Tag Archives: Christianity

Texan Arson Targets Churches

Seven Churches have been vandalized by Arson. ICC and the Baptist Press report that since Jan. 1 many churches have been affected. The churches that have suffered damage include:

Lake Athens Baptist Church
Little Hope Baptist Church
Tyler Baptist Church

While other churches, such as Assembly of God and Church of Christ have been hit, the main target seems to be Southern Baptist. If you would like to help or to add your prayers for these churches, you can contact them at www.texanonline.net. I am sure they would welcome your prayers.

Two Questions That Have Always Bothered Me

I came to believe in Christianity the hard way. I rejected all teaching from my youth and searched the Bible and History for answers to all my questions. But two things have never quite been settled for me and I will question again and again until it is completely answered.

The first is: Why do we insist on calling it Easter? It is the Day of the Resurrection and the Sunday after the Passover in all aspects of Christendom, yet the English speaking people want to call it Easter. And as a result we take Christ out of it and put in all kinds of myths, secular traditions and party time attitude rather than Worship the Risen God in Awe and Wonder. It is a time to dress up, feast a lot and play silly games of hide and seek for colored eggs.

The second is: When did Christians stop believing in the Fullness of Christ in Holy Communion? I know that the vast majority of protestants do not believe in the Transformation of the elements into the Body and Blood of Christ yet until the separation of the Church of England from the Roman Catholic Church, all Christians the world over believed that the words of Jesus, “This is My Body,” and “This is My Blood,” where actual fact and not metaphoric.

I suggest that everybody read these three texts from the New Testament and study them:
1: John 6:35-59
2: Mark 14:22-25, Matthew 26:26-29
3: 1 Cor 10:15-18

God is Not Unfair Nor Forgets.

“For God is not unjust so as to overlook your work and the love that you have shown for his name in serving the saints, as you still do.” Hebrews 6:10

I know that there are many who do simple works in the name of Jesus that get no recognition on earth. Many who do things from their homes, offices and on the streets that nobody knows about except God. To these many brave and loving souls I say, God will remember you for your goodness, love and your obedience to His will.

Because you have welcomed Christ in the service of others, God welcomes you into His love. Jesus said as much in Matthew 10:40. Because there is a heart to serve God, there is no reward on earth that can justify your actions. Your Justification comes from Heaven. But as unfair is the world so just is God. Our rewards are in eternity, not on earth. We only need to trust that what good we can do on earth is done in the trust of Jesus. John 12:44-45 reads, “If you trust me, you are really trusting in the one who sent me. For when you see me, you are seeing the one who sent me.” When you do the will of Jesus, you are doing the will of God. When you are compelled by the Love of Christ to do works, you are compelled by the Father.

God recalls all the good we do and he remembers the righteousness of our actions. The Key is always that we do these thing because we are compelled by the Love that is given to us and the love we share with others. At the last meal shared with the disciples, Jesus said to them, “I have given you an example to follow. Do as I have done to you.” (John 13:15) “When I am raised to life again, you will know that I am in the Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.”(John 14:20) If we are in Christ and He is in us, how then could the Father forget us? Why would God not justify our works if they are done in the example of His Son, Jesus?

Continue in the good service to God. Let no mortal confuse you and tell you that they have no value before God. Failing to do the works of Jesus is to fail the Father. Claiming that the works of Jesus are not to be our example of Right Living is to call God a liar.

God is Just and He will judge us through Jesus by our use of the gifts He has blessed us with. We are not to hide them in the ground as the lazy and fearful servant but are to use all the gifts to the profit of the Word. “Blessed are the pure of heart, for they shall see God.” (Matthew 5:8) They will see God in their works, in those who they render kindness to and by the grace that is given with the Love they have of God.

They shall receive reward because they are just before God and they have lived as the Lord Jesus, Our Christ, has deemed as fair and holy.

Forty Days of Forgiveness (Day 11 – 15)

Day 11: “For His unfailing love toward those who fear Him is as great as the height of the heavens above the earth. He has removed our rebellious acts as far away from us as the east is from the west.” Ps. 103:11-12

The whole of Psalm 103 tells of the great mercy and loving kindness of God. He treats us as his favored children, He fails to punish us as we deserve. He does not hold grudges or remember how often we fail Him. When God forgives our sin, it is forever. There are no conditions put upon us. Should this be motive enough for us to resolve to forgive others? Wouldn’t this be cause to change our sinful ways for the ways of Christ? “His Salvation” extends to the children’s children of those who are faithful to His Covenant, the Covenant that is Christ Jesus.

