Month: July 2018

And Who Do We Say That He Is? (You don’t say?)


This is more or less a tricky one as I believe most Christians are extremely shy and reticent to speak their minds in public.  For most of these ‘conservatives’ we can witnessed up in their pews and in corporate manner, profess the creeds of their faith.

Yet, when it comes to one-on-one in the general public, most Christians are silent.

They explain that they are NOT preachers or evangelists and that publicly they are well reserved.

And for most people, this is true. Most people are not showmen or charismatic per se, but are withdrawn and to themselves.

The sad off-spin of this is that more or less, we pay others to do what we should be doing. We don’t think we are good at it and thus, we pay ‘professionals ‘ to do our biding and preaching.

Now then, this is all well and fine, but we are ALL called to preach the good news of the Gospel.  And too, there are all kinds of ways to preach.

Writing such as this post would be one such example, but probably the greatest ‘preaching’ comes from personal testimonies.

And where some are good even in a crowded situation such as waiting in line at a supermarket, the ultimate is simply introducing the Lord to our neighbors and close friends.

Again, in today’s atmosphere, it is not consider ‘polite’ to introduce either politics or religion, but then again this is one of the Lord’s commands.

And the Lord is also clear on this:  if we are ashamed on Him, he will be ashamed of us.  We can’t have it both ways.

In these terms it is extremely important who we say Jesus is.  If He is nothing more than a personal and private deity, then we have missed the point. God is God of the universe not merely one of our own private worlds.

When Peter declared who Jesus was Jesus assured him that flesh and blood had not revealed it to him.

The same was true for us and in continuing the mission of Peter in the establishment of His church we are also to make our affirmations and declarations of the truth of Jesus.

Who Peter said Jesus was is important.  Who we say He is: is also important for our day.  The greatest damage is when we deny His presence by hiding His name from the world and others we should be a witness to.  Jesus  has made it clear that who He is to them is just as important as He is to us.  He is the Christ, the Son of God

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All the Power of a can of Alphabet Soup


Egads, please don’t say all those words that begin with one of those letters of the alphabet.  Please don’t.

So much for the power of words.

In today’s climate we have the f-word, the n-word and any other word that can somehow mysteriously decimate those who give these crude words power.

And too, of course…without much thought somehow ALL words begin with a letter of the alphabet so the extreme logical conclusion of all of this is that ALL words must be bad.

For example as we progress with our sensitivities:  we’ll have the:

A-Word

B-Word

C-Word

D-Word and so forth covering ALL words.

And as strange as all of this is:  the only truly profane words in today’s vocabulary are NOT the ones spoken about as ALL of those words could so easily be heard either on popular songs or in the theater.  Naturally, it is okay if they say it:  but not us.

The really, really profane words that can’t be mentioned today would be either God or Jesus.  No, you can’t speak of those as it might offend someone.

This would also include the Bible as that also is offensive.

No, not pornography:  that is okay as society would state that is a first amendment right and artwork or at least artistic expression.

Yet, in all of that: only God’s words are forbidden: they cause offense and considered profane.  Of course, if you were to speak of some other culture and their religion, then we must be respective and reserved for once again, we wish not to offend.

And so we have those who are ashamed of Jesus and His words.  The world too is afraid of its own words.  To put it simply, the world is afraid.

I think we should sort all of this out clearly through and through and then come up with:

The G-word for God

The C-word for Christ

The B-word for the Holy Bible.

And in actuality for in these words I feel something is right when the world cringes at these letters of the alphabet for in their fear it tells me, the Christian that these words truly have the very source of POWER.

It’s not all a matter of Understanding


At times, people do some very stupid things that we simply don’t understand:  mass murder, serial killing, lying and so forth.

For much of that we simply don’t understand.

Yet, more often than not it should matter.

A rabid dog is fully understandable and to that effect the dog is put down.  They are dangerous and even more, but we don’t let the dog go simply because we understand the disease.

The same can be said for people.  While we might understand WHY someone did something, it doesn’t mean it is okay that they did it.

For that matter I understand why the terrorist bombed the World Trade Centers and know too why they are bent out of shape at us over in Iraq, Iran and others.

And while I understand their motives, I don’t think their approach to the problem is okay with me.  In some terms, I even don’t blame them for what they do, yet would fight them to the end.

It is the same with the sinner for there is rationalization enough in all that we do, when we sin there is no need for rationalization.  Regardless, wrong is wrong.

