Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts from 2014

Christmas, Just Believe

Year after year Christmas comes and goes and year after year the Lord has been gracious to all who have been able to see how the birth of the Christ child has changed the world. It is true that no other life on earth has ever impacted the world as much as that of Jesus. Even though there are those in the secular community that refuse to acknowledge it, early church leaders used the birth of Jesus to split time vis-à-vis AD and BC--a recognition that is still used widely today. But Jesus was much more than just the splitting of time. Jesus' impact has been the reason why so much good has gone on in the world. Hospitals, Nursing Homes, Schools, Universities, Orphanages, Shelters, and Hospitals can all find there roots in Christian outreach and goodwill. But even those wonderful things do not fully explain what Christmas is all about. The birth of Christ was God descending from the throne of heaven to take the form of humanity in order that He might become like us--even for just

A Proper Perspective on Thanksgiving

Often I have been asked how a person can hold to a spirit of thankfulness when there is so much suffering and pain in the world. It's as if people think that if God really did exist that there would be no suffering; as if God was indebted to us to make sure we lived in perfect harmony and were protected from every form of suffering. Honestly, it is a very absurd way of looking at things. Even when Jesus performed His earthly ministry he did not bring an end to suffering. His words in Matthew 11 picture how God interacts with humanity and it is not to keep every accident that could occur from harming us. He said: Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. (Matthew 11:28-29 NKJV) Jesus' words were not I will come to you and heal you of every form of suffering and pain; I will protect you from every freak accident and keep a

The Sifted Generation: Tested, Tried and Found True

  Sifted This book is available on Amazon , Barnes & Noble ,  Thomas Nelson - WestBow Press , and your favorite online bookstore.   The Sifted Generation Here is the Preface to my new book, soon to be released. My prayer is that we open our eyes to the soon coming of Christ. In the book, the Sifting I refer too is not just the identification of believer s but also the identification of those who do not have a relationship with Jesus Christ. While Christian believers are being prepared to be caught up into the clouds with Jesus, I Thess. 4:13-18, the unbelieving are being prepared for something else. This book will open your eyes to several events about to take place which will have major a major affect over the entire world. Be prepared and make sure when the final sifting occurs you are found in the company of Christ! Preface: The phrase “to sift,” literally means to separate. In the Bible it is used as an agrarian term representing the sifting of chaff from

Allowing God's Word to Transcend the Ordinary

  Is today's 21st century church slacking when it comes to Matthew 28:19 and Jesus' command to "make disciples?" In having conversations with many different people from many different church assemblies over the past year I have gathered that the majority are just content with Jesus just being Savior. A cursory examination with results gleaned from these many conversations has revealed that many are simply content to spend 1 hour or so with God, usually on a Sunday morning, as long as no other activity takes precedence. I thought to myself, how can they do that? How can this be? Just one hour with God and that was enough to carry them? Was I missing something? A little further conversation however, revealed fruit commensurate with their confession; for their lives did not look much different than those I have conversed with who do not profess a relationship to Christ. Sure, their language was not as bad and they seemed a little more family oriented but having a ze

ISIS, Just One of the Faces of Evil

Thugs, Murderers, Barbaric Humanity in Action     Evil is all around us. “If only it were all so simple! If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?” ― Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn , The Gulag Archipelago 1918-1956   Today the world stares at evil as personified in ISIS and their barbaric, savage acts. All over the news we see and hear of the butchery of these savages bent on an ideology that promotes the destruction of all who they believe are infidels and to willingly do this in obeisance to their religion of hate. Satan is the mastermind behind all things false--all things deceptive. What the true God of Heaven is allowing mankind to see is the outward manifestation of what evil truly is. During WWII Hitler

Uncertainty and Hope

EYE HAS NOT SEEN, NOR EAR HEARD, NOR HAVE ENTERED INTO THE HEART OF MAN THE THINGS WHICH GOD HAS PREPARED FOR THOSE WHO LOVE HIM.        Just recently Kirby Anderson wrote in his daily "Point of View Commentary" that, "Most of us in modern society feel over scheduled and over committed."* Although it is nothing new I believe this has been the way people have felt for years in the modern digital and fast food era. It is also a major contributor towards the anxiety and worry that many feel an a daily basis. You would think that technology would allow things to get finished quicker and in return give us more time to relax but unfortunately that isn't true; it doesn't seem to be how the human mind operates. What ends up happening is we just fit more in to our schedules only to produce added anxiety. Can we handle this? Most can, yes, some just barely, others no way. But what happens to the mind when it gets overloaded? We simply shut-down. I recently exper

