ONE HAND ONE HEART

Deuteronomy 6: 1 – 6
1 These are the commands, decrees and laws the LORD your God directed me to teach you to observe in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess,
2 so that you, your children and their children after them may fear the LORD your God as long as you live by keeping all his decrees and commands that I give you, and so that you may enjoy long life.
3 Hear, O Israel, and be careful to obey so that it may go well with you and that you may increase greatly in a land flowing with milk and honey, just as the LORD, the God of your fathers, promised you.
4 Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.
5 Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.
6 These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts.

There it is, laid out in front of you for you to read and make your own opinions so that you may apply it to your life. There is not a lot of wiggle room for what the scripture says here.
There is only one God.
He loves us.
We must love him in return.

BY FAITH...

Hebrews 11: 1 – 6
Does God exist? If he does, do I believe in God?
These are questions that are asked hundreds of times a day by many people around the world. Some come too the conclusion that God does not exist, and weep. Others find out that he really does and rejoice.
6 And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.
In Hebrews 11:6 we are told that to find God and please Him, we first have to believe that He exists. How can we prove that God exists? Finding God is a matter of faith—confidence in Him and commitment to Him. This confidence and commitment should remain strong even though the objects of our faith are unseen. The writer of Hebrews and the apostle John agree that ultimately the way to find the Lord and please Him is by believing in His Son Jesus.
Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No-one comes to the Father except through me. (John 14:6).
Finding God is solely a work of God. Those who seek Him will find Him because God will give them a heart to recognize Him as Lord
You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.
I will be found by you," declares the LORD, "and will bring you back from captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you," declares the LORD, "and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile."(Jer. 29:13-14).
I must say that there was no time in my life when I did not believe in God. Even at my worst I believed that there was something out there that was on a higher level than me. I wasn't sure who or what God was, but I knew it was there.
I did doubt at one time that he was caring and loving. I thought like many that he was judgmental and just waiting for me to mess up to bring chaos to my life which was out of control already. It took me getting sober to begin to realize that there was a loving God, which was the beginning of belief.
Faith is a wonderful thing. I have found it to be of great comfort and strength. I could go on forever.
Look, just seek, and he will be found.
You won't regret it.

GETTING IN YOUR HEAD

Galatians 1: 6 – 9

God be in my head, and in my understanding;

God be in my eyes, and in my looking;

God be in my mouth, and in my speaking;

God be in my heart, and in my thinking.
Sarum Primer

Sounds a little weird, doesn't it? We often accuse those people who try to make us confused as playing with our heads, Psychiatrists with getting inside our heads, and we think that cult leaders get into peoples heads also. So why pray that God be in our heads? I mean it's bad enough that people we know think of us as closed minded fools and that are brainwashed in our political views, and our views of the world, and even into the way we act. But, then I thought that if I'm to experience the emotional parts of a relationship with Jesus Christ, why must I check my mind and my thinking at the door?
After all I am a free thinking citizen protected by the constitution.
We get lead in all different directions by all sorts of things in this world. We can get so confused and twisted by TV, music,the Internet, extra-marital affairs, cars, jewelry, politicians, etc., etc., that it messes up our compasses so much that we can't find true north anymore. It's amazing that the word of God can compete at all.
That's why Paul warns us in his letter to the Galatians about being lead astray by false teachers and prophets.

6 I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel—
7 which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ.
8 But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned!
9 As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let him be eternally condemned!

I used to live my life by simple principles, “If it feels good, do it”, and “The one who dies with the most toys wins”. As I look around the room, I see many heads nodding in agreement so I can only think that I am not the only one who has had a major change here. In reality, the one who dies with the most toys, STILL DIES!! And Paul once again reminds us that all things are available to do, but not all things are expeditious, in other words, just because we can do something, doesn't mean that we should.
After saying all that, I really want God to be in my head as much as I want him in my heart. Using a nautical term, I want to “box my compass” (calibrate) so that I can find true north and be able find my way through the mine field that is my everyday life.

OOPS, WRONG WAY AGAIN.

Psalm 32: 1 – 5
I really want to get a GPS unit for my car and bike, even though I have a pretty good sense
of direction and can't stand MAPQUEST.
GPS stands for; Global Positioning System, which is a net of satellites in orbit around the planet that can correlate where you are within a few feet, anywhere on the earth. When such a device is used, we can input our starting place, and our destination, and the GPS unit will plot a course to follow that will get us where we're going. They even can recompute the trip when we make mistakes and get off course.
Another little piece of information about these little units is that they have voices. The voice calmly and blandly tell where to go and how far we are from the destination, until I went off course by mistake. Then the unit develops an attitude. The calm bland voice becomes loud and demanding. It reminded me a little of my mother when I was a kid and would mess up in public.

1Blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered.
2 Blessed is the man whose sin the LORD does not count against him and in whose spirit is no deceit.
3 When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long.
4 For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer. Selah
5 Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, "I will confess my transgressions to the LORD"—and you forgave the guilt of my sin. Selah

I much prefer what my friends and I have called the God's Positioning System.
This GPS comes with a hand held analog device which gives me direction for my day every morning.
The analog device is called the Bible. With this God's voice clearly tells me how he wants me to live as I travel this road.
When I go off course my GPS reminds me of this fact and gently reminds me that I can get back on the right track.
No matter how far you’ve traveled in the wrong direction, it’s not too late to turn around. God is ready to forgive and restore. If you’re headed down the wrong road, please make a U-turn.

I’ve strayed, O Lord, and turned aside,

I’ve disobeyed Your voice;

But now with contrite heart I turn

And make Your will my choice. —D. De Haan

SUNDAY FUNNIES

CHOSEN

Hebrews 12: 1 – 11
There is the old story of the Jewish man who, at a ripe old age, was given a miracle. That miracle was an opportunity to meet with God himself, and ask him 2 questions.
As he stood before the throne of God the man asked his first question; “Is it true that the Jews are your chosen people”?
God immediately replied in a loving tone; “Yes”!
Smiling the man knelt and asked his second question; “Could you choose somebody else for a while”?
Since we made the choice to accept Jesus into our hearts, we have been blessed to be appointed as the children of God. Yet we still struggle daily with sin and hardship. We walked into this relationship with eyes wide open, yet we also fooled ourselves into thinking that when we did, our lives would become pain free.
How easy it is to forget what it is to be in relationship with a kind and loving father who must, from time to time, disciple us for the mistakes we have made, so that we might grow to be better people.

4 In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.
5 And you have forgotten that word of encouragement that addresses you as sons: "My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you,
6 because the Lord disciplines those he loves,
7 Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father?
8 If you are not disciplined (and everyone undergoes discipline), then you are illegitimate children and not true sons. and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son."

One of the things that I complain about is that I am in pain daily with my arthritis. There are times when it is so bad that it wakes me up at night. My wife tells me that she can tell when it's bad because she can hear me moan in my sleep before I wake up. I tell you this not for sympathy, but to illustrate how foolish and weak I can sometimes be.

10 Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness.
11 No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.

After reading God's word, how can I complain? I have not been disciplined to the point of blood, nor is my pain as great as that endured by Jesus who was God's son.
What I'm trying to say here is that the troubles we go through and the struggles we have against sin are hard to bear up under. Yet it is worth it.

THE LUST OF THE EYES

1 John 2: 12 – 17
One of the worst problems we have is the lust of the eyes. Porn, prostitution, strip clubs, extra-marital affairs, and lusting after that pretty woman who just walked by, all have the capability of ruining relationships at work, at church, and at home.
16 For everything in the world—the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does— comes not from the Father but from the world.
Every guy experiences this lust at one time or another. The anonymity of the Internet, the darkness of gentlemen's clubs lead us to feel as if we will not be caught and we can get away with it. Watching that pretty girl is such a personal thing that we can get away with it by just wearing a simple pair of sun glasses. The problem lies in that our lusting effects not only us, but those we love. It feeds desires in such a way that we can never be satisfied. Our wives can never match up to the women we have created in our minds.
Now it must be said here that the lust of the eyes goes beyond the objectification of women and sexual acts. It reaches out to the way we look at things that other people have, like cars, clothes, houses, you know really cool stuff. We want it and we have to have it. Unfortunately it never looks, feels, or sounds as cool as it did in someone else's house or in the showroom.
Piling on here, we also get ourselves in trouble by boasting about our deeds. We grow our actions in our minds until they become so large that we can't possibly live up to other's expectations of us.
These things are of the world and not of God.
15 Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
17 The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives for ever.
True satisfaction is found only when we give our affections to eternal things—to a right relationship with our heavenly Father and with those He has created in His image.
The insatiable appetite to indulge in pleasures that inflame the flesh but never satisfy, Wandering eyes that continually want more riches and possessions but always remain covetous, and vain mind that thirsts for man’s applause. But the glory evaporates quickly. All these things bring us down, not lift us up as we first thought they would.

Inner peace springs out of inner purity.

OOOHH! NOOO!

