Walking With Jesus

Who’s Your Ruler?

“Do not let sin control the way you live, do not give in to sinful desires. Do not let any part of your body become an instrument of evil to serve sin. Instead, give yourselves completely to God, for you were dead, but now you have new life. So use your whole body as an instrument to do what is right for the glory of God.” (Romans 6:12-13 NLT)

Nearly fifty years ago Bob Dylan wrote and performed a song entitled “Gotta Serve Somebody”, the lyrics of which say: “It may be the devil or it may be the Lord, but you’re gonna serve somebody.” This song was part of his album Slow Train Coming, which marked the beginning of the “Gospel” period of his career after he became a born-again Christian (Wikipedia+1).

You don’t have to be a Bob Dylan fan to understand the truth of what he wrote, because there are only two options in this life – Jesus or the devil, and we’re serving one or the other whether we choose to believe it or not. “So, how do I know who I’m serving?” Are you dead or alive? Has your spirit, the essence of who you are, been given life through the Spirit of God by faith in the living Christ, or are you still dead in your trespasses and sins?

It’s not rocket science, you’ve either made the decision to walk with Jesus or you’re still walking in your sin, you can’t have it both ways. Jesus is your Lord or Satan is still ruling your decisions. Paul says in the verse above: “give yourselves completely to God, for you were dead, but now you have new life.” So, the only question to answer is: “Have you done that? Have you given yourself completely to Jesus?”

“Wait,” you may be thinking. “The verse says ‘give yourselves completely to God’, but you said I should give myself to Jesus. Isn’t Jesus God’s Son?” Yes, He is, but He’s also God, the Son, God poured into human flesh in the person of Jesus. How do I know that? Because John 1:1-5 says: “In the beginning the Word (Jesus) already existed. The Word was with God, and the Word was God. He existed in the beginning with God. Got created everything through Him, and nothing was created except through Him. The Word gave life to everything that was created, and His life brought light to everyone. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it.”

If you’ve opened your life to Jesus and invited Him to forgive your sins and fill your life, you’ve been born again of the Spirit of God and are alive in Christ; otherwise, you’re still a walking dead person struggling in the energy of the flesh to exist until your body dies and you’re eternally separated from your only hope of eternal life in heaven. Why must you die without Christ when such an opportunity for life exists?

Eternal life in Jesus doesn’t begin when we die, it begins the moment we open our heart and life to Him by faith. Jesus said in John 5:24: “I tell you the truth, those who listen to My message and believe in God who sent Me have eternal life. They will never be condemned for their sins, but they have already passed from death into life.” Only in this life do we have a choice. Once we die, if we haven’t willfully chosen to give ourselves to the Lord Jesus, by default, we’re choosing death and hell. No decision IS a vitally wrong decision! Please don’t make that mistake!

Please tap anewstory.com and let Ron Hutchcraft walk you through a very simple, straightforward way to understand why now is the time, today is the day to give your life and allegiance to Jesus. Waiting is deadly! Please don’t wait another second! Please tap the link above before it’s eternally too late.

Today IS the day to invite Jesus to give you life. Invite Him to become your Ruler today, while you still can.

Please don’t wait!

Ed 😊

What Do You Deserve?

“Then the king said to Abiathar the priest, ‘Go back to your home in Anathoth. You deserve to die, but I will not kill you now, because you carried the Ark of the Sovereign Lord for David my father and you shared all his hardships.’ So Solomon deposed Abiathar from his position as priest of the Lord, thereby fulfilling the prophecy the Lord had given at Shiloh concerning the descendants of Eli.” (1 Kings 2:26-27 NLT)

There are times we do things that should and very well could result in our death, but God, in His Sovereign will and design, allows us to live. I think of the vast number of combat soldiers who bear the weight of why they lived and so many of their friends and comrades didn’t. The father of one of my high school friends used to speak with me as I was shooting baskets on my driveway. Drunk, as usual, crying because of haunting memories, bemoaning the fact so many died in war, not only his friends, but at his hand, yet he lived.

