Walking With Jesus

Legacy

“You will bring them [into the land of promise] and plant them on the mountain (Mt. Moriah in Jerusalem) of Your inheritance, The place, O Lord, You have made for Your dwelling [among them], The sanctuary, O Lord, which Your hands have established. ‘The Lord shall reign to eternity and beyond.’” (Exodus 15:17-18 AMP)

A legacy is essentially an inheritance, something we leave for those whose lives our life has touched for good or ill. Some, because of their lives of crime or mayhem, leave a remembrance that scars and disappoints, even frightens those who knew them or perhaps even loved them. A parent or sibling of someone who has gone far astray.

On the other hand, when the Lord led the children of Israel out of Egypt, He had a destiny, a destination, a specific geographical location where He wanted to “plant” His people – on a mountain in Jerusalem. Both the Old and New Testaments refer to Jerusalem as “the Holy City.” According to Wikipedia: “Jerusalem has been fought over at least sixteen major times in history, with numerous sieges, attacks, and captures spanning ancient to modern times.”

Yet, to this day it remains a focal point of interest to the people of the world, but why? Because on some levels Jerusalem is the apple of God’s historical eye. He has unalterable plans for that great city revealed in His last book of the Bible when John writes in Revelation 21:2: “And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven like a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.”

It’s a day every believer in Jesus longs for, but why? Because it’s our inheritance! It’s the promised legacy of every Jesus follower! The truth is, whatever we are living and experiencing today, no matter how wonderful or how horrible, it will pale in comparison to what we will step into on that day. Our heavenly Father has prepared for us an inheritance that will cause our knees to bow, our eyes to involuntarily fill with tears of joy, and our hearts to pound with heavenly exaltation of our Risen Savior and King.

Our minds aren’t capable of imagining a more exciting, eternally gratifying way to celebrate our coming Savior, but what if there were ways we could pass on our gracious Father’s inheritance to those in our spheres of influence? What if as earthly moms and dads we could leave a godly legacy that would honor Jesus and bless our kids?

The great man of God, Charles Spurgeon reminds us: “A father’s holy life is a rich legacy for his sons.” My sense is it could also be true to speak of a mother’s godly life’s legacy or a grandfather or grandmother, uncle, aunt, brother or sister. Any of us, whether we have children or not can leave a legacy that will honor God and bless others.

Think of the Apostle Paul, Florence Nightingale, Charles Dickens, Harold Moody, George Frideric Handel, Mary Prince, Octavia Hill, Kathleen Lonsdale, Jess Boot, Olaudah Equiano, and Mother Theresa to name a few who have literally changed the course of human history through their sacrifices and the living of bold lives for Jesus. What kind of legacy am I, are you leaving to those in our spheres of influence?

My mind turns to the powerful words of C. T. Studd when he wrote: “Only one life, ‘twill soon be past, only what’s done for Christ will last.”

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊

Reference or Residence?

“You have had enough in the past of the evil things that godless people enjoy – their immorality and lust, their feasting, and drunkenness and wild parties, and their terrible worship of idols.” (1 Peter 4:3 NLT)

As children of God, we’ve all left our past. Whether our past has left us may be another matter. Too many who seek the pathway of the Savior want to keep one foot on the path to salvation and one foot on the path to their past. They long for heaven, but they also miss their past sins. Where do you find yourself today? You must decide or live in misery.

Another issue with our past that can trouble us is if we’ve been a “good” person and believe we can stay the same, just let Jesus ride along with us. But where’s the “transformation” in that? It’s as if we believe: “Lord, I’ve got this Christianity business, I just need your stamp of approval. Just let me know that I’m doing okay and I’ll keep on keeping on!” But that’s not how the Lord works.

Paul speaks to this in 2 Corinthians 5:16-17 when he writes: “So we have stopped evaluating others from a human point of view. At one time we thought of Christ merely from a human point of view. How differently we know Him now! This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!” Jesus is never an add-on to our old life. We’re the caterpillar that becomes the beautiful butterfly. There’s no going back into the cocoon!

Toby McKeehan was on to something when he wrote: “The past is a place of reference, not a place of residence.” My sense is there are things in our past that we all miss, but I’m also confident what the Lord gives us in our new life so overshadows what life was like without Him, there’s really nothing to go back to. There are friendships I’d like to rekindle to see if I could help my lost friends see the light of Christ, but I don’t want to go back to life without Jesus.

