It Sure Feels Good To Get Better

John 11:4 "When Jesus heard that He said, This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God..."

I have recently suffered from a bout of vertigo - dizziness. For those of you who have ever had it, you know how terrible it is. It isn't painful, just miserable. It is an awful feeling and there really isn't much you can do for it. It just takes time. I was thinking about how similar that particular sickness is with sin that is in our life. When the Holy Spirit begins to convict you of sin, it is a very, very miserable feeling. Just the idea of being separated from such a Loving and Holy God, because we have disobeyed Him, is horrible. Now, being a typical man, when I get sick, I figure that I will eventually get better by myself. I don't need to pay a Dr. to tell me I am sick. Sure, I know that he can also tell me what to do to get better, but my rationale tells me that I can figure that out by myself. Time will make it all better, right? And so it is when we have sin in our lives. We think that we can make what ever adjustments that need to be made and all will be OK. Not, so! The Great Physician, God Himself, has the remedy. It is called confession. I John 1:9 tells us that "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us of all unrighteousness." What a prescription! By the way, the Dr. did give me a prescription for some medicine to help ease the nausea while time passed. And, just like when I truly confess my sin and know that my gracious God has forgiven me, it sure does feel good to get better. You don't have to continue to suffer, regardless of the ailment. He wants to make it all better. Give Him a chance.

God, Did You Really Say That?

James 1:22 "But be ye doers of the Word and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves."

As I began reading through the Bible again this year, I came to the passage in Gen 3 where the serpent comes to Eve to entice her to eat of the forbidden fruit. I have often wondered why he was so determined for her to eat that which was banned by God. What was in it for him? The only thing that I could come up with is that "misery loves company". Since he had been banished from the good graces of God, he wanted others to join him. So, how did he go about doing that? First, he simply offered the fruit to Eve. Here, take it. You'll be glad you did. Her reply was proper in that she told him that God had put this particular tree off limits to them. Every other tree was fine, but they had to leave this one alone. Then, Satan, that sly devil, (excuse the pun) replied with, did God really say that? You know, you may have just misunderstood what He was saying. Actually, we see that Eve did add some to God's instructions when she said that they weren't even allowed to touch it. Now, before we move on, it is very important that we see how simple God made His instructions to them. Here is the Tree or Knowledge of Good And Evil - DON'T EAT!!!. Here are all of the other trees and vegetables - help yourself. It can't get any simpler than that. The problem comes when we begin to analyze God's instructions rather than just apply them. We try to figure out what God meant in stead of just listening to what He said.
The entirety of God's law for man was right there in that little phrase - don't eat. God's entire instructions for us are given in His Holy Word, the Bible, and all we need do is obey. Listen to God and you will find that, yes, God did say that and He meant it. So, just go ahead and do it.

What Does A Missionary Do?

Mark 16:15 "And He said unto them, Go ye into all th world and preach the gospel unto every creature."

Most people today really don't have any idea what a missionary does. If you have had an occasion to read the life story of some of the missionaries from many years ago, you would be surprised at the difference in the work being done today. There are several reasons for the change. First, the people are different now and some of that is because of the increase in population. When modern day missions first began the missionary would sail across the sea to a port in a land with a small populace of people. They would begin walking the streets and preaching the Gospel. Now, a missionary can be most anywhere within a couple of days and with his laptop computer have a bead on exactly where he wants to begin his ministry. After all, he has spent hours researching the people and finding the best location to minister. He may then print off some fliers and begin passing them out in the neighborhoods to invite people to come. Now, don't get me wrong. I am not saying that the way it is done today is wrong. I believe that since God has blessed us with new modern technology, we need to take advantage of it. But, I think that if we are not careful, we can miss the whole purpose of going out. No matter how we go about doing it, we still have a single purpose and that is to let a lost world know that they can be saved through death of Jesus Christ on the Cross of Calvary. Oh, by the way, we don't have to go over seas to do that. We can all be missionaries to our home land. So, as a missionary, what do you do?

It's My Birthday

Eccl 3:1-2a "To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the Heaven. A time to be born, and a time to die:..."

