Walking With Jesus

A Suitable Response

“When we were controlled by our old nature, sinful desires were at work within us, and the law aroused these evil desires that produced a harvest of sinful deeds, resulting in death.” (Romans 7:5 NLT)

Our response to temptation, which, though it isn’t sin, can lead to sin, is telltale evidence of the condition of our heart. Paul stated in Romans 6:23: “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.” What are wages? Wages are what we expect from our employer at the end of every pay cycle. Wages are what I’ve earned; what I deserve.

If sin is our “employer,” the “evil one” for whom we’re working, death is our wage. Every human being has a sinful nature, except Jesus. That’s why He had to be born of a virgin, He couldn’t be infected by our sinful human nature; thus, the reason He was born of the Spirit, not of the seed of a human father. Our natural “bent” is to sin. Given the flow of our normal desires, we’ll choose sin every time.

It takes a supernatural encounter with the Son of God, activated by His Spirit, to free us from our bondage to sin. Sin demands a death penalty. Someone must die for our sin. Us or Jesus. That’s essentially what hell is – our eternal effort to pay the penalty for our own sin. The problem is, we can NEVER pay what’s owed, that’s why hell is never ending.

So, once I receive God’s Spirit, upon my decision to repent, confess my need of Jesus, and believe in Him by placing my full trust in His completed work on the Cross, does that mean I’ll never sin again? No, but what it does mean is that you have a choice. Sinners sin, that’s the nature of the beast; however, once we’re born again of the Spirit of God we don’t have to sin.

John wrote in 1 John 2:1: “My dear children, I am writing this to you so that you will not sin.” That’s God’s will and desire, that we put sin behind us and live in the light, love, and power of His indwelling Spirit. The longer we serve the Lord, ideally, we will choose more often not to yield to our sinful nature but allow the Holy Spirit to strengthen and deliver us, enabling us to sin less and less.

John Piper wrote: “Many people weep at the consequences of sin who still love the sin.” We’re going to obey the desires of our heart, so, if my sin is more satisfying than obedience to my Savior, I won’t see sin as a problem, unless and until I begin to suffer the consequences of my sin.

What we often want is to have the proverbial “cake” and eat it too. We want Jesus to not only forgive our sin but deliver us from sin’s consequences. We want to drink and drug, have indiscriminate sex, rob, steal, kill, live like the devil, but pretend we’re a saint, and never suffer any ill effects from our blatant disobedience. But that’s not how God works.

Yes, of course, He loves us no matter what we do, to Him or anyone else, no matter how destructive our behavior becomes, to ourselves or others. Love is what nailed Him to the Cross. Love opened a way for us to be saved and delivered from the penalty of our sin, but love alone will never deliver us from the consequences of our sin.

The only suitable response to our sin and their consequences is submission to the Lord’s authority, seeking not only His forgiveness, but deliverance that can only happen by the powerful presence of His Holy Spirit working in and through us as He wills.

Let’s look at this more closely tomorrow.

Blessings, Ed 😊

The Path of Blessing

“And if you do not carry your own cross and follow Me, you cannot be My disciple. But don’t begin until you count the cost.” (Luke 14:27-28a NLT)

The path of blessing at times may seem elusive, yet over and over in Scripture it is clearly outlined. For example, in His sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5:3-11, Jesus outlines what is commonly referred to as the Beatitudes. At the beginning of each verse are the words: “God blesses…”

Pay special attention to the categories that lead to blessing: the poor, those who mourn, those who are humble, those who hunger and thirst for justice, the merciful, those whose hearts are pure, those who work for peace, those who are persecuted for doing right, and those who are mocked and persecuted for being a Jesus follower.

These aren’t typically the paths most people choose for themselves, but Jesus says in the verse above from Luke, that if we don’t choose to carry our own cross and follow Him, we can’t be His disciple. But He adds: “don’t begin until you count the cost.” “But,” you may ask, “how are ‘carrying your own cross’ and ‘blessing’ connected?”

Perhaps a reasonable question would be: “To whom is Jesus speaking in these passages?” The Beatitudes are directed to His disciples (see Matthew 5:1), but the passage in Luke is directed to those who are following Jesus but haven’t decided to commit to discipleship. So, that begs the question: “Where are you? Disciple? Or are you still kicking the proverbial tires of commitment?”

