Have you ever been told you’re casting the first stone?
Or said it to someone else?
It happens when someone makes a judgment statement, like if someone is unfaithful in their marriage and you call that person an adulterer. Continue reading
John
How?
In reading Luke 1 this morning, I saw the question – the question I have often asked.
Then I saw it again.
So I went searching for it. Continue reading
Seeing Clearly
Then He came to Bethsaida; and they brought a blind man to Him, and begged Him to touch him. So He took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the town. Mark 8:22-23
All of us know someone that needs healing. Despite some of my infirmities, there are others that need healing more than me. That’s not to say that I would turn down a healing.
But the healing of this blind man is a lesson for all to learn.
And when He had spit on his eyes and put His hands on him, He asked him if he saw anything. Mark 8:23
Don’t get caught up in the spit. I’ve read and heard a lot of things about this – things like spittle was considered medicinal or that it was used to moisten the eyelids, which may have been stuck together because of natural eye secretions that hardened over time.
To set your mind at ease, Jesus could have had the man use his own spit on his own eyes.
Nevertheless, he was asked what he saw.
And he looked up and said, “I see men like trees, walking.” Mark 8:24
It’s true the man was no longer blind!
Neither can he really see.
It’s a reality that exist today – people not blind but not clearly seeing.
Far too often Christian’s close their eyes to many things – the poor in need of food or shelter, the prostitute or addict in need of a loving friend, a child in need of authority, and even God!
God’s own people can have their eyes wide open and not see clearly the gifts of the Spirit, the miracles of God, or the outpouring of grace available to everyone.
Then He put His hands on his eyes again and made him look up. And he was restored and saw everyone clearly. Mark 8:25
Only a touch of Jesus can open your eyes and give you real sight.
Only a touch from Jesus can allow you to see what was always right in front of you.
I do not see all that is of God but I see more than I use to!
I can repeat the same words of the old hymn Amazing Grace, which reiterate the words of another blind man,
One thing I know: that though I was blind, now I see. John 9:25
Abba, open my eyes that I may see You more clearly in all things. In Jesus name, YES&AMEN
Good news – you’re not condemned! (Almost)
I have some good news from God’s word – Jesus did not come to condemn you!
Isn’t that great!!!
His exact words were –
For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. John 3:17
He is not here to condemn you!
He has come to save you!
I have discovered that many Christians want to condemn others. I have been guilty of that too.
But we are not here to condemn, anymore than Jesus came to condemn.
So why are Christians so prone to point out sin? I think it’s an attempt to salvation – the compelling nature to point out sin and to tell others they are condemned without Jesus.
That is also true!
He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. John 3:18
What Jesus is saying is preach Jesus! That may sound a little self-fulfilling but He is the Messiah and Savior.
Paul said it best when he said,
And I, brethren, when I came to you, did not come with excellence of speech or of wisdom declaring to you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. 1 Cor 2:1-2
Preach and teach God’s word and let the Holy Spirit use it to convict the hearer!
It works!
Abba, Your word is more powerful than my own. I debate whereas You end all debates. Your word is perfect and condemns and gives life through Jesus. YES&AMEN
What it takes to believe!
What does it take for someone to accept that Jesus is the Savior? What is the trigger?
I preach every Sunday and many times there are those listening that need to turn to the Lord but they leave without making that decision.
I recall my own salvation, which wasn’t until I was almost eighteen. I was witnessed to by a young man several years before and even told him I was going to hell. Yet I walked away from that encounter with no change in my life.
For me it took an understanding of my sinful condition and what God had done to remedy it.
Some react quicker to it than others.
In the Bible was a man that, after one encounter with Jesus, found a friend and shared some news with him.
Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found Him of whom Moses in the law, and also the prophets, wrote — Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.”
And Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” John 1:45-46
Philip believed Jesus to be the long awaited Messiah.
Nathanael doubted it.
Philip believed quickly. Nathanael met Jesus and believed. However there were many others that also met Jesus and walked away unchanged, unsaved, unforgiven, and unbelieving.
What would it take for you to believe?
Abba, I pray for those I meet today that don’t know Jesus as Savior. I pray that I may say the right words to lead them to believe. In Jesus name, YES&AMEN
Feeding
Yesterday, at the radio station, a listener stopped by bearing gifts of deer sausage, both link and pan. He had heard the morning show make a reference to it on the air a day or two before.
This morning I cooked the sausage and eggs and Susan brought biscuits. Top it off with some ribbon cane syrup and we had a feast at KSWP.
I have never met Thomas, the listener that brought the sausage. And I may never run into him again. But he blessed us! Not only with the sausage but just his generosity in driving to the station to deliver his own sausage.
I saw some scripture in a new light.
Jesus and the disciples had just finished breakfast when Jesus asked a question of Peter.
“Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me more than these?”
He said to Him, “Yes, Lord; You know that I love You.”
He said to him, “Feed My lambs.” John 21:15
That can be spiritualized and you can say that Peter was to “feed” the word of God – to preach and teach the doctrine of Christ.
A missionary once told me that people hear the Gospel better on a full stomach.
There is a lot of truth in that.
The church should not limit herself to just preaching but in also feeding others. And if the church does not have the resources to do it alone then she should give aid to those that do.
This has been on my heart lately. It’s not just food and preaching the word, but clothing and basic toiletries also.
When Jesus commanded us to
Go therefore and make disciples Matt 28:19
I believe the method in doing that is in His example of feeding, healing, and preaching!
Abba, I want a servants heart to feed Your lambs. In Jesus name, YES&AMEN
The Sacrifice of a Child
And Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. Gen 22:10
Child sacrifice has been part of many civilizations and cultures from the earliest of time.
