Every Day Should Be Thanksgiving Day

Two years ago on Thanksgiving Day as I was thinking about what I would pray over our dinner it struck me that having a day once a year to be thankful was really a bad idea. The implication is that we can stop once a year and prepare a meal, gather with family, say a prayer of thanksgiving , eat, and then watch football and we are good to go. As a Christian I committed myself to making everyday Thanksgiving Day. Oh, I skip the particulars of that day we all gather on in November, but every day I try and remember to spend as much time as I can thanking God.

The Bible is full of instructions to be thankful. Psalm 95 is just one of many that teach us about being thankful. Note what verse 2 says, “Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving…” We should not ever come to God in prayer without doing it with a spirit of thankfulness.

As Christians we should seek maturity in our faith. Part of that maturity must involve a change in how we perceive trials and storms. Many times it is only in these times in which we take time to pray. While we need to follow the guidance of scripture and pray always without ceasing as 1 Thessalonians 5:17 commands, we must also grow into a people that are thankful despite our current situation. Thankfulness must become a permanent aspect of our lives.

Philippians 4:5-6 provides the answer as to how to not only be thankful, but how to rid yourself of the anxiety of life that holds us back. Hear the Word of God in this great scripture reading. “Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.”

Typically we don’t quote verse 5 when we think of that verse. But it is key as it says “The Lord is at hand.” That means we can chill out. God has this; all of it. The Lord is at hand and because He is we do not need to be anxious about one single thing. When we let God be God and recognize He is really in control even when we don’t think so then something special happens. Philippians 4:7, “the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” This sets us free and allows us to be thankful no matter what is going on around us.

There is so much to be thankful for. Take time each day to think of all the great things God provides you. Even if you have absolutely nothing today, if you are a Christian you have a hope in an eternity where everything will be perfect. You have salvation in Christ that is not dependent on your efforts and performance but is based on the blood of Christ shed willingly for you at Calvary.

Make today and every day Thanksgiving Day. If you are looking for what God’s will is for your start there for that is exactly what God’s will is as spelled out in 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 saying, “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”

God bless all of you reading this.

John the Baptist - What All Christians Should Be

John the Baptist is a picture of what, we as Christians, should be. In Luke chapter 1 we read of God’s calling to the child of Zechariah and Elizabeth, who was called John.

Luke 1:76-79
And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways, to give knowledge of salvation to his people in the forgiveness of their sins, because of the tender mercy of our God, whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace."

John was to be a prophet. But unlike many of the OT Prophets John was bringing a message, not of impending judgment in response to the sins of man, but as a prophet of the good news of the Messiah. He came preaching that there was a coming light and that light was Jesus. As Christians we are all called to this same mission; to proclaim Jesus as the light of the world and to share the good news of God’s grace as manifest in the Gospel.

Luke 1:80 tells us that as child John “grew and became strong in spirit.” As a child of God we, too, are to grow and become strong in spirit.

As John grew up he went to live in the wilderness until we read of him in Mark 1:4 which says that, “John appeared, baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.” Most of us spend time wandering in the wilderness before we come to Christ. But then when we accept Christ like John, we must come out proclaiming a baptism of repentance.

John was a strange fellow who “was clothed with camel's hair and wore a leather belt around his waist and ate locusts and wild honey” as read of in Mark 1:6. As Christians we are to be a people who live in the world but are to be different from the world. If we are truly walking in the Spirit of God we will look different than the unsaved people around us. We may even find ourselves seen as odd as John appeared dressed in that crazy camel hair coat probably did.

Like John, we are to be a people of humility, recognizing Jesus is the one who deserves all the glory. Mark 1:7 is an example of John’s humility, “And he preached, saying, "After me comes he who is mightier than I, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie.”

And when we baptize people we must like John understand our role in their baptism. In Mark 1:8 John explains this saying, “I have baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit."

