Category: God Centered Worship

God is not out to hurt us!

Struggles! Who doesn’t have them? I have them. I have them a lot. Doesn’t it just seem like no matter what you do, it just isn’t good enough? Sometimes I feel like I am never going to please my own wife, let alone the rest of the world. Sometimes it feels like nothing I do is right, everyone wants to take a swipe at me, and sometimes I feel like God is not helping. I pray, but where is He? Every day is a new set of challenges that brings a new set of frustrations. Bills, kids, the wife, the job, the friends, and dare I say, that church folk even try to take a few licks at me too. When will the attacks stop? When will I be able to tell the truth without retaliation? The answer is never. But can I tell you that God gives us great joy in His divine lessons in His Holy word on this very subject.

I was listening to the podcast, “Thru the Bible” with Dr. J. Vernon McGee, and was motivated to do this piece on this subject. The message he was delivering is called “The Entrance Exams to God’s University”. You can click on that title to be taken to the whole message. I encourage you to listen to it.

Dr. McGee preached out of the book of James Chapter 1. Now let me say the book of James is my favorite NT book. It is the oldest NT book. It was written just a short time, 60-70 years, after the crucifixion of Christ. It talks a lot about how a true conversion, a true decision for Christ will change the behavior of man because there is an expected behavior for us. God does not want us acting like the world. He wants us to follow Him in His ways, not lead Him in our ways. But the book starts off by telling us all that the trials of our time, the frustrations we have with the world, are a joy if we grow in our faith, and endure with great patience. Dr. McGee highlights verse two of chapter one.

Key verses

James 1: 2 My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, 3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. 4 But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.

First, let’s not make any error here. When he says “My Brethren”, James is talking to Christians. They were being persecuted. They were facing the same troubling times as followers of Christ than we are today, believe that or not. People were falling away out of fear. People were making up their own rules. Much like the times we read about in the book of Judges. This is a time period where there were no rules and man did what he wanted to do. This is so similar to today in America.

Second, do not be confused. James is not talking about works here. He is talking about faith. The book of James and all the books written by Paul are NOT at odds with each other. When James talks about works, he is talking about works that are brought about by the exercise of your faith.

Third, notice that James says “When”! He does not say “if”, but “when”. Going through troubles is not a matter of “if”, but the surety of “when”. It is going to happen!

Fourth, let’s get it out there that God does indeed put us through the tests of fire. He absolutely allows the trials of our life. People ask, “Why does God allow bad things to happen to good people.” God allows things to happen to all of us, the good and the bad. In fact, the bible tells us that there are none that are good, no not one. So what does “good people” really mean? If you mean the redeemed, well then there is an actual answer to why bad things happen to the redeemed, and I hope to clarify that answer here. It is only an assumption that the “Bad” person has had a great life. I am willing to bet that bad things happen to them too. The difference in the outcome. God puts us through things to show us the level of our faith. We can blame God for bad things, but do we credit Him for the good? We need to understand our success or failure is not for His learning. He already knows how we will fair, he knows what we will do. He allows us to go through things so that WE will know where WE stand. We go through adversity so that we can see where our faith is. If you don’t believe that, ask yourself, will you get into a plane that has not been tested? If you listen to the sermon you will hear the analogy given by Dr. McGee. He speaks of an engineer testing a plane to make sure it does what they say it does. Once the plane does what it is supposed to, then they put passengers on it. Then it gets used. We want things tested to prove its workability. Why then would God not want us to see our own workability of our faith?

