Walking With Jesus

God’s Intention

“The human body has many parts, but the many parts make up one whole body. So it is with the body of Christ. Some of us are Jews, some are Gentiles, some are slaves, and some are free. But we have all been baptized into one body by one Spirit, and we all share the same Spirit.” (1 Corinthians 12:12-13 NLT)

Have you ever wondered why there are more than 45,000 Christian denominations worldwide? Admittedly, I’m quite sure there are a few valid reasons, but the glaring picture it paints for me is DIVISION! The Church of Jesus Christ, according to Scripture, is to be ONE BODY, and theologically we may well be, but God’s will for His Body is Oneness, Unity, and Harmony, not division.

To find a unified church is almost an oxymoron. There are people in my family and, I suspect, in yours who won’t have anything to do with a church in their area even though they love Jesus and are avid students of His Word. Where have we gone wrong? How have we missed God’s plan by such a huge margin?

I’m convinced Satan is the author of confusion and division, but how does he do such an effective job, especially among GOD’S people? Could it be our insatiable appetite to please ourselves; our insistence on having a church, among a thousand other things in our lives, that meets OUR needs?

My sense, based on my understanding of Scripture, is that it was never God’s intention to simply have 3.6 billion individuals love Him. His plan is to come back for ONE BRIDE. Robert Banks was on to something vital when he wrote: “God’s intention is not the fashioning of mere individuals, but of a mature community.”

It’s ironic that we have one overriding enemy whose one goal is, if he can’t keep us out of heaven, to at least keep us out of God’s will. And the overwhelming evidence is that he’s quite effective in doing that. How do I know? Because as the world population grows the percentage of Jesus followers can’t come near to keeping up. But why?

Statistically, in any given church, 10% of the people do 90% of the work of the ministry. My heart aches even as I write these words, not only because of how the Lord has worked so generously in my life, but because I remain so relatively ineffective in the things I do for Him. I pray and give and work and volunteer and love and serve, but it never seems enough.

And I’m not complaining, I’m hopefully helping us to see the enemy’s strategy. A.W. Tozer wrote: “Every man is as close to God as he wants to be.” We go to church and hear a powerful message from God or we read a book that stirs our soul, or we experience a life-altering healing or miracle and our initial response is: “I’ve got to do more for God!”

So, we sign up for every class, serve at every service, volunteer for every need – for three months! Until we’re burned out and mad at the church and everyone else for “making us do all that!” But that was never God’s plan or intention. His intention is to blend us into a family, enabling us to work with others in carrying out God’s will, right?

But that’s the rub! What is God’s will? On many levels being a Jesus follower is like marriage. The Lord doesn’t expect me, as my wife’s only husband, to care for anyone else’s house, car, wife, kids, than my own. What’s my point? By God’s grace, the Lord will direct you to a portion of the Body who loves Him deeply, desires to carry out His will completely, and longs to do that in harmony with other like-minded Jesus followers, as He has for me.

The Church is far from perfect, but like any husband or wife, He puts us together, not to be perfect, but to be obedient and submissive to His authority in and over us. Let’s look into this further in tomorrow’s post.

Blessings, Ed 😊

Can You Forgive the Inexcusable?

“Then the king called in the man he had forgiven and said, ‘You evil servant! I forgave you that tremendous debt because you pleaded with me. Shouldn’t you have mercy on your fellow servant, just as I had mercy on you?’” (Matthew 18:32-33 NLT)

Sin seems never so evil as when it’s committed against me! On some levels it’s like no dessert tastes better than the one I shouldn’t have.

In the story in Matthew 18 referenced above, a man was indebted to a king an amount that was impossible for him to repay. His only recourse was to go to the king, confess his inability to pay and beg for mercy. Miraculously, the king forgave all his debt. But rather than rejoicing in that wonderful gift, he left the king and went straight to a fellow servant who owed him a miniscule amount in comparison. But when his friend begged for more time to pay, the forgiven servant had him incarcerated until the debt could be paid. When the king heard what had happened, he scolded the man and had him incarcerated as well.

What’s the picture the Lord is painting here? Our sin debt that we could never in all eternity have paid ourselves was paid on our behalf by Jesus on the Cross. And because of the miracle of grace offered us by Jesus, He requires us to forgive whatever sin anyone ever commits against us. What’s the implication? There’s nothing anyone could ever do to us that would compare with what Jesus suffered in our place on the Cross.

