October 18, 2018

Playing dress up

By dawnlizjones

wolf-2920469_1920There have a few times connected with my job as a school nurse in which I’ve had the pleasure to don a costume in skits for the lower elementary.  Several years in a row I was the Big Bad Wolf for the Great American Smokeout (smoking prevention), and once a friend of mine was the Grape Ape while I hid behind a homemade stage as the puppeteer, (for what I don’t exactly remember…)

And you thought school nurses just sat around putting on bandaids!!

One thing I noticed about being “incognito” is the emotional freedom to act out of character.  Regardless of how hot or uncomfortable the suits were, I had so much fun, which probably makes it more enjoyable for the kids. Continue reading

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October 17, 2018

REPENT!

By Daniel M. Klem

He, that being often reproved hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy. –Proverbs 29:1, KJV

Do you know that person who is always right, has an excuse, and/or just ignores those who confront them?

(Is that you?)

Most of us do not like being around such people too long (sorry, if you are one.) Living this way can therefore lead to loneliness.

But it does get worse.

Consider the following:

  • Pharoah was told enslaving the Hebrews was wrong, and he refused to let them leave Egypt. He ended up in the bottom of the Red Sea while in pursuit of them.
  • The Israelites were told not to worship other gods, or they would be overrun by their enemies. They were.
  • The Israel (Northern Kingdom) and Judah (Southern Kingdom) kings were told to repent and reform their countries or be taken into captivity. They were.

Ultimately, though, (you may already know where this is going) if we refuse to accept the gospel, repent of our sin, and allow the Holy Spirit to conform us to Christ’s image, we end up “without remedy” in the torment of the lake of fire.

Listen, then, to Peter: “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost” (Acts 2:38) and eternal life.

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October 16, 2018

Am I disabled by the fear of what you think of me?

By M. Wiley Wilson

Image result for fear disables

There is a fear that paralyzes me. It is the concern about what you think of me. It can be very disabling.

Will I post this on Facebook and Twitter?

Will I speak out at work?

Why am I afraid?

The answer is staggering. I don’t trust God is why. If I did trust God, I wouldn’t care what others thought of me. The only opinion that would matter would be God’s.

God has promised to be with me. If God is with me, who can be against me?

The fear of human opinion disables;
    trusting in God protects you from that.

Source: Proverbs 29:25 MSG – The fear of human opinion disables; – Bible Gateway

Jesus the Messiah, by his atoning death, resurrection, and heavenly intercession for believers, is the unique liberator from fear. The apostle Paul encouraged the Romans by informing them that in their conversion to the Messiah, they received the Holy Spirit, not as a spirit of fear and bondage, but as the spirit of adoption, whereby they could address God as “Abba”.

This is the word by which our Master Jesus addressed his heavenly Father and which Christians, by virtue of their adoption into the family of God, may also use in speaking to God. Recipients of God’s love have received a dynamic force for casting out their anxieties. A sense of God’s intimate love inspired Paul to say, “If God is for us, who is against us?” (Rom 8:31).

Unwarranted fear may harm the efforts of the people of God. Jeremiah was warned by God not to fear the faces of his opponents lest God allow calamity to befall him. Similar calls to courage were given to Jeremiah’s contemporary, Ezekiel, and to a great many others. We realize that even godly people are tempted to fear and may be temporarily overwhelmed.

So, God repeatedly counsels his people not to succumb to that temptation. He tells them to heap their anxieties upon the God of their redemption, whose care for his sheep is infinitely great. Faith, then, is the indispensable antecedent of fearlessness as seen in the words of Isaiah: “You keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you” (Is 26:3). The psalmist repeatedly stresses the role of faith in conquering fear (37:1; 46:2; 112:7).

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October 15, 2018

A True Prophetic Vision

By Daniel M. Klem

Where there is no prophetic vision the people cast off restraint, but blessed is he who keeps the law. -Proverbs 29:18, ESV

A prophet declares the word of the Lord. In that sense, pastors and evangelists are prophets!

