Walking With Jesus

A Shattered Heart, A Certain Hope

*Please read these words of Ron Hutchcraft carefully and with your eye of faith. Let them speak hope and life into your weary soul. Blessings, Ed 😊

I’d done my whole adult life with my Karen, the only woman I ever needed. Suddenly, I had to figure out how to do the rest of my life without her. That Sunday night, we sat in the bleachers at our local football stadium and we watched our grandson graduate from high school as valedictorian and he gave a faith-filled valedictory message. Monday afternoon, she was gone. Wrapped in this huddle of sobs with our three adult children, I just choked out the words, “It hurts so bad.” It really does.

After some time, I’d walk into our living room, I’d still instinctively look for that beautiful hair. I called it her “crown of glory” as she sat in her favorite blue chair. I would go to make that oatmeal that she loved for breakfast. I turn to tell her about a conversation or situation and to hear her trademark laugh over my dumb jokes.

Our four-year-old grandson said it all the first time he ran into our living room and saw her chair empty. He just ran back to his mommy and said, “Mommy, you were right. She’s not here.” No, she’s not, and she won’t be again. I probably shed more tears in those weeks than I’ve shed the rest of my life. But I have a story to tell. Actually, it’s the Story that I’ve tried to tell folks my whole adult life. And suddenly I was living its ultimate validation.

Everything I’ve ever believed, everything I’ve ever taught about my Jesus is true! Everything that my death-crushing Savior promised, I can tell you, He delivers in the darkest, most devastating days of my life!

He said of those who have put their total trust in His death on the cross for their sins, and this is in our word for today from the Word of God in John 14:19. He said, “Because I live, you will live also.” Because Karen’s Savior is alive, so is this woman I love.

In God’s own words, we have “a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (1 Peter 1:3). I’m not talking about some “cross your fingers” hope. This is living hope. Hope is a Person – Jesus. He trampled death as He blasted out of His grave on Easter morning.

The hope that is holding my heart together is as sure as our hope that spring will follow a seemingly endless winter. Spring is a sure thing. So is heaven for those who’ve pinned all their hopes on the One who died so we could go there. As much as I love Karen, she is now with the One who loves her the most.

This amazing Jesus has got my Karen. And He’s got me. I can tell you that by the peace that has lasted across the years now. That peace, along with that certain hope of a forever spring after this cold winter, is a powerful counterbalance on that scale that is so weighed down by grief. Through all my darkest hours, through my loneliest moments, the peace has never been shaken.

Oh, this Jesus I’ve talked about, that I’ve written about, I’ve believed in all these years has come closer and become more real to me than ever before. He promised He would be, as the Bible says, “close to the brokenhearted” (Psalm 34:18). He really, really is. When you walk through the valley of the shadow, you’ve got to have Jesus to go there. And when you walk across that final frontier beyond our death, you’ve got to know you belong to Jesus.

If you’re not sure of that, would you please make this the day you get that settled? Tell Him, “Jesus, what you died for was me. I am yours. You’re alive! I want you to live in me.” Check out our website – you can find there how to be sure you belong to Him. That website is ANewStory.com.

Look, I’m in the biggest storm of my life – the Cat 5 hurricane, the EF-5 tornado. Jesus is my safe room. Is He yours? He’s stronger than the storm. The Bible says, “We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure” (Hebrews 6:19).

And my friend, The Anchor holds.

Feeling Entitled?

“Since we have planted spiritual seed among you, aren’t we entitled to a harvest of physical food and drink? If you support others who preach to you, shouldn’t we have an even greater right to be supported? But we have never used this right. We would rather put up with anything than be an obstacle to the Good News about Christ.” (1 Corinthians 9:11-12 NLT)

In these verses Paul explains to the Corinthian believers that he had the same right to receive their support as the others who preached to and taught them, but he was also quick to let them know, though he was entitled to their support, he’d rather trust the Lord than be beholden to them.

Paul can be admired and commended for his stance, but the plot thickens because we’re too often tempted to believe because other humans are in our “debt” for our service or kindness, so is God, but that’s never the case. Jesus was God’s perfect Son, but never did He approach God with the attitude: “You owe Me!”

