Walking With Jesus

What Does It Mean to Be a Child of God?

“I tell you the truth, anyone who doesn’t receive the Kingdom of God like a child will never enter it.” (Luke 18:17 NLT)

As a rule, children become products of their environment. The proverbial saying: “The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree” can be said, not only of those who go the wrong way with their life, but those who live good, wholesome, and godly lives. That’s why the adage is true that if someone is going to find the Lord, the probability is they will come to Him by age 18.

That doesn’t mean no one comes to the Lord late in life, but usually, people come to the Lord when there heart is tender, before all the hardships and difficulties of life harden their heart and turn them sour to the things of God. As a rule, it’s much easier to help a child learn of God and develop godly habits and grow into how to walk with Him than to have to change ungodly habits we develop as we age.

Essentially what it means to be a child of God is to see God as our Father and to learn to walk in ways that please and honor Him. How so? By being filled with and bearing the fruit of the Holy Spirit. Paul wrote in Romans 8:5-6: “Those who are dominated by the sinful nature think about sinful things, but those who are controlled by the Holy Spirit think about things that please the Spirit. So letting your sinful nature control your mind leads to death. But letting the Spirit control your mind leads to life and peace.”

What you think about comes about! That’s why it’s so critical as a child of God to read, study, and memorize the Words of God, the Bible. When we’re filled with God’s Spirit, informed by God’s Words, walking faithfully with God’s people, it makes it a whole lot easier to hear God’s voice and follow in God’s steps.

Think about boundaries. Every city has “city limits” or boundaries that define what’s in or a part of that city and what is not. Often there are signs letting you know you’ve entered or left a city or territory. It’s not unlike that in a spiritual realm. There is a realm of God and a realm of the devil. There are places you can allow and encourage your mind to go, and places that for a child of God are off limits.

In much the same way as we teach our child not to talk with strangers or not to accept gifts from someone they don’t know or don’t cross the street without looking both ways and on and on we go, we’ve got to train our mind that there is danger lurking in virtually every avenue of our lives, especially the internet. And here’s the deal – we don’t have to go looking for evil, it will find us.

That’s why it’s critical that we pay attention to our spirit, that still, small voice of God that says: “Be careful! Don’t open that! Listen to Me!” Sometimes that voice will “speak” in our own conscience, but sometimes the Lord will use someone else to convey a message to us. It’s not as important the source from which the voice will come as to know it WILL come if we learn to be sensitive to it.

There are three main “domains” or “realms” through which the Spirit works: our heart, our mind, and our body. Being a child of God demands we allow the Lord’s Spirit to bring peace, harmony, and oneness to each aspect of our being, realizing each has a specific “pull” on our thoughts and behavior.

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊

The Contract

“So you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. Instead, you received God’s Spirit when He adopted you as His own children. Now we call Him ‘Abba, Father.’ For His Spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God’s children. And since we are His children, we are His heirs. In fact, together with Christ we are heirs of God’s glory. But if we are to share His glory, we must also share His suffering.” (Romans 8:15-17 NLT)

According to the law you can be a child or close relative of someone who dies, but not be an heir. If a person has planned for their death and has a will or trust that includes a will, the desires of the deceased take precedent over the rights of family or blood relatives. Why is this important?

Just because you’re a human being, created by a loving God who designed you for intimacy with Himself, unless the Father designates you as His child, you will not inherit eternal life in heaven. An heir is a person who is legally entitled to collect an inheritance when a deceased person did not formalize a last will and testament. Heirs who inherit the proceeds of an estate are children, descendants, or other close relatives of the decedent. The bottom line is, God makes the rules, we live or die by them. Whether we go to heaven or not is a legal matter, not simply a spiritual matter.

Do you know you’re a child of God? Do you know when you close your eyes in death you’ll awaken in the arms of a your Holy Father? It depends, doesn’t it? Are you a child or an heir? There’s an eternal difference! You CAN know for sure, but how? Paul answers that question in verse 16 above. If you are a child of God, His Spirit will bear witness with your spirit to affirm you are His blood bought child.

