A Letter to my Friends

One of the things I love so much about the bible, is how often it speaks to my heart, and what’s going on in my life. And lately my life has been a little odd. You see often time I love to go to a coffee shop, or MacDonald’s for coffee in the morning and to read my bible. But it seems that recently my reading has invited others to come over and give me their opinion about, God, or Jesus, or the Holy Spirit, or a verity of other things. Most of the conversation is good, many people just want to see what I’m reading, or they ask me to pray for someone they know and is in need of prayer. But recently the interruptions have been more aggressive and challenging. Take this morning, a man ask me what I was reading, and I told him, I was studying Jude, because it was what I was teaching my Sunday morning class. At that point he said that God and Jesus were God alone, but that the Holy Spirit was not God, and furthermore, the Holy Spirit was not even a person, but was just the spirit of the father and the son. Now you have to understand, these types of conversations seem lately, to be the norm. Just a few days before I meet with and old friend and he told me that he no longer believes that Jesus was God, that only God the father is God. Another friend told me that he now believes that all roads lead to God so all religions are true. As I have been reading the bible, I now realizes that the bible tells that these things will happen. I’m not saying that I know where each person that comes up to talk to me about these things, stands. Some may be just trying to figure it all out, some may just have bad understanding of God and His word. But the bible says in Jude 18 “In the last times there will be scoffer, following their own ungodly passions. And I do believe that. As I have been reading Jude and 1^st John I know that people will deny the person Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit. People will add too or take away from the word of God. But as it states in Jude:20&21 But you beloved, build yourselves up in your most holy faith, and keep yourselves in the love of God. That's what we are called to do, to contend for the faith and to build ourselves up in the most holy faith. I know that God is allowing me to have these conversations, so that i can see the scope of the problem. Our faith, and our God are under attack, so lets stand for Him and his word, because he has done so much for us.

P.S. today remember this truth

Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever Amen.

You are the King of Israel”

Nathanael answered him, Rabbi “you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel”

Wow what a moment of clarity, and what a moment of joy. Can you picture Nathanael as a young Jewish boy he had been told all the stories about the messiah, the one who would come and save the Jews, the one that would be the King of Israel? But now he was standing right in front of him, the King was talking with him, calling him to follow.

Its moments like these that we as Christians have often missed, for this King of Israel, has call us to follow. It might be due to our lack of understanding we are not that Jewish young boy who have studies most of his young life about this King. It might be that we just don’t feel the weight of who he is, or it just might be that we have lost the sense of AWE for the messiah. But what ever it is, it is time to refocus to regain a sense of who this man is. He is the King of Israel, but even more he is The King of Kings, The Lord of Lord’s, The Saving One. He is The Messiah, Jesus Christ the Lord.

So today take a moment and think about it, ask today for a profound sense of AWE for The King.

The Preeminence of Jesus Christ

Often times when I’m talking to both Christians and non –Christians alike, it is the person of Jesus Christ where most of the discussion becomes difficult. I have notice that people are often uncomfortable with what the Bile has to say about Jesus Christ. In Colossians chapter 1 verses 15-23 the Bible tells us that He (Jesus Christ) is the image of the invisible God. It goes on to say that all things were created, through him and for him. Yes the bible is telling us that Jesus Christ has Preeminence over all things. For Christians this truth about Jesus Christ is the foundation for all we believe. Yet for some Christians it is this very truth the Preeminence of Jesus Christ, that’s makes conversations with those who do not believe overwhelming. How do you tell those who do not believe as we do that if they don’t turn to Jesus Christ they have no hope. How do you speak truth in love?

And for non-Christians Jesus Christ is self righteous and arrogant. They say how can anyone say that unless you believe in me you cannot have eternal life. I must admit that the truths about Jesus Christ can be difficult for those who do not believe. But we should always remember that it is because of the person of Jesus Christ that we can now have life. For without such a savior, the God-man who died for our sin, we would all be without hope. And we would have no hope to offer others. So no matter what people say about Jesus Christ never forget, with out Him there would be no opportunity for any of us, including those who are so angry with him. For when they come to know him their anger will turn to thanksgiving, so although the conversations are hard they are worth it.

Increase our Faith

Have you ever wanted to have more faith, I have. So often I find myself not really having faith that can move anything let alone faith that can move mountains. For that reason I love Luke 17:5 where the apostles said to Jesus “Lord increase our faith” and Jesus responded by saying “If you had faith like a grain of mustard seed, you could say to the mulberry tree. Be uprooted and planted in the sea, and it would obey you” This verse is found in a section of scripture that is dealing with forgiveness and as the apostles heard Jesus teaching on forgiveness they ask him to increase their faith. And that’s my point.

I am finding that no matter what the situation is in life, when there is a difficult choice to be made, or a hard battle to be won its not more faith we need but to act on the faith that we have. We need to become more obedience to God’s word, and live out the principles that are found within His word. Now don’t get me wrong I would love to grow in my faith, but it is not more faith I need, it is growing in the faith that God has given me. I need to ask God to help me grow in my faith, so when the hard things, the impossible things that God my ask of me, I can respond as God would have me too.

