Category: Faith

If God never does another thing for me…

If God never does another thing for me, I want the world to know that there are three things he has done that will always stand out to me. I did not deserve any of these things, but he favored me with these awesome gifts that show the height, depth, width and breath of his love for me.

These blessings are found in the first chapter of Paul’s epistle to the Ephesians. “7 In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the
riches of his grace; 8 Wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence; 9 Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself: 10 That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him:” Without this redemption through his blood it would be impossible for me to be reconciled back to God. There is no convenant relationship without this event. To know that I am no longer considered an enemy to God is love enough. To understand that God could not stand to look at me in the sinful state I was in and that the blood of Jesus made my filthy sight tolerable, really helps me to appreciate my new standing in Him.

“11 In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will: 12 That we
should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ.” This is the second thing that Jesus did for me. He not only saved my soul but he left me an inheritance. This inheritance secures my spot in the Beloved.

“13 In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy
Spirit of promise, 14 Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.” The seal is my proof. It’s like I’ve been wrapped for freshness or sealed until Christmas — either way, God placed a heavenly seal on me which secures my final resting place. Again, I could have never deserved this and it is all overwhelming. This is my mega millions jackpot. I don’t know a better powerball than this. And if the Lord decided today that what he has blessed me with is enough and I never get another blessing from him, these three things have secured me like no other and made me a fan for life. And because of it, I will praise his name forever!

May 18, 2013
Bye, bye guilt!

We live our lives and struggle with consistently figuring out how to negotiating right from wrong. Sometimes revenge feels right, but it is never right. Sometimes having feelings for someone outside of your marriage may feel right, but it too is never right. Even stealing can seem right to a person in certain circumstances. With our lust and enticement from Satan, almost anything can feel right.

What is amazing to me is that in the moment we don’t feel anything but vindication and justification. Once we come to ourselves, the only things left to feel are guilt, sorrow and regret. There are even people walking around further punishing themselves because they feel they don’t deserve forgiveness. What makes matters worse is that there are people who will exploit these relationships and seek to control another person because they have a hard time with forgiveness.

God sent his son so that we would not ever need to struggle with guilt. God giving his son was meant to be sufficient for anyone struggling with guilt. Jesus became an unlimited credit card for sins and all anyone in the family needs to do is call on him and he will take care of the tab. Some may feel guilty for running up a tab, but all Jesus says is, don’t worry about paying me back, just pay it forward. So we would allow our present experiences to control future experiences. Since I had a huge debt that was paid for me, I would extend in a like fashion this same grace to another. Sounds easy enough doesn’t it?

Well, why do we have such a hard time with this? Wouldn’t it be nice to live in a community that understands this principle? Wouldn’t it be nicer to just meet a group of church folks who believe it and consistently practice it? Truth is, this is a personal principle that is up to every Christian to uphold alone. The purpose is for one person to affect another. It’s supposed to be a domino effect. All God needs is for someone to knock down the first domino. Will that be you dear reader?

April 6, 2013
Passover + Easter = Eternal Life

We have finally reached Easter weekend and as the vernal equinox predected, Passover and Easter celebrations will not coincide. Each tradition still remains separate, even though it was meant for the two days to collide. Allow me to teach it before I preach it!

Passover began in Exodus 12 when Moses gave instructions as the last and final god of Egypt was to be defeated. This idol was supposed to protect the royal family and the Lord’s last plague was designed to destroy the first-born of everything. Pharoah was told by his spiritual counsel that his family was safe. Moses’ instructions were given so that death would “pass over” the obedient children of Israel. He was right. This first born lamb or goat was to be killed in the evening and a fellowship meal shared with family and friends.

Never had death targeted a group of people before. You see death had no bias until this time. Death had spread from Adam to Moses after the sin in the garden and was not a respecter of persons. Passover is still celebrated to remember the grace and mercy shown by God to his people. Easter is a holiday that is supposed to mirror the Passover in the celebration of the resurrection. It is within Easter that the resurrection becomes the catalyst to remember the grace and mercy shown by God to his people.

In both the Passover and Easter, God’s people are granted life and with the favor from God it is truly an abundant life. In each case God saved his people from a condition that they could not save themselves from. Dear reader, can you relate to being placed in a position that you have no control over? A condition that you just have to take because there is nothing you can do about it anyway.