What does that mean? Being an heir of God is more than saying a prayer, being religious, or coming from a Christian family. Jesus died to pay the penalty for our sin, but it’s a gift that must be accepted and acted upon. If I give you the keys to a new Ferrari, but you toss them in a drawer and never drive it, of what practical value is it to you?

To say a prayer: “Oh, Lord, forgive me of my sins and secure for me a place in heaven,” then continue to live a life contrary to the will of God isn’t security, it’s a sham. God doesn’t put stock in words alone, but in transformation that can only come about by the infilling of His Holy Spirit.

Heirs of God share not only in His glory, but in His suffering. What does that mean? It essentially means to sign a blank contract. We confess our need of God, seek His forgiveness and the infilling of His Spirit to enable us to follow Him, then stand before Him with open hands. There’s a sense in which we humbly bow at His holy feet and ask: “Thank You, Lord, for the gift of eternal life. I’m now at Your disposal. Almighty King of Glory, how may I serve You?”

Then He lays a blank sheet of paper in front of you and hands you a pen. At the bottom of the blank sheet is a line, so, the Lord says simply, “If you’re heart belongs to Me and your whole aim and desire is to live a life that’s pleasing to Me, sign on the line. But know this, when you sign on that line your life no longer belongs to you, it belongs to Me. You will do what I say, when I say it.

But know this also. You will never take one single step without Me being with you. Everything I am and have will be at your disposal. If you need something and I believe it’s going to enable you to hear and obey Me more effectively, it will be yours. You will stumble and fall, but I will pick you up; you will experience disappointments, heartache, loneliness, and suffering, but stay strong, because what I’ve prepared for you is worth it all. As a matter of fact, the second you close your eyes in death, you will awaken to a life so wonderful your old life won’t even be a memory. Are you in? Do you desire with your whole heart to be My heir? Sign here ___________________!”

Tim Keller wrote: “Unless we are profoundly certain that God is our good father, We will never be able to say ‘thy will be done.’”

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed😊

Did You Board the Wrong Train?

“There is salvation in no one else! God has given no other name under heaven by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12 NLT)

Over the years different ones have asked me questions like: “If Jesus is so alive and active, why don’t I feel His presence? Why doesn’t He work in my life like I see Him working in other people’s lives? Why doesn’t God listen and answer my prayers? I read the Bible, but why don’t I ever get anything out of it?” These and a thousand other questions reverberate in and through the hearts and minds of many who profess faith in Jesus today but aren’t enjoying its fruit.

It’s obvious that every person whose life the Lord touches receives His life and love and responds in various ways. It’s not unlike the parable of the soils in Matthew 13. The “soil” of our heart is different with each person in which the “seed” of God’s Word is planted. With some it sprouts quickly, but doesn’t put down deep roots, so they wash out very quickly. Some receive God’s Word, put down deep roots and follow the Lord until they leave for heaven.

The issue for many isn’t the seeds that God plants in their heart, but the seeds of the enemy who seeks to counterfeit the seeds of God. If someone thinks they gave their heart to Christ, but are actually rooted in the evil plans of the enemy, they’re never going to find peace, hope, and eternal life in Jesus.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote: “If you board the wrong train, it is no use running along the corridor in the other direction.” Perhaps the greatest spiritual dilemma results from asking the Lord to help us chase our own dreams. His goal for us isn’t to build our kingdom, but to give us the privilege of being a part of building His eternal Kingdom.

The best resource to help you discover which “train” you’re on is found in David’s words in Psalm 139:23-24: “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. Point out anything in me that offends You, and lead me along the path of everlasting life.” Unlike Satan, the Lord Jesus doesn’t play games with us. He’s all in, He holds nothing back in His eternal rescue of us.

The hymn writer, Elvina M. Hall said it well in her hymn “Jesus, Paid It All” when she wrote: “Jesus paid it all, All to Him I owe; Sin had left a crimson stain – He washed it white as snow.” If you’re working like mad to pay the penalty for your own sin, you’re on the wrong train. That debt has already been paid. We don’t work to pay for our sin, we work to glorify and honor Jesus because our sin debt has already been paid by Him.

