2003

December 14, 2003

Mary Had a Little Lamb

I love to read about the great characters of the Bible, because the Bible doesn’t try to cover up their mistakes and sins. Noah was a great man, but he got drunk and laid around naked—two of his sons had to cover him up. When he woke up he cursed his other son for looking at him naked.

Abraham was a great man, but when he visited Egypt, he lied and said Sarah was his sister instead of his wife. Jacob was a man of faith, but he had history of dirty deals. Moses did some great things, but he murdered a man. King David, a man after God’s own heart, committed adultery and murder. Even the big fisherman writing this letter denied he knew Jesus and cursed in front of a teenage girl. The Bible is about real people who made tons of real mistakes.

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December 7, 2003

Hunger for Holiness

Being holy makes you different, but it doesn’t make you weird. To be holy, you don’t have to shave your head and carry a huge cross around in the streets. Or you don’t have to take a vow of chastity, poverty, silence, or move to a monastery. Being holy means living such a God-filled life of kindness and gentleness that your life becomes winsome to others. Consider the lifestyle of the most holy man who ever lived. Jesus hung out with drunkards and prostitutes. He told stories. He made people laugh. He was without sin, and he never compromised His Divine nature, but He had the kind of personality that the scriptures say “the common people heard him gladly.” The only people who didn’t like Jesus were the uptight religious leaders who were more interested in an external kind of holiness that was displayed by the way they dressed and the kind of food that ate or didn’t eat.

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November 30, 2003

Concerning Salvation

I’ve often been asked the question: How were people in the Old Testament time saved? How would you answer that question? You may be tempted to say, “By obeying the Old Testament Law.” If you think that, you’d be wrong. Nobody could obey the law. And what about Noah and Abraham? They lived and died before the Law was given through Moses.

Here’s the correct answer: People in the Old Testament time were saved in exactly the same way we are today—by grace through faith.

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November 16, 2003

Refined by Fire

When you’re being tested it’s important to remember God set a limit to what Satan could do in testing Job. In the same way, our trials may come from Satan, but they are filtered by God. When I make coffee every morning, I put a paper filter in the coffee maker. I don’t want to have the coffee grounds in my cup. It’s good to know that all of your trials have to pass through the filter of God’s grace, and the filter of His mercy, and the filter of His omnipotence.

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November 2, 2003

Reasons to Rejoice

I like the world “permanent.” So many things in life aren’t permanent. I have pants that claim to be permanent press, but I doubt they’ll still have their crease in a hundred years. Ladies go the beauty salon and get a permanent on their hair. Ladies how long does a permanent last? There’s something new called permanent cosmetics in which lipstick or other cosmetics are surgically applied to the face—see if that’s permanent in 1,000 years. Permanent markers aren’t really permanent either. But our home in heaven is as permanent as God Himself. You can rejoice that you have a permanent home in heaven. Jesus said, “In my Father’s house there are many rooms. I am going there to prepare a place for you.” (John 14:2) There is no inheritance tax, and no probate court can ever take it away from you. Your title and name have been recorded in the Lamb’s Book of Life in heaven. That’s a great reason to rejoice!

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October 26, 2003

Strangers in the World

The word “home” is a powerful word. It means so much more than a house or an apartment where you live; it’s a place dear to your heart. Have you ever lived somewhere or visited somewhere and you seemed “out of place?” In your heart you felt a longing and a tugging to return home? We call that homesickness. As you grow closer to Jesus through your relationship with Him, the more out of place you will feel in this world. You’ll find yourself becoming homesick for heaven, and the pleasures and allures of this world become less and less appetizing.

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October 19, 2003

When Your Life Seems Out of Control

We can’t control the weather. God is in control and He says he makes it rain on the just AND the unjust. There are a lot of things in life you can’t control but you should be able control how you react to adverse circumstances. If you wake up on a gloomy, rainy morning, there’s absolutely nothing you can do about it. But if you allow that gloomy, rainy morning to make you gloomy, depressed and downcast–that’s the real problem. Because you should be able to control how you react to circumstances.

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October 12, 2003

How to Deal with Difficult People

When God is trying to teach you how to love, don’t think for one moment He is going to send some wonderful, kind, sweet, loveable person into your life. He’s going to toss some old bear of a person into your life and He’s going to say, “You love on that one for awhile, and then I’ll send you another one.” That’s the challenge. That’s why He said, “This is why you need my power to do it.”

