Category: Fear

For November 28, 2021
Today’s version of the secular, humanistic, socialist society denies the existence of God while it elevates humanity, wealth, and technology to the level of deity. In other words, our sin-convicted world is driven by its aversion to Jesus Christ, which causes it to discredit, or even ignore, the ultimate end and scope of all life…in its fullness—God Himself!

For outside of Jesus Christ, life has no true purpose or meaning. With the absence of His divine truth in us, we manufacture our own “truths,” which are lies and strong delusions, for selfish, personal, or political gain. He alone is our means to fulfillment in God as John 14:6 (NLT) declares,

I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.

We will not find fulfillment in social connections, social consciousness, recreation, wealth, industry, fame, or intellectual pursuits. Although some of these achievements are financially beneficial, they do not address the needs of our eternal souls satisfactorily,

What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul? (Matthew 16:26 NIV)

Invariably, these things do not satisfy our spiritual longing for God’s acceptance and abiding love. Thus, the things we elevate to replace Him become the gods we futilely worship and trust, leaving us spiritually bankrupt and unfulfilled,

They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water. Jeremiah 2:13 (NIV)

Sin causes us to live shallow lives hating God, disrespecting ourselves, and denouncing others through intimidation and hostile violence. Proud and privileged, we begrudge, vandalize, and plunder. Our aversion to God and godly things prevents our engaging in healthy relationships. As a result, we aimlessly chase relationships, never finding lasting fulfillment.

The government is not exempt from this treachery. In Jesus’ day, Rome enforced emperor worship, which posed a serious threat to all Christians since it mandated they worship mortals with violators being executed,

The refusal of all Christians to participate in [Emperor Worship] precipitated violent persecution, for the Christians consistently objected to worshipping a human being. The polytheistic Romans, who could always add one more god to their list of deities, looked upon their refusal as a lack of proper recognition for the emperor and a distinctly unpatriotic attitude. Between these two viewpoints, there could be no reconciliation.¹

In today’s world, sin causes us to worship the “state” in the form of a godless Marxist-Leninist ideology people endorse around the world,

At the core of its philosophy and conduct is the conviction and the oft-repeated announcement, “There is no God.” The absence of God is not simply another acceptable philosophic point of view, among many others. Rather, it is the denial of the Christian claim—yes, the teachings of the Bible—that there is a just, holy, loving, and personal God who has created the universe and who presides over its continuance.²

Unfortunately, this godless ideology influences our politics, business, schools, colleges, media, and even the clergy, vainly promoting an empty utopian promise that we can provide for ourselves, apart from God. In other words, we have no need for Jesus Christ, God, or the Bible; we are all we will ever need!

It also enforces a censorship against biblically-centered ideals that contrast their “everything is relative” and “everyone is right” narratives. In this godless utopia, hostility and disrespect replace common courtesy and consideration, just as if the eschatological prophesy, “After that, [Satan] must be set free for a short time” (Revelation 20:3 NIV) is happening right before our eyes.

Self-idolatry is not new as shown by the workers on the Tower of Babel, who were seduced by their own sin, pride, and arrogance,

Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly…Let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves. Genesis 11:3-4 (NIV)

As those builders failed, today’s godless elitists fail because they refuse to acknowledge the universal, inherent sin-problem plaguing all of us,

When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these. Galatians 5:19-21 (NLT).

No sane person wants to live in a world where people think and act irresponsibly constantly. Yet, left to our own devices, we are doomed to experience it since we all commit sin. Ecclesiastes 1:2 teaches our human efforts are “futile and meaningless” because they do not offer us the forgiveness of sin and peace with God, which are essential to a spiritually fulfilling, eternal life.

Repenting of our sin and returning to our Lord is the first step of blessed recovery and moves us towards establishing true Christian Community with Christ at the center,

For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them. Matthew 18:20 (NKJV)

Acknowledging and confessing our sins before God, accepting Jesus Christ vicarious death on Calvary as the payment for our transgressions, and inviting Christ to be the center of our lives and faith brings us into an state of blessed peace and favor with God that lasts forever.