Some might think to forgive someone is cutting them a lot more slack than they deserve. Duh! You think? All we need to do to know that’s true is to look in the mirror. Do you for a millisecond believe Jesus deserved to hang on a cross for your sin? That’s the point! They don’t “deserve” forgiveness, we offer it as a gift of grace in the same way Jesus offers us forgiveness.

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My wife and I watch a crime drama series and it always breaks my heart to see a child suffer injury or death due to the carelessness or deliberate commitment of a crime by their parent. In my mind that’s inexcusable, yet it doesn’t compare with what our sin cost God as He allowed His only Son to be sacrificed on our behalf.

C. S. Lewis wrote: “To be a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable, because God has forgiven the inexcusable in you.” There’s nothing anyone could ever do to me, or you that could approximate the pain, suffering, agony, and heartbreak of our heavenly Father as He watched His Son die on the Cross in our place.

Another consideration that gives me peace in forgiving someone who sins against me is this: there’s nothing I or anyone else could do to someone that would compare with the penalty they’ll pay for their sin, not just against me, but against a holy God. The writer of the Hebrew letter quotes Deuteronomy 32:36 when he wrote: “I will take revenge. I will pay them back.”

Even in the Lord’s prayer the Lord reminds us to ask the Father to “forgive us our sins, as we have forgiven those who sin against us.” What’s the clear implication? We will be forgiven in the measure we’re willing to forgive. Unwillingness to forgive blocks God’s ability to forgive us.

An unwillingness to forgive is like drinking a glass of poison and expecting someone else to die. It’s self-destructive.

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊

Feeling Powerless?

“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)

The tentacles of unconfessed sin will squeeze the life out of your effectiveness as a child of God more quickly than anything else. We’ve got to realize that some sin needs to be confessed to more than God. One of Satan’s most effective weapons is lulling us into believing our sin isn’t that big of a deal.

Two things result when we fail to see our sin in its proper light: It weakens our link with God and with other believers. Sin is a huge issue! So gigantic that it could only be dealt with by the life, death, and resurrection of our Savior. Paul wrote in Romans 6:23: “For the wages of sin is death…” Death is what we earn by ignoring our sin; it’s the cessation of the life God created us to have. What are the implications?

Sin separates us from a holy God, but it also separates us from our brothers and sisters in Christ. How so? Sin turns us inward because Satan’s goal is to keep us focused on ourselves. As long as our gaze is fixed on anything but Jesus, we’re dead in the water. Any hope of effectiveness for the Lord is lost, which basically translates: no effective witness to the lost and no effective growth in our walk with other believers.

Perhaps the most critical piece of this whole puzzle is prayer, and to harbor unconfessed sin is to put a strangle hold on our communication with the Lord. One of the key ministries of the Holy Spirit is to keep the lines of communication open between us and God, but sin clogs those airways. We can easily get frustrated, blaming God for not answering prayers that have no substance or that never reach Him because of unconfessed sin.

“Lord, bless me today” is like saying “Lord, help me get wet while I’m swimming.” God is all about blessing. If we tried to list all the ways God has and is blessing us, we’d run out of paper and ink before we ran out of blessings. Innocuous prayer is worse than no prayer.

Prayer should rattle the gates of hell, boldly expecting God to move in ways that threaten Satan’s hold, not only on us, but on those in our families, friends, co-workers, neighbors, and anyone else in our spheres of influence. Prayer is our lifeline to God apart from which we are hopeless and helpless.

Thom Rainer wrote: “We are powerless when we are prayerless.” Sin will rob us of the desire to pray more quickly than anything else, but it will also render the Word of God useless as well. How so? We can’t hear from God when the lines of communication between us and Him are blocked.

We’re so tempted to believe that sin has no hold on us once we’re saved, but if that’s the case why does the Bible so clearly direct us to seek forgiveness for sin after we proclaim our dependence on Jesus? To sin is our nature and even after the Lord gives us a new nature there is still a constant battle between what God wants in our life and what we want.

Every time our sinful nature “wins,” we lose – we lose ground in our walk with the Lord, we lose focus on our mission for the Lord, and we lose heart to do and be all we can do and be to the Lord’s honor and fame.