Lamentations 1: 12 – 16, 3: 19 – 23
When I was young and SNL was first one the air,(You know, the good ones that were really funny) they had recurring films about a clay-mation character named Mr. Bill.
Mr. Bill has returned in a new TV commercial, where he depicted having something good happen, which goes horribly wrong, but ends up being okay. Everything works out in the end.
With the destruction of Jerusalem, Jeremiah lamented over what once was a great city and center of worship now devastated by war. But Jeremiah did not remain in despair. He recognized God’s sovereignty in suffering.
15 "The Lord has rejected all the warriors in my midst; he has summoned an army against me to crush my young men. In his wine press the Lord has trampled the Virgin Daughter of Judah.
16 "This is why I weep and my eyes overflow with tears. No-one is near to comfort me, no-one to restore my spirit. My children are destitute because the enemy has prevailed."
21 Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope:
22 Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail.
23 They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.
Has sorrow or suffering made your life feel like a dark silhouette of what it once was? Remember, God’s mercies are new every morning.
Ps 30:5 For his anger lasts only a moment, but his favor lasts a lifetime; weeping may remain for a night, but rejoicing comes in the morning.
Like Mr. Bill, bad things may happen, then good things may often be a result.
If we keep our hearts and eyes focused on God, we will be able to stand up during those times of strife and trouble, and rejoice when those times turn to the good.

SHEEP

Luke 15: 3 – 7
3 Then Jesus told them this parable:
4 "Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Does he not leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it?
5 And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders
6 and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’
7 I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.
I love this parable, and I love what it says, I also know what it means to me. You see, I am the sheep that was lost. And, I know several people in the same predicament.
What I mean to say is we were all at one time lost and in need of saving.
Ps 100:3 Know that the LORD is God. It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.
We are so incredibly blessed to have such a loving God that he would take us on his shoulder and carry us when we stray, even before we knew we were sheep.

Last night as I was closing the chickens in their coop, I noticed something in the corner, something round and brown. As I went in for a closer look, I found two eggs! The first two eggs from our flock. I plan to have a good breakfast this morning.
(Pictures to follow)

LOVE

Hosea 11
Love exciting and new
Come on board, we're expecting you
Love, life's sweetest reward
Let it flow, it comes back to you.
(Everybody sing the chorus)
On the love boat, love was lost and found in 60 minutes. People would come on board looking for love, or they would be in shaky relationships that would be healed with a little advice from Isaac the bartender. It would be great if love and relationships could be reconciled in such a short period of time.
Many people think of God as an impersonal force, something akin to the law of gravity. The book of Hosea portrays almost the opposite: a God of passion and fury and tears and love. A God in mourning over Israel’s rejection of Him.
1 "When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son.
2 But the more I called Israel, the further they went from me. They sacrificed to the Baals and they burned incense to images.
3 It was I who taught Ephraim to walk, taking them by the arms; but they did not realize it was I who healed them.
4 I led them with cords of human kindness, with ties of love; I lifted the yoke from their neck and bent down to feed them.
8 "How can I give you up, Ephraim? How can I hand you over, Israel? How can I treat you like Admah? How can I make you like Zeboiim? My heart is changed within me; all my compassion is aroused.
9 I will not carry out my fierce anger, nor will I turn and devastate Ephraim. For I am God, and not man, the Holy One among you. I will not come in wrath.
Ever witness a father in a divorce and hear him have this exact conversation with himself over the loss of not only his marriage, but also his children? Imagine how God must feel with us. That's what Hosea is all about, showing us the love of God for us.
God the lover does not desire to share His bride with anyone else. Yet, amazingly, when Israel turned her back on God, He stuck with her. He was willing to suffer, in hope that someday she would return to Him.
Hosea, and later Jesus, prove that God longs not to punish but to love. In fact, He loved us so much that He sent His Son to die for us!

AIN'T WASTIN' TIME NO MORE

Ephesians 5: 15 – 21
When I first got sober, I found myself searching for spiritual fulfillment. I tried all the new age bologna, looked at ancient eastern religions, I even thought that I needed to convert to Catholicism because I felt that I needed a spiritual community, when really all I was doing was searching for a relationship with God. I read all kinds of foolish books on the subjects of spiritual, peaceful living. One of my favorite books at this time endeavored to explain the eastern religion called Taoism. The title of the book was; “The Tao of Pooh”. The author used all the characters from the Winnie the Pooh stories as examples of the Taoist theory. The one theory from that book that I retained was;
“ You can't save time, you can only spend it. So spend it wisely”.
Paul wrote similar words to the church at Ephesus a couple of thousand years before Winnie the Pooh about wasting time
15 Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise,
16 making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.
17 Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is.
The Greek scholar Kenneth Wuest suggests that this refers to time in its “strategic, opportune seasons” and means “making a wise and sacred use of every opportunity for doing good.”
I will often ask myself; “Why did I spend my time so foolishly looking for God in all the wrong places”?
I was not spending my time wisely, I was wasting my time and I'm sure that the enemy loved it, I'm sure that he laughed quietly to himself as I, like so many others, searched everywhere but the right place for truth. I was not making a wise sacred use of every opportunity.
Once again I find myself not having an ending for this teaching and am trying to just wrap it up in a nice pretty bow.
We all know how to waste time, we've done it all our lives, but it's time to make a change.
We can all put down the video games and ipods ans pick up a book or talk to someone sitting next us. Who knows, maybe by doing something like that, God may use our lives to impact others by helping us make a wise and sacred use of every opportunity for doing good.

