Making Things New

Making Things New

2 Corinthians 5:17
Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.

When God makes new, he does nt take old stuff and reburbish it.  He makes it new from nothin'!  That what he did when he created the universe and all that we see.  He Spoke...and it was.  All from nothing.  The power of His words still echo today in where we live and move.

When a New Year dawns, it a a time for remembering the past, but also a time of anticipation of what the Lord will bring into our lives during the coming months.  Good and Bad, He will always be there.  One thing is certain.  This year He has created out of nothing!  It did not exist before we experience it.  God makes our lives happen moment by moment.  He creates  from nothing our very existence.

So this year, remember the power of God in your lives. He is creating it each second we live and if we live it for HIM, then that would be right and good.  It is truly a wonderful gift. Do not take it for granted.

Blessings all for a wonderous New Year!

Your Word is TRUTH

In Jesus' prayer for the Disciples, he makes some astonishing declarations!

John 17:16-18 (NASB)
16 They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. 17 Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth. 18 As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world.


Jesus was born of flesh and the Spirit and yet He was not of the world.  The Spirit is more powerful than flesh.  We can buy that knowing that Jesus was the Son of God...but what he says about His followers is even more astonishing!

Astonishment #1:  We are not of the world!
Once we have the Spirit of God living in us we have made a transition from flesh to Spirit.  Paul brings this out in several places in his New Testament writings too.  We belong to HIM.  We are of the Spirit and we belong with God.  Is it any wonder that many of us do not feel at "home" here?  Our true home is in the heavenly places!

Astonishment #2: We are sanctified by the Truth of God's Word.
Being sanctified means we are set apart by God and for God.  All true believers are in this state and they remain in this state for eternity. How does one receive this state of sanctification?  It is a work of GOD...not man.  And it's his WORD so that we cannot take credit.  His word is Truth in the purest and most absolute sense there is.  It's God's Word and it does not just CONTAIN TRUTH...it IS Truth!

Astonishment #3: We all have a mission!
Once we have been called, we are no longer our own.  The Heidelberg Catechism puts it eloquently, "That I am not my own, but belong— body and soul, in life and in death— to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ."  Because we are now HIS we accept His mission to go and spread the Good News of God's forgiveness of man's sin through Jesus' death of the cross and his resurrection! Just as Jesus was obedient unto death doing the Father's will...we are given the same task of being obedient to Jesus mission.  Such an honor!

Go out and seize the day in Jesus' Name!

Blessings All!

Be Intentional

This summer I recorded a show on my DVR and was getting around to watch it the other day.  The show was Last Comic Standing.  If you are not familiar with the show, it is a contest where these stand-up comedians compete during the course of a few weeks in different situations.  Each week one comic is eliminated until they get to the last comic standing.  Very funny...and cleaner than most shows since it is on regular TV...that is always a plus for me.

One thing that struck me is the amount of preparation each person competing put into his or her set of joke that they did each week. They wrote down jokes...they practiced telling the jokes...they got feedback and advice on the jokes before they actually went out a performed. There was a tremendous amount of preparation involved.  Those where were more prepared, obviously did better in the competition than those who sort of "winged it".

It also started me thinking about being a Christian.  How many times do we find ourselves flying by the seat of our pants instead of being intentional about being a Christian? How many times are we really preparing ourselves by praying and studying God's word and seeking Godly advice instead of just 'Winging it"?

This year, make a commitment to being intentional in your Christian walk.  Pray without ceasing. Go to Sunday School and study God's Word without ceasing as well. Meditate on it day and night! I think if you do these things you will find that you just may be...the Last Christian Standing and wouldn't that be worth it?  Yes, it would totally be worth it!

Blessings All!

God's Word

God's Word, the Bible, does some very important things for us and to us.

1) God's Word connects us to God.  Make no doubt about it.  God's Word helps us understand Him and is a revelation of Himself in the world.  Make sure you read it to connect yourself to Him.

2) God's Word answers the questions of Life. Why are we here?  Who am I?  What is my purpose? There is no science that can answer these questions for you.  Only the Word of God can.  So again, read the Bible and find out the answers for yourself.

