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Family is our greatest legacy

Your Legacy

Family is our greatest legacy Never mind what everyone else wants or demands ...

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Dan and Eileen

Is Evangelism About Winning Souls, or Arguments?

Dan and Eileen Do you evangelize? How? When? In what situations? When you ...

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God Loves You - Some Restrictions Apply

Does God Love You?

Does God hate or love sinners?  How about homosexuals?  Or military people ...

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Holy of Holies: Will You Face It or Hide From It?

Holy of Holies The Holy of Holies.  Am I ready to face God? Am I about to have my ...

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Family is our greatest legacy

Family is our greatest legacy
Family is our greatest legacy

Never mind what everyone else wants or demands from you. What do YOU want to do before your time is up?

What legacy do YOU want to leave behind for the world and future generations? And why? Why is THAT important to you?

What is so precious to you that you would give up everything else for it? What is it you fear to lose most? And why?

If you suddenly learned you had 24 hours to live what would you do with it?

What if it were 3 months?

Or fifteen minutes?

What or Who Matters Most?

If we were in Sunday school or at any gathering of people, what would we answer? Would we try to figure out the “right” answer and say that? Or would we risk being inappropriate or out of place to press in and tell the truth?

Obviously, this website is called GodsBlogs for a reason. And the typical thought is that the first of Ten Commandments is “Thou shalt have no other God’s before me.” In a way, that sort of settles the question about what the “right” answer is, and with that people might get silent, or an iconoclast might try to rock the boat and challenge the conventional answer asking, “Really?”

It’s strange that the question is so open ended and yet in such settings, people can become silenced from answering what’s truly in their hearts merely by the presence of an authoritative “right answer” that people feel prohibited from questioning.

Is God the ultimate object of honor, praise, worship, trust, faith, and obedience from the heart? Should we presume that our moral obligation is to honor God? Or can God be redefined in a way that makes him no longer honorable or praiseworthy? Is He made into an arrogant, abusive, demanding perfectionist and tyrant?

Who is God?

My personal view on this is that if God is not honorable, wise, loving, faithful, holy, decent, fair, of utmost integrity and benevolence, then regardless of how powerful He is or how terrible hell is or how wonderful heaven might be, He could not be worthy of worship.

Our moral obligation can never be to live the life of a liar or a coward seeking to appease a monster for selfish reasons, such as to get out of hell and get into heaven. Our lives should not be about buying something from God He cannot get for Himself. Our legacy should be faithfulness to the principles of the most honorable God possible and nothing less.

If I have given yet another “right answer”, I hope it will not interfere with your right to probe for yourself and seek for yourself that answer to what legacy you want to leave.

I’d like to have a life that leads people to heaven rather than hell because I believe heaven is tied directly to such an honorable God–not to an arrogant tyrant who makes arbitrary rules nobody can obey and demands perfect compliance under penalty of death without providing sufficient grace. I don’t like hell, and I cannot find it honorable unless God must enforce it against the unfaithful in order to be just, honest, loving, faithful, and true. If hell is unnecessary as a sanction against freely chosen sin, then I cannot find it right to honor someone merely out of fear of hellfire and brimstone. What I must fear instead is a just and fair hellfire and brimstone. I must fear deserving that hellfire and brimstone and not fear going there on the demands of an unjust God. And I believe God is just.

Your Legacy

Dan and Eileen

Dan and Eileen
Dan and Eileen

Do you evangelize? How? When? In what situations?

When you evangelize, what do you hope to accomplish? What outcome do you want? What do you hope to see? What is the first thing you expect to see when your evangelizing starts to show signs of success?

Immediate Success in Evangelism

Isn’t it naive to expect to win a religious fight and have our opponent suddenly humble himself and declare, “You know, you’re right and I’m wrong”?

Yet we want instant gratification. We want to prove our point and end the argument. The problem is the other side wants the same thing.

One person says, “Believe you you’ll go to hell.” The other side mocks, “God says give me a Mercedes and you’ll go to heaven, so where’s my Mercedes?” God seems to say anything the preacher wants people to believe.

But the Bible says. So what. The Koran says otherwise. So do the writings of a dozen other religions.

So one person says, “Well, you can say and do what you want, but I know you’re wrong, and when you fall into hell for all eternity, don’t complain to God that I didn’t tell you. I’ve done my part.” And both go away feeling they put the other person in his or her place.

Is there anything better than this? If so, why do we keep falling back into this pattern?

Do you want to win or just avoid losing?

If you want to avoid losing, just stay out of the battle. No brainer. Right?

How many people lost battles they never get into? Have you ever lost a battle you walked away from? Walk away. You are under no moral obligation to engage in unnecessary and unproductive wars.