Mary and Martha were faced with this realization when their Lazarus died. By the time Jesus had come to their house, Lazarus had been dead for four days. Jesus assessed the condition of Mary and Martha, but the best conversation happened between Jesus and Martha. Jesus told Martha that her brother would rise again. Martha said, “Yeah, I believe he will in the resurrection in the last days.” Although Martha’s statement was true and it showed that she had come to acceptance with the finality of her brother’s death and was looking forward to the resurrection. Jesus’ response to her was this: “I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were
dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?” Her response fell just short of a yay. It didn’t register to her exactly what he meant by saying he was the resurrection. So Martha simply said that she believed he was the son of God and that he was the one who was to come into the world.

It is with Martha’s statement that you can see where her faith stopped. She could not process Jesus’ statement so she went as far as her faith would take her. Basically, she would say to Jesus that the word on the street is that you say you are the son of God, but what does that mean as I grieve my brother? You see, if Martha believed that Jesus could truly help this situation, then we would have had a more definitive statement from her. Martha is where many of us are at today. We struggle with our belief. We have a hard time believing beyond our eyes. We in our little minds have limited God in our lives and have reduced his work to what we can imagine or see.

The Lord showed them something that day that they would never forget. He walked in to an uncontrollable situation and controlled it. He walk into impossibility and made it possible. He walked into hopelessness and gave it hope. He met unbelief at it’s strongest point and turned it into belief. I hope, dear reader, you will revisit John 11 and see this unfold for yourself. Jesus made sure the world would know that the Father in heaven sent him, by doing something that only the Father could have orchestrated. He brought Lazarus back to life without breaking a sweat. With this one act he gave us a model of our very own salvation. We will all be saved by grace through faith in Christ Jesus and we will all have to answer the question as to whether or not we believe that Jesus is the giver of Eternal Life. Passover and Easter are our witnesses and we must now act. Do YOU believe this?

March 30, 2013
Jesus — the way, truth, life (Part 3)

What is your life worth?

Each year thousands of people commit suicide because they don’t see their worth. We go through life trying to prove to ourselves that we are worth something. We put in overtime with our jobs, we help out when we can and we even give money away to prove our worth. Kids in school are troubled by bullies who point out all of their flaws. They take to heart everything negatively that is said to them without regard for the good things. When kids (and adults) are faced with these type of challenges it seems as though the only option is to stay at home and cry.

Many people are walking around desiring to be with someone that will give them more self-esteem credits. Each time they date and get hurt, they lower their standards more and more in an attempt to lessen the pain. They end up settling for “G” candidate thinking that they are not worthy of the “A” candidate. Furthermore, in America we spend money. Everything revolves around money so it stands to reason that value would be placed on everything here. Our lives should not be for sale. It’s tough when ad campaigns tell you that you are too fat, too dark, too skinny, too short or your hair is not good enough, your feet are too big or even your teeth aren’t white enough. Plastic surgery is a billion dollar industry. Low self-esteem doesn’t care how much money you have or what color you are. As a result we really don’t know who we are.

Thank God for Jesus! You see, he placed value on all of us when he died on the cross for the sins of the world. Through his sacrifice he is trying to tell us that we have value. His actions prove we have worth — why else would the Son of God waste his time on us? If John 3:16 is correct (and it is!) then God loved us and was eager to save us. He sent his son to die for the sins of the world and simply says let me give you rest.

Dear readers, I hope you know that there is no better life than one spent serving the Lord and enjoying the blessings he gives us. To live a life reciprocating the love God thrusts toward us is clearly an abundant life. Jesus said that he is the way, the truth and the life and he is right. There is no way to the father except by the mediator he chose and that is Christ.

Help me spread the word that salvation has been brought down to earth and by it God has added value to every life. All we have to do now is live like it!

March 16, 2013
Jesus — The way truth and life (Part 2)

Sometimes it’s hard to face the truth. It is especially hard when you are totally guilty and the truth convicts you. I have been in many situations in my life where I got that feeling deep down inside that made me uncomfortable being wrong. Guilt is something that comes from the inside out not the other way around. It might even be easier if guilt came from the outside in because then people could actually see guilt come upon them and there would be no need to cover it up.

We have become masters at covering sin and guilt. If we would only spend the time covering sin and avoiding it all together, our lives would be much better. Truth cuts. And it really hurts when it cut. It seems that it can get even worse if we first thought that we were right only to find out later that we were dead wrong. There are people serving time in prison for crimes they did not commit and it seems as though our society is not interested in knowing the truth. We could do great things in freeing these folks if we wanted to. However, we are still running from truth. Now that we have DNA testing, wouldn’t you think that we would test every rapist in prison who claimed he didn’t do it. We could improve our justice system immensely if we did this.