John knew his part and like him, Christians must do the same. We cannot save anyone. That is the work of God. We must share the truth as John did. We must speak of repentance and the need for recognition of our sin. We must point to Christ as the answer. Sometimes in our lives, like John, this speaking of the truth may bring us distress. John would die because he was willing to speak truth no matter the consequence. He was imprisoned and later beheaded because he was unafraid to share the truth of sin even to King Herod. Mark 6:18 tells us that “…John had been saying to Herod, "It is not lawful for you to have your brother's wife." Too often we fall into this trap of thinking we shouldn’t ever speak about sin and repentance but only about love. Then we wonder why our world is so full of sin. Real love speaks truth and some aren’t going to like it. John lost his head over this. Most Christians are afraid to even broach the topic of sin. This has weakened the church and hindered our prayers.

The life of John the Baptist is a picture of what we must become as Christians. We must be prophets in the sense of speaking out the Word of God. We must call for repentance and we must come out of our wilderness declaring the Gospel, even if people see us as odd, like John. We should baptize with water but let Christ baptize with the Spirit. We should be willing to die for the truth of God’s perfect law and confront sin without fear. We must become less and let Jesus become more. We don’t have to perform miracles; John didn’t need them, John 10:40-42 tells us that “Jesus went back across the Jordan to the place where John had been baptizing in the early days. Here he stayed and many people came to him. They said, "Though John never performed a miraculous sign, all that John said about this man was true." And in that place many believed in Jesus.” We simply need to say all that is true about Jesus. Stay faithful to that and many will believe in the Christ.

Are You Training For Righteousness?

Recently a friend and I discussed the need for a loving, yet truthful sharing of God’s Word that speaks of a salvation that is more than just a “Jesus Loves You” kind of message. Though a few ministries still preach the entire counsel of scripture, for the most part churches have stopped preaching sin. We no longer hear sermons that tell us straight up that we need to repent of our sins. Oh, we all have been instructed on the evils of the very wicked but most of us are not being told that “we” are the sinners. Most church people walk around in their minds with an attitude that Jesus loves us and forgives us so we can just live out our lives in relative comfort.

The truth is we all still have a lot of sin deeply embedded within us. I base that statement on two observations. First of all I am completely aware of my own sin. Daily I read the Bible and whether I am in my morning OT study or my evening NT study I take time to meditate on the Word and I examine myself against it. On my best days I fall really short. The second observation I make is of people. I watch them as they drive, shop, work, and play. I look at Facebook, Twitter, and read blogs as well as other internet writings. I even watch them in ministry and church. Trust me; you guys are sinners just like me. Some of you think because you don’t murder people or steal from them you are good to go. It’s not my job to go around being the sin police but it is each of our responsibility according to scripture that we examine ourselves daily, but that examination has one standard; the perfect holiness of God. You cannot compare yourself to the world or even other Christians and then think “Oh, I’m okay.” Unless we can look in a mirror and see Jesus reflected back then we have fallen short.

This morning as I read my OT chapter I was moved to see that even though in its historical context it speaks of the Jews, the truth is we should be studying it to apply the spiritual principles in our own lives. Guys, we are in a behavioral sense the Jews. When we are in trouble we seek God. When things are good, not so much.

We are living in the age of grace, I hope people understand that. But that is not license to sin. Jesus is coming back and when He returns it WILL be to bring judgment. Sin has consequences and we are beginning to see them in our own culture here in America. Things are a mess. Even confessed and forgiven sin has consequences in our own lives.

So what can we do about it? We can preach the truth. Pastors and teachers must return to preaching against sin and teach the church to look deeply at our own sinfulness. Romans 15:4 says this, “For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.” When that was written there was no New Testament. Obviously God knew there would be a New Testament and He used the Holy Spirit to move the hands of those who wrote it to speak His Word. But we have got to stop teaching the OT as if it is just some nice historical document to be studied like American History. First of Jesus is all over it and even if we never had the NT the OT has everything about Jesus we would need to believe in Him as our savior. Secondly when we read about Israel we must see the spiritual messages that are there to instruct us as Paul stated clearly in Romans 15:4.

I will leave you with one example of an OT message which came from the prophet Jeremiah which in its historical context is obviously a warning to the Jews. I suggest we look deeply at it and ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to us its meaning to the church.

Jeremiah 5:23-25
'But this people has a stubborn and rebellious heart; They have turned aside and departed. 'They do not say in their heart, "Let us now fear the LORD our God, Who gives rain in its season, Both the autumn rain and the spring rain, Who keeps for us The appointed weeks of the harvest." 'Your iniquities have turned these away, And your sins have withheld good from you.