SUNDAY FUNNIES

EXTRAVAGANT PROMISES?

Exodus 16: 1 – 5
1 The whole Israelite community set out from Elim and came to the Desert of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after they had come out of Egypt.
3 The Israelites said to them, "If only we had died by the Lord's hand in Egypt! There we sat round pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death."
Years ago a friend of mine did a bike ride from downtown Boston to midtown New York for AIDS research. I boasted to her that I could do that even though I hadn't ridden a bike since I was a kid. I got a bike and began to ride all the time thinking about that three day “ride of death” that was rapidly approaching. By the time I was about a week away from the ride, I had convinced myself that I couldn't do it and was not going to show up at the ride registration. The closer the day got, the more I was convinced that I couldn't do it and that I would have been better off if I hadn't even tried.
I had come down with a case of R.T.E.S. (return to Egypt syndrome)
That's where the Israelites were in Elim.
There was this whole large desert in front of them and they were convinced that they would die, even though that God had performed incredible miracles and made them a promise of their own land on the other side.
4 Then the LORD said to Moses, "I will rain down bread from heaven for you. The people are to go out each day and gather enough for that day. In this way I will test them and see whether they will follow my instructions.
God was about to perform another miracle to feed his chosen people to inoculate them from R.T.E.S.
Bread from heaven? Now that would be cool, food for free. Imagine the money we could save today if God would rain bread from heaven on us.
How much you wanna bet that the Israelites will complain about bread from heaven?
The Bible reminds us that today is all we need to tackle. We don’t need to worry about tomorrow’s tasks. Imagine Moses thinking, “I’ve got to feed all these people for who knows how long. How can I get that much food?” God took care of that with manna, but only enough for one day at a time.
Oh, by the way, I did do the AIDS ride, even though I complained quite a bit all along the way about it because I was still convinced that I would have been better off at home, but, I made it all the way.
R.T.E.S sucks try to inoculate yourself against it with daily doses of God and his word.

WON'T YOU GUESS MY NAME?

John 8: 42 – 47
Today all we hear about in the news is “Spin”. It's everywhere, whenever a politician or any person says something in public, “Spin Doctors” come out and tell us what they really meant. The spinners we see most these days are those involves in the national election, and they can make you think that their candidate meant it was daylight when he said it was night.
The master spin doctor, the father of all spin doctors, the spinners spinner is Satan.
43 Why is my language not clear to you? Because you are unable to hear what I say.
44 You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desire. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.
He casts himself as the one who wants to give us unfettered freedom and pleasure, carefully masking his plan to steal, kill, and destroy us.
John 10: 10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.
He even spins the loving laws of God by claiming that God’s boundaries are restrictive, simply intended to take all the fun out of living. When we buy into Satan’s damaging lies, we will eventually find ourselves empty and broken, sidelined in our journey with God.
We have been foolish enough to fall for his lies ever since the garden of Eden. He continually changes his game to go along with the times, constantly gaining strength with those who choose not to listen to Jesus. The blind, ignorant army of the minions of Satan comes at us from all directions with popular culture and seemingly innocent themes. Thankfully, Jesus warns us. He says that Satan is the father of lies. And we know Satan is lying when what he tells us contradicts God’s Word.

The devil is crafty, deceptive, and sly;

He cleverly tricks us to swallow his lie.

But his cunning methods we’re sure to discern

If we make God’s warnings our daily concern. —D. De Haan

IF THE DEVILCAN'T MAKE YOU BAD....

