Do You Know the Truth?

Truth is absolute and pure. It is what it is. Hot is hot...truth. Cold is cold...truth. There is a world that wants you to believe truth is hard to see. A world that wants you to think truth is hard to find. The world says you need an advocate, but they define the advocate. Maybe you need someone to tell you how to eat. Maybe you need someone to tell you how to spend your money. Maybe you need someone to tell you how to deal with the brokenness of your family.

What the world has to offer is people to give you their opinions. What they think is truth...what they think is right and wrong. The world says your belief system is fine, even if your belief system is to believe nothing. The world says any relationship is appropriate. The world says have sex. Exploit it. Show it off. Do it everywhere with anyone. The world says it is O.K. for you to like people who are like you and to oppose people who are different. The world says drink it. Snort it. Shoot it up. The world says abuse the system, because the system owes you. The world is chaos, confusion...the world is lost.

There is an alternative. Another truth. This truth is not confused. This truth does not rush. This truth's timing is always on schedule. There is a word that tells you love, but love appropriately. Make love, but not when it hurts someone. There is a word who says live life. Live it to the fullest, but don't snort it, drink it, shoot it up. There is a truth that says love and forgive, but that doesn't entail saying you are right when you are wrong.

There is a truth that saves. There is a truth that is life. There is a truth that will lift you out of despair, pain, darkness. Do you know truth? Do you want truth.

The word became man...became flesh to show us the Way. There is truth. Do you know truth? He has a name...only one name. He is not Buddha, Muhammad, Oprah, money, over-indulgence.

There is only one name for truth. His name is Jesus. He came to save you, to include you in God's kingdom. Jesus came to go against the world, to be counter-cultural, to be radical. He is gentle, yet strong. He is humble, yet all powerful. You can step out of darkness and into the light. Call His name. Praise Him. Pray to Him. Love Him, and be loved by Him.

There is truth. His name is Jesus.

Every Chance

When you open your eyes, it is a chance. When you breathe in, it is a chance. Every time it's not cancer, every time the car doesn't hit you, every time the doctor says it is fine, every time you punch the clock, every time you go to dinner, every time you have the opportunity to give, every time a sign-up sheet is placed in the foyer...

Every time...

Every time...

Your day is filled with opportunities. God is giving you life. Jesus saved you to live. Who are you living for? Are you living for you? Are you living for your spouse...your children? Are you living for your job? Are you living to be known? Are you living to be pretty?

Or, are you living so that others see Jesus in you? He is either your number one, or He is not. He either is your first priority, or He is not. You either read your Bible every day and spend time with the Word Made Flesh or you don't. You either are forgiving, or your not. You either loved your enemy today or you didn't.

Jesus came to save you. Jesus came so that you may have life, and have it to the full. Jesus came so that your sins could be washed away...so they wouldn't stay with you forever...so they wouldn't weigh you down and press you all the way to the floor. Jesus came to lift you up, to clothe you in beauty, to put a crown on your head, to fill you with compassion, to show you love.

Is He your heart's desire, or isn't He. Why did God open your eyes this morning? TO LOVE HIS SON!

What are you doing with every chance you've been given?

Big News...Good News

Oh, I get it! I get it! I get it! I read things...like Titus 2...that says be gentle, be submissive, be loving. Well, that's pretty, but I don't really want to be gentle. In fact, I don't believe God made me gentle. So, how can I be obebient to the Word and answer His calling???

J-E-S-U-S!!!

I am about to just bust! Jesus did not back down. He didn't manipualte, coax, coerce, or twist. He stood His ground. He never backed up! He said what needed to be said, and did what God called Him to do, BUT He did it gently and in love. He reached out. He cared for others. He cried. BUT He never watered it down.

That's why Jesus stood out from the world. In order to accomplish His purpose, He did not buy anyone off. He didn't lie. He didn't tell people what they wanted to hear. At the same time though, He reached for them. He led by example. He accomplished it all gently, in the greatest act of submission, in love.