If ever He could have played that proverbial “card” it would have been in the garden prior to His betrayal, but even then, His concern wasn’t to get His way, but to follow God’s. We must learn from Christ’s attitude the humble posture that helps us understand the Lord is NEVER under obligation to give us anything. Yes, of course, He wants to make His riches available to us, but as His gift, not to be bartered by our goodness.

Thom Rainer helps us see this more clearly when he writes: “Anyone who believes they are entitled to something from God, know the adversary has put that thought in you, not the Holy Spirit.” Entitlement is a very slippery slope. When we begin to believe God owes us anything, there are only two places that can end – anger and disillusionment with God or, ideally and hopefully, the realization that God is a great and good giver, but His gifts are always given by grace – always free and undeserved.

So, how do we deal with friends, relatives, and others we’re seeking to reach for the Lord, but their minds are blocked because they see themselves as good and deserving, expecting God to reward them for their goodness? The first place to begin is in prayer. The Lord knows everything about everything, including every thought of every person.

He understands clearly why they believe as they do, but He’s not rattled or disturbed. He will give us wisdom to address how they perceive themselves. They obviously were taught, perhaps as a child, they are good and deserving of good things in their lives. Which is positive and right, but when it creates in us the expectation that for any reason God owes us, it creates in us a barrier to His grace that can only be dismantled through believing prayer.

While it’s not an often quoted or preached text, I love Luke 17:7-9 where Jesus says: “When a servant comes in from plowing or taking care of sheep, does his master say, ‘Come in and eat with me’? No, he says, ‘Prepare my meal, put on your apron and serve me while I eat, Then you can eat later.’ And does the master thank the servant for doing what he was told to do? Of course not. In the same way, when you obey Me you should say, ‘We are unworthy servants who have simply done our duty.’”

Children of the wealthy may feel entitled, but it’s never for those of us who know, love, and serve the Creator, Owner, Sustainer, and Ruler of the universe. We owe Him everything, including our own souls. He is the One who is entitled to everything from us, never the other way around.

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊

The Significance and Incredible Legacy of Nicaea

By: John Stonestreet and Dr. Glenn Sunshine

*Please read this informative and timely message from The Colson Center. It helps us clarify why right Theology is so vital in our understanding, not only of the times in which we live, but how to order our lives around a right understanding of and focus on God’s Word. Blessings, Ed 😊

In May, 1,700 years ago, was one of the most significant and consequential events in all of Church history. Across the Bosporus Straight from Constantinople, in Nicaea, a Council met to settle a question plaguing the Church: Who, precisely, is Jesus? Their work shaped the future of Christian theology.

In the first few centuries after Christ’s resurrection, Jesus was understood in a variety of ways. Only the Gnostics doubted His humanity, arguing that Jesus was a purely spiritual being who only seemed human.

Others suggested that Jesus was an angel or archangel, or specifically the Angel of the Lord mentioned in the Old Testament. By the third century, the church accepted the deity of Christ while seeing him as subordinate in some way to the Father. In 318 or 319, the nature of that subordination was the source of controversy between Arius, a priest in Alexandria, and Alexander I, the patriarch of Alexandria.

Alexander argued that Christ was eternally begotten of the Father’s substance and thus equal to the Father and without a beginning. Arius countered, “If the Father begat the Son, then he who was begotten had a beginning in existence, and from this it follows there was a time when the Son was not.”

According to Arius, the Son was not eternally begotten of the Father. Rather, He was made from nothing and thus not equal to the Father. Jesus, Arius taught, was the first created being through whom everything else was made.

The quarrel between Arius and Alexander became a heated controversy across the Church, with incredible implications for theology and worship. In Rome, the task of mediating religious conflicts fell to the emperor. To settle this weighty matter, Emperor Constantine I called the bishops to Nicaea in 325.

The Council sided with the position that reflected the longstanding understanding of the Church and Holy Scripture. Alexander’s position aligned with passages such as John 1:1, “the Word was God,” as well as Jesus’ claims in John 10, that “I and the Father are one,” and John 14:9, that “whoever has seen me has seen the Father.”

Thus The Council chose the word homoousios to describe who Jesus is in relationship with the Father and to emphasize His deity. Though they are of the same substance, the Council clarified that, as begotten of the Father, Jesus is not the same as the Father. The creed produced by the Council, which is recited in churches around the world to this day, described Christ as “begotten, not made, of one being (or of one substance) with the Father.”

