Walking With Jesus

Do You Want to Be Used?

“In a wealthy home some utensils are made of gold and silver, and some are made of wood and clay. The expensive utensils are used for special occasions, and the cheap ones are for everyday use. If you keep yourself pure, you will be a special utensil for honorable use. Your life will be clean, and you will be ready for the Master to use you for every good work.” (2 Timothy 2:20-21 NLT)

Being used can have many connotations. Especially in modern uses, “used” connotes abuse, misuse, being taken advantage of, often in very negative and harmful ways. However, like the utensils used in the Old Testament sacrificial system were sanctified, set apart for sacred use, so we, as Jesus followers, blood bought children of the living God, can be set apart for sacred usefulness to our Master Jesus.

What a privilege to be chosen. How good we feel when we’re chosen for a position on a sports team, a choir, to play or sing in a performance, or to be chosen for a position that has been a lifelong dream. How much greater to be chosen by the King of kings and Lord of lords to do His sacred bidding.

Remember the “certain immoral woman” in Luke 7 who anointed Jesus’ feet with expensive perfume? The Bible says: “Then she knelt behind Him at His feet, weeping. Her tears fell on His feet, and she wiped them off with her hair. Then she kept kissing His feet and putting perfume on them.” What an honor to be that woman, but at such a high price. Not only the criticism, ridicule, and rejection of those who thought themselves too good to even associate with such a woman, though I strongly suspect some of them were very nervous because they’d been her suitor.

But think of what was on Jesus’ feet. There were no paved walkways, only well-worn paths traveled, not only by humans, but by many animals, animals that had no discretion as to where they did their business. Think of the dust and mud created by the mixture of weather, animal urine and dung that clung to the sandals and no doubt their feet. Imagine the smell, the roughness of the Savior’s feet, but none of that mattered to the one chosen to give the sacrifice of love that allows nothing to keep them from carrying out what God has called them and empowered them to do.

Robert E. Coleman wrote: “Jesus can use anyone who wants to be used.” Does that include me and you? My sense is the Lord isn’t calling us to wash filthy feet, though I have washed many feet, at home and abroad, and I can’t explain what a privilege and moving experience it was. I’ve washed toilets and hugged sweaty, smelly people, but I don’t remember any foul aroma, only the aroma of Christ’s presence as tears of joy flowed from my eyes. Service isn’t sacrifice when done for the pleasure of King Jesus.

If you want to be used, there is literally no limit to ways we can serve when we don’t care who gets the credit except Jesus. If you want to see some eyes bulge, go to your Pastor or Deacon Board and say something like: “I’d like to serve in any way I can. I’m available these times and I will go where I’m needed and do whatever needs to be done as long as no one knows it’s me except the one(s) I serve. I know the Lord will know and that’s all that matters to me. My service is unto Him for His glory, honor, and fame.”

If we serve with the expectation of being praised, honored, or even thanked, we’ve missed the point. Rarely was the Lord thanked for His kindness or even His miraculous healings. His thanks was the smile on His Father’s holy face and the sound or His voice saying: “This is My dearly loved Son, who brings Me great joy.”

For us there will be no greater expression of appreciation than hearing: “Well done, My good and faithful servant!”

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊

America at 250: Early American Socialism

By: Debbie Wuthnow

*If you’re like me, you haven’t paid that much attention to election results until recent years. I always assumed the process was honest and fair, and the best candidate would win. Obviously, I have been very wrong. We cannot be negligent when picking candidates and VOTING for those who best represent our values. It’s not enough that they believe what we believe, we must get them in office. Debbie Wuthnow is working on our behalf to give us a fair evaluation of the candidates so we can make an informed decision. Please read this carefully and prayerfully. It’s well worth the read. Blessings, Ed 😊

Like many of you, I’ve been watching democratic candidates win elections nationwide on radical socialist platforms. And it’s concerning.

According to the Brookings Institution, the Democratic Socialists of America are “having a moment” that started with the election of Zohran Mamdani as mayor of New York City in late 2025. Since then, Democratic candidates linked to the DSA, like Abdul El-Sayed, or running on socialist-friendly platforms, like James Talarico, have captured high-profile primary wins in critical states.

“Shared wealth” can seem appealing, even deceptively “Christian.” Some believers even suggest that the early church was practicing a kind of socialism described in Acts 2:44-45: “All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need.”

Sharing with others is one of our highest values as Christians, and it’s often one of the earliest lessons in a child’s life. But there’s a major difference between socialist ideology and what was happening in Acts 2: Socialism doesn’t give you the choice. It forces the hand of the taxpayer, removing your autonomy as the giver and distancing you from the receiver.

