September 20, 2016

"After this Jesus went away to the other side of the Sea of Galilee (also called the Sea of Tiberias). A large crowd was following him because they were observing the miraculous signs he was performing on the sick. So Jesus went on up the mountainside and sat down there with his disciples. (Now the Jewish feast of the Passover was near.) Then Jesus, when he looked up and saw that a large crowd was coming to him, said to Philip, “Where can we buy bread so that these people may eat?” (Now Jesus said this to test him, for he knew what he was going to do.) Philip replied, “Two hundred silver coins worth of bread would not be enough for them, for each one to get a little.” One of Jesus’ disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to him, “Here is a boy who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what good are these for so many people?” Jesus said, “Have the people sit down.” (Now there was a lot of grass in that place.) So the men sat down, about five thousand in number. Then Jesus took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed the bread to those who were seated. He then did the same with the fish, as much as they wanted. When they were all satisfied, Jesus said to his disciples, “Gather up the broken pieces that are left over, so that nothing is wasted.” So they gathered them up and filled twelve baskets with broken pieces from the five barley loaves left over by the people who had eaten." John 6:1-13

Who doesn't like a miracle?

One of the reasons we like a miracle is because there are times you need a miracle.

That's exactly the point at which miracles happen - when there is a need!

Here's a little project for you, get your Bible and search it to find a time in the Old Testament or the New Testament when a miracle happened in the absence of a need.

While we love miracles we hate being needy. Do you see a problem developing here?

Unless we are willing to suffer with needs we will never see God move in miraculous ways.

In this well-known and beloved story of the Feeding of the 5,000 miracle we see this truth illustrated. Obviously, there was a great need! Upwards of 20,000 people when you factor in the women and children in Jesus' audience and they were all very hungry!

Even if there had been a McDonald's nearby or a food truck parked at the scene, feeding that many people would have been a major project! But there were all those hungry people and no food in sight!

That sounds like a great need to me!

My friend, John Maxwell summarizes the pattern for a miracle as this: "When there is a need that is sensed by a few and each individual understands his responsibility and gives his best regardless of the odds then God can do a miracle and meet the need."

Think about it. As a parent don't you find joy and satisfaction in providing something your children need that they could never get on their own?

Where do you think that desire came from? Could it be evidence of God's image placed within your psyche at Creation?

I think so!

"Brad, it sounds like you are saying we don't see more miracles because we don't like to admit we are needy."

Thanks for paying attention!

If there is no recorded incident of a miracle happening in the absence of a need then you can conclude that where there is no recognition of a need there is no miraculous deed that is done.

Let me say it again, "Where there is no need there is no miracle!"

Perhaps you needed to hear this!

Maybe you didn't realize that rather than being disgraced by your neediness you need to embrace it and entrust it to Him!

No need, no miracle!

So, if you have a need you are a candidate for a miracle!

September 19, 2016

"Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you." James 4:7

What would the world give for a workable peace plan? If someone had a way to convince nations to lay down arms and begin working together to solve poverty and disease, how would that be celebrated?

James gives such a strategy. It involves three simple steps. Anyone could wage peace with this plan. And since world peace must happen from the inside out, this plan is the only one that has a chance to succeed.

Step One: "submit"

What does it mean to submit? How does this accomplish peace?

To submit means to bring yourself into alignment with God's will. Lining up with God's will requires that you surrender your will. Give up on your dreams and your ambitions. Stop trying sell God on your agenda and surrender to His. Sign up to serve Him and live to accomplish His purposes. Receive His Kingdom into your heart and crown Him King. When you get God you also get His peace and His power and His purity.

Step Two: "stand"

When you surrender to God you stand against the devil. Because God is resident in your life with all His power, purity and peace the enemy has no authority over you and no weapon that can harm you. He can threaten and intimidate but cannot touch you. The only reason he can do any damage to you is because he has infiltrated your nature with a sinful desires and a selfish will. But submitting to God transforms that nature and changes that will. Therein is the peace!

Step Three: "see what God will do"

John declares in one of his epistles, "greater is He who is in you than he that is in the world"! Once you have won the war within, you can trust that God will work through you to win the wars waged against you! When you recall the great victories of God in the Old Testament, most of the were won without His people having to fight! Once they got right with God, He made things right around them. The key to transforming your world is allowing God to transform you!

Are you ready for peace?

Stop warring against God!

Line up with His will, stand against evil and see what He will do!

September 18, 2016

"He that has ears to hear, let him hear"' Matthew 11:15

Let me ask you a question. "If the Word of God fell near you in the woods, would you hear it?"

This variation of the "if a tree fell in the woods" question actually has a serious point. It is very important to learn to listen to God. I am sure you would agree. But do you know how to listen to God?

Hear what God says.

