer is rather simple, or so I would think- the law has been lost, just as it was in the days of Josiah (2 Kings 21-23) When we are not taught the law of God, we can’t understand what ‘sin’ is. When we fail to understand what sin is, then we cannot comprehend God’s judgments. Where there is no understanding of judgment, then why would anyone grasp the concept of the ‘fear of God’? (would you allow a toddler to approach a cliffside if they have no concept of the ‘law of gravity’?) The fear of God is the beginning of knowledge. (Prov. 1:7) “My people...are destroyed for a lack of knowledge...” (Hosea 4:6) “Therefore My people...have gone into captivity because they have no knowledge.” (Isa 5:13) “Come...and I will teach you the fear of the Lord” (Ps. 34:11) “Obviously, the law applies to those to ...

  A few quotes made by Jesus- “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.” When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he already had been in that condition a long time, He said to him, “Do you want to be made well?” “You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me. But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life.” “...How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!” (Mark 2:17; John 5:6; John 5:40; Matt. 23:37) At the ‘end of the day’...as we like to say, when we’ve laid aside all the commentaries and devotionals and turned off all the devices that funnel countless voices into our heads; and when we have nothing else to add to our theological debates in an attempt to narrow the divide of our doctrinal differences, there really are only...

  “...And the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch.” (Acts 11:26) I’ve been saying this for years, that we in the ‘church’ would probably do well to let others (those on the outside)..refer to us as ‘Christians’ ('Christ-like')...instead of us publicly making that proclamation. And it has nothing to do with being ‘ashamed’ to make such an admission either. If we are a true follower of Jesus...we shouldn’t have to tell anyone; they will know! “By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” – Jesus (John 13:35) If you didn’t catch yesterday’s message, I beg you...please stop here and go read it now? I believe I mentioned recently in one of my previous posts that the boys (my twin grandsons) are at that age now where they want to do everything...’by myself’!. “I can do this Papa...I don’t need your help!”. And so I’m learning patience as I step back and wait a little bit...until they come to me and ask for my assistance, which ...

  I was ‘scrolling’ the other day through Instagram and came upon this reel that stopped me in my tracks. It’s shared from a secular point of view, but please...take your time with this and read through the transcript I've posted here:  (caution- 'steel-toed slippers' advised) -- We love to believe we are ‘good people’ because we’re kind to strangers. You can be kind to animals and kind to the delivery person who drops packages off at your house. You can be kind to every stranger who crosses your path. But the real test of character isn’t how you treat the barista or the cashier at the store. It’s how you speak to the people who live with the real you. Kindness to strangers is not the measure of our character. Kindness at home is the real test. Strangers don’t carry your history. Strangers don’t activate your wounds. Strangers don’t mirror the parts of you that you still haven’t dealt with or maybe have avoided for years. Your spouse does. Your kids do. Your home does. A...

  It’s one of those many verses...that can give you pause when you come across them as you read through the Bible. This one is found in Matthew 24 where Jesus had been asked by His disciples...”Tell us what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age” (3), (which Paul seems to suggest is ‘already upon us’ (1 Cor. 10:11). Jesus began with a serious and repeated warning to be on guard against widespread deception (4-5). He goes on to spell out other ‘signs’ that would be unfolding and how there would be much division as ‘nations would be pitted against nations’ as well as various kingdoms. (7). Interesting side note here, but that word ‘nation’ come from the same Greek word that we get ‘ethnicity’ from; just saying. But it’s the somber warning found in verse 19 that always catches my attention: “But woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days!” At first glance, you have to wonder what He is trying to convey here; does God have it...

  So which ‘besetting sin(s)’ in your life (Heb. 12:1) that you struggle with to overcome...have proven to be a formidable match for the power that is declared to be found in the name of Jesus, and in the power that comes through His shed blood? I only ask because Jesus seemed to suggest that we would ‘know the truth’ and that this ‘truth would set us free...from all sin’. (John 8:32-36) It's a fair question, honestly. And it’s one I have had to confront myself and come to terms with in recent years. Either God’s word is ‘truth’...and ‘works’...or we are just playing religious games, guilty of ‘walking in a form of godliness while denying the power’. (2 Tim. 3:5). Or is it possible that you were ‘sold a counterfeit’ gospel, as Paul warned might happen in 2 Cor. 11:3-4 ...where you would end up ‘receiving another spirit’...and even following ‘another Jesus’. The other alternatives to consider is that a person can still be ‘in the dark’ or ‘ignorant’ to the truth (Acts 26:18) wh...

