Walking With Jesus

Why Does God Allow His Children to Suffer? (Part 2)

“I cry to You, O God, but You don’t answer. I stand before You, but You don’t even look.” (Job 30:20 NLT)

The second reason God tests us is to see how genuine our commitment to Him is.

But, you may ask, doesn’t God already know how genuine our commitment is? Why would He need to test it? Two reasons come to mind. First, for the benefit of those in our spheres of influence. It’s not hard for us to follow the Lord in good times. When our health, income, relationships, jobs and so forth are all going well, we can “coast.” We can get comfortable in our complacency. Walking with Jesus becomes “business as usual,” so much so, our love for Him can grow stale.

Further, there are those in our spheres of influence who don’t yet know the Lord, as well as those who do, who are always watching our lives. Some want to know if our love for Jesus is genuine/real. Others want us to mess up so they can compare their lives with ours and feel better about themselves. Regardless of their reason, we must stay fully engaged in our walk with God so that our heart keeps in step with the Spirit, but also that our witness to others is impactful and God honoring.

The second reason He tests how genuine our commitment is, is for us. Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 13:5: “Examine yourselves to see if your faith is genuine. Test Yourselves.” The Lord will sometimes allow things to enter our lives to prompt us to examine ourselves or allow us to suffer because we’re not willing to examine ourselves. In 1 Corinthians 11:28 Paul urges the first century believers, and us, to do self-examination in the context of sharing the Lord’s Supper.

Communion is a sacrament that was, and should be today, taken very seriously. For people to participate who were living with unconfessed sin or with an unrepentant heart, was dishonoring to the Lord. That’s why in verse 30 he writes: “That is why many of you are weak and sick and some have even died.” That leads to the third reason.

God allows His children to be tested in order to teach us a valuable truth.

C.S. Lewis, among others, noted that there are lessons we learn through pain and suffering that we can learn in no other way. Paul wrote in Philippians 2:13: “For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases Him.”

Paul had a physical issue he referred to in the Bible as his “thorn in the flesh.“ He asked the Lord three times to take it away, but God said “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.” (2 Corinthians 12:8) There are times God tests us to see if we love Him more than we love the comfort of our own lifestyle. He takes something away from us, or gives us something (an illness, a trying time, etc.) to see if we’re willing to walk with Him through it, rather than demand our own way.

The lessons we learn in those times are the ones on which our faith is built. Don’t shun the hard times. Embrace them with gratitude. Through them the Lord will give you treasures of wisdom on which you can build the solid foundation of your walk with Him.

I have a chronic illness that can be debilitating. Initially I begged God to take it away, but ultimately, I surrendered my will to His. God has taught me that He can be trusted without reservation, so I was able to say to Him: “Lord, I want what you want in my life. If lying in this bed is where I can serve you most effectively and fruitfully, this is where I want to be. Whatever You want, I want. I trust You.”

I’m grateful that most days He enables me to live without a lot of physical issues, but even if He doesn’t, my goal is to walk closely with the Lord throughout my day. My conviction is stronger than ever that I want what God wants for me – nothing more, nothing less.

If you are experiencing illness or suffering in some way, surrender yourself to the Lord and determine that you want the Healer more than the healing. That if your circumstances never change, you will trust Him to work in and through you in ways He never could before. Confess that you want to “See the kingdom of God forwarded in and through your life above all else, and you want to live righteously, trusting Him to give you everything you need.” (an adaptation of Matthew 6:33)

Blessings, Ed 😊

Why Does God Allow His Children to Suffer?

“If God doesn’t discipline you as He does all of His children, it means that you are illegitimate and are not really His children.” (Hebrews 12:8 NLT)

Today and tomorrow, I’d like for us to look at three reasons why God allows His children to suffer. But before we do, I’m compelled to address another related concern. There are many more reasons people suffer, even believers, than the three I’m addressing. The scope of these posts is to stimulate thought that will, ideally, move us closer to the Lord.