Powerlessness is a sin issue that can only be addressed through confession. Certainly, to the Lord, but often, depending on the nature of our sin, it demands confession to another person. “Secret” sin that we think is hidden from everyone and isn’t “hurting” anyone, is the deadliest of all, and must be confessed, not only to God, but someone else – a brother/sister who will walk with us on our healing journey.

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊

Your Personal History

“Those who are wise will take all this to heart; they will see in our history the faithful love of the Lord.” (Psalm 107:43 NLT)

After your life has ended and nothing remains of you but a memory, what will people learn of you? When the way you are living right now becomes the history that tells the story of you, what will the pages of your life reveal? That you were a good person? A person who loved their family? A hard worker?

What will be the sum of all your years as they become a memory in someone’s mind or heart? Will your life inspire someone to greatness? Will it leave a legacy of love? Will it prove your words of faithfulness to Jesus? Or will it reveal a life of faith that was a mile wide and an inch deep? Will memories of you give a clear picture of Jesus, or a muddled view of you? Will they remember a strong person of faith or a weak person who focused mostly on themselves?

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Do you realize you’re not the only contributor to your life’s story? Virtually every person whose life your life touches will leave an indelible imprint on your life for good or evil. Every thought, every decision, every act of kindness, every thoughtless word, every angry gesture, every prayer of desperation, every tear, every hopeless and every joy-filled moment are recorded by God.

Thankfully we have a B.C. and an A.D. in the story of our lives that include our years “Before Christ” and “After Death to ourselves and new life in Christ alone by faith alone.” After we’re born again in Christ our destination is not the only thing that dramatically changes. C.T. Studd wrote: “Only one life, ‘twill soon be past; only what’s done for Christ will last.”

What do you want to be read on the pages of your life’s story? “He had so much potential, it’s so sad that he wasted it for the things of this world.” “She had the heart of a lion, but Satan robbed her of so much good she could have done.” “He was the person in my life who most lived like Jesus.” “If it wasn’t for her, I would still be lost in my sin.”

Do you not realize you’re “writing” those pages in the moments of this day? But thankfully, you’re not the only one with a “pen” after you meet Jesus. While it’s a staggering consideration that the Lord Jesus sees the day of our death as clearly as He sees the day of our birth, the good news is by His grace we don’t have to fall prey to the way we’ve always been.

By God’s grace and with the help of the strong Holy Spirit who resides in us as a believer in Jesus, we can move in new directions of usefulness and fruitfulness for God’s Kingdom. We can determine that our life will be lived to His honor and fame; that the air we breathe each day will fuel us on to heights of effectiveness for the Lord Jesus that we never dreamed possible.

Do you not know that you are no longer limited by the things that once held you in bondage? Are you not aware that the Lord Jesus has liberated you to be more than you ever dreamed you could be? The pages of your life that you’re writing today can be of one who has been freed to dream big and live powerfully in ways you never could before.

God hasn’t equipped you with His Holy Spirit to enable you to remain the same! Absolutely not! You have been re-born by the Spirit of God to be a child of God. You are royalty that now can be and do things for God that you never imagined you could. There are people whose lives you can touch and help change for the Savior whose eternal destinies can be redirected because of your positive and godly influence.

Please, for God’s sake, get your nose out of the dust of this earth and raise your head to imagine the thoughts God has for you – to be more than anyone has ever imagined you could be for Him! Begin today, right now, to write the rest of the history of your life on this earth, to God’s honor, not yours.

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊

Your Truth?

“Pilate said, ‘So you are a king?’ Jesus responded, ‘You say I am a king. Actually, I was born and came into the world to testify to the truth. All who love the truth recognize that what I say is truth.’ ‘What is truth?’ Pilate asked.” (John 17:37-38a NLT)

Truth is not relative to circumstance, opinion, time, stage of life, or someone’s “strong” belief. Truth is not dependent on how smart the person is who speaks or lives it; it is inherent in the person, life, and teaching of the Lord Jesus Christ. He IS the embodiment of all Truth. If it violates His name, ministry, mission, or holds up anything false or contradictory to who He is or what He taught it’s a lie and is not Truth.