There are times in my life when my sin haunts me. The things I’ve done, the people I’ve hurt, the “debts” that in my mind are left unpaid sometimes scramble my thoughts and seek to distract me from the mission the Lord has given me to reach the lost people in my spheres of influence. One of the primary differences between how Jesus speaks and how Satan speaks is Jesus cannot lie and Satan cannot tell the truth. Jesus prompts us to only do things that we can actually do (with His help), but Satan tries to lead us to do things we can’t do and only frustrate ourselves thinking about them.

The best way to know if you’re a Jesus follower is to ask this question (brace yourself, this is heavy): Are you following Jesus? (told you 😊). Seriously, is how you’re living your life consistent with how the Bible instructs us to live? Is your heart filled with desire to please yourself or Jesus?

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊

Broken Things

“Dear brothers and sisters, if another believer is overcome by some sin, you who are godly should gently and humbly help that person back onto the right path. And be careful not to fall into the same temptation yourself. Share each other’s burdens, and in this way obey the law of Christ. If you think you are too important to help someone, you are only fooling yourself. You are not that important.” (Galatians 6:1-3 NLT)

Every person who has ever lived has been broken and in need of a Savior except the Savior Himself. There are no big “I’s” and little “You’s” in the Kingdom of God. The moment any of us begins to think more highly of ourselves than we should, that’s the moment the Lord will put us in our place and help us understand that He alone is God, and we are not.

There’s a sense in which our deepest gratitude grows out or our biggest failure. The worse we feel about ourselves, the more our sense is that God will surely never use us again after such a miserable and deplorable sin. But it actually gives God a greater opportunity to restore us to a place of usefulness. When we’re feeling good about ourselves, believing we could never sin as miserably as that other person, that’s often when Satan kicks our legs out from under us and scores his biggest win in our lives.

The truth is, we’ve ALL sinned and fallen short of God’s glorious ideal (Jesus). We’re all damaged goods, broken by our unwillingness to yield to God’s righteous plan for us. There’s none righteous, no not one! No one but Jesus alone has the right and authority to judge us, but the irony is, He’s also the only One who could have taken our deserved punishment and paid the penalty for our sin. He took OUR judgment upon Himself in order to set us free.

Hemingway wrote: “We are all broken…that’s how the light gets in.” The tragedy is we don’t know what we don’t know, and we won’t know until it’s eternally too late that there’s a cure for our brokenness. That’s why the Bible teaches that faith is so critical. We can’t know with absolute assurance that Jesus is the Savior and Redeemer of our lives except by faith. People say: “Prove that Jesus will forgive my sins and offer me hope of eternal life,” but I can’t, and neither can you.

We only see with our eye of faith. We only know with certainty because we hear His voice and sense His presence, but we can’t “prove” that except by the way we live and love. A young woman recently went to church with my wife and I. She grew up Catholic and had never in her life attended a Protestant church service. Nearly from the opening word of welcome tears began to fall down her face and she cried most of the service, sensing something she’d never sensed before.

The Spirit of God was so present I was crying too, just rejoicing in my spirit that we serve a living God! An invitation was given during our prayer time, which is unusual, it’s usually at the end, but dozens of people knelt in the front of the church to seek the Lord’s intervention for their various needs. We’re all in need, not only for salvation, but for every detail of our lives.

J. R. Miller wrote: “Christ is building His kingdom with the broken things of earth. People desire only the strong, successful, victorious, and unbroken things in life to build their kingdoms, but God is the God of the unsuccessful – the God of those who have failed. Heaven is being filled with earth’s broken lives and there is no ‘bruised reed’ (Isaiah 42:3) that Christ cannot take and restore to a glorious place of blessing and beauty. He can take a life crushed by pain or sorrow and make it a harp whose music will be total praise. He can lift earth’s saddest failure up to heaven’s glory.”