The Nicaean Creed is among the most consequential documents in Church history. It remains the articulation of orthodox Christology, though Arianism did not die out until the sixth century. The Council’s decisions also made significant contributions to theological clarity about the Trinity, another perplexity the Church had to define. Later councils would reflect on and refine the statements out of Nicaea. The First Council of Constantinople strengthened its statements on the Holy Spirit, and the Council of Chalcedon further worked out the relationship of the human and divine natures of Christ, united in a single person.

While the doctrines articulated by these Councils are complex and nuanced, they have played the essential role of affirming and clarifying the many biblical claims about God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This clarity is just as important today because of the various groups and individuals who claim to be Christians but hold unorthodox and heretical views about Jesus. The Jehovah’s Witnesses embrace a form of Arianism, claiming Christ is the Archangel Michael and the first created being. Mormons reject the eternal generation of the Son and see Christ as one of many children of the Father, including Satan.

In fact, Arianism remains alive and well among evangelicals. In 2022, a survey conducted by Ligonier Ministries and Lifeway Research found that 73% of evangelicals agreed with the statement, “Jesus is the first and greatest being created by God.” This widespread ignorance (and even outright rejection) of Church history and the Creeds among many Christians, and the lack of interest in theological seriousness and formation among many churches, has consequences.

Thank God for Nicaea and for the courage and insight He gave those leaders to clarify the nature and work of Christ. What was accomplished by the Council continues to be of great importance for the Church. May we be as committed to knowing and teaching good theology in our churches today as they were then.

Where Faith Begins

“Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see. Through their faith, the people in days of old earned a good reputation.” (Hebrews 11:1-2 NLT)

How do you define faith? Think about that for a few minutes. To me faith is ______________! What did you come up with? It’s interesting to me that the Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines faith as “allegiance to duty or a person; loyalty; belief and trust in God; confidence; a system of religious beliefs.”

While some of those definitions help in a broad sense, to me they fail to grasp the significance of personal trust, dependence, reliance, that conveys absolute confidence in a personal, intimate Friend. My faith in my wife goes much deeper than mere confidence that she will remain faithful to me, in terms of our exclusive love relationship.

Faith, in my understanding, defines the perimeters of our whole relationship, whether it’s with a spouse, friend, employer, or God. Faith determines our level of confidence, not only in the person with whom we have a relationship, but in our own ability to carry out our part in that relationship. For example. Let’s say I’m building a friendship with a new neighbor.

They’ve just moved in so we know very little if anything about them. Since we’ve developed no trust, can we immediately share with them personal information about our finances, our health, or any other personal information that could be misconstrued? Personally, I’m very reserved with sharing detailed information about myself with almost anyone, especially a stranger. But the point is, faith will guide the development of any relationship.

When it comes to the Lord, how does faith help us? Faith has to do with belief. What I believe about anyone is going to have a bearing on how I relate to them and whether or not I even want a relationship with them. If someone lies to me or speaks negatively about me behind my back, I’m very likely not going to pursue a relationship with them.

Similarly, because God has a proven track record of faithfulness, kindness, generosity, love, and goodness, my heart should be inclined to open to His authority and leadership in my life. George Muller gives us insight when he writes: “Faith begins where man’s power ends.”

In my mind a huge element in building our faith in God is trust. Geoge Muller’s trust was so great that as a caregiver for many orphans, he would have them sit down for a meal with nothing to give them to eat, except his absolute confidence that God would provide. Inevitably there would be a knock on his door and a baker, dairyman, grocer, or friend would be there to provide more than enough to feed the hungry kids.

When we learn to have that kind of unwavering confidence in our Savior, we’ll finally understand the real basis of what faith is and we’ll find that many of the things with which we wrestle in the energy of the flesh will be evaporated in the power of the Spirit through our unflinching faith, our undeniable confidence in the unwavering trust we have in our perfect Savior.

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊

Regret

“For the kind of sorrow God wants us to experience leads us away from sin and results in salvation. There’s no regret for that kind of sorrow. But worldly sorrow, which lacks repentance, results in spiritual death.” (2 Corinthians 7:10 NLT)

One of the strongest enemies of my heart is regret. “If onlys” flood my mind at times and seek to rob me of joy, contentment and satisfaction in my walk with the Lord. Yes, of course, we’ve all failed to be all we could be for the Lord, and the truth is, if we’d known when we first started what we now know, we’d still have messed up. It’s part of the deal. Failure isn’t the problem, it’s that we fail to learn from our failure and move beyond it.

