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I read something recently on social media, “Believing in Jesus, but not doing what he says, is the same thing that Satan does.” How many of us know what idolatry is?  Idolatry, quite simply, is making a god in an image, and assuming power that it has that makes us comfortable; A god that cares about, what WE care about, and wants what WE want. A god that is in alignment with all our various proclivities. If we believe in something… ANYTHING… amazingly, so does our god.  A god made in OUR image, is a god that makes US comfortable. And we can be in agreement with everything that this god tells us. We are called to take up our cross and follow Jesus. If we TRULY follow the Jesus of the Bible, we will not be the most popular people in our social groups. We probably won't even be invited to all of our church gatherings.  Hell will be full of people that believe in Jesus, but don't really concern themselves with what He wants for their life, or ever choose to live a life that showed that Jesus was even in it.  We don't get to choose what we like and what we don’t, because WE ARE NOT GOD.  Either God is sovereign over our hearts, and it is HIS will in our life, not ours, or He's not.  Anything other than COMPLETE WORSHIP, and bowing down to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the man described in the Holy Bible, the one who was killed and resurrected three days later… Anything other than that, is idolatry. Satan believes in Jesus. He just doesn't really care about following what Jesus says.

God commands us to, “Go and make believers of all nations.”  God gave us the machine. He gave us the Holy Spirit. He gave us the horsepower. He gave us words, attitudes, and behaviors that can that can share His goodness to the world.  So, when we become Christian, when we accepted Christ as our Savior, and surrendered to His will, we were given the keys to that race car. We were given the keys to the kingdom.  We upgraded our performance in the spiritual realm, to the equivalent of a Formula One race car.  In essence, the car that God put us in to race in the spiritual world, is built for competition and spiritual warfare. It's built with eternal stakes in mind.  We are not given the gift of the Holy Spirit and spiritual excellence to sit in our ivory towers, to drink coffee with all the other believers and talk about how broken the world is. God is the master engineer. He is the pit boss. He is the creator of this whole sport that we call life.  He is sending us out to engage the world around us, to to share THE GOOD NEWS, and to reach the lost. That is the Great Commission. This is what we are called to do. The “Go!” means get out of our church, get out of our Bible study, and engage in the world around us.  Because this race that we're in, this is for eternity.

God only gave Adam and Eve ONE RULE… Don't eat from the Tree of Knowledge; and because we have this really predictable pattern in human nature… We SIN… We RUN AWAY.  So, when we mess up, don’t hide from it. Don’t avoid the consequences of it. Don't be like Adam and Eve and hide, because we're naked and ashamed. Let's RUN TO our merciful King, and come before his throne, in honesty and thanksgiving. Ask for his mercy, and be healed in Jesus's name. AMEN. #Genesis 3:8-9 / #John 3:19 / #Hebrews 4:15-16

Being a follower of Christ, especially in today's world, is not a place for a lukewarm commitment.  As a Christian, we are called to take up our cross, and follow Christ. This cannot be done, when we are concerned with pleasing everyone.  Be truthful, be authentic, and stand up for what you know to be true.

The closer that we draw to Christ, the closer that we draw to TRUTH, Satan ends up taking a much greater interest, and real world dangers RAMP UP. How do we deal with this?  The Bible says, to always be ready to make a defense for the joy that we have in Jesus. Be ready! Know your story! Be ready to share it! Tell people why! And then speak the truth in love, and in Jesus’ name; Because, there is NO OTHER NAME UNDER HEAVEN, in which someone can be saved.  THE TRUTH WILL SET US FREE!

