Sheep Food

  God said to Adam: “In the day that you eat off that tree, you will surely die.” (Gen. 2:17) The serpent said (to both Adam and Eve): “You can eat off that tree and you will surely NOT die.” (Gen. 3:4) So…which gospel did they believe? We were told long ago that “the time would come when people will no longer endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires…because they have itching ears…they will gather around for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables/myths.” (2 Tim. 4:3-4)  I hope that you gave some serious thought to the message I shared here yesterday, pertaining to how we can respond to God’s word…which is dependent on the condition of our own hearts. I think one of the more heart-revealing places we can come to is when we recognize it’s possible that we can actually love various teachings derived from God’s word… more than we love God Himself. Hence, the ‘test’ I put forth here occasionally when I...

  I’m not apologizing for what can be perceived as a ‘somber tone’ to my messages here of late, but I would like to at least offer up a simple explanation as to what is behind them. While not directly affected by the news of spreading wildfires (in southern CA), it’s no secret that they occur out here on a regular basis, usually as a result of strong winds and dry conditions. Can you imagine being on the firefighting crews that go into endangered neighborhoods and are helping with the ordered evacuations, only to be told by local residents to mind your own business as they are tired of hearing so much ‘bad news’? “Can’t you find something that is pleasant and comforting to tell us about? Why all the doom and gloom about spreading flames?” Yeah…God’s people had similar things to say when Isaiah came preaching to them as well. (Isaiah 30:8-15) Did you know in one place, God refers to His people as being ‘stupid/foolish’ (Jer. 4:22), and that they didn’t even ‘know or recognize the j...

  I can only wonder…how many times over the ages has God just looked down at us from heaven, shaking His head in dismay …and asked such questions as these: “Why don’t My people take Me seriously? Why don’t they believe My word? Why do they always go astray in their hearts and refuse to obey Me?” We have it on record in some of the oldest written documents where God expressed His heart’s desire when He declared: “Oh, that they had such a heart in them that they would fear Me and always keep all My commandments, that it might be well with them and with their children forever.” (Deut. 5:29). So when I suggest that God would ask why we don’t take Him ‘seriously’…may I remind you again, where He included in the second commandment that He is ‘jealous’ for our hearts… and is known to ‘visit the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations…’ (Deut. 5:9). But He was also quick to include how He is willing and ready to “show mercy to thousands, to those who...

  I know…you probably had some questions yesterday after reading my message about ‘inheriting’ unwanted or undesirable ‘things’ from your ancestors. I get it; especially when it comes to this idea of ‘generational curses’ that can be ‘passed down’, as Deut. 5:9 suggest… (found in Commandment #2). You probably thought that after you turned to Jesus and confessed your sins, followed up by water baptism for the remission of sins…that your slate was now clean and your sins were ‘as white as snow’. Guess what? You were cleansed, and all your past sins were forgiven, just as the Bible teaches us. But let us also remember that as you begin this new walk of repentance, surrendering your heart/will to Jesus to be led by His Spirit for the ongoing work of ‘sanctification…there is still some ‘work’ to be done in us all (Rom. 8:29). And also…we’re not here trying to debate whether one is ‘saved’ or not at this time. IF…you are abiding in Christ, you are saved, you are being saved, and you...

  Let’s make a deal up front here, that if you read anything in this lesson today that seems unclear, or you are just ‘not seeing it’ at first, do us both a favor- just set it aside, maybe place it on a ‘mental shelf’ somewhere, and give it some time. If there is any truth here to grasp and be received, I’m totally confident that God is more than able and willing to ‘confirm’ His word to you. (Mark 16:2; 2 Tim. 2:7). One nice thing about ‘growing in knowledge’ when it comes to God’s truths, is we don’t have to force or ‘make it happen’. I only suggest this from experience; also because this topic is still one I’m learning more about, and I don’t want to be guilty of muddying the waters and confusing anyone, since we are going to be talking about ‘generational curses’. One of the things we learn about God early on after He gives the 10 Commandments to His people, is that He is a ‘jealous God’, as in jealous for our hearts. Hence, the added clause found in the 2nd commandment: “For ...

  I had it on my mind the other day to wade into a topic here that I think many of us would be interested in learning more about, and it has to do with ‘generational curses’ that can be passed down through family lines. I always feel a tad hesitant to touch on this topic, because I feel like I still have much to learn; and if I’m going to teach on it, I better have a firm, scriptural understanding as to what we are even talking about, before I attempt to explain it to anyone else. But before I address this idea that the ‘sins of the forefathers can be passed down to the 3rd and 4th generation of those who hate God’ (Deut. 5:9-10), I was feeling compelled to first address this idea of what it means to be ‘sanctified’, or what we refer to as: ‘sanctification’. Then, as I was all set to tackle that subject, I was ‘moved upon’ yesterday to first address the topic of ‘slave mentality’, which is what yesterday’s message focused on; I hope you were able to read it and are caught up her...

