Truth Inspires

On Monday, September 16th all of us were again shocked as another act of evil was perpetrated at the Navy Yard in Washington. Another senseless act--another layer of hardness to many who have become desensitized to the evil around us. My heart goes out to the lives of the families who were affected by this senseless tragedy. Confusion, loneliness, heartaches that do not seem to ever go away, loss of companionship and oneness with a spouse, and even children crying themselves to sleep each night are just some of the by-products of evil. They are the unnecessary results of aimless living. Psychologists will give you a plethora of reasons why something can snap in the brain causing a person to go off into a delirium of evil rampage and many of those reasons are commendable. But if Jehovah is the Lord of the universe and the creator of all things, then surely we would expect that He has an answer as well. And if we take the time to look we will not be left wanting; He calls it Sin. But ...

One of the things that excites me about Christianity is the Revelation of the Mystery of the Church. Hidden in times past from the eyes of the Jewish nation, but in plain sight of the Father and spoken of through the mouths of the prophets, was the plan of the Father for the institution of the Church through the veil of the flesh of Jesus our Lord. I am so thrilled to know that even though I am not Jewish, God still cared for me. I am not alone. This same excitement can hardly be contained in the life of the Apostle Paul as he approached the Ephesian church with this very self-same fact. In Ephesians 3 Paul reveals the cause of his excitement as it also pertained to the fulfillment of the calling Jesus spoke of concerning him in Acts 9. In Acts 9 Saul (later known as Paul) was on his way to Damascus, Syria to find and put into chains those who were preaching the gospel of Jesus, an action he was fully prepared to contain. When news of his coming came to the ears of a Christian man...

  “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...