Beware of People's Predictions

Who really believed what we heard? Who saw in it the Lord’s great power?

He was always close to the Lord. He grew up like a young plant, like a root growing in dry ground. There was nothing special or impressive about the way he looked, nothing we could see that would cause us to like him.   People made fun of him, and even his friends left him. He was a man who suffered a lot of pain and sickness. We treated him like someone of no importance, like someone people will not even look at but turn away from in disgust.

The fact is, it was our suffering he took on himself; he bore our pain. But we thought that God was punishing him, that God was beating him for something he did. But he was being punished for what we did. He was crushed because of our guilt. He took the punishment we deserved, and this brought us peace. We were healed because of his pain. We had all wandered away like sheep. We had gone our own way. And yet the Lord put all our guilt on him.

He was treated badly, but he never protested. He said nothing, like a lamb being led away to be killed. He was like a sheep that makes no sound as its wool is being cut off. He never opened his mouth to defend himself.  He was taken away by force and judged unfairly. The people of his time did not even notice that he was killed.  But he was put to death for the sins of his people.  He had done no wrong to anyone. He had never even told a lie. But he was buried among the wicked. His tomb was with the rich.

 But the Lord was pleased with this humble servant who suffered such pain.  Even after giving himself as an offering for sin, he will see his descendants and enjoy a long life. He will succeed in doing what the Lord wanted.  After his suffering he will see the light, and he will be satisfied with what he experienced.

The Lord says, “My servant, who always does what is right, will make his people right with me; he will take away their sins. For this reason, I will treat him as one of my great people. I will give him the rewards of one who wins in battle, and he will share them with his powerful ones. I will do this because he gave his life for the people. He was considered a criminal, but the truth is, he carried away the sins of many. Now he will stand before me and speak for those who have sinned.”

Can you believe that it was 2700 plus years again that these words were spoken?  And 700 years before they came true?  Isaiah had no idea what he was talking about but today we have the benefit to confirm that he was talking about you.

Are there any forecasts that you have that your children and grand children will learn like these?  Beyond the political ones we rant about weekly, know that Isaiah had every detail right.  So shouldn't we pay attention?  

Isaiah 53: 1-12 Easy Read Version

Not Just Another Good Friday!

As we look at Good Friday, please take a look at the bottom line of this day.

So I’d like for you to think about Jesus REALLY dying on the cross for your sins.

The Bible is full of symbols which are not literal but have a spiritual meaning to apply to our lives.  One such time, is the communion bread and cup, is a symbol of Jesus giving his body and blood for our sins.  We read about so many parables which are earthly stories with a heavenly meaning.  Therefore many of us think that this same symbolism applies to Jesus dying for our sins.   But let’s look at what happened.

As Jesus hung on the cross we know that at the moments before his death he cried out “My God!  My God! Why have you forsaken me?”  Now Jesus, being part of the Trinity had always been in God’s presence before the beginning of time.  We also know that throughout the Bible in the Old Testament, God could not be anywhere near sin.

Realize that it was at this moment that Jesus cried out, He literally had the sins of the world, past, present, and future placed upon himself.  At that moment God had to turn away from His son which is the reason for Jesus screaming in anguish. 

Image for just a moment that if God, law and order, compassion, and everything that comes from scripture was removed.  I fear for what the world would be like as murder, common sense, and everything that makes us human is gone.

 I ask that you meditate for a moment after reading this and know that His death was more than a symbol, that was not real, as you realize that Jesus literally died for your sins.   He loved you THAT much that His grace still abounds today for you in that He died JUST for you.   

God's law is still here and His Grace is waiting for each one of us!  I am thankful, how about you?

I'm Confused!

Here we are, approaching another Easter, and my mind is getting confused.  Now my wife says that happens often of being confused.

Yet it does not take a lot for me to think back to days gone by when Easter was a day when people paused to remember the foundations of Christianity and why it was the core of our beliefs.  We would go to a sunrise service and recall what it might have been like on that morning when death was defeated.  That was big stuff for young people but our minds were really on the breakfast afterwards with home baked goods waiting for us.  Then we would sit through (or sleep through) the Easter service and become excited about having a big Easter lunch and looking for the Easter eggs/candy.