Jesus said of Himself in John 14:6: “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through Me.” “Well,” you may think, “that’s just one man’s opinion. I could say that about myself, but it doesn’t make it true.” And that’s “true!” But the word Jesus used that is translated “truth” in this verse means: “what is true in any matter under consideration; truly, in truth, according to truth; of a truth, in reality, in fact, certainty.” It has other dimensions of meaning, but the fact is Jesus IS the Truth, period!

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Truth isn’t how you feel about something or what you’ve deduced by research or investigation, unless and until it complies with the Person of Christ. What does that even mean? It means Truth liberates, it doesn’t confine or suppress. In the moral morass that exists in our world today “truth” is relative. Essentially, truth, as it’s defined in our world today, is however each person defines it, thus, there is no absolute “truth” that applies to every person in every age in every circumstance.

The problem with that is that it’s a lie perpetrated from the depths of hell. Jesus said in John 8:32: “You are truly My disciples if you remain faithful to My teachings. And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” As many today, the Jewish leaders who heard these words initially rebelled against them and tried to deny them, claiming they’d never been enslaved to anyone. But Jesus told them: “I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave of sin.”

The Bible is clear that we’ve all sinned and can never forgive ourselves or make ourselves fit for heaven. “But,” some may ask, “what if I have no desire to go to ‘heaven,’ whatever that is?” Then follow whatever you believe is “true.” We have no obligation to follow Jesus, each person is completely free to follow the dictates of their own conscience, believing whatever is “true” in their heart and mind.

The problem with that is, to miss Jesus is to miss life as it was always intended to be. “Yeh,” some may object, “but I AM alive. I’m breathing, I have the capacity to make choices and to live anyway I desire.” And to that I would say, “You’re exactly right!” But remember the verse from John 14 above? Jesus IS the life! He’s not only the reason to live, but the reason to be alive, to have existence on this planet.

To exist as a slave to ourself, driven by our sinful desires, enslaved by our sinful nature, isn’t to live, it’s to exist without understanding why. It’s to breathe without knowing the purpose of who we’re made to be. There are people who don’t know Jesus who accomplish remarkable things and perform feats that improve living conditions and bless people worldwide, but they do those things for their own glory and benefit. Their reward will end with the acclaim of mankind, then they’ll die and be forgotten.

To know the Truth of who Jesus is and what He has created us to be frees us to be all He desires us to be while we’re here on earth, then we get to be rewarded for our life in Him for all eternity. Our creativity never ends because He frees us to be alive with Him forever and ever and ever.

That, my friend is life. And that’s the Truth!

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊

Are You a Good Forgetter?

“But if you look carefully into the perfect law that sets your free, and if you do what it says and don’t forget what you heard, then God will bless you for doing it.” (James 1:25 NLT)

Having just turned 76 a few days ago I can bear witness to the truth that your memory is among the first things you begin to lose as you age. While I can still remember many of the verses I’ve memorized, I don’t always remember where they are in the Bible. But one of the good things about having a poor memory is forgetting the things that people say or do that are offensive or hurtful.

Hopefully, by the time you’re my age you have formed godly habits that will be ingrained in your heart and mind so you can not only maintain your walk with the Lord, but continue to grow in love, grace, mercy, and closeness to Him. While it’s not uncommon for older people to become grumpy and out of sorts, unless there is a physical, mental, or emotional reason, I pray I can be gentle, kind, forbearing, and forgiving as long as the Lord gives me breath.

Obviously, there are legitimate reasons to forget and to not forget. We should quickly forget things that are said or done to hurt us because of our faith in Jesus. It’s dishonoring to the Lord to harbor resentment, anger, or bitterness against another person, especially another believer, but also, we should let things go that are said to us in anger or purposely said to get the proverbial “rise” out of us.

One thing the Lord has taught me over the years is that He has broad shoulders, and He can handle mean, disrespectful things that people say to and about Him, especially when said in ignorance. Each of us has thought, said, and done things in our lives for which we have deep regret, but having confessed them, now have certainty that the Lord has forgiven and forgotten them.

There are things we say without thinking that are wrong on many levels, but mostly they dishonor the Lord and violate His holy Word. Depending on which side of those words we’re on, realizing we’re the perpetrator should force us to our knees to cry out for forgiveness from the Lord and to seek forgiveness from those we’ve harmed. But, if we’re on the receiving end of those mean or inappropriate words, we need to run to the Lord to find the strength to forgive and to restore the damaged relationship as quickly as possible.