Luke 10: 38 – 42
38 As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him.
39 She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said.
40 But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, "Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!"
41 "Martha, Martha," the Lord answered, "you are worried and upset about many things,
42 but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her."
Work, kids, bills, chores, your buddies, TV, the Internet, and a whole list of other things all gang up to create distractions that keep us from God. The old saying that: “If the devil can't make you bad, he'll make you busy”, has never been more apparent than today.
I love God and I love to read his word. When I read for shear entertainment I read books by Christian authors with Christian themes,but boy can I get distracted. Just as if I had ADD, all it takes is a shiny object, and there I go, wandering away engaged in some other activity whether it's work or a cool song on the radio, or whatever.
It happens when I'm in the word, and I can even get distracted while in prayer. Something comes to mind and there I go again.
Now, I'm sure that I'm not the only one that this happens to, after all it happened to Martha, and maybe, just maybe it happens to you.
Martha got upset, because she was distracted by doing chores and Mary wasn't. Maybe she was jealous, or maybe she wanted her house and dinner to be perfect, after all, Jesus was there in her home, and if Mary would just lend a hand, maybe she could relax and enjoy his company too. How could Mary just sit there while she was doing all the work? Can't you just see the devil at work in Martha's head, making her mad, making her jealous, keeping her from what she should really be doing?
De 6:5 Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.
We all need to follow this command. I know that I wish that I could hit that target, but there are activities of daily life that need to be attended to as well. Unfortunately we all need to pay bills, and provide for our loved ones, and yes we all need time to have a good time and relax with friends and family. And, to be sure, we need to clean our “houses” because Jesus is living in us.
God has given us the opportunity to have personal moments with Him. By taking the time just to be with the Lord, we are fed, refreshed, and renewed.
Let's not waist that opportunity by looking at the shiny object.

THE GOOD OLD DAYS

Deuteronomy 31: 9 – 13
It wasn't all that long ago when the church was the center of town activity, when people were not offended to go to the 1'st church for a pot luck supper or even to have a meeting of the planning board while the town hall was being renovated. The separation of church and state was treated as the founding fathers intended where the government tried not to set up a state run church, and didn't interfere with the way the pastor ran his church.
God's name was proclaimed in the town square and nobody minded, in fact, it was encouraged as a way to teach us kids the respect that was due our Heavenly Father. We prayed in church, in school, before little league games, and if your religion demanded a different prayer than one to Jesus Christ, well that was okay too, we had ecumenical prayer by religious leaders of all beliefs in our area. Beliefs were respected not homogenized beyond recognition.
I may be dreaming of this paradise, but I do remember these thing from my youth, these things were real at one time. Life was far from perfect but things were pretty good. We knew who we were, and we were taught to take responsibility for our actions.
12 Assemble the people—men, women and children, and the aliens living in your towns—so that they can listen and learn to fear the LORD your God and follow carefully all the words of this law.
13 Their children, who do not know this law, must hear it and learn to fear the LORD your God as long as you live in the land you are crossing the Jordan to possess."
God wants everybody to hear his word, to hear the law given to Moses, to learn to fear God for as long as we live.
There are people today that will claim that this is wrong and prejudiced, they will say that not all people believe the same and that some may be offended by hearing the name God, and that the government must remove all aspects of religion from the public square.
The word of God is considered offensive and thought of as hate speech by some because it gives us a sense of right and wrong and establishes a set of rules to follow.
Alright, I'm beginning to ramble, but I think I have put my ideas across.
The word of God can be offensive to some, but that doesn't mean that it is not necessary to hear it.
God claims that it must be read to all.
So, lets do just that, and then let others make their own choices of what to do with that knowledge.

WHAT DO WE THINK WE'RE DOING?

James 1: 19 – 27
James was the half brother of Jesus, and when I first came to know the Lord, I would read his book over and over because it reached out to me in a way that I could understand what he was saying.
(Boy was that a long sentence)
His book is filled with simple, easy to understand and follow instructions on how to live as a Christian.
19 My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry,
20 for man’s anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires.
That's pretty simple right? Take a minute before you react, and don't let anger rule cause it ain't gonna be good for you.
James is really cool, he tells us not to fool ourselves and to look after others who need the help.
22 Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.
26 If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless.
27 Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.
Once again, real simple to understand what he is talking about.
One of the things that I guess I can relate to with James is that he came late to the table sort of like I did. At first he didn't believe that his brother Jesus was the Messiah and probably thought that Jesus was crazy. Like James, I had plenty of opportunity to come to believe earlier in my life than I did.
But, I thank God that he was patient enough and hit me on the head hard enough and long enough, that, like James, I finally came to understand and believe.
Read the book of James it's a good read and easy to follow,