Now eveyr aspect of the thought or message of Easter is being diluted to the point that one elementary school in Alabama has required that there will be NO mention of Easter, Easter eggs, and even the Easter bunny because of its "religious" meanings which "might" offend someone.  We never tied eggs and a bunny to the resurrection of Jesus.

The fact is that both the Easter bunny and Easter eggs is derived from legends of a reconstructed German goddess Ostara which made its way to the us in 1852 and had more to do about celebrating "Spring" and nothing to do with Easter.  

Therefore our educators should become educated to realities and not to just attacking one religion called "Christianity".

For years I have stopped calling myself a Christian as so many have a bad taste in their mouths for the religion called, "Christianity".

I am a Christ Follower who loves spending time chasing after the Lord and having a personal relationship with the one who gave his life for me.  Many people who are tired of religion (which I have been told that religion is the foundation of our country) but our society has turned the Christian religion into a big target that is damaging to our country.  To the people who are tired of religion, I'd love for you to learn about being a Christ Follower who makes mistakes daily but looks to the Lord for direction and inspiration each day.

Enjoy being real and not something religions want you to be.

An Active Mind

Do you ever have weird dreams?    I have them a lot but the one a couple of nights ago was one I reported to the doctor.

A few weeks ago I developed a lump on my shoulder and in three weeks it had grown from the size of a quarter to about four inches long and about an inch high.  So I made an appointment to have it removed yesterday.  Well the night before I had a dream that was so real in color that I remembered it when I awoke.

My dream was about the surgeon cutting into what he had called a tumor.  As he made the second cut through the skin, baby spiders started coming out from the mass.  The doctor jumped back and scooped a couple up only to see many more coming out.  So he grabbed a vacuum and began sucking them up until the mass in my shoulder was gone.  It appears that a spider had a nest inside my shoulder and laid all the eggs which were maturing.

I awoke thinking my shoulder would be flat but then I realized that it was a dream.  So I told the doctor about my active mind and he quickly said that if that were spiders in my shoulder he would make money writing about it.  Then as I laid on the table, I looked up and on the wall and there was a for real vacuum.  I noted it to doctor and he said, "We are prepared."

His only comment as he cut was, "I don't see any spiders."

How active is your mind when you sleep?  Do you have dreams that make no sense?  Do some dreams seem so real?  Are some of them repeat dreams?  I have an Excel spreadsheet of my dreams as some of them are so real as they are ideas which, Lynnette says are way ahead of their time.

Yet over the years I have learned to record them because many times something will happen and I think that sounds familiar.  Only to find the concept for real was from one of my dreams.

Read the Old Testament verse in Joel 2:28 and you what God does as He pours out His Spirit. (see below)  Now my counsel is to learn to write down your dreams.  Some may be from an active mind after you are asleep but some may be from the Lord and He wants you to be the messenger for others.  Never question the dream, just write it down then in your prayers each day seek the Lord to give you wisdom to know which are from Him and which are just from an active mind.   One of my dreams took two years for it to come true and I got a phone call from a friend confirming that it was taking place, just as I had dreamed it and another is in year seven since the dream but I am seeing God working towards this dream becoming a reality.  But that's another future blog.

Joel 2:28  - And that’s just the beginning: After that—

“I will pour out my Spirit

    on every kind of people:

Your sons will prophesy,

    also your daughters.

Your old men will dream,

    your young men will see visions.

I’ll even pour out my Spirit on the servants,

    men and women both.

Pied Piper of Today

Again as an ADHD person, my mind thinks of strange things that relate to what is taking place today in society.

If you have ever read the book Pied Piper of Hamelin you see several possible meanings to the story of a man in 1284 who had a magical flute (pipe) and was called to town to get rid of rat infestation.  When the towns people would not pay him for his successful eradication of the rats, he played his magical pipe to lure all the children away and devastate the town of Hamelin Germany.