Read His Word and listen for His voice. Spending regular time reading and studying the Bible is a primary way of hearing God speak.

Listen to the preaching of the Word and the teaching of the Word on a frequent basis.

Romans 10:17 says, "Faith comes by hearing and hearing through the Word of God."

God's Word is the only way to build a life on a foundation of truth. But that is only possible if you are hearing it.

Hear what God says to you.

As important as it is to hear the truth of God's Word, it is even more important to hear the truth specifically applied to your life and your situation.  That is the function of the Holy Spirit and the purpose of the Word.

Hear what God says you should do.

James says, "But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves." James 1:22

When Jesus prefaced His teachings with, "He that has hears to hear, let Him hear" He is not just suggesting they listen, He is telling them to hear it AND obey what it specifically says to them!

If listening to God doesn't result in living for God then you haven't really heard His Word. Listening to God involves hearing what He says, hearing what He says to you, and hearing what you should do - and then doing it!

Are you listening to God?

September 17, 2016

^"Make every effort to live in peace with everyone and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord."   Hebrews 12:14

Holiness matters. Erwin Lutzer, Pastor of Moody Church in Chicago shared this sobering fact:

Addressing a national seminar of Southern Baptist leaders, George Gallup said, "We find there is very little difference in ethical behavior between churchgoers and those who are not active religiously...The levels of lying, cheating, and stealing are remarkable similar in both groups. Eight out of ten Americans consider themselves Christians, Gallup said, yet only about half of them could identify the person who gave the Sermon on the Mount, and fewer still could recall five of the Ten Commandments. Only two in ten said they would be willing to suffer for their faith."   

You don't have to have a strong understanding of holiness to know that isn't it. Obviously, there is a "holiness gap" among those who populate the churches of America.

So, what is holiness and what difference does it make?

In one word, holiness is "love". In two words, holiness is "perfect love". Holiness is "wholly" loving God and loving others in the same way you love yourself. Holiness is finding peace with God and earnestly seeking to be a peacemaker in your world. The best way to make peace is to connect people with Jesus, the Prince of Peace. Holiness promotes peace by responding to evil with goodness and by responding to hatred with love.

Holiness is difficult. It results from sanctification. Sanctification means "being set apart" and it can mean "made pure". There are two definitions because one denotes your responsibility - to set yourself apart unto God - and His part - to make you morally pure and spiritually holy.

To be made pure and holy is bound to make a difference! And it does! Consider some of the important difference:

1) You see God more clearly.

Holiness brings the fullness of the Holy Spirit! The Holy Spirit is the "Spirit of Truth" Who Jesus promised would "lead you into all truth"! Being made pure and filled by His Spirit enables you to see God with more clarity. Not only will you see Him more clearly but you will see His will with greater clarity. And, you will see the world around you more clearly. Holiness connects you to a new reality - spiritual reality - an eternal reality. That is the essence of faith - "the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen." God gives you spiritual eyes with the vision to see spiritual realities in the midst of a dark and fallen world. Coming into a knowledge of what is real radically changes how you live in this world and that can cause you to change the world in which you live.

Have you been filled with His Spirit?

2) You see God eternally.

Holy people get to go to Heaven where they will get to see God not just by faith - but face to face forever! Have you been made holy?

3) God is seen in you more clearly.

Jesus said, "If I be lifted up I will draw all men to myself". A loving Jesus demonstrated throught the life of a holy person makes God almost irresistable. Think about it, every one who claims to be a Christian either makes it easier to believe in God OR makes it more difficult to believe just by the witness of their life. Holy people make Christianity contagious.

What about your witness? Are people seeing Jesus in your attitudes and actions?

With holiness you shall see God! With holiness God will be seen in you!

Holiness is hard, but it is even harder trying to be a victorious Christian without it! 

September 16, 2016

"Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment" Hebrews 9:27

You are familiar with the old truism that only two things are for sure - death and taxes. I suppose if you are in a certain income bracket and can find enough deductions and a good accountant, you might possible avoid your tax liability. However, there is no way to escape dying.

With that in mind I want to share with you four mostly commonly held ideas within our culture.

1) Soul Sleep

2) Reincarnation

3) Annihilation

4) Heaven or Hell

Soul sleep is a position held primarily by members of the Seventh Day Adventists or the Jehovah's Witnesses.

The proponents of the soul sleep position have two premises. First, they hold that at death the soul does not leave the body; both soul and body sleep until the Day of Christ’s return. Second, they teach that the soul has no consciousness as it sleeps; it is aware of nothing. What is the basis for these two premises? They base their argument primarily on passages that speak of death as sleep (or unconsciousness) and passages that speak of bodies awakening on the Last Day.

Proponents of this view hang their position on three verses that refer to death as sleep, but the word used in the Greek for sleep is taken figuratively every other time it is used. The vast evidence of Scripture clearly implies that at death there is a separation of the soul and the body.