The world lies. The world demands power. The world brainwashes. Jesus lived the Word in love. Oh, I get it!!! I may not be gentle, but my love can be!!!!

Oh, my God, my Savior, I am desperate for YOU!!!

Gifts

Salvation, surrender, confession, reconciliation, repentance...We have a lot of terms, for a lot of things, that we just haven't unwrapped. We have these concepts all wrapped up in Bible school, revival, Holy Spirit gift-wrap. We see they are gifts, but are we going to unwrap them to see what in the world is in the box? Are we just going to leave the pretty package on the table, or are we going to unwrap it, identify it, love it, and use it?

Salvation is the gift of acceptance. It is the here I AM, here is what I AM about, here is what I have to offer gift from God - eternal life. We simply get to open this gift (by the way, God has to give it to you before you can open it)and decide if we're going to keep it.

Surrender is the gift to change your life while you are still here on earth. Surrender is the gift to prioritizing. Are you going to live with you as #1 in your life, or is your relationship with God going to be the absolute #1? This gift includes batteries...a power source...tools and equipment to live a surrendered life. In this package, God gives understanding, revelation, and surrendered friends. Accepting this gift means God gave you the whole gift set. He gave you the Let's Do It in the Here and Now and Not Wait on Eternity gift set.

Next, you are on to some bonus gifts: repentence-in case you break your gift, which is fellowship, and need to return; reconciliation so you can have God in the here and now through grace and love.

The prayer says - let Your will be done, let Your kingdom come, on earth as it is in heaven. That is the gift. It's not just...do you want to go to heaven when you die...it is - do you want a piece of heaven right now?

Accept the gifts. Open them. Love them. Use them. Share them.

Who is Winning at Tug-of-War?

People say, "I can pray at home. In fact, my prayer time is better by myself instead of with a bunch of hypocrites. I can talk to God anywhere - anytime. I don't need churh to talk to God. I can take a walk, sit in a tree, or fish and feel just as close to God."

First of all, it is 110 degrees right now. So please don't even try to tell me you are taking praise and worship nature walks! More importantly though, you don't go to church just to pray. You really can pray right by yourself. You go to church to be encouraged, be spiritually fed, and to put your spiritual gift to work so that God can accomplish through you what He created you for in the first place. He didn't create you to watch 4 hours of T.V. a day.He didn't create you to shop until you drop. He didn't create you to mow, bushhog, and landscape away. Some of these activities may be part of your life, but they shouldn't be your life. God should be your life.

Church is where you go to do life. The body are the people to laugh with, cry with, eat with, pray with, praise with, and serve with. See, if you aren't in the body, you don't have your anchor, and let's face it...you're already playing tug-of-war in a pit with an unfair slope. Our culture says to do what makes you happy, take care of #1, let someone else help-you've done enough. If we aren't careful, we'll feel ourselves slip in tug-of-war. We'll start to loosen the grip on the rope. We'll start to point our feet forward so the opponent can slide us over, because maybe it is better on the other side.

The devil, evil itself, would like nothing better than to see you out of the body. He loves to hear, "Well, I can just pray at home." He loves it because he knows he can win against you. He just can't win against the church when the body of Christ is your anchor. God didn't say we couldn't be a one man island, He said we shouldn't. God gave us the church as the perfect platform to do life.

You can tell yourself all you want that CNN, FOX, and The Bachelorette have life all figured out. You can try to tell yourself you are better off without a bunch of hypocrites (aka sinners-we are all sinners thus hypocrites at some point). However, don't be shocked when life seems harder than that hypocrite in church. Don't be surprised when you go through a crisis, and it is that hypocrite in church who is there for you. Don't be shocked when you lose the tug-of-war and discover life like it seems on T.V. is pointless, ridiculous, and depressing.

Some days I am the encourager. Some days I need to be encouraged. That's why I go to church...and oh yeah, I don't like to lose at tug-of-war either!

Have You Kept Your Appointment?