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊

Nearness to God

“But you are not controlled by your sinful nature. You are controlled by the Spirit if you have the Spirit of God living in you. (And remember that those who do not have the Spirit of Christ living in them do not belong to Him at all.)” (Romans 8:9 NLT)

In yesterday’s post we looked at evidence that a person is a believer, but the fact is if the Spirit of God living in us doesn’t express Himself in and through our life, there’s a strong probability that He isn’t living in us. How so? If we’ve been made right with God Paul says that same Spirit will live within us enabling us to bear witness to His presence through the way we think, act, and live.

The strongest evidence of a person being saved from sin and filled with God’s Spirit is the presence of the fruit of God’s Spirit being demonstrated in and through our lives. The fact is that if we want to know what our life will look like in 5 years, we need look no further than the people with whom we spend the most time. We become what we think about and that is largely determined by those who are the most consistent influencers in our life.

Nearness to God grows out of an inward conviction and desire of our heart, coupled with a decision of our will. We have to want God’s closeness and take steps to create an environment in our heart and life where that will happen. The Spirit of God does not go where He isn’t invited. We aren’t filled by God’s presence by accident, it’s the result of a series of decisions we make on an ongoing basis.

Salvation isn’t a “one and done” process, in the sense the Lord forgives us, fills us, then forgets us. Being saved is a decision we renew nearly every second we live. Our usefulness to God is an act of obedience, a continual desire to live a life of worship, adoration, and submission to His authority in and over our life. And, yes, of course this takes time and effort on our part, but it’s not unlike any other relationship. We pursue the relationships that we want to maintain.

Love longs for companionship with those with whom we desire to be close. I may not see my children very often in person, but I think of them and have ongoing conversations with them as often as they will allow. To profess faith in Jesus, but never think about Him or speak with Him is a contradiction. We’re as near to God as we want to be, so, if we’re sensing God isn’t as close as He used to be, who do you think has moved?

He’s closer than the air we breathe and He’s not going anywhere. He’s always available, always desiring to be close to us, guiding, teaching, loving, caring, sharing His life with us as much and as often as we’ll allow. The longer we walk with Him the more critical it becomes to maintain intimacy with Him. In this season of my life, it’s more important to sense and know the Lord is with me than for me to eat. (and I love to eat 😊).

And this isn’t about being afraid He’ll leave me, or I’ll drift away from Him, it’s about freshness in our love and a willingness on my part to be proactive in maintaining our closeness. I can’t hear His voice as clearly if I’m not continually seeking Him. It’s not unlike people in the Bible wanting to be close to Jesus. And yes, of course, some of them had ulterior motives, but the Disciples wanted to continually be in His presence, and so do I. How about you?

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊

Proof of Life

“So we have stopped evaluating others from a human point of view. At one time we thought of Christ merely from a human point of view. How differently we know Him now! This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!” (2 Corinthians 5:16-17 NLT)

David Otis Fuller of Princeton Theological Seminary is credited with asking a very challenging question when he asked: “If you’re arrested for being a Christian, will there be enough evidence found to convict you?” The Apostle Paul painted a very clear picture in the verses above when he essentially said: “If you’re a Jesus follower it’s going to show up in how you live your life.”

My wife and I enjoy crime drama, so, when someone is kidnapped and held for ransom, often the person whose loved one has been kidnapped asks for “proof of life” before they agree to pay. As you view your life in Christ, if someone asked you for “proof of Jesus’ life alive in you,” what would you say? How would you build your case?

Would you point to a day on which you prayed a prayer or were Baptized? Would you talk about your faithful church attendance? Perhaps you’d point to a bumper sticker on your car in the shape of a fish, or brag about the donation you made a few years ago to the building fund at your church. None of those things are bad, but is that what Paul was talking about?

Francis Chan wrote: “I want to live a life that will prove I believe the Words of God.” What kind of life is that? The words Paul used in the verse above that are translated “has become a new person” literally means “to become a brand-new species of being, one that has never existed before.” It speaks of a life that is so dramatically changed that it’s not recognizable.

There was a couple in a church I served who attended regularly, but after they gave their lives to Jesus the wife was hardly recognizable. She was very plain and introspective before, but after she got saved, she was always smiling and full of life. She literally became a beautiful person in Christ.