The Beatitudes essentially reveal Jesus’ heart, because everyone of them describe a characteristic of who He is. So, to become His disciple, or in other words, to pick up and carry our own cross, is to exhibit these characteristics in and through our own life. On some levels, these beatitudes are revealed in us the closer we walk with the Lord.

Yet, for those who aren’t yet following the Lord, they need to commit to Him their whole heart, mind, soul, and strength. How so? By an act of their will. Carrying a cross implies picking it up and carrying it. So? So, that is an act of our will. Jesus doesn’t pick it up and set it on our shoulder. We choose to believe that He is the Christ, the Messiah of God, God in human flesh. And because of that choice, we pick up our cross, which essentially means, to place God’s will and preferences above our own.

Jesus bore the cross upon which He died by an act of His will. He wrestled with that mission in the garden of Gethsemane, but ultimately chose to obey God. That’s basically the decision we make every morning, every second of the day. We choose God’s way – the way of spiritual poverty; to mourn the lostness of those around us who don’t yet know Jesus; to humbly choose submission to His authority over our lives in place of our own; to hunger and thirst for more of Him; to be merciful; to allow Him to cleanse and purify our heart; to work for His peace, not only in our lives, but in the lives of those who are lost; and to choose persecution and mocking for His name’s sake rather than walk in the ways of the world.

There’s a sense in which if we counted the cost of following Jesus and measured it against our own strength and willpower, we’d never muster the courage to take the first step. However, Jesus isn’t calling us to be the proverbial “lone Ranger,” making our way in our own power. That’s why it’s so critical that we respond to His invitation to be yoked with Him (see Matthew 11:29-30).

Being a disciple of Christ is a partnership that leads to unimaginable blessing, not only in heaven when this life is over, but every second of every day as we listen to His voice and rejoice in His loving friendship. The path of blessing is the path on which He leads us as His children every day.

Blessings, Ed 😊

Our Long-Awaited Messiah

“For unto us a child is born, unto us a Son is given: and the government shall be upon His shoulders: and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.” (Isaiah 9:6 KJV)

As 2022 draws to a close, regardless of what kind of year you’re having, let it be an encouragement to you that the above words were written more than 700 years before the birth of Jesus. It boggles my mind that God spoke with such precision to the Prophet of old yet is willing to speak with us today with just as much clarity and certainty.

Can you imagine being a Jew living when Jesus was born? Few, if any of even the most devout Jews expected the Messiah to come as an infant. They were looking for a great warrior or statesman who would lead a revolution that would free them from their enemies. Most Jewish people are still looking for their Messiah to come. What a shame.

Aren’t you glad you’ve been given insight into God’s Word that has led you to an understanding that Jesus was and is the long-awaited Messiah who came to rescue us from our sin? If this sacred season is anything it’s a season of HOPE! Think of the descriptive words Isaiah used to describe the child who would be born: “Wonderful!” “Counsellor!” “The mighty God!” “The everlasting Father!” “The Prince of Peace!”

Everything we could ever need, in this life and the next, was and is embodied in the Lord Jesus, the Christ! Having walked with the Lord for nearly 60 years, I’m so grateful that He’s more real to me today than ever before. His love is warmer, His voice clearer, His presence closer than they’ve ever been.

My prayer for you this Christmas is, if you’re not where you know you should be with the Lord, that you’ll turn from your worthless trinkets and invest your life in the Treasure, who is Christ, the Lord! Literally nothing this world offers can compare with intimacy with Jesus, walking faithfully and obediently in the light of His love and grace.

Paul wrote in Romans 3:24-25: “Out of sheer generosity He put us in right standing with Himself. A pure gift. He got us out of the mess we’re in and restored us to where He always wanted us to be. And He did it by means of Jesus Christ. God sacrificed Jesus on the altar of the world to clear that world of sin.”