Next, Christian parents need to play an active, pivotal role in the lives of their children as we practice a consistent Christ-likeness before our sons and daughters; raising them in the nurture and admonition of the Lord while training them in the way they should go (Proverbs 22:6, Ephesians 6:4).

Not by merely telling our children about the Lord Jesus Christ—His death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and glorious return—but we must also lead them to church, pray together, and have family Bible studies together, which will speak volumes towards laying the solid foundation for their spiritual development and growth.

Our parental faith and fidelity can help cultivate a desire within our children to personally experience and learn about the awesome God we share consistently. No one should ever trivialize the essential role that loving, nurturing, godly parents play in raising children in the right path,

It’s not enough to just provide materially for our children. It’s the sole duty and highest responsibility for parents to cultivate spiritual truths in their children’s lives as well.³

In addition, the local church can play a significant role in establishing and prospering the Christian Community. It is there we find the spiritually mature, biblically astute men and women who recognize the importance of quality, Bible-based Christian education and discipleship, which aids on our development of a Christian world view.

Such men and women can be found in various places in society. However, it is within the universal church of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ where we can find a strong core of visionary and stable leaders, who provide training and service opportunities for that help nurture and strengthen our faith.

We who avail ourselves regularly to these opportunities can learn how to develop our spiritual gifts and secular abilities through church leadership, church administration, music ministries, greeting and hospitality, community outreach, community food and shelter programs, prison ministries, and other Christian service opportunities under the tutelage of capable, mature, knowledgeable, and dedicated mentors.

We can also find within the church, astute Bible teachers who adroitly facilitate the student’s comprehension and incorporation of sound, fundamental scriptural nuances and doctrine critical for our spiritual development. We should never trivialize a church’s need for quality, Bible-based Christian education and discipleship programs—for all ages. For it produces lasting, positive effects on both the church and the surrounding community,

So while effective Christian education isn’t the only thing that matters in church life, it is by far the most influential factor in nourishing faith…congregations should be primarily about the task of “equipping saints” for ministry. The church structure and institution should empower people for ministry, rather than accomplishing the ministry for them.⁴

This author observes further,

The challenge to congregations, then, is to help each member see himself or herself as an active minister—as a representative of Christ in the world. When local churches take seriously this responsibility to nurture each person’s faith, the work of the church will be done through and by its members, who are, after all, the church.⁵

In opposition to godless state worship, the global Christian Community is where Christ is preached and demonstrated in the lives of His followers. It becomes our extended family that provides the care, guidance, discipline, and counsel we need to grow into honest, hard-working, responsible, law-abiding, productive members of society.

Most importantly, there we can experience and express a solemn reverence for God and His Word, along with a fervor, anticipation, and vigilance about our Lord’s imminent return, which will not only transform the lives of others but will also inspire future generations to live valiantly for Christ—without compromise. Won’t you live for Christ today and further the Christian Community?

What a Wonderful Savior!

For November 21, 2021
When we are offended, our “normal” reaction is to retaliate; this is because our normal thought process tends to go something like, “I can’t let that person ‘disrespect’ me.” However, due to the presence of sin in the world—and in our hearts—we all have ‘disrespected’ (or offended) someone, whether the act was intentional or not, just as Romans 3:10 reminds us, “There is none righteous, no, not one.”

Disrespect was not on the menu some four-hundred years ago, between the early settlers of the Plymouth Colony and the Native Americans who came together for a harvest celebration feast, which has since become our Thanksgiving Holiday celebration.

People from varying races and cultures can gather when we understand the complexity and depth of God’s love for us, as He chose to reconcile a sin-cursed humanity to Himself. Thus, though His Spirit working in and through us, we can celebrate our diversity by treating each other with the utmost respect, dignity, acceptance, and honor.