Well, today is my birthday. A day to celebrate the fact that another year has passed and God has blessed me with the privilege to stick around a while. By, the way, I am writing this days ahead of time, so in reality, I may not be here when you read this. Now, I don't mean to sound morbid or anything, but James tells us in the last few verses of chapter 4 that we have no assurance of ever seeing tomorrow. A few years ago, I preached a message on my birthday with an interesting title. It was "This birth got me into this world, but it won't get me out". Most of you recall the story of how a very intelligent man by the name of Nicodemus came to Jesus by night to get His opinion on how to get to Heaven. As a Rabbi and teacher of the Jews, I am quite sure Nicodemus had been asked this question on many occasions. Having given an answer in the past, why was he seeking an answer now? Maybe, he realized that there was something missing in his own thought process. Regardless, I don't think he got the answer from Jesus that he was expecting. I can just see him now, standing there with his mouth wide open when Jesus told him that "You must be born again" John 3:3. Without question, this was a totally new concept for Nicodemus and for the Jews in general. The understood the sacrifices of the Old Testament were symbolic of the sacrifice that was to be made when the Messiah came. But, what is this new birth. Jesus made it very plain when He said that that which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. The fact that you are alive proves that you have had one birth. But it only brought you into this world. It takes the new birth to get you out.

Seeing Another Side Of The Story

Prov 3:5 "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and He shall direct thy paths."

One of my favorite Old Testament stories is when Gideon was able to win the battle over the Midianites while being outnumbered 400 to 1. I am quite sure that when Gideon gathered the army of Israel together that they had no idea that the 32,000 that had come to fight were going against 135,000. Those 4 against 1 odds were bad enough, but then God pared the 32,000 down to a measly 300. As you read the story in Judges 6-8, you see how that God not only hand picked Gideon, but also the 300 that He would use to defeat this massive army that stood before them. He gave them the strategy that would allow them to prevail without loosing so much as a man. That is quite a story, but the other side of the story is more amazing than that. How did Gideon get only 300 men to follow him into battle against unbelievable odds? If you recall, when the Angel of God came to Gideon and began to explain to him what was about to transpire, Gideon quickly excused himself from consideration explaining that he was the least of his family, which was the least of all the families of Israel. Now, if he believed that, don't you know that the soldiers that were to follow him into battle also believed that? Part of the weeding out process that God used to get to the 300 number was that He allowed any to go home that were afraid. We know there were many more than 32,000 soldiers in Israel's army, so these that came must have been courageous men. Yet, 22,000 left when given the opportunity. Could it be that they were afraid to follow Gideon rather than afraid to fight the Midianites? Maybe. But, there was something about these 300, whom God chose to use, that made them stick with Gideon to accomplish this seemingly impossible task. What was it? I think it was that these men knew they weren't just following Gideon, but that they were following Gideon, who was following God. If you look in chapter 6 of Judges, you will see that Gideon asked for more than one sign. He wanted to be sure of the "messenger"(vs 13-22) and the "message". (vs 36-40) When we get the Who part down, the what seems completely doable. Like Gideon, these 300 put their confidence in God not in man and the outcome was such that God was glorified. And that is the other side of the story.

Time Will Pass And So Will We

Rom 14:7-8 "For none of us liveth unto himself and no man dieth unto himself. For whether we life, we live unto the Lord and whether we die, we die unto the Lord: whether we therefore or die, we are the Lord's."

Someone once said that there are only two things for sure in this world - death & taxes. Well, some people are able to get out of paying taxes, but no one is able to escape death. Heb 9:27 says "It is appointed unto man, once to die. After that the judgement". During my time as a minister I have had the privilege to be a part of many many funerals. Some people that I was very close to and some that I didn't even know. But, all of these people had an impact on the lives of those that knew them. They may have made a good impression or they made have made a bad impression, but their life effected another. The same is true with those people who lived 100 years ago, or 200 years ago. But, we don't have any idea who they are or what their life was like. They may very well have left quite a legacy behind them. A legacy that continued on for a season, yet has no bearing on our lives today. I don't mean to sound like our lives don't amount to anything after we are gone, because that is far from the truth. My point though, is that our legacy, like those who have come before us, will soon pass - just as we will. In the whole scheme of things we will touch the lives of only a very small number of people while we live and after we are gone. But, God has given us the joy, as well as the responsibility, to make a difference in those lives. We will either show them the way to the glories of Heaven through Jesus Christ, or we will lead them down the road of destruction and condemnation in hell. Another familiar quote says "tis only one life and soon twill pass. Only what's done for Christ will last" We should not live so that we will be remembered, we should be remembered because we have lived. Because time will pass and so will we.