While we were still living in the rebellion of all that is right, God was there ready to say to us, “You are forgiven! Return to Me!” To Him we are the great pearl that He gave His all to buy. We can live in the forgiveness as we live for His grace each day.

Thank you, My God, for the patience that you bare for me. Thank you for the grace of your forgiving ways. Thank you for continually loving me even when I had no love for you. By Your Grace, Your Mercy and Your Love I am restored into the Family of God. Heal my braking heart as I repent the ways that separate me from Your Love. Amen.

Prayer Quote for Lent

“The prayer of petition is a part of God’s plan for man. When we say that God answers prayers, we do not mean that prayer caused God to change His mind. God has made the whole world and governs it by His providence. Everything that occurs in the world takes place according to the plan of divine providence. But it is part of God’s plan that certain gifts will be given man only in answer to prayer. We pray, not to change God’s plan, but in order to receive from God those things which He has planned to give us in answer to our prayers.” My Way of Life by Walter Farrell and Martin J Healy

Forty Days of Forgiveness (Day 1 – 5)

Day One: “They refuse to listen, and did not remember Your wondrous deeds which You had preformed among them; So they became stubborn and appointed a leader to return to their slavery in Egypt But you are a God of forgiveness, Gracious and compassionate; And You did not forsake them Nehemiah 9:17

Often we turn away from the grace of God and want to return to the ways of slavery to sin. So many times, we in our weakness, want to return to old habits. Let us use this time of year, the forty days before we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus from the grave to examine ourselves to see what weakness of faith and obedience to the service of God we can purge ourselves of.

As Our God is a redemptive God, eager to forgive and wanting to ever welcome us, we are assured that when ever we stray from His way He will welcome us back. As we are seeking the easy way or the life that we left behind, He is wanting us to stay on the righteousness path of Salvation. Let us concentrate on the wondrous deeds that Christ has preformed in our lives and choose not to be lead back into the ways of the World. Let us focus on the Way of Christ and the Road of Redemption.

O God, be merciful upon me, a sinner, and waken in me the remembrance of Your Everlasting Kindness. Show me the errors of my walk and quicken my soul into your righteousness. Grant me your peace and comfort me. Confound the ways of the world that I will not stray into them. In all things, I give You praise and Glory, amen.

When a “Friend” says Hurtful Things

My wife got a letter yesterday from someone who was once a friend. It must be pointed out that my wife has been laid up with blood clots in her leg and lungs and we were hoping that this letter would be one to wish her healing. But sadly it was not the case.

It was instead an attack on my Spirituality. To which I felt that it was long overdo to clear the air. I admit that I was accused of “False Teachings” by the church and was removed from the roles. What was hard for me to accept was that it may have been in God’s plan that I leave that church. I don’t like moving about from church to church and I dislike “pew hoppers” but it seems that for a year I was to be one of those.

But now is the time to at least in part be reconciled with those was dismissed me. I am sorry for the grief that I caused them. I regret that we came to “blows” and that our tempers got the best of us. I want to thank you for sending me away, it was the right thing to do even though I could not see it at the time.

Yet I want to say to those who still condemn me, what have I done that is so wrong? Have I loved you or Our God any less than you? Is my fervent desire to serve Christ any less than yours?

I am called to the verse:

In sacrifice and offering you have not delighted, but you have given to me an open ear. Burnt offering and sin offering you have not required. Then I said, “Behold, I have come; in the scroll of the book it is written: I delight to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart.” Psalm 40:6-7

So I will still do as I believe the Lord Redeemer directs me. And may God bless those who still dispose of me. As Christ has forgiven me, so do I forgive them. As Christ has blessed me, I ask blessings upon them. And may they grow in the Wisdom and Grace of the Spirit of God, may He shower them with His mercy. May the friendship that was from God be restored between us.

And if we meet on the street or in a shop, may our words be kind to each other. And most importantly, may the Wholeness of Christ be with you all the days of your life.