Life isn’t always fair, or so it seems. At times we have near misses in our car or even working around the house, while other times we trip over our own feet. What constitutes “goodness” or “badness”? Were all Germans evil because they had an evil leader in the 1940’s? We’re the Americans more evil than the Japanese because they used nuclear bombs to devastate not only geography, but populations of innocent people who simply loved their country?

War isn’t fair and innocent people die, but does that make it right? Does the end justify the means? These, of course, are questions with which we’ve wrestled for millennia and with which we’ll continue to wrestle, but my point here is simply this: how do you justify YOUR behavior? How do you see yourself in light of God’s laws and commandments? In your mind are you justified to commit the sin you’ve clearly chosen to commit in spite of God’s clear instructions not to?

Solomon clearly believed Abiathar the priest deserved to die, but by instruction of the Lord, allowed him to live. Here’s the truth – we all, except the Lord Jesus alone, deserve to die for our sins. That’s the whole reason Jesus had to give His life in our place. He died to pay the penalty for OUR sin, not His; so we might go free from death’s penalty. Had Jesus not been willing to die in our place, heaven would be empty and hell would be very, very crowded. Why is that so?

Trevin Wax gives us a clue when he writes: “Hell is full of people who think they deserve heaven. Heaven is full of people who know they deserve hell.” It’s not about who we are, what nationality we are, how rich or poor, educated or uneducated, male, female, or any other distinguishing characteristic we possess, there’s only one reason we go to heaven and His Name is Jesus. His forgiveness, grace, and mercy are the only reason!

You can believe with every fiber of your being that you’re a good person, deserving of every good and perfect gift, but if you haven’t left your sins at the foot of the Savior’s Cross, you’re still bearing them and they will weigh you down to the depths of hell. “But that doesn’t seem fair. Surely, with all the religions in the world and all the wonderful people, surely there’s another way.”

Here’s the miracle! THERE IS A WAY AND HIS NAME IS JESUS! He’s the One who said: “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through Me.” You’re the drowning person in the middle of the ocean and a helicopter drops a ladder and someone extends a hand, are you going to drown because you’re afraid of helicopters or are you going to grab that hand and hold on for dear life? That’s your decision if you don’t know Jesus. Trust Him with the weight of your sin and let Him give you a life you never dared dream was even possible. Tap anewstory.com and learn what you’ve been missing! You’ll be so glad you did!

Please don’t wait another second to give your life to the Lord! Like me, you don’t deserve heaven, but Jesus wants you to be there with Him. He’s paid the price; all you need to do is say “YES!” Please grab His outstretched hand!

Blessings, Ed 😊

Os Guinness on the Founding of the Republic

By: John Stonestreet, Dr. Timothy D. Padgett, and Os Guinness

*This powerful and informative message by Os Guinness, which comes from the Colson Center, is unique and helpful on so many levels. Please read carefully and thoughtfully. Blessings, Ed 😊

In this polarized age, one thing all sides agree on is that the state of the union is not strong. At the recent Colson Center National Conference, noted speaker, author, and Wilberforce Award winner Os Guinness argued that the best way forward is to look backwards, at what made the Republic what it became in the first place.

Here’s Os:

We have those who understand America from the perspective of the American Revolution in 1776. But large swaths of this country don’t understand America from the perspective of ideas coming down from the French Revolution in 1789, higher education, and many other spheres. There are ideas abroad entirely opposed to the Republic.

Then again, in more ordinary circles, you can see the ignorance of what the Republic is. “Make America Great Again,” some people say. “Restore the Soul of America,” President Biden said. Now Biden never said what the soul was. But have you heard many people who praise MAGA in saying what made America great in the first place? Very few of them know what that was.

How can you restore the Republic and make America great again unless you know what it was built to be and established to be? It was truly, with flaws, a freedom like no other.

Yet today, there are few champions of it at a time when the global menace is unbridled power. You take the shifting of the platelets, as people talk about it, the shift from the weak gods of tolerance and so on, to the strong gods of blood and nationalism. You take the shift from the West to an increasing concentration on the world’s greatest landmass, Eurasia, with the authoritarian Putin in the West and the totalitarian Xi Jinping in the East.

