October 29, 2014

“But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him. The next day he took out two denarii^] and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’”  Luke 10:33-35

At FredWes we believe in the power of love!

We believe in God’s love manifest through us by virtue of our attitudes and our actions.

When Jesus was seeking to illustrate the Great Commandment, He told a story about a Good Samaritan who literally loved a badly beaten Jew to life!

Let me give you a very touching contemporary illustration of the life-giving power of life. Copy and paste this link into your browser:

http://youtu.be/kldBXAB2Kws

If a bat can be loved to life by a caring stranger, think of the impact a church like FredWes can have if we commit to loving God passionately, each other unconditionally and our community generously!

October 28, 2014

"Love must be honest and true. Hate what is evil. Hold on to what is good. Love each other deeply. Honor others more than yourselves." Romans 12:9-10

Who doesn't want true love? Who wouldn't benefit from it? What church couldn't use more of it?

True love is hard to find. Maybe that is because it is hard to do.

In these two verses Paul gives us perhaps the most concise description of true love found anywhere - even more concise than I Corinthians 13.

Life is all about relationships and therefore, love is essential. God wired you to thrive within loving relationships but sin infected your nature with selfishness and selfishness is the great "anti-love".

So, the reason why it's hard for you to love others is because you love yourself more. Until you want to love more than be loved you will struggle with true love. Wow, that's honest!

Perhaps that's why this verse describing true love begins by demanding honesty. Until you are honest about your lack of love how can you ever hope to honestly love?

Selfish love is manipulative. It always look for an edge or an angle to get what it wants. When you are angling for what YOU want you will not be interested in what others want. Self-love is the "anti-love". Insincere love uses people rather than serves them. When others feel used by you not only do they not feel loved by you, it is demeaning to them. No one wants to feel like an object.

How do you get over the self-love so you can love others with a sincere love?

Back to the honesty! True love begins with repenting to God for your self-love. Call it what it is - SIN. The root of all sin is selfishness and that must be dug out by the root! Only the God of perfect love can do that.

The antidote for self-love is God's love. Maybe that is why Jesus commanded us to "Love God with all your heart and love your neighbor as yourself". Until you love God more that you love yourself it will be impossible to love others and not try to manipulate them. Actually, you will try to manipulate God, too!

Get over it! Root out SIN and get sincere!

October 27, 2014

"When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have ordained, what is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of man that You visit him?” Psalm 8:3-4

Why did God create some 350 BILLION galaxies!

Because He can!

Here are just a few facts about ONE galaxy:

Our Milky Way galaxy is a spiral galaxy. A spiral galaxy is shaped like a flat disk with a thicker bulge in the center. Bright spiral arms start from the center and then coil outward like a pinwheel. All spirals rotate very slowly. The Milky Way completes a single revolution once every 250 million years.

Most galaxies are billions of years old. The youngest known galaxy is 1 Zwicky 18. At an estimated age of a mere 500 million years, it is a babe in diapers compared to the Milky Way at 10-14 billion years, which is the average age of the known galaxies (Some dispute these ages but even if they are correct only a matter of a few years in God’s timing).

The Canis Major Dwarf Galaxy is the closest galaxy to ours. It is actually contained within the Milky Way and only 42,000 light years form the galactic core.

A light year is the distance light travels in a year at a speed of 186,000 miles per second. That factors to about 6 trillion miles in a year! Now think about 42,000 x 6 trillion!

Now consider that is a relatively SHORT distance in space between galaxies – all 350 BILLION of them!

Uh………wow!

Why did God make everything SO Big?

Because He can!

Now think about the intelligence that knows just how much space that is needed to maintain the gravitational balance to keep everything synchronized and moving together at thousand of miles per hour without crashing into one another and without running out of space!

Who can do that?

God can!

There must be someone (or Someone) bigger than all that vastness and maintains control over it all! Whoever that is would necessarily be larger and more powerful than all of this! Who could be that infinite?

God is!

Whoever is that HUGE and that powerful had better be kind and holy or we would have a frightening threat hanging our heads!

God IS kind and holy and loving and has done everything He possibly can to reveal Himself to you as the powerful, personal and loving God He is!

Why would you not receive that love and embrace it and treasure it and surrender to it and grow in it and share it?

You can!

October 26, 2014

"The   Lord   isn't  really  being  slow  about  his  promise  to return,  as  some  people think. No, he is being patient for your sake. He does not want anyone to perish, so he is giving more time for everyone to repent." II PETER 3:9

"I write this to you who believe in the Son of God, so that you may know you have eternal life. And we can be confident that he will listen to us whenever we ask him for anything in line with his will. And if we know he is listening when we make our requests, we can be sure that he will give us what we ask for." I JOHN 5:13-15

I have shared several steps on who to deal with people who are skeptical toward your faith. Each of them are important but none is no more important than this final one, praying for God's Holy Spirit to work on the skeptical person.

Here's how to pray intercessory prayers:

• Claim these two promises from God's Word. He doesn't want anyone to perish without knowing Christ and He promises to give us what we ask when it is according to His will.
• Pray for the Holy Spirit to convict him of his sin.
• Pray for the light of God's truth to break through his spiritual darkness.
• Pray for God to give you favor in his life so he will be open to what you share.
• Pray for other Christians to intersect his path and enhance your witness to him.