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September 28, 2003

To Thine Own Self Be True

The word “tolerance” has undergone the same change. Tolerance used to mean, “respecting the beliefs and practices of others without agreeing with them.” The new use of the word tolerance means that I must not only allow but I must accept the beliefs and practices of those with whom I disagree. This new tolerance came to be in a postmodern world where objective truth no longer exists. There are only subjective opinions and if someone’s truth differs from your truth you must accept it as being as valid as your truth; if you don’t, you are intolerant.

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September 21, 2003

How to Keep Stress from Becoming Distress

Have you ever noticed how when a rubber band is kept at its maximum tension for a long time that it loses its elasticity? That can happen to people. When you perform at your maximum stress level for a long time, you can lose your effectiveness. We all know what happens. Sometimes the pressure builds up until finally it snaps and there is a breakdown. Have you ever heard someone say, “He had a nervous breakdown.”? Nerves do not break down. Nerves may be severed, but they don’t break down; PEOPLE break down when they are subjected to excessive stress.

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September 21, 2003

Let Your Conscience be Your Guide

When a person continually ignores the dictates of his conscience, the conscience can become faulty. You can take a perfectly good compass that is pointing north, and you can hold a magnet next to the compass, and the needle will rotate and no longer be a reliable guide. The same thing happens to your conscience when you expose it to repeated sin—it no longer is reliable guide. Your conscience doesn’t become ruined instantly, it happens gradually.

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September 14, 2003

God Moves in Mysterious Ways

Many people think God’s ways are so mysterious they are beyond our understanding. Perhaps the phrase “God moves in mysterious ways” was coined because in the Bible, God often did the unexpected. For instance, instead of using Moses when he was 40 years old, God waited until Moses was 80—that’s moving in a mysterious way! Instead of using Gideon’s army of 32,000 soldiers, God told Gideon to whittle his ranks down until only 300 soldiers remained—that’s pretty mysterious. God seldom acts or moves the way we think He should.

Instead of having the Messiah, the King of the Jews born in a great palace, He was born to a peasant girl in a barn. Instead of having the Messiah placed on a great throne of gold, God had the Messiah nailed to a cross of wood. Unexpected? God specializes in the unexpected.

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September 14, 2003

How to Deal with Emotional Burn-Out

We’ve got to learn God’s rhythm of work and rest, work and rest, work and rest. Why do you think God rested on the seventh day of creation? Because He was tired? No. God never gets tired. He was trying to teach us that if you work all the time and stay wound up all the time and you don’t stop and rest on a regular basis, you’ll wear yourself out spiritually, relationally and physically.

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September 7, 2003

When God Shuts One Door, He Opens Another

Have you ever been excited about an opportunity and suddenly found the door closed? The worst thing you can do is to camp out at that closed door. Don’t quit—keep on moving, and God will direct your paths. But what about “waiting on the Lord?” Waiting is not a passive experience. Waiting on the Lord is acting like the waiter or server in a restaurant who takes your order and brings your food. Waiting on the Lord is asking God, “May I take Your order? Is there anything else You need?” God doesn’t tip—but His retirement benefits are out of this world!

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September 7, 2003

How to Stay Sane in a Changing World

It is not change that creates stress. Is is our resistance to change that causes our stress. Why is that? Because we like the old ways; we like the old days; we like the old things. We don’t like to be disturbed out of our comfort zone. Zig Ziglar said, “The only person who likes change is a baby with a wet diaper; and even HE cries!” Our tendency is to hang on to that which is comfortable. Focus on that which NEVER changes, those things which you can anchor your soul to.

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August 31, 2003

To Err is Human; To Forgive Divine

Jesus taught we should not be the kind of person who seeks to get even. In Matthew 5:38-39 He said, “You have heard that it was said, ‘eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.” “An eye for an eye” may sound cruel, but at the time this Old Testament law was given, it was merciful. Human nature demands if someone blinds you in one eye, you want to kill them. The Old Testament law taught limited revenge. If they broke out your front tooth, you should limit your revenge to breaking out their front tooth. But someone said “An eye for an eye would leave the whole world blind” so Jesus introduced the concept of grace-not responding in anger, but giving people what they need—forgiveness. It was a revolutionary concept, and it still is. Forgiveness is expensive, but it’s not nearly as expensive as seeking revenge.