I am still convinced so-called Christian churches today have missed the boat on salvation. Even the Bible says many are lost. Somewhere we got side tracked and decided salvation was learning and believing. Someone tells us about God and Jesus and Jesus's life, and we think about it...maybe for a few minutes...maybe for a few years...and then we say, "O.K. I believe there is a God, and He sent His son, and He died on the cross for my sins. Yep, I've decided to believe all that happened."

Wham! You're saved! NOT. That was thinking and learning, while important is not salvation. You may learn about WWI. You may read about the battles. You may travel to a museum and see some stuff. You may even talk to someone who fought in WWI. You became educated and accepted what you learned as fact. That's good, but that doesn't mean YOU fought in WWI. Believing the war happened doesn't make you a soldier.

Same thing with salvation. You may know some Bible stories. You may be able to name some books in the Bible. Maybe you can even name them all. You may have watched some History Channel documentaries and said, "Wow, that Jesus really did walk the earth." That is processing information. That is not getting saved.

People don't save. You don't decide the when, where, or how. God does. Being saved means you had a special, supernatural, not captured on video appointment with God. God watched you, knew your heart, and said, "Let's see what she does with a moment of clarity. Let's see what she does with a little revelation. Let's see what she does with Holy." In that specific moment, you see the deeper meaning of God...not just what His plan is, but what it means. In that moment, you will either fall to your knees, weep, and say YES...yes I'm Yours...or you will brush the moment off as having an emotional day...or worse you may say I see, but I don't want it because I like my life like it is.

If you can't remember the specifics of your moment...the when, where, and what happened, I wonder did you play church, or have you been saved? You should be able to point to a calendar and say...right here...right here is when I got saved...right here is when God did something to me that I didnt/dont fully understand, but I responded...take me I'm Yours.
Have you had that moment? Please don't be misled by the world today. Yes, we have altar calls, but those altar calls are to carve out time for the moment. Those moments in church services don't make salvation...they make room for salvation. I mean we live in a time where we medicate so we can pay attention. The altar call is to focus your attention to see...is this when God may move, or is this when he or she will respond and say...Yes, I am Yours!!!

Did you keep your appointment? What did you say to God?

Last Days

Eschatology is the study of end times. Before something can be studied there has to be evidence of it. We certainly have evidence of end times in the Word of God. I don't care who you are or what you believe. If you read the Bible, study the Bible, there is so much history and prophecy it will blow your mind. A good bit of scripture has come to pass. You can read chapter by chapter and see historically how it came to be. There is, however, prophetic words unfolding today and soon to come.

People think end times or the last days are way down the road. Actually, end times began with the death and ascension of Jesus to heaven. So, we have been in the last days for quite some time.

Jesus will one day return to earth. Christians, well non-Christians too, refer to this event as the Second Coming. Prior to His coming will be terrible, terrible, terrible times. Even worse than what we are facing today. What are we facing today? We, my friends, are living in the times where one world order is being formed. We are living in days when Islam will take over under the guise of peace, order, and prosperity. We are living in the times of the establishment of one world currency (already having meetings about that), one world religion (ask your college professors if Islam is spreading across college campuses),and a one world leader. Watch and see if someone very well-spoken with promises of peace steps forward soon. Personally, I think Obama is just the warm-up.

All of this to say, after a terrible period of time, Jesus will return and reign with peace...total and complete peace on earth...the kingdom of God on earth...on earth as it is in heaven. Well...I do NOT have to wait until the Second Coming to have that peace. I can have peace in my life right now...today and tomorrow. I already accepted God's offer to be with Him instead of being separated from Him. I opted in instead of opting out. I have also decided to be in that group that lets God be part of all of my life now...not just during a church service. I find the more obedient to God I am, the more at peace I am within myself, my home, the church, the world.

I'm not going to wait until death to have what I can have right now...my peace, my Savior, my Comforter, Strong Tower. I'm all in...right now. "May the peace of God be with you all."