Our families could be starving to death, but stealing is wrong.  Sure, I’d do it as well for my family, but it doesn’t make it any more less a wrong.

In fact, with understanding comes even more responsibility.  For much of what we do is out of impulse, even more is done as a result of calculation, the is, we eventually intended to do it all along. Guys, you can owe up to this with the many flings with girls.  In the back of your mind, you set it all up:  no you didn’t fully control events, but you were hoping and calculating for it to happen.  You can blame alcohol, loneliness or a thousand other factors, but you are to blame and it is wrong.

So you see, understanding should help in reconciliation, but it doesn’t always and in fact often doesn’t even slow us down.  When doing wrong, most of it is a matter of mind-set and has nothing at all to do with understanding at all.  Thus, we can expect it to happen.

Who is that Masked Man? (for all the bad that we do)


Every old guy is familiar with the old television program, The Lone Ranger.  And I think everyone also knows that he wears a mask.

However, for the rest of us, I am also persuaded to believe that we also all wear a mask.  For the better part our mask is invisible or at least camouflaged.

We are camouflaged in at least the respect that we are able to deflect our sins to others or on other circumstances.  When we do wrong, we say we are in a bad mood, or that we were crazy or that we didn’t understand or worse:  we blame others.

Out of convenience, I think we pick on the old standby:  Mr. Lucifer. Now isn’t that dandy?

For the truth is—at least 90% of all the bad we see can easily be attributed to us.

And where did Jesus say this all stemmed?  He said it comes from the desires of our heart.

And the desires of our heart can be both good and bad, but probably mostly bad.

And of course, we push all that aside and blame those insinuating circumstances—all on behalf of the wiles of the devil.

My point:  when are we ever going to owe up to the true problem of sin—that which we can do something about?  And that is the sin or sins that we commit and are responsible? There simply is no need to blame the evil of the world all on just one guy with a mask and red suit when there is enough guilt going around to name us.

We are the perpetrators.  We are in that sense, the bad guys.  And our mask is the mask of innocence for in fact, we are guilty.

The idea here is to remove the mask and expose the truth. And the truth is that we are sinners in need of a savior and a need for the truth to be exposed.

Jesus said: that we shall know the truth and the truth shall make us free.

I think perhaps the first step in all of this is that we need to be free from our self.  The first step in that clearly is to remove the mask.  That masked man who does all that bad—is us. We are that masked man.

Denying What We Know To Be True (or not)


At times, being a Christian can be tough.  This is true especially when we come face-to-face with the hard questions confronting believers and even those on the outside looking for answers.

For example, try to answer the concept that believers can ask for anything in the Name of Jesus and it will be done.  Okay, we all know this does not happen, but it comes straight from the mouth of Jesus.

In reality, we shirk around the issues, make excuses and even blame the believer for lack of faith if we even address the issue at all.  Never mind the idea that Jesus may not have been speaking to us:  after all, his words were addressed directly to his disciples: this doesn’t matter as the issue is not openly spoke of and thus, we have those who question the honesty of Christians as a whole.

In short, there are times when we as Christians deny aspects of faith that we really know nothing about. Rather than saying that we really don’t know, we come up with a whole bunch of guesses that truly fail to amend our questions to assurance.

For a while now we’ve been hit with the literature in terms of ‘Why bad things happen to Good people’.  Truthfully though, these are wild hunches that we come up with to make us feel better as we really don’t know the answers to these important questions.

The disciples were not much better off for constantly they had to ask their Master why he did things one way or another.  More often than not, they failed to understand.

And so it is also true to this day.

The point I’m making here is that Christians should owe up to the truth that on many things, we really have no idea as to the sovereignty of God. We don’t understand and should admit we don’t and quit explaining to others to make them think that we do.

And for all those especially gift and ‘wise’ men who say that they know and understand, take us on a tour through a hospital and we’ll watch your cures.  Speak to an amputee and renew his leg and then the evidence will speak against what I’m saying here.

Until then, we should embrace all our ignorance of God and truthfully confess what we know but also confess what we don’t.

Coming down to the wire, it is either true or it isn’t.  All that most people ask is to be honest:  we should admit or deny all those things of which we say we know.  Chances are—we don’t.

Connecting all the Dots


This is a big game we all play whenever attempting to understand or make sense of the Bible.  We go from one scripture and book to another in attempts to connect the dots.