Fifth, perfect does not mean perfect, without blemish. We will never be perfect! Perfect here means fullness, maturity, completeness. How can we be mature in our faith if we have never been tested? How will you know how you will work under pressure if you never felt pressure? I find it so refreshing when I see a child do something for the first time. First, they are scared, and unsure of themselves. But then they do it. They gain a measure of confidence. And they continue to gain measure after measure of that confidence as they try new things consistently. That is how they mature. Being a Christian is no different. And I just cannot see how God feels any different when he watches His children gain confidence in the face of troubles by leaning on Him. Time and time again, failures and successes. As Long as we are learning and growing and not consistently ignoring God, consistently leaning on Him, and praying to Him, we grow ourselves in our faith. We must go through fires to gain that confidence. Failing doesn’t mean loss of salvation; it means you need to gain more confidence.

Dr. McGee “The joy is the result of the Trial, not the trial in and of itself.”

When James tells us to count it joy, he does not mean only the situations you enjoy being in. As Dr. McGee points out, he also does not mean that the trial itself is joyous.

Hebrews 12: 11 Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

The death, untimely or even the expected, of loved ones are not joyful occasions. Even when we know our loved one will be with the King, we mourn. We would never bring them back to this evil world, but we long for them, and miss them. It hurts! Losing a job, arguing with a spouse, having disobedient children, none of these are enjoyable experiences, yet they are all struggles that will bring joy by our obedience and faithfulness. The trial is going to hurt. God corrects us, and teaches us. Going through life, and the trials of it, will produce the wisest student.

“Man learns through experience, and the spiritual path is full of different kinds of experiences. He will encounter many difficulties and obstacles, and they are the very experiences he needs to encourage and complete the cleansing process.” Sai Baba

The joy comes when you refuse to allow each of these, and any other, situations to cause you to lose focus on your worship of God. That is the result that Dr. McGee speaks of. So many Christians give up, they say it’s too hard and walk away. That is the example of the LACK of patience. They were tested an they ran. Is that you? Or are you one who has been tested and you continue to be faithful? This is important because continuing to have the patience is what makes us complete. Dr. McGee talks about a little shepherd boy by the name of David. God tested him many times. He wrote the 23rd psalm as he sat in a field and reflected over His past. Dr. McGee reports that King David wrote that as a man who was tried, and forged through the “fires of adversity”. King David went through many trials in his life. So did Pau and Job. John, the gentle apostle that Jesus loved, went through the trial of exile and imprisonment. Yet he remained faithful to the point that even while exiled Jesus used him to write the book of Revelation.

When I heard this sermon by Dr. J. Vernon McGee, I was inspired. I was grateful. Then I went to church. If there was any question as to what was being laid upon my mind for this edition, that question was erased when Pastor John McCaw preached on Faith! Pastor John preached out of Matthew 14.

Matthew 14: 22 Immediately Jesus made His disciples get into the boat and go before Him to the other side, while He sent the multitudes away. 23 And when He had sent the multitudes away, He went up on the mountain by Himself to pray. Now when evening came, He was alone there. 24 But the boat was now in the middle of the sea, tossed by the waves, for the wind was contrary. 25 Now in the fourth watch of the night Jesus went to them, walking on the sea. 26 And when the disciples saw Him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, “It is a ghost!” And they cried out for fear. 27 But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, “Be of good cheer! It is I; do not be afraid.” 28 And Peter answered Him and said, “Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water.” 29 So He said, “Come.” And when Peter had come down out of the boat, he walked on the water to go to Jesus. 30 But when he saw that the wind was boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink he cried out, saying, “Lord, save me!” 31 And immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and caught him, and said to him, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?” 32 And when they got into the boat, the wind ceased. 33 Then those who were in the boat came and worshiped Him, saying, “Truly You are the Son of God.”

First he covered that God puts us through trials. Jesus sent the disciples out in the boat knowing that there would be a store and that they would need Him. In fact, my KJV bible says Jesus MADE the disciples depart in the boat. Jesus knew there would be a storm. But while mourning the death of John the Baptist, troubles still come. We have heard it said, “When it rains it pours.” We need to remain focused.