I’m not qualified to address the vile and evil things that people endure in our world, things I can’t even imagine. Hunger, hardship, slavery, poverty, and on and on. These are not caused by God, but they grieve His heart. His original intention was to let us walk in perfect harmony with Him and one another. There was no injustice or suffering of any kind in the Garden of God’s original design.

Then sin entered the picture, and because God gave us free will, He limits His own control over us and will not demand we obey Him. The abominations that we human beings commit against one another will one day end. The perpetrators will face an eternity in hell, but those who place their hope and trust in Jesus will be returned to the environment of perfect peace and harmony that existed in the beginning. Until then, our only hope is Jesus. He not only gives us peace and grace to deal with the things we must face from day to day, but He also gives us His heart to collectively address the needs of the world.

What I’m talking about in the posts today and tomorrow is for individual believers who are struggling to understand why things happen in their lives that disrupt the flow of their “happiness,” or their plans for themselves. Jesus doesn’t redeem us so we can continue to live self-focused lives. He saves us to become His own, so the focus of our lives will shift from us to Him. But because we’re stubborn and self-willed, sometimes He has to allow sickness or pain to redirect our focus. That’s what I want to address in these posts.

When I think of suffering, my mind immediately turns to Job. Job was fully committed to God in every avenue of his life, yet God gave Satan permission to test him.

One thing before we go any further. As a child of God (see yesterday’s post), NOTHING can enter our lives except it first passes through the filter of God’s permission. What does that mean? It means God has purpose in every detail of our life. If He tests us, He has a reason for it. Also, God never tempts us, but He does test us.

The first reason God tests us is to discipline us.

Hebrews 12 speaks about God’s discipline and in verse 7 says: “As you endure this divine discipline, remember that God is treating you as His own children. Who ever heard of a child who is never disciplined by its father?”

In verse 6 the writer quotes from Proverbs 11-12 There are two words used in these verses, both of which are means of correction. One is translated “discipline,” the other is translated “punishment.” Check out my post “Jesus, Our Disciplinarian” for more on this subject. We’ll move on to the second and third reasons God test’s us in tomorrow’s post.

Blessings, Ed 😊

What Does It Mean to Be Lost?

“For the Son of Man came to seek and save those who are lost.” (Luke 19:10 NLT)

It can be very disturbing to be lost. The only thing worse than being lost, is being lost, but not realizing it. Ironically, being lost doesn’t necessarily mean you don’t know where you are. It can also mean you don’t know how to get to where you’re going relative to where you are. What does that mean? It means you can think you know the way when in fact you do not.

Long before cell phones or GPS, when I was in college, I had a date with a girl I’d just met. She gave me her address and we set a time for me to pick her up. I left with what I thought would be plenty of time for me to get to her house, but after several minutes I realized I was on the right road but was going in the wrong direction. I believed I was going the right way, but obviously was not. I was lost.

That’s a predicament in which a lot of people find themselves today in a spiritual sense. They’re lost, but they don’t yet realize it. In Proverbs 14:12 Solomon writes: “There is a path before each person that seems right, but it ends in death.”

Everyday people get up, go through their daily routine, and go to bed without giving God a thought. Self-reliance is all they know. Then one day the test results are positive. The news comes of a loved one who was seriously injured or killed. Or the boss calls you in to let you know you no longer have a job. The scenarios vary, but, while God doesn’t cause them, He will often use something very negative in our lives to point us to Himself.

The word translated “lost” in the Bible paints the picture of someone who is self-willed, who is on a road that leads to destruction, but they can’t see where it’s leading until it’s eternally too late.

Tim Keller said: “Every religion has a prophet who is pointing people to God. Jesus is the only one who says, ‘I am God, and I am coming to find you.’”