Nietzsche, in the very last words that he ever wrote, says this: “Do you want a name for my world? This world is the will to power and nothing besides.” He was attempting what he called the revaluation of all values, overturning the Jewish and Christian critique of power, and going back to the unbridled pagan view of power. That’s our world.

The only counter to it is the biblical understanding—the best attempt the American Republic was set up to be.

Who champions that today? I only know one of all the congressmen I know, which is a good many, who actually speaks on it. So not many champion this, to put it mildly.

The tragedy is that the forgotten key should be one we all know well, because it’s biblical. In the 17th century, there’s a rediscovery through the Reformation of what they called the Hebrew Republic. And what’s the Hebrew Republic? Hierarchical? Based on power? No. It’s based on covenant—the notion of covenantalism is what shaped so much of the rise of modern freedom. Now we need to see that Sinai, the covenant at Sinai, is truly a singularity. There are other covenants outside the Bible, like the Hittite treaties, and covenants elsewhere in the Bible, like the covenants with Noah and Abraham. They’re different.

The Sinai covenant has a distinctive uniqueness. God is a partner to the covenant. It is with the whole of the people, not just between leaders. And it covers the whole of life. And that notion, as the reformers wrestled with the notion of covenantalism, came down in very practical ways to shape their understanding of politics. They wanted the consent of the governed.

Where did that come from? Exodus. When the Lord proposes His covenant, He doesn’t impose it, He proposes it. And three times it says in Exodus, “All that the Lord says, we will do . . .” This is what Michael Walzer of Princeton calls an “almost democracy.”

The consent of the governed is mentioned in your own Declaration of Independence, but it goes back to Exodus. The covenant, of course, is a morally binding pledge; not a legal contract. No, no. It’s a morally binding pledge; what many centuries later Martin Luther King would have called a promissory note in terms of the Constitution and the Declaration. It needed to be cashed in, but it was a promise made and a promise to be kept.

That was Os Guinness. For access to the recordings of the entire conference, including a complimentary video of the incredible keynote presentation from Chloe Cole, visit colsoncenter.org/July

Discovery

“Abraham was, humanly speaking, the founder of our Jewish nation. What did he discover about being made right with God? If his good deeds had made him acceptable to God, he would have had something to boast about. But that was not God’s way. For the Scriptures tell us, ‘Abraham believed God, and God counted him as righteous because of his faith.” (Romans 4:1-3 NLT)

Abraham rightly discovered the only pathway to life was found in undivided devotion to the One true God. What have you discovered? Who is YOUR ruler? Each of us is being ruled by something or someone, but unless that Someone is the Jesus of the Bible, we’re dead in our sin and eternally lost. Unless and until we discover why we’re in that predicament we’re likely not going to do anything about it. So, what’s the answer?

For many we’re like the man who was wondering in a field who stumbles onto a treasure. In Matthew 13 Jesus tells the story of such a man who, upon finding the treasure, sold everything he owned to buy that field. Here’s the irony: there’s no indication in the story that he was even looking for anything, let alone a treasure, he was simply walking across a field. Simply going through the motions of his everyday life, browsing, not searching.

That’s often how we find Jesus, our Treasure. We’re simply walking through life – going to work, to school, shopping, for a drive, to a park, to the beach, on vacation – and without realizing it we make the discovery of a lifetime! Someone tells us about Jesus and explains to us that we can have our sins forgiven and have new life in Christ alone by faith alone. Or we’re given an invitation to a church, that we’d normally put in the trash, but something tells us to go to that church (unless it’s a cult! Check it out, don’t just show up 😃)

Most of us, unless there’s something unusual going on in our life, figure we’re not that bad. We don’t intentionally hurt anyone, we’re good at our job, we have a good work ethic, we treat our family well, we pay our taxes – we’re just a good all-around person. Why do we need church or God? That’s a reasonable question that deserves an answer.