You did not come to know Christ without someone or several someones praying for you. Neither did I. No one does!

Whenever God allows me to lead someone to faith in Christ, I will ask them, "Who has been praying for you?" and they always have an answer.

All of these steps I have shared combine to form a very powerful strategy for winning over skeptics to faith in Christ. It's how you got there and it how I got there and it is the only way your friend will get there.

So, who are you praying for?

How are you praying for them?

October 25, 2014

"You younger men, likewise, be subject to your elders; and all of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, for God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble." I Peter 5:5

What would happen if it was required of me to completely and fully understand everything in the Bible before I was allowed to preach my first sermon - or my next one?

Not much preaching would happen, that's for sure!

I certainly have a good grasp on the Scriptures and I make sure I have thoroughly studied the text of my sermon each week before I present my message. However, I know the next time I study that passage I will see some new truths that I missed the first time. That's just how the Bible is!

Just as I, or any other pastor, do not have to know everything about the Scriptures in order to be a preacher neither do you need to have all the answers about the Bible before you talk to others about faith. 

You should study and learn to have a basic knowledge of creation, evolution, science, resurrection, how Bible was written and translated, for starters.

What you need the most is your witness and your testimony.

Your witness is what you know about God. Knowing about God's Word is important but knowing God personally through a relationship with Jesus Christ. And, your witness is what you show about Jesus by how you live.

The old saying, "A picture is worth a thousand words" is true. Your life needs to show evidence of a supernatural change or your words will lack credibility.

Your testimony is what you have experienced from knowing God. Your testimony is what develops as your faith is tested by the difficulties of life and you discover how much difference it makes to have Jesus in your life!

Not many people are won to Christ through clever arguments but by credible lives that show the power of God present and active in a person they know and love.

How is your witness?

What is your testimony? 

October 24, 2014

"For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek." Romans 1:16

"For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of the soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart." Hebrews 4:12

In my 58 years as a Christ-follower and 42 years in local church ministry I have never met a person who was argued into the Kingdom of God. Maybe there are some people out there who one day heard a compelling argument for the existence of God and then immediately fell to his knees and cried out to God for salvation, but I have never heard such a story.

Perhaps you have constructed such a compelling and convincing case, complete with charts, that someone far from God recognized his need for salvation and confessed His faith in Christ. Or, maybe you have known someone who has. If either of those are true I would be delighted to hear the story.

The hundreds of people I have known over the years who came to faith in Christ were not argued or debated into the Kingdom but were loved into the Kingdom by a person who demonstrated an unconditional love for him. That kind of love is practically irresistible!

That's why at FredWes we say we are committed to "Loving You to LIFE" rather than "Debating You to Life".

Lee Strobel is a best-selling author, former teaching pastor at Saddleback Community Church, at Willow Creek Community Church, and is one of the foremost Christian apologists of the 21st Century. But before he claimed those titles he was an investigative reported for the Chicago Tribune. When his wife accepted Christ through the ministry of Willow Creek, he was not a happy husband. Immediately he began trying to discredit her faith. When that was unsuccessful he began an effort to expose Willow Creek Church as a fraudulent enterprise. Here's his testimony in his own words:

http://youtu.be/fLWMc_8ymeE

Lee Strobel, who can argue faith with anyone in the world, was not argued into the Kingdom, he was loved in. Just like you and just like me.

The old saying goes, "People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care."

That's the key winning skeptics over to faith!

October 23, 2014

"but sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence;" I Peter 3:15

How do you respond to one who is skeptical of your faith?

That is the final question to be addressed in the four week series following up the "God's Not Dead" movie.

Keep in mind there are generally two categories of skeptics - religious skeptics and non-religious skeptics. Each have their unique challenges in confronting their skepticism.

Religious skeptics can be challenging because they are often self- righteous or self-satisfied about what they believe. Trying to communicate your faith with them is like trying to explain thirst to a fish. They are so absorbed with their "water" they miss the point of it.

On the other hand, non-religious skeptics can be so enamored with their intellect, their education and scientific theories that they lose their objectivity in searching for truth. They trust their "pat answers: more than they value new ideas.

So, how do you make a convincing argument with skeptics of those mindsets?

We have given you some good ammunition you could use in an argument but sometimes your argument is not as important as the your attitude.

As a Christian it is always our goal to win people's hearts, not judt winning arguments. How many times have you won an argument but lost ground in a relationship? 

The Apostle reminded the young pastor, Timothy, "The goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith." I Timothy 1:5

In our chosen text for this devotional, Peter reminds you to make your defense "with gentleness and reverence".

Stop and remember for a moment, when you came to faith in Christ was it because of a compelling argument someone made with you OR was it because of the quality of the love they showed toward you? If you were won more by an attitude than by an argument, how should you then approach others?

A powerful Biblical illustration of how to approach people who are far from God is the father in Jesus' parable of the Prodigal Son. Luke 15:20 records, "So he (the son) got up and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion for him and ran and embraced him and kissed him."

When you defend your faith, do it first with that same loving compassionate attitude demonstrated by the father. Make sure you are filled with the fruit of the Holy Spirit; love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, and self-control when discussing your faith.

You don't like a know-it-all and neither do I. Don't try to impress others with how much you know but first show them how much you care!

"with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition, if perhaps God may grant them repentance leading them to the knowledge of the truth."  II Timothy 2:25