The Discovery of Soft Tissue in Triceratops Horn Prompts Firing of Professor

Recently a University Professor, Mark Armitage, lost his job because he discovered what amounts to proof that Dinosaurs existed s early as a few thousand years ago, not sixty-five million years ago. His discovery brought national attention but now it seems he is paying the price. Charisma reported that he is now following that up with a religious discrimination lawsuit. It does not surprise me that this type of discovery would incur the ire of the secular scientific community. Anything that backs up the Scripture as a true account of historical — even scientific — events is sure to be shot down by those who cannot accept biblical facts. They have come up with a theory that it is not really "Soft Tissue" that was found but what is called a "Biofilm," a thin, slimy film of bacteria that adheres to a surface. Supposedly this film copied over time the shape and structure of the dinosaurs tissue cells then was stored for millions of years in the horn. By stating th

Christian Persecution in Ukraine and Around the World

- Somalian Persecution Photo -    My heart is bleeding for the believers in the Ukraine, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia. I am sending out a request for Men and Women of Christ all over the world to pray for these genuine believers who have stood for Christ in the midst of hate and demonically driven hostility. The senseless targeting of Jesus' children is plain nonsense! The families left behind are hurting along with our Lord who will one day avenge all the deaths of His sons and daughters throughout the ages (see Rev. 6:9-11). I must interject that when one dies to the Lord it is always in keeping with  2 Tim. 3:12, "Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution." David Guzik writes: "It is the way that you live that makes you a martyr, not the way that you die." These men who died in Ukraine did so because they first trusted Christ and were living on mission for Him. Please read the following from Christian Aid Miss

The Rapture is Near, Share Christ

Recently my wife was speaking to a young mother of five about her relationship to her children's father. The young woman had brought up the subject and my wife told her that as a Pastor's wife and Christian how she felt about getting right with God. She said, you really need to get married. The woman said she agreed and was indeed concerned about it. Then, point blank, and no doubt because of current world events and the anti-Christian cultural shift, she asked my wife, "Are we in the last days?" Brenna was able to share with her the love of Christ and how close we are to His return. People are ripe to hear the truth. They have questions and we have answers. Evangelism does not come easy to most people but if we pray for the Lord to use us in the special way that only He can then opportunities will arise for us to share our faith. All we need to do is listen to His voice and say, "Yes Lord. I will." Ray Comfort is one of the foremost evangelists of

Holy? Why Should I Be?

Eric Metaxas has written a very good piece titled, "We Might as Well Be Holy" that I am linking for all to read. In a nutshell he reveals the obvious: Christians will not win over the world or others to Christ by acquiescing to it; it does not work. So we (Christians) are left with one conclusion, "We might as well be Holy" like God has asked us to be, (see 1 Pet. 1:15-16). Of course the position one will take in response to the article will be determined by whether they care enough for the Word of God, whether they truly value their relationship to Jesus, and the amount of concern they place on lost souls. Not meeting any one of those prerequisites on the level that Christ desires makes the point of "Being Holy" a moot one. If that is the case one could be characterized as falling into the category of being rendered useless for God's work: "They will appear to have a godly life, but they will not let its power change them." The Bible goes

Fornication - The Acceptable Sin?

In the Bible there are several sexual sins that are categorized under the term,"Sexual Immorality." Not the least of these is, "Fornication." However fornication has become an outdated, and in many places, the acceptable sin in the late twentieth and twenty-first centuries. As a matter of fact, many do not even know what the term "fornication" means. Since the advent of the modern Bible translation, many have never heard of it. This article focuses on what the Scripture says about this out-of-control acceptable sin. Fornication is mentioned thirty-six times in the Bible (MT), thirty-two times in the New Testament. In almost all modern translations the word has been substituted with, "sexual immorality" and has come to mean any number of sexual sins. However, sin (missing the mark) is still sin and sin still separates a person from God. So why has this sin become so acceptable even in modern churches???? UPDATE : Here is a testimony of life