On the contrary, those in the Acts 2 church gave of their own free will. We know this because in Acts 5, Peter strongly condemns Ananias and his wife Sapphira before the Lord strikes them dead—not for withholding funds, but for lying about the amount they gave. Here’s how Peter confronts Ananias in verse 4: “Didn’t [the land] belong to you before it was sold? And after it was sold, wasn’t the money at your disposal?”

Later, Paul revisits this idea that giving should never be forced: “Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.” (2 Cor. 9:7)

Imagine encountering a church or a neighborhood that required you to surrender your entire income for corporate use and equal distribution throughout its community. Believe it or not, the first American settlers did exactly that.

Early American socialism

In early settlements of both Plymouth and Jamestown, the American colonists shared property and equally distributed the fruits of their labor. Though they shared goods, they often did not share the same work ethic. Here’s how historians David and Tim Barton describe the situation in their book, The American Story: The Beginnings: “It didn’t take long for those inclined to laziness to find that this was a system that suited them well; they could receive provisions without working. The result was inefficiency, nonproductivity, and injustice.” (p. 54)

In Jamestown this system contributed to a disastrous loss of life in the winter of 1609, otherwise known as “The Starving Time.” Only 60 out of 490 colonists survived that terrible winter, and hideous forms of cannibalism took place as desperation replaced order.

Eventually, governors John Smith of Jamestown and William Bradford of Plymouth both instituted new economic systems to combat this deadly temptation to laziness. They assigned parcels of land for each family to provide for themselves. Charity was provided only to the sick, disabled, and elderly.

According to The American Story, settlers in Plymouth planted seven times more than they had under the previous system. Governor Bradford made these observations about the free-market approach: “This had very good success, for it made all hands very industrious, so as much more corn was planted than otherwise would have been by any means the governor or any other could use. … The women now went willingly into the field and took their little ones with them to set corn, which before would allege [fake, or pretend] weakness and inability.” (p. 55)

As an interesting side note, the Pilgrims at Plymouth embraced biblical teachings about personal provision far more readily than their predecessors in Virginia. When Governor Smith was injured and returned to England, the Jamestown colony reverted to their laziness and socialist instincts. Though most professed Christianity, their religious practice was rooted in the Anglican Church of England, where state-appointed priests told them how to interpret the Bible. The colonists at Plymouth strongly opposed state-run churches. They placed high value on a personal knowledge of scripture and obedience.

These very different approaches to Christianity produced opposing ways of life, most importantly regarding chattel slavery in America. The Virginia colonists’ resistance to working for themselves made them more inclined towards advancing the evils of slavery. By contrast, the Massachusetts colonists did not embrace chattel slavery because of their strong work ethic and a scriptural mindset of equal dignity for all humankind.

This history of Plymouth and Jamestown holds so many lessons and warnings for modern American Christians as we prepare to vote in the coming months. Both good and bad leadership will undoubtedly affect the generations that come after us.

Despite political trends, we must continue to expose the evil root of laziness, opportunism, and godlessness inherent to socialism. We must persist in cultivating biblical literacy and sound doctrine in the church. And finally, we must do our best to elect leaders with a biblical mindset. At iVoterGuide, we’re here to provide the data you need to do just that.

For our future,

Debbie Debbie Wuthnow (President, iVoterGuide)

What’s the Lord Up to?

“There are different kinds of spiritual gifts, but the same Spirit is the source of them all. There are different kinds of service, but we serve the same Lord. God works in different ways, but it is the same God who does the work in all of us.” (1 Corinthians 12:4-6 NLT)

Would you think it’s safe to say that God is a multi-tasker? How do you spell UNDERSTATEMENT! In any given second the Lord listens to the prayers of millions of saints while commanding the planets, the insects, and animals on every inch of our tiny planet. But here’s the really miraculous part of this whole issue: He’s working in your life and mine in ways we can’t see or even comprehend if He explained it.

John Piper gives us insight when he writes: “God is always doing 10,000 things in your life, and you may be aware of three of them.” Can we possibly have the audacity to say or even think that the Lord has forgotten us or worse, never knew us nor given us a thought. If you’re a new mom or dad is there literally a second that new bundle of joy isn’t on your mind, demanding your attention, occupying your energy? And yes, of course, some of those moments are more joyful than others, but the point is, you’re not about to forget for one second that you’re a parent and that little life is dependent upon you.

Our Heavenly Father loves each of us, lost and found, as though we were His only child. His attention is riveted on us as though He had nothing else to do. Even as I type these words the Lord is filling my mind with thoughts, ideas, and ways to convey the message He’s given me. He’s not off attending more important things – I am – YOU ARE – His agenda!

