Family

Most people think that "family" means our earthly loved ones.  To the child of God, it means being apart of the family of God which means belonging to Christ through redemption of the work that Christ suffered on the Cross for us in His due season.  This "family" is eternal where as our earthly one is not.  We love our earthly family, but the Body of Christ is our everlasting one whom we should esteem more highly.

The Lord blesses us with our loved ones here the way He designed in the beginning of time.  The sweet blessing of loving those in Christ is unspeakable joy.  The precious Body of Christ is a bond that goes beyond earthly bounds.  May we keep our thoughts on eternal things and know that our family waits for us in heaven.

Fairy Tale

There are those who are called "Agnostics".  These are people who wonder if there is a God or not.  Mark Twain was one was of those people.  He was a brilliant writer when it came to writing stories, but one who enjoyed making jokes about God.  He lived a hard life and was ahead of his time in many of his writings. 

What kind of life is lived without Christ?  I call it a "fairy tale" life that ends in sorrow for all eternity.  There are troubles in this world, but I would rather go through them with Jesus than to go it alone on my way to hell.  Hell is a real place and so is heaven, which do you prefer?  Like Mark Twain everyone would want heaven or else he would not have wondered about the existence of the Creator.

"human existence is a cosmic joke perpetrated by a chuckling God".  Mark Twain.

                                                                           

Positive Peale

Went into a bathroom today at Walmart.  There was a wheelchair in the special stall.  My heart breaks for people living in such sorrow.  It made me realize that my problems were very small.  I walked out of there!  What does this have to do with Norman Vincent Peale?  He was the first to preach about "Positive Thinking"...he was the very first Joel Olsteen.

Positive Thinking is a lie from the devil just as was "confess it and posess it" by Charles Capps back in the 1980's!  Why is it a lie?  You cannot tell God what to do!  He is not a bell boy in the sky who we hand our Santa Claus list to in prayer!  Some of these positive thinkers are very good with words.  They have always been around because there is nothing new under the Sun, only in different forms.  The bottom line is we cannot think our way into a better life.  Try convincing this to the woman in the wheel chair.  I dare you to think daily that you will be a millionaire in one month!  Our lives are only blessed from the Lord if we belong to Him and then He does the choosing of when and where.

You cannot think yourself "well".  Enough said.  

   

Charity

This might sound hard nosed, but it seems to me that "charity" has gotten out of control these days.  Growing up in the 1950's if we didn't have school supplies we did the best we could with what our parents could afford.  Aren't we called to help the "household of God" before the world?  Sure seems to me things have gotten reversed.  Having very little charity back then taught us that if we had no money we were not to expect anything!  It also taught us that even though we didn't have money, we still had our dignity!

The law of Vagrancy was enforced, so you did not see homeless people.  Due to drugs on the street and the divorce rate, we now see shelters.  We are closer to the coming of the Lord and society is now in the state of an empire who just might fall.  We give to kids clubs in Ukraine who teach them the Gospel, so I'm not saying that we should not give.  It has gone to the extreme here in the states.

II Thessalonians 3:6-9:



^6-9 Our orders—backed up by the Master, Jesus—are to refuse to have anything to do with those among you who are lazy and refuse to work the way we taught you. Don’t permit them to freeload on the rest. We showed you how to pull your weight when we were with you, so get on with it. We didn’t sit around on our hands expecting others to take care of us. In fact, we worked our fingers to the bone, up half the night moonlighting so you wouldn’t be burdened with taking care of us. And it wasn’t because we didn’t have a right to your support; we did. We simply wanted to provide an example of diligence, hoping it would prove contagious.

Saved or No?

Most of the time we are consumed with the thought, "Am I saved or not?".  I have to remind myself so many times that the blood of Jesus is able to save even me to the very uttermost.  His blood covers my sins of the past and of the future.  The enemy constantly stands before God accusing us of being ungodly.  Unfortunately, we listen to him far more than we listen to the Word of the Lord.

How can we know we are saved?  I John 5:13:

"I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life".

Our Spirit bears witness with the Holy Spirit of God.  We want Christ!  We know when we sin because the Holy Spirit convicts us and we repent.  We want what God wants.  He wants us to live Holy lives.  He wants us to put Him first above everything else.  He wants us to listen to His Word and obey it for this honors Him. 

We strive, but fall short of all these things and yet He still keeps us...II Timothy 2:13: 

 

"If we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself".  If you are reading this and agreeing dear friend, then His blood has covered you in redemption!  Rejoice!



The Visit

Shortley after my conversion in 1977, the pastor's wife asked me to go along with her to visit an elderly woman in Hospice care.  She was ninety years of age.  The daughter was there.  She was not a believer and was against us going in to see her Mother.  She became very angry and told us to leave.  The pastor's wife held the Bible up to her and told her that she would be back because the Lord wanted her to come back for one more visit.  To my knowledge she never went back.

When I went back to visit the elderly lady the daughter was not there.  As I sat by her bedside I talked to her about eternity and God.  She was in great pain.  She told me that she had grown up in the Church and had heard all of that!  She turned her face to the wall and refused to talk to me anymore, so I left.

On my way home I thought "The visit was a failure".  Being a brand new Christian I didn't know that the Word of God will either touch a soul when it goes out or it will drive that soul away.  How many people grow up in the Church and do not know God?  Today, I know that everyone wants to go to heaven, but not all will.  We would do well to think on what the Word says in II Corinthians 13:5: 

Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you-- unless indeed you fail the test?  John Calvin taught that one should not look to his works for assurance of salvation. He said we should look to Christ, the object of our faith.

Good Deeds

We are the most giving nation in the world.  We pour out our money, time, and sweat in times of need for others.  Our middle name is 'good deeds'.  Men and women travel thousands of miles in times of disaster to help people who are complete strangers.  The drive in our nation to help others in time of need is phenominal, to say the least!

The first responders are always people of the Church!  I thank God for them who act so fast that they have been noted as "Faith-Fema".  As you probably know, this article is not about praising people, but rather the Lord of those who act out of love for God.

God is the author of giving!  People give out of two reasons.  One, they do it for the glory of God.  Second, they do it to make themselves feel good and claim the glory!  This is something we must consider when we give or do any kind of good deed.  Those who are born again have the love of God in their heart and without this love our 'good deeds' are nothing.

I Corinthians 13:3



³ And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.