3) God's Word is comforting.  This world is not the place for comfort.  We are all going through a  hard fight.  But God's Word shines into our heart and gives us HOPE!  As the Heidelberg Catechism puts it very well:

Q. What is your only comfort
in life and in death?

A. That I am not my own,
but belong—
body and soul,
in life and in death—
to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ.

How comforting is THAT!!?

There are many other things the Word of God does as well...but these should keep you busy.  How busy?  Probably until we meet the Lord face-to-face.

Blessings All!

What is the Answer?

A friend of mine one time was wearing a button just like the one you see above.  I pointed to it and asked, "What's that?". He reached into his coat pocket and gave me a Tract which started out, "Since you asked..." and then he proceeded to tell me about Jesus and what he did for us on the cross.  I have always admired that approach to the Gospel. It seems to me to be effective because we are not intruding and not pushing our faith on anyone...we allow them to ask the questions and allow God to make the answers they need to hear.

More importantly, it brings up the need that people have to have answers...correct answers to life's questions. Every Christian needs to know why they believe and  how to tell people what they believe. People need answers and they deserve that answer that is loving and from the heart.

That is all Jesus wants us to do, isn't it?  To love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength and to love others just like He loves them.  That's not so hard to do when you look at it that way.

In, Disciples Are Made Not Born: Helping Others Grow to Maturity in Christ  – July 23, 2002 by Walter A. Henrichsen, there is a wonderful story of one college student that wanted to tell his roommate about Jesus (I am paraphrasing the story). Henrichsen discipled him and taught him all the right Scripture to say and how he should approach the topic.  When Henrichsen thought the lad was ready, he accompanied him to his dorm room, where to Henrichsen's horror., the student used all the wrong Scripture and he basically bungled everything that Henrichsen had taught him. At the end of the ordeal, the student asked his dorm mate, "Would like to accept Christ?" Surprisingly (to Henrichsen) the student said, "You bet I would!".  This event taught Henrichsen and important lesson.  It's not about YOU;  It's all about Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit.

Many of us are afraid to share the Gospel, but seriously, it's just telling people an answer to their own question. How hard is that?  You already KNOW the answer!  "What's THAT?"  It's the power of Jesus working through you...that's what it is!

Have a Blessed and Safe Christmas!

Blessings All!

Paul Lifts the Gospel

In the 1st chapter of Romans we see Paul encouraging the church in Rome.  He is very clever at doing this and establishes where is heart is at right from the get-go. Just as Jesus was lifted on the cross, Paul Lifts the Gospel to another plain...Let's look at it together...

1 Paul, a bond-servant of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God,

Verse 1: Paul establishes himself as an Apostle and servant of Jesus Christ. He does this in many of his letters because he had a bad reputation of persecuting Christians before his conversion experience on the road to Damascus. Have no doubt Paul is a 100% changed man.   And such are we changed as well, if by faith, we have accepted the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross and have repented of our sins and move forward in our lives following the Christ who sacrificed himself for us!


2 which He promised beforehand through His prophets in the holy Scriptures,

Verse 2: This Gospel, this GOOD NEWS that comes from God himself was a promise that the Old Testament pointed to. Now we have the New Testament a new way with which God will save souls bent on self-destruction. This Gospel is Jesus and what he did on the cross for us! But bear in mine, Paul did not have the New Testament. He only had the Old Testament and so, he shows that Jesus is the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy. These are the "holy Scriptures"!

3 concerning His Son, who was born of a descendant of David according to the flesh, 4 who was declared the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead, according to the Spirit of holiness, Jesus Christ our Lord, 5 through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles for His name’s sake, 6 among whom you also are the called of Jesus Christ;

Verses 3 through 6:  Paul never misses an opportunity to present the Gospel of God and so, here, we see him presenting it in a capsulated form. Paul is talking to jewish Christians in Rome and so he establishes the fact that Jesus is a Jew...and not just any Jew, but a "descendant of David according to the flesh"! This is important when talking to jewish Christians and encouraging them in their faith. this Jesus, a Jew was shown to be the son of God but not just for the Jews alone but also for the Gentiles.  You see, for a Jew, there were just 2 types of people.  Jews and Everyone else who was not a Jew...the Gentiles or Goim...they were all considered to be barbarians and unclean people.  You would never see a real Jew have anything to do with a Gentile...that is until the Gospel of Jesus was established and Paul says that this Gospel reconciled even the gentiles to God through the sacrifice of Jesus' death on the cross!  This is indeed GOOD  NEWS...for everyone now!

