Sheep Food

  To hear some folks explain it, you would think that God’s ‘grace’ is something akin to a pair of ‘rose colored glasses’ that God wears when He looks down on us in our sinful state, but instead of seeing our wretched sinfulness, He sees the ‘finished work of Jesus on the cross’, and therefore withholds judgment on us; that is...if we have ‘accepted Christ as our personal lord and savior’. No wonder God likens us as ‘sheep’, adding that His people are ‘destroyed for a lack of knowledge’ (Hosea 4:6). And it was for good reason that Paul expressed serious concerns for us NT ‘believers’ that we could be easily deceived as Eve was by the serpent...and end up following ‘another Jesus’ while receiving ‘another gospel and spirit’ (2 Cor. 11:3-4). I asked the other day how you might explain ‘grace’ to a young child where they could understand it. How’s that coming up with an explanation going for you? May I offer some assistance which I’m happy to do? I sure didn’t come up with this on ...

  I’m not sure that I personally know people, other ‘believers’ per say, who honestly think that because they are a ‘Christian’ and are ‘saved by grace’...that they in turn can continue to go out and willfully sin, yet have no worries or concerns because ‘God’s grace has their backs’. But that’s not to say that such people don’t exist today. We read in the book of Jude where certain people would ‘creep in unnoticed’ and introduce heresies to suggest such a thing, twisting the message of grace as a license to sin (1:4). Yes, Paul was good to explain that while ‘sin might abound, grace does much more abound’ (Rom. 5:20-21), but he quickly nips the lingering next question in the bud by clarifying this does not mean we can continue to sin and expect grace to cover us (Rom. 6:1). He even asks a rather profound question: “How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?” (Rom. 6:2). He goes on to explain in that same chapter why that is an absurd thought given the fact we have been ...

  Can you imagine the confusion...the frustration, the anger and eventual rejection a child might experience if raised by parents who place unreasonable demands and near impossible expectations upon them to live up to ...in order to gain their love and approval? Suppose a child with severe learning challenges, and who struggles to read is punished because they don’t bring home ‘straight A’s’. How many dads out there have wanted their sons or daughters to excel in any variety of sports at skill levels few ever achieve? Or what's a young man who is only 5’3” do if he was told that he better learn to ‘slam dunk’ a basketball if he had any hopes of continuing to live at home and be provided for during his high school years?  I know...crazy extreme examples here I’m using; but how about one more? A father wants his child to be able to ‘fly’ and forces him to ‘flap his arms’ before pushing him off the roof of his house. What kind of a sick parent places such demands on their chil...

  George Carlin was a well-known comedian back in the ‘70’s who did a piece on the "7 Dirty Words you cannot say on TV"; and to hear many professing 'Christians' chime in these days, you might wonder if they think George should have included an 8th word, ‘obey’. When and how did the word ‘o-b-e-y’ become such an inappropriate word to be taken seriously by all those ‘believers’ who claim to be ‘saved by faith through grace, and not of works, lest anyone should boast’? (Eph. 2:8-9). To hear some explain it, obedience equates with ‘legalism’ which automatically throws you into the category of Pharisees and other ‘religions’ where the multitudes think they can ‘save themselves’ by their ‘good deeds and works’. God made it known through Samuel long ago: “Does the Lord have as much delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than a sacrifice, And to pay attention is better than the fat of rams.” (1 Sam. 15:22) Wh...

  Two common mistakes made by many professing believers today is taking a single scripture or two out of context, and then placing all their ‘theological eggs’ into that one ‘basket of belief’... which can lead to flimsy man-made doctrines. This is usually done at the expense of dismissing the rest of God’s word/commandments; which dovetails into the second mistake, and that is where we come across those handful of verses that don’t ‘fit’ into our basket of beliefs; so we toss them out or lay them aside. Jesus pointed out how the Pharisees had a habit of doing that in Mark 7:1-13. So when you hear me or others quote Matt. 7:21 on a regular basis, it leads to that second most important question that we believers need to be asking ourselves. The verse, of course contains the statement made by Jesus where He assures us that “Not everyone who says, ‘Lord, Lord’, shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but those who do the will of the Father in heaven.” And that second question we need to...

  “Is Lordship just an ‘option’ for those who profess that Jesus is their ‘personal Savior’?” In other words, is it really possible to claim Jesus as your ‘Savior’ (meaning your eternal destiny in heaven is a done deal)...without fully surrendering your heart to His Lordship? If you don’t pause and find yourself struggling with this question, regardless of how you are inclined to answer it...then you might want to take an even longer pause and examine your heart to see if you are even ‘in the faith’...and ‘if Christ Jesus is in you’? (2 Cor. 13:5) That really is a tough question we all need to be asking ourselves. It’s not like we are purchasing a new appliance to take home and call our own, but opt out of buying the ‘extended warranty protection plan’, given how pricey it can be. If you were quick to affirm that Jesus is your ‘Savior’ and that your ‘place in heaven is secure’, but you view surrendering to His lordship over your life as some ‘holy option’ or perhaps some worthwhil...