What brings me to tears (literally) is the vast number of families who are dysfunctional, suffering from addictions, workaholics, pursuing everything material and nothing spiritual. That was my family growing up. Our next-door neighbors were believers, but rather than invite us to church, they just wanted me to stay away from their son. Mom was an alcoholic and it wasn’t unusual for shouting and worse to be heard from our house.

The miracle of God’s grace is, we didn’t have to go looking for Him, He found us! But how? Through faithful grandparents, uncles and aunts who prayed for us every day.

May I ask you, believing friend, are you praying for your neighbors by name? Are you lifting the ones that bully your child, to the Lord? Are you praying for that homeless person who smells bad and is always looking for a handout? How about the young lady who serves you at the coffee shop? The young man at the carwash? The one who cuts your hair? The wild driver who cut you off? The list is endless, but so are the needs.

The irony of “lostness” is, being “lost” spiritually is invisible. We tend to judge those who aren’t like “us,” assuming they wouldn’t have interest in knowing Jesus, but are equally oblivious to the ones who sit beside us in church, whom we think are just fine, when their world is falling apart behind their dutiful smile.

Being “lost” means not being “saved,” which we looked at in a post a few days ago. The good news is, the Good Shepherd never stops looking for His lost sheep. Aren’t you grateful He’s relentless? Aren’t you thankful He’ll use whatever means possible, including asking me or YOU to be His agent of light in the darkness of someone’s lostness?

Do you want to know what breaks God’s heart? People who are lost! We must be relentless in our praying for those who are lost, beginning, perhaps, with the one staring back at us from the mirror!

Blessings, Ed 😊

What Does It Mean to Trust God?

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek His will in all you do, and He will show you which path to take.” (Proverbs 3:5-6 NLT)

Trust is a very sacred and fragile thing. Though it can take years to earn, it can be lost in a heartbeat. While it can’t be seen, it can be evidenced in many ways. Like faith, it can guide our decisions, but when violated can cause an irreparable break in a relationship. We’re so reluctant to put our trust in God, who has never failed, yet blindly trust others whom we barely know.

For example, have you ever picked up a hitchhiker? Bought something from someone at a yard sale? Taken a prescription medication? Eaten a meal in a restaurant? Hired someone to work at your house? Bought a used car? Driven on a highway? The list is virtually endless. Nearly everything we do from day to day demands some measure of trust, yet, when it comes to God, it seems we must have every “i” dotted and every “t” crossed. Why do you think that is?

In your remembrance, has God ever let you down? Have you ever begged Him for something you really wanted, but He didn’t give it to you? I have. When my wife filed for divorce, I begged God to save our marriage, but He didn’t. I’ve asked Him to heal someone I loved, but they died. I’ve prayed many prayers for many reasons, believing they were being prayed in line with God’s will and purposes, but heaven was silent. Yet, today, I have greater confidence and trust in God than ever before. How can that be? I know Him better now.

When my kids were small, they would ask for things that I could have given them, but it would have endangered them or in some way not been good for them. One time they didn’t like something we were having for dinner, so I asked them what they would like instead. They both, without hesitation, said: “ICE CREAM!” So, I asked them: “How often would you like to have ice cream?” To which they replied: “Every meal!” And much to their surprise, I said: “Okay!” Do you know how long that lasted? One meal. Why? Because they had no idea what they were really asking for.

We’re like that with God. We want what we want when we want it and expect God to give it to us on a silver platter. He sees the end of our life as clearly as He sees the beginning, and every second in between, and knows what we need, and understands it’s often not the thing for which we’re asking. But there are times He gives us what we think we want. That house, that car, that relationship, that _________, and you can fill in the blank, but it rarely, if ever, turns out as we expected. Trusting God requires discipline and faith.

What is it that you want most? A new job? A new house? A new relationship? To be married? To be single? To be forgiven? To be whole? To have purpose? Meaning? I found the answers to everything I thought I’d ever want, and more, in Jesus.

