Luke 23:34 Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do. And they parted his raiment, and cast lots.
Wow, the Lord just opened my eyes to a wonderful verse that I have read and heard quoted thousands of times. It is Luke 23:34 in which the Lord Jesus asks The Father to “Forgive them for they know not what they do.”
I have always thought of this verse speaking of the Roman soldiers that were nailing Christ to the cross, or the Jews that allowed Barabbas’ freedom over the Spotless Lamb. But last night the reality set in to me. He was talking about me. He was talking about the sinful humanity in each of us. Our sins put Jesus on the cross at Calvary. Yes, the soldiers did strike the spikes with the hammers, yes Pilate passed the judgment, but we put Him there.
I have known that my sins were why Christ died, but I did not relate that verse to it. I was thinking of the things I mentioned above, soldiers, Jews, Pilate, etc. But I don’t guess I ever realized that I was in the Bible and I am spoken of by name in the word “them”. I have heard the saying “When Jesus was on the cross, you were on His mind” before and if ever there was a scripture to back that up it is this. I can’t imagine the pain and anguish our Savior went through on the cross for us. I know that a small cut on my hand hurts a great deal sometimes, but the piercing of your hands, a large spike being driven through your flesh. Blood gushing, skin tearing. The thoughts are unbearable to me, not to even mention the ridicule, beatings, stoning, scourging and being spat on that day leading up to the cross. The movie “The Passion of The Christ” does not even come close to what Jesus went through that day. It does not show the weight He carried of all of our sins, the humiliation a man would have endured, the pain…. Oh the pain.
But the first Word recorded of Christ on the cross were what? “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do.” Imagine the pain He was in physically, imagine the shock to His body as His weight pulled at the spikes in His hands, the joints being stretched and he did not utter a complaint, but a prayer to the Father of forgiveness. What an act of mercy shown on the cross as Christ took the brunt of our sins and was even then our Advocate to the Father. My heart breaks at my sins now even more, I praise God for His sacrifice for me, for you for the World.
I’d like to say that if you have not known the forgiveness of the Lord, knowing that Christ died so you might live. If you have been living a life that is full of religion and void of the Lord, there is real Hope. If you have made a “decision” at some point in your life, but have lived like the World since, spitting on the work of the cross, there is still Hope. The Hope is Christ and you need to call out to Him to save you, because nothing you can do can do it, no works will save you, no prayer, no walk down an aisle, no proclamation by a pastor, on God can change your heart. Only God can transform your sinful pride into a love so dear for Him that you will be in constant awe of Him. You can’t do it, only He can. Please seek His Face, seek out a truly God centered church, with God focused people that can help and disciple you to a real relationship with Christ and not the decision based form of religion the world embraces. Please for the sake of your eternal soul, for the Glory of God.
Saturday, January 24, 2009
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
The Audacity To Hope In A Person
My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus’ blood and righteous;
No merit of my own I claim
But wholly lean on Jesus’ name.
On Christ, the solid rock, I stand;
All other ground is sinking sand.
It seems like a lot of talk of “hope” is being heard these days. I would say it has a lot to do with, now President, Barack Obama and his rhetoric of hope for many things, the title of his book “Audacity of Hope” and his campaign memorabilia emblazoned with the word hope.
I still haven’t quite figured out what the “hope bandwagon” is all about. What exactly is everyone hoping for and why do they believe Obama is the one that will usher in their dreams of hope? Maybe it is because President Obama is a great speaker and everyone hopes that he will come through with his promises. I for one do not hope that at all. My hope is that Obama will soon see his sinful, worldly ways and repent and become truly converted and actually believe what the Word of God says instead of making a mockery of it. See below for a video that explains that statement.
If anyone’s hope lies in any man, then they are painfully looking in the wrong direction. The only hope you or I have is in Christ and what He did on the cross for us. Anything other than that is inconsequential.
Psalms 56:11 In God have I put my trust: I will not be afraid what man can do unto me.
Psalms 118:8 It is better to trust in the LORD than to put confidence in man.
Every Christian needs to earnestly pray for Obama’s salvation. He is very deceived and has compromised the Word of God, justifies murdering babies, twists and mocks scripture, keeps company with questionable “pastors”, not to mention is in cahoots with the queen of the world, Oprah. What Obama needs is the repent and trust in the Lord as any other worldly person does. Oh how that would glorify the Lord if Obama would make a speech and say, “I was wrong. Abortion is truly murder, and I have lied to each and every one of you. I am sorry and I have repented unto the Lord.” Now, will that happen? It could, but he is heavily mired in the sins of his flesh and is only getting deeper. Oh yes, the Lord can save him as well as He can anyone, but Obama’s presidency may just be a judgment on our society as it was in the days of Noah and Sodom and Gomorrah.