The Bible says in Romans 3:23: “For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard.” “Whoa! I’m no sinner! I’m a good guy/gal!” So, you’ve never sinned? Hmmm! Have you ever stolen anything? A pencil? A candy bar? Lied? Taken the Lord’s name in vain? Lusted? Desired to have something that someone else had? Driven too fast? Spoken negatively about another person? We need only commit ONE sin to have broken God’s law!

Imagine a rope stretched tightly across a room. How many times do you need to cut that rope before it falls? Only once! That’s the way it is with God’s laws. You don’t have to break them all, you only have to break one and we’ve all done that and much more. THAT’s why we need a Savior, because our sin has separated us from God and Jesus is the only One who can reconnect us with Him. But how?

Corky Calhoun gives us guidance when he writes: “Prayer is the only pathway to discovering who God created us to be, everything else is just a guessing game.” “But I’ve never prayed in my life! I wouldn’t know how to start. I don’t even really understand what prayer is.” Prayer is conversation with God. It’s simply sharing our thoughts with Him with the understanding that He knows our thoughts and even if we struggle to understand exactly what to say, He understands our heart and will clearly hear what we mean. When I first gave my life to Jesus, I sat an empty chair across from me and began speaking to Him, believing He was in the chair listening to my every word. That’s true, because He did hear me.

If you want to discover how to have a relationship with the Lord, please tap anewstory.com and let Ron Hutchcraft walk you through a simple, clear explanation as to how to open your heart and life to Jesus. It’s a discovery that will cause you to rejoice for all eternity!

Blessings, Ed 😊

Happy 50th, Prison Fellowship

By: John Stonestreet

*In my opinion this is a story that everyone should read. We too often think of redemption and new life in Christ as being only personal, but Chuck Colson added a whole new dimension to what it means to follow Christ. Please share this article. Blessings, Ed

Fifty years ago, Chuck Colson founded an organization that God has used to change the lives of millions of men, women, and children across the globe. The story of Prison Fellowship Ministries had an unlikely beginning.

Charles W. “Chuck” Colson, known at the time as President Nixon’s “hatchet man,” was a new Christian when he was serving prison time for a Watergate-related offense. His faith was tested behind bars, but he was sustained by the unwavering support of his wife, Patty, and many new Christian friends on the outside. He focused his energy on ministering to his fellow inmates.

Near the end of his time in prison, a large prisoner named Archie confronted him. “Hey, Colson,” he snarled, “You’ll be out of here soon. What are you going to do for us?”

Chuck said, “I’ll help in some way. I’ll never forget you guys or this stinking place.”

“Bull!” Archie yelled back, “I’ve seen big shots like you come and go. They all say the same things while they’re inside. Then they get out and forget us fast. There ain’t nobody cares about us. Nobody!”

And that’s what did it. Or better said, that’s how God did it. Chuck Colson launched what became the largest prison ministry in the world because someone told him he wouldn’t. On August 9, 1976, Chuck filed papers to incorporate Prison Fellowship as a non-profit ministry.

Chuck not only kept his promise to remember those in prison, he mobilized thousands of Christian volunteers and churches to do the same. For fifty years, men and women behind bars, and their families, have heard the Good News of Jesus Christ through Bible studies, seminars, and mentoring. Leaders have been trained, children have been remembered, justice has increased, churches have been founded, and lives have been made new in Christ.

Aiming to break the cycle of crime and incarceration, Prison Fellowship has mobilized thousands of churches and volunteers through the ministry of Angel Tree, which delivers Christmas gifts to the children of prisoners in the name of their incarcerated parents. Today, 1 in 28 U.S. children have a parent behind bars, with the majority of those parents being fathers. The Angel Tree program provides gifts to children whose parents are in prison, from their incarcerated parents. This is a way for families to stay connected while also hearing the hope of the Gospel. Angel Tree also provides opportunities for children to go to camp in the summer.