We can learn things about ourselves when we look back, sometimes very painful, hard things that inspire and enable us to see how far we’ve come and help us gain strength and courage to keep moving forward even when it’s hard. We can also see mistakes we made in relationships that were crucial in changing the trajectory of our life, things we wished we could “take back” or “do over,” but life doesn’t work that way.

What is it in your life you wished you could change? Please don’t live there. By the grace and mercy of God realize you’re forgiven, take His hand and move forward. There’s a scene in my life I’ve relived hundreds of times, maybe more, but it never changes. No matter how many times I watch my tortuous failure, it never changes. And while Satan laughs and chides, Jesus extends His holy hand and invites me to walk from that failure into the hope He’s given me in Him.

We all have regrets, some, obviously more serious and life-altering than others, but the beauty of life in Christ is that He takes all of that into account when He gives us our new life. He channels all that negative energy we’ve burned in feeling sorry for ourselves and living in regret and enables us by His grace to forge a new path into a bright, God-focused life that honors and exalts Jesus.

A life led by His Spirit, motivated by His Spirit, filled and empowered by His Spirit. Yes, of course, we use our past mistakes, failures and sins as points of reference, but we don’t live there anymore. We’ve moved on by God’s grace and we’ve found new points of reference – victories the Lord has given us that encourage and empower us to see with Him all things are possible, even a brand-new life.

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊

Are You Listening?

“Spouting off before listening to the facts is both shameful and foolish.” (Proverbs 18:13 NLT)

As easy as it is for me to write, it’s often very difficult for me to listen well. It’s not that I don’t hear the words, I’m just not very good at hearing what’s behind the words. The feelings, emotions, anguish, heartache, anger, hurt. Those things often escape me in my concerns for myself and my agenda. And if I’m honest, I’d have to say I really want to listen “with my whole face,” as my wife would say, but there are parts of me that just don’t know how to do that. Am I alone in this? Is it just me? I don’t think so.

Pastor Rick Warren has some very helpful words on this subject when he writes: “What people say in a conversation is not nearly as important as what they are feeling. Many times, someone is saying one thing and feeling another. If you’re going to be a great listener, then you need to look past people’s words, even when what they’re saying is offensive. Hurt people hurt people, and words are an effective weapon. When people lash out or get defensive, it’s often because they’re afraid, insecure, or frustrated.”

Am I alone in not knowing how to effectively interpret feelings? Perhaps it’s my Alzheimer’s, but I’m struggling with knowing how to interpret my own feelings. Sometimes I’m angry for no good reason, frustrated by how I feel, what I can’t do, what I’d like to do but have no motivation to do it. What do all of those things have in common?

They’re excuses we use to avoid what we know the Lord is telling us to do. My sense is the Lord puts people in our life to give us practice in listening so we can ultimately be a better listener to Him. How can we listen to the “still, small voice of God” if we’re not open to hearing the loud, obnoxious voice of the person standing in front of us?

If we can’t get past the tone of someone’s voice or the angry expression on their face to hear the pain in their heart, how will we ever quiet our heart and mind enough to hear from the Lord. And here’s the irony: how often is the Lord speaking THROUGH those people to whom we’re not listening? My sense is, if you’re reading these words, YOU CARE! You sincerely want to hear from God, to do the right thing, to listen carefully and respond appropriately, so, how can we improve, especially in our attentiveness to the Lord, but also to others?

The key in my understanding is first, to decide we really want to hear what the Lord and others are trying to say, but a close second would be, we need to discipline ourselves to keep our mouths closed and our minds open in the process. We must not be defensive, even if we’re feeling attacked. We can’t defend what we don’t understand, but we’ll never understand until we listen with more than our ears.

We must open our heart to the Lord and to that other person’s ideas and opinions, especially of us, allowing the Lord to enable us to evaluate ourselves objectively and be willing to allow Him to shape us more perfectly into His image, not simply a better version or ourselves. And not simply to please another person, but Him.

Holy Father, enable us by Your grace to be more like You in how we listen, how we love, how we think, reason, and respond. All of us have been hurt by others, but none as much as You. Teach us to love, forgive, and accept those who have hurt us, but also those whom we have hurt. In Your Name. Amen.