Please pray for Obama and his staff and even your local elected officials. God has put them there for a reason, even if they do not follow Him.
Obama Mocks God and The Bible
Than Jesus’ blood and righteous;
No merit of my own I claim
But wholly lean on Jesus’ name.
On Christ, the solid rock, I stand;
All other ground is sinking sand.
It seems like a lot of talk of “hope” is being heard these days. I would say it has a lot to do with, now President, Barack Obama and his rhetoric of hope for many things, the title of his book “Audacity of Hope” and his campaign memorabilia emblazoned with the word hope.
I still haven’t quite figured out what the “hope bandwagon” is all about. What exactly is everyone hoping for and why do they believe Obama is the one that will usher in their dreams of hope? Maybe it is because President Obama is a great speaker and everyone hopes that he will come through with his promises. I for one do not hope that at all. My hope is that Obama will soon see his sinful, worldly ways and repent and become truly converted and actually believe what the Word of God says instead of making a mockery of it. See below for a video that explains that statement.
If anyone’s hope lies in any man, then they are painfully looking in the wrong direction. The only hope you or I have is in Christ and what He did on the cross for us. Anything other than that is inconsequential.
Psalms 56:11 In God have I put my trust: I will not be afraid what man can do unto me.
Psalms 118:8 It is better to trust in the LORD than to put confidence in man.
Every Christian needs to earnestly pray for Obama’s salvation. He is very deceived and has compromised the Word of God, justifies murdering babies, twists and mocks scripture, keeps company with questionable “pastors”, not to mention is in cahoots with the queen of the world, Oprah. What Obama needs is the repent and trust in the Lord as any other worldly person does. Oh how that would glorify the Lord if Obama would make a speech and say, “I was wrong. Abortion is truly murder, and I have lied to each and every one of you. I am sorry and I have repented unto the Lord.” Now, will that happen? It could, but he is heavily mired in the sins of his flesh and is only getting deeper. Oh yes, the Lord can save him as well as He can anyone, but Obama’s presidency may just be a judgment on our society as it was in the days of Noah and Sodom and Gomorrah.
Please pray for Obama and his staff and even your local elected officials. God has put them there for a reason, even if they do not follow Him.
Obama Mocks God and The Bible
Thursday, January 15, 2009
And Such Was I
One of the most powerful verses in the bible, to me at least, is delivered by Paul, to the Corinthians. If you have been truly converted then this verse will really pop to you and shows how good God is, how He reached from the Holiest of places to save me, to save you, to save us all from not only the torments of hell but also from the sinful lives that we once loved so much.
When I read this verse:
1 Corinthians 6:11 And such were some of you: but you are washed, but you are sanctified, but you are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.
All I can think about is “Praise you Lord for saving me, you didn’t have to, but You did and You are worthy of my praise to You, You are more worthy than I could ever say.” Now if you back up a little earlier in chapter 6 you will see what the “such were” were that Paul was addressing. You have a whole gamut of sins listed – fornicators, idolaters, homosexuals, thieves, alcoholics and extortionist. And such was I. Paul took the title of “Chief of Sinners”, but in my wretchedness I was pretty low myself until the Lord saw fit to save me from that sinful life. God is so good to have pulled me from the mire of my sin and wash me clean.
This verse is a wake up call and God used it to show me of how judgmental I can be, not of brothers and sisters, but of sinners. I would somehow expect the lost people at work to conform to what God was so gracious in showing me. They don’t. They won’t. That is until the Lord saves them as well. I realized that a sinner sins, they care nothing of the Spirit and what He is about. They care nothing for pleasing the Lord, but only themselves. And such was I. One of the worst things a true believer can do is tell a non believer that they shouldn’t do a particular sin. “Hey Jimbo, you shouldn’t be living with your girlfriend or cheating on your taxes.” That would be like telling a Christian “Hey Bubby, you need to be reading your Bible and praying every day.” They both come natural to either of them. The true Christian walks with God, the non-believer walks in the world. You can’t tell a dog he now needs to purr like a cat, but if God changed the dog into a cat, it would be natural for it to purr then.