Chuck also led Prison Fellowship to advocate for biblically based justice reform, to train wardens and prison staff, and to help those who leave prison make a crime-free return to their communities. His work continues to bear fruit. Just a few weeks ago, Joshua J. Smith, deputy director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons praised the longstanding and new work of Prison Fellowship:

I’ve seen firsthand the impact that ministries like Prison Fellowship have on the inmate population . . . It’s exciting to envision the impact that this expanded partnership with Prison Fellowship will have on the incarcerated and their families.

Prison Fellowship is an example of the Church being the Church. This ministry has been transformative for thousands through justice reform initiatives, in-prison outreaches and programs, family ministries, warden training, and church partnerships.

In his 36 years of public ministry, Chuck advised presidents, received honorary degrees, and won the nation’s highest civilian award. But he often said that the greatest joy in his life was the “living monuments” of God’s grace: prisoners transformed by the love of Jesus Christ. As he said several years ago, looking back on 30 years of his Christian life:

The truth that is uppermost in my mind today is that God isn’t finished. As long as we’re alive, He’s at work in our lives. We can live lives of obedience in any field because God providentially arranges the circumstances of our lives to achieve His objectives.

Join Prison Fellowship’s next 50 years of ministry, by participating in Angel Tree, praying, donating, or visiting those in prison. Go to PrisonFellowship.org to learn how.

God’s Refrigerator

“Blessed is the man who makes the Lord his trust, who does not turn to the proud, to those who go astray after a lie! You have multiplied, O Lord my God, Your wonderous deeds and Your thoughts toward us; none can compare with You! I will proclaim and tell of them, yet they are more than can be told.” (Psalm 40:4-5 ESV)

We’re often reminded to turn our thoughts to God, because isn’t that essentially what prayer involves; turning our attention and focus on the Lord? We can’t really speak to someone, especially not the Lord, with any sense of authenticity or attentiveness if we aren’t even giving them a thought. It’s like trying to keep track of the stats on an important sports event while trying to balance your checkbook. Prayer, as life, involves and demands focus and attention to detail.

Have you ever stopped to consider God’s agenda? What He’s got on HIS proverbial plate? Think of all of His creation, the billions of universes, the limitless numbers of others of His creation, not to mention the billions of people on the planet, each of whom He knows by name, even the number of hairs on their head! Have you ever thought about where you fit into all of that?

The weight of Scripture declares that if there’d only been one person who has ever lived who needed a Savior, Jesus would have still died just for them (for YOU!) – that’s how much He loves us and desires for us to know and love Him in return. Max Lucado speaks to this idea when he writes: “If God had a refrigerator, your picture would be on it.” Think of the many things that crowd your frig, especially when your kids are small. They are tokens of remembrance to express our love for and joy in our children and them for us.

The thought of God’s love for us is even further compounded when we consider what happens when we yield our life and allegiance to Him by faith in His completed work on the Cross. Richard L. Pratt, Jr. writes: “The Holy Spirit takes up residence in believers, making their bodies a holy place for the dwelling of God’s special presence.”

That’s beyond our ability to fully comprehend! Why almighty God, limitless in every way and dimension, would allow His holy presence to be housed in our mortal bodies boggles my mind! Yet, the Bible is clear that that is exactly what happens. Paul explains it this way in Ephesians 1:13: “In Him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in Him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit.”

So, how do we respond to such a great salvation? Do we continue to neglect it as the writer of the Hebrew letter suggests when he writes: “So what makes us think we can escape if we ignore this great salvation that was first announced by the Lord Jesus Himself and then delivered to us by those who heard Him speak?” Should not the Lord’s intimate and eternal love for us mean everything? Does His payment for our sin and invitation, not only to be in heaven with Him, but to escape the torment of Hell, mean nothing?

Dear friend, if you’re ignoring Jesus and His vital invitation to life as you’ve never imagined it, please tap anewstory.com and let Ron Hutchcraft walk you through a brief explanation why you need Jesus before your eyes close in death. He’s offering you a love for which you’ve longed but have likely never imagined was available. It is and it’s yours for the asking! Just tap the link above.

