100 Years

Remembered an awesome thought today that gave me some real peace.  I have been fussing and fretting about some things in my life.  It came to me, "what will matter 100 years from now"?  We can get so wrapped up in the problems of this life that we tend to shut out what is really important!  There are three things people are consumed with daily: Will I have enough money to pay the bills this month?  Will I get cancer?  How can I make my life better?

Many years ago while we were having dinner with a friend, I was distressed about the price of gasoline.  He smiled and said, "Will it matter 100 years from now?"  I guess you could have hit me between the eyes with a big stick!  What will matter, really?  Eternity with Christ equals "peace"!  The pain I have today, those relationships that have gone bad, or trying to make the world a better place was suddenly of no great importance anymore.  We must remind ourselves that this life is "temporary".

Psalm 90:12

New International Version (NIV)

12 Teach us to number our days,
    that we may gain a heart of wisdom.

Sold!

The Pastor said, "If any of you have a financial need this morning, feel free to take from the collection plate".  I think I heard everyone in the room cringe, including myself.  This would mean that the first giver would get nothing and the last giver could get it all.  As it was passed around I saw only one person take from the plate.

LD Sowder is gone now, but he probably put on one of the best demonstrations of "pride" done in a church thirty years ago!  It called for the whole Church to trust God with their money.  In Acts 4:34 it says, "There was not a needy person among them, for qas many as were owners of lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold 35 and rlaid it at the apostles’ feet, andsit was distributed to each as any had need".

"Whosoever"

Some people will manipulate the Greek language to do their best to explain the word "whosoever" in John 3:16 to fit their beliefs about salvation.  This word is not "Past Tense"!  It is Present Tense!  "Today is the day of salvation" 2 Corinthians 6:2.  Past tense would imply that it means "everyone who has already been chosen who believe".  I had to take a step back and look at where I was spiritually.

I have always believed that the elect exists, but not quite the way this person does.  Theology has brought me down and trying to figure out why God does things the way He does!  I'm going back to my belief that God knew who would be saved before the foundations of the world were laid (Ephesians 1:4).  I do not believe that God would create people to go to hell.  I recognize the truth of needing to be born again in John 3:7.   I do not believe that everyone outside the belief of Calvinism is going to hell.  

I'm tired of those who suggest that you must be a Calvinist or you are damned to hell.  My God is not small enough to put Him in a little box of beliefs such as these and tie the string. Then put a great big stamp on the settled belief that the world be damned all to hell who doesn't help tie the bow!  This is not My God.  Jesus gave His life for the world and "whosoever" believes in Him will not perish, but have eternal life.  (John 3:16).

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.