He Loves Me! He Loves Me Not!

He Loves Me!  He Loves Me Not!

We are all familiar with the game that young children play when they have a crush on someone.  You know the one where they pick up a flower and each time they pick off a pedal declare "He loves me."  Next pedal, "He loves me not."  Until finally the last remaining pedal declares if the crushee has the same feelings. 

So what does this have to do with anything?  Good question.  Years ago when I was youth pastoring, I had great youth leaders working with me.  They loved God, were hard workers and faithful.  Each week we would get together and I would ask them one by one how their week was going.  Over time I began noticing a trend.  On the weeks that these leaders spent "quality" time with God their response was always, "I am having a great week."  However, on the weeks that they were busy or for some reason did not spend "quality" time with God they would seem down and almost apologetic when they described how their week was going.  How many of us have done the same thing?  We play "He loves me!   He loves me not!" with God simply based on our works.  If we feel we have hit the mark in our own labors (i.e prayed enough, read the bible enough, witnessed enough, etc) then God is happy with us.  Woe on us if we missed day.  Oh how God must be disappointed in me now.

It was during this time that God began teaching me about Grace.  What a controversial subject.  I am thoroughly convinced the devil will do everything he can to keep believers from understanding the truth of Grace.  I bet most of you have heard Grace described as "greasy grace"  by some religious person.    What ignorance.  Recently I read a post on facebook where somebody said that grace was just an excuse carnal Christians use in order justify sin.  Wow!

So here it goes. . . . . All I am doing is setting a foundation of what I will be blogging about in the weeks to come.  After years of studying the Bible I have determined that Grace is one of the most important subjects in the life of a believer, therefore the subject I went to spend most of my time understanding.

Ready. . . . How important is Grace?  To begin with - Grace IS WHAT SAVED YOU.  Eph. 2:8-9 "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—  not by works, so that no one can boast. ."

The Gospel is the GOOD NEWS OF GRACE:

Acts 20:24 "so that I may finish my race with joy, and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.

Acts 14:3 "Therefore they stayed there a long time, speaking boldly in the Lord, who was bearing witness to the word of His grace, granting signs and wonders to be done by their hands."

How Many Galaxies are There Anyways?

What would you do if they give you a one time check for the budget used just to explore for new galaxies?  Billions every year are used for space exploration.  They say it beneifts us, but it sounds more like some people are just getting the thrill of seeing these amazing creations of God before anybody else. 

So the answer to my title question:  Nobody knows!  Infact they are constantly finding new galaxies they never knew existed.  Wouldn't it be cool to visit an observatory and see trhough some high powered telespope and see other galaxies or just the planets in our own?

Well, there is something in the Bible that says that we will never fully understand as well.  Are you ready?  It is how much God loves you and me.  "and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge" Eph 3:19  In fact this verse is part of a prayer that Paul the Apostle prayed for the believers in Ephesians.  He prayed for a few things in this verse, but I am just going to focus on love. 

In verse 17 the Bible states "that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love."    What a prayer. . . .to have a foundation based on our understanding of God's love for us.  The greater our understanding of His love for us the easier it will be to believe that He has good things in store for us and wants to use us.

Let me illustrate this the best I can.  As a parent I have a deep love for my boys.  They are constantly on my mind, and I will do all that I can to take care of them and make sure they have a good life.  You know what ~  Even thought I hug and kiss my boys and do good things for them, they will never fully understand how much I love them.  I never understood this until I had my first son.  If that is the case with my relationship with my children, how much more does God love us beyond our comprehension?

John 3:16 says, " For God SO loved the world."  He didn't just love the world He made appoint of emphasizing that He SO loved.  John, the apostle, had such a revelation of God's love, even while writing about himself he called himself "the Apostle whom Jesus Loved."  No wonder his books declare thing like "God is love, "faith works by love" etc. 

How about this verse, "I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me"  Galations 2:20  How many of you have heard that verse quoted before.  What a great verse!  However, this is only half of it.  Paul also had a revelation of God's love.  Lets look at the whole verse.  "I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me."   Now I get it. . . . The revelation to us here is that Jesus us loved me so much that He gave himself for me.  In return I will now give my life for Him. 