When you brush the sand off your feet, you don’t have to make a ceremony out of it. Don’t feel you need to take any parting shots. Don’t indulge your addiction to having the last word. You should be able to predict they will try to do the same. And the only way to shut that down is to stop valuing the last word. Let it mean nothing of value to you. Let them end up wondering why you did not strive to get the last word they were desperate to get. Let your last word be silence.

You don’t owe them anything. Nothing. Nada.

When the Bible says to make disciples, it does not say to make silk purses out of sow’s ears. It says to make disciples.

If that sounds like a great sound bite or parting argument, see if you can discipline yourself not to use it. You might have reason to feel really good that you have overcome that temptation.

You know they’re not seeking to become a disciple. Give your time to someone who is seeking to become a disciple.

The Bible talks about finding a person of peace. That’s not a person to quarrel with. Perhaps you see someone who needs healing and you pray for them and they’re healed. Or not.

If someone wants to learn more about God, that person is precious. You have someone to share the Gospel with. If you spend more time with them, the hard cases will be more likely to come back and be ready to listen later.

Don’t waste your time on the hard cases while you ignore those hungry to learn more about God.

That’s a great way to start winning and cut down on the losing.

Evangelism is about love, power, healing and giving people a reason to seek God.  Too often we squander all of this on compromise, bitterness, unforgiveness, and sin when we should be praying to bury and leave those things behind in the water of our baptism in repentance and prayer.

How do we make disciples? By Example

Jesus said to go, heal the sick, raise the dead, make disciples, baptize them in water and in the Holy Spirit.

If we neglect prayer we will miss opportunities. So what? Isn’t life more important than being on some sort of religious treadmill or rat race?

Some feel that if we sin or turn to a life of sin we won’t lose our salvation, that we’ll only lose our rewards in heaven. When we lay down our crowns before Jesus, we won’t have so many crowns to lay down. Or if there are mansions, ours won’t be so nice. Or our place in heaven won’t be so super-nice.

But that doesn’t really matter as long as we get in. After all, we don’t want to be prideful or greedy. Right?

But what if those crowns we lay down at Jesus’ feet are our loved ones? Our children? Our parents? Our friends? What if we see our loved ones on judgment day and they’re not happy with us because we betrayed them into hell with our example of living in sin and hypocrisy?

Suppose we saved our own skin and betrayed our family and friends to an eternity with infinite pain for failing to embrace the salvation offered freely–a salvation bought and paid for by Jesus’ own blood?

What if we squandered Jesus’ suffering and blood so that it went for nought concerning those we claimed to love most?

What if we only saved our own skin?

Perhaps we would not wish for them to be lost while we were saved. Perhaps if we were truly saved we would wish we could be lost so they could be saved. Maybe we would wish we could trade places and go to hell so they could go to heaven. But we can’t. Or perhaps we are not as saved as we think we are. Saved from what? Hell or sin? Selfishness or the punishment for it?

Why do we care? Why don’t we care?

Where will we go with this?

We obviously need to minister in power. But to do that we need power. We need power to step out of our comfort zone. Or perhaps we need to get a little experience obeying Christ so that becomes our comfort zone. We need to trust Christ and do what He has called us to do in love and in power.

How do we Evangelise? – By Doing

Knowing this, we are responsible. We cannot afford to nod like a bobble-head.  We need to live what’s true.

If we need to fast or seek God, let’s do it. If we get interrupted, we need to let those at home know, and remind them and spend that time in prayer until we break through. We need to refuse to offer God any token prayers or any sacrifices that cost us nothing.

I believe token religion is what has gotten us into so much trouble these days. I also believe time is running out. If Christ were to return tomorrow and you knew it, what would you do differently today? Perhaps that is what we should be doing.

We need to minister in power–not argue–not try to win arguments. Not compensating for our lack of power due to our own cowardice and compromise. We need to surrender all to Jesus.

Is Evangelism About Winning Souls, or Arguments?

God Loves You - Some Restrictions Apply

Does God hate or love sinners?  How about homosexuals?  Or military people who risked or gave their lives for our liberty?  Is Fred Phelps of Westboro Baptist Church right?  Does God hate America?

Some say God loves everybody.  Others say the wrath of God burns against the ungodly day and night, that in sin, we stand on a crumbling precipice overhanging the lake of fire awaiting our eternal demise.

God Loves You - Some Restrictions Apply

Are you on a crumbling precipice or are you safe in the hands of an infinitely loving Father?

Most of us have opinions.  Probably most of us feel we’re going to heaven or else we’re just going to drop into a hole and rot away when we die.  Some of us believe we will be spirits wandering the earth perhaps as ghosts or angels until we are at peace with going to our eternal destiny.