Back when Jesus was on trial, the Jews handed him over to Pilate and the dictator could not find any fault in him. Given the fact that he couldn’t find any fault and the Jews hating Jesus so much prompted Pilate to ask the question, “what is truth?” One of the reasons Jesus came to earth is so that we could put his picture in our dictionaries under truth. Jesus proclaimed to his disciples that he was the way, truth and life and that it was impossible to get to the Father without him.

It was these very same statements that put Jesus under fire with the Jews. This situation had escalated so badly that Pilate referred to their custom of releasing one prisoner a year and he thought for sure they would release Jesus. You see, there was only Jesus and a guy named Barabbas in Jail. Barabbas was a known thief and was totally deserving of jail time. The angry crowd said to release the robber and for Jesus, string him up on a tree! Pilate was shocked! Satan applauded! And through this act God got the last laugh. Salvation became available to the world because of what happened then and it all happened because people did not want to face truth.

Unfortunately, we still live in a time where truth is sometimes too much to bear. If we would ultimately face the one absolute truth, then all the other truths would be easy. The one truth I speak of is that God has made the same Jesus who was crucified, both Lord and Christ and if we want to see the creator’s face in peace, we must be born again! Amen!

March 9, 2013
Jesus — The Way, truth and life (Part 1)

Ever since I can remember I’ve loved the English language. And with understanding any langauge one must understand the rules of engagement. It seems that some people have forgotten about the rules of engagement when it comes to reading and understanding God’s word.

In this series I’ve been doing on the seven “I am” statements of Jesus in the Gospel of John, he constantly uses a definite article in describing himself. An article is defined as any of a small set of words or affixes (as a, an, and the) used with nouns to limit or give definiteness to the application. Whenever Jesus describes himself he needs to use the definite article (the) because of his alpha and omega status.

For example, Jesus was in the midst of teaching his disciples when he said in John 14 to not be worried because if they believe in God, they should believe in him. He then talked about his fathers house having all of these rooms or mansions that he was preparing or making ready for everyone who belongs to him. It was after he made a promise to come back that Thomas expressed his confusion with where Jesus was going and he asked how could they (his disciples) ever know the way? Jesus then boldly proclaims, “I am the way, the truth and the life and no one comes to the father but by me.”

The first thing he said (and the emphasis of this particular blog) is that he was “the way.” Thomas wanted to know how they could know the way. Thomas did not know how important and relevant his question was. Jesus is the way maker. He can literally make a way out of no way. When Israel was trapped between Pharoah’s army and the Red Sea, it would have easily been assumed that God would simply take care of the problem and eliminate the army. The Lord instead got rid of the very thing that troubled Israel the most. You see, it would have been very easy for God to eliminate the army. God did the more impressive stunt by eliminating the hardest part. I still get overjoyed wondering how Israel felt crossing the Red Sea on dry ground.

God made a way out of no way in this situation and all Jesus was doing is introducing his disciples to the family business. For eternal life, Jesus says that he is “the way.” He is the way back to God for those who have been separated by sin. He is the way when situations are bigger than us. And he is the way when it comes to saving our souls. The question now: Is he your way?

March 2, 2013
Jesus — The Resurrection and the Life

A family of five, living in a studio apartment full of little critters running around, is no way to live life. An 11 year old, having to worry about whether or not an adult will make sexual advances on him or her tonight, is no way to live either. Nor is it cool that a single mother, working three jobs to make ends meet, gets her 4 kids taken away because someone called child protective services after discovering they were left alone at home a few hours a day.

We get so caught up in living life and gathering things. We define ourselves by the things we have accumulated and none of these things mean anything when we’re dead. We spend a lot of time being angry and frustrated when things don’t go our way. We hold grudges and seek revenge and will go to great lengths to get even. We are overweight, sleep deprived and need assistance from the pharmaceutical industry just to keep up. For all these things to be temporal, why do we place such value on them?

Jesus made this statement in John 11:25, “I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live…” I wonder how many people truly understand and are comforted by these words? With these statements Jesus has changed the game.

He’s taken the focus off of the now and placed it on the eternal. If there is anyone watching the big picture here, God has given us an everlasting promise that should make our lives easier. His statements set us free.

We struggle to live life here on earth in such a corruptible state and when our loving savior promises us eternal life it doesn’t appear to be enough. I mean is it enough, dear reader, to make you stop chasing the almighty dollar and begin to covet more spiritual things? Does it make you want to spread love to everyone you meet? Does it make you want to change the game for someone else? Does it even make you want to be a better person — you know, live life because you’re saved and not to earn salvation?