But we tend to hear the word “prophetic” and think “telling the future.” There certainly is an element of this, but we must remember the the other part of prophecy: revealing what is hidden … not just the future, but in our lives.

Most importantly, prophecy reveals God’s expectations.

Therefore, a good pastor and evangelist remind people that God has set His expectation for how we are to live (summed up in the Ten Commandments, which are summed up as “Love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself”), and that we will one day be judged by how we have done. More specifically, we will be judged by whether or not we followed God’s Son, Jesus.

The prophetic vision we have is that God has a standard, as modeled in Jssus, and He will be coming back to the earth in judgment.

If we neglect to teach and remind this world of this, people will throw off restraint and wantonly sin, either because they see no need for a Savior (“We’re basically good!”), or because they see grace giving them license (“We can do whatever we want, because God forgives!”)

We are either going to be judged guilty by how we rejected Christ or how we defiled Christ.

Only by believing in and emulating Christ’s sacrificial work – allowing His cleansing blood to cover us with forgiveness and grace to live a life of forgiveness, grace, and love – will we be ready for His imminent return.

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October 14, 2018

The Untouchable One

By Daniel M. Klem

The king by judgment establisheth the land: but he that receiveth gifts overthroweth it. –Proverbs 29:4, KJV

Eliot Ness and his team of Untouchables were FBI agents during the American age of Prohibition, known as the Untouchables for being unwilling to accept bribes or cutbacks on the illegal sale of alcohol.

Looking back on history, how many leaders can truly be called untouchable, untarnished by the dealings of our corrupt world?

Kings took unethical steps to get or maintain power. Popes bribed their way into the position. Presidents, Prime Ministers, Governors, and other figureheads bought, bribed, and weaseled their way into power or to maintain their seat.

How great is it to know that our Lord, Jesus, was and is untouchable by the ways of this world?

He cannot be bought or bribed, nor will He cheat or turn away from us.

He paid the price that needed to be paid for our own corruption, but He is without corruption and will one day judge the world.

The Untouchable One touched us with His cleansing blood to establish His everlasting, perfect Kingdom.

4 Comments   |  tags: , , , , , , , , , | posted in Government, Jesus, Justice

October 13, 2018

More Boldness Needed

By Anthony Baker
The wicked flee when no man pursueth: but the righteous are bold as a lion. – Proverbs 28:1

One of the most impressive scenes in the New Testament is found in the second chapter of Acts, beginning with verse 14. There we see Peter and the others – but mainly Peter – boldly standing in front of the very crowd that had previously crucified Jesus saying:

“Therefore let all the house of Israel know with certainty that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah.” – Acts 2:36 CSB

If that wasn’t boldness, I don’t know what is!

Think about it! At a time when the Church was barely more than 200 strong (yes, just 200), and not long after they were hiding out in fear, the disciples of Jesus were now throwing caution to the wind as they openly declared Jesus to be the risen Lord.

Nowadays we have multiple millions who claim the name of Christ, many of them with no fear of ever getting a slap on the wrist for expressing their faith – if and when they ever decided to show it. Yet, when the ENTIRE WORLD was in a position to obliterate all the followers of “the Way” in one strike, they came out with a message that was anything but “seeker-friendly” or Joel Osteen-ish.

They essentially said, “You did it. You were wrong. He lives. Repent.”

Where are Christians like that, today? What would happen … if only 200 did what they did … a hundred thousand followers of Christ would stand boldly in the public square and tell the truth about sin and salvation?

Powerless, lukewarm, sin-flirting, self-centered kittens may find it easy to endure the needles that inject woke platitudes and creatively-vague Christian symbols under their skin, but they cower in the dark rooms of expediency and tolerance flee from the fiery darts of the Enemy.

The righteous, on the other hand, stand boldly in the power of the Holy Ghost, raise their shields of faith, and unsheathe a Weapon that “is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12 ESV).

We need more boldness! More lions…fewer kittens.