    Ahh...those were the days...when I used to cut down trees and chop up my own firewood. It was hot, hard work that I found deeply satisfying. The place where we built our home back in Texas had a number of older oak trees, some I needed to remove before we poured our slab, and then others I thinned out over time. Whenever I did lay a tree down, I usually let it sit there for a week or two before I would start to split it and get the area cleaned up. And something that I witnessed on every occasion was when the tree was first cut down, most of the branches and the green leaves remained intact. It appeared to be a ‘living tree’ that was laying on its side. But one would notice after a few days...the leaves began to ‘wilt’; and the longer it laid there... the leaves turned brown as it became quite obvious...this tree was no longer ‘living’, for it had ‘died’ and was in the early stages of decaying. Never, in all the years of doing this, did a cut down tree continue living, ...

  If you have ever heard a car engine backfire, you know it’s abrupt and loud enough to send cats leaping vertically into the air, jolt sleeping babies awake, screaming, and cause soldiers who struggle with PTSD to ‘hit the deck’ cowering in fear. And if it’s something your car does, or maybe a close-by neighbor’s car...one hopes the problem is fixed sooner than later.  Suppose you do have a neighbor whose car develops this obnoxious problem and they apologize to you for its unruly disturbances, informing you they are taking it to a local garage the next day to have fixed. Then, a few days later while enjoying your first cup of coffee that morning, you hear that neighbor getting ready to leave out for work, or maybe to church and as they pull out of their driveway...there goes the loud explosion of their car backfiring once again. It causes you to recoil, spilling coffee down your front, as local dogs in the neighborhood begin barking loudly. Maybe it happens one more time...

  One of the great myths that usually get debunked early on for lots of young people, is this notion that if a person gets married...they will no longer struggle or ‘burn’ with sexual ‘lust’. Yes, Paul did write and say that if it was not your ‘gifting’ to remain single, and presumably ‘celibate’, then getting married was highly recommended because it was ‘better to marry than to burn with passion’ (1 Cor. 7:8-9). But let me say it again loud and clear: Marriage is not the ‘cure all’ when it comes to overcoming sexual lust. I should also point out here that simply growing older, where it can be normal for sexual desire to diminish over time due to lowering levels of testosterone and such, does not exempt one from battling with sexual lust, because there are plenty of ‘older men’, well in to their 70’s and 80’s, if not older...who are addicted to porn, or worse. It cannot be overstated enough...that we live in a world greatly influenced by wicked spirits of darkness and evil that ...

  You do realize that had God not given us this thing called ‘sexual desire’... the human race would have probably come to an abrupt end. And I don’t think I need to elaborate on this one point, do I? When God created man and woman, His first command to them was to “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth..” (Gen. 2:26-28) I’m not quite certain as to how this would have all played out prior to the ‘fall’, or if things would have been any different, but we do know that both Adam and Eve walked about ‘naked’ in the garden, which today might be ‘problematic’ for many of us. But something changed, and hence, the reason the first order of business after they ‘sinned’ was God put some clothes or coverings on them. (Gen.3:21). Welcome back to our series as we look at how Christians should deal with and regulate the satisfying of two legitimate physical needs we all have, the consuming of food and fulfilling sexual desires. As we discussed previously, it is quite possible that when we ...

  If you don’t believe that ‘spirits’ can become attached to simple physical needs and appetites (that are God-given), then you are choosing ignorance and darkness over truth and light. (John 3:19-20) Have you never watched shows that focused on ‘eating disorders’, highlighting the journeys of people who mask past wounds by piling on weight by the hundreds of pounds (my 600-pound Life); or listened to the testimonies of women who suffer from ‘Anorexia’ and all they see ...when they look at their ‘skin and bone bodies’ in a mirror...is a ‘fat person’? And for the life of me, I don’t even want to know how...or why any human could find ‘sexual fulfillment’ by engaging in ‘sexual activities’ with young children, or babies...and yes...even animals; but there is no shortage of people who do. I also have a hard time believing that an adult just wakes up one morning and begins to engage in such activities on a whim. There usually is a ‘story’ behind such activity that leads to such despi...

  “All that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.” (1 John 2:16-17) Have you ever heard that expression before, the ‘lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life’? It is pretty much the gateway to sin and yes...a door for a ‘spiritual enemy’ we hear much about in scripture who we are told to ‘resist’ and to ‘give no place to’ (Eph. 4:27; James 4:7). And if we don’t deal with him...and ‘the sin that can so easily ensnare us’ (Heb. 12:1), then things won’t bode well for us (John 5:14; Matt. 12:43-45; Luke 13:3,5). Those were the three ‘windows’ through which the serpent tempted Eve back in the garden (Gen. 3:1-5) when she yielded to it and ate from that tree (Gen. 2:17); and it is the three areas in which Jesus was tempted by the devil...and He resisted on all accounts (Luke 4:1-13)...