It would have been part of Abraham’s world and a part of worship that he and Sarah were denied, since they were childless.
It may have been they wanted children so bad they could not comprehend how others could so carelessly toss away those innocent lives to a god.
God’s calling came to Abraham and it removed him from the land of the Chaldeans to the land of the Canaanites.
In time Abraham and Sarah had a son, Isaac. For me the test of Abraham and Isaac is perhaps about Abraham’s giving of Isaac because he loves God as compared to the devotion of those pagans he left behind all those years ago; pagans that willingly gave their children to a god of wood or stone.
Then again, Abraham’s faith is in the ability of what God can do.
He concluded that God was able to raise [Isaac] up, even from the dead, from which he also received him in a figurative sense. Heb 11:19
As for God, He gave His only Son for us.
He became sin for us!
He became despised for us!
He was rejected for us!
He was cursed for us!
That we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. John 3:16-17
Today children are still sacrificed but only for the god of selfishness. Abortion is a blight on our land and it is the demise of any civilization – when it’s citizens are destroyed even before they are born.
There is forgiveness, even after abortion!
If you know someone that has had an abortion, you could minister to them or at least pray for that person. Perhaps seek the council of a pregnancy help center for advice.
Abba, children are a blessing. Help me to touch the life of a child today or the life of someone that has loss one. In Jesus name, YES&AMEN
Sukkot
It’s another Feast Day and the second blood moon of four. This one falls on Sukkoth and the eclipse was early this morning in the states.
Sukkoth is also known as the Feast of Booths or Feast of Tabernacles.
Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to the children of Israel, saying: ‘The fifteenth day of this seventh month shall be the Feast of Tabernacles for seven days to the Lord. On the first day there shall be a holy convocation. You shall do no customary work on it. For seven days you shall offer an offering made by fire to the Lord. On the eighth day you shall have a holy convocation, and you shall offer an offering made by fire to the Lord. It is a sacred assembly, and you shall do no customary work on it. Lev 23:33-36
It is a time of great celebration after the solemn Yom Kippur – Day of Atonement.
The Jews build temporary shelters to celebrate the occasion and Jesus was familiar with the day.
Now the Jews’ Feast of Tabernacles was at hand. John 7:2
You go up to this feast. I am not yet going up to this feast, for My time has not yet fully come. John 7:8
Jesus has not yet fulfilled this Feast but the day is coming when He will.
It is written,
“Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.” Rev 21:3-4
To me, this is the final great act of God – to dwell with us and give us great comfort. It’s like coming home to security and reassurance.
Jesus is our Tabernacle.
Abba, I long for the fulfillment of the last three Feasts. Even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus. YES&AMEN
You can’t escape the Word!
I remember one Sunday, not too long ago, I was preaching. Actually I was reading a lot of scripture and I had someone get up and walk out the door.
It happens. It happened to Jesus.
There was a time when some guys wanted to judge, convict, and execute someone that broke the Law of Moses.
Jesus said that if any of them were without sin they should go ahead and do it.
Then those who heard it, being convicted by their conscience, went out one by one, beginning with the oldest even to the last. John 8:9
The spoken word of God is powerful.
The word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Heb 4:12
The word of God convicts and there are those that cannot stand or sit in its presence.
The reading of the word conflicts with their life and so they must get up and leave.
I fear the day will come for the unrepentant when they shall hear the word and not be able to get away from it.
The Bible says the day is coming when the books will be opened and the dead will be judged by what is written in those books. (Rev 20:12)
I believe the books that are opened are the 66 books of the Bible. Each word is read and there is no escape.
The Law is read along with the penalties for disobedience and there is no escape.
The Prophets are read and tell of the coming Messiah and the re is no escape.
The Gospels are read and there is no place to run.
The letters of Paul are read and there is no place to hide.
When it’s over each person is convicted by their own conscience and by God Himself.
I pray that no one ever walks out again on God’s word. It is the word to change lives if they will listen and heed it.
Abba, I know there was a time I, too, did not listen to Your word. I ignored it. I mocked it. I ridiculed it. But now I live for Your word. It is the very air that I breathe. It is life to me. In Jesus name, YES&AMEN
Which Way Are You Going?
I worked our radio station booth at the Texas State Forest Festival last night and left late. I took one of the volunteers that helped home, since it was pretty much on my way.
He lives around a massive construction area on the north side of Lufkin.
Now I’m familiar with the construction to a certain point. I drive through it twice a day but I don’t deviate from the main route of the loop around Lufkin. To take him home I had to go on the other side of that area into unfamiliar territory.
After dropping him off I exited the same way I had traveled to his home. I was met with a “One Way” sign in the wrong direction. I only knew one thing to do. Turn around and find a different way.
A back road to the loop met with a new road that I had never seen or been on before, also a one way. But it was the right way and I made my way onto a more comfortable and familiar road and then I was homeward bound.
There are many paths and ways to travel in life. The Bible speaks about some wrong ways like the way of Cain (Jude 11) or the way of Balaam (2 Peter 2:15) just to name two.
Traveling those directions would be a wrong way and you should not enter. If you are traveling that direction you need to turn around and find the right way – the only way.
Jesus said,
“I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” John 14:6
Jesus is the right way home – and eternal home in the presence of God the Father.
Stop where you are today and ask yourself, “Am I going the right way?” If Jesus isn’t in the equation then the answer is no!
Repent (turn around) and ask forgiveness from Jesus for your life. Now you’re heading the right way!
Abba, help me to be one that would point the Right Way to others. In Jesus name, YES&AMEN
Morning Thought with Pastor Tim 