Now, I can say with the Apostle Paul, “I want to know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised Him from the dead. I want to suffer with Him, sharing in His death, so that one way or another I will experience the resurrection from the dead!” (Philippians 3:10-11 NLT) When Paul uses the word “know,” in verse 10, it’s the same word that’s used in Genesis 4 when Adam “knew” Eve and they had a child. It’s a term of intimacy, where two become one. Where one’s hopes, dreams, and ambitions are lost in the hopes, dreams, and ambitions of the One you love more than you love your own life.

That’s when you know who you can trust and why. That’s when you can look back on those “unanswered” prayers, sigh and think: “Now I understand! Thank You, Lord.”

These two things I know with certainty. You can trust God. You can’t trust your heart.

Blessings, Ed 😊

What Does It Mean to Be Saved?

“We are the faithful ones, whose souls will be saved.” (Hebrews 10:39b NLT)

Today we’ll look at two more words that those who follow Jesus often use, but can easily be misunderstood. They are “faithful” and “saved/salvation.”

In Matthew 24:45 Jesus says: “A faithful, sensible servant is one to whom the master can give the responsibility of managing his other household servants and feeding them.” The context of Jesus’ words is a warning that He will one day return without announcement, and only those who are “faithful” will be ready to receive Him. He uses this common illustration because it would have been familiar to His audience.

As we read this story today it might be better understood if it said something like this: “A trustworthy and reliable employee is one to whom the owner of the company gives responsibility to manage his other employees and give them supervision in his absence.” That can be a picture of the mindset of a person who is serving Jesus. Our faithfulness is illustrated and demonstrated as we follow the directives of our Owner, Jesus, until He returns or calls us home in death.

“Faithful” here carries the same meaning as you might expect – trustworthiness, dependability, honesty, and reliability, and those certainly carry over into our walk with Jesus. But there is some uniqueness to the term “faithful” when used in reference to a follower of Jesus.

In the New Testament “faithful” identifies one who is not only trustworthy but trusts in God’s promises; one who is not only compliant with the Lord’s directives, but is convinced that Jesus has been raised from the dead, that He is the Messiah, the Christ, the only begotten of God, and the sole Author of salvation.

Being “saved” or having “salvation” as it relates to our walk with God can be thought of in the context of a rescue from certain death. Imagine, for example, you are stranded in the ocean. There’s no land in sight in any direction, you have no resources by which you can save yourself. Your only hope is for someone to find you before you die. Suddenly, you hear a helicopter, and with what little strength you have left, you wave and shout. The helicopter hovers over you and a rope is thrown down and soon you see a man climbing down to pull you from the water and take you to safety.

While no illustration is perfect, that essentially describes what Jesus has done for us and what being saved or having salvation looks like.

As human beings, we are born with a sin nature, inherited by our earthly ancestor, Adam. That nature gives us inclinations that make it easy for us to desire to be self-sufficient, self-seeking, self-dependent, in short, to love ourselves and sinning more than we love God. We like to believe we don’t have any need we can’t satisfy ourselves. Then death enters the picture. Human beings die!

Because Adam chose to sin, to follow the dictates of his own desire and ignore God’s instruction, he lost the privilege of eternal life and received instead the penalty for his sin, which is death (separation from God).

In a sense, we are all “afloat” in a massive sea of darkness and hopelessness, destined to be forever separated from the Lover of our soul, but in His great love, God sent a Rescuer to save us from sin and certain death.

In 1 John 5:11-12 it says: “And this is what God has testified: He has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have God’s Son does not have life.” God opened a way to be saved (to have salvation) through His Son, Jesus. In a similar way as a person being rescued from the sea entrusts their life to their rescuer, all we need to do is, by faith, place our full trust in our only hope of eternal life. Please don’t believe you can ever be good enough to earn your way to heaven. That’s a little bit like believing you can swim the ocean to save yourself from drowning.