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊

The Links in Our “Chain” to Jesus

“My prayer is not for the world, but for those You have given Me, because they belong to You. All who are Mine belong to You, and You have given them to Me, so they bring Me glory.” (John 17:9 NLT)

Please forgive me for stating the obvious, but God knows things we don’t know, including who will and will not be saved. This can be confusing, because we’re quick to believe if God knows it, where is our free-will to make our own decision? That’s the beauty of God’s knowledge; He knows the decision we will make because He is present with us when we make it. He is ever-present.

It’s not that He convinces us to make a choice against our will, He simply sits quietly, patiently, and lovingly in our presence as we make the decision, whatever it is, in accordance with our own will and desires. The point for our purposes today is there are people in our spheres of influence – family, friends, co-workers, classmates, neighbors, people we meet from day to day who are still uncertain as to what to do with Jesus.

Photo by David Eucaristu00eda on Pexels.com

Some because they have no frame of reference, or because they’ve never heard of Jesus, others because they’ve had a bad experience with “religion”, still others because they lack understanding of what it means or how to make that commitment. Whatever the reason people are separated from a relationship with Jesus, often the key “link” to Him is a person who knows Jesus, knows them, and cares about their eternal wellbeing.

In a quote I read many years ago a Dick Eastman stated: “Behind the saving grace of every believer is someone praying.” How does that translate? If we as believers aren’t specifically praying for lost people, how will they ever come to Christ? There are many people for whom I pray each day by name, but there are many others across the world whose names I don’t know, so I lift them to the Lord by need or by location.

For example, I lift many of my family members to the Lord by name, including those who are lost, specifically asking the Lord to open their heart to Him. But lately the Lord has encouraged me to add something to my prayer. Because most of them live in other cities and I have limited access to them, I’m asking the Lord to put someone in their life who loves Him and will love them to Him. Someone they can relate to, someone they will like and enjoy their friendship, but someone who is deeply in love with Jesus.

My prayer is basically that the Lord will put someone in that lost person’s life for whom I’m praying who will be a connecting link to Jesus. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 3:6: “I planted the seed in your hearts, and Apollos watered it, but it was God who made it grow.” We never know for sure what our role may be, whether to plant the seed, water it, or bring it to harvest by God’s Spirit. We’re all simply “links” in the process. Our temptation is to believe “That’s someone else’s job!” But here’s the truth – that’s NEVER our decision to make. That’s God’s judgment alone. He can choose even a donkey to speak for Him if He chooses, so, what makes us think He can’t use us?

As believers in the Lord Jesus, the Lord has strategically placed us where we are: in the family, workplace, school, neighborhood, age bracket, social circles we’re in for a very specific purpose – there are people in those circles who need to know Him and He’s placed us in those circles to pray for them and point them to Him. There are likely more, but there’s at least one person in our spheres of influence who is waiting for someone like you or me to reach out to them. Let’s not miss an opportunity to invite them to Jesus.

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊

Darkness to Light

“For once your were full of darkness, but now you have light from the Lord. So live as people of light! For this light within you produces only what is good and right and true.” (Ephesians 5:8-9 NLT)

Notice a few things about the above verse that are easy to miss. First, before we came to know the Lord Jesus, we didn’t just walk in darkness, we “were full of darkness.” What does that mean? Imagine a large area, perhaps the size of a football field. The field is covered in sharp pieces of broken glass except for a curving strip about the width of your foot. How successful would you be trying to follow that narrow path barefoot in complete darkness? That’s life on this planet without Jesus.

We can’t escape what we are. As hard as we try to think right thoughts, make right decisions, or move in right directions, wherever we “step,” it only seems to bring pain, heartache, and negative consequences. “Yeh, but what about all the people who have lucrative careers, who can travel the world and live in luxury?” If “happiness” is your goal, having a lot of money can make it easier, but not necessarily enable you to reach your goal. Money alone doesn’t illuminate our path; in many cases it only contributes to the darkness. Money isn’t the issue, darkness is.

Photo by RDNE Stock project on Pexels.com

Before Christ we ARE darkness, which means regardless of how much money we have, our judgment is clouded and the use of that money can be skewed in some very unhealthy ways. Is that to say that people with money never support humanitarian causes? No, of course not, what it means is their money can never get them to heaven. All the money in the world cannot buy someone the Lord’s forgiveness.