GOD'S WORD

Psalm 119: 17 – 24
I can't believe how blessed we are to be living in a time and place where we can read the Bible in our own language no matter what that language may be.
Even though there were three original languages that made up the books of the Bible, it was compiled into one book in Latin making the word of God available to only a few well educated people.
Can you imagine what it would be like to go to church and not understand what the Pastor was reading?
Can you imagine not being able to read the Bible?
Thankfully, many years ago brave people translated the Bible into the languages of the common people once again making the word available to everybody as God wanted it to be in the first place. We know this by reading what the Psalmist says in Psalm 119 (and other places also).
17 Do good to your servant, and I will live; I will obey your word.
18 Open my eyes that I may see wonderful things in your law.
19 I am a stranger on earth; do not hide your commands from me.
20 My soul is consumed with longing for your laws at all times.
21 You rebuke the arrogant, who are cursed and who stray from your commands.
22 Remove from me scorn and contempt, for I keep your statutes.
23 Though rulers sit together and slander me, your servant will meditate on your decrees.
24 Your statutes are my delight; they are my counselors.
It is apparent to me by reading this passage, that God wants us to know and meditate on his word, and for our eyes to be opened by them,and that the word is to be a comfort to us. So, how foolish we were when we took the word of God from common languages and translated it into one language that could not be read by everybody.
I love to read my Bible, and have read through it a few times, so I can't imagine not being able to understand it. Having God’s Word in my own language allows me to experience the joy of meditating on it each day.
Pick up your Bible and start reading. Thank those brave people like Erasmus and Tyndale who defied the church and translated the word back into Greek and then into English, and thank God for the gift of his word.

SUNDAY FUNNIES

JUST FOLKS

Mathew 4: 18 – 25
I was a kid when I met one of my heroes; Maj. Don West. He was the military attache, and pilot of the Jupiter 2 for the Robinson family as they spanned the distance between Earth and Alpha Centauri.
He was so cool wearing that silver flight suit, and of course he was always ready to give Dr. Smith his comeuppance, and lets not forget all that tension between him and Judy Robinson.
When I met him, I realized that he was just a guy. His job was to act on TV, he was an entertainer, not only that but he ended up being a teacher of my step-son Steven.
In other words he was a person like you and me.
18 As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen.
21 Going on from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John. They were in a boat with their father Zebedee, preparing their nets. Jesus called them,
22 and immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him.
Jesus Himself grew up in the home of a laborer. When His time came to go public, He was announced by a weather-worn man of the wilderness known as John the Baptizer. His disciples were fishermen and common people.
Okay. So maybe the use of Mark Goddard as Maj. West wasn't a good analogy for the guys that Jesus chose to be his representative here on earth for when he would leave it,but it's all I got.
But, think about it, what made those twelve guys so special? Well, God did I guess, but, it was us folks who made them heroes who wore cool silver suits.
They were ordinary guys who got to do extraordinary things, the impact of which influenced the whole world.
Jesus lived, loved, and died for wealthy people too. But by befriending those who had been demon-possessed, lepers, fishermen, and even despised tax collectors, the teacher from Nazareth showed that no one is too poor, too sinful, or too insignificant to be His friend.

What a friend we have in Jesus,

All our sins and griefs to bear!

What a privilege to carry

Everything to God in prayer!

A HANDFUL OF THORNS

Psalm 105: 1 – 6
Jeremy Taylor was a 17th-century English cleric who was severely persecuted for his faith. But though his house was plundered, his family left destitute, and his property confiscated, he continued to count the blessings he could not lose.
He wrote: “They have not taken away my merry countenance, my cheerful spirit, and a good conscience; they have still left me with the providence of God, and all His promises . . . my hopes of Heaven, and my charity to them, too, and still I sleep and digest, I eat and drink, I read and meditate. And he that hath so many causes of joy, and so great should never choose to sit down upon his little handful of thorns.”
When I was a young one, whenever I thought that everything was stacked against me, my mother would always say; “Count your blessings”. I'm sure that we have all heard that little piece of advice at one time or another in our lives.
We all have times of trouble and need, sometimes more than we think we can handle, but if we look to what God has done in our lives, our troubles can seem to melt away. We focus on the bad a lot more than the good, and that is a choice.
Our troubles are that handful of thorns that we can choose to live with, or we can choose to live with the good things that God has given us.
I'm tired this morning and I am beginning to ramble and not make too much sense, so I guess the best way to close this lesson is to revel in Gods word.

1 Give thanks to the LORD, call on his name; make known among the nations what he has done.
2 Sing to him, sing praise to him; tell of all his wonderful acts.
3 Glory in his holy name; let the hearts of those who seek the LORD rejoice.
4 Look to the LORD and his strength; seek his face always.
5 Remember the wonders he has done, his miracles, and the judgments he pronounced,
6 O descendants of Abraham his servant, O sons of Jacob, his chosen ones.