Click on the link below to learn what it means to allow Jesus to rescue you and to receive His free gift of eternal life.

https://hutchcraft.com/the-bridge-to-god

Blessings, Ed 😊

What Does “Christian” Mean?

“It was in Antioch that the believers were first called Christians.” (Acts 11:26b NLT)

Over the next few days, I’d like to look more closely at some of the words that are used by those of us affiliated with the church, primarily in the U.S., because that’s my frame of reference.

People tend to use the words “Christian” and ”Christians” with the assumption that everyone who hears them knows what they mean, yet, it has become increasingly clear through the years, that that’s not always the case. It’s a little bit like asking someone: “Do you love Mac N Cheese!” There are dozens of ways to make it, so asking that question can raise a lot of different responses in people’s minds. They’re all hearing the same terms, but “Mac N Cheese,” can be made in many different ways.

The terms “Christian” and “Christians,” are only used three times in the King James Version of the Bible, but more than thirty times in other translations. Originally, the word was used derogatorily in reference to those who professed faith in Jesus, the Christ. It was used much like people today use terms to ridicule or demean those of another race or ethnicity. It was not complimentary.

Because we see “Jesus Christ” used in the Bible or hear so many people refer to Him in that manner, there are those who assume “Christ” must be Jesus’ last name; however, “Christ” is a title that identifies Jesus as the Messiah, the Anointed One of God. Thus, for those who knew and followed Jesus it was a title of honor and reverence, thus to be referred to as a “Christian” was a privilege, one for which many sacrificed their lives.

Photo by Tima Miroshnichenko on Pexels.com

So, how does that translate into 21^st century America? If you do a Google search of the word “Christian” you’ll get more than 5½ billion “hits,” many of which draw you in directions that have nothing to do with Jesus. One thing you’ll find is a very generic definition of who Christians are: “Christians are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words Christ and Christian derive from the Koine Greek title Christós (Χριστός), a translation of the Biblical Hebrew term mashiach (מָשִׁיחַ).” (Wikipedia)

The frightening piece of this, and the reason I felt compelled to write about it, is many who believe they are Christian, may in fact not be. How can I make such a statement? Because being born in America, which was once referred to as a “Christian” nation, does not make anyone a “Christian.” Because growing up in a “Christian” home or environment, attending church faithfully, being involved in “Christian” activities/organizations/causes does not make someone a “Christian,” based on what the Bible teaches.

The ONLY reason anyone is a “Christian” is because they yield their life and allegiance to Jesus; they choose to trade their life for His; to receive forgiveness and new life in and through Him alone, by faith alone.

Jesus said in Matthew 16:24-25: “If any of you wants to be My follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross, and follow Me. If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for My sake, you will save it.” Couple that with Paul’s words in 2 Corinthians 5:17: “This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!”

Does that mean being a Jesus follower makes us perfect? Certainly not in this life, but it does make us whole, fulfilled, complete, filled with purpose, and citizens of heaven. Being a “Christian” in the Biblical sense isn’t simply a title, it’s intended to be a description of someone who is fully committed to Jesus and who orders their life after His will and desires. If you have any question as to whether you’ve committed your life completely to Jesus, please click on the link below.

https://hutchcraft.com/the-bridge-to-god

Blessings, Ed

An Audience of One

“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.” (Hebrews 13:8 NLT)

Have you ever been discouraged? Did you know discouragement is one of Satan’s favorite tools? Why? Because Satan is a liar, and discouragement is a lie posing as the truth, to cause us to believe something, usually about ourselves, that is untrue.

A few days ago I read one of Charles H. Spurgeon’s sermons entitled, The Immutability of God. Immutability means “never changing, never varying, unchangeable.” So even the reference to Jesus in the Hebrews passage is an affirmation of His deity, for only God is Immutable.

Spurgeon gave numerous examples of how Christ’s immutability has meaning and value in our lives. He spoke of God’s unchanging love, power, purpose, and many other attributes. He was comparing things that God has done in the past, and using them as affirmation that He will always do and be those things in the future.