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊

Women Fighting for What They Love

*This article by Ron Hutchcraft, focused on godly women, should alert us to our need to respect and honor the women in our lives, but especially to thank the Lord for those who are loving and serving Him. Blessings, Ed 😊

It was a big deal when the Defense Department approved women being in combat roles. And however you feel about that, I’ll tell you this, women being in combat might be new for the military, but they’re not new at fighting a good fight.

I’m Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about “Women Fighting for What They Love.”

I’ve been there when my wife brought a new life into the world. Believe me, she was a warrior. I’ve been close by when our daughter and daughters-in-law birthed our grandchildren. A battle they fought and won, big-time. I’ve joked that if men had to have the babies, the human race would probably be extinct in a generation.

I know women who refuse to cave in to the “everybody’s doing it” pressure to give up one of their greatest treasures – their virginity. They insist – against the tide – that they will keep sex special for the man they will commit their life to. In many cases, that’s a lonely stand – one that merits a moral Medal of Honor. Some will call them weird. I say they’re rare – and, like collectibles, the less there are of them, the more valuable they become.

There are the women warriors who fight for their marriage when others would have given up. They believe, as God does, that marriage is for life – while their world bombards them with the notion that marriage is until it gets hard. I just checked my Bible. It still says, “They are no longer two, but one. Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate” (Mark 10:8-9). No matter what the latest opinion poll says, it’s nice to know you’ve got God on your side.

Can raising a whole and healthy child in this culture be considered anything less than a battle? Today our kids are navigating a spiritual minefield, and it’s littered with moral IEDs that can blow up a life. But between many a child and those destructors stands a mom who’s fighting for them. Countering the lies of a deceived and deceiving culture with winsome truth about what’s really right and what really matters. Lovingly listening as a son or daughter grapples with the inconsistency between the lies they hear at school and the truth they hear at home.

This woman winsomely sows – and models day and night – God’s ways from the Bible. Because it’s “a lamp to my feet and a light for my path” the Bible says (Psalm 119:111). The child who makes God’s ways their way can say with the psalmist, “I run in the path of Your commands.” Oh wait, you mean all bound by rules, right? Hardly. It goes on to say, “For You have set my heart free” (Psalm 119:32).

And though the battle that rages for a child’s life can be scary, the medal-deserving mom doesn’t succumb to that paralysis of fear. She knows “God did not give us a spirit of fear, but of power and love and a sound mind” (2 Timothy 1:7). She refuses to just play defense, hoping she’ll raise a “survivor.” She plays offense, determined to raise a game-changer.

The ultimate woman warrior is not the one with the M-16 and the body armor. She knows the ultimate weapon for winning the battle for a life. She’s a woman, on her knees, crying out to her all-powerful God for someone she’s fighting for. Here’s our word for today from the Word of God, 2 Chronicles 20:15, “the battle is not yours, but God’s.”

This woman knows that prayer unleashes God’s power to, in the Bible’s words, “demolish strongholds,” to “destroy the Devil’s work,” to “remove a heart of stone” and “give you a new heart” (2 Corinthians 10:4; 1 John 3:8; Ezekiel 36:26). She releases the ones she loves to the One who loves them so much more.

Yes, women have been fighting life’s most decisive battles for a long time. And those who have embraced Jesus as the great love of their life fight their battles with His death-reversing, resurrection power on their side.

So if you know one of these women, honor her. Thank her. Treasure her. And pray for her. She, in the words of Scripture, “fights the Lord’s battles” (1 Samuel 25:28).

God’s Ends

“Finally, all of you should be of one mind. Sympathize with each other. Love each other as brothers and sisters. Be tenderhearted, and keep a humble attitude. Don’t repay evil for evil. Don’t retaliate with insults when people insult you. Instead, pay them back with a blessing. That is what God has called you to do, and He will bless you for it.” (1 Peter 3:8-9 NLT)

What does the Lord expect of you and me? When we open our heart and mind to Him and He fills us with His Spirit, what is His desire for us from that point forward? Yes, of course, He gifts each of us differently, so, in some respects His desires differ for each of us; however, there are commonalities that He expects from every believer, some of which are outlined in Peter’s words above.