Satan finds our weakness and he just keeps hammering us. We sin, collapse in failure and regret, repent, promise God we’re done with that, then two hours or two days later we do the same thing. But why? The issue of sin is our mind. What we think about comes about. If we’re focused on that sin that we strongly hate and soooooooo want to avoid, guess what? We’re NOT going to avoid it. Why not? Because it’s all we think about.

Photo by Juan Pablo Serrano on Pexels.com

We’ve got to give something else priority in our mind, but what? It’s interesting that the disciples never asked the Lord to teach them to preach, to effectively communicate God’s Truth like Jesus was so able to do. They asked Him to teach them to pray. Which, of course, begs the question: What is prayer?

Prayer, as I have learned to understand it, is disciplining my mind to think God’s thoughts. What does that mean? Where do we find God’s thoughts? In God’s Word, the Bible. We must learn to read, ponder, and apply God’s words. For example. I’m reading the Psalms through again now and I’m seeing things I’ve never seen before. In Psalm 1 it says: “Oh, the joys of those who do not follow the advice of the wicked, or stand around with mockers. But they delight in the law of the Lord, MEDITATING ON IT DAY AND NIGHT. They are like trees planted along the riverbank, bearing fruit each season. Their leaves never wither and they prosper in all they do.”

How would you like to live like that? But how? By following its instruction. Pay attention to who you spend your time with. Delve into God’s Word. Ponder it, Think about it. Begin setting aside 15-20 minutes a day and let it grow from there. Have a pen and paper available and take notes. Memorize key verses by putting them on small cards with the verse written on one side and the reference on the other. Fill you mind with God’s words so you can draw from them when you’re tempted.

It’s also helpful to sing godly songs. Sometimes just remembering the titles can thrill me. I’m old, so older songs come to mind, like “We Shall Behold Me” always grips my heart. There are many others, but that’s not the point, remember songs that will thrill your heart and turn your mind to Jesus and what He’s done for you.

Take a phrase from Scripture like “I will never leave you.” Think about what that means, not only in the literal sense, but how it applies to you in this season of your life. Jesus will never leave you… in your temptation, in your pain, in your quest to learn, in your efforts to witness for Him, in whatever direction the Lord leads your mind, grasp it, enjoy it, cherish it and walk faithfully in it.

Keeping our focus on Jesus and all He’s done and is doing in, through, and on our behalf will prevent us from wallowing in shame and regret.

Your mind will grow based on what you feed it.

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊

Friendship

“You adulterers! Don’t’ you realize that friendship with the world makes you an enemy of God? I say it again: If you want to be a friend of the world, you make yourself an enemy of God.” (James 4:4-6 NLT)

What would you say is the basis of a strong relationship? Think of your five closest friends? Who are they? How did you meet? What do they have in common? What holds you together? How well do you know them? Could you call them at 2:00 a.m. and they’d come running? Who do you go to for counsel? If you have a financial problem, who do you turn to? How about a physical problem? Relational? Emotional? Spiritual?

What comprises friendship with the world? Is Paul here speaking of actual friends or is he referring to the core of how we think? The center of our desires? What motivates, inspires, encourages, and stirs us to action? What is the underlying conviction we hold that determines where we draw the proverbial line?

Is Jesus your friend? How do you know? How do you measure friendship with Jesus? With anyone? Would you lay down your literal life for Jesus? If someone held a gun to your head and said: “Deny Jesus or I’ll blow your head off!” Would you buckle or go to heaven without a head? Why even ask these questions?

Every day we move closer to or further away from the Lord, and a major factor in which way we go is the presence of people with whom we’re most frequently exposed. Family, especially when we’re young, is a major influence on us. Statistically, if a person grows up in a non-Christian environment, according to some studies, only about 6% of adults will ever make a commitment to Christ. 83% come to the Lord between the ages of 4-14 years of age.

Beyond family, close friends are a tremendous influence on us, as children and as adults. We have drinking “buddies,” we go to parties where alcohol, drugs, and sex are available. The only pornographic movie I ever saw was at the invitation of a “friend,” but I had no clue what I was going to see.