C. S. Lewis wrote in his book The Problem of Pain: “The human spirit will not even begin to try to surrender self-will as long as all seems to be well with it. Now error and sin both have this property, that the deeper they are the less their victim suspects their existence; they are masked evil. Pain is unmasked, unmistakable evil; every man knows that something is wrong when he is being hurt.” I can’t presume to know all that Lewis crammed into these few words, but I know this.

One of the most common errors we make in this life is believing God allows us to be sick or in pain because He’s upset with us or punishing us. Quite to the contrary, sickness and pain are allowed to draw us to Himself, because we’re too often deaf to Him until we’re hurting. They’re designed to draw us to Him, not push us away.

God experienced the excruciating pain of the death of His only Son to open the door of opportunity for us to be saved from sin and given new life in Jesus our risen Savior. As the new year dawns, let it be a new beginning of devotion to and life lived in honor of the only One whose opinion of us matters. Trust Him! Love Him! Find hope in Him for the life you’ve only dreamed of having. Everything you’ve ever hoped you’d be can only be found in a personal, love relationship with the King of kings and Lord of lords made possible by the sacrifice of His sinless life in your place, and mine.

Blessings, Ed 😊

Do You Expect Great Things?

“Your eye is a lamp that provides light for your body. When your eye is good, your whole body is filled with light. But when your eye is bad, your whole body is filled with darkness. And if the light you think you have is actually darkness, how deep that darkness is!” (Matthew 6:22-23 NLT)

Two things come to mind as I think about the above title. First, what governs our expectations? And second, how do we define “great?” It’s uncanny on some levels the effect our life stories have on our behavior. How we view things often governs how we do things. But what if our view is skewed?

Jesus said in the verse above that if our “eye” is bad it can distort not only what we see, but how we see it. “Light” infers a correct or accurate appraisal of what we’re looking at, while “darkness” implies an inaccurate understanding. Which begs the question: “What if what we think we believe is based on a misunderstanding of what we think we know?”

Photo by Andrea Piacquadio on Pexels.com

Expectations are based on what we believe. If I believe the mechanic I have working on my car is honest and well trained, I will likely expect my car to work well when I pick it up, and that I will be charged a reasonable price. But if my expectation is that all people are out to get me, dishonest, and greedy, I will likely expect the mechanic to cheat me, either by charging me too much and/or not correctly addressing the issue with my car.

It’s ironic that when something negative happens our first word is “great.” We’re running late for work, but when we jump in the car it doesn’t start – “Great!” We’re geared to see the proverbial glass as half full or half empty. We either gear our expectations to expect good or bad, and for the most part, we’re not disappointed.

So, what if our “eye” is bad? What if we’re a pessimist? I read about a young woman who was excited because her mom had had eye surgery and her vision was much improved. She had her mom over and was excited to see her improved vision for herself. She purposely left the curtains open to reveal the beautiful view of her back yard, so she asked: “Mom, what do you see?” as she pointed to the window. Her mom was quiet for a moment, then said: “Don’t you ever clean your windows?”

Unfortunately, that’s too often how we approach prayer. Our expectations of God are so focused on ourselves, we forfeit the view of the beautiful world around us and all the ways God is blessing and working.

Andrew Murray wrote: “In your prayers, above everything else, beware of limiting God, not only through unbelief but also by thinking you know exactly what He can do. Learn to expect the unexpected, beyond all that you ask or think. So each time you intercede through prayer, first be quiet and worship God in His glory. Think of what He can do, how He delights in Christ His Son, and of your place in Him – then expect great things.”

In this season, as we celebrate the coming of our Creator King as an infant in a manger bed, think of all those who crowded into Bethlehem, so many there was no room in the Inn, yet how few took the time and made the effort to come to see the Lord. May we be like the Shepherds to whom the angels spoke, eager to “go and see.” I may not be the sharpest pencil in the box, but this much I know – whatever God’s up to, it’s going to be great for those of us who are sensitive to His voice and have eyes to see His majesty and splendor.

Our expectations should be high, as we focus our eyes on the Eastern sky, anticipating our Savior’s soon return. Optimist or pessimist, one day we’re all going to see as we’ve been seen and for those of us who know and love Jesus, it’s going to be a great day!