Notice at the top of His list is unity, yet, in the Body of Christ we too often experience great division and disunity. How do we change that? One relationship at a time! I love Paul’s words in Roman’s 12:18: “Do all that YOU can to live in peace with everyone.” Unity begins with me and you loving Jesus, then loving each other. I don’t have to agree with you in every detail of Scripture to love you and to live in harmony with you. Being of “one mind” doesn’t mean thinking exactly alike, it means having the same goal of living in loving obedience to our Savior together. My wife and I don’t always agree, but we don’t let it interfere with our love for one another.

Another dimension of our love for one another as believers is being tenderhearted, which is simplified when we can maintain a humble attitude. Not thinking too highly of ourselves goes a long way in enabling us to think rightly about others, which includes, but isn’t limited to being tenderhearted. What comes to mind when you think of something being tender? A steak? A baby? A puppy or kitten? A heart in love for the first time? Tenderness grows out of empathy which grows out of our love for Jesus.

Something few of us have the courage to reckon with is the fact we’ll never arrive, in terms of our Christlikeness, this side of eternity. Bob Goff was right on when he wrote: “Our problem with following Jesus is we’re trying to be a better version of us rather than a more accurate reflection of Him.” As long as our focus is on ourselves, we’ll have very little tenderness towards others; thus, more inclined to repay evil with evil or to retaliate with insults when we’re insulted rather than reflect the Lord’s character in our kindness.

Ed Stetzer was right when he wrote: “God does not direct us to use ungodly means to accomplish godly ends,” and there’s no greater end than being like Jesus. But we must be quickly reminded that, as Dave Harvey says: “Our failures are never big enough to interrupt God’s plans for us.” We’re all on a journey with Jesus that will end at His feet in heaven, but in the meantime, we must allow the Spirit to fill, empower, and enable us to love well and live well, that we might maximize our potential for Him.

Bob Goff again challenges us when he writes: “Extravagant love often means coloring outside the lines and going beyond the norms.” “But how? What might that look like?” It will look more like Jesus than us! It will require prayerful attention to His voice and His directives. It will require sensitivity to the Spirit’s leading in every circumstance and with every person. “But I’m not there yet!” Welcome to the club dear brother or sister. None of us are or ever will be this side of heaven, but it can’t stop us from giving everything we are to get better every day. “But how do I get there? Where do I even start?”

Again, Bob Goff offers helpful counsel when he writes: “Don’t worry about all the steps. Begin.”

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊

Revival

“Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results.” (James 5:16 NLT)

Though needed desperately, revival is something we hear very little about these days in most circles. We tend to think of emotional stirrings, enthusiastic worship, and powerful preaching, but revival begins in the heart of God and is whispered to those with ears to hear. The prerequisite of true, Spirt-led revival is hearts hungry to hear from the Lord.

The fire of the Holy Spirit burns most brightly in the heart of the saint who values prayer and listens carefully to the heart of God. When we have our ear to the heart of the Father, what burns in His heart becomes the fuel that motivates our spirit to want what He wants. We know that He wants the salvation of every lost soul, so our mission is to reach them.

How do I know that? Because Jesus said in Matthew 18:14: “It is not My heavenly Father’s will that even one of these little ones should perish.” We want to get balled up in predestination and election, but it makes a lot more sense to me to go after everyone we can and leave the results to God. The reality is the broad way is much more appealing to those who are lost, yet, as John reminds us in 1:12-13: “But to all who believed Him and accepted Him, He gave the right to become children of God. They are reborn – not with physical birth resulting from human passion or plans, but a birth that comes from God.”

So, the issue becomes when the Spirit of God ignites our heart with desire to reach the lost, how do we respond? The short answer is – it all begins with believing prayer. What does that mean? It means we can say: “Lord, bless them all!” And He will and He does, but that takes no faith to believe a prayer like that. God blesses everyone with sunshine and air to breathe, that’s a given.