The world craves this unifying message of acceptance of others through Christ, which offers us a glimpse of what Heaven will be like with its rich diversity of people united under the lordship of Jesus Christ. John saw our future in this context, while he was on the Isle of Patmos,

After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man [or woman] could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands; And cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb. Revelation 7:9–10 (AKJV)

Because we are all precious in the sight of the Lord, we can view each other through His loving eyes. Although love can name our emotional attraction towards someone or something, the Lord established a “new” love when He commanded us to love (Greek: agape) each other unselfishly, just as He loves us.⁶ His Spirit enables us to express this selfless, pure love consistently, which will confirm we belong to the Lord.

We can express His love as we yield to His Spirit, who instinctively responds to others through us in the ways that serve their best interests. In our strength alone, we are incapable of this altruistic love.

Our human love is inadequate because, with it, we always want to know “What’s in it for us?” before we respond. But God demonstrated His unselfish love in Christ toward us, and now He empowers and mandates us to share it with other people.

The Lord Jesus Christ supplies us with His unquenchable desire to forgive, reconcile, and extend ourselves. This is the “most excellent way” that Paul outlines in 1 Corinthians 13 (Love Chapter).

This unselfish love is patient and kind. It is always at work, seeking opportunities to show kindness on our behalf when we are ready to receive. This love is not jealous, boastful, proud, or rude (v. 4).

Possessiveness or irritability is never present because the giver is never concerned about what the recipient does or does not do “to deserve it.” Otherwise, it is no longer love, but it becomes a loan instead.

Love does not demand its own way; it is not irritable and keeps no record of wrongs (v. 5). It is not glad about injustice but is glad when the truth wins out (v. 6). Here, we do not rejoice when wicked triumphs. Our concern is for everyone because we know as one suffers, we all suffer.

Love never gives up, it never loses faith, it is ever hopeful, and it endures (v. 7). Of these three, faith, hope, and love, the greatest of these is love (v 13).

Love is not abstract, but practical, in the sense we do not perform it in secret but extend it in our acceptance, benevolence, and forgiveness toward others. We can forgive and forget offenses because God forgave and forgot ours when His Son sacrificed His life for us at Calvary some two-thousand years ago.

The Lord commands us to express His kindness toward others, especially those who need our forgiveness; this is not easy. Yet, Jesus warns it is required to secure God’s forgiveness for our offenses,

If you forgive those who sin against you, your heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you refuse to forgive others, your Father will not forgive your sins. Matthew 6:14-15 (NKJV)

Jesus’ words imply that we extend forgiveness equally; to those who ask for forgiveness as well as to those who do not ask us for forgiveness.

To forgive means we do not use social media to degrade or humiliate the people we want to “pay back” someone for hurts we’ve perceived or experienced personally. God holds us accountable for our malevolence, whether malicious or in jest. Because we would not want someone to degrade or humiliate us even if they felt justified doing it.

To forgive also means we do not keep a record of past wrongs as some self-appointed vigilante. If all of us did this, there would be no one left standing since we are equal debtors. The Lord Jesus rightly says in John 8:7 (NIV), “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone.”

In addition, to forgive means we do not lash out verbally or physically when someone cuts in front of us when we are standing in line, or we are in traffic. We extend grace to the other person as our equal who happens to be sharing a very brief “flash” of our space and time, compared to the vast eternity that lies before us all.

I’ve noticed an increase in social and political attacks against elected officials when the Bible teaches in Romans 13 that we are to pray for and support them, even when they do not share our political views or ideology. We should extend the same radical forgiveness we’ve received from the Lord to all other areas of our daily, human interaction.

As Christians who have been saved by God’s grace through faith in Jesus Christ, we have experienced God’s love and forgiveness and can share it with others. In this way, we can perform the “ministry of reconciliation” presented in 2 Corinthians 5:18 where God reconciled us to Himself through Christ and empowers us to reconcile with others.

The process of forgiveness will also help us participate in a lifelong process of emotional, psychological, and spiritual wholeness much needed in today’s troubled and very troubled world as it allows us to demonstrate His Fruit of the Spirit listed in Galatians 5:22-23 (NLT), love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

Won’t you practice forgiveness, and exponentially enhance the flavor of this wonderful Thanksgiving Holiday? We sure could use it today!

What a Wonderful Savior!