Blessings, Ed 😊

Through a Child’s Eyes (Author Unknown)

*May you be blessed, as I was, as I read this story of 3-year-old Bailey’s encounter with Jesus. I pray this story will give you a new appreciation, not only of the Christmas story, but of the Savior who was born that day and now lives in our hearts and lives.

God recently allowed me to see Jesus through the eyes of someone seeing Him for the first time. Having the advantage of knowing how the story ends, we can easily forget the cost of our redemption and the love of our Savior.

Every year we attend a local church pageant at Christmas time, which tells the story of Jesus from His birth through His resurrection. It is a spectacular event, with live animals and hundreds of cast members in realistic costumes. The magi enter the huge auditorium on llamas from the rear, descending the steps in pomp and majesty. Roman soldiers look huge and menacing in their costumes and makeup.

Of all the years we have attended, one stands out indelibly in my heart.

It was the year we took our then three-year-old granddaughter, Bailey, who loves Jesus. She was mesmerized throughout the entire play, not just watching, but involved as if she were a player. She watches as Joseph and Mary travel to the Inn and is thrilled when she sees the baby Jesus in His mother’s arms.

When Jesus, on a young donkey, descends the steps from the back of the auditorium, depicting His triumphal entry into Jerusalem, Bailey was ecstatic. As he neared our aisle, Bailey began jumping up and down, screaming, “Jesus, Jesus! There’s Jesus!” Not just saying the words but exclaiming them with every fiber of her being. She alternated between screaming his name and hugging us. “It’s Jesus. Look!” I thought she might actually pass out. Tears filled my eyes as I looked at Jesus through the eyes of a child in love with Him, seeing Him for the first time. How like the blind beggar screaming out in reckless abandon, “Jesus, Jesus!”, afraid he might miss Him, not caring what others thought. (Mark 10:46-52)

This was so much fun.

Then came the arrest scene. On stage, the soldiers shoved and slapped Jesus as they moved Him from the Garden of Gethsemane to Pilate. Bailey responded as if she were in the crowd of women, with terror and anger. “Stop it!” she screamed. “Bad soldiers, stop it!” As I watched her reaction, I wished we had talked to her before the play. “Bailey it’s OK. They are just pretending.”

“They are hurting Jesus! Stop it!” She stood in her seat reacting to each and every move. People around us at first smiled at her reaction, thinking “How cute!”. Then they quit smiling and began watching her watch Him. In a most powerful scene, the soldiers lead Jesus carrying the cross down the steps of the auditorium from the back. They were yelling, whipping, and cursing at Jesus, who was bloodied and beaten.

Bailey was now hysterical. “Stop it! Soldiers! Stop it,” she screamed.

She must have been wondering why all these people did nothing. She then began to cry instead of scream. “Jesus, Oh, Jesus!” People all around us began to weep as we all watched this devoted little disciple see her Jesus beaten and killed as those first century disciples had.

Going back and forth between her mother’s lap and mine for comfort, she was distraught. I kept saying, “Bailey, it’s OK. Jesus is going to be OK. These are just people pretending to be soldiers.” She looked at me like I was crazy. In my lap, we talked through the cross and burial. “Watch, Bailey, watch for Jesus!”

The tomb began to tremble, and lightening flashed as the stone rolled away.

A Super Bowl touchdown cheer couldn’t come close to matching this little one’s reaction to the resurrection. “Jesus! He’s OK. Mommy, it’s Jesus!”

I prayed that she wasn’t going to be traumatized by this event, but that she would remember it. I shall never forget it. I shall never forget seeing Jesus’ suffering, crucifixion, and resurrection through the eyes of an innocent child.

Following the pageant, the actors all assembled in the foyer to be greeted by the audience. As we passed by some of the soldiers Bailey screamed out, “Bad soldier, don’t you hurt Jesus.” The actor who portrayed Jesus was some distance away surrounded by well-wishers and friends. Bailey broke away from us and ran toward him, wrapping herself around his legs, holding on for dear life. He hugged her and said, “Jesus loves you.” He patted her to go away.

She wouldn’t let go. She kept clinging to Him, laughing and calling His name. She wasn’t about to let go of her Jesus. I think God in heaven stopped whatever He was doing on that day and made all the angels watch Bailey. “Now, look there! You see what I meant when I said, ‘Of such is the kingdom of heaven?'”