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October 12, 2018

Motivational or Motivated?

By Daniel M. Klem

He that rebuketh a man afterwards shall find more favour than he that flattereth with the tongue. -Proverbs 28:23, KJV

This verse reminds me of a couple different people today.

One is many pastors today who preach a message of happiness, comfort, and/or wealth. They are quick to speak well of others, yet they hesitate to speak of sin.

The second are those who do a better job of calling out wrong behavior, such as Jordan Peterson and Simon Sinek.

I bring them up because they are popular. Why are they popular? Because of what I just said: they are not afraid to tell people that something is wrong and needs to change.

Regardless of whether you agree with them, these men (and others like them) show that people are hungry for direction.

Simon Sinek in particular has very few detractors, and all he basically says is stop being lazy, stop making excuses, and interact with people in this world … in person, not online!

I have met many people who used to belong to one of those churches in which they were taught that God wants us happy. They left when the only response they got to difficulties in life was that they lacked faith or hadn’t go en enough money to the church.

It was people like Peterson and Sinek that turned their lives around.

We, as Christians, should not be afraid to lovingly call out sin while drawing others to faith in Christ. If we have the truth, we should be bold in proclaiming it, not worried that we might offend someone.

This is the truth that will change their lives, both now and for eternity.

Are we being more like motivational speakers, or are we motivated by the power of Christ to change our world?

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October 11, 2018

T-i-i-i-m-b-e-r-r-r!

By dawnlizjones

autumn-2726242_1920Bob’s been trying to get in touch with our tree service guy to come out and take a look at a particular sugar maple in our back yard.  It’s been trimmed back more than once, and even had one major branch amputated and sealed years ago.  This summer there has been a nest of (I believe) woodpeckers in a hole on the main trunk; it’s very cool to watch the little avian family, but probably doesn’t bode too well for the tree.

The concern is, regardless of how pretty the maple is on the outside, (and I do love them, especially in the autumn), this one is close enough to the family room roof that toppling over could do some serious damage, and not just to the woodpeckers’ cozy little abode! Continue reading

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October 10, 2018

Trusting Our Hearts …

By Daniel M. Klem

He that trusteth in his own heart is a fool: but whoso walketh wisely, he shall be delivered. -Proverbs 28:26, KJV

We live in a world today that frequently tells us to “just follow your heart, it will lead you true.” And many people rely on their reason even knowing they know very little of our reality.

That second point is striking. The most optimistic scientists say we may know 6% of everything there is to know about the Universe. Yet, atheists will argue there is no evidence for God. But there is at least 94% that we don’t even know about!

However, we can trust our heart, right?

God tells us, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” (Jeremiah 17:9)

In our fallen, sinful state, we cannot trust our heart. We are selfish and want to believe what feels good, not necessarily what is true and good.

It affects our emotions, thoughts, and reason.

The wise person realizes that there is a God, who has a standard and has revealed it and Himself to His Creation – through the written Scriptures and the incarnation of Jesus.

Trusting our own heart and reason may lead us deep into sin.

Trusting the God revealed in the Bible and through the Son will deliver us from sin.

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October 9, 2018

Does justice make sense to the evil minded?

By M. Wiley Wilson

Justice is a tricky thing. For many it is befuddling and confusing. They are seeking justice here in our country. Justice is truly found in God’s country (aka Kingdom) where Jesus has been given all authority.

There is evil in this world. There is an evil one (Satan or the Devil) and some people are clearly evil minded. The daily news reveals it constantly. God gives us a choice whether to choose God (and good) or evil.

We know Jesus and we know justice. We know justice will be served. It may not occur until the day of judgement but justice will be served. God is God.

Jesus taught us to pray that God’s rule and will would be done on earth as it is in heaven. We know what justice looks like. We are ushering it in here in earths countries.

“Justice makes no sense to the evilminded; those who seek God know it inside and out.” ~King Solomon

Source: Proverbs 28:5 (The Message Bible)

Image result for evil minded

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