7 to all who are beloved of God in Rome, called as saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Verse 7: Paul encourages and blesses.  We, as Christians need to do this more often.  There were plenty of problems in the Roman church for Paul to address, but he starts off the tone of the rest of the discussion by showing the Romans how much love he has for their church and how much love that God has for them as well.  Notice he is talking to believers here...to those "called as Saints" but he is very emphatic in stating that he wishes them grace and peace from both God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ!

This is my blessing for you as well! Grace and Peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ! Amen!

Blessings All!

The Lesson of the Trees

The Lesson of the Trees

My Dad was a logger.  He worked in the woods longer than I could remember and he insisted that his boys work in  the woods with him.  That means that when I was in 3rd grade my dad took me into the woods so that I could learn the trade.  This never sat well with me because, well, it was hard work and I could not do what I wanted to do, which basically was lazing around, playing and  being me.  How dare he try to teach me to work!  As I look back on it, it wasn't something that I enjoyed doing much.

One day when we were cutting some trees down, I noticed that the taller and larger trees were always next to older, large trees and I asked my Dad why that would be so.  He told me that in order for for a tree to reach it's full potential, they needed a strong and tall tree nearby.  He said that he believed that the older tree would shade the younger tree and in order for the younger tree to get enough sunlight, it would HAVE to grow taller so that it's leaves could rise above the other trees and capture the sun.  If it did not grow, it would eventually die.  That is how, he explained, that  the older trees forced the younger trees to grow tall and strong and when they had served their purpose, we loggers would come along and cut down the older trees and then the job of growing new trees fell to the younger strong trees which were left and so, the process was repeated.

As I grew older and a little bit wiser, I began to understand and appreciate the reason my Dad took me into the woods in the first place.  It was to challenge me to grow.  He had learned the lesson of the trees and he was trying to teach me. He knew he had to challenge me in order that I might grow into a man and in forcing me to work in the woods with him, he was making that a reality. It wasn't something I appreciated or even wanted, but it was something I needed.  I am now happy that he loved me enough to ignore my whining about the work.

I am working with Christians instead of trees and it is surprisingly like when I was a kid working in the woods, except now I am playing the role of my dad. I find that people are exactly like me and they too do not like to be challenged. Like the trees, if they are not challenged, they eventually will end up taking the path of least resistance and will not grow; they will be spiritually weak.  If they do not grow they will die or be so weak that they are not effective and that is not acceptable.

This is a particular problem in the Church today. People want to be comforted.  They want to feel good and like me, they certainly do not appreciate being challenged.  However it is a truth that the trees have long ago learned....and that is while it is not the most pleasant thing to go through, we all grow stronger and more useful when we are challenged to grow.

So remember that the next time you feel uncomfortable during a sermon and your ego is not stroked and you come away saying, "You know, that really wasn't a feel-good sermon."  Take a lesson from the trees and grow.  In that way you might be able to say, "You know, that really wasn't a feel-good sermon...but I really needed to hear that!"

Blessings All!

Romans 1:8-17

Romans 1

8 First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, because your faith is being proclaimed throughout the whole world. 9 For God, whom I serve in my spirit in the preaching of the gospel of His Son, is my witness as to how unceasingly I make mention of you, 10 always in my prayers making request, if perhaps now at last by the will of God I may succeed in coming to you. 11 For I long to see you so that I may impart some spiritual gift to you, that you may be established; 12 that is, that I may be encouraged together with you while among you, each of us by the other’s faith, both yours and mine. 13 I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that often I have planned to come to you (and have been prevented so far) so that I may obtain some fruit among you also, even as among the rest of the Gentiles. 14 I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish. 15 So, for my part, I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome.

16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. 17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “But the righteous man shall live by faith.”

Perhaps Romans 1:16 is what one normally thinks about from Chapter 1 of this book, but there is much to discuss before we get to that part.