Bailey’s reaction should be our reaction every day. When we think of Him, who He is, what He did for us, and what He offers us, we have to say, how can we do anything less than worship Him?

Why Christmas Matters

“For a child is born to us, a son is given to us. The government will rest on His shoulders. And He will be called: Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” (Isaiah 9:6 NLT)

What if God had never sent Jesus to earth? In a recent devotional from Anticipating Christmas, a 5-day Advent Plan, on YouVersion I read: “Take a moment to imagine what your life would be like if God had never sent His Son to earth. Think about how it would feel to exist without the promise of eternal life, or a connection to God. Consider how it would affect your relationships, your sense of self, and your vision for the future.”

As I ponder those words it causes me to imagine how hard it must have been for the Jewish people to wrap their hearts and minds around the reality of, not a coming Messiah, but an ever-present Savior. On some levels it would have been like our anticipation as Jesus followers, of the second coming of our Risen Savior.

Christmas is a day to not only celebrate the fact of Jesus’ presence with us, but to ponder the implications it has on a world that has no understanding that God did indeed visit us on planet earth, or why He came. To me it’s not so much a matter of what difference did Jesus’ birth have, but what difference does it and should it have on the world today, but more to the point, on MY life and YOURS?

It’s incomprehensible to me to think of a world devoid of Jesus’ holy presence. Think of all He did in giving visibility and meaning to the life of the Father. It’s one thing to think of a God OUT THERE, it’s quite another to know you’re indwelt by a God IN HERE – in our own heart and life. All of a sudden, because of the first cries of an infant Son to a teenaged peasant girl, the whole world can have purpose, meaning, and eternal hope.

Notice I didn’t ask: Does Christmas Matter? Oh, my friend, it matters – more than anything else this world has to offer. Christmas matters because Jesus matters. Without Jesus there’s no forgiveness of sin. There’s no hope of eternal life or heaven or peace or security in knowing He is ours and we are His. There’s joy and celebration in realizing this life is not all there is. The futility of the proverbial “hamster wheel,” doing the same things over and over and expecting different results.

But all these things are simply words on a page unless and until you make them the guiding Light of your life. It’s so easy to be religious, doing things by rote, going through the motions of religiosity – decorating the tree, buying and wrapping presents, cooking, serving, eating, laughing, crying, even worshipping – but your heart can still be empty and distant from the One who came to fill you with Himself.

Please don’t miss the Christ of Christmas! Please don’t just go through the motions, filling a role, playing a part, smiling while inside you’re empty and crying out, hoping there really is something to all this “Good News” of Christmas. On the authority of God’s Word and nearly 60 years of walking with Jesus – I assure you there is something to all of this! His name is Jesus and He’s God in human flesh. He’s Immanuel – God with us!

Nothing, absolutely nothing, has so much meaning and potential to change your life in ways you never imagined possible like yielding your life and allegiance to Jesus. Ask Him to forgive you and fill you with Himself. Lay your soul bare before Him confessing your need of His cleansing blood to flow through your veins, purifying your heart and making you into a new creation in Christ Jesus. Determine by His grace and with His help, to walk in newness of life, trusting Him to lead you every step of the way.

Boldly align yourself with a loving family of Christ followers who will walk with you and help you learn firsthand why Christmas matters! I pray this will be your best Christmas ever as you draw ever more closely to your living Savior.

Blessings, Ed 😊

A Crisis of Faith

“A Cry was heard in Ramah – weeping and great mourning. Rachel weeps for her children, refusing to be comforted, for they are dead.” (Matthew 2:18 NLT)

This verse in Matthew’s Gospel is a quote from the Prophet Jeremiah and speaks to the deep anguish many Jewish parents felt after Herod, in an effort to kill Jesus, had every child 2 years and younger murdered. How can this kind of tragedy be reconciled with our belief and confidence in a loving Heavenly Father? In some people’s hearts and minds, it can’t, which often leads them to a crisis of faith.