All too often various bible truths are locked in and almost impossible to decipher. Often the meaning is simply hidden and not up front insomuch you can read it for exactly what it is.

Now then, this is where we have the problem.  This is why we have over 400 different Christian sects and so much disagreement as it is difficult to interpret some aspects and meaning of the bible.

And even in this post, some will disagree and state there is no confusion of the bible, but then they would be at a loss to explain why so many Christians are at odds with each other over theology.

At least one great hope we have is that when Christ returns, all this vagueness will be made clear.  What is foggy now and smoke-filled will be made known.

Until that time our efforts are to ferret out that great cross word puzzle of the bible to glean out the truths and inspiration for us to lead our lives.  Trust in the Lord, connecting the dots are a full time job and in attempts to apply meaning, the ultimate task is getting all the saints of the Lord’s Church to assist in putting together the collage of God’s word.  For indeed, it is our job—all of us duty to connect the dots for each other.

“Watch your damn Language”


That’s the way it goes at times.  A parent gets upset at others, in particular, teenagers and then shoots off the mouth in contempt.

More than likely we’ve all been there in one way or another. You know how it is…we tell kids NOT to do something and all the while this was the EXACT behavior we did as a kid.  Sure, sure we want better for our kids, but we did the exact same thing if not worse.

Other good ones are such as:  warning others not to smoke or drink or overeat or speed or stay up too late or take too many risks when again, all the while it is a profound miracle we are still alive at all as we violated all those rules and so much more.

It seems each generation is doomed to repeat all the mistakes of their ancestors.  Everyone believes they are invincible and that ‘It can’t happen to me’ until it is too late.

Even when the facts are staring us down in the throat most of us refuse to change our ways.

Think about it a moment if you will.

If you absolutely had to change your behavior TODAY or know certain death would ensue, would you or could you change?

Most of us probably could not and it is the same in becoming a Christian.  There is no way one can adapt to the character of a true Christian without the help and assistance of God through His Holy Spirit.

Without Him we are no better off than the parent who only prescribes good morals without the personal examples.  Which one are we?

As adults how much have we learned to instruct others?  Or when it comes right down to it are we stuck in such a situation where all we can do is curse out warnings about something as simple as language?  Our quest in salvation must be that which is above the norm.  We must progress to a whole other level to be who we were intended to be as a Christian.

What I haven’t Seen


Can you imagine a woman in Iran or Afghanistan or Syria or at least a dozen of other countries where the woman shouts, demands her rights?

Something is going on here, for some women are completely unabashed in the United States where they feel such a force of empowerment.  No, it’s not really there in actuality, but that doesn’t seem to matter.  They somehow feel it is there.

 

Look at what the Christian was forewarn and explained:

2 Peter 2:11

King James Bible
Whereas angels, which are greater in power and might, bring not railing accusation against them before the Lord.

Yet, look what we have here in America.  When attempting to reconcile myself with this, D-Day comes to mind.  During that fateful day, I don’t recall any soldiers at the time ranting or raving about their mighty brow.  No, in fact, all observations demand that all were humble and in fear and calling upon the Name of the Lord.

The answer here is obvious.  We are not speaking of a Godly people here for most of the time. We are talking of those who have elevated themselves above. And no, none of this is good.  And yes, they can demand all they want and then push another in front of them to guard and protect the right of which they declare is absolute and without

When we show up as despicable people


There are times when we appear before God and His church, not in our Sunday best, but with

Dirt, and tears and vomit and alcohol and tobacco and nervousness and fear and dejection and weakness and brokenness and hungry and sleepless and cold and alone.

In those times, we don’t have nice clean clothes.  Our clothes then have rips and tears and holes and burn marks and grime—deep grime that produces an odor that steams through the air.

In those times we are beaten and rejected and homeless and wayward and outside and vulnerable.

We come broken and fallen and despised and hated and useless and unwanted and shoved away and pushed back and beaten down.

In those days we depression drives us away and when we crawl and kneel and waver and stick out our hand for assistance:  we have Jesus.

And it is here we would ask:  what man is behind that hand:  behind that face, who loves us as our Father in Heaven loves and accepts us now and when events go even further south?

The real question here is are you so afraid of us?  Or will it be you who stands there proclaiming the Love of God?

Will it be YOU when I reach my hand out in those times—we show up as despicable people?  Or will we be standing there so all alone