Yes, we are saved by grace. There is no one who appreciates that more than me and maybe no one who has received more grace from Christ than I. But the simple truth is that God has so much more for me and for you, but our sins withhold good from us.

2 Timothy 3:16-17
All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.

All scripture is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness. Are we training for righteousness or we content in just being forgiven by God’s grace? We must ask that question of ourselves. If we want to be like Christ we must study ALL scripture with the goal of teaching, reproof, correction, and most importantly, training in righteousness.

Do You Believe God or Just Believe In Him? (Part 2)

So you say you are a Christian and you say you believe in God. That is a nice thought but if you stop there then you may have a problem. James 2:19 responds to that saying, “You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that--and shudder.”

 It is not enough for us as Christians to say we believe in God; we must also believe God. What is the difference you ask? The difference can be described as faith. In the Book of Hebrews chapter eleven we find the definition of faith. Hebrews 11:1, “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”

What does this means in terms of real life? It means that we trust in God no matter what. It means that we believe the promises of scripture for the Bible is God’s Word. And God cannot lie nor does He make mistakes. So when we read of a promise in scripture we can know for complete and absolute surety that the promise will come true. It means that every statement made by God in the Bible can be trusted in and applied to your life.

When life is going well and the blessings of God are easy to see, all of us will say we believe God. If you say that you do believe God, then that attitude of faith should not waver or change even at life’s worst moments. But this is not as easy as it sounds.

For this discussion let us start here: Romans 8:28, “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.”

That is a promise of scripture, though written by the Apostle Paul it is the inspired Word of God. This means God said it and He means it. So ask yourself this question: Do you believe God that all things work together for good? This means when you lose your job God will work that out for good. When your spouse runs off with the neighbor and your whole marriage falls apart you understand God will work that out for good as well. What if you lose a baby during pregnancy or your child is hit by a car and killed? What if the church bus blows a tire, hits a pole killing the entire praise team? What happens when the tests come back positive for terminal cancer? I think you get my point.

The simple truth is that Romans 8:28 says that all, yes I said ALL things work together for good by God. Even when we cannot possible imagine how. That, my friends, is faith. That is believing God even when we cannot see the good.

This sounds hard and it is. This is why Jesus built His church and why we need each other. We must come alongside each other and follow the words of Galatians 6:2 that says we should “carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.” Even when our brothers are caught in sin we are to help carry them through. Quite honestly when we don’t believe the truth of Romans 8:28 we are sinning because we are essential calling God a liar.

 I am not saying we won’t grieve and find ourselves in despair. I am saying though we must band together as Christians and pick each other up. We must show the world we are different even in grief. Read the Word of God from 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18, “But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore encourage one another with these words.”

If we would simply believe God our lives would change. If we believed God we could truly be the salt and the light of Christ to the lost world we live in. If the lost would see in us the true hope in Christ whose light is best seen in the midst of darkness I believe we would see a revival break out like never before seen. But even if that did not occur imagine living with the complete confidence that God is truly in control and no matter what happens one day we shall see that it was all for His glory.

But you have to believe God. Do you?

Do Believe God or Just Believe in Him? Part 1

There are a lot of people in the world who believe in God. We assume most of those sitting in the pews of our churches are part of that group. But to simply believe in God is not enough. Hear the words of the Book of James 2:19, “You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that--and shudder.”

That, my friends, is a very scathing remark. You see as Christians we have a greater call than to simply believe in God. Turn to the Book of Romans, chapter 4, verse 3, “For what does the Scripture say?”Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness."

Did you catch that? Do you hear and see the difference? Even the demons believe in God but all that really does is to remind them to be afraid. But Abraham? He believed God and do you see what happens when he believes God? “It was counted to him as righteousness.”

Why is that important, you ask? It is important because without righteousness and holiness we cannot and will not spend eternity with God. The Scriptures are clear on this.

Hebrews 12:14
Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.

Matthew 5:20
For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.

The teachings of scripture are clear that we are born sinners. Jesus explains in John 3, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God."