As a Youth Pastor in my 20’s my first funeral was for an infant. The Senior Pastor was out of town, so I had no one to turn to. In retrospect I can’t imagine how I could have been so insensitive, but what I shared, while it may have been Biblically correct, brought no comfort to that grieving couple. I’ve often wished I could apologize to them, but how do you help someone make sense out of something that makes no sense?

The Christmas season should be a joy-filled and happy time to celebrate the birth of the Savior of the world. Immanuel – God with us! But often it opens wounds of remembrance of a loved one who is no longer with us to celebrate. This season will forever bring to mind the passing of my beloved sister who, even though I know she’s with Jesus, leaves an empty chair around the dinner table, and an empty space in my heart that only she could fill.

One of the many things the Lord is teaching me is that a “crisis of faith” is often caused by a lapse in memory. On some levels it’s like we wipe from our remembrance everything we know and love about Jesus. He never promised us that life would be easy, carefree, or painless. Quite to the contrary He clearly taught us that in this world we will have troubles, heartache, and loss. And though the death rate of human beings is still 100%, somehow the Lord always manages to allow our loved one to be taken at the “wrong” time.

Death is the last enemy Jesus overcame on our behalf. Death for a believer is no longer something to be dreaded, but embraced and desired. I whispered to my dying sister that I was a little bit jealous that she was getting to go to heaven before me. A slight smile reflected her understanding of what I meant.

In a Family Life devotional by Lisa Lakey I read this morning, she wrote: “And so on Christmas Day in 1863, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote a poem called ‘Christmas Bells.’ The poem eventually inspired the hymn we know as ‘I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day,’ and contains what may be the saddest words I’ve seen in a Christmas carol: “And in despair I bowed my head; ‘There is no peace on earth,’ I said; ‘For hate is strong and mocks the song Of peace on earth, goodwill to men!’” But gratefully, that wasn’t the end of the song. In verse 4 he writes: “Yet pealed the bells more loud and deep; ‘God is not dead, nor doth He sleep’ The wrong shall fail, the right prevail, With peace on earth, good will to men.”

C.S. Lewis wrote: “If [God] does not show Himself, nothing you can do will enable you to find Him.” The irony to me is that often the most powerful display of God’s caring presence is in the midst of pain and heartache. And the reason I believe that’s true is because we tend not to listen when things are going well. Sometimes tragedy, heartache, and the agony of loss is the only time we turn our thoughts to God, yet even then too often we’re blaming Him rather than embracing Him.

The only antidote to a crisis of faith is Truth. And the truth is, when things aren’t going well, whether because of the loss of a job, our health, a loved one, or in any other way, Satan is working overtime to distract us from recognizing the healing, loving hands of our Savior surrounding us. He is Immanuel – God with us – not only at Christmas time, but in every season of our lives. He IS Truth and He can be trusted to love us through every crisis we face, whether in our faith or in any other area of our life.

Blessings, Ed 😊

The Needs Behind the Deeds

“Don’t use foul or abusive language. Let everything you say be good and helpful, so that your words will be an encouragement to those who hear them.” (Ephesians 4:29 NLT)

What’s your story? Everyone has one and depending on where you are in your walk with Jesus, it’s very likely effecting every avenue and dimension of your life. Most of us, regardless of where we lived or how we were raised, in terms of our family dynamics, are products of our environment.

Dan Pena, an American businessman, said: “Show me your friends and I’ll show you your future.” If you love Jesus today, it’s likely because you had someone in your life who influenced you to seek the Lord. And if you don’t yet know Jesus, look around you. Who are your friends? What are their priorities? What governs their decisions? What is the driving force of their lives?

Much of what we “learn,” especially when we’re young, is more “caught” than “taught.” There is a very real sense in which the home and family environment in which we grow up “teaches” us some very basic life’s lessons. For example, what you believe about education, politics, and religion.

Before I met the Lord, I had no aspiration to get an education. I was a “C” student, not because I wasn’t smart enough to get better grades, but because I lacked motivation. I never envisioned myself going to college, so why bother? My mom was an alcoholic and my dad worked second shift, so he didn’t have to put up with my mom’s drinking every evening.

I had a play area in the attic where I spent a lot of time, and in the Summer, I was out the door early and didn’t come home until after dark. It’s not that I was mistreated or didn’t feel loved, it’s just that my parents’ agendas didn’t leave much room for me and my sisters.