  “And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.” (Jer. 29:13) “God did this (made the world and all that was in it and determined the times and places we would live)... so that we would seek Him and perhaps reach out for Him and find Him, though He is not far from any one of us.” (Acts 17:27) My confidence in God has grown over the years...assured that He knows where we are at, and He knows how to find us...as well as being able to ‘direct our steps’ so that we in turn...find Him. This whole ‘seeking and finding God’ deal is a two-way street. “The eyes of the Lord search the whole earth in order to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to Him” (2 Chron. 16:9)....and “ the Son of Man came to seek... and to save the lost.” (Luke 19:10) I suppose the real question at hand is ...how badly do we want to find Him? Not everyone does, you know- (John 3:19-21; Mark 5:17). There is no shortage of folks who would tell you they ‘believe in Him’......

  I’m curious...did your Bible come with this phrase [No Action Required] stamped across it? I see that wording used occasionally, usually when I get an email notifying me that my banking institution (or something similar) detected a ‘log on from a new device’...and if that was me, then ‘no further actions is required’. So the reason I ask is because there seems to be a lot of ‘Christian theology’ that suggests that all one ‘must do to be saved’...is ‘believe’; and no further action is needed. But you’ll usually hear the quick qualifying statement added on suggesting that if one ‘really believes, it will produce positive action’; or something similar to that. It's quite amazing how many verses we read in our beloved Bibles that actually suggest, imply, and even command or call us... to ‘action’; as if it is not even an option. And yet, the minute anyone tries to point such verses out, you’ll most likely hear cries of: ‘that’s legalism’...or... ‘we’re not saved by works!’ When ...

  They say ‘hindsight is 20/20’. The only catch is that we don’t have that luxury of going back and doing things over again, in most cases. But that doesn’t stop us though from having those moments when we do look back and wonder ‘what if’...we had handled that situation differently, or spent more time exploring those options before we made that less than desirable choice we made. If you are not careful, you can get ensnared with spending too much time looking back, instead of forward. I suppose that is why Paul exhorts us to ‘forget those things that are behind...and press on toward the goal for the price found in Christ Jesus...’ (Phil. 3:13-14) I have wondered on more than one occasion how things might have played out back in the garden, had Adam and Eve handled that situation differently after they ate off the tree and their eyes were ‘opened’; and instead of hiding to cover up their shame and nakedness, what if they had run to God immediately when they heard His voice and co...

  God has been known to do things and say things, (or refrain from doing and saying things)... at the risk of being misunderstood by His creation. But who are we to try and ‘call Him out’ for what can often strike us as ‘PR blunders’ on His part? Are not His ways above our ways, and His thoughts above ours? (Isa. 55:8-9) Should the ‘clay be correcting the potter’? (Rom. 9:19-21). Does God not claim to ‘use the foolish things of this world to confound the wise? (1 Cor. 1:27) I often come across passages and stories in my Bible that leave me scratching my head and mumbling lame statements of admission that I ‘don’t get it’. But that’s just me. So when I read those examples where God seemingly refuses to extend mercy and forgiveness to someone who appears to be ‘repenting’...I have to defer to the One who does not look at people as we do, on their exterior...but looks at their hearts. (1 Sam. 16:7) There’s a reference in Heb. 12:17 about how Esau ‘found no place for repentance t...

  Have you ever read the parable of the two sons, as told by Jesus in Matt. 21:28-32? Take a moment and do that now, if you would. It tells of a father who had two sons, both of which he asked to go work in his vineyard. The first son refused, but then had a change of heart and did what was asked of him. The second son assured his father that he would indeed go and do what he asked, but then changed his mind and failed to follow through. That’s when Jesus asked: “Which of the two did the will of his father?” (31). You might jot down Matt. 7:21 next to that passage; I bet you have that one memorized by now? So picking up where we left off yesterday in 1 Samuel 15... For whatever his reasons, King Saul did not fully comply with God’s wishes, which we concluded in yesterday’s message. He spared the king of Amelek, from what we read there, along with some choice livestock.(9). Can I just tell you now that God was not pleased?!  (We’ve been studying this past week the differe...

  Dog ownership comes with responsibilities. Among those are cleaning up after them when they poop, be it after a walk through your neighborhood, a city park, and even in your own backyard. If you’ve lived in the country for any length of time, it takes a bit of getting use to when you move into town and have a dog that needs to ‘empty’ itself on a daily basis, sometimes more than once a day. And if you have a backyard...where small children play in, it becomes a factor. Trust me. If you were to bring your children over to my grandsons’ house to play in their backyard, maybe run around barefoot in a swimsuit around the ‘kiddie’ pool, I might tell you before we sent them out that I needed to go and ‘clean up’ the poop piles the dog had deposited. No doubt you would appreciate my efforts to clean the area up. Perhaps you watch from the window or porch as I take my little paper baggie or scoop shovel and begin cleaning the area up, but you notice there’s a pile I missed, despite gi...

  When you choose to please God above all others, that does not give you license to go out with a chip on your shoulder and a haughty attitude where you try to irritate and offend people...just to prove a point. We all know the kind of people I’m talking about. We are admonished to ‘speak the truth in love’ (Eph. 4:15), and when correcting others who are in error...do so with a ‘spirit of meekness, considering ourselves lest we are also tempted’ (Gal. 6:1) There will never be a shortage of people, especially ‘religious’ folks...who will take exception to what God has to say and be offended by His word. We see that repeatedly throughout the gospels when Jesus spoke the word, as with His followers in the Book of Acts. Speaking from personal experience, I can assure you this is an area that anyone who shares the gospel of Jesus Christ on a regular basis has to watch their attitude carefully, and examine heart motives. We are not here to ‘win battles and prove points’; on the contra...