In the meanwhile, My wife is doing well and the doctors are pleased with her overall well being. Tests show that her oxygen levels are high and the clots are not impairing her blood flow. In time she will heal. In this and in all things, good and for ill, I give praise to My God. In Him all things come to pass and for Him all things are to restore my soul. I’m His for the long haul, I know no end in my love for Him.

Persecutions continue in India, Turkey and Now England

It is now evident that in the “Free World” Christians are being attacked for their beliefs and their rights, property, and livelihoods are threatened. But it was a shock that a nurse was suspended for offering to pray for a client and now a professional foster parent has been denied to care for children because a sixteen year old girl chose to convert from Islam to Christianity and be baptized. These events did not happen in China or Iran but is England.

As Turkish Christians (Assyrians) lose property and many fled to Germany, as Indian Catholics and YWAM missions are under attack in India, as Former Soviet Nations create law restricting Faith Based organizations from having bible studies, we must be on a constant prayer vigil to preserve the rights, freedoms and dignity to worship where and how we chose.

It must be remembered that this is how it began in Nazi Germany with the Jews. As we face more opposition from the secular and anti Christians efforts, we must raise up and declare that the belief in a Supreme God is not to be passive but active. Here in the United States of America, we have been fighting secularism and restrictions of Faith because of a “Separation of Church and State” ideal that was designed to prevent a official religion. It has been perverted into becoming a government against religion.

In what ever Nation you live in, you have the God given right to Believe in Him. Man’s law has no authority to deny you that right. If we end up having to worship God in our closets, cellars and caves, as did the early Christians in Rome, we will do it again. But until that day comes, protest the ungodliness of men who deny us our God.

Feb 15: Update: I have been following the upswing of religious suppression in England as of late. First, a nurse was suspended for offering to pray for a client, then a foster parent was removed because a child in her care desided to change religions (from Islam to Christian) and now I read that a parent was threatened with dismissal from a school because her daughter talked with another child about Jesus and heaven and the mother asked her freinds to pray for her, the school and the church on line. This is England, the United Kingdom, the birthplace of the Magna Carta.

PRAY FOR THE CHRISTIANS IN ENGLAND! Pray for all Christians in the “Free World” that they may continue to worship as the desire and that Freedom of religion does not turn into the freedom from religion.

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

C.H. Spurgeon on Readiness

I have been rereading sermons by Spurgeon (because a friend of mine finally returned one of my books) and I keep finding nuggets of wisdom that have shaped my life in the past and renew my faith in mighty ways.

This is another one that blessed me. “And even when that faith is given, the right preparation is to serve God always with thoughtfulness and care – not to go blundering on anyhow, hit or miss, as some do. It is a terribly sad thing to pretend to serve God without thought, without watchfulness, without care, for God is not such a one that we rush into his presence whenever we like, without premeditation, solemnity, or reverence. Every holy duty ought to be thought over carefully. Every prayer, every almsgiving, every attempt to serve God, should be done with due consideration and with holy anxiety to do it in the right manner, at the right time, and in the right spirit.”

Strong words to live by. Enter into Christian efforts by these three things: 1) Feel your need of God. 2) Cry unto God for help. 3) Accept God’s plan for you. In every way, make every effort to be a pleasing sacrifice of your life for the Sacrifice of Jesus.

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

James 2:14-26 Working in Faith

“What good is it my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works?…For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead. ” James 2:14,26

Many look at these passages as an argument against Paul’s teaching on Justification by Faith but that is not the case at all. Paul states that the ritualistic laws of the Pharisees and the circumcision requirement demanded by the Judean Law had lost its meaning. No longer did it express an obedience to the law of God’s Love and his Blessing on the people but it had become a bondage and a burden on the people. It imprisoned the Jews by resriction and unabtainable regulations that bore no resemblance to Love or Faith in God’s Justice. Instead of being for correction and encouragement to honor God in the fullest, it causes a resentment of God. The “works” that Paul gives reference to are those that make it impossible to please God by strict application and shows no mercy, love or acceptance from God.

James on the other hand complains that faith had been reduced to philosophy and religious theory. Faith had been reduced to meaningless drible. Faith had become an excuse not to observe the will of God and people did not want to walk in the Way of the Truth by Christ’s example. James did not want faith to become a wasted event in one’s life but a catalyst to do as Jesus and as they, the first disciples of Jesus did. While we are no longer bound to the Jewish rituals and rites, we are still to follow the Law of Love that permiates the Old Testament.