The death of Jesus illustrates that the soul departs the body at death. Ephesians seems to indicate that upon His death Jesus went to the lower regions since he died as a sinner and his body was sealed in a tomb guarded by Roman soldiers.

Reincarnation originates in Eastern religions and teaches that life recycles into another form until it finally is able to rid itself of bad karma and merge into nirvana with the cosmic consciousness. In Western thought, the soul is thought to evolve to a higher or lower life form based on how you behaved during this reincarnation.

The writer of Hebrews speaks directly to any notion of reincarnation when he states flatly "it is appointed unto man ONCE to die and after that the judgment"

I am not sure where the idea of annihilation comes from. We believe the Bible clearly teaches that once life begins at conception that life is eternal. Though it changes form from the womb to the world into eternity, it continues to exist. Our verse from Hebrews also suggests that life continues following physical death.

Without going too deep into the Bible I can think of the encounter Jesus had with his deceased friend, Lazarus in Bethany. Lazarus had already been departed from his body four days when Jesus came and raised him from the dead. If Lazarus had ceased to exist upon his death Jesus would have had to recreate him and not resurrect him. I also think of what happened on the Mount of Transfiguration where Peter, James and John saw both Elijah and Moses appear with Jesus. Both of them had been gone quite awhile before they appeared on the mountain with Jesus. If they had gone out of existence they would not have been able to appear there.

Overwhelming Scriptural evidence supports the idea that upon death the soul leaves the body and goes either to Heaven or to eternal torment in Hell. In the words of the classic board game, Monopoly, "go directly to eternity and don't pass 'go'".

September 15, 2016

"Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him." Hebrews 9:27-28

You have an "ever after". So do I.

God created you and designed you to live forever and you will. The time you spend in your flesh and blood and bone body is limited to seven or eight decades, but your spirit will live "ever after."

That begs the question, "Ever after what?"

Good question! Let's talk about that.

In our finite world of time, we are familiar with "after". "After" is the next thing to happen when the current thing transpires. We live in the world of "now" and "after". You look at your schedule now and look at the things you have scheduled after.

But the Scripture tells us that there is a day coming when we run out of "after" and move to the world of "ever". Then what?

How you answer the question of "ever" depends on what you do in the "after". For example, what will you do "after" you read this article? How will you respond to the truth expressed in the Scripture?

Here's my take on this "ever after" question.

Your "ever" is determined by what you do "after" you know the truth about Jesus. Once you are presented with the truth that you are a sinner and because your sin separates you from God, your "ever" does not look optimistic. If you continue trying to earn your own salvation you will be lost "ever after" you die. But, if you confess your sins and repent of your sinfulness and turn to Christ "after" you hear the truth of the Gospel, your "ever" suddenly becomes happy.

Your "ever' begins the moment "after" you are born, but your happy "ever" starts "after" you are born again! When God breathes the life of His Holy Spirit into your spirit you become spiritually alive and one with God through Christ. "Ever after" that decision, your whole world changes. You gain abundant life here and eternal life "after".

How does your "ever" look? What will you do "after" you know the truth                                                                                                  

September 14, 2016

"But unless you repent, you too will all perish. Or those eighteen who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them—do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem? I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish.”  Luke 13:4-5

Repentance hasn’t gone out of style but it seems that talking about it has. Have you noticed that or is it just me?

John the Baptist talked a lot about it. Jesus did, too.

Why do you suppose people aren’t talking about it much today?

I can’t say for sure, but I can offer some ideas.

Maybe it has to do with a misunderstanding of grace. There are those who are of the opinion that since Jesus died for our sins all we have to do is believe in Him and He forgives us just as we are. Repentance doesn’t fit in that scenario.

Perhaps some think calling people to repentance is too confrontational and may offend people. Political correctness can lead to theological incorrectness and that can be deadly.

To repent is an admission that God is right and you are wrong. That is something the sinful nature doesn't want to do.

I fear, however, the real reason that people have lost the sense of urgency over repentance is because they have lost a sense of urgency about sin. Repentance isn’t that big of a deal if sin isn’t that big of a deal.

In the verse above Jesus mentions two times that if you don’t repent you will perish. I don’t know but that sounds serious to me! Especially when you understand that perish means more than just dying – it means eternal death or spiritual death.

According to Jesus it comes down to two clear choices: either you choose to repent of your sin OR you choose to perish in your sin. Either of those is a big deal! Repenting of your sins and finding eternal life is a big deal. Failing to repent and perishing in your sins is also a big deal.

Repentance is having a godly sorrow over sin and turning away from it. Repentance is turning your back on sin and seeking God's Face. Acts 3:19 says, ^"Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord,"

I think we ought to talk more about repentance. And we ought to do it! It’s a big deal!