Category: Fear

For June 27, 2021
It was our Lord’s first declaration preparing the world for His distinctive ministry and message,

Now after that John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the Kingdom of God, And saying: “The time is fulfilled, and the Kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the Gospel!” Mark 1:14-15 (AKJV)

Jesus declares: “The time is fulfilled, and the Kingdom of God is at hand!” To what would become the New Testament World, His proclamation referred to a fulfillment of the promised Messiah, God’s Anointed One, who would restore the throne of David in Jerusalem, free the Jewish people from Roman domination, and establish God’s eternal Kingdom.

Four thousand years of human history has passed now was the time to drastically change the course of human history with the advent of His Son presenting Himself as the Lamb of God, who would take away the sin of the world. (John 1:29)

Jesus Christ would initiate a new Kingdom where love, righteousness, and peace would reign forever. The Lord is no respecter of persons, and His Eternal Kingdom is spiritual, not material. As fallen humans, we crave power, influence, and human supremacy. On the other hand, God wants to transform sinful human hearts because of our proclivity to sin,

The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is? (Jeremiah 17:9 NIV)

The Lord knows that once He possesses our hearts, He then can own everything else we possess by default. But even with transformed hearts, we may not experience any significant external changes, like having our names listed in Who’s Who, or having others speak well of us, or even obtaining wealth and notoriety. Nevertheless, we do have a new, internal spiritual being that makes us acceptable before God.

Time was now ready for Jesus Christ to communicate a message and perform and ministry for God’s people everywhere—both Jew and Gentile—that would free us from sin and death forever.

The crux of the message is two-fold: Repent and believe the Gospel! God requires our surrender in order to perform in us His perfect work of redemption since proud, sinful humans will never inherit His glorious, eternal Kingdom,

What I am saying, dear brothers and sisters, is that our physical bodies cannot inherit the Kingdom of God. These dying bodies cannot inherit what will last forever.  (1 Corinthians 15:50 NLT)

We must agree with God that our proud, sinful ways are woefully inadequate for achieving His righteousness, which is always observed and practiced in His glorious Heaven. This is true repentance. God is holy, and His standards are holy.

As sinners, we will always fall short and must turn from our sin and to Him through faith in Jesus Christ, Here we surrender to Him as our Lord and Savior, so that His Holy Spirit can possess us, and transform us from the inside out. As we continue to surrender, His Spirit can forever change our being, position, choices and destiny so that we achieve a noble Christ-likeness.

Romans 8:1 tells us that there is no condemnation to those who in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. Romans 12:2 tells us that we are not to be conformed to this world, but are transformed by a renewed mind so that we can live out God’s good, acceptable, and perfect will.

A transformed heart with a renewed mind pleases God, because it produces a progressive yearning for godly things, and a growing disdain for the worldly things. We surrender the control of our lives to the Lord Jesus each day, and His Holy Spirit gives us a growing desire to please Him in everything we do.

By our repentance towards sin, and our humble, reverent, and sincere faith in Christ, we are assured to experience His divine presence forever. Won’t you trust Him today?

What a Wonderful Savior!

For June 13, 2021
Ancient Israel was set on a course of demise after King Jeroboam erected the two golden calves in Bethel and Dan while proclaiming to the nation “Here are your gods who brought you out of Egypt.” Although the practice of worshiping idols was strictly forbidden (Exodus 20:2-6), the people worshipped the two golden calves. This practice would lead to the nation’s demise and exile at the hands of the Assyrians in 722 BC (1 Kings 17:7).

The Southern Kingdom, Judah would follow Israel’s lead and erect “high places” for idol worship on every high hill and under every green tree. (1 Kings 14:23) Jehovah was the only true and living God they were to worship at the Temple in Jerusalem. Babylon was God’s instrument of Judah’s chastening and exile.

Nebuchadnezzar carried Daniel and many of Jerusalem’s nobles into captivity around 606 BC. A second wave of deportation happened around 597 BC, with the final wave of destruction 586 BC. Habakkuk saw the impending doom of Judah and questioned God,

Why then do you tolerate the treacherous? Why are you silent while the wicked swallow up those more righteous than themselves? (Habakkuk 1:13 NIV)

This is an age old question why evil seems to triumph while the righteous suffer. In this instance, God raised up the Babylonians to chasten Judah according to many prophetic warnings. We could surmise that Habakkuk is philosophical in his orientation. For he complain to about being silent in the face of the injustice imposed on Judah—God’s chosen people.