Our selfishness and self-centeredness demand things of God He will not give us, but that doesn’t negate in any way His willingness to guide, guard, love, equip, and help us find intimacy with Him. Our sin is the key issue that separates us, deafens our spiritual ears, and overshadows our spiritual eyes. Because we’re blind and deaf to the Lord’s presence isn’t His fault. He’s done everything possible to enable us to be aware, not only of who He is, but how He wants to be personally invested in each of our lives.

Knowing, loving, and serving the Lord Jesus is the greatest adventure to which anyone can be called. As a Pastor I made hundreds, probably thousands of visits to people in hospitals, nursing homes, care facilities, and homes seeing them at different stages of illness and suffering. In none of those circumstances did even one of them ask me: “Pastor, how might the Lord use me in this difficult situation? Can I still be useful to the Lord even in this season of my life?”

It was always some form of “What’s God going to do for me?” But why? Is the Lord finished with us just because we don’t have the same physical, mental, emotional, or financial means we once had? Maybe what the Lord is up to is alerting us that if we have breath, we have purpose and it’s time to get our eyes and mind off ourselves and onto those in our spheres of influence who need whatever it is we can give to point them to Him. It’s never simply a matter of “What can’t I do?” but “Lord, by Your grace, what CAN I do for YOU?”

Remember the simple chorus of the hymn: “Lord lay some soul upon my heart and love that soul through me. And may I bravely do my part, to win that soul for thee.” Yes, of course, there are times when we aren’t able to be aware of anything, but if we can be, we can pray for someone else besides ourselves and speak kind words of affirmation that the Lord is up to thousands of good things in our lives and in the lives of those with whom we have contact. He’s never idle.

Hallelujah! What a Savior! 😊

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊

A Light on a Hill

“This fulfilled what God said through the prophet Isaiah: ‘In the land of Zebulun and of Naphtali, beside the sea, beyond the Jordan River, in Galilee where so many Gentiles live, the people who sat in darkness have seen a great light. And for those who lived in the land where death casts its shadow, a light has shined.’” (Matthew (quoting from Isaiah) 4:14-16 NLT)

The arrest of John the Baptist set in motion the launching of Jesus’ ministry that introduced a light into the world that had never been seen before. While God’s light had shone in darkness before, never had the fulness of the Godhead been poured into human flesh to shine in ways never before imagined.

Just as there are different levels of darkness, there are different degrees of light. I’ve been in the darkness of a cave where I literally could not see my hand in front of my face and the light of a match seemed bright as the sun. I’ve also stood in bright sunlight where the light of a flashlight or lighter was inconsequential.

Darkness demands discernment and just as Jesus knew the precise moment to come forth and begin His ministry, there comes a time in each of His followers’ lives when we must decide to plant our feet on our proverbial hill and shine for Him. Pastor Corky Calhoun gives us insight when he writes: “Being a light on the hill is a declaration of war against depravity and darkness.”

With the Lord’s return growing closer every second, we must be about our Father’s business of pointing others to Him before it’s eternally too late. Darkness seeks to hide the fact there are no second chances after we close our eyes in death. If we have a right relationship with the Lord Jesus, have had our sins forgiven, been filled with the Spirit and are walking in the light of His holy life we will go from light to light; otherwise, we’ll go from the light of opportunity to the darkness of eternal lostness.

Here’s the truth, we’re either agents of light or darkness; we’re either sharing the truth of the Gospel that is lighting the way for those who are walking in darkness or we’re not. And please understand, I’m “preaching to the choir”, beginning with myself. I’m not perfect and, honestly, I fail more than I succeed when I share my faith with lost people.

My notes to my neighbors have resulted in very few even responding and those who do, with rare exception, are not changing in any significant ways. War has casualties and too often those of us who are seeking to share are the targets of Satan’s arrows. However, to me that’s a good thing because it helps me understand I’m doing something right. I’m rattling Satan’s cage; I’m making a difference.

Yes, of course, there are men and women of God the Lord uses in extraordinary ways, but that’s not me and it may not be you. Just be faithful where the Lord has planted you. Be kind, thoughtful, loving, caring, compassionate and when the opportunity arises, give praise, honor, and glory to Jesus for His goodness in your life. Extend the opportunity for someone walking in darkness to know the way to find the light. Learn a simple Gospel explanation, practice it on a family member or friend, then be ready to share it with anyone who will listen. We’ll never lead anyone to the Lord with whom we haven’t shared.