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August 24, 2003

God Won’t Put More on You Than You Can Bear

To us, a broken dish is worthless, or a broken television is no good, but to God, brokenness makes a vessel more usable. God uses broken things. The little boy brought the five loaves and two fish to Jesus and He broke them in order to feed thousands. When Mary brought the spikenard of perfume to anoint Jesus, the vessel had to be broken before the fragrance filled the room. And the body of Jesus had to be broken before we could be forgiven. My personal prayer continues to be that God will use my life to give Him glory, and I realize I must be broken for Him to do that.

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August 17, 2003

God Helps Those Who Help Themselves

“God helps those who help themselves” it is seldom spoken in kindness and usually spoken as a harsh statement challenging someone to get up from their pity party and get to work. This is a half-truth because the Bible does teach God won’t bless laziness. Let’s imagine that you need a job to feed your family. You should get on your knees and ask God to give you a job, but then you shouldn’t get up and sit by the phone and just expect some employer to call you out of the blue and offer you a job. Don’t do anything until you pray, but then get out and knock on doors and put in applications. That’s what Jesus meant when He told us to ask, seek, and knock. We’ve all met slackers who created the need for such a biblical misquote. Laziness is part of our sinful nature. Some people would love to just lay around and have God put food in their mouth and then massage their jaws to chew it, and tickle their throats so they’ll swallow it.

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August 10, 2003

Money is the Root of All Evil

Let’s face it: It’s not money people love—it’s the things that money buys—all the stuff. When your life is driven by a desire to have more and more stuff, you can suffer from what I’m calling possession obsession. Americans are notorious for spending money they don’t have to buy things they don’t need to impress people they don’t even like! This obsession with getting more and more is what the Bible warns against. Paul writes in verse 9 that people who are driven by a desire to get rich fall into a trap. It’s the money trap–and there are many money myths that catch people in the money trap.

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August 3, 2003

Spare the Rod, and Spoil the Child

Sometimes when a toddler stomps his foot and says, “No!” Parents laugh and say, “Isn’t that cute?” But it’s not cute, it’s dangerous. When your children willfully disobey you, and you spank them, you are teaching them an important life lesson: They are not a law unto themselves. Someone (parents) has moral authority over him and there are unpleasant consequences to disobeying authority. If your child doesn’t learn that lesson they will have trouble in school, trouble at work, and trouble with the law. Most kids only need about four or five real spankings in their life to get the point—although it took many more than that for me. There are some things a child can learn through the seat of his pants that otherwise he would have to learn later in life at the cost of much greater suffering.

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July 27, 2003

Cleanliness is Next to Godliness

Salvation is like a bath. What a bath does to your body, salvation does to your soul—it cleans you up on the inside. But as we walk in a dirty world, our spiritual feet get dirty, and we have to stay in His Word to stay pure and clean. The Bible says Jesus makes His church holy by “cleansing her by the washing with water through the word.” (Ephesians 5:26) God’s desire is that we be holy and pure. Soap is good for cleansing the outside of the body, but doesn’t get below the skin into the heart.

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July 13, 2003

It’s Not the End, It’s Just the Beginning!

When you meet the living Christ, you won’t have to TRY to be a witness; you’ll naturally BE a witness. That’s what happens when you know Jesus. You won’t be ashamed to tell the whole world how much He means to you. That’s what the disciples did, and because of that, it wasn’t the end, it was just the beginning!”

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July 6, 2003

The End of Your Grave Problems

This planet is littered with the graves and tombs of millions of people-some are famous tombs, but most are obscure. The pyramids in Egypt are really tombs, the Taj Mahal in India is a mausoleum, and the Ming Dynasty Emperors are buried in massive tombs, with each complex covering almost 100 acres. Millions of Muslims visit the tomb of Mohammed in Medina each year. But there is no tomb of Jesus, no burial shrine. We don’t know if the tomb I showed you was really where He was buried or not—because wherever it was, He was only there for three days. Today, we don’t visit some holy site and say, “That’s where the body of Jesus is.” Because no one has ever produced the corpus delecti—the body of Jesus. One of the greatest proofs of the resurrection is the fact that nobody has ever produced the corpse of Jesus. The Romans couldn’t be convicted of murder in an American courtroom today because there is no corpse. Even if you’re a skeptic, you’ve got to answer the question: What happened to the body of Jesus?