Both of my sisters married right out of high school, leaving me to fend for myself. Being a very skinny preteen, I gravitated to guys who were bigger than me, largely for security, so the other boys didn’t pick on me. I didn’t realize it then, but God had His holy hand on my life, guiding, protecting, helping, even in the midst of my ignorance of Him.

Prejudice was rampant in the 60’s, so I had white friends who “taught” me to hate anyone who wasn’t like me and be suspect of anyone who “liked” me or wanted to “help” me. But that began to change when I met Jesus. I won’t go into detail but suffice it to say that we all have a story, and what motivates much of our behavior is somewhere hidden in that story.

While visiting with my sister in the hospital shortly before she died, I met some wonderful nurses who loved Jesus and saw their nursing as an arm of ministry. One nurse who was pretty vocal about her faith when she learned I was a retired pastor, told me that she was struggling with anger at people who weren’t believers. It upset her that people would refuse the gift of eternal life that is freely given.

Those are the kinds of things that grow out of our story and can only be healed as we draw closer to Jesus and spend more time with Him and those who prioritize their journey to being more like Him. One thing that she said that troubled me was that she’d been neglecting her time in God’s Word and wasn’t attending church.

We’re all works in process, that’s why we so desperately need one another. I see things a lot more clearly now than when I first met Jesus, but I still have a long way to go, but of one thing of which I’ve become more fully aware, we will never understand a person’s “deeds,” even our own, until we learn their story, which reveals their “needs.”

Blessings, Ed 😊

Our Indispensable Anchor

“This hope is a strong and trustworthy anchor for our souls. It leads us through the curtain into God’s inner sanctuary.” (Hebrews 6:19 NLT)

Hope, like love, is an often misunderstood and underused privilege that is given those of us who know and love Jesus. Hoping for a good score on an exam or that I get that promotion I believe I deserve, or even hoping that God gives us a sunny, warm day for our picnic is quite different than the hope about which the writer of the Hebrew letter writes.

The “strong and trustworthy anchor” of Jesus is a lifesaving, life-preserving, life-giving confidence regardless of the severity of the storm in which we’re seeking to navigate. Having just lost my sister, my heart is heavy, not for her gain, but for my loss and the loss her two adult children are feeling, as well as the many others who loved her and cherished her friendship.

But death is only one of many life events with which we must wrestle as children of the living God. Every day we are bombarded by issues that challenge us on many levels. Everything from a cold to a cancer; disappointment to despair; conflict to condemnation; closeness to cowardice. Serving Jesus is not for the faint of heart.

Losing our focus on Jesus can result in heartache, pain, and anguish from any number of sources. The Lord is teaching me that in absolutely everything I must depend on Him. The second I try to accomplish something on my own, in my own strength, counting on my own resource of knowledge or ability, I inevitably mess up.

Photo by Karolina Grabowska on Pexels.com

As I’ve mentioned in other posts, my dad was a machinist by trade. He could design and make things that I couldn’t imagine, let alone create. He had a saying that I’ve never forgotten. He would tell me: “Son, if you’ll take care of your machine (i.e. lawnmower, chainsaw, automobile, etc.) your machine will take care of you.”

That simple principle has been a guide for me in virtually every area of my life. For example, if I nurture and give priority to my walk with the Lord, it enables me to have full confidence in His reliability to lead me through every difficulty I face. My hope in Jesus to forgive, fill, empower, and lead gives me confidence to do anything He tells me to do and go anywhere He invites me to go. Why?

As Dr. David Jeremiah said in a recent Turning Point devotion: “…we have an anchor that keeps us in place regardless of how strongly the winds of trouble blow: hope. This is not ‘I hope it doesn’t rain tomorrow’ hope. Rather, it is ‘an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast’ (Hebrews 6:19). It is a better hope than any other, brought through Christ (Hebrews 7:19), offered to all (Hebrews 6:18), based on God’s faithfulness (Hebrews 10:23), and mediated by the Holy Spirit (Romans 15:13). As disheartening as life can be at times, hope never disappoints (Romans 5:5). In this ever-changing world, let your hope remain fixed on the never-changing God.”