On the other hand, those of us who have yielded our lives to the Lord are not simply walking in the light, we ARE light. Jesus said to those of us who hunger for Him: “You are the light of the world – like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden.” (Matthew 5:14) Think about the reason for light. Isn’t it to show the way? Isn’t it to light the path, to not only enable us to stay on the right path, but to help others find their way as well?

The reason the Lord allows us to turn from darkness to light isn’t about us, it’s about Him. He’s the Light of the world. He came into a world filled with darkness and brought light to those who were willing to see it and embrace it, but the world hated Him and did all within their power to snuff out His light, but they couldn’t.

Satan couldn’t persuade Him, sin couldn’t tempt Him, death and the grave couldn’t hold Him so on Easter Sunday when He burst forth from the grave, the world that lay in darkness, once again burst forth in holy light that cannot now be extinguished. That’s the light we become when we open our hearts and lives to Jesus. But we cannot be light and continue to walk in darkness; we cannot grow in the Light when we are continually seeking to hide in the darkness. Paul addresses this in 2 Corinthians.

So, the question becomes: Where are you? Are you living and spreading darkness or light; despair or hope; separation from God or being united with Him? Regardless of how much of this world’s resources we acquire, they will not satisfy long term. Only Jesus can fill the God-shaped void the Lord built into our life when He created us.

Please open your life to Him today. Haven’t you walked in the darkness long enough? Please tap on ANewStory.com. and let Ron Hutchcraft walk you through a simple path from darkness to light.

Blessings, Ed 😊

Are You All In?

“Then Jesus said to His disciples, ‘If any of you wants to be My follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross, and follow Me.’” (Matthew 16:24 NLT)

What’s the Lord prompting you to do, be, or say that is unusual or out of your proverbial “comfort zone?” Lead a class? Take a new job? Begin or end a relationship? Begin a relationship with Jesus? Get Baptized? Go on a Mission’s Trip? What’s YOUR next step? We all have one. Will you move to where He’s leading? Or stay where you are?

We can’t stay where we are and go where we’re called to go! A decision must be made, our will must be activated, and motion or movement must result. Too many of us want to give lip service to following Christ, but not get our feet involved, but it simply doesn’t work that way. What the spirit desires, the mind must instruct our feet to obey.

To say we’re all in but seek to limit God in the ways He can instruct us is almost like saying I want to learn to sky-dive but never leave the ground. You can watch videos about it all day long, but until you jump out of the plane, you’re never going to sky-dive. You can learn enough to teach a class, but if someone asks: “How did it feel the first time you jumped?” you’re going to be stuttering because the fact is, you’ve never left the ground.

It’s not unlike that with Jesus. We can read the Bible, even memorize all or parts of it, but until we bow before Him and relinquish ownership and rulership of our lives to Him, we’re just exercising our mind, not our heart and we don’t just follow Jesus with our mind, we must get our heart involved. Pastor Rick Warren wrote: “At an early age I told God, ‘I’m all in! I don’t care what you ask me to do or how tough it is, I’ll say yes—anytime, anywhere, anyplace.’ Since then, it has been a wild and amazing adventure doing what God has asked me to do.”

So, I’ll ask again: “What’s the Lord asking YOU to do?” It doesn’t matter what it is, if you’re sure it’s the Lord, take a blank piece of paper and write in large letters: “YES”, then sign your name at the bottom. “But what if it’s scary?” It will be. “What if I feel uncomfortable?” You will. “What if I’ve never done it before?” There’s a first time for everything. You’ll learn and you’ll improve. Just do the right thing and you’ll feel the right way about it.

I remember well one of my first sermons. I’d prayed, prepared, prayed more, prepared more, until the day finally arrived and I poured my heart out for the Lord. As I was standing at the door as people left, an elderly lady shook my hand and said, “Oh brother Hager, that was one of the best sermons I’ve ever heard, there’s just one thing, you’re going to have to learn to speak up, I hardly heard a word you said.” My sermons may not have gotten better, but they did get louder. 😊

Jesus told His early disciples, “Follow Me and I will teach you…” We learn by following, but we also learn by leading those we’ve been called to lead. Following Jesus is the delight of my life. I’ve grown to love Him and follow Him wherever He leads. Has it always been easy? Absolutely not! Has it always worked out as I’d hoped? Nope. Have I always learned something valuable and life changing! Nearly every time!