In the 1960's life was much simpler in that we had a respect for our local, county, state, and federal governments because we did not know all the details of the lives of our politicians.  Our lives as youth were more concerned with being kids and not with the our social networks or the operation of our governments.  We did not have the internet, traffic cameras, and many of the "instant" gratification products like we have today.  Therefore it took some time to get information about California events or events in other parts of the world.  Ignorance was bliss.  Aww. . . the "good ol' days".

Our best information regarding what was happening locally sometimes came from the party lines of our telephones.  If you picked up the phone receiver quietly enough, you could hear people (sorry but it was usually two ladies in our neighborhood) talking about their neighbors or you.  I remember my aunt telling someone off who was talking about her as she listened in on the party line.  That ended up being embarrassing for her as her husband later made her go see each one of them to apologize.

Now back to the Pied Piper of today.  People today get the majority of their information by electronic means.  Interaction of opinions are done via Tweets and Facebook posts.  Instead of being a free thinker, we grasp at a written word to be truth then follow and embellish the words to others.  Any writer or politician can be charismatic enough to get a million followers on Twitter.  That's exactly what's happening to everyone today.  Our youth do not have a chance to be free thinkers which is really sad.

The words may not be true but if they meet the charismatic criteria it will draw people of all ages to follow that person to the destruction of themselves and others.  We just don't question why this piper is such a draw.  We blindly march in line with the millions.

One thing I like about the leadership in our church is that they challenge us "find out for ourselves" if the words they speak are true.  Now that makes me dig into the internet  for differing opinions and the Bible for confirmation of the words.  Yet it still comes down to what Pied Piper am I following.  It is the man or woman who stands on stage, on an internet video, on writings found on-line, or the man who loved me so much to give His life for me.

Electronic and social media are great and can be a vital tool for education and training but has to be tempered with some common sense.

This Pied Piper I have been following since 1961  has never lead me to destruction. ( I can do that very well on my own).  Therefore think about which Pied Piper you are following today?  Some of our leaders today make their money by leading you in the wrong direction.  Others do it for power of financial or political gain.

Just know that the Creator of the Universe will never lead you away from the truth and love for life.  A life that will last for eternity.

Who is your Pied Piper?

It's Just Not the Same

While talking to a friend the other day, we discussed the concept of multiple campus's for churches to reach those far from God.  The comment back, was, "I don't like them because the sermon is on  a gigantic screen which makes it so impersonal.  I like to look the pastor in the eye as he preaches to me."   My response was, "I appreciate your need to have the speaker be in front of you, but is that the normal for everyday life today?  Do you have a tablet or laptop I asked?"  His response was, "Of course."  So I replied, "Do you ever watch a program on line?"

His quick reply was, "I know where you are going with this and it's just not the same."

Later I got to thinking about what he said and consider that I am not the target for winning those far from God.  What does the next generation do in their daily lives? According to statistics, people watch more than an average of nine hours a day of video whether by TV, laptop, tablet, or from an APP on their mobile phone.  They are use to getting their news, social updates and so much more via video.

So when they see someone on a video screen, they are quite comfortable and at home.  This was proven yesterday at our church.  About 500 people were watching the message on the screen and were frequently talking loudly to the screen in response to the questions asked by the pastor.  Like any sports activity on the television (in which people yell at the screen) young people grow from experiencing a message through a video.

At the end, we had several people who gave their lives to the Lord, not from someone yelling at them from being on stage, or giving a sobbing story, but through the video, people's hearts were convicted to change their lifestyle and become a child of God.

Now for those who say a video is not the same as a real person in front of them, I believe that if an anointed message stirs your heart, then how the message is given does not matter.  The goal should be reaching this and the next two generations far from the Lord instead of having a certain protocol.

Nothing is the same as it was years ago when I was young, but know that "the Message will never change, but the method MUST change."  (Thanks Ron for the quote)

As a 76 year old Christ Follower told one of his friends who was questioning the contemporary  church, "I'll be happy to stand on my head if that will help change one life.  This church does things different from what I liked but I cheer each week when someone gives their life to Christ.  It may not be the same as when I grew up, but I see lives turning toward the Lord.  I love being a part of seeing that life change."

Can you handle the thought that church does not have to fit your mold in order to be effective?