Habakkuk realizes that God’s aim is to punish the people of Judah. Through this lesson the Lord enforces upon his watching servant the great moral principle that arrogance and tyranny will never last, and that the righteous will always be sustained by their faith,

Behold the proud, His soul is not upright in him; But the just shall live by his faith. (Habakkuk 2:4 NKJV)

The presence of sin in the world will ensure evil, pain, and suffering will be experienced by all—including God’s righteous. When Habakkuk posed these questions to God, Judah was wallowing in its sin and political instability. Sin and idolatry was rampant as the people engaged in idol worshipping. Although Pharaoh Neco made Jehoiakim king in Jerusalem, soon Egypt would fade as Assyria’s world domination is replaced by Babylon. But, in less than one–hundred years, the Medo-Persian Empire would bring God’s punishment on Babylon in 539 BC.

As we grapple with the patience of God concerning evil in light of His holiness. Sometimes, we feel, as did the prophet, that the Lord looks at our plight with indifference. But this is not the case due to His great love for us and His wonderful plan for us.

He gave us His Son, Jesus Christ, to provide the answer to our sin problem. And by our faith in Him, we can experience eternal, abundant life. (John 10:10) Also, He has promised to keep us in His care, as we abide in Him, as Habakkuk understood in the final analysis,

Though the fig tree does not bud and no fruit is on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though the sheep are cut off from the fold and no cattle are in the stalls, yet I will exult in the LORD; I will rejoice in the God of my salvation! GOD the Lord is my strength; He makes my feet like those of a deer; He makes me walk upon the heights! (Habakkuk 3:17-19a NIV)

The Lord’s plan for us is perfect and will always result in our blessing and His glory. In today’s world with widespread idolatry, inflation, political uncertainty, social unrest, random violence, tyranny, rampant sinful behavior leaving many of us overcome with anxiousness and fear.

Nevertheless, we can be at peace, because the Lord is in control, and He has a perfect plan for us. Thus, we can exult in Him in every situation. Won’t you trust in the Lord’s plan for you today?

What a Wonderful Savior!

For June 6, 2021
It is amazing how many of us have forgotten our God-given identity. He has created us in His image and endowed us with a personal and distinct life purpose. Sadly, human hearts that do not embrace the Lord’s intricate design, often experience distress and peril,

In the morning you will say, “If only it were evening!” and in the evening, “If only it were morning!”–because of the terror that will fill your hearts and the sights that your eyes will see. (Deuteronomy 28:67 NIV)

Hosea 4:6 (NKJV) states, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.” Thus, the current political uncertainty, coupled with recent spikes in crime, racial polarization, random shootings, terrorism in the US and abroad, and suicides are “real time” indicators of the helplessness many of us experience in today’s world.

Our recent suicide rates are telling statistics. For instance, although it was the second leading cause of death in 1999 for the 25-34 age group, it spiked within 20 years to become the second leading cause of death for the 10-34 age group in 2019.²

The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention offers no single reason for a person to decide to take their own life. Life stresses combined with childhood trauma, substance use, and chronic physical pain can be contributing factors to this self-harm act.³

Inflicting harm on others or ourselves do not reflect what Jesus Christ says is our God-given purpose,

One of them, an expert in religious law, tried to trap him with this question: “Teacher, which is the most important commandment in the law of Moses?” Jesus replied, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.” (Matthew 22:35-40 NLT)

We are the “crowning achievement” of God’s marvelous creation. Unlike all other created beings, we can choose to love God, our neighbors and ourselves deeply while living noble lives that reflect our Creator’s glory and dignity.

Satan’s job is to confuse and distort God’s perfect plan by telling us that our differences “prove” we are flawed, worthless or won’t amount to anything. As result, many of us have embraced the idea that we will be failures in life.

But these are lies because no two of us are exactly alike by God’s design. He has created us differently—much like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle—to make a beautiful portrait of His love, redemption, and glory when He joins all the pieces together in Heaven.

We are not mistakes or afterthoughts. Instead, we are uniquely designed to fulfill His perfect will. In other words, God created us, with all our complexities, to function according to His design—to honor Him.

Consider our human mind, which controls our cognitive and anatomical functions. God also designed it for us to have proper thoughts, feelings, perceptions, and memories as Philippians 4:8 (NLT) teaches,

And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your [minds] on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.

In addition, God created our bodies to be expressions His grace, kindness, and love around the world; not as weapons for pain, death, and destruction. We are to live out His noble plan to enjoy an abundant life that is filled with loving God while helping and healing others around us—including ourselves.

Because of the presence of sin in the world, we have lost both God’s fellowship and perspective. We concern ourselves with loving the things of this world that do not last, while we spend little time loving those Christ-centered things that are eternal.

For too many, it is far more important to chase career goals and miss church services regularly; to purchase a new boat for recreation seems more financially responsible than giving our tithes and offerings; to splurge on us instead of helping others in need seems to be a far more constructive use of our time and resources.