What are some ways the Spirit of God changes us? He changes us from the inside out, so old, destructive habits are replaced with habits befitting a child of God. Habits like reading and studying the Bible on a regular basis; consistent attendance and participation in serving a local church; giving regularly to the church and other local and foreign missions’ efforts; conversation that is flavored with the Spirit of Jesus, having an invitational (as opposed to pushy) attitude that would help people see and desire to know the Lord.

The older I get the less I care what people think of me and the more I care about what they think of Jesus. But having said that, I don’t want to use Jesus as a hammer to pound someone over the head. My goal as a believer in Jesus is to create a hunger for Him that can’t be satisfied until someone opens their life to Him. The bottom line for me isn’t only what we do or say, it’s why we do and say what we do.

Realizing that none of us will ever be perfect this side of eternity, we must constantly strive to be more like Jesus in our demeanor, our language, our attitude, our love and compassion, and our desire to see everyone we know come to a saving knowledge of Jesus.

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊

When God Leaves Us in the Dark

“This is what the Lord says: ‘You will be in Babylon for seventy years. But then I will come and do for you all the good things I have promised, and I will bring you home again. For I know the plans I have for you,’ says the Lord. ‘They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.’” (Jeremiah 29:10-11 NLT)

Have you ever wondered why God doesn’t fill us in on our whole life when we become an adult? The Lord prompted Jeremiah to write a letter to all the people who had been exiled to Babylon by King Nebuchadnezzar. The Jewish people in exile would have been happy to learn that they weren’t going to be in captivity forever, but likely bemoaned the fact they were going to be there for seventy years. A lot of them would not live to see freedom, but those who did would never view their freedom the same.

If the Lord would tell us what lies ahead, many would choose to respond like Jonah – “Oh, so you want me to go east, hmmm, I think I’ll go as far west as I can.” But you see what happened to Jonah. We’re a lot like Jonah who, even after he carried out God’s will, still belly ached and was upset with God because God did exactly what Jonah believed He would do, but Jonah didn’t like it. He thought the Ninevites got away with their sin when Jonah wanted them to suffer.

How like many today. We want people – everyone but us – to get what they deserve. If the Lord outlined our life when we were twenty and told us: “You’re going to fall in love with a beautiful person, but it’s not going to work out and your heart will be broken. But don’t worry, you’ll meet someone else and just when you think everything is perfect, yep, they’re leaving also. But take heart, when your son gets cancer you’re going to meet someone else…and on it would go until you’re probably thinking: “Thanks, Lord, I think I’ll find my own way.” Which, of course, would be even more disastrous.

Rick Warren wrote: “You cannot see the whole picture now. You will not fully understand here on Earth why some things have happened to you—but you will one day. And while you wait, you can trust that God is working and using your pain to guard and protect you. Your pain will not be wasted!”

The key as I understand it, is trust. I trust the Lord, so when He told me I had Alzheimer’s I didn’t jump up and down with glee, but I said essentially, “Okay, Lord, I trust You and I know You know what You’re doing, so, let’s see where this leads us.” Whatever the outcome, I’m not blaming God for what I perceive as “bad news,” I delight in knowing I’m not walking this path alone.

Anything can become “good news” when we’re walking with Jesus. If this life was all there was, I’d likely be very bummed, but it’s not. My life now is really good, even with a lot of physical issues, but how ever bad I get, I’m just inching closer to perfection and wholeness that isn’t an option in these bodies of clay. One day I’ll put all the pain, sorrow, and heartache behind me, get a new, perfect body that the Lord made special just for me, and celebrate King Jesus every second for eternity.

But honestly, I can’t wait, I’m going to celebrate Him every second while I’m still on earth. There’s no amount of worship, praise, honor, or adoration I can offer Him that could approximate all He’s done and given me in this lifetime. There may be some things He’s holding back to keep from scaring me to death, but I’m confident the light of His love will extinguish the darkness, whatever it may look like.

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊

Where Did the Love Go?