He said, for example: “Was He powerful? Was He the mighty God when He spoke the world out of the womb of non-existence?” Then later Spurgeon said: “He has not become an Almighty tyrant, whereas He was once an Almighty Father; but His strong love stands like a granite rock, unmoved by the hurricanes of our iniquity.”

I’m not sure how you respond to those kinds of statements, but what went through my mind was: “And I think I’M a writer?” Who thinks like that? Who can paint such wonderful pictures with words? Who, by God’s grace can move the hearts of men like Spurgeon? Certainly not me. And my first thought was: “I could never write like that, what’s the use of even pretending to be a writer?” Whine! Whine! Whine! Poor me, all wrapped up in self-pity!

You see what can happen? See how Satan works? The first thought was one of discouragement, but that first thought, thank God, was fleeting. Then the Lord turned my mind to: “Wow! What a mighty God we serve. What a tremendous treasure God gave us through the amazing gifts of C. H. Spurgeon.”

The truth is, if I used words like Spurgeon today, few people would take the time or make the effort to read them. But what was astounding was, in the footnote it said that he was only 20 years old when he preached that sermon to 2,000 people. He came to the Lord when he was 15 and had no formal education. God educated him and taught him, through strenuous self-study, what he needed to know and shaped him into the man he needed him to be, to reach the people to whom God would send him to preach. And, yes, his words still challenge and move the hearts of men and women today. Why? Because they’re God’s words channeled through a human mind.

And here’s the miracle of our unchanging God – He’s still doing the same thing today! Do you want to know where? Are you sitting down? IN YOU! “Yeh, but I’m only a _____________,” And you can fill in the blank.

The truth is, EVERY believer has a commission from the Lord to spread the word of who Jesus is, what He died to accomplish, and that He’s coming soon to call His Bride home to be with Him forever. Don’t let the enemy of your soul lie to you and make you believe for a second that you’re anything but exactly what you need to be to accomplish exactly what He’s called, equipped, and commissioned you to be.

As for me, God alone knows who will read what I write, so He gives me exactly what needs to be said, for exactly the person He knows will read my posts. Am I disappointed I can’t write like Spurgeon? Not at all. Why not? Because I write for an audience of One. His name is Jesus, and if I please Him, I’m good with that.

Blessings, Ed 😊

Why So Many Miss Heaven (Part 2)

“But the gateway to life is very narrow and the road is difficult, and only a few ever find it.” (Matthew 7:14 NLT)

A question I’ve often asked over the years is: “Why would anyone not want to go to heaven?” Or, another way to ask a similar question: “Why would anyone want to go to hell?” Unfortunately, there are many reasons, a few of which I’d like to address today.

The environment in which a person grows up is a leading reason why many have no understanding of or interest in going to heaven. They have no frame of reference. Some, because of the horrible circumstances of their life as a child, and into adulthood, believe hell is what they’ve been living on this earth, and “anything” must be better when you die. Or worse, they come to believe that’s all they deserve, on earth and hereafter.

On the other hand, some children are so pampered and so generously provided for, they see no need for heaven, and have no concept of hell. Everything their heart desires is given to them, so it’s difficult for them to believe anyone, even God, can offer anything better.

Regardless of our upbringing, if the spiritual dimension of our lives is unknown or ignored when we’re young, it becomes increasingly more difficult to formulate correct and healthy views of God, Satan, heaven, and hell as an adult. So many miss the gateway to life because they don’t even know it exists and/or don’t care.

Those of us who know Jesus and have learned to build our lives around Him, tend to think the truths of the Bible are intuitive, that everyone should know right from wrong, and understand their need of God. We are prone to think: “If I know these things, everyone should know them,” but it doesn’t work that way.

One huge issue for many is the fact they don’t believe they deserve to be in heaven. While that can be a very healthy first step, because the reality is, NO ONE does deserve heaven, it isn’t always the case.