Second, Jesus was right there, walking out on the water to them. They were scared thinking that stories of Ghosts and spirits were true. But Jesus had to say to them, “be of good cheer”. Really? Experienced fisherman on a stormy sea, scared, and Jesus says be of good cheer. Would you, could you be of good cheer? Are we joyful when the car breaks down, when the doctor gives us bad news, when we have no money to pay bills? Jesus tells the disciples, and tells us, to be of good cheer not because they are in the midst of a storm, but because He is there with them!!! We are to be of good cheer, we are to count it all joy when we are in the midst of the storm because Christ is there. In that storm, you will see the strength of your faith. Do you truly understand what it means that God is there? Do you truly know how to use Him?

Pastor McCaw went on to reveal the scripture’s account of what happens when we have distractions in our life. Again, a lack of faith does not mean loss of salvation. Peter saw God walking on the water and in his boldness asked if he could come out to him. Jesus told him to come. Peter did. His faith in Jesus permitted him to walk on the water. What an incredible success right? Then the wind came. Peter got distracted, he took his eyes off God, off Jesus and He started to sink. You need to know that the wind was created by God to test Peter’s faith. When that wind blew, Peter doubted, lost focus. As he started to sink he refocused and cried out for Jesus to save him. As Pastor McCaw pointed out, God is not out to hurt us. God is trying to teach us. Pastor McCaw made the observation (joke) that God did not allow Peter to go under, God did not shove Peter under and say, “Take that for not believing!” No, Peter cried out and the bible says, “IMMEDIATELY Jesus stretched forth His hand and saved him”. And the lesson was taught directly thereafter. After sinking and needing to be saved, Jesus says, “thou of little faith.” This is a great example of what Dr. McGee was saying in the maturity of our faith. Peter would go on to be a force in his service to God. But he needed to go through these times to get to that point. Pastor McCaw told us that “Little” really means puny or underdeveloped. I believe you could also say immature. He closed out his sermon by making sure we all know that God is ready and willing to rescue the helpless. But we have to be active in the exercising of our faith to cry out for that rescue.

Once back in the boat and Jesus calmed the seas, they acknowledged that Jesus truly is the son of God. It is funny that when we get what we want we say that He is God. But when we do not get what we want we blame Him. He is God when we get what we want, and when we don’t. A lot of the time the trials come because we asked them to. I hear a lot of people complain about their relationships. I know I complained, a lot. I can honestly say that it was all my fault because I was having sex before I was married, I was having multiple partners, and I really did not care what God thought about marriage. I set myself up for bad relationship after bad relationship. I see people doing the same thing. We cannot live in sin, and expect to be blessed, that is not how that works. We may think we are, but God will have His perfect way. Remember that!

Friends, having faith provides us with salvation. There is no work that you can do that will earn that for you. It is a free gift that you can accept by accepting Christ. Once you have that faith, God will send trials your way as a process of growth. You start off on the milk, and your goal is to grow up to endure on the meat. Each trial is to draw you closer to God, to mature your faith, to strengthen your divine relationship, and to correct you when you are outside His will for you. We are tried every day. I watch people every day, get all wrapped up in the pining and wallowing in the struggles of life. Christians who talk for hours about a problem and never once mention God’s name. Struggles exercise our faith which exercise our patience and that makes us complete in our faith. Struggles start with faith, has some work on our part, and then ends with an even stronger faith.

If you stand in the mirror, what will the reflection tell you about your relationship with God, and what are you going to do about it? May the peace of God be abundantly heaped upon you and your home, straight from the cross to the Christian!

Lesser of two evils

Election year is in full swing. Right now the party primaries are dwindling down to the front runners. As a result of that, many are looking forward to who will be running for president in November. For a Christian this can be such an important act, especially since some of our views and values do not seem to be so common anymore.