Just put your “yes” on the table, as I have, and leave the rest to the Lord. He has promised NEVER to leave us, and He always keeps His word. Regardless of where He leads or what He asks of us, we are NEVER capable, in and of ourselves. We MUST learn to lean completely on the Lord, allowing the Holy Spirit to fill, empower, and enable us to do whatever it is the Lord has asked, leaving the results to Him.

The ONLY way to effectively follow Jesus is ALL IN!

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊

The Human Brain Is Better Than Artificial Ones

By John Stonestreet and Dr. Timothy D. Padgett

*What a fitting follow-up to the message the Lord gave me for yesterday’s article. Please enjoy this wonderful message from the Colson Center. Blessings, Ed 😊

In a recent viral social media post, podcaster Aakash Gupta shared results from a 2024 study of the human brain. The study, he said, “should mass-humble every AI lab on the planet.” In it, scientists digitally mapped a cubic millimeter of the brain, equivalent to two grains of sand. The results are mindboggling.

The abstract for the paper described the speck as containing “about 57,000 cells, about 230 millimeters of blood vessels, and about 150 million synapses and comprises 1.4 petabytes.” A petabyte is a measure of memory capacity. So, as one website described,

“[A] typical DVD holds 4.7 GB of data. That means a single terabyte of storage could hold 217.8 DVD-quality movies, while a single petabyte of storage could hold 223,101 DVD-quality movies.”

Since the whole human brain is much, much larger than a cubic millimeter, that means that every person is walking around with a few hundred million DVDs worth of data. This, Gupta concluded, puts our work with AI within a larger context:

“We’re building AI systems that loosely mimic neural networks while still unable to fully read the wiring diagram of a single cubic millimeter of the thing we’re trying to imitate. … Every AI model on Earth fits in a fraction of that. The brain runs on 20 watts and fits in your skull. The data center required to merely describe one-millionth of it would span 140 acres.”

As impressive as their work is, the very best brains working in IT have a long way to go before their creations come close to what is inside an ordinary person’s head. And yet it is notable that our very best creations are mere imitations of what we find in biology. That is enough, to paraphrase Aslan, to “erect the head of the poorest beggar” and “to bow the shoulders of the greatest (AI engineer) on earth.” In fact, all should bow in amazement at what the Great Designer accomplishes every day.

Instead, such neurological discoveries often lead our brightest minds further into their hubris. The amazing storage and calculating capacities of the human mind are just another gap in our understanding, a gap traditionally filled by the religious. The more we learn, the thinking goes, the less we will need the placeholder fantasy of a Creator God, a higher order, or an ultimate meaning to life.

What is often missed, however, are the reductionistic implications of a Godless creation. In a materialist vision of the human person, the need for community is nothing more than herd-instinct. Our love for our spouse is bio-programming to reproduce. We don’t actually “love” our children; what we feel is what Richard Dawkins called the “selfish gene”.

Not only is this worldview morbid, it’s a fallacy of begging the question. As Brian Sickler noted in his book, God on the Brain:

“Before we start doing science, can we know ahead of time that no intelligent mind is behind the structures we are going to study? It seems that the only way we could know that is if we have reason to think the only things that exist are the very natural objects we are setting out to study. But how could science show us that?”

It cannot. Instead, it is like saying that once someone understands how the rotors on a drone work, there’s no need for an operator behind it. It’s to make the mistake of Eustace in Voyage of the Dawn Treader when he said that stars are made of gas. He’s then corrected, “Even in your world, my son, that is not what a star is, but only what it is made of.”

The truth is, like artificial intelligence, human intelligence is far too complex to have happened by chance. Like a series of icebergs where there’s always more under the surface, the deeper we go in our understanding of Creation, from brain mechanics to quantum theory, the bigger the gaps become.

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Immeasurable Love

“I pray that from His glorious, unlimited resources He will empower you with inner strength through His Spirit. Then Christ will make His home in your hearts as you trust in Him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong. And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep His love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.” (Ephesians 3:16-19 NLT)

Love is at the foundation of everything God does because love is who God is.

We’ve so cheapened the term “love” in the English language it’s difficult for us to grasp what it means when the Bible says that God loves us. Read again Paul’s beautiful prayer (above) and let’s allow the Lord to open our hearts and minds to a new understanding of what it means to be loved by the Designer, Creator, and Sustainer of all that is or ever will be.