But since the beginning of man he has tried to work his way to heaven. But Isaiah 64:6-7 shows us the folly of this saying that, “All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away. No one calls on your name or strives to lay hold of you; for you have hidden your face from us and made us waste away because of our sins.”

The Book of Romans expands on the theme of our wickedness.  Hear the inspired Word of God as it describes our state in Romans 3:10-18, "None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one." "Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive." "The venom of asps is under their lips." "Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness." "Their feet are swift to shed blood; in their paths are ruin and misery, and the way of peace they have not known." "There is no fear of God before their eyes."

But God has not forsaken us to die in our sins and to perish forever in the lake of fire. He has provided a way out.

2 Corinthians 5:21
God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

 God sent His Son, Jesus to die in our place and in that we can become righteous. John 3:16-18 explains, "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.”

But you have to believe God. You have to believe His Word is true. You have to believe when He says Jesus is the only way, then Jesus is the only way. If you believe God, then you will believe “in” Jesus. Then you become righteous in God’s eyes.

"Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness." Do you?

Is There Still Truth?

The irony of truth in our world today is that it cannot be believed. We live in a world where we all carry a search engine in our pockets wherever we go and so when we do not know the answer to something or we wish to learn more about any topic then we just Google it. The problem with this is that the answers we get back are not necessarily the truth. This is really not a new phenomenon; truth has been under attack since the beginning of time. It was a distortion of truth in the Garden of Eden that led Adam and Eve to disobey God and since that day man has sought to have his own truth. But in reality there can be only truth despite what the relativism of the day declares.

 When Jesus was brought before Pilate He mentioned the word truth to him and Pilate’s response was the quintessential question we all need to know the answer to. Pilate said this in John 18:38, "What is truth?"

 We like to describe God as being love and certainly God is that. The Bible is clear that love is the most important trait we Christians need to be the light God calls us to be. But to describe God with simply one word just does not suffice. In this earthly state we shall never understand all there is to know about God. He is too deep, too wide, and to vast to know completely. You see we are finite beings with finite minds while God is infinite. But the Bible gives us all we need to know about God as we walk this life and probing the depths of its richness will keep us busy until Jesus takes us home.

 There are many attributes of God that the Bible teaches us. One of the descriptions of God is that He is truth and everything about Him is true. Many people are afraid of the word theology and they think we should leave that endeavor to the scholars and the philosophers but the word theology is really simply the study of God. Christianity is not a religion; it is a relationship. The entire point of the Bible is that it is a story of a relationship with God which was messed up by man and then the restoral of that relationship through the redemptive work of Christ on the cross. Theology should be seen as our attempts to know God and to know Him more and more each and every day. When we look at who God is it is clear that He is truth.

 All three persons of God are seen in what we call the trinity and all three persons of the trinity share the same attributes, one of them being truth. In Deuteronomy 32:4 we read that our God is “a God of truth.” Jesus describes Himself in John 14:6 saying, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life.” Then in John 15:26 Jesus describes the Holy Spirit as “…the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father.” God is the truth.

 The world however rejects God and rejects Him as the truth. But in our own little Christian world we must be careful. You see truth can be destroyed by just one simple little addition or subtraction. There is warning about this found in Galatians 5:7-9, “You were running well; who hindered you from obeying the truth? This persuasion did not come from Him who calls you. A little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough.”

 Truth becomes non-truth when take anything at all away from it or if we add one small iota. This is how Satan operates. This has been the attack on the Bible for a very long time. This is why we have such a mess today in our own culture. One example is the legalization of abortion. Did you know that those who sought to make it legal hired an advertisement firm to help them push this through a country that at one time would never have dreamed of making it legal. They simply changed its name. Instead of calling it abortion; they called it choice. This changed the truth of what it really is; the murder of a child for selfish reasons.

 
Do you see the danger in that little twist of the truth? If we call ourselves Christians then we must be disciples of Christ. We must study under Him and know what He teaches. We must examine all things under the microscope of scripture. We must read and know all of it.
 

Christians, even a small amount of untruth is untruth. It really doesn’t even matter about motive in the alteration of truth. Many well-meaning preachers and Bible teachers and authors put out things that are simply not Biblical truth. Some are plants by Satan but some are just simply being human and being human means we are not perfect.