Over the years I have been in the position to live by the theory, “The lesser of two evils”. I have, just like everyone else, been in a spot where I only had a couple of choices and I was not thrilled with any of them. So what did I do, I pick the best one for the time. I chose the one that might not have been ideal for me, but that choice would get me somewhere closer to where I wanted to be. Is that the Christian thing to do when it comes to choosing for God? Notice the quote below. Where is our commitment to God? I think her quote is quite accurate, even among devout Christians. We remove God from our practice of voting because putting people in power to give us laws that satisfy our flesh or who are not of God, but get us closer to the rules and way of life we want to live in is more important that being Pro God, and only Pro God.

Voting is the expression of our commitment to ourselves, one another, this country and this world. Sharon Salzberg

Is it okay to look at, support, and vote for a candidate who talks about God or being a Christian but behaves in a manner that is clearly unbiblical just so someone else who is even more unbiblical doesn’t get into office? That is the heavenly question.

Does the bible address voting for President of the United States? I say that it does, AND it doesn’t. I say that it doesn’t because the U.S. wasn’t even here at the time of its writing. How then would Paul or anyone else know about how we elect out officials? But this would be the case in the issue of abortion too. There were no abortion clinics and Roe v Wade was not the law of the land back in Paul’s day. So how then does the bible address abortion? I believe that it does address voting the same way it addresses abortion. The U.S. may not have existed at the time, but people were still murdering each other, including babies. People were also still electing or selecting leaders of their tribes. So it is the practice that we must look at in the bible. We cannot dismiss it just because we are not talking about POTUS. The same qualifications that God gave us for leaders of the church, are the same qualifications that we need to be looking at for leaders of the community. If a man is not good enough to be the pastor of your church, why would you vote for him to be president of the United States? I have had people say, “We are not voting for a pastor to lead a church. We are voting for POTUS!” I agree, we are voting for a president of our country!! But my question is if he is not good enough to be a pastor, than why president? The only way you can answer that with an affirmative answer is if you look at POTUS as a godless position. Otherwise, our answer has to be, “He is not good enough.”I say that sternly because as a Christian I don’t think you should be voting for a person that you would not have in the pulpit AND at the head of your dinner table in your own home. I believe that wholeheartedly. Before we talk about those qualifications, let’s look at a common scripture often used to direct Christians to follow the leader, or so we think.

Matthew 22- 21 They say unto him, Caesar’s. Then saith he unto them, Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s; and unto God the things that are God’s.

Many shorten this up and just say, “render unto Caesar”, as if we all know what it means. But just like some other areas of scripture, people only THINK they know what they are talking about. This rendering idea comes from people trying to trap Jesus into talking defiantly against Caesar. In a lot of places in the world you are not allowed to defy the government. If you do, you will be imprisoned or killed. If you talk about Christ, the same thing.  So the pharisees asked Christ what he thought about paying taxes to Caesar. Jesus asked to see the money being paid. It had an image on it, and that was an image of Caesar’s face. So Jesus simply said that if it belongs to Caesar, then give it back to him. What Christ did NOT say was give Caesar your worship, or your salvation, or your Christianity. Caesar cannot have that because it is not his, that belong’s to God. If you have Godly morals, this phrase does not support you bowing down to a leader who does not share your Christian morals.

Now that we have established that, lets look at a lesser referred to scripture on this subject.

Romans 13 1Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. 2 Therefore whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves. 3 For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil. Do you want to be unafraid of the authority? Do what is good, and you will have praise from the same.

Any Christian who thinks that earthly authority comes independent of God’s authority is not reading the holy word correctly. Even the pastors, or whatever name you call the leader of your church, are leaders because they are called by God. Today the churches are failing, in my opinion, because man is taking over the ordination process. You have to be elected, or voted for, or in some way approved by man no matter how you may feel called by God. Some churches say you cannot lead our church unless you have a degree. This is no where in the scripture and, in fact, we might as well throw the bible out on that standard since Paul certainly did not have a degree and God used him to record more books of the bible than anyone. The same is true for Peter, and James, and so on. This is man making up his own rules. God issues the authority. God made Christ the head of the church, then he made Christ the head of man, then man the head of woman, then woman over the children. He made that organizational chart, not me. God is the source of power and authority. He is the only one who can distribute it. I think that Christians have been convinced that they are the ones with the power and authority and so they are the ones who determine what is Godly and what is not. Wrong answer!!! Why is this important? Because of the next verse.