The dad of one of my friends in high school was an alcoholic. He walked by one day while I was shooting hoops on my driveway. He had obviously been drinking and was crying, so I asked him what was wrong. He began to pour out his heart about his guilt and shame regarding the lives he had taken during WWII. He couldn’t forgive himself, so he found it difficult to believe God would forgive him and allow him to go to heaven.

Our emotions can lie to us and cause us to believe things that aren’t true. Guilt and shame are powerful tools in Satan’s hands and God alone can heal and help us to deal with them. There are things in my life that I deeply regret and for which I carried guilt and shame for many years, but gratefully, God’s Spirit has healed and used those things to draw me ever closer to Himself.

What about you? Where are you as you ponder the mysteries of life and death and where they lead? Regardless of your past, God loves you and desires to have a relationship with you. Satan’s goal is to keep you distracted by the frivolities of this earthly life or regrets from your past, preventing you from coming to terms with your need of God. I once feared death, knowing that I didn’t deserve to be in heaven, yet dreading the possibility of hell. Today, I invite death, because I know that the One who knows me best and loves me most will be waiting with outstretched arms to welcome me home to Him. God loves each of us the same and desires to welcome you home as well.

Heaven and hell are eternal realities. Satan is a liar and a deceiver, and his goal is to keep you blinded to all God has done in and through Jesus to make a way for you to be forgiven and restored to your rightful place as His child. If you haven’t yet yielded your life and allegiance to Jesus, please click on the link below and learn how to make Jesus the Lord of your life before it’s eternally too late. https://hutchcraft.com/the-bridge-to-god

Blessings, Ed 😊

Why So Many Miss Heaven

“The highway to hell is broad, and its gate is wide for the many who choose that way.” (Matthew 7:13b NLT)

When I was in college, I worked part time at the local newspaper, where I met a young man about my age, whose nickname was “Garb.” That seemed a little odd, so one day I asked why he was called that. The person’s response was: “because he’s constantly swearing!” Okay.

One day I needed a ride home and “Garb” offered to take me. We chatted casually, but when we got to my dorm, I asked him if I could talk to him about something. He agreed, so I shared how Jesus had come to earth to live a sinless life and die on a cross to pay the penalty for our sin. I told him how much God loved him and wanted to forgive him and give him new life in Christ.

After I shared for a few minutes, I asked him if he had any questions. At first, he was quiet, then he asked: “Why hasn’t anyone ever shared this with me before?”

The Lord brought that conversation to mind as I was contemplating this post. We’re so prone to believe that people just don’t want to hear about Jesus, that they’re content to live in their sin. But I believe a major reason so many people are going to miss heaven is because no one ever took the time to tell them what Jesus has done for them.

That’s one of the reasons I often go over the basics of the Gospel in my posts. Ignorance, which simply means a lack of knowledge about a given subject, is keeping people out of heaven.

Another reason that brings delight to Satan and blocks the ears and hearts of those who are without a saving knowledge of Jesus is hypocrisy in the lives of people who are professing to know Jesus but living like the devil. My brother-in-law, who is now in heaven, for years rejected invitations to come to Christ because of a relative who claimed to know Jesus but cheated him in business dealings.

Another very common reason people miss heaven is because we think they have more time than they do. I gave a ride to a boy I knew in high school, more by reputation than through friendship, but after I let him out of the car the Lord laid on my heart to speak to him about Jesus the next opportunity I had. There wasn’t to be another opportunity. He drove his car into the river the next day, taking his own life. He seemed to have everything, but obviously, he didn’t.

That’s a major reason I started this blog. It grieves me to think about people who would literally jump at the chance to know Jesus if they just understood who He is and what He’s done for them.