If you’ve ever been away from the lights of the city and stared into the night sky, it’s as if the sky is ablaze with twinkling “lights,” we call stars. The closest star to earth is Proxima Centauri which is approximately 4.2465 light-years away. “Ho hum, so what!” you may be thinking. Consider this: A light year is nearly 6 trillion miles. Try to wrap your mind around that for a moment. But while your mind is spinning, consider that in the observable universe alone hosting hundreds of billions of galaxies, each contains billions of stars. And what we can “see” is only a fraction of what the Lord our God has designed and created. Yet, He calls them each by name! (Psalm 147:4)

“Boundless” “Used by permission, © Ray Majoran, GlimpseOfInfinity.com”

And people still have the audacity to believe there is no God. Give me a break! But that’s telescopic information, turn your eye to the microscope. A recent study estimates that an average adult has between 30-37 trillion cells depending on sex, age, and body size. But why does any of this matter?

Because the same God who created all of this magnificence said in Matthew 10:30: “Even the very hairs on your head are all numbered.” Why would He say that? How would He even know? Because He’s God, He knows everything, but in His very next sentence He said: “So don’t be afraid!” The God of the universes is also the Creator of you and me. He formed us in our mother’s womb, creating us with care and precision and loving every detail of our being.

You are not an accident! You may have been born out of wedlock or survived an abortion attempt, but you are wanted, cherished, made in the image of a holy God and loved without reservation. The same God who created all the things we mentioned above chose to allow the thugs of the earth to humiliate and murder Him on an old, rugged Cross. He hung there suspended between heaven and earth by spikes that ripped His flesh and brought agonizing torture to His sinless body. But why? Because of LOVE!

His immeasurable love that sacrificed Himself because He saw in each of us unlimited potential for good and for God. I love Ray Majoran’s words when he prays: “By the power of Your Spirit, root and establish us in Your love (Ephesians 3:17), so that our lives are grounded in what cannot erode or collapse. In a world that measures worth by what is visible and immediate, grant us wisdom, together with all Your people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ (Ephesians 3:18). Lift our eyes to see its width that gathers the nations, its length that spans generations, its height that raises us toward holiness, and its depth that carried our sin to the cross. Teach us to know this love that surpasses knowledge (Ephesians 3:19), so that we do not merely speak of it, but live from it.”

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊

The Danger of Being Religious

*This challenging article by Ron Hutchcraft hits very close to home for all of us who bear the holy Name of Jesus. Please allow the Holy Spirit to guide you as you read Ron’s convicting words. Blessings, Ed 😊

Years ago I heard a friend tell about a scene from his childhood that he never forgot. My friend was around on that black day in 1929 that marked the beginning of the Great Depression. One of the great traumas of America’s financial collapse, of course, was that many banks just went under almost overnight. Well, my friend literally remembered seeing a neighbor at the locked gates of his bank, and he was literally pounding his fists bloody on those gates, screaming at the top of his lungs, “Give me my money! Give me my money!” There was no money to give.

I’m Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about “The Danger of Being Religious.”

That desperate man, and millions like him, placed their security in an institution. An institution that sure seemed safe but that ultimately and suddenly failed them. A lot of church folks are making that mistake today. Did you know that? Placing their eternal security in their church; in believing its beliefs, attending its meetings, even taking church leadership. Sadly, none of that’s enough to get your sins forgiven or to get you into God’s heaven.

Sometimes religious folks argue over which church is the right church. Well, in Jeremiah’s time there was no argument. God’s people were the Jews and their temple was God’s self-declared house on earth. But even that wasn’t enough.

In our word for today from the Word of God, in Jeremiah 7, beginning with verse 10, God says, “You come and stand before Me in this house, which bears my Name, and you say ‘We are safe’…’But I have been watching,’ declares the Lord.” God goes on to point out the sin in their lives – sin that no amount of “church” can make right. He goes on to describe His pending destruction of what God calls (listen to these words) “the temple you trust in.”

Boy, that’s the danger of being religious. You tend to trust in your religiousness instead of in Christ. Christianity will never get anyone to heaven. Only Christ can get you there. Only Christ died to pay for the sin that disqualifies every one of us from going to heaven. Jesus established the Church to represent Him on earth, to do His work on earth. But church can be the most dangerous place in the world if that’s where your trust is.

Christianity is all about Jesus, but it can actually cause you to miss Jesus. It’s called false security; feeling like you’re okay with God because you speak the language, you agree with the teachings, and you’ve been around it all these years. Why, no one would even question that you have a relationship with Jesus – except Jesus. And He’s the only One who matters.