1 Corinthians 1- 10 I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another in what you say and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly united in mind and thought. 11 My brothers and sisters, some from chloe’s household have informed me that there are quarrels among you. 12 What I mean is this: One of you says, “I follow Paul”; another, “I follow Apollos”; another, “I follow Cephas still another, “I follow Christ.” 13 Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Were you baptized in the name of Paul? 14 I thank God that I did not baptize any of you except Crispus and Gaius, 15 so no one can say that you were baptized in my name.

So let’s collect our thoughts here. First, if you are a Christian voting for God then the “render unto Caesar” verse does not work because voting is not about giving back to man that which is man’s. It is about electing a representative of God to do God’s work from any office of authority. Second, man does not declare the power and authority, God does. No matter what office you vote for that man must be under the authority of God, not his own and certainly not any special interest. Third, there is only one standard for God’s authority and that is the Holy Scriptures. In this Verse Paul is clearly saying that we, as followers of Christ, cannot go off and set our own standards, even if we think we are doing it in the name of God. Paul clearly is saying that is not right. The Church of Christ must be one in thought and deed. Paul is fighting the multiple standards that are being followed by different people. He clearly sets the standard of Christ as the only standard to follow.

1 Timothy 2- 1I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; 2 For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty.3 For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour;4 Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.

Here Timothy clearly identifies Kings and how they are to be Godly people. We live in a country that allows us to pick that Godly man. How do we know that a man is godly?

Titus 1- 5 For this cause left I thee in Crete, that thou shouldest set in order the things that are wanting, and ordain elders in every city, as I had appointed thee: 6 If any be blameless, the husband of one wife, having faithful children not accused of riot or unruly. 7 For a bishop must be blameless, as the steward of God; not selfwilled, not soon angry, not given to wine, no striker, not given to filthy lucre; 8 But a lover of hospitality, a lover of good men, sober, just, holy, temperate; 9 Holding fast the faithful word as he hath been taught, that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers. 10 For there are many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers, specially they of the circumcision: 11 Whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole houses, teaching things which they ought not, for filthy lucre’s sake.

Yes, these are the qualifications of the leader of the church. But the reason there are very few verses in the bible about how a man is to act is because all men are leaders. Whether they lead at church, home, or work, these qualifications for the men in the church are also the qualifications of being a man period. This is what a Godly man looks like, and when running for office, exercises these qualifications of God? Because he exercises them, you, having the spirit of God in you, will recognize the spirit of God in him, and when it is not in him. Is the spirit of God in a man who does not exercise sound doctrine?

Titus 1- 15 Unto the pure all things are pure: but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure; but even their mind and conscience is defiled. 16 They profess that they know God; but in works they deny him, being abominable, and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate.

I added this last part of Titus:1 because of verse 16. I was having a debate with a person and I stated that I did not believe one of the presidential candidates, in the 2016 primary, who said he was a Christian. Although I was accused of judging, which means to condemn, I did not condemn him, I simply said I don’t believe it. Again, we all better understand that we are to form opinions and judgments that help us be better Christians and make better God centered decisions. Not doing so means we’re making man centered decisions and that is very dangerous. We also better know where that line is that takes us from making good decisions to condemning people. I did not condemn him. Rather, I compared his visible behavior to Titus 1. Clearly, on so many levels, this man lacks these Godly characteristics. He is not slow to anger, he is given to wine, he is a lover of money (self-proclaimed), not holy, not temperate, definitely a vain talker, and so on. In Titus two we see that we are not to speak evil of no man, yet this candidate speaks evil of many. It does not take much to the person who reads the holy word, IN MY OPINION, to see that a Christian cannot vote for anyone who does not meet God’s standard.