I don't want to write a book in this blog on love, but my prayer is that we get a greater revelation of how much God loves us.  He loves in spite of our imperfections and failures, He loves us because that is who He is.

Romans 8:37-39

"But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. "

An Assassination, A Smoking Gun and a Conspiracy Theory!

A couple of times when Angie and I lived in Texas we visited the spot where President John F Kennedy was assassinated.  Each time we were met by peddlers of books, magazines and newspapers.  All with photos of the event and stories of different conspiracy theories of who, how and why JFK was assassinated.  Each theory sounded plausible.  I mean was it a coincidence that the only suspect was, himself, assassinated shortly after being arrested?  Hear is my favorite, during our last presidential campaign, with a slip of the tongue, why did John McCain call JFK's assassination a "intervention?"  (Look the clip up on youtube)  Why in the days leading up to this tragedy were the Secret Service Agents repeatedly told to back off of their normal post surrounding the Presidents motorcade? 

No matter what your theory might be there is only ONE truth.  Everything else can look good in writing, sound great and even resemble the truth.  However, there is still only ONE truth.

As believer no matter what trials or circumstances life may bring we have to realize that there is only one truth.  We need to be able to boldly proclaim that either God's Word is wholly true or our circumstances are.  Both can't be true, if they don't line up.

I recently shared with a friend, whose family is going through the biggest trial of their life, a verse in Jonah.  Imagine being Jonah.   God has given you a command to go and prophesy over the Ninevites that they need to repent or perish.  However, (thank you Veggie Tales) the Ninevites are fish slappers. 

Out of fear Jonah jumps on a ship, hoping to run away from God and His command.  You  know the story:  A great storm arises, they cast lots and find out it's because of Jonah and they throw him overboard.  After he gets thrown overboard he is swallowed by a great fish.

In the belly of the fish, with certain doom looming, he declares "They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy."  Jonah 2:8  Is it possible that Jonah had such confidence in God and the command he was given that he was saying, "Those that observe there circumstance above the promise and command of God (i.e. about to die in the belly of the fish) forsake their own mercy?"  Well the outcome is clear. . . God used this experience to cause an entire nation of fish worshippers to repent.  What a story it must have been for Jonah to explain how God saved him from the belly of the great fish.

Well if that is not enough to convince you how about these:

For no matter how many promises God has made, they are "Yes" in Christ. And so through him the "Amen" is spoken by us to the glory of God.  2 Cor 1:20 -- We say the "SO BE IT"

Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. James 1:17 -  God does not change -  He is not good one day and bad the next.  He is always good. 

And finally. . . . this one could be a blog on it's own.  Abraham and Sarah, well past age to conceive children, believed god.  "That is what the Scriptures mean when God told him, "I have made you the father of many nations." This happened because Abraham believed in the God who brings the dead back to life and who creates new things out of nothing."  Romans 4:17

All of us go through trials and tribulations.  The difference is going to be how we handle them.  Are they going to to overcome us or are we going to overcome them, by standing on the truth. . . . Which is God's Word.  Jesus said, "I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world."  John 16:33

The Lessons of a Fat Man and Rangoons!

Ok. . . .So now that I have your attention.  What does a fat man and a rangoon have to teach us.  Well it all began at a Chinese restaurant.  Have you ever noticed that at most Chinese Restaurants there is big fat Buddha statue?  Believe it or not the superstition behind the idols of Buddhism have great effect on its followers.

As I was sitting there I began to think about Paul, the apostle, when he was in Athens.  Act 17:16 "Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was stirred in him, when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry."  Imagine what emotions he experienced as he realized the people around him were very religious, but had been lied to and were serving false gods.  My guess is that his emotions ranged from anger all the way to sorrow.  How could so many people believe the same lie?  