Could it be that somehow in the midst of a religion all about Jesus you’ve missed a personal relationship with Jesus even while you’ve been a good church person for a long time? Jesus described some active church folks to whom He will say on Judgment Day, “I never knew you” (Matthew 7:21-23).

Somehow, they have never actually given themselves in total faith to the One who died to pay for their sins. There has to be that time when you say, “Jesus, some of those sins You died for were mine, and I have no hope of heaven except You and what You did on the cross for me. So beginning right now, Jesus, I’m yours.”

Have you taken that step? I would say that if you don’t know, you probably haven’t. If you’ve missed it, don’t go another day without moving Christ from your head to your heart… from being a belief to being your own personal Savior. Tell Him today, “Jesus, I’m yours.”

Look, let me invite you to go to our website today. It’s ANewStory.com. You can have the information there to nail down and be sure once and for all that you do belong to Him.

The church you’ve trusted in, the religion you’ve trusted in, the goodness you’ve trusted in are inadequate substitutes for the real thing – putting your total trust in Jesus. Because, my friend, it’s all about Jesus!

Another Open Letter

“For examples of patience in suffering, dear brothers and sisters, look at the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. We give great honor to those who endure under suffering.” (James 5:10-11a NLT)

This morning in prayer as I do each morning, I lifted my brothers and sisters who are living, suffering, and dying for their faith in the Lord Jesus in many places in our world, He prompted me to write to them a letter of appreciation and encouragement. Realizing that people from different countries read this blog I decided to do this “open letter” to my brothers and sisters all over the world.

Paul often gave thanks to the ones who were serving the Lord, whom he’d personally helped come to the Lord and get connected in a community of faith. Though I’m not personally responsible for my brothers and sisters in other countries coming to the Lord, I lift you to the Lord daily with thanksgiving and appreciation because of your strong faith and endurance and I pray what the Lord gives me to write blesses and helps you.

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Thank you for persevering and continuing to share your faith openly often at great risk. Thank you for courageously walking with the Lord Jesus when it would be so much easier and safer to turn away and deny Him. As I’ve discovered in my own life, He’s my everything and I can’t imagine how I could ever turn my back on Him for all He’s done for me. But given the pressures many of you are facing, I pray He will enable you and me to stay strong regardless of the circumstances we might face.

In my prayers I lift your families, especially your children, asking the Lord to protect and guard them, but also to fill them with great confidence that faith in Jesus is worth whatever it costs us in this life. I ask the Lord to grow them up in Him to be prayer warriors and effective messengers to His honor.

While in another country many years ago, I visited a village in the mountains where there was a small church building. As I stood in that church, I was told the story of how it came to be. On that very spot had stood another building where believers gathered for worship, but on one occasion those violently opposed to their faith attacked them, bound the men, poured gasoline over them and burned them alive while they made their wives and children watch.

Another Pastor asked me to pray for the brave women who had sacrificed greatly to rebuild their church in honor of the Lord they served, but also in recognition of the sacrifice their husbands had made, but I could not. I could hardly breathe. I was so ashamed of the small faith I had, I didn’t feel worthy to even pretend I knew how to pray for such brave and godly men and women who had sacrificed so much for their faith in Jesus.

Now, in retrospect, I wished I’d made an effort, because even as I write these words I understand it’s not about being worthy, it’s about being faithful and I want to be faithful to consistently lift you, my brothers and sisters who are living, serving, suffering, and dying for the Lord across the world, knowing that prayer is your lifeline. Without the support of your brothers and sisters who love you and support you, you may grow discouraged, but I pray you’ll know beyond any shadow of doubt that you are loved, admired, and held in high esteem by those of us who have the privilege of being your brothers and sisters in Christ.

Please know, dear brothers and sisters, that I love you, respect you, admire and pray for you and your families every day. I can’t wait for us to take long walks in heaven so I can hear your stories and rejoice with you about our wonderful Savior who owns our hearts and lives.

Please also know that though I live in a relatively “safe” environment here in the U.S. I’m continuing to seek to reach those who don’t yet know the Lord Jesus in my spheres of influence. I’m laboring with you as you seek to win those in your spheres of influence to the Lord.

With love and deep respect,

Blessings, Ed 😊