Jesus is fully God, and He is also fully man.  So, what would’ve caused Jesus to stall the beginning of His ministry?  When turning water to wine, Jesus stated to His mother, “My time has not yet come.”  What do you think He means by this?  Additionally, how does Jesus turning “water into wine,” connect to the Garden of Gethsemane?  Could it be that, as human as Jesus was in the Garden of Gethsemane, He also knew that with the performance publicly of turning water to wine, the countdown to the cross had begun; that the INEVITABLE, brutal walk to Calvary had begun. He fully knew that He would soon experience stress and fatigue, maybe even fear, of facing unimaginable physical pain. He knew He would feel every cut, every tear of His flesh through the entire crucifixion.  Yet, even though His painful, human path was set, He STILL chose to endure… for our sake.

Traditional roles have changed A LOT in our modern world, and in many households, these roles are reversed 180 degrees, and all variations in between.  But one thing is beginning to show up a little too frequently, and that is we are becoming a lonelier and lonelier population, while ironically, at the same time, engaging with thousand of faceless names throughout the known universe, through all of our social media highways.  We are becoming more and more isolated, while living under the illusion that we're not, because of our heavy tech dependance and involvement.  The bottom line is… We need each other. We need REAL relationships, with REAL people. That's not a weakness!  Relationships are strength, and Christians are not immune to this problem.  Christians, are notorious for getting frustrated with all the world's changes, all the rapid breaking of tradition, and societal anchors and… and we end up leaving relationships behind.  As Christians, we love to stay in our own bubbles, and surround ourselves with people that agree with us. And sometimes those bubbles get very small.  BUT… We’ve been commanded, by Jesus himself, to bring THE GOOD NEWS to the world. And unfortunately for our comfort zone, the world is outside the walls of our home, and the safe church family.  While tech is an amazing tool, , and instead of just sharing the love of God on social media, we can sit down across the table from someone, and show them what the love of Jesus looks like, in a real world engagement. We no longer live in our traditional world. Very few families just sit around the dinner table every night and talk about their day. People are tied to their phones, and they're tied to their devices, and and we all do it. A TikTok video, an IG video… It's not the same as a relationship.  A follower on any of your social media platforms, is not relationship. We need to be face to face with people.  Show them the love of Jesus face to face. 

God wants to strengthen our faith, and reveal to us that we can trust Him. This would be impossible if we had no needs, no worries, no stress.  We're going to worry in this world about many things. And as the stress of this world hits, if we're wise, we'll humble ourselves before Him, and seek His hand for help.  God uses the stressors of this world, to reveal Himself to those who love Him.  And through it all, His timing is always perfect. He is never late, nor is He early. He arrives PRECISELY, when He intends to.

We’ve ALL done bad things. When we do, HOW is it that we feel bad? Where does that feeling come from? What is it inside of us, that provides that direction? Most would say, that it’s CONSCIENCE. It’s probably a combination of how we were raised, the influences that helped form us, the series of morals and values that we were taught through school and society, our parents. It formed this framework, or this value system that we grew to live by. However, I would also consider something else, something that would be even MORE significant to what we have believed framed us. When we have a better understanding of LEGITIMATE TRUTH, God’s Word in the Bible, then the better-calibrated our internal compass will be, and the better we will be at seeing what is real, in everything around us. It’s NOT what we believe that makes something true. It is in the testing of our understanding of the world, and everything in it, with the TRUTH of God’s Word. Once we test what we believe, with the truth of God's Word, then we have to calibrate our inner-compass. And when we spend a lot of our life calibrating that inner-compass with the truth of God's Word, then we’ll have a CONSCIENCE that can TRULY help us navigate this world. Calibrate your compass with God's Word, and you'll be able to navigate this world, and more importantly, find yourself in the right place, in the next world.

God tells us to be persistent in prayer. Sometimes it's going to look like the race is won. And sometimes it'll look like the race is completely lost. And in both cases, until the tape is broken, we don't know the outcome, so keep running!When you're winning, PRAY. When you're losing, PRAY! Run through the tape, and finish the race. If things are good for you, PRAY. If things look hopeless, PRAY! Never quit, until you see Jesus, and he tells you, “Well done, my good and faithful servant,” and he's welcoming you into His kingdom. God loves us. Run through the tape!! Keep praying. Whatever your goals are, whatever your desires are, whatever your heart is telling you, you need, just keep praying. Sometimes we just have to learn to persist, keep our eyes on the goal and trust God to deliver. He will deliver.