Paul new what they needed and immediately began challenging them in their synagogues.  Act 17:17 "Therefore disputed he in the synagogue with the Jews, and with the devout persons, and in the market daily with them that met with him. "

As I sat in this restaurant I began thinking about Paul's response to their idolatry.  How would you have responded?  Would you tell them they were all serving a lie?  They were lost? Or even more extreme that their idolatry was condemning them to hell?  Maybe you would have taken the mercy road and just let them know that "Jesus loves them and has a plan for their life."

You know what Paul did. . . . . He took their own religion and from their own beliefs presented the Gospel to them.  Act 17:22 "Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars' hill, and said, Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious." Act 17:23 "For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you. "

Wow!  What a response.  God gave him so much wisdom in this situation.  Rather than telling them they were wrong, he took them right were they were at and presented the Gospel to them.  To the unknown God.

We live in a time that there is a lot of skepticism about religion.  People are exchanging the glory of the incorruptible God and replacing it with idols of there own choosing (Rom 1:23).

What can we learn from Paul that will make us effective soul winners?

1.  Paul spoke up.   It doesn't do any good for us to see our friends and neighbors lost and hurting and not to say anything.

2.  Its about winning them not offending them.  I have watched a lot of well meaning Christians present Jesus in a way that would me want to walk away from them.  Remember, "It's the kindness of God that leads us to repentance." 

3.  God will give you wisdom to be effective.  Rely on the Holy Spirit.  Maybe a Word of Knowledge or a Word of Wisdom will be just what is needed to change a life, change a family, change a culture.

Thanks For Visiting!

Thanks For Visiting!

I started this blog so that I would have a place to encourage my friends. Why when I was younger (haha) we all used Myspace and Myspace had a blog feature. I miss that! I enjoy writing.

My prayer is that if you spend time reading any of these blogs that it will encourage you in your walk with God. We are all in this together.

Hebrews 10:25 (The Message) "So let's do it - full of belief, confident that we are presentable inside and out. Let's keep a firm grip on the promises that keep us going. He always keeps His word. Let's see how inventive we can be in encouraging love and helping out, not avoiding worshiping together as some do but spurring each other on, especially as we see the big Day approaching."

Thanks for taking time to visit! ~ Jeremy

The Beginning!

It has been quite a while since I have actually updated my status on Facebook. Well I thought I would do so by way of a mini-blog. (The one feature I miss from Myspace) As some of you know, about four years ago we founded a ministry called "kairos." (www.kairosmoment.org) I define Kairos as "a moment ~ defined not by seconds, but by impact." I am in one of those moments. I love it!

The Bible gives us very clear instructions on how we can have our own Kairos Moment.  Acts 3:19 says "Repent therefore and be converted so that times (Seasons, Kairos Moments) of refreshing can come from the presence of the Lord." 

Most of us have been taught that repentance is something done when a person renounces sin, but it is so much more!  The word repentance comes from a Greek word "metanoia."  This word is a compound word that, when together, means "to think differently after."  Yes it can be defined as a feeling of remorse, but there is more to it! Every time you hear the Word preached, study your Bible, or hear from God it has the potential to cause you to "to think differently after" and make an adjustment that lines you back up with God. My prayer for you is that you to would experience your own Kairos Moment - You'll know it when it happens! There is no doubt

Nov 22, 2008 A Hundred Years From Now

A Hundred Years From Now

~Warren Parker~

It will not make much difference, friend,

A hundred years from now,
If you live in a stately mansion

Or a floating river scow.

If the clothes you wear were tailor-made,

Or just pieced together somehow,
If you eat big steaks, or beans, and cake,

A hundred years from now.

Won't matter what your bank account,

Or the make of car you drive;
For the grave will claim all your riches and fame,

And the things for which you strive.

There's a deadline that we all must meet,

No one will show up late;
It wont matter then, all the places you've been;

Each one will keep that date.

We will only have in eternity,

What we gave away on earth.
When we go to the grave, we can only save

The things of eternal worth.

What matter, friend, the earthly gain

For which some men will bow;
For your destiny will be sealed, you see,

A hundred years from now.

A man's greatest care should be for that place where he lives longest; therefore eternity should be his scope.  ~  Thomas Manton