And for others, raising children to be spiritually ambivalent seems far more practical than teaching them about God, reading His Word to them, and teaching them right from wrong. Our children need to know that lying, cheating, and stealing (or what many of us use “to survive in this dog-eat-dog world”) are an affront to the Lord, and to His perfect righteousness within us.

Although there are those who futilely try to discredit our God-given purpose, still God has not. Through faith in Jesus Christ, God can break the curse of sin forever to create His offspring who will do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly before Him daily (Micah 6:8).

Jesus declares He is the light of the world, and anyone who follows Him will “not walk in darkness but will have the light of life instead” (John 8:12). Thus, we can be a changed people, who by His Spirit’s power live out our true identity—now and forever,

I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing (John 15:5 NKJV).

God’s purpose is that we contrast the prevalent, sinful lifestyles of those who celebrate pretense and reward dishonesty. We can do so as we allow His Holy Spirit to work through us to share a compelling Christian witness with those we encounter in our personal and social lives.

Through Christ, we can embrace His perspective and realize how we are the unique and significant parts of His wonderful master plan. Won’t you embrace Him today and live out your full potential in Christ?

What a Wonderful Savior!

For May 30, 2021
Truth and honesty have become extremely priceless commodities in today’s world due to their scarcity in public circles. Any person having committed themselves to communicating truth with honesty while pursuing sincerity with personal integrity is vilified by our modern-day media, political/social, and religious prognosticators.

It has become far too easy to engage in duplicity through deception and false information for nefarious purposes (i.e., personal gain, criminal activity, and civic/social unrest), which are antithetical to optimum life quality for all, than to courageously “speak the truth in love” while living it out in every phase of our personal and public lives.

We can be grateful that for about six-thousand years of human history, we can still rely on God’s Word as our supreme source of absolute truth, which silences all the lies, deception, and misinformation that bombards us every day.

Herein lies the central theme of Proverbs 31:5-6,

Every word of God is pure,
A shield to those who take refuge in Him.
Do not add to His words,
Lest He indict you and you be proved a liar.⁴

In these troubling times, we can be especially comforted knowing that our faith in what Jesus Christ performed on our behalf by dying on Calvary’s Cross for our sins, and by raising Himself from the dead to secure our reconciliation with God allows us to have a loving, purpose-filled life on earth.

Moreover, once we invite Him to be our personal Savior and Lord, we then can have His guarantee—the Holy Spirit living inside us—to ensure we will experience a glorious eternal life with Him in Heaven that exceeds our wildest dreams,

That is what the Scriptures mean when they say, “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love him” (1 Corinthians 2:9 NLT).

God’s Word warns that flesh and blood will not inherit the Kingdom of God (1 Corinthians 15:50). In other words, we can not expect to attain eternal bliss with God in our present, finite and sinful human condition.

Nevertheless, the Lord is the giver and sustainer of all life. He also supplies the answer to every question, and the solution to every problem we will ever face. So, when He calls us from labor to reward, we who know Him, through faith in Christ, will experience the pinnacle of His redemptive work where the “wicked will cease from troubling, and the weary will be at rest” (Job 3:17).

Our eternal destiny requires we occupy immortal bodies (that resemble Christ’s resurrected body) so that we can experience God’s eternal presence in His full glory. Our eternal bodies will be free from sin, pain, and disease, and completely capable of having eternal fellowship with the Lord. John, the Apostle tells us in 1 John 3:2 that we will see Him as He is, and we will be like Him as well.

Such a world will have no need for the sun and moon since God’s glory will brighten it. Crime will not exist; neither will there be a need for keys to lock our doors since righteousness and goodness will prevail in our hearts. Of our glorious transformation, God’s Word says,

So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, death is swallowed up in victory (1 Corinthians 15:54 AKJV).

Jesus Christ is Lord, Savior, and Righteous Judge—period! Those people who choose not to acknowledge Him in this life as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29) will know Him as the Eternal Judge before whom we give account for all we’ve done in this life…both good and bad (Revelation 20:12).

However, for those of us who love him; whose faith begins and ends with him, He is our hope, peace, expectation, and great reward. As James 4:6 tells us, “God resists the proud, but He gives grace to the humble.” Thus by His amazing grace, our personal faith in Christ becomes the foundation on which our being, position, choices, and destiny are forever secured.

Just like airplanes without a pilot sit motionless on the tarmac. We too cannot achieve flight without our Eternal Pilot in the cockpit at our controls. With a humble, reverent, and sincere faith in Jesus Christ, we are assured to reach our final destination safely. Won’t you trust in the Lord and His reliable, eternal Word today?

What a Wonderful Savior!