We wonder why our commitment to Christ is so lax and ineffective when we very often have no strong ties to anyone who really loves and serves Jesus. Even our friends from church are too often lacking in spiritual disciplines. Too many rarely read God’s Word, pray, or are a part of a Christian men’s or women’s group. Our primary base of “friends” is too often our work or bowling/golfing/drinking buddies or maybe a neighbor.

Here’s the bottom line: to grow in our life in Christ we have to be committed, not only to a growing, Christ-centered church, we’ve got to nurture Christ-centered friendships. We have to have people in our lives who will hold us accountable to develop and keep our spiritual disciplines, where we spend our time and how, and who we’re helping develop in their walk with Christ.

One of the most effective ways to stay close to Christ is to be discipling someone else. Like the Apostle Paul, ask others to follow you as you follow Christ. And I know this can be intimidating, but you don’t need to be a college graduate to lead a first grader, you only need to be a second grader. You don’t need to know everything, just more than they know, assuming, of course, you have someone pouring into you.

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊

Uncommon Courage

“No wonder our hearts have melted in fear! No one has the courage to fight after hearing such things. For the Lord your God is the supreme God of the heavens above and the earth below.” (Joshua 2:11 NLT)

The context of the above words by the prostitute Rahab come as a result of God’s powerful display of His power and majesty as He rolled back the Red Sea and made a dry path on which the children of Israel could pass from slavery into their Promised Land.

May I ask you a very simple, straight forward question? Has God lost His power? Is He no longer able or willing to perform miracles for us, His children? Are we so blind to the gift of His presence that we continue to wallow in sin and shame rather than live bold, forgiven, and courageous lives to His honor and fame? Is my mind so focused on my desire to sin that I no longer acknowledge His unlimited resource of strength that lives in me as His child?

Photo by Tima Miroshnichenko on Pexels.com

May I suggest we either take His Word seriously or quit pretending to be something we’re clearly not. Sin must be taken seriously, of course, but to be paralyzed by it is sin in and of itself. Sin is our decision to live as we please. We love our sin, that’s why we fail to discipline ourselves to be rid of it.

For several years I drove a Volkswagen diesel Rabbit. On the Interstate if I was driving into the wind the fastest I could go was about 45 mph. It was great on gas, but it had no power. For my 65^th birthday my precious daughter gave me a 2012 Mustang GT California Special. It wasn’t only very nice, it was FAST!

After stopping at a rest area on my way home in my new GT, scanning my mirror for traffic as I merged back onto the highway, I glanced at the speedometer and was already over 100 mph in 3^rd gear (it had a 5-speed manual transmission 😊). What’s my point? We’re living our life as a Jesus follower as though we’re a Diesel Rabbit while the Lord Jesus has made us a powerful Mustang.

Please, child of God, stop living under submission to the enemy from whom you’ve been delivered as surely as the children of Israel were delivered from Egypt. Walk victoriously in the power of God’s Spirit and stop wallowing in the mire of submission to your own flesh. You can live above sin! You can live victoriously over your flesh! You CAN, if you WILL! Will you?

Perhaps this prayer by Pastor Rick Warren will encourage and inspire you as it did me: “God, I want to be a person of courage. I want to live to please you and not other people. I want to build my life on a biblical worldview and stand courageously for my faith. I make these two commitments today: First, I accept your Word as my authority and the foundation for my life. Second, I want to spend time with you every day and get to know you personally. I want to be so full of joy and courage that people say, ‘That person’s been with Jesus.’ I ask you to help me to be fearless for the truth. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.”

Align yourself with 2-5 other like-minded, courageous people of God whom you can count on to hold you accountable to walk the walk and not merely talk the talk. Have them on speed-dial so you can contact them when you’re being tempted. Create Godly disciplines that will help you train your mind to lean on the Holy Spirit to protect you from defaulting to sin when you can easily guard your purity.

Our life in Christ is too vital to waste opportunities to live courageously for Him! We must stand strong, not only for our sake, but for the sake of those who are watching our lives.