Of course, there are many variables in these kinds of situations, but regardless of whether we’re the offender or the offended, we need to allow the Holy Spirit to search us and cleanse us of our wicked ways and to seek reconciliation quickly. The longer we allow these angry and damaging feelings to fester, the more eternal damage we will incur.

One word of clarification. When we’ve been violated in some way – emotionally, physically, sexually, or in other inappropriate ways, forgetting may not be an option. We will likely carry the horror and trauma of such an event with us to our grave. The danger is that we will drink the poison of bitterness, revenge, and hatred, not to the other person(s) demise, but to our own.

The Apostle Paul quoted God’s words from Deuteronomy 32:35 in Romans 12:19 when he wrote: “Dear friends, never take revenge. Leave that to the righteous anger of God. For the Scriptures say, ‘I will take revenge; I will pay them back’ says the Lord.’”

Because God is omnipresent and omniscient, nothing escapes His eternal notice; thus, no one ever gets away with anything. Sometimes the most righteous and God-honoring thing we can do is to become a good “forgetter.”

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊

Building Up or Tearing Down?

“Don’t use foul or abusive language. Let everything you say be good and helpful, so that your words will be an encouragement to those who hear them. And do not bring sorrow to God’s Holy Spirit by the way you live.” (Ephesians 4:29-30a NLT)

Do you realize that your words can give hope, strength, energy, support, enlightenment, and many other very positive resources to build up those in your spheres of influence? But your words can also destroy, damage, hinder, hurt, and tear down.

The adage we used to say as kids: “Sticks and stones can break my bones, but words can never hurt me” is a lie. Words can damage irreparably. Words like: “I’m leaving you, I want a divorce,” “your son has leukemia!” “you’re under arrest!” “You’re fired!” are the kinds of words that change the trajectory of your life forever.

But there are also affirming, positive words that can also change you forever: “I love you; I want to spend the rest of my life with you!” “Your tests came back – you’re cancer free!” “There was a mistake, you’re free to go!” “You’re hired!” “You’re forgiven.”

Much of the time we underestimate the power of our words to help and heal and/or to damage and hurt. Solomon wrote in Proverbs 18:21: “The tongue can bring death or life; those who love to talk will reap the consequences.”

Pastor Rick Warren wrote: “Sometimes our words are like a sledgehammer. We swing away without thinking, and suddenly we look around and realize a pile of relational rubble surrounds us. When you thoughtlessly sling your words around and tear people down, your relationships are going to suffer.”

There’s also a verse in James 4:17 that I’m not sure we think about in this context, but perhaps we should. James wrote: “If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them.” How many times has the Lord prompted you to send a note or make a call to encourage someone and you blew it off?

How often is that “still, small voice” prompting you to pay for someone’s meal, but you make excuses for yourself. Someone I know followed the voice of God to pay the bill for a young woman and her two small children without her knowing, and when they told the waitress what they wanted to do the waitress said: “You’re an angel!” It wasn’t necessarily their purpose, but more than just that mother and her kids were blessed.

That’s how it is when you’re seeking to be a blessing, when you’re always on the lookout to build someone up, not tear them down. May I encourage you to be on the lookout for ways you can lift someone up, especially those who are closest? Our temptation is to “correct” or “advise” our family, and too often we don’t watch our tone. We should lavish our praise on those we love the most.

Compliment generously for someone’s smile; their hair; their outfit; a job well done; a good thing they did without seeking any acknowledgement; a sermon well delivered; a song well sung; there are literally hundreds of little things people do without any expectation of being complimented, but oh what a blessing when they are.

The greatest temptation many of us face is to say things we don’t mean when we’re angry. “It’s just who I am! I can’t help it!” That’s a lie from the pit of hell, and you’d better “help it” if you’re a child of God. Walk away! Or better still – run away from any temptation that threatens to hurt someone with your words. Don’t regret it later, just don’t do it in the first place. The danger is just too great that you can tear down someone in ways that you can never repair. Please don’t take that risk.

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊

Order or Chaos?