Sorry for getting off subject. Now back to the blog already in progress. We were all a “such were” at one point in our life, if you can not see that then you may want to go over a book to 2 Corinthians 13:5 and do as Paul exhorts there to examine yourself to see if you are in the faith. Then read 1John and the Gospels, Acts, Romans and then the rest of the bible. If you never saw how filthy and wretched you were, how much you hated God and how you could do nothing but call out to Him, then you may have a huge problem. If you think you have your ticket, that you took care of things a long time ago, that all you have to do is ask to be forgiven of your sinful life and use Christ’s work on the cross as a get out of hell free card, then you are still on the “such were” category. You would actually be called a “so are”. If your heart does not break for sinning against God, then I beg you to seek God out with all that you are and all that you can so that He can save you too, that He will keep you from hell, that you will lead a God centered life, that all you will want to do is try to bring glory to the King of kings and Lord of lords. He is indeed worthy, more worthy than anything we could ever offer.
Praise the Lord for opening my eyes to my sinfulness. Thank You God for showing me that sinner’s sin and I can’t change them. Please Lord give me the grace to share Your Word with them in a loving, but true way to them. God please make me not compromise your Word for any reason but to reflect Your Light. Open my mouth to speak Your Word that many will come to repentance. Thank you Lord for all that you do. Amen
When I read this verse:
1 Corinthians 6:11 And such were some of you: but you are washed, but you are sanctified, but you are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.
All I can think about is “Praise you Lord for saving me, you didn’t have to, but You did and You are worthy of my praise to You, You are more worthy than I could ever say.” Now if you back up a little earlier in chapter 6 you will see what the “such were” were that Paul was addressing. You have a whole gamut of sins listed – fornicators, idolaters, homosexuals, thieves, alcoholics and extortionist. And such was I. Paul took the title of “Chief of Sinners”, but in my wretchedness I was pretty low myself until the Lord saw fit to save me from that sinful life. God is so good to have pulled me from the mire of my sin and wash me clean.
This verse is a wake up call and God used it to show me of how judgmental I can be, not of brothers and sisters, but of sinners. I would somehow expect the lost people at work to conform to what God was so gracious in showing me. They don’t. They won’t. That is until the Lord saves them as well. I realized that a sinner sins, they care nothing of the Spirit and what He is about. They care nothing for pleasing the Lord, but only themselves. And such was I. One of the worst things a true believer can do is tell a non believer that they shouldn’t do a particular sin. “Hey Jimbo, you shouldn’t be living with your girlfriend or cheating on your taxes.” That would be like telling a Christian “Hey Bubby, you need to be reading your Bible and praying every day.” They both come natural to either of them. The true Christian walks with God, the non-believer walks in the world. You can’t tell a dog he now needs to purr like a cat, but if God changed the dog into a cat, it would be natural for it to purr then.
Sorry for getting off subject. Now back to the blog already in progress. We were all a “such were” at one point in our life, if you can not see that then you may want to go over a book to 2 Corinthians 13:5 and do as Paul exhorts there to examine yourself to see if you are in the faith. Then read 1John and the Gospels, Acts, Romans and then the rest of the bible. If you never saw how filthy and wretched you were, how much you hated God and how you could do nothing but call out to Him, then you may have a huge problem. If you think you have your ticket, that you took care of things a long time ago, that all you have to do is ask to be forgiven of your sinful life and use Christ’s work on the cross as a get out of hell free card, then you are still on the “such were” category. You would actually be called a “so are”. If your heart does not break for sinning against God, then I beg you to seek God out with all that you are and all that you can so that He can save you too, that He will keep you from hell, that you will lead a God centered life, that all you will want to do is try to bring glory to the King of kings and Lord of lords. He is indeed worthy, more worthy than anything we could ever offer.
Praise the Lord for opening my eyes to my sinfulness. Thank You God for showing me that sinner’s sin and I can’t change them. Please Lord give me the grace to share Your Word with them in a loving, but true way to them. God please make me not compromise your Word for any reason but to reflect Your Light. Open my mouth to speak Your Word that many will come to repentance. Thank you Lord for all that you do. Amen
Sunday, January 4, 2009
From The Highest Mountains To The Lowest Valleys
The depths of a valley are often defined by how high the mountains are surrounding them. You may be driving your car and just go down to a lower point than the surrounding area, while you can still see everything that you could before, just from a different perspective or angle. Other times you could end up in a deep valley with the mountains jutting upward and you can’t see anything except the side of a mountain. If you've ever driven in the mountains, you know that going up is a lot harder than when you're coming down. Coming down also builds speed as you try to slow down and pump the brakes of your car.
But through both of these what you do see is the higher ground. You know that the valley is temporary and it’s just a matter of time before you will be out of the valley, possibly even on top of the mountains, looking downward toward where you came from, what you went through that brought you to the higher ground. You pause for a moment and just soak in the beauty of what is before you.