Please don’t allow Satan to cover your light under a “bush” of self-doubt, feelings of inadequacy or anything else. Determine that you’re a child of God, filled with light and life and you’re not going to keep the hope you’ve been given by Jesus to yourself. He will guide and equip you. Just be willing to listen to Him.

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊

A Theology of Idolatry for the Twenty-First Century – Part 2: Why We Can’t Stop Making Gods

By John Stonestreet and S. Michael Craven

*If you missed Part 1 yesterday, it will be helpful to go back and read that before continuing; otherwise, enjoy! Blessings, Ed 😊

What happened to the ancient gods? How did Christianity so quickly replace idols that had been worshiped for more than a millennium? Today, Vice President of the Colson Fellows Program Michael Craven continues his theological reflection on idolatry and the Christian worldview.

Zeus, Apollo, Artemis, and the rest of the Greco-Roman pantheon once dominated the ancient world. But within a few centuries of Christ’s coming, the temples emptied, the sacrifices ceased, and the oracles fell silent.

Yet, humanity’s impulse to worship did not disappear. This is where the biblical story didn’t merely outlast paganism; it offered a truer explanation of reality.

The Bible teaches that human beings were created not merely as rational or political creatures, but as worshiping creatures. We were made in the image of God and designed to know Him, love Him, and live under His gracious rule. Worship is not merely something we do. It’s woven into who we are.

That is why Scripture never imagines a world without worship. Instead, it asks a different question: Whom—or what—will we worship? John Calvin famously observed that the human heart is “a perpetual factory of idols.” He understood that idolatry is not a relic of ancient civilizations. It’s the fallen heart’s continual attempt to replace the Creator with something created.

The Apostle Paul explains this with remarkable clarity in Romans 1. Humanity did not stop worshiping. We simply “exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator.” That exchange continues today. The human heart never stops worshiping. It only changes the object of its worship.

Many people insist they’re not religious. If religion simply means attending church or reciting prayers, perhaps fewer people are religious than in previous generations.

But if religion means giving ultimate loyalty, trust, hope, and identity to something, then our culture remains profoundly religious. The modern idols simply wear different names.

Perhaps the most obvious is the autonomous self. For much of human history, identity was understood as something to be discovered in relationship to God, family, community, and vocation. Today, we’re told to look inward. Self-expression has become our highest good. In a shift not psychological but rather theological, the self no longer answers to a higher authority; it has become the authority.

Politics has likewise become increasingly religious. While political engagement is an important responsibility of citizenship, many Christians look to political movements to accomplish what only God can do. Elections promise salvation. Opponents become moral enemies. Political victories are celebrated with religious fervor, while defeats produce despair bordering on the apocalyptic. When politics becomes our ultimate hope, it has become our god.

Even worthy concerns can become idols when elevated to ultimate importance. For example, Christians should care deeply about God’s creation. Faithful stewardship is part of our biblical calling. But when concern for the environment becomes an all-encompassing explanation for humanity’s problems—complete with its own prophets, doctrines of guilt, rituals of atonement, and visions of apocalypse and salvation—it has crossed the line from science into something resembling religion.

Perhaps the most subtle idols are those we construct inside the Church itself. God has given us extraordinary gifts—wisdom, planning, leadership, technology, and organizational skill. Used rightly, these are faithful means of serving His purposes. But they become idols the moment we begin trusting them more than the God who gave them. Churches can quietly exchange prayer for planning, spiritual dependence for technique, and the power of the Holy Spirit for the latest leadership strategy. None of these things are wrong in themselves. But when our confidence shifts from God’s presence to our competence, we have fallen into one of idolatry’s oldest patterns: trusting the work of our own hands.

The greatest threat to the Church has never been that she would stop worshiping God. It is that she would begin trusting something other than God while still using His name.

Idols have always been excellent at changing costumes, promising what only God can give: meaning, identity, security, hope, and salvation. But idols are cruel masters. They continually demand more while delivering less. They can never satisfy the deepest longings of the human heart because they were never designed to bear the weight of our worship.

This is why the First Commandment remains the foundation of every other commandment: “You shall have no other gods before me.”

God does not forbid idolatry because He is insecure or threatened by competitors. He forbids it because He alone is worthy of worship and because He alone corresponds to reality. Every false god, whether carved from marble or constructed from modern ideologies, ultimately distorts reality and diminishes those who worship it.

When Paul walked through Athens, he found a city “full of idols.” Today our cities look very different, yet our culture is no less devoted to finding ultimate meaning, identity, and hope in created things. Every age believes it has outgrown idolatry. Every age is wrong.