Paul encourages.  He does this a lot. One can imagine why.  Here is a group of Christians in the middle of hostile territory.  Some of them were going through some tough times...well why don't we say that all of them were going through some tough times, because it was true. Just as it is in the Middle East and parts of Africa and other parts of the world where Christians are in the minority we know from what we read in the papers and online that many of them are being persecuted and tortured and even killed.  In Paul's time it was no different.  These people were being pounded day after day.  Paul encourages them.  However he does not encourage them with platitudes but with TRUTH.

Vs 8 First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, because your faith is being proclaimed throughout the whole world.

Paul says he thanks God for them through Jesus Christ.  Not because they were in Rome, but because of their faith!  It was a strong faith and a faith that was not shy.  It was a faith that was being talked about and proclaimed,something that was lifted up as an example of faith.  A faith that Paul says is being proclaimed, not only in Rome,but a faith that is being proclaimed throughout the whole known world!  In due time, this faith would reach the whole world that we even know today.

Vs 9 For God, whom I serve in my spirit in the preaching of the gospel of His Son, is my witness as to how unceasingly I make mention of you, 10 always in my prayers making request, if perhaps now at last by the will of God I may succeed in coming to you. 11 For I long to see you so that I may impart some spiritual gift to you, that you may be established;

Paul is so impressed with their faith that he uses the Roman Christians as examples of how faith  should be.  He encourages them by saying is praying for them constantly and finally, he may even be able to visit them in person.  He is stoked!  He wishes that he could see them in person to impart some spiritual gift.  What this gift was or would have been, he fails to mention.  Maybe because it was not up to him which gift the Spirit would give them.  That is best left to the Spirit, who decides what gift is needed to build up the body of Christ.  At any rate, this gift would be used to "establish" them... To make them firm; to bolster their faith and to build them up even further.

13 I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that often I have planned to come to you (and have been prevented so far) so that I may obtain some fruit among you also, even as among the rest of the Gentiles. 14 I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish. 15 So, for my part, I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome.

Paul was eager to come to visit the church at Rome.  Interestingly, he states that he has been prevented from doing so.   I reckon this perhaps in two different ways.  1) That the Spirit Himself prevented Paul from fulfilling his desire to visit.  This is not unheard of even in Paul's ministry.  Paul was very sensitive to the Spirit and His leading and he would not have wanted to go against what the Spirit said.  If the door was not open, then he would have to be satisfied to wait.  This even happens to us today.  Many times I have been asked to travel to someplace to minister and my answer has always been, "If the Lord opens the door I will be there."  One caveat in that...make sure you are willing to go if the door does open...don;t let it be an excuse for you NOT to go just because you are being stubborn.  I too, speak with experience on this as there have been times, I have resisted the Spirit's leading just because I felt it would be a bad move.  We all need practice what we preach and trust God more...me included!

2) The other way this could be looked at is that Satan was delaying his visiting the Romans. This too is echoed in Scripture for if you read Daniel 10:10-14 we see that when Daniel had prayed that an Angel of God was dispatched but he was stopped from seeing Daniel for 21 days until  Michael came and interceded with the "prince of the kingdom of  Persia" who was preventing the messenger in reaching Daniel.   Scholars have conclude that this so-called prince was actually a demon who had dominion over Persia.  Is it any wonder that there are problems in the Middle-East today?  These demons still exist...and they still battle the Lord and His people.

Paul also makes it clear that he is ministering to ALL PEOPLE. Not just the Jews, but also the Gentiles...which is basically everyone else. In our own lives, we must be open and willing to minister and to tell our testimony to anyone and everyone.  We do not have the right to with hold the keys of the kingdom, which is what we are doing when we refuse to give the good news to people we do not like or to people we don't think deserve to hear the Gospel.  Open yourself up to the possibilities. God will do the rest.

16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. 17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “But the righteous man shall live by faith.”

Here is these 2 verses is the crux of all of Romans. Verses 16 and 17 Lay the foundation of Paul's belief and practice of the Gospel message.

Paul is not ashamed of the Gospel! Why? Because it is the power of God!
For what purpose? For salvation to everyone who believes!
To whom does this apply? To the Jew first and also to everyone else!
What is the message? The righteousness of God is revealed in the Gospel message!
How shall we grasp such a message of Salvation? By Faith! as it is written," But the righteous man shall live by faith."!

This stuff preaches itself!  You do not need to add to it at all.  Just ask the right questions and the answers are self-evident!

Blessings to you as you read through Romans!