We're living in a world where TRUTH is being watered down. Everywhere we look, lies are being redefined as truth, and simple truths that have always been understood to be true, are being called lies. The inputs that we receive are being controlled. But, we are called as believers, to be the salt of the earth.  What happens when salt becomes unsalted? It's worthless.  When the Christian becomes watered down, we becomes spiritually worthless.  We have to be clear. Jesus is our hope. And if He didn't die, the SINLESS Lamb of God, and resurrect three days later, our hope is in vain. God's Word is inerrant. Our culture is… full of errors. God's Word is never wrong. Our culture is… frequently wrong. God's Word leads to LIFE and PEACE and SALVATION. Our culture leads to… DEATH and STRIFE and DAMNATION. You cannot be a friend to the world AND a true follower of Christ. They DO NOT not work together.  The world needs Jesus. The world needs the AUTHENTIC Jesus. The world needs the Jesus that we learn about from a relationship with him, found in the Bible.  Stand up for THE TRUTH… and it will set you free.

Being Christian is not about being popular. It's not about how many people think you're a good person. And, we’re in a culture war. Satan is always on the prowl, looking for those that he will devour. He preys on our weakness. He attacks at our flanks, and where we're most vulnerable. So, what does it mean to be a man or woman of Christ? What does it look like when we believe that the King of all creation, sent us a fighter for our souls, a personal Savior to save us, a personal warrior for our eternal lives? As believers, it's our job TO ENGAGE. Love is NOT PASSIVE… It's active. It's our job to deeply assess our own character, and work on that plank that's in our own eyes FIRST, and then also in love and humility, be a blessing to the people that God loves, which is all of us. The Bible says, “Claim me before man, and I will claim you before my father. Deny me before man, and I will deny you before my father.” It is time to stand up. It is time to be counted. We have to claim Him. THAT’s how we show strength. THAT’s how we engage.

When Moses was called, DIRECTLY by God, to lead His people out of Egypt, he resisted. The Lord was then going to kill the one HE JUST CHOSE to lead His people; We just went from a divine calling, to a divine condemnation, in a couple of chapters.  Moses was required to follow the law, and to his wife Zipporah's credit, it was identified and fixed.  TAKE GOD’S WORD SERIOUSLY, or someday all of us could find ourselves on the wrong side of being sick.

The world is hard right now for MANY people. Their health struggles, and money struggles, and what appears to be a changing of all the stuff that we used to call “Normal.”  So, given that environment, what's a believer to do… Where should we focus? Well, we know we need to pray. We need to be in The Word. We need to teach whoever will listen. Also… Act justly, love mercy, forgive others and walk humbly with our God.  We already know how this book ends and we need to JUST KEEP DOING GOOD, knowing that the harvest is coming… JUST KEEP DOING GOOD!  God has an infinite well of resources. He can draw power in your lap when you LITERALLY have nothing left.  Allow him to fulfill the plan that has been in place, since before the foundations of the world.  Trust the Lord. Amen.

How do we pray?  Ministers across the world are asked this question quite often. We should humble ourselves, and repent. We have to CLAIM JESUS as our SAVIOR. And then you have to make sure when you're praying, the words coming out of your mouth ARE THE TRUTH! God is perfectly good. We should always make sure that our hearts line up  with HIS purpose; When we have surrendered to the saving grace that ONLY His Son provides, and when the words coming out of our mouth are ANCHORED by that truth. Let God speak to you, and give you the wisdom that only he can provide. It's time to repent. It's time to reflect on our personal holiness, and it's time to pray with the type of urgency, that we might find ourselves in if we were facing an imminent threat.  Because you know what?  We are.