The first Christians did not merely stop worshiping Zeus. They discovered Someone infinitely greater. Once they knew the true God, the false gods lost their power. The same remains true today. Our idols will not disappear simply because we expose them. They disappear when we behold Christ.

A Theology of Idolatry for the Twenty-First Century – Part 1

By: John Stonestreet and S. Michael Craven

*Unfortunately, as a rule, especially as Jesus followers, we find it hard to believe that idolatry is much of a thing today, but we are very wrong. Today and tomorrow were going to look through the lens of the Colson Center at some very real “gods” that still persist. Read attentively. Blessings, Ed 😊

Augustine of Hippo famously wrote: “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.” Like Augustine, our hearts can lead us to false gods. Today on Breakpoint, my colleague Michael Craven, Vice President & Dean of the Colson Fellows Program, offers a theological reflection on idolatry.

———————————-

For nearly a thousand years, “the gods” ruled the Western world.

Zeus thundered from Olympus. Artemis drew pilgrims from across the Roman Empire. Apollo spoke through the Oracle at Delphi. Athena guarded cities. Poseidon ruled the seas. Every village had its patron deity, every household its shrines, and every season its sacrifices. The temples were magnificent, the festivals lavish, and the myths woven into every aspect of public life.

Then, they disappeared.

Today, no one offers sacrifices to Zeus. The temples remain as archaeological treasures, visited by tourists rather than worshipers. What happened is one of history’s most remarkable—and least appreciated—revolutions.

Many assume Christianity simply gained political dominance under Emperor Constantine. But history tells a more fascinating story. By the time Constantine legalized Christianity in AD 313, the Church had already spread throughout the empire despite nearly three centuries of persecution. It had won converts among the poor, philosophers, merchants, soldiers, government officials, and Rome’s educated class alike.

Even more telling, when the pagan emperor Julian—known to history as “the Apostate”—attempted to restore the old religion only a generation later, he failed. He had imperial authority, political power, and the ancient temples at his disposal. Yet he couldn’t persuade the empire to return to its former gods.

Why did a movement centered on a crucified Jewish carpenter succeed where centuries of pagan mythology and even Greek philosophy had failed? The answer is not that Christianity offered better myths. It offered reality.

The ancient religions attempted to explain the world through stories of competing gods whose passions, jealousies, and rivalries resembled those of humans. Greek philosophers recognized the inadequacy of these myths and sought deeper explanations. Plato sought ultimate forms. Aristotle reasoned toward an Unmoved Mover. The Stoics prized virtue and rationality.

Their insights were often profound, but they remained incomplete. Philosophy could ask life’s greatest questions. It could not fully answer them. It could describe “the good life,” but it could not explain why every human possesses equal dignity, why evil exists, or why history itself has meaning.

Christianity entered that world with something entirely different.

It proclaimed one eternal Creator rather than a pantheon of competing gods. It explained why the universe is orderly because it is the product of a rational Mind. It grounded human dignity not in citizenship, wealth, strength, or usefulness, but in every person’s creation in the image of God.

It accounted for both humanity’s grandeur and its brokenness through the biblical story of Creation and the Fall. It presented history not as an endless cycle of rise and decline but as a purposeful drama moving toward redemption and restoration.

Most astonishing, it proclaimed that the Creator Himself had entered history in the person of Jesus Christ. Not as another myth, but as a radical claim about reality itself.

As C. S. Lewis famously observed, Christianity is “myth become fact.” The longings reflected imperfectly in pagan stories found their fulfillment not in another legend but in the historical life, death, and resurrection of Christ.

The New Testament itself records the beginning of paganism’s collapse. In Acts 19, the silversmith Demetrius warned that Paul’s preaching threatened the thriving industry built around the worship of Artemis because people were becoming convinced that “gods made with hands are not gods.” The Gospel wasn’t simply winning converts; it was dismantling an entire religious worldview.

Early Christian leaders recognized exactly what was happening. Writing in the fourth century, Athanasius pointed out what everyone could see; that memory of “the gods” was fading. Christ had accomplished what neither mythology nor philosophy could: He had exposed the impotence of the false gods and revealed the one true God.

Christianity did far more than change what people believed. It transformed how they understood reality itself. Because every human being bears God’s image, infants were no longer disposable. Women possessed inherent dignity rather than treated as property. The sick became neighbors to be cared for rather than burdens to be discarded. Mercy became a virtue instead of a weakness. Forgiveness replaced vengeance. Humility became honorable in a culture that admired power above all else.