Carrying in my Heart

“I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all, making my prayers with joy.” (Philippians 1:3-4)

Paul’s letter to the Philippians gives a great example of the attitude Christians ought to have towards those they minister too. As I thought about this, I ask that God would give me the ability to care for people like Paul did. Often times I forget to ask that my heart would fall in love with those that God has brought close to me. As the new year began, what could be a greater prayer than to - love those that God has placed into your life, to carry them in your heart and to pray for them with sincerity and passion as if you are praying for the things you hold most dear.

For me to have the ability to love and pray like this, it must come from God. I am more aware than ever, that I need God to do a major work in my life, and I want him to do it now. I want to love Him so that I can love others, love the things that He loves. I want to accomplish what God has for me and I want to carry in my heart all those that He has placed in my life. I want to serve with the heart, and mind of Christ. So today I pray that the God of the universe would draw me to Himself and cause me to love Him so He can than love through me. And than I will be able to carry people in my heart.

I Have Been Crucified With Christ

Have you ever, thought hard on this verse? I have been crucified with Christ, it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, “who loved me” and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:20 ESV)

I thought, “Man, I don’t live my life like that.” I know the biblical truth, that when I accepted Christ as my savior, my sins where crucified and paid for by His shed blood. I know that Christ has accomplished for me that which I could never accomplish for myself. Christ satisfied the wrath of God, making a way for me to have peace with God, yes I get all of that. But what I don’t get is my halfhearted response to Him who has done so much for me. Why don’t I say, “IT IS NO LONGER I WHO LIVE, BUT CHRIST WHO LIVES IN ME.” How can I be willing to give so little to him who gave me so much?

After reading this verse this morning, I looked up the word crucified.

Webster states that crucified means:

· To put to death by nailing or binding the wrists or hands and feet to a cross

· To destroy the power of

So I know realized that, I must die, destroy the power of the things of me, and live for the things of Christ. I now belong to him; my life is to be lived for him. I must give up what control I thought I had and let Christ rule in my life. I must become a bondservant of Christ. One that willing gives his life to the one that owns him. So be it Lord, make me what you would have me be. For my hearts desire is to be able to say these words. “I HAVE BEEN CRUCIFIED WITH CHRIST, IT IS NO LONGER I WHO LIVE, BUT CHRIST WHO LIVES IN ME.”

$17:50

Have you ever had one of those encounters, which changed your heart, well this one changed my heart and I thank God for it. I was riding the L Train heading to O’Hare airport. As I was sitting there a young man started to yell, so that everyone on the train could hear him. "Excuse me" he yelled, "my sister and I are homeless, we split up this morning so we could both try to collect money so we could afford to stay in a room tonight. We found a room that cost 35 dollars, so we each need to collect $17:50." I was somewhat taken back by this, you see the man was in his early to mid 20’s. He was a good-looking young man even though he had not taken very good care of himself, not the type of person I thought would be doing this. As he was yelling and asking for money, I thought to myself, how did he end up homeless? How can he not be ashamed? I would be humiliated if I have to do that. I also thought, what if he is lying and just getting people to feel sorry for him. What is he going to do with the money, does he really have a sister? All these thoughts where going on in my head. Then I just stopped and I asked God to help me. This was my prayer, "God I don’t know what to do, I’m not sure if this young man is telling the truth, I'm just not sure and I don’t know what to do." As I was praying, suddenly all I could think of was the verse that said, "Whatever you do to the lease of these." Over and over again this verse ran across my mind. My prayer continued, "God I have thirty-seven dollars in cash in my wallet, I’m not sue what I should give." But the verse was all I heard, "Whatever you do to the lease of these." So I called the young man over and I gave him two dollars, I thought to myself, that’s more than most people, would give. The young man took the money and thanked me saying “you are my first dollars.” As he looked me in the eyes my heart broke for him. He continued to yell asking for money, he said "please anything would help." He said, "even if you have a penny, that would help." I noticed the guy sitting next to me reach in to his pocket. He called the young man over and gave him a penny. I could not believe it. Why would he do that? It was almost as if he was trying to hurt the young man, to make him feel less than. I became so angry at the man's actions. I wanted to say, "cant you see that he is already down; you don’t need to rub it in." But the young took the penny and said, with what I thought was complete sincerity, "thank you so much" and he walked away. As he was walking away, my heart wanted to do more for him. So I got up, caught him and gave him the twenty-dollar bill. Tears came too his eyes, I said "God bless you", and he said "thank you so much, God bless you." And thats exactly what God did for me, he blessed me; he gave me the gift of this young man. God on that day gave me eyes to see, and a heart to care. My pray is, that young man will find in Christ, all that comfort he is looking for.