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊

A New Perspective

“The man didn’t know, for Jesus had disappeared into the crowd. But afterward Jesus found him in the Temple and told him, ‘Now you are well; so stop sinning, or something even worse may happen to you.’ Then the man went and told the Jewish leaders that it was Jesus who had healed him.” (John 5:13-15 NLT)

This familiar story of the man who had laid for 38 years waiting to be healed, then miraculously, at the sound of the Savior’s voice was able to walk, rings so true to the way people respond to His healing today. It’s apparent from Jesus’ words to the man that though his body had been healed, his soul was still stained.

Notice in the verse above Jesus told the man: “so stop sinning.” He didn’t tell him, “Listen, brother, I understand you’re a frail human being and you must sin more or less every day.” Where did we pick up that nonsense. Certainly not from the Bible. Yes, of course, even believers continue to have the capacity to sin, but is there no power in the Holy Spirit within us to fight the enemy’s urges?

Jesus didn’t tell the man to slow down his sinning, He told him to stop! I heard a story about a guy who got pulled over for rolling through a stop sign. The officer asked him if he realized he’d not come to a complete stop at the sign. The man said, “I slowed down.” The officer proceeded to pull the man out of the car and began beating him with his night stick. As the man was screaming and trying to pull away, the officer asked him, “Would you like me to slow down or stop beating you?” Just to be clear, this is a joke to illustrate a point.

Sometimes it seems in our lax view of sin, we excuse our unwillingness to deal with our habitual sin and brush it off as if the Lord treats it lightly, but is that what the Bible teaches? From the outset of our profession of faith, our first step of obedience in our walk with the Lord is or should be water Baptism. What’s the picture painted in that Christian ordinance?

Listen to the words of Paul in Romans 6:3-4: “Or have you forgotten that when we were joined with Christ Jesus in baptism, we joined Him in His death? For we died and were buried with Christ by Baptism. And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives.” And just so there was no confusion in exactly what he was saying, he continued in verses 5-7: “Since we have been united with Him in His death, we will also be raised to life as He was. We know that our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin. For when we died with Christ we were set free from the power of sin.”

Are we so blind to the truth of Scripture we rationalize its power away by living like we’re still lost? Is it any wonder the Church in America has so little effect when we continue to stagger under the weight of ongoing habitual sin? “

“Dear Holy Father, help us to wake up to our need to take seriously Your holy, power-filled words! Forgive us for treating sin so lightly and continuing to live as if You’ve given us no power to overcome it! Create in us a clean, pure heart that is fueled by a mind that thinks Your thoughts and leads us to speak words that honor and glorify Your holy Name. Cleanse us of our stubborn refusal to take responsibility for our own laziness and unwillingness to live as we ought. By Your Spirit’s might, enable us to create disciplines in our lives that guard our heart and mind and build us up, not only in our understanding of Your Word, but our obedience to it. In Jesus’ Holy Name I pray.”

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊

When Jesus Becomes Precious

“When Jesus heard this, He said, ‘Healthy people don’t need a doctor – sick people do.’ Then He added, ‘Now go and learn the meaning of this Scripture: “I want you to show mercy, not offer sacrifices.” For I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners.’” (Matthew 9:12-13 NLT)

When do you most desire medicine? Unless it is “preventative,” and you take it routinely, it becomes more important when you’re sick, when you need it most. And the sicker you are, or, in other words, when you’re most desperate for that medication, it’s even more precious to you.

My dear wife has a skin condition she’s had since she was a young girl. The medication she’s now on is expensive, but her concern isn’t: “It’s so expensive!” It’s only: “I sure hope it arrives on time!” What’s my point? We value what we know we need! The greater the demand, the higher the price, and the greater the need, the stronger our desire to have it.

People don’t value Jesus because they’re ignorant of their need of Him! They hear that salvation is a “free gift” of grace, and they discount its value. They’re unaware that one drop of the Savior’s blood is of incalculable worth, yet He was willing to pay that extravagant price to provide a way so that sinners who recognize their need of Him could find a way home to Him.

Is Jesus precious to you? He is to me, more so with every passing day. The closer I get to heaven, the closer I want to be to Jesus. In some ways He’s like my “passport” to heaven. I have an expired passport that just lays in a drawer. Why? Because I have no perceived need of it. I have no international trips planned; thus, no urgency to get it renewed. But when I need it, there’s no substitute.

Too many are like that with Jesus. Eternity is the furthest thing from their mind, or, if they do think about it, they believe some version of “I’m a good person,” so, Jesus, to them, isn’t necessary. A lot of movies today convey the idea that since my loved one has died, I want to die to be with them, never stopping to ask a critical question: “Where are they?”