“Long ago the Lord said to Israel; ‘I have loved you, my people, with an everlasting love. With unfailing love I have drawn you to myself.” (Jeremiah 31:3 NLT)

It’s easy to love when things are going well, not so much when the bottom drops out. We tend to equate an easy life with being “loved” by God, but when times are hard, too often, we believe the Lord has withdrawn His love from us. Just so you know, that’s a lie, and you know the source of every lie, and it isn’God. God’s love is everlasting, which, like Him, has no beginning and no end.

God’s name isn’t “I was” or “I will be,” it’s “I AM!” It’s always present tense because He is always present in every moment of our life. He loves us when we’re good and when we’re not; when we’re happy and when we’re not; when circumstances are great and when they stink; He loves everyone the same and there’s never a moment He doesn’t love.

And I suspect you’re tempted to question His love when the diagnosis is cancer, or dementia, or heart issues, or when you’re in an accident or you lose everything in a fire, or __________ and you can fill in the blank. But that’s our emotions, it’s not the reality of God’s love.

And I can sense some of your hearts screaming: “But I sure don’t feel His love!” And I get it, but here’s the irony – love isn’t an emotion, it’s a decision, and God made the decision when He created us to love us. Emotions change like the weather and are often changed by circumstances, but God knows none of that, in the sense that His love for us is constant – it literally NEVER changes.

The people who never speak His name or make any effort to live right or allow Him to change their heart are loved just as much as me and you who have loved and followed Him for decades. We’re tempted to believe that when we deliberately sin God looks away and withdraws His love, but that’s a lie. In my heart I sense He leans in and listens more intently when we’re running away.

Think of the prodigal son as he was nearing home – did he expect his father to be on the porch watching for him, or running down the dusty path to wrap his arms around him? The Bible says the angels rejoice more when the straying one returns than for those of us who stay close to home and continue faithfully our assigned duties.

Does that hurt your feelings? Do you feel left out, like all your efforts to please Him are simply ignored? “Where’s His love for ME?” Sadly, we become the prodigal’s brother who gets angry for the way the Father responds to his wayward brother. “All these years I’ve slaved for you and never once refused to do a single thing you told me to. And in all that time you never gave me even one young goat for a feast with my friends.”

I seriously doubt he had any friends, but if he did, everything the father had was his to use as he wanted. The older brother received his inheritance just as the younger brother did, but he chose to stay and work for his father, likely believing if he did, he would receive a greater reward.

As Jesus followers there is no greater reward than to be in the presence of the Father. All of our efforts to please Him are our ways of expressing our appreciation for being His son or daughter, not to get brownie points.

Where did the love go? It’s where it’s always been. In the heart of the Father.

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊

Who Are You?

“He trusted God, so let God rescue Him now if He wants Him! For He said, ‘I am the Son of God.’” (Matthew 27:43 NLT)

Jesus may well be the only human being who has ever lived who is genuinely and without reservation exactly who He claimed to be. Social media compounds our problem when it comes to revealing who we really are. We use carefully photo-shopped photos and exaggerated words to describe, not who we are, but who we’d like others to believe we are.

André Malraux wrote: “Man is not what he thinks he is, he is what he hides.” What are you hiding? Who are you behind the mask of the person you’re pretending to be? Are you like me? Afraid if I let someone in, they might not like what they see? We carefully craft the person we want to “sell” to our friends and even our family, but especially those who know us from church.

Isn’t it ironic that we say we want nothing more than to be like Jesus but hide our “dark” past or secret sins for fear if someone really knew us, they wouldn’t like us or accept us. There are at least two problems with that thinking. First, if someone only likes the “false” version of us, is that really better than having them reject us if they know the “real” us?

And, secondly, if we’re harboring secret sin how will we ever work through our fear, shame, regret, and unforgiveness until we come clean and get help with whatever it is? In either case, our witness and effectiveness for the Lord is crippled at best or prevented at worst. It seems odd that the only perfect Person to ever walk the earth is first to open His loving arms to us when we finally come home.