“God is our refuge and strength, always ready to help in times of trouble…The Lord of Heaven’s Armies is here among us; the God of Israel is our fortress.” (Psalm 46:1, 7 NLT)

In this season of my life, I strongly believe our lives are allowed to be more chaotic than they should be, especially if we’re a Jesus follower. What comes to your mind when you see or think of the word “chaos?” The Hebrew word used in the verse above and is translated “trouble” means: “distress, affliction, adversity, anguish, tribulation.”

As you think about your life – your spouse, family, friends, co-workers, neighbors, social acquaintances, essentially anyone in your spheres of influence – how would you describe all or some of those relationships? And I’m not suggesting that chaos reigns across your whole life, or even is restricted to just relationships, but our interactions with others often characterizes our life as a whole.

How would you define “chaos” as it relates to your life? It may be your house at the end of the day when you have 4 pre-teens running rampant; or the dining room table and kitchen after serving your family Thanksgiving dinner; or your desk at work while preparing for a major presentation.

These and a thousand other scenarios can render our lives “chaotic,” and we can chalk it up as just a part of life, and on some levels it is. While there’s a measure of chaos in anyone’s life at times, chaos can also paint a picture of what we’re feeling and experiencing within – in our heart and mind.

E. Stanley Jones made an interesting observation when he wrote: “If you don’t surrender to Christ, you surrender to chaos.” For me, and I suspect for you, the greatest arena in my life for chaos is my mind. What we think about comes about, so, when our mind is filled with chaotic thoughts and considerations, they’re most likely going to work themselves out in our behavior and interactions with others.

Anger is often an instigator of chaos, at least it has been for me. Depression is often seen as anger turned inward. We blame ourselves for the people in our lives who reject us; for our poor performance at work; or our inability to make and keep long-term friends.

“Why don’t people like me?” soon can become: “I’m just a bad person!” And yes, of course, this is an oversimplification to make a point, which is, at least as I understand it as a child of God – order in our life, lifestyle, and interactions with others, grows out of knowing who we are and why we’re alive. Knowing Jesus gives our lives meaning and purpose.

Many people find their purpose in their family, their work, their hobbies, and in many other things, but ultimately, to find cohesiveness in our heart, mind, and soul, we need to commit our lives and ways to Jesus. He is the integrator of my life and the One who orients every dimension of who I am to enable me to be productive in positive and meaning-filled ways.

He is our Refuge in whom we can find strength in times of trouble; our Fortress in whom we can hide when life becomes overbearing. But He’s also our best Friend in whom we can confide, with whom we can face the challenges of life, and find our way through them.

Honestly, being a Jesus follower doesn’t eliminate chaos, as well it shouldn’t. Troubles are often the pathways to potential, to fulfillment, to learning that can be attained in no other way. Chaos can be our friend in opening opportunities for improvement in many areas of our lives – in how we order our lives, how we work, how we play, but most importantly how we love – others and even the Lord.

So, it boils down to not an issue of order OR chaos, but living in a world with order AND chaos.

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊

Where Is the Lord Asking You to Go?

“As for Philip, an angel of the Lord said to him, ‘Go south down the desert road that runs from Jerusalem to Gaza.’ So he started out…” (Acts 8:26-27a NLT)

When the Lord prompts us to do something or go somewhere we have to assume He has a good reason and should not tarry, but immediately obey, but it’s critical we know the prompting is from the Lord and not a bad burrito.

While attending a minister’s meeting in another city several years ago, the Lord prompted me to leave the meeting and go home. He had never done that before, so I packed up and headed home. As I came in the door, my wife’s response was: “You’re home early.” To which I responded, based on the conversation I had with the Lord on the drive home: “Yes, I am, because I missed you and I just wanted to be with you and the kids.”

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When you boil it all down, we live our lives to please our Master, the Lord Jesus. He deserves to call the proverbial “shots” in our life, directing our steps in a manner, direction, and timing that please Him. To believe we can make our own schedule without first seeking the Lord’s input is to make assumptions that aren’t ours to make.

When I left my meeting, I thought there may be a problem or emergency of some sort with which I would have to deal when I got home, but there was none. It occurs to me that we don’t need to know the why, we only need to obey and trust the Lord has His reasons.

Is the Lord asking you to go somewhere or do something that seems odd to you? Is your heart stirring to make a change, but you’re not sure why or when? My intention isn’t to be melodramatic, but simply to encourage you to always be open and sensitive to the Lord’s voice.