The problem is that we become idolaters who say to God that His rules interfere with what we want. We say things like, “if I vote for a Godly man that is not in one of the two major parties, then I am taking my vote away from the party that best fits my beliefs.” Where in all the scriptures that I just cited here, or anywhere in the whole bible, does it say that we are allowed to do that? God does not care what we think; he only cares about us being obedient. God has used the word “wicked” to describe the thoughts in a man’s mind. Even if the other side wins, did God not say that we would be persecuted in His name? So again, we are saying I am going to do things my way God, and not your way because you have no idea what you are doing. I do not want to suffer for you, or your way. I want to control as much as I can by doing things my way. I caution anyone who thinks that they can vote for the lesser of two evils and think that theirs is a vote for Godliness. Godliness is spotless; there is no evil in it. We cannot have light and darkness at that same time, yet we are trying to figure out a way when we adopt the lesser of two evil theology. And even if our vote is 9 parts light and 1 part dark, God says it’s still dark. We cannot serve two masters. We cannot turn our head to the evil and see only the good. We cannot say, “I only vote for the good in him, but the evil, no I ignore that.” No, our vote is for the evil too. And if there be even one measure of evil, it is all evil because it is not spotless. I had a person tell me that she would accept the bad parts of a candidate just because one of the good parts of the candidate is that he proclaims to be against abortion, and she cannot have the blood of children on her hands. She obviously feels that voting for this candidate will get her closer to minimizing abortion, and that is a Godly position. She feels that he is a Christian, in spite of his ungodly behavior, just because he says he is a Christian. We cannot ignore the fruit. We are not only told to look for it, but we are told what it looks like so we can see it, both in others and in ourselves. I know pastors who believe that voting for the lesser of the two evils is better than a vote straight for God because they are fearful of the other party winning, which would be the more of the two evils. But I challenge all who share that view that while you vote to avoid having the blood on your hands you still turn your back to Christ and vote for darkness even if it is in only some SMALL part. I say that confidently because I do not believe Christ believes in the lesser of two evil theology. I am absolutely confident of that, and therefore, we should NOT subscribe to that as well. In fact, I believe we need to recognize that this idea is straight from the mouth of satan!!!! Who does more damage, the devil you can plainly see, or the wolf in sheep’s clothing? We are told to watch them both, are we not? Who do we think we are that we can stop the world from its destiny according to Christ? Again, you are worried about the blood on your hands; I am worried about the blood of Christ. I vote for Christ and let him worry about the babies. Christ is in a much better place than me to be in charge of that, and no matter how much you think of yourself, He is in a much better place than you to deal with that as well. I think I am rewarded for voting for Christ and putting faith in Him. Will it get better, probably not. The bible says not. So why sell Christ out for the lesser of two evils when the end is already foretold? Our country has gotten to the spiritually deprived place that it is because of the compromise of Christ. I hate it, and I refuse to participate in it any further. I stop and represent Christ immediately, and on His terms not mine.

I should close by saying recognizing that fallen man is a sinner, all of us. Even the minister who was my most favorite pick and was out of the race early on. He is a sinner too. But he is a repentant sinner, and a man who puts God first. There is a difference between being a saved creature who is living Titus:1 and a man who cries LORD LORD, and then attacks women, and has contention in his mouth. No one is perfect, but use your eyes and compare to the LORD’s admonition to these people seeking to be our leader, not mine. Read his expectations and and hold each candidate to the LORD’s example. Does he fit? If not explore options. When it comes to president, I ask for a write in ballot. I vote for myself because I know I, and my entire cabinet, will serve God!

If you stand in the mirror, what will the reflection tell you about your relationship with God, and what are you going to do about it? May the peace of God be abundantly heaped upon you and your home, straight from the cross to the Christian!