Visiting a Grave of a Loved One

Did you ever visit a grave of loved one–a parent, or perhaps a sibling, child, relative or friend?  We may bring flowers and speak as though they hear us. Did you wonder where they were or whether you will ever see them again?

In our times of darkness we may dread the thought of going to hell if they are in heaven, or we may dread going to heaven if they are in hell.  We may feel guilty as though we neglected their eternal destiny in ultimate betrayal.  We may feel it will never be possible or desirable to imagine loved ones or friends in hell suffering hate and wrath from God bringing eternal, infinite pain.

Could a loving God ever send someone to hell?

We ask that, but often we contradict ourselves.  We assume Hitler must  go to hell after killing six million Jews and 5 million others. Perhaps the devil and his angels must go there, too. And terrorists and child molesters and rapists and tormentors of animals–anyone we hate.

Wouldn’t heaven be poisoned by Satan’s presence?  Would Henry VIII go to heaven after divorcing and beheading his own wives?  Or after killing the Catholic leaders who wanted to stop him?  Vlad III impaled thousands on spikes lengthwise.  Nero crucified countless men, women, and children and torching them up to light the roads.  How about Stalin?  Pol Pot?  Charles Manson?  Jack the Ripper?  Should they go to heaven?

We often hate child molesters, terrorists, tyrannical leaders, and assume blatant Satan worshipers must perish into hell as well.  We cannot imagine someone so corrupt as to get rich robbing people of their life savings and going to the grave unpunished only to enjoy riches in heaven while their victims perish in hell bitter and unforgiving.

So, who does God hate and who does He love?

Does God hate the sinner?  We’re all sinners, or we were at one time.  The Bible says all  have sinned and fall short of the glory of heaven.  Was it by accident?  Not me.  I sinned by choice.  I was selfish.  So, I cannot say the devil will perish because he was a sinner and I wasn’t.  How about you?  Have you ever sinned intentionally?  If God were to speak honestly about you, would He say you’re a sinner or a saint?

Jesus has  an interesting way of dealing with sinners, and it probably is not what you or I would expect, but it is much wiser.

Was He consistent and fair or did He play favorites?  Let’s see.

In John 8, men caught a woman in adultery and brought her to Jesus.  The law said to stone her.  They asked Jesus what to do.  If Jesus said, “Do as the scriptures say”, she could die a painful death and the men could claim Jesus told them to do so.  If Jesus said not to stone her, he would oppose the law.

What Did Jesus Do?

What was Jesus’ response?  He drew in the dirt and delayed a little.  He let them stew.  Then He spoke.  “He who is without sin, let him cast the first stone.”  Then he resumed drawing and waited as they left one by one.  He asked the woman, “Who condemns you?”  She answered, “Nobody”.  Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you.  Go and sin no more.”

How many people today say, “He that is without sin cast the first stone” when someone speaks out against sin?  Was Jesus snapping to the defense of sin?  Did Jesus love sin so much as to defend it?  Or was his love for the sinner?  If Jesus was defending sin, then why did Jesus say, “Go and sin no more?”  Doesn’t it sound like Jesus was rebuking or judging her?  Yet didn’t He say, “Neither do I condemn you”?

Judging

When Jesus spoke against judging, He spoke against hypocrisy, cowardice, and insincerity where people would defend their own sin while wanting to harm others because of their sin.  If they were truly opposed to sin, they would not live in sin.  If their justification for hating sin was that it was disrespectful toward God and unjust, then they would stop living in sin themselves.  These men did not merely want to speak out against adultery–they wanted to stone this woman to death.  They hated her.  And I wonder how many people wondered where her partner was.  How many people commit adultery alone?

What’s wacky is that people today use this passage in scripture to rationalize sin.  They run on and on about how we should never judge when someone rebukes in love, but nothing could be more hypocritical or insincere.  In the very next verse, Jesus asks the woman who condemns her.  She answered, “Nobody.”  People remember that Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you”, but they forget the next verse.  Jesus said, “Go and sin no more.”

Why would Jesus say Go and Sin No More?  Did Jesus hate her when He said, “Sin no more”?

Everybody makes mistakes. Right?

Ah.  Before you get too comfortable with that, what would you say if I said sin is not a mistake?

Would you think I was absolutely nuts?  Of course sin is a mistake.  It isn’t a good thing, is it?  We all fail sometimes.  Nobody succeeds all the time.  Who knows everything?  Are you all-powerful? I’m not.  Nobody can live the rest of their lives never once making a mistake.  Right?

Yeah, but could you, say, go the rest of your life without committing adultery?  Could you go the rest of your life never getting drunk?  Must you do every sin sometimes?  If you must sin a thousand times a day without knowing it, must you also rape children every day without knowing it?  Must you commit acts of terrorism blowing up buildings every day without knowing it?  Of course not.  Right?  Those things are serious sins.  They are intentional.  They are not mere mistakes.  You don’t say, “Whoops, I blew up the Empire State Building”.  Those are serious sins.