Presumably, they went to “a better place,” but how do we know that? Where is that “better place” and how do we get there? How can I prepare myself so that I can know that’s where I’m going? It saddens me to see a mobster’s funeral. The priest reads Scripture and pronounces blessings over their “departed brother.” He may have been their brother and he’s certainly departed, but he’s certainly not in a better place. He’s in hell where he belongs.

How can I be so harsh and quick to judge? Because redeemed people, people of God, live like it. They don’t traffic in drugs, teens and children, they don’t murder, swindle, and treat others like they’re dirt under their fingernails. They love God and others and treat them accordingly. Yes, of course, we have a sin nature, but by God’s grace and with His power, we put our practices of sin, our habitual sin, behind us and we don’t treat people as things to be used and discarded.

Jesus can never be precious to us until we see Him as our only hope. Jason Wing said it well when he wrote: “If you never see your need for a savior Jesus will never be precious to you.” Is He precious to you?

When He’s precious to us, we’ll freely share Him with others, especially with those who don’t yet think He’s precious.

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊

The Value of a Church

“Then He asked them, ‘But who do you say I am?’ Simon Peter answered, ‘You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.’ Jesus replied, ‘You are blessed, Simon son of John, because My Father in heaven has revealed this to you. You did not learn this from any human being.” (Matthew 16:15-17 NLT)

In the following verse Jesus declares that Simon will now be called Peter, which means “rock,” and Jesus said: “Upon this rock I will build My church, and all the power of hell will not conquer it.” Was He speaking of Peter? Of course not! Peter’s faith and assurance of the true identity of Jesus was foundational, but it’s upon that Truth itself, that Jesus is “the messiah, the Son of the living God,” that Christ’s Church is built, never on a person, except the Person of Jesus Himself.

Recently I had a series of cognitive and physical tests to see if I would qualify for a new drug trial that’s proven effective in treating Alzheimer’s. In the course of those procedures I met two young assistants who were taking my blood. During the course of conversation I asked them if they’d found a good church since being in Las Vegas.

They both said they had, so I asked them what it was about their church they loved the most. They both said, “My Pastor.” Having been a Pastor I flinched, not because I didn’t want to be liked, but no one should attend a church solely for the Pastor. What happens when that Pastor dies or moves on? Regardless of how good the Pastor is, no congregation of God’s people should be built on the personality, charisma, or even the teaching of a Pastor. Why not? Because the Great Commandment (Matthew 28:18-20) doesn’t direct us to make disciples of our pastor, but of Jesus.

If you’re looking for a great church look for these four qualities. First, they must magnify Jesus, not just in their worship, but in their teaching and preaching. If Christ isn’t preeminent in everything that’s preached, taught, and followed, keep looking.

Secondly, do they have a heart for the lost? If helping lost people find Christ isn’t a priority, keep looking. And here, I’m not just suggesting they have a “soul-winning” team(s) that goes out occasionally or that pass out flyers or invitations to church in neighborhoods. Are they teaching their people how to love others to Jesus? Are they giving them instruction and tools to help them feel confident, so they know how to lead someone to the Lord?

It’s never enough to “sit and soak” in a church. I love our Pastor’s messages, but what I love more is their heart for the lost. Every service they give, not just an “invitation,” but an explanation as to what they’re inviting people to do and why it’s so vital. But, again, it’s not enough for the Pastor to invite,” it’s every saved person in the pew’s responsibility to be inviting as well.

Thirdly, Discipleship is a must! If new believers aren’t being Baptized, then taught what it means to be a child of God as they’re walked through some meaningful and informative process of learning how to become a disciple, how are they going to grow? Why are they saved? Simply so they can go to heaven? The New Testament certainly doesn’t teach that. If the church isn’t discipling believers, keep looking.

Then fourthly, what is the church’s strategy to reach the world? Every year we send out multiple teams all over the world to help our missionaries spread the Gospel message to those in their spheres of influence. Additionally, we send dozens from our church out as missionaries to various places where the Gospel needs are great. EVERYONE in the church can be a “Goer, Sender, or Prayer supporter.” If the church you’re attending or visiting doesn’t have a heart for the nations, keep looking.

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