These changes flowed naturally from a worldview that corresponded to reality. The Christian faith did not triumph because it was politically useful or culturally fashionable. It triumphed because it explained the world more truthfully than pagan mythology or philosophy ever could. That raises an unsettling question for our own age. If Christ exposed the bankruptcy of the ancient gods, why does every generation seem determined to create new ones? The human heart remains as religious as ever. We no longer bow before statues of Apollo or Artemis, but we have fashioned new gods. Less obvious perhaps, but no less demanding. Those are the gods we must now learn to recognize.

Sunday Grins or Sunday Grouches

*As always, Ron Hutchcraft speaks to our heart in this moving message. Enjoy, Blessings, Ed

You know, people in certain jobs end up being treated kind of like vending machines. Now, the state that I lived in for many years, we still had full-service gas and we had gas station attendants. People just sort of drive up and grunt a couple of words to him, and then he would dispense his service, and people would drive off. Oh, of course, we did give him a little money. Waitresses—there’s another one. And the checkout people at a grocery store. Well, you know what? I’ve got a little personal crusade to help these service people feel human again; to get them to talk. Now brace yourself…even to get them to smile sometimes. I feel like I’ve succeeded if they’ll smile.

I was at the grocery store late one week night, and I said to the woman who was checking out our groceries, “Well, I’ll bet you’ve had a long day today, huh? You almost done?” She said, “Oh yeah, I’m almost out of here, but it’s been a long day. I’ve had a lot of crabby people! I thought it was Sunday today.” That raised a question. I said, “Wait a minute. What did you mean you thought it was Sunday today?” She said, “Oh, we all hate to work Sundays. There are more grouches on Sunday here than any other day.” And then came the observation that cut the most deeply. She said, “Yeah, most of them just came from church; they’re the grouchiest of all.” Ouch!

I’m Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about “Sunday Grins or Sunday Grouches.”

Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Hebrews 10, beginning at verse 25. “Let us not give up meeting together as some are in the habit of doing. But let us encourage one another, and all the more as you see the day approaching.” Well, that verse is often applied to us getting together in our Christian meetings or Bible studies in church, and that’s good.

The verse before it says, “And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds.” Okay. These verses seem to be saying there’s a certain kind of result you can expect from Christians having been together. They’re going to come out more loving, more encouraged, more encouraging, and doing more good deeds.

Unfortunately, there are too many arguments on the way home from church. There’s too much selfishness on Sunday afternoon about “Hey, it’s my day off! I want to do what I want to do.” There are just too many grouches on Sunday.

I said to that checkout girl who had pointed that out to me, “You know, if you’ve just spent time with the Creator of the universe, you should feel pretty good don’t you think?” She said, “Well, I guess a lot of them just don’t look at it that way.” I wonder if we don’t get in a religious rut on Sunday and miss the purpose of the exercise? Maybe we even begin to resent the routine.

Some questions for coming out with grins instead of grouches on Sunday. Number one, “Did I touch the Lord while I was there?” Ask yourself that every time you’re together in a Christian meeting. Did I touch the Lord? And that should not be dependent on how good the sermon was, or who preached, or whether the music was on key, or whether you liked the environment that morning. It’s dependent on the attitude of your heart if you went in looking for the Lord.

Second question: “Did I leave with a mission or did I even go looking for one?” I mean, did you ask the Lord for something to do obediently as a result of something you’re going to hear or feel during that service – a mission. Thirdly, “Did I encourage someone today?” Church can become very mechanical and almost useless unless we go looking for three things: go in looking for the Lord, determined to get more of Him. Go in looking for a mission – I’m going to leave here with something I need to do. And looking for someone to encourage; Lord, help me be a ministry to someone here today. Then everything afterwards: the trip home, the afternoon’s activities, our treatment of the checkout girl. They all grow out of these discoveries.

After all, time in the Lord’s house on the Lord’s Day should at least produce the Lord’s attitude.

Praying What Is True

“Then the Pharisees met together to plot how to trap Jesus into saying something for which He could be arrested. They sent some of their disciples, along with the supporters of Herod, to meet with Him. ‘Teacher,’ they said, ‘we know how honest You are. You teach the way of God truthfully. You are impartial and don’t play favorites.” (Matthew 22:15-16 NLT)

Jesus quickly saw through their hypocrisy, but the point is, though they were seeking to say what they thought Jesus wanted to hear, they were actually stating a fact of who Jesus was and is – completely honest and true to Himself and to His Father. Unfortunately, we sometimes pull the same kinds of stunts when we pray. It’s like we’re trying to use His goodness, kindness and perfection, against Him to get Him to do what we want.