For November 14, 2021
I’ve often wondered if we should have Christian faith registered as an endangered species. For many, our confidence is no longer God-based but human-based instead. Our modern world seems to be far more obsessed with what we can accomplish though intellect, technology, and human prowess and less insistent about praying first, and then trusting Him to resolve our problems.

This is what the LORD says: “Cursed are those who put their trust in mere humans, who rely on human strength and turn their hearts away from the LORD.”  Jeremiah 17:5 (NLT)

Hebrews 11:6 reminds us that we cannot please God without having faith in Him—first. It also tells us that we must not only believe that God exists. We must also believe that He will reward all who sincerely seek after Him. Here in this chapter, we learn that by faith:

• • Abel brought an acceptable offering to God and gave evidence that he was a righteous man.
  • Enoch was taken up to Heaven without experiencing death as God took him.
  • Noah built an ark to save his family from the flood that covered the earth.
  • Abraham obeyed God and left his home to another land that God would give him and his descendants. His was a redeeming faith that God attributed righteousness. His wife, Sarah was able to have a child at an advanced age of 90 years of age, (while Abraham was 100), such that the whole nation of Israel would come from them.
  • Ruth, who was a foreigner, became not only a blessing to her mother-in-law, Naomi, but also became part of the lineage of King David and Jesus Christ.
  • David, who believed God would sustain him in battle against Goliath, and with a sling and five smooth stones, he delivered God’s chosen people from a fierce enemy.
  • Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Joshua and the Children of Israel who marched around Jericho and saw God make the walls come down. Rahab, Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, and all the prophets who,

Overthrew kingdoms, ruled with justice, and received what God had promised them. They shut the mouths of lions, quenched the flames of fire, and escaped death by the edge of the sword. Their weakness was turned to strength. They became strong in battle and put whole armies to flight. Women received their loved ones back again from death…All these people earned a good reputation because of their faith, yet none of them received all that God had promised. For God had something better in mind for us, so that they would not reach perfection without us. Hebrews 11:33-40 (NLT)

Faith does not exclude common sense or logic. But it does require that we not rely on our senses exclusively but trust the Lord for the proper solution, when we’ve reached the extent of our human capabilities. In other words, we should  be willing to take a “leap of faith” by relying upon God, our Supreme Spiritual Reality who cannot be proven scientifically or explained logically—especially when He accomplishes His miraculous works for us in an answer to prayer.

Years ago, a very popular phrase encouraged us to rely on the Lord for everything: “Let go and let God!” This phrase has been made relative and meaningful due to the six-thousand years of recorded human history where the Lord has proven Himself to be the answer to every question, and the solution to every problem.

The Lord said that we could move mountains and that nothing would be impossible with faith the size of a mustard seed. To gauge the quantity or fervor of our faith, we should not rely on our feelings and circumstances because faith is a mystery that is essential to our human experience.

Isaiah pondered the elusiveness of redeeming faith when he asked in Isaiah 53:1, “Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed?” This age-old question presents us with what defines redemptive faith, which has one object: Jesus Christ, the perfect Son of Man and perfect Son of God.

Through our faith (and repentance), we can approach Jesus Christ with a broken and contrite heart. Then He gives us a complete spiritual overhaul, a restored fellowship with God, and an abundant life that lasts forever.

The Bible teaches that human life is sustained by blood, which God uses to remediate sin (Leviticus 17:11 and Hebrews 9:22). A sinless Jesus Christ shed His blood to pay the price for our sins—past, present, and future. The Bible teaches us that we can trust in the Lord, and rely on Him to solve our problems and meet our needs,

Trust in the LORD with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take. Proverbs 3:5-6 (NLT )

And this same God who takes care of me will supply all your needs from his glorious riches, which have been given to us in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:19 (NLT)

We can have faith in God because He is omnipotent; having all power, omniscient; having all knowledge, and omnipresent; fully present everywhere at the same time. He’s also sovereign; in full control over Heaven and earth, but most of all, He is holy, loving, good, faithful, and true; He cares for His precious children and provides abundantly for them as well. Our God is an awesome God. Won’t you put your faith in Him today?

What a Wonderful Savior!