This could be a stab in the dark, but I believe that Jesus actually meant for this to be the best news ever and that his disciples would hear these words and live a celebratory life in honor of His work.

Are we taking his promises for granted?

February 23, 2013
Jesus — I am the Door

A fresh college graduate goes into a business and sees a door. Behind that door could be her future boss or the first job to turn her down. A man on death row after having his last meal looks at a door ahead of him and he knows that this will be the last door he sees as lethal injections happen on the other side of his door.

Doors come in all shapes and sizes and they are constructed in various ways. Some doors are for style, some are built to protect and still others are worn and need to be replaced. But with each door in our lives comes opportunity. We have to be ready for the opportunity and seize that opportunity as doors open and then they close.

Jesus said, “I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.” In the back drop of this scripture Jesus says that he is the door of the sheep and that those who came before him were thieves and robbers: but the sheep did not hear them (John 10:7,8).

Translation: Jesus is the ultimate opportunity for us all. Great opportunities are not common. In America we play the game of see who can get over on who the fastest. From healthcare to shopping to relationships to government, we’ve been dooped into thinking one thing when it was really something else.

For example, we never find out what our insurance really covers until we need it. It is only then that we find out the loophole that makes them not pay for certain things. Progressive insurance is a mastermind at this (http://www.michiganautolaw.com/auto-lawyers-blog/2011/05/17/worst-auto-insurance-companies/).

And 90 percent of store sales is simply product or merchandise that was not sold and now they need to get rid of it. They mark it down several times, but almost never gets to the price that it cost to make it. Black Friday should have taught us this by now.

For relationships and government I’m sure you could fill in your own examples, but the point here is simple: Jesus has given us a real opportunity. His opportunity is bigger and better than any deal on earth. Jesus is the door with the huge sign that says, “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest.”

My friends, don’t miss this opportunity! Take you burdens to him and leave them there!

February 9, 2013
Jesus — The Light of the World

Jesus made what was then a very controversial statement in ear shot of the Pharisees when he said, “I am the light of the world: he that follows me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.”

This was viewed as arrogant by the establishment for how can this Nazarene be the light of the world? They understood Jesus as saying he was perfect and that all should follow after him. The disgust of Jesus’ “I AM” declaration was not about spirituality for those who opposed it. It was about how much would this effect the livelihood of the establishment.

You see, if people took heed to what he said and believed he was in fact “the light of the world” well then that would lead to discipleship. Jesus would then be able to accumulate more followers and more followers would mean more power and more power would mean more control.

Jesus’ statement should have been glad tidings to the people who understood that he was not only stating a fact in John 8:12, but he was giving them an invitation. That invitation, if they chose to accept it, would change their lives forever.

The only people who kick against change are those who feel they stand to lose something if the current condition are altered. This is played out on many levels from religious sects to politics to the workplace — everyone is leveraging to control.

What I hear Jesus saying is this: What you seek is within me and if you stay in me you’ll never be wanting. Outside of me are the things stacked against you. Inside of me is love, understanding, prosperity and hope. The choice is yours.

Surrender to him. It’s cool inside!

February 2, 2013
Jesus: The bread of life

There is nothing like fresh bread. There is a wonderful Jewish bakery in Southfield, MI where you can smell the bread every morning.

The Eastern culture uses bread as an essential part of the meal. Many times the people would have a huge pot of something healthy and they would eat it together with friends and family. Imagine sitting around the table with a large pot of vegetables and rice and then this wonderful fresh bread just coming out of the oven. No need for utensils here, the bread is the star of the show!

Family and friends literally break bread and dip in that same pot together. It is a festive occasion and it really matters who is at the table. People didn’t eat with their enemies and you definitely didn’t eat with people who were not of the same mind and same judgement.

One of the seven “I AM” statements Jesus said in the Gospel of John was that he was “the bread of life” (John 6:35). The best way to know and fully understand the Messiah is by His own words.

Dear friends, Jesus wanted us to know that as essential as bread is in a meal (remember the bible is an Eastern culture book) that he is/should be that important to our lives. Some cultures would not even try to eat a meal without bread. Sadly, millions are living without Jesus.

There is a goodness, a peace, knowledge, truth and restoration that comes with knowing Jesus. We who believe must not bottle him up for ourselves. He was meant to be shared. Share the good news of Jesus Christ. His Gospel has changed my life. Has he changed yours yet?

January 26, 2013