  I don’t know anyone who calls themselves a ‘Christian’…who believes or suggests that God has taken a ‘laid back approach to sin’, or that it’s no big deal for ‘Christians’ to sin… because God is cool with it knowing…that ‘sinners are gonna sin’. You know, this idea that there’s enough ‘grace and mercy to go around’ since Jesus ‘paid the price for all’ when He shed His blood on the cross on our behalf. But it has been my observation over the years, that many sincere folks in the ‘church world’ spend more time and effort excusing, dismissing, or downplaying the seriousness of their ongoing tendency to sin…than they do overcoming it once and for all. And I’ve come to understand the reason why this is: it has to do with having a ‘slave mentality’. What does it mean to have a ‘slave mentality’? That’s simple: It means a person who is a slave is going to think like a slave, as they live like a slave…because they are a slave, having been told most of their lives that they are a ‘slav...

  Listen to these words spoken by Jesus…and please read them slowly… “For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world…but that the world through Him might be saved…” Then, He goes on to clarify that ‘those who do not believe in Him…are already condemned.’ (John 3:17-18) We then read in Luke’s gospel where Jesus was reminding His followers…”The Son of Man did not come to destroy men’s lives but to save them.” (9:56) When Jesus first arrived on the scene, it became apparent to many that He was the ‘One’ whom the prophets of old had foretold of His coming…the ‘Dayspring from on high who visited us…to give light to those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.” (Luke 1:78-79). Would you please underline that part in your Bible that says: ‘to guide our feet in the way of peace’. Matthew’s gospel cites the writings of Isaiah, commenting on how “the people who sat in darkness have seen a great light…and how the ‘light has daw...

  Did you know that when we have unresolved sin issues in our life, our first tendency is NOT… to run to God; on the contrary, we tend to go in the other direction, which would be opposite from the ‘light’. Do you remember what Adam and Eve did after they ate off that one tree they were told not to eat from, and then they heard God’s voice calling for them? They ran and hid in some trees or bushes. (Gen. 3:8). They ‘saw their nakedness…and were afraid’. When Peter had his first personal encounter with Jesus, what was his response? He fell to his knees begging Jesus to depart from him for he was a sinful man. (Luke 5:8) Sin has a way of doing that…driving a wedge between us and God. In fact, we are told that it is our sins that ‘separate us from God’ (Isa. 59:2). So if/when we do sin, it does indeed bring a ‘barrier’ of sorts as our heart becomes conflicted, unsure as to what to do in those moments after we commit a transgression. Think in terms of getting a bee sting or a bug b...

  “Let your gentleness be known to all men. The Lord is at hand.” (Phil. 4:5) When it says that our gentleness should be known or be evident to ‘all men/people’, that would include those who are closest to us, who spend the most time around us, and who see us the most often. It goes on to admonish us: “Be anxious for nothing.” (6) When it says “ be anxious for ‘nothing’…”, there is no footnote in my Bible that makes an exception, suggesting it’s okay to be anxious for things like who’s trailing in political elections, or if a Muslim family moves into your neighborhood, or if oil prices spike again, or your favorite sports team gets upset over the weekend. Yes, that list could get rather lengthy here, could it not, when it comes to talking about things that make us ‘anxious’? Why, you could even show up at the wrong airport to catch an important flight home, only to be informed you are at the wrong airport in the wrong city, with less than 90 minutes to get to the airport you are ...

  If we take the time to genuinely ask ourselves: “Am I truly abiding in Christ?”… which is a far more important question to ask than ‘am I saved or not’…then how do we even know where to start, when it comes to assessing the answer to that question? The same could be said when it comes to taking Paul’s advice to heart, that we ‘examine ourselves to see if we are even in the faith…and if Christ is in us…lest we fail the test’ (2 Cor. 13:5). Certainly ‘comparing ourselves with others’ is not the wisest way to evaluate, I hope we could all agree on. So why not use God’s word as a ‘mirror’ of sorts, to see how we ‘line up’? Jesus gave a pretty good benchmark where ‘all would know’ whether we were His followers or not…’by the love we have/demonstrate for one another’, in John 13:34-35. And while that word ‘love’ can be quickly diluted in our modern day culture where that word gets tossed around to describe how we ‘love God’ or ‘love pancakes’…1 Cor. 13:1-8 gives us a nice descripti...

  So in conclusion…to our little discussion on the topic of ‘once saved-always saved’ that we touched on the past two days here…or as some folks like to debate- ‘can a person lose their salvation…or not?’…I’m reminded of a framed cartoon/sketch my dad, (who was a dentist) had in his office for years. The picture is of a dentist standing on a dental chair in the clinic with pieces of plaster laying all over the chair and floor. The bewildered dentist is sticking his head through a hole in the ceiling and asks: “Did I hit a nerve?” :- ). I have to wonder at times if when Jesus ran into opposition from the ‘religious experts’ of His day, usually in response to things He was teaching, if not doing…was He was ever tempted to ask: “Did I touch someone’s ‘golden calf’?” Church doctrines can become that to us if we are not careful; and usually it is the word of God itself that causes those ‘defensive impulses’ to rise up within us. Personally speaking…I have no issue with anyone if you be...