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June 29, 2003

The Extreme Love of the Cross

God’s judgement against sin is like a raging wildfire—nothing can stop it. The only way you and I can escape it is to stand where the fire of God’s judgement has already fallen. And the only safe place is to stand at the cross of Jesus, where God’s judgement against sin has already burned.

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June 15, 2003

Three Cross-Roads

When the thief on the cross prayed His prayer of faith, Jesus responded with a three-fold promise. He said, “Today, you will be with me in paradise.” He didn’t say, “tomorrow” or “in three days” or “in forty days when I ascend” or “next year” or “in a thousand years.” He didn’t say, “after you’ve been baptized” or “after you’ve gone through catechism” or “after you’ve spent a few years in purgatory.” No, He told Jason, “TODAY, you’ll be with me.” The great part of this promise for us is the moment a Christian dies they can be with the Lord in paradise. The Bible doesn’t teach the doctrine of limbo, or purgatory, or soul sleep. We are told when a Christian dies they are “absent from the Body and present with the Lord.” (II Corinthians 5:8) If you’ve trusted Jesus, then the moment you die, you can claim that part of His promise, “Today, you’ll be with me in paradise.”

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June 8, 2003

The Place of the Skull

As a boy, when I read in the Bible that Pilate had Jesus “scourged” I didn’t understand that word. I remember asking my Pastor, Brother Fred, what that word meant. He could have replied it meant to “be beaten” and he would have been technically correct. Instead he gave me an answer I’ll never forget. He said, “David, that was when a cruel Roman soldier turned the bare back of Jesus into hamburger meat.” Don’t forget—at any moment during His torture He could have escaped. He could have said, “God these people aren’t worth this kind of pain and suffering. He told Peter He could have called 12 legions of angels to rescue Him. But He didn’t—because He loves us.

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June 1, 2003

What’s Your Verdict?

Judas never came crawling to Jesus begging Him to forgive him—Jesus just forgave him. Do you have a Judas in your life? You may feel as if you have been betrayed and hurt by someone. They have abused your trust and wounded you in a way that is still painful even though it happened years ago. What are you waiting for? Do you want them to crawl and beg you to forgive them? Do yourself a favor—forgive them anyway. Nothing will make you more miserable than carrying about a bitter spirit of unforgiveness. Arthritis is pretty painful, but there’s something worse than arthritis—grudgitis. When you harbor unforgiveness it makes your food taste bad, it keeps you from sleeping well, and it will send you to an early grave.

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May 25, 2003

The Bitter Cup of Suffering

If you can come to the place in your prayer life when you say, “God I take my hands off my life. I remove my plans and I’ll do what you want me to do” then you’ll be able to trust God’s plan for your tough circumstance.

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May 18, 2003

How to Survive Satan’s Sifting

Satan wants to sift you to bring your imperfections and flaws to the surface. But Jesus is praying for you, your faith won’t fail. So even if have failed the Lord before, don’t quit, run back to him and He can still use you.

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May 11, 2003

Uninvited Guests at the Last Supper

Judas represents all the people who have the outward appearance of being a follower of Jesus, but they have never been cleansed from within. These are people speak the correct religious jargon, they give their money to their church, they attend the services, but they have never been cleansed from their sinful condition. Don’t be too quick to condemn Judas. He serves as a warning to us all that we can be close to the things of Jesus, yet in your heart be as spiritually dead as Judas, for God reveals all of us has a Benedict Arnold and a Judas inside of us. His name is Adam, Old Adam, Nature, Sinful Nature. He would like nothing more than to betray Jesus for money or fame. He would like nothing more than to hand Jesus over to his enemies.

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May 4, 2003

Back to the Future, part 2

When you read the words of Jesus, you are going back to the future. He spoke of an event that hasn’t yet happened–His return to this world. Will you be ready? You can’t say it’s unexpected, because the signs are everywhere. Jesus warned the worst thing that could happen would be for the Day of His return to come on a person unexpectedly, like a trap.

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April 27, 2003

Back to the Future, part 1

Many of the ancient Greek philosophers, especially the Stoics, taught that like a wheel, history repeats itself. Some said each cycle lasted 3,000 years. They really believed “What goes around comes around.” But the Bible doesn’t teach History is like a circle. The Bible teaches all of history is moving in a linear direction toward one final cataclysmic event.