Our prayers must focus on individuals we know and who have names we can lift to the Lord. It’s much more powerful to say: “Holy Spirit ignite the heart of my friend Joe. He’s so lost, but I love him and I’m asking you to open His heart to you. Give me insight and understanding that I may speak to him in a way he would be willing to listen and not turn away from You.”

Dr. Eric Mason wrote: “We don’t need a revival of missionary techniques in evangelism, we need a revival of fervent prayer in our evangelism!” “But how can we possibly reach everyone?” The same way every person who has ever come to the Lord has been reached – one heart at a time! Allow the Lord to open your heart to list the people in your spheres of influence with whom you can have a Gospel conversation, then begin to pray what Ron Hutchcraft calls his three-open prayer: “Lord, open my mind to the ones with whom You want me to speak, then open their hearts to receive what You give me, then open my mouth and allow me to speak Your words of life to them in a manner they will understand and to which they will respond favorably.”

But what will I say? How should I approach them? And how will I know it’s the right time? I’ve learned if I devote myself to prayer and listening to the Lord, He will direct me, engineer favorable circumstances and even fill my mouth with the right words. It’s all the result of believing prayer when we ask in faith and know He hears and will answer. No one wants our loved ones and friends to come to the Lord more than He does.

Pray, trust, and leave the results to Him. You’ll be amazed how powerfully the Lord will use you when you ask Him, then courageously obey what He tells you, when He tells you to act. When the Spirit moves and we respond, that’s when revival comes.

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊

Guilt

“For the person who keeps all of the laws except one is as guilty as a person who has broken all of God’s laws.” (James 2:10 NLT)

Guilt and condemnation are our lifelong companions, to some extent, even after coming to the Lord. But in Revelation 12:10 the Bible says of Satan: “For the accuser of our brothers and sisters has been thrown down to earth – the one who accuses them before our God day and night.” But thanks be to God it doesn’t stop there. The very next verse says: “And they (those who are in Christ) have defeated him by the blood of the Lamb and by their testimony. And they did not love their lives so much that they were afraid to die.”

Guilt, like sin, is a defeated foe, but our lack of faith compels Satan to keep hounding us about things God has already forgotten. In some ways guilt is like a scar that continues to itch, a constant reminder of something we’re longing to forget; however, like a scar on our body or in our heart, the Lord can use them, not to tear us down, but to build us up.

What the enemy wants to use to defeat us, the Lord wants to use to empower and enable us to be more than we ever imagined we could be. As I have scars on my body that remind me of mistakes and falls, so the scars on our heart remind us of sins and severe errors in judgment that not only hurt us, but too often hurt others as well. So, why does the Lord allow those remembrances?

Because remembrances can be positive and good. Paul reminds us that Holy Communion is an ordinance of remembrance, so we never forget what our salvation cost the Son of God. Being reminded of past sin can, hopefully, deter us from repeating things we know we should avoid. However, constantly brooding over sins for which we’ve been forgiven can also betray us into believing we have no choice but to repeat them; that we’re so steeped in what we were that we can never escape its ugly grip.

Helen Thorne reminds us: “You can’t cry guilt away. You need to give it away.” “But HOW?” becomes the logical question. To whom can we give it? Our friends and family are likely sick of hearing us rehash all our mistakes and failures, but gratefully, the Lord never tires of hearing us own our sin and seek His forgiveness, so that it may be forgiven and forgotten.

I love Jesus’ invitation in Matthew 11:28-30: “Come to Me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you. Let Me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.” Burdens are a part of life, but they’re so much easier when the Lord is carrying the Lion’s share.

Guilt and shame are like worn out tire tracks, a vague reminder, but no longer a threat to us in any way. By God’s grace we are secure in the warmth and safety of our Father’s arms. Nothing of this world can touch our lives except it passes through the filter of God’s permission, and only then when He intends it for our good. I love Paul’s reminder in Roman’s 8:1-2: “So now (since we’ve yielded our life and allegiance to Jesus) there is NO condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. And because you belong to Him, the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you from the power of sin that leads to death.”

Bask in your freedom, fellow Jesus lover, we are free indeed and forever!

HALLELUJAH! WHAT A SAVIOR!

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