When I was first in ministry, I visited a family of seven – mom, dad and their five children. Often when I made visits the parents would send the kids to their rooms, but not this time. We sat in a circle, so we were face to face as I shared the words of life about Jesus. When I finished, I asked each one, starting with dad, to the youngest child: “Would you like to receive the gift of eternal life Jesus offers?” And each one, all seven, said “Yes!” They became fruitful servants of the Lord as they lived out their faith.

If you know the Lord, please don’t miss an opportunity to speak life and love into the heart of someone you meet or someone you know hasn’t yielded their life to the Lord. We never know when we’ll be seeing them for the last time. We must be about our Father’s business of sharing the life He’s given us with everyone we possibly can.

Blessings, Ed 😊

Jesus, Our Disciplinarian

“We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith.” (Hebrews 12:2a NLT)

Our faith journey is begun in and by Jesus and will be finished/completed in and by Jesus. That’s what it means that He’s the One “who initiates and perfects our faith.” According to Strong’s Concordance, Jesus is the “One who in His own person, raised faith to its perfection, and so set before us the highest example of faith.” In other words, He perfectly lived the life of faith He calls each of us to follow. But how can we ever measure up to His standard of excellence?

Obviously, we can’t, but we can improve and strive to achieve our absolute best this side of eternity, then be made complete in Him on the other side. In the meantime, by keeping our focus on Jesus, distractions fall away, and I’m free to learn from the Author and Finisher of my faith, how to follow His perfect example more closely. But how?

One way is to offer less resistance when the Lord seeks to discipline us (see Hebrews 12:5-13), because when we’re able to do that, the easier it becomes to recognize His voice when He speaks and to submit to His authority when He gives us a directive.

It helps us to understand why the Lord disciplines us and what He’s trying to accomplish through it. Verses 5-6 are quotes from Proverbs 3:11-12 and have reference to the ways the Lord corrects those whom He loves. His intention is not to hurt us, but to correct our wrong attitude or behavior. In verse 6 in the New Living Translation, the word “discipline” means “to be instructed or taught or to cause one to learn.” But it can also mean “to chastise or castigate with words to correct.” What does that mean?

It means the punishment needs to fit the “crime/sin.” If we need more correction to enable us to make changes that will lead to the righting of severely wrong behavior or attitudes, that’s what the Lord will do. He’s not going to slap us on the wrist for something that we have done that has serious and/or long-range implications for wrong or evil in our lives. What might that look like?

In verses 15-21 the writer gives an example to illustrate the kinds of things God can and will do to give us a “course adjustment.” One of the most disturbing verses in the Bible to me is verse 17: “You know that afterward, when he (Esau) wanted his father’s blessing, he was rejected. It was too late for repentance, even though he begged with bitter tears.”

Friends, please hear me. There is coming a time, sooner than any of us can imagine, when it will be too late to repent. A time when bitter tears will not change God’s heart or mind towards us.

Verse 14 helps us to see how we need to live in the meantime: “Work at living in peace with everyone, and work at living a holy life, for those who are not holy will not see the Lord.” This is a call to what the Bible calls “sanctification.” It doesn’t mean to be without sin or flaw. It means “to be set apart for sacred use by God.” It means our goal as a Jesus follower is to grow in ever-increasing measure in His likeness, that we may be “set apart” from the world, solely for use by and for our Savior.

In verse 15 it speaks of a “poisonous root of bitterness” that can grow up and trouble the person in which the bitterness resides, but can also corrupt many others. Then in verse 16 it urges us to: “…not be immoral or godless like Esau.” Here “Immoral” means “to allow the lust for sex to overpower and/or replace a desire to be pure before the Lord.” And “godless” speaks to those who take “that which is intended to be holy and sacred and treat it as though it were common and ordinary” (i.e. our body, our mind, our spirit, our resources), in short, everything with which the Lord has entrusted us as His children.

How we behave, speak, and live our life, is either a beacon of light to point those who know us closer to Jesus, or a red flag of hypocrisy, driving them further away from Him.

Blessings, Ed 😊