Hope is only as strong and reliable as the source upon which our hope is based. To put our hope in a person, political party, or even religion, is to suffer disappointment as your hope is shattered on the shifting sands of cultural fickleness.

Jesus alone is the Rock in whom we can place our trust. He alone can secure the anchor of our souls when the storms of life attack and threaten us. He alone is our indispensable Anchor when the storms of life wash us up on the shoreline of eternity. To place our hope in our own goodness, works, merit, or religion is to be in a rowboat during a tidal wave. It isn’t going to end well.

If you have any question about the source of your hope for eternal life in heaven, please watch this brief video with Ron Hutchcraft. Not having certainty that you’re hope is in Jesus alone by faith in His completed work on Calvary is a very precarious position in which to be. Please click this link: https://hutchcraft.com/the-bridge-to-god

Blessings, Ed 😊

Kindness Is Contagious

“We prove ourselves by our purity, our understanding, our patience, our kindness, by the Holy Spirit within us, and by our sincere love.” (2 Corinthians 6:6 NLT)

One of the most contagious attributes of our Savior, the Lord Jesus, is kindness. One obvious illustration of His kindness that comes to mind is found in Mark 5. In the opening verses of Mark 5 Jesus and His disciples have landed in the region of the Gerasenes and are immediately greeted by a demon possessed man. Jesus, as He always was, responded to the naked lunatic with calmness and kindness.

While I suspect the disciples were planning a strategy to make a quick getaway, Jesus’ plan was to address the man’s problem. The troubled man was filled with a legion of evil spirits who, as the story reveals, were subject to the voice of God’s Son. As strange as it may seem, Jesus was even kind to the demons, allowing them to go into a herd of pigs that were feeding nearby, causing them to run down the steep hillside and plunge into the lake and drown.

It didn’t take long for the news to spread, so soon many from the nearby town came to see for themselves what all the fuss was about. The Bible says in Mark 5:15: “A crowd soon gathered around Jesus, and they saw the man who had been possessed by the legion of demons. He was sitting there fully clothed and perfectly sane, and they were all afraid.”

Being confident that most of those in the crowd knew the formerly demon possessed man, and had written him off as a nut job, it doesn’t surprise me that they were afraid. It does, however, surprise me that Jesus’ kindness and compassion for this man didn’t lead them to desire closeness to Jesus, but instead caused them to ask Him to leave them alone.

While I’ve often wondered why, it became crystal clear to me that the primary, if not the only reason Jesus made the trip across the lake, was to heal this desperate man. And it became even more apparent as the people begged Jesus to leave, the now healed and sane man begged Jesus to let him come with Him.

There was a part of me that wondered why Jesus refused to let him come, but from my present perspective it makes perfect sense. There are many other examples of Jesus’ kindness transforming a person He helped and filling them with Himself, yet they didn’t go with Him. Like the former demon-possessed man, the Samaritan woman at the well in John 4, upon her realization that Jesus was the Messiah, dropped her water jugs and headed straight back into the village that knew all about her former life. But why?

What better way to explain who Jesus is than to be a living, breathing example of what He can do when His loving kindness is released into the life of an otherwise hopeless person? Jesus’ kindness isn’t given simply to draw someone to Himself, rather to send them out to share the good news of who He is and what He’s done in their lives with anyone who would listen.

As a result of the Samaritan woman’s testimony, many in her village put their faith in Jesus. And, though the Bible doesn’t say specifically, I believe many came to faith in Jesus as a result of the former demon-possessed man’s testimony. Mark 5:20 says: “So the man started off to visit the Ten Towns of that region and began to proclaim the great things Jesus had done for him; and everyone was amazed at what he told them.”

The kindest thing any of us who know and love Jesus, who have been transformed by the renewing of our hearts and minds due to His incalculable kindness to us, is to tell someone else just how great He is. I certainly know how I was before I met Jesus, and it wasn’t pretty. It never ceases to amaze me how much loving Jesus causes my heart to want to share Him with everyone I can, every chance I get.

If you haven’t “caught” His kindness, could it be you haven’t experienced it for yourself?

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