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April 20, 2003

On the Road with Him

Do you know why God created mankind? He wanted to have some people with whom He could relate—somebody He could talk to and walk with. In Genesis we read after God created man and woman, He walked with them in the garden of Eden in the cool of the evening. He wanted to have a fellowship with them. After they disobeyed God’s orders, their sin ruined that fellowship. On the evening they sinned, God came walking through the Garden and Adam and Eve hid from Him. In Genesis 3:9 God asked the first question recorded in the Bible. “Where are you?” He knew where they were, He just wanted them to admit why they were hiding. At that point, they fell out of their relationship with God. Since that time, God has been bringing men and women back into a right relationship with Him. He still wants to walk with you and talk with you on a daily basis. But some people are still hiding from God.

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April 13, 2003

Pennies for Heaven

If you are going through a tough time, I have a Word for you. It’s found in Psalm 34:18: “The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.” God never says your heart won’t break. He never promises your spirit won’t be crushed. But He says, “I’m aware of your pain. I know what you’re feeling. I care. I’ll help you through it.” You may be battling cancer right now. Some of you are still grieving because someone you love has died. Others of you are out of work—you need a job. Some of you are dealing with children who are behaving in a way that makes you wonder if someone exchanged babies with you when they were born. Some of you are tired from being the primary care giver to a sick loved one. I could go on for hours…and I still might not name your tough circumstance. But God knows, and He cares.

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April 6, 2003

One Bride for Seven Brothers

Jesus said we’ll be LIKE the angels, but He said we ARE the children of God. Does that mean we’ll all look and act like little children in heaven? Is God going to be operating a day care in heaven? No, it means we’ll have the same simple, carefree attitude of kids. When you were a kid, life was so simple it consisted of just getting up, getting dressed, and eating the food placed in front of you. Somebody else was handling all the details of your life. In the same way, I believe heaven will allow us to be kids again—God’s children. There will be no deadlines, no funerals, no hospitals, no wars, no arthritis, no Alzheimer’s. You won’t have to spend time worrying about your kids and grand kids—you’ll BE a kid! As Isaiah says, “the former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind.” (Isaiah 65:17)

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March 30, 2003

The Shocking Truth About God

Over 90 percent of Americans claim to believe in God—but what kind of God do they trust? For some, He is the nice, neat God they salute for an hour a week and then live the rest of their lives as if He doesn’t exist. For others, their religious rules and rituals have become a substitute for knowing God. Jesus Christ visited planet earth 2,000 years ago to teach what God is really like. In the parable of the tenants, He reveals four foundational aspects of the nature of God. You may be shocked to learn the truth!

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March 23, 2003

Good Answers to Bad Questions

There’s a standard everyone uses to determine what is truth or error and your basis for truth is either man’s wisdom or God’s Word. The Bible calls man’s wisdom the “wisdom of this world.” Some people have chosen to reject the Bible as an outdated book of fairy tales and myths. They have designated their source of authority to be what some other person has said or written, or in most cases, their source of authority is their own intelligence.

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March 16, 2003

A Day of Cheers and Tears

In Jesus’ day, horses were the Ferraris–donkeys were the pickup trucks. If you think you’re emotionally and spiritually more like an old donkey than a graceful horse, congratulations! The Bible says, “God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong-so that no one could boast before Him.” (I Corinthians 1:27)

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February 16, 2003

Use It or Lose It!

If you lie in a hospital bed for a week without exercise, you’ll lose your strength. Atrophy occurs when muscles aren’t used. That’s why physical therapy, exercise, and rehabilitation are so important after you have been hospitalized. It’s true of your muscles and your mind. It’s also a spiritual truth. If you don’t use God’s resources you may lose them. If you aren’t actively doing business for God, you may lose the ability or the desire to do business for God. Are you investing time for God? Are you obeying the truth He has given you? Are you taking advantage of those opportunities to serve Him?

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February 9, 2003

Zacchaeus: Out on a Limb for Jesus

Zacchaeus had an itch in his heart all his wealth couldn’t scratch. He probably didn’t even know what he needed. He just knew he desperately needed something. When he heard Jesus was in town, he was hoping Jesus might have the solution to his problem. He didn’t know it, but he was looking for God.

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