When upon life’s billows you are tempest-tossed,

When you are discouraged, thinking all is lost;

Count your many blessings—name them one by one,

And it will surprise you what the Lord has done. (Oatman)

Spend your time counting your blessings, not airing your complaints.

OH MAN, DO I HAVE TO?

Mathew 6: 9 – 15
When I have been wronged, I can think of thousands of reasons why I don't want to forgive and why I shouldn't have to. I like to think of little ways that I can seek revenge, imagine creative and artistic ways to torture those whom I have perceived as needing this to happen to them. I laugh quietly to myself, like Renfield, as I roll these thoughts around in my head.
When I have trouble forgiving people that I need to, all I do is make myself more angry, and if they are aware of it, I make the offending party feel guilty longer than they have to, using it like a hammer to pound them over the head until they beg me to stop.
How's that for a Christian attitude?
Sound familiar?
The problem with this attitude is that it separates us from God, and that ain't good. Time after time, when we read God's word we see that to be forgiven, we must forgive.
12 Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
15 But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.
That's twice in three verses, and we know that if things in the Bible are repeated, God really wants us to pay attention to them, so he must mean this whole forgiveness thing and, that even if I struggle with it, well, then it's tough toenails for me.
But beyond that, I can identify three pragmatic reasons.
First, forgiveness halts the cycle of blame and pain, breaking the chain of ungrace. Without it we remain bound to the people we can’t forgive, held in their vise grip.
Second, forgiveness loosens the stranglehold of guilt in the perpetrator. It allows the possibility of transformation in the guilty party, even if a just punishment is still required.
And third, forgiveness creates a remarkable linkage, placing the forgiver on the same side as the party who did the wrong. Two wrongs don't make a right.
I love God but I hate that whole “iron sharpens iron” thing. When I learn a lesson and try to implement what I have learned, it hurts because I am not used to it.
Learning to forgive and go to my brother that I have a resentment against to work it out has beena long hard lesson. Yet, it has been a valuable one.

When I consider Calvary’s dismay

The shame, the scorn, the scourging borne by You

Resentment melts; I am compelled to say,

“Forgive them, Lord, they know not what they do!” Mollon

He who cannot forgive others burns the bridge over which he himself must pass. Herbert

EREV YOM KIPPUR

Mathew 5: 21 26
21 "You’re familiar with the command to the ancients, ‘Do not murder.’
22 I’m telling you that anyone who is so much as angry with a brother or sister is guilty of murder. Carelessly call a brother ‘idiot!’ and you just might find yourself hauled into court. Thoughtlessly yell ‘stupid!’ at a sister and you are on the brink of hellfire. The simple moral fact is that words kill.
23 "This is how I want you to conduct yourself in these matters. If you enter your place of worship and, about to make an offering, you suddenly remember a grudge a friend has against you,
24 abandon your offering, leave immediately, go to this friend and make things right. Then and only then, come back and work things out with God.
25 "Or say you’re out on the street and an old enemy accosts you. Don’t lose a minute. Make the first move; make things right with him. After all, if you leave the first move to him, knowing his track record, you’re likely to end up in court, maybe even jail.
26 If that happens, you won’t get out without a stiff fine.

In Judaism, the holiest day of the year is Yom Kippur, the day of atonement. On that day, the nation seeks God’s forgiveness for sins both personal and national.
What is interesting, however, is the day before Yom Kippur, known as Erev Yom Kippur. It represents a person’s last opportunity to seek forgiveness from other people before Yom Kippur begins. This is important because, in Jewish thought, you must seek forgiveness from other people before you can seek the forgiveness of God.
Today, we are called to do the same. Jesus pointed out that in order to worship Him with all our heart, we first need to resolve matters with others. (ODB)

Today is Erev Yom Kippur.
Getting things right with our brothers is as important today as it was when these words were first written. So I guess today is as good a day as any to go and see those that we have resentments against.
Work it out. Hug it out if you have to. Get it over and done with.

Have you hurt a friend or brother?

Go at once and make things right;

From your heart say, “Please forgive me.

”How these words bring God delight! —D. De Haan

An offense against your neighbor is a fence between you and God.