Do you think the “prodigal son” was proud of his behavior in the far country where he went to hide? He had the world by the tail until the money ran out, then he got a full picture of who he really was – not the playboy ready to party, but the fearful, lonely, and ashamed boy who had no place to go and no way to get there.

Who are you in this season of your life? Still running wild in a lifestyle you can’t sustain? At night when you can’t sleep are you quickly becoming the person you promised yourself you’d never be? Are you still living the “front” of the perfect Christian, but it’s been months since you’ve opened the Bible, and you can’t remember the last time you prayed more than a few words? Do you fear you’ve gone too far, or worse, maybe you don’t even care anymore?

Maybe you’re thinking the life you’re living now is the “real” you, “footloose and fancy free,” not stopping long enough to realize where you’re heading isn’t leading to freedom, but bondage. Sin doesn’t liberate, it captivates, not just for this life, but the next as well. Satan only knows how to lie. Think about that for a minute.

He paints a picture in your mind where you’re the “star,” the “hero(ine),” the “winner,” and for a while it feels really good. You love your new image, your new “friends,” you’re finally where you dreamed of being, yet, when you’re home, viewing yourself in the mirror, with no one around but your quickly fading memories, are you listening? Can you hear that still, small voice saying: “I love you, stop running! Come home to Me!”

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊

The Church’s Greatest Apologetic

“Don’t just pretend to love others. Really love them. Hate what is wrong. Hold tightly to what is good. Love each other with genuine affection, and take delight in honoring each other.” (Romans 12:9-10 NLT)

Apologetics in Christianity are the intellectual defense and establishment of the Christian faith using rational and logical arguments¹ ² ³. Apologetics respond to questions or attacks on Christianity from different belief systems or skeptics²³⁴. Apologetics can be a branch of theology or a field of biblical and theological studies that may involve other disciplines ¹ 4. Apologetics aim to bring the truth forward and sanctify Christ as Lord in the hearts of believers and others ³⁵.

Please don’t confuse Apologetics with someone apologizing for the Christian Faith. Quite to the contrary, there are strong arguments and compelling responses from followers of Christ to those who would seek to discredit the Faith we follow as Jesus followers. Just follow the links above to see for yourself.

But the point of my post today isn’t to argue a specific line of reasoning, but to encourage you in your walk with Jesus. Burk Parsons wrote: “The church’s greatest apologetic is our love for one another.” In a conversation I had recently with a dear friend I met in a church I served, we spoke of her deceased husband who was a big reason I chose to move cross country in the dead of winter, during a blizzard. By the way, I didn’t plan the blizzard, that was a gift from the Lord. 😊

Her husband had the voice of an angel and I loved to go into the sanctuary on Sunday morning and listen to him rehearse. He didn’t just sing notes, he communed with His Savior. It was worshipful to watch and listen to him sing. For John it wasn’t a performance, he was singing to an audience of One. The Lord prepared my heart as He listened to His servant. I loved John like a brother, and I can’t wait to see him on the other side.

Hopefully, there are men and women in your life about whom you feel that way. Men of God like John are a credit to the Kingdom and are among the strongest apologists for the Savior. John not only sang well, but he also loved well, and he didn’t care who you were he loved first and asked questions later. It would be a real accomplishment if I could be half the lover of God and others that my friend John was.

Who is there in your life like John? Perhaps you’re “John” to someone in your life. What you saw with John is what you got. There was no pretense, nothing artificial or fake, just the love of God personified and lived out in real time. I want to be that kind of man of God. How about you?

Friends, we only have one shot at living this life, let’s give it our best effort. Every time I fail to be all I know God saved me to be, I’m one step closer to getting there. Nearly every morning I ask the Lord to enable me to be the husband to my wife that He would be if He were her husband. I can never be Jesus, but with the Spirit’s help, each day I can draw a little closer and live a little better in my efforts to be more like Him.

Who is seeing Jesus more clearly for having seen Him in and through your life? Someone is closer to yielding their life to Him because of your efforts. Please don’t be discouraged. Please don’t stop trying to help them see their need of Him and allow Him to forgive and cleanse them of their sin.

The closer we live to Jesus the more convincing is our “argument” for our Savior.

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