Sheep Food

  Here’s a great topic to start your Monday off with: The Wrath...of God.   It has such an ominous tone to it, does it not?   I’m going to go out on a limb here and suggest that if 100 local churches met yesterday for service, I would hardly think this topic was the main subject that came across the pulpits, if any of them. And I get why, I really do.   Imagine being the pastor of a local congregation ....and you only have these folks once, maybe twice a week for about 30-45 minutes. Everyone is coming from different ‘places’, dealing with different challenges, and most I would guess are needing to hear something they can latch on to that offers them some hope and encouragement. Who got time to hear about God’s wrath? And if there is a lack of true understanding as to what the wrath of God is, even maybe asking why it is even relevant to us today, then trying to explain it in 40 minutes without laying some serious groundwork is a futile effort, to s...

  I hope you spent some time studying and reflecting on what we waded in to yesterday. It has been my own personal experience to realize that sometimes ‘truth’ has to go through layers of ‘untruth’ before it really registers. And it needs to be heard and repeated often. I remember years ago, when finishing up my schooling in education, being told that the average child needs to hear a ‘truth’ seven times before they can take ownership of it. And if they were taught a principal in error, it takes twice as many times hearing that truth in order to ‘unlearn the false premise’ before they grasp the truth. That’s what I heard, at least, but I can see how that applies when it comes to wading through all the doctrines and traditions of men that gets taught as God’s word. Jesus had a few things to say about that as well. (Mark 7:5-16)    We sure do live in interesting times, do we not? One can easily say they just focus on the good and ‘light’, while others, all they can s...

  Given all the things we hope for and do for our kids wanting nothing but the best for them, you would think for many of us, desiring God’s blessings of protection, provision, and guidance over their lives would be on the top of that list. Am I right or am I wrong?   And let me tell you now...that desire is increased ten-fold when grandkids come in to the picture. :- )   Would you ever want to be guilty of causing God to neglect or ‘forget’ those kids...and grandkids of yours? I doubt it. So ....what did you think about last part of that verse I left you with yesterday in Hosea 4:6? Did you go underline it? Who would want to be guilty of provoking God to ‘forget your children?’ (I’ll wait while you go look it up one more time)   Here’s one for discussion at the dinner table later...Many professing believers seem to agree that the Ten Commandments are good and worthy of being posted in our schools and government buildings. I don’t hear people ...

  If you have conceptualized and fashioned your own ‘form of Jesus’- making Him out the way You think He should be, at the expense of dismissing so many of the things we have recorded that He said, then there is the possibility that you may be following ‘another Jesus’. You may have even ‘received another spirit’ which was the result of receiving ‘another gospel’. (2 Cor. 11:2-4). Paul warned this could happen there in his second letter to the Corinthians.   That’s not hard to do when you ‘pick and choose’ the verses that are more palatable to you and easier on the flesh. And when we do that, which we all have at some point in time, then we are guilty of doing what those early Israelites did when they got out in the wilderness and took gold and fashioned an image in the form of a beast/calf. (Exodus 32). The people were so deceived that they began to worship it claiming it was their ‘god’ who saved them. That was not a good day.   You might be quick to say y...

  “Go, and sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon you.” - Jesus (John 5:14)  “If you live according to the flesh, you will die.” -Paul (Rom. 8:13)  “Those who practice such things [evident deeds of the flesh] will not inherit the kingdom of God”. (Gal. 5:19-21) “…for in the day that you eat off that tree, you shall surely die.” -God (Gen. 2:17)  “Has God indeed said…?” -serpent/Satan (Gen. 3:1)   Has. God. Said. ?   Those three words …asked of Eve by the serpent are significant. He presents that question and ensuing line of thought to us every day. Did God really say that? Is that what it really means? How serious is God when He says stuff like that? Surely God did not mean that!   “C’mon Flick, I triple-dog dare you to stick your tongue on that flag pole!” (Scene from old classic movie A Christmas Story)   “Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren.” (James 1:16).   Is it possible for ‘brethren’ to be deceiv...

  Give. No. Place. To. The. Devil. (Eph. 4:27)   Can’t get much more straight-forward than that as Paul penned those words to the Ephesians (and to us as well).  I don’t even think you have to be some educated theologian to really understand that either. I suppose it could get complicated in trying to explain if you don’t believe such an entity, like the devil, even exist. But there it is: We better not ‘give place’ to him. Which means, we could. The answer as to ‘why’ we better not is clear: we know what his intent is:. (John 10:10; 1 Pet. 5:8)   So how do we do that…give place to him?   And who is he again…exactly? Oh yeah…Peter said he was our ‘enemy’. (1 Pet. 5:8). Both he and James advised us to ‘resist him’. (5:9; James 4:7).   Paul said it was these demonic forces that we ‘war against’, not flesh and blood. (Eph. 6:12). Paul also writes that we should be fully aware of his tactics and schemes. (2 Cor. 2:11; Eph. 6:11)  ...

  Is it really a war if one side doesn’t show up to fight or defend? Asking for a friend ;- ) …as we now continue on from yesterday.   Paul was pretty specific there (2 Cor. 10:3-5)…when he points out that these ‘weapons’ that God provides are not carnal or fleshly. And we don’t…engage in warfare in the same manner in which we do in the natural realm, whether you are waring against hostile nations, or …a cranky neighbor or relative or co-worker at the office.   Paul also adds that these weapons are ‘mighty’, meaning…they work effectively. Might be a good idea to learn how to use them given the fact we are in the middle of war zone whether you want to believe that or not.   I don’t think we can repeat this reminder enough either that “ we are not struggling against human beings, but against the rulers, authorities and cosmic powers governing this darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realm.” (Eph. 6:12)   It can be e...