What if no sin were an accident? And what if God were to tell us on judgment day that every sin is preventable, that every sin is serious, that every sin is a decision to turn against Jesus as Lord and follow the demands of one’s flesh instead?  Now, do you believe it is impossible to go without sin?

Faithfulness

Ask yourself this:  Who is more worthy of faithfulness–your spouse or God?  Do you commit adultery a thousand times a day?  Would your husband or your wife tolerate it, say once per day?  Per  week?  Month?  Year?

How many times should we be unfaithful to Christ per year?

How Does Jesus Love the Sinner?

If we want to know how we are to show love to a sinner, Luke 18:18-23 shows how Jesus did it.

Luke 18:18-23 (with the context of vss. 24-30 also)

 [18] A certain ruler asked him, "Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?" 
[19] "Why do you call me good?" Jesus answered. "No one is good -- except God alone.
[20] You know the commandments: 'Do not commit adultery, do not murder, do not steal, do not give false testimony, honor your father and mother.'"
[21] "All these I have kept since I was a boy," he said.
[22] When Jesus heard this, he said to him, "You still lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me."
[23] When he heard this, he became very sad, because he was a man of great wealth.
[24] Jesus looked at him and said, "How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God! [25] Indeed, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God."
[26] Those who heard this asked, "Who then can be saved?"
[27] Jesus replied, "What is impossible with men is possible with God."
[28] Peter said to him, "We have left all we had to follow you!"
[29] "I tell you the truth," Jesus said to them, "no one who has left home or wife or brothers or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God [30] will fail to receive many times as much in this age and, in the age to come, eternal life."

 Jesus Lord and Love

Jesus loved the man.  He did not march with signs saying, “God hates rich greedy young rulers”.  However, Jesus worked this young man like a lawyer.  In fact, Jesus taught this young man Socratically asking questions. “Do you know the commandments?”

Jesus named some safe commandments he knew the man was OK with. And the man perked up and said happily, “I have done these since birth.” Those were the easy ones.  

We  all have easy commandments.  We’re proud we don’t rob banks like the bank robber. And we don’t molest children like child molesters.  Nor do we murder people or swindle people or beat people up violently or read Playboys.  We don’t get drunk or take drugs or sleep around.  We’re among the most trustworthy, honest, loving, forgiving, moral, ethical, upright people we know.  By our standards.

But, Jesus puts His finger on a sin we haven’t given up and says, “There–that is the one I want you to give up.”   That sin owns us.  We fight to defend it even if we have to fight God to do it.  If someone touches it, we cry, “Judge not, judge not–the Bible commands us to judge not.”  Nobody has cursed us or called for our demise.  But, the minute someone identifies a moral standard or a sin, we fight to defend our sin.  Or we walk away and ostracize that person.  Perhaps they have touched the sin that is Lord over our lives, the sin we worship, the sin that has the place in our lives that only rightfully belongs to Christ.

Finally

Does God love us?  Yes.  In fact He loves us enough to die for us, and enough to tell us the truth we need but don’t want to hear.

But, will we surrender to Him?  Or will we hate God and love sin?

Does God Love You?

4 comments

Holy of Holies
Holy of Holies in the Jewish temple

Holy of Holies

The Holy of Holies.  Am I ready to face God? Am I about to have my appointment with eternity? Five minutes from now, will I be alive or gone to face my eternal destiny? Ananias and Sapphira apparently unaware of the danger lied to God and to their surprise perished immediately. So did those who touched the ark of the covenant.

Holy of Holies: Will You Face It or Hide From …

Christmas Tree Stump

How much does God love you?  A little?  A lot?
Well, He died on the cross to save you from your sin.
And that’s a lot of love.

How would He feel if you turned Him down?
If you decided you’d rather perish forever than love Him.
I’m sure you would hurt God deeply.

How Much Does Jesus Love You?

Many people hate to hear those words.  After all, how could God love us if we are sinful, undeserving, selfish, and have a horrible past?

Others who are equally sinful are totally ignorant of their sin.  They thank God they are not as bad as the robber, the molester, the murderer, the terrorist, the drug pusher, the alcoholic, the adulterer.  They’re happy to hear God loves them because they feel worthy.  But, to hear that God loves the really bad sinner is offensive to them.  So they rule their churches with the iron fist of hypocrisy bullying their pastors and ministers into compliance.  They’re modern day Pharisees, and one may wonder if they ever will be saved from their ignorance, their arrogance, or their sin.

God Loves You Dearly!

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