Isn’t life a lot like that? Right now my family is in the deepest valley it has ever experienced and it was a downhill plunge in a matter of seconds. We are all affected by what is going on and it will have affects for the rest of our lives here on this earth. It is a difficult place to be, it is not easy and it is not without worry. Don’t get me wrong though, the worry is because we do not know the outcome, it is not because we do not trust who is in charge of this. Worry can be a cancer and destroy a person, but this worry is the kind that pushes you toward the only One that can remedy. This is in God’s hands and the valley may seem deep at this moment, but you know what? I see the mountains. I see the One that created the mountains and I have put my trust in Him to see us all through this, in His way.
Is it easy? No, not by a long shot, but knowing that the Lord is in control does ease things a lot. I gave up control about 2 seconds after this situation came about, which is about 2 seconds longer than I should have. But I know through this trial that God is ever present and will keep us from harm and will be glorified. He already has been as His power to transcend this situation with His peace and with the family of believers He has been so gracious in putting us into. This has brought me closer to God and also is strengthening my family and bringing them closer to Him as well, which glorifies His working in our lives. To God be the glory, for everything!
Please do keep my family in your prayers for His peace to transcend through this, especially to my son, my mom, my wife, the other 2 boys and myself: as well as the extended family members. Please leave a comment of any verse that may have come to mind for you or anything else that you might think could encourage us through this difficult time.
Matthew 11:28-30 Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
Philippians 4:6-7 Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
1 Peter 5:7 Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.
Proverbs 3:5-6 Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.
Psalms 130:5 I wait for the LORD, my soul doth wait, and in his word do I hope.
Psalms 57:1-3 Be merciful unto me, O God, be merciful unto me: for my soul trusteth in thee: yea, in the shadow of thy wings will I make my refuge, until these calamities be overpast. I will cry unto God most high; unto God that performeth all things for me. He shall send from heaven, and save me from the reproach of him that would swallow me up. Selah. God shall send forth his mercy and his truth.
Psalms 55:22 Cast thy burden upon the LORD, and he shall sustain thee: he shall never suffer the righteous to be moved.
Thursday, January 1, 2009
Happy New Year - 2009
I just wanted to take a moment and wish everyone and their families a Happy New Year. Start out the year right with humbling yourself to the Lord and asking Him to cleanse your life of all possible sins, make it a point to pray constantly, be in constant communion with the Lord. Ask that He be ever present in your thoughts and life and that you think of Him before you do anything.
Also on a personal note: My family is in the midst of a very difficult situation. I will not go into detail, but say that my son is in a lot of trouble with the law. This is after years of issues with him, he has finally gotten caught and must now pay. I tried for a long time to change him, praying the whole time that "I" could say the right words, that "I" could do the right things, that "I" could make him see what he was doing was destructive, that "I" could just make him understand. God showed me that "I" couldn't do anything except show him love and tell him the truth and leave the rest up to the Lord. That's what I did about 2 years ago, my son has done things that he should have never gotten away with (and did get away with) and now he got caught and it is serious to the law and has devastating implications for my whole family.
I know the Lord is in control and I gave up control of my son to Him a long time ago. I know I still pray for my son and I know that God will be definitely glorified through all of this. This may be the bottom of the barrel - where my son finally sees God and how he sins against Him, the Creator of all. Please pray for my son that God will open his mind and heart to Him, please pray for my family during this storm of life. I gave up control of this situation to God a few moments after the initial shock of what has happened and am resting perfectly in His Bosom. Jehovah Shalom, You are with me,
To supply all my needs.
Also on a personal note: My family is in the midst of a very difficult situation. I will not go into detail, but say that my son is in a lot of trouble with the law. This is after years of issues with him, he has finally gotten caught and must now pay. I tried for a long time to change him, praying the whole time that "I" could say the right words, that "I" could do the right things, that "I" could make him see what he was doing was destructive, that "I" could just make him understand. God showed me that "I" couldn't do anything except show him love and tell him the truth and leave the rest up to the Lord. That's what I did about 2 years ago, my son has done things that he should have never gotten away with (and did get away with) and now he got caught and it is serious to the law and has devastating implications for my whole family.
I know the Lord is in control and I gave up control of my son to Him a long time ago. I know I still pray for my son and I know that God will be definitely glorified through all of this. This may be the bottom of the barrel - where my son finally sees God and how he sins against Him, the Creator of all. Please pray for my son that God will open his mind and heart to Him, please pray for my family during this storm of life. I gave up control of this situation to God a few moments after the initial shock of what has happened and am resting perfectly in His Bosom. Jehovah Shalom, You are with me,
To supply all my needs.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)