WE ARE THE BODY

1 Corinthians 12: 14 – 17
Way back at the turn of the century, I was getting ready, along with my buddy Ray, to go to Daytona bike week for the first time. Before we left, I had an accident that bruised the bones of my left leg quite severely. I was weary of going to the Dr. for fear that he would put me in the hospital because I broken my leg, and began to walk with a cane to try to relieve my pain. This didn't work and in fact caused more pain to both my legs and back until I finally relented and went to the Doctors.
He told me that the reason that me pain was getting worse throughout out my body was because that I was trying to compensate for my left leg by putting more strain on the rest of my body. His non-medication treatment was to give me crutches thereby taking the strain off the muscles that were over compensating for my weakness and easing my pain level immensely.
14 Now the body is not made up of one part but of many.
18 But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be.
19 If they were all one part, where would the body be?
20 As it is, there are many parts, but one body.
As our bodies have many different parts that are inter-connected, so do we have many different people (parts) in the church as a whole.
God has given each believer gifts that are to be exercised for the common good of the church. But when some don’t pull their weight, others far less gifted in those areas must pitch in. Although the body of Christ continues to function, it is not functioning at its best.
There are some overworked Christians around!
21 The eye cannot say to the hand, "I don’t need you!" And the head cannot say to the feet, "I don’t need you!"
22 On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable,
23 and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty,
24 while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has combined the members of the body and has given greater honor to the parts that lacked it,
25 so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other.
The lovely Mrs. Block and I discussed not using our gifts as given us by God last night before going to sleep. I had admitted that I was being lazy in not finishing my search for my spiritual gifts, and was rather quite happy doing what I am doing.
Her point was that if I had special gifts that God has given me, and was either not aware of them or not using them to their fullest, then I was disappointing God with my laziness and needed to ask for forgiveness.
Upon reflection I have to agree with her, and will be finishing my search this week. Even though I am one of the many in our church that has a tendency to pick up the slack and fill the voids in our ministries, I should find out my true talents and use them for God.
God wants us to use our spiritual gifts to benefit others in the church. When we work together, we keep the body strong.

HOW YOU DOIN'?

Ephesians 3: 14 – 21
In the western panhandle of Texas is a small town named Texline. It had an ostentatious beginning in the late 1800s as a thriving center along a new railroad line. Within a few years, though, most of the shops had closed and the town’s population shriveled to about 400. In 2000, the population was still just over 500.
One online description of Texline says that it has “a city limits sign at one end, another at the other end, and not much in between.”
What a waste if the same description could be given of our spiritual journey!
So here comes the question.
“How you doin'?”
Our walks with God are all varied and different, some having just a working knowledge that God exists to those who have a rich life changing relationship with Him. The journey begins when we first turn our lives over to Jesus and ends when our life on earth ends and our life in eternity begins. So what we're dealing with is what happens between the beginning and end. Are you moving or standing still, growing or stagnant, are you living your spiritual life to its fullest?
16 I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being,
17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love,
18 may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ,
19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
Paul obviously wanted us to have this kind of spiritual fulfillment, and if he does, than that means that God has the same desire for us. That being said how can we not want the same thing? All we have to do is ask and walk.
Once again; “How you doin'?”
I am prayerful that the answer is; “I'm living a rich full life.”

Lord, thank You for all that You have done for me.

I commit myself to making the most of my spiritual journey.

I want to experience as much as I can of You and all

You have to offer to me. Amen. (ODB)

A life given fully to God becomes a God-filled life.

SUNDAY FUNNIES

WHAT HAPPENED?

John 9: 1 – 12
why is it that whenever we hear of a friends illness, or misfortune, the first thing we do is say; “What happened?, When was this?, or How could God allow this?”.
1 As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth.
2 His disciples asked him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?"
3 "Neither this man nor his parents sinned," said Jesus, "but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life.
It is rare that the first words we is are; “What can I do to help?” We always seem to have the same kind of pop quiz for people as the disciples had for Jesus about the blind guy. We focus on the catastrophe and not the person. Thankfully, Jesus modeled a compassionate response. Rather than speculation and condemnation, He marshaled His resources to help, which in this case meant complete healing. He made it clear that the man’s blindness was intended to provide a moment for God to be magnified through Jesus’ compassionate touch.
4 As long as it is day, we must do the work of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no-one can work.
5 While I am in the world, I am the light of the world."
6 Having said this, he spat on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man’s eyes.
7 "Go," he told him, "wash in the Pool of Siloam" (this word means Sent). So the man went and washed, and came home seeing.
The first response Jesus had to this, or any other persons malady was to act, to heal the problem, not to question why it had happened. If we are to imitate Jesus in our lives, then we must also act and not question why. There will be time for that later when the person we help gives their testimony.
8 His neighbors and those who had formerly seen him begging asked, "Isn’t this the same man who used to sit and beg?"
9 Some claimed that he was. Others said, "No, he only looks like him." But he himself insisted, "I am the man."
10 "How then were your eyes opened?" they demanded.
11 He replied, "The man they call Jesus made some mud and put it on my eyes. He told me to go to Siloam and wash. So I went and washed, and then I could see."
12 "Where is this man