Francis Chan makes an interesting observation when he writes: “There is a HUGE difference between believing what God has promised and praying for things you’d like to be true.” It always saddens me when I hear someone living in open sin say something like: “The Lord and I have an agreement. He understands I can’t change, so He’s forgiven me and He’s okay with how I’m living.” The very thought that we can’t change by the power of His Spirit goes against everything the Lord taught, and to believe He’s okay for us to continue in sin when He died to free us of it is blasphemous.

He calls us to repentance, which is a turning away from the sin that has us bound. Our sin is what has us captive, the very sin from which we’re set free when we’re born again, not to continue in it, but to turn from it. Satan seeks to blind us to truth through the exaltation of our feelings, our emotions. We wrongly believe as long as we “feel” okay about something, the Lord must be okay with it also, but it just doesn’t work that way. Feelings lie, they mislead us into believing things that are of the enemy, not of the Lord.

Ravi Zacharias had it right when he wrote: “We have a right to believe whatever we want, but not everything we believe is right.” Unfortunately, Brother Zacharias didn’t always practice what he preached, but truth is truth whether we live it or not. I can believe mules are racehorses, but it just doesn’t make it so. I can also believe sin is okay when it is not.

God’s promises are true, but to distort them and try to make them mean something they don’t is damning. When Paul writes in Philippians 4:13: “For I can do everything (or some translations say “all things”) through Christ, who gives me strength.” The context reveals his “everything” or “all things” is that which is in line with God’s will for him. Our strength to live godly, faith-filled lives to the glory of the Lord ONLY comes through utter dependence upon the Spirit who resides in us as His children.

When we use our God-given freedom to seek to distort truth, we reveal our independence and alienation from the Lord; thus, reveal our need of repentance and forgiveness. We know, based on the authority of God’s Word, that every word Jesus spoke was true, but to take them out of context or to seek to have them say what He never intended is sin. That’s true of any words of Scripture and is seen on full display in and through many of the cults that roam the earth today. My sense is the Lord has a special place in hell for the Joseph Smith’s of the world who have started satanic cults in the name of Jesus, seeking only glory for themselves.

Please only pray and believe that which is true to Scripture and true to the heart of God.

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊

Revival

“The high and lofty One who lives in eternity, the Holy One, says this: ‘I live in the high and holy place with those whose spirits are contrite and humble. I restore the crushed spirit of the humble and revive the courage of those with repentant hearts.’” Isaiah 57:15 NLT)

Recently I read in a Turning Point article by Dr. David Jeremiah about a very unique way to ask the Lord to bring revival. Dr. Jeremiah wrote: “’Gipsy’ Smith was a British evangelist who preached in Great Britain and America for more than seventy years. He is famously known for this formula for bringing about revival: ‘Go home. Lock yourself in your room. Kneel down in the middle of the floor, and with a piece of chalk draw a circle around yourself. There, on your knees, pray fervently and brokenly that God would start a revival within that chalk circle.’ That is, there can be no corporate revival (renewal) that does not begin with prayerful, personal revival.”

There’s no better way to express to the Lord your desire to become contrite and humble before Him than to kneel on the floor and ask Him to do in and through you that which would please and honor Him the most. The reality is, He very likely won’t do anything in someone else THROUGH you that He hasn’t already done IN you.

Our sinful patterns prevent the Spirit of God from working through us as He desires, so, the only way we can allow the channels of our life between us and the Lord to flow again is through repentance, turning from our disobedience and sin, seeking His forgiveness, and committing to keep our life holy and pure, that the Spirit may flow freely,

The Lord will not use a dirty vessel, so, only by His grace and the purity of His forgiveness will we be able to become the vessels of holiness the Lord desires us to be in order to use us to usher in the revival of His people He longs to bring. The Prophets of old understood this principle as time after time the Lord gave them messages for His people to repent and return to a place of usefulness; otherwise, they would be destroyed.

That seemed so harsh, but the reality is the same is true today. To not walk with Jesus is to risk hell, eternal separation from Him, but, by His grace, through repentance, forgiveness and the empowering presence of His Spirit we can overcome our sin and walk in newness of life with Him. It’s only then we can become vessels of His holy presence to influence others positively for Him.

Revival isn’t an emotional frenzy, it’s the realization that God is present, willing to move, but He’s waiting for His children who are prepared, filled with His Spirit, and living in step with His will to be equipped and answer the call to pray for the fulfillment of what He has planned. That begins in our own personal prayer closets, our “circle of one”, as brother “Gipsy” Smith described.

