Truth Inspires

  “Let none that wait on Thee be ashamed.” ( Psalm 25:3 )  Humans are an anxious people by nature and when we become Christians not all things immediately drop away. We always carry over from the old life some of the habits we had formed. These are the things God strips away through the Sanctification* process that is at work in all believers. In the old life we learned that if you wanted anything you worked hard and went after it. But in the “New Creation” life things are quite different ( 2 Cor. 5:17 ). When it comes to Spiritual matters, we are not the captains of our destinies. The things we often need, in our own power, are often out of reach, so God bids us to seek Him. That’s not a problem except when we find ourselves needing to wait. That’s when our impatience kicks in and we can get frustrated. But the Scripture is quite clear concerning the walk of the faithful, we are not our own work, we are His (Christ’s) Heb. 13:20-21 ; Phil. 1:6 . So when ...

The Scripture clearly teaches that true Christian believers are defined by a willingness on their part to submit to the Words of Christ and the conviction of the Holy Spirit. Many are still to this day unaware of the work of the Holy Spirit in the transformation and regeneration process of believers. In the first century, even the disciples of the Lord did not understand the plans that God had in store for His church. They seemed to be Restoration minded 1 and not so much Resurrection minded. But shortly after He had again spoken to them of His coming departure from earth, and just when the time was right, Jesus revealed those plans to the disciples. The news that He would be leaving them after three years of close fellowship saddened them greatly. So, as a word of encouragement, He seizes the moment to reveal the next step of His plan for the life of all believers. He explains that it is very advantageous that He arise and go to the Father (John 17:5) because of the gift He was goi...

"Jesus really teaches you to hate people." I once saw this quoted online and I had to shake my head because of the ignorance, not in a condescending manner but in a mode of sadness. Like all quotes that similarly lambast Jesus and Christians, most of them are off the cuff and stated without real spiritual knowledge and wisdom of the Scripture. I can say this in sincerity because of the transformation that occurred in my own life, and because of the Scriptural precedent for it. I was as lost as lost can be and even running in a crowd that often blasphemed the Lord and ridiculed believers. But then one fateful day I needed help with life and I turned to Christ in prayer. Yes, I turned from my peers and to the One my peers mocked so viciously. He heard my cry and immediately took me from a pit of despair and set me on a mountaintop. Yes, this did happen and it happened dramatically. What occurred is what Jesus referred to as being "Born Again" of the Spirit (John...

And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence, Colossians 1:18 (NKJV) There was only one perfect person that ever walked this earth and He was put to death on a cross two-thousand years ago. We certainly are not. But as I was reading the news and watching all of the protests concerning the Martin/Zimmerman verdict I was appalled to hear so many churches that took to the pulpit to use it as a soapbox to proclaim their rage either against or for the verdict in the public trial of George Zimmerman. Again we are not perfect like Christ, but we are to strive toward it, Col. 3:14; Phil. 3:12. First off I want to say I understand frustration when things do not go your way; but I also understand that the Lord's day is a day of worship, praise, and adoration of our Lord Jesus Christ. The sin of this past Sunday was in allowing emotions to override our worship of God. Christ did not ha...

Hatred and animosity in the workplace toward Christians has been on the increase for several decades now. I have been at my current place of business now for nearly three years and in that time I have met most of the employees and even taught company training classes to all in the IT environment. Although I cannot say I have experienced any rash treatment because of my faith as of yet, what I have noticed is I am avoided. I'm not a "fly on the wall" in the rooms of gossip but I know for sure I have been a topic of conversation. This post is to encourage you to run the Race of Faith with endurance! Your faith is always evident in your speech A few months back I was asked to bring a class for the entire company. For greater impact I decided to ask a former instructor to come down from Chicago. When the day arrived I stood up and without hesitation introduced him to the entire IT department as Brother Jim!! Wow! I couldn't believe it. The audience was kind of shel...

All these are but the beginning of the birth pains. (9)  "Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and put you to death, and you will be hated by all nations for my name's sake. (10)  And then many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another. (11)  And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray. (12)  And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold. (13)  But the one who endures to the end will be saved. (14)  And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come. -Matthew 24:8-14 In this snippet of what is commonly referred to as the Olivet Discourse, Jesus outlines what He knew was going to be true for those who would follow in His footsteps, embracing Him as the one and only way to deliverance from sin and the inheritance of eternal bliss. God-fearing Christians know His words to have a final fulfillment that occ...

Several years ago, during an otherwise, uneventful night at work, I overheard a coworker state that He was a Christian. This individual held two jobs. One was a printing press operator, right next to me, and another was a backstreet nightclub owner. His passion in life was the night club activities, including sex and wife-swapping, of which he made no bones about his involvement. So I was taken aback when I heard him loudly exclaim, probably for my benefit, that he was an active Christian. I took the bait. It didn't take too long for me to walk over and inquire which church he attended. At that he blew up like a stick of dynamite! In mere moments, the wagons were circled and I was in the center. The shift had heard his loud screaming and atrocious profanity and thought surely someone had a limb stuck in the printing press. Why else would such a loud fuss be made? But that was not quite what they found. Instead they found a middle aged man throwing a temper tantrum and pointing t...

In a few months, Lord willing, I will be releasing a new book tentatively entitled, Hated, Living the Gospel in a World that Hates You! I am very excited about it. As society has become more and more hardened against the Lord those who are His lights shining in the world will suffer more and more of the brunt of the attacks of darkness. In the book, I hope to share some of my most painful experiences and joys and how the Lord brought me through them in the most mighty of ways. So for the next several posts, I will be giving glimpses of the content in order to help believers to understand the importance of standing firm in these last days before the Blessed Hope and Glorious Appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ. Having been a pastor for over thirty years and having experienced a share of the vitriol that is spewed forth from the mouths of the non-believing crowds I feel I can write on the subject with a veracity that parallels the descriptive Biblical foretelling of the persecution th...

Many have asked, "why are some believers really excited about Jesus and others, not so much?" This ia a good question and one I am inclined to answer the following way. Some have been forgiven much and so they love much, Luke 7:47. The impact is heartfelt and the heavy burden of sin rolls off their backs like water off of a duck. For this they are eternally grateful and often desire to serve immediately. Like Zacchaeus (Luke 19:8), who promised to give one half his money to the poor and four times in taxes back to all he stole from, they with haste want to show their gratitude to God and man. But the deeper answer may be found in the amount of worth we place on being forgiven of sin as opposed to the value of continuing in it. Maybe some do not see the worth in being forgiven nor the power in sin to separate. Maybe too, they see eternity as something that they themselves have an eternity to wait before they need to reckon with it, so eternal things, like obeying God and se...

Crosses, gallows, guns, nooses, and chemical injections all have one thing in common, they are instruments used to torture and execute. "In antiquity crucifixion was considered one of the most brutal and shameful modes of death. Probably originating with the Assyrians and Babylonians, it was used systematically by the Persians in the 6th century BC. Alexander the Great brought it from there to the eastern Mediterranean countries in the 4th century BC, and the Phoenicians introduced it to Rome in the 3rd century BC. It was virtually never used in pre-Hellenic Greece. The Romans perfected crucifixon for 500 years until it was abolished by Constantine I in the 4th century AD. Crucifixion in Roman times was applied mostly to slaves, disgraced soldiers, Christians and foreigners—only very rarely to Roman citizens. [Death ranged from 6 hours to 4 days.]... The attending Roman guards could only leave the site after the victim had died , and were known to precipitate death ...