So the message today is simple; do not believe everything you read and hear but treat it all against scripture. God has empowered all believers with the Holy Spirit and He is the Spirit of truth sent to teach us all things. So today we must commit ourselves to God’s Word. That way as the end times draw nearer we will not be fooled by the subtle ways of the devil and the world. Jesus said it best in John 8:31-32, "If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."  Don’t listen to me; listen to Him.

Did God Really Say that?

Did God actually say…? This question is the root of all sin and though it was first asked by the devil in the Garden of Eden, man is still using that question today to cast doubt on God’s Word. Go back to Genesis 3:1, “Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God actually say, 'You shall not eat of any tree in the garden'?" The KJV uses the word subtle in place of the terms other versions use and I think it is important to understand what happened there by thinking of it in terms of subtleness.

You see that is exactly how Satan works. Other translations of the Bible describe Satan as cunning or crafty and the very essence of how he operates is to be crafty through the use of subtleness. John 8:44 tells us Satan is not only a liar but he is “the father of lies” and that he “does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him.” And the hardest lie to detect is the one that consists of the subtle twisting of the truth. Satan has accomplished much damage to the world by taking the truth and distorting it by giving it just a little tweak of falsehood. 1 Corinthians 5:6 and Galatians 5:9 both warn us that “a little leaven leavens the whole lump.” Watch out for that little bit of lie that will mess up the truth.

 When Satan challenged God’s Word back in the Garden of Eden and Eve fell for the subtle questioning of God’s Word the world was forever changed. So what has happened today is that Satan has taken clear Biblical warnings against certain sins and twisted them in the minds of man so that we now have acceptable social behaviors that seem right in our eyes. We took down the 10 commandments and made it illegal to have prayer in school. It became legal to abort babies. The sexual revolution of the sixties has sky rocketed our culture into one that accepts pornography, adultery, and homosexuality as acceptable behavior despite clear Biblical commands against them. The list goes on and on and it doesn’t take much to see that our culture is in a serious moral decline.

 The subtle lie comes in the form of tolerance. It comes in the form of free love and in the form of same sex marriage which is redefining what our culture calls marriage. It comes in the form of greed as the abortion industry and the pornography industries make billions of dollars each year off of our sins. These things were unthinkable a mere forty years ago. Of course there have always been a small group of those who would call for the acceptance of these things but in America today we are seeing churches and whole denominations declare these things God calls sin, to be acceptable. This should not be.

 
The question is did God really say abortion is wrong? Did He really mean it’s not ok to have sex with someone not your wife or with someone of the same sex? “Why that is awfully judgmental to say”, we hear. “The Bible is outdated” is the cry. Again the subtle lies of Satan. Yes God did really say that these things are wrong.
 

The problem with declaring that the Bible is wrong about these things being sin that we don’t want to be sin is that if we say it is wrong about those things then how can we say it is right about anything? If we say that, then this whole Jesus thing must be bogus too. If you are an atheist then you have every right to believe that.

But if you call yourselves a Christian then you have no right to say those things. Defining what a Christian is has become almost impossible these days. Unless you believe the Bible is truly God’s Word. Then it is simple; define being a Christian by the Word of God, which is clear. A Christian is a disciple and follower of Christ. But not part of Christ, all of Him. That, my friends, is the truth. Jesus was clear in John 14:23-24 saying, "If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father's who sent me.”

It is time the Church stood up for truth. Not the subtle false-truth of the devil but the truth of God’s Holy Word even if we don’t always like what it says. We cannot allow the world to dictate what is right and what is wrong but as Christians we must stand up and declare God’s Word to be true. We must declare all of it to be true though, not just the parts we like.

The world will call us intolerant and say we are being judgmental. That again is a twisting of the truth and right from the mouth of Satan. The judgment as to what is sin is not being made by us but by God.

So if you are truly a disciple of Christ then do not fall for the subtle lies of the devil. We must become vigilant in knowing God’s Word so that we can be vigilant in defending His truth. This can only come by reading and studying His Word and being filled with the Holy Spirit. Then when the devil asks you, “Did God really say that?” you can respond in truth and say, “Yes. Yes He really did say that.”