My heart’s desire is to be used powerfully of the Lord to see lost people come to Him, that revival will begin with me and spread to my family, friends, neighbors, and beyond. I know that’s the heart of many of you who read this blog, so, by God’s grace, we will see a mighty move of God in our day.

Just know I love you, am so very grateful for your strong stance with Jesus and look forward to having long walks and conversations with you in heaven.

Blessings, Ed 😊

Why Religious Freedom Matters to Christians of All Backgrounds

By: John Stonestreet and Dr. Jennifer Patterson

*We’re often confused when it comes to “political” topics and believe we should tread lightly for fear it will distract us from our attention to more vital “spiritual” things. Our religious freedom IS a very spiritual issue and should be seen and understood clearly in its proper context. This insightful article will help us.

Constitution Day is a good time to celebrate one of the greatest blessings of our freedom, which is the constitutional guarantee of religious liberty. Protected in the Constitution is the right to worship God freely, pray openly, exercise our faith publicly, and pursue our callings faithfully. It is much to be thankful for and much to preserve.

These freedoms are a reflection of what scholars Eric and Jennifer Patterson call a religious freedom consensus that has long been present in American culture. That consensus recognizes three essentials: that human beings are religious by nature; that religion contributes to the good of society; and that government has a duty to protect freedom in this fundamental aspect of human life.

As recently as 1993, that consensus resulted in the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, or RFRA, which was passed by Congress nearly unanimously and signed into law by President Clinton. But the religious freedom “brand” has taken quite a hit, and it’s doubtful the same Act could pass today. For many, religious freedom is code language for “license to discriminate.”

In fact, in recent decades, RFRA and the principles behind it have been widely questioned, and the pressures have increased to privatize religion and downgrade the freedom to exercise faith in all areas of life to the freedom of worship, limited to your own heart, home, and house of worship. Legal challenges to the rights of believers to live out a faith consistent with their convictions have been brought against those who run adoption agencies, homeless shelters, student groups, and family businesses.

Christians are called to be good stewards of what we’ve been given, and the heritage of religious freedom is one of those things. There’s plenty we can and must do if we are to preserve the religious freedom consensus we’ve inherited as Americans. Christians not only have constitutional reasons to uphold religious freedom, but we also have theological reasons. Many Christians, however, do not know those theological reasons, much less how they are reflected in the history of their denominations and traditions. As such, many cannot articulate why religious freedom is a good and necessary gift of God that is worth preserving.

In their new book Faith & Freedom: Six Theological Reflections on Religious Freedom, Eric and Jennifer Patterson provide a thorough theological case for religious freedom. Faith &Freedom features the work of theologians from several evangelical denominations who each provide a theology of religious freedom from their tradition.

As you might expect when Baptist, Wesleyan, Lutheran, Reformed, and Pentecostal Christians all contribute to a book, each chapter takes a little different approach to the topic. Yet each scholar offers arguments and angles that will sharpen the conviction of all Christians about religious freedom, no matter the church background we come from.

For example, the Baptist chapter offers a stark reminder of the God-given limits of government. Civil officials are not to dictate or outlaw worship or the pattern of life that flows from that worship. The Reformed chapter builds the case for religious freedom from the doctrine of the image of God, reminding us that God alone judges the human heart, and he requires sincere faith that cannot be coerced. The Wesleyan chapter draws on that tradition’s focus on freedom from sin, for sanctification. This leads to personal holiness and social holiness that express love for God and neighbor.

In other words, religious freedom leads to transformation of lives and society, as it allows believers to pursue the charge in Micah 6:8, “to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God.”

From the image of God to the limits of human authority to neighbor love, the theological insights of Faith and Freedom help us develop a richer Christian worldview about religious freedom. While these evangelical accounts sound like lightly different notes, they harmonize around a few themes.

First, because human beings are made in the image of God, they are inherently religious and accountable to God. Second, religion and religious freedom serve the good of society, especially through the biblical command to love and serve our neighbors. And third, government should defer whenever possible to this fundamental aspect of human life.

Christians need to express these religious convictions in order to uphold a religious freedom consensus in culture. And we must do so with both our words and our deeds.

Standing for religious freedom will also require courage. Just ask Jack Phillips, the Colorado baker who spent more than a decade fending off lawsuits that tried to force him to express views about marriage and gender ideology in conflict with his Christian faith.

Courage is rooted in our deepest convictions. Those convictions are shaped over years, around dinner tables, in Sunday Schools, in classrooms, and in conversations. Families, churches, and Christian schools have the opportunity to cultivate the kind of convictions that can undergird the religious freedom consensus. We must, if the next generation will stand when courage is called for in the future.