But a word of caution! Satan will seek to manipulate your feelings and have you “follow your heart,” but apart from the Holy Spirit our hearts are wicked and unreliable. The antidote to quick decisions based on emotion is a commitment to prayer and waiting. A rule of thumb that I learned by jumping into too many things that “looked” or “sounded” too good to pass up is this – make yourself wait at least 7 – 10 days before jumping into something.

And, yes, I realize there may be a “small window of opportunity,” so you “must act now,” but I also know that “small window” is too often so the other person can get what they want, even if it ends up costing you money, time, energy, or something else you don’t have to spend.

When I was selling cars, I had an opportunity to lease a new car at a very reasonable rate, and at the time I was making enough money I could have easily covered it. But almost the moment I signed on the dotted line I knew I’d made a mistake. I ended up having to find someone to take over the lease after the first year.

Did I not desire to do God’s will? Of course, I did, but “my will” got in the way and God was dishonored through the frivolous way I was using His money. And please don’t hear what I’m not saying. You may be in a much better position than I was, and the Lord may be leading you to get another vehicle (or something else), but just give it prayerful consideration before you leap into something that could turn out bad for you.

If your leading is truly from the Lord, He’ll give you certainty as to what He’s asking you to do.

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊

Are You Someone’s Last Chance?

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

How is Jesus seeking the lost today? His whole purpose for living and dying while here on earth was to seek and save the lost. To create a way where no way existed for lost men and women, boys and girls, to find a home in heaven.

It’s estimated that 90% of the 3 million people who live in my city are lost, without hope, facing a Christless eternity. My mentor used to say: “we’re going to love people to Jesus, one person at a time.” If you think about it just in terms of the sheer number of lost people, it can be overwhelming, but if you break it down to “one person at a time,” remarkably, it becomes doable.

Think of Jesus on the Cross. He had preached, prayed, healed, delivered, forgiven, and loved thousands of people, and now He hung on the Cross with moments left to live – but He’s not finished! One of the two being crucified beside Him said: “Jesus, remember me when You come into Your Kingdom” Some of us, had we been in Jesus’ place, might have said: “You’ve waited too long, leave me alone. Let me die in peace.” But not Jesus! Jesus said: “I assure you, today you will be with Me in paradise.”

Do we not realize that some of those we thoughtlessly pass by on the streets of our communities, or sit with in waiting rooms, or eat near us in restaurants – are we blind to their need of a Savior? Are we too deaf to hear the cries of their heart? Are we so tuned in to our own needs we can’t see the needs of others?

Jen Wilkin wrote: “We must love God with our minds, allowing our intellect to inform our emotions, rather than the other way around.” When we allow our emotions to believe there are just too many lost people, “there’s nothing I can do!” we negate the purpose for which the Lord gave us life. As a Jesus follower our whole purpose on earth is to serve the desires of our Master.

And, yes, of course, He may not have called all of us to be a Billy Graham, or a C.S. Lewis, but He’s called each of us to have a heart for the lost in our spheres of influence. Maybe we won’t win hundreds or thousands to Jesus, but can we win one? Can we influence one life to miss hell and to choose heaven?

Ron Hutchcraft wrote: “Mike said he hadn’t seen all those people going to hell for a long time until his daughter helped him put on Jesus’ glasses. Maybe you haven’t seen them either and they’re all around you. God describes the people you know who don’t belong to Jesus with words like these out of the Bible: they are “being led away to death” (Proverbs 24:11)… they are “separated from God” (Isaiah 59:2)… they are “lost” (Luke 19:10)… they are, the Bible says, “condemned already”… they will be “punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord” (2 Thessalonians 1:9). This isn’t just some theological concept.

This is someone you know, people Jesus died for so they could be rescued from all this; people who may never know Jesus unless you introduce them to Him. He has divinely positioned you in their life to be their rescuer, to be their chance at Jesus, to be their chance at heaven.”

Once you see what Jesus sees, you’ll rescue the dying whatever it takes and whatever it costs! And you’ll look in the mirror and say, ‘I am someone’s chance.'”

This isn’t about guilt, it’s about opportunity. Would you allow this chorus by B. B. McKinney to become your prayer today? “Lord lay some soul upon my heart, and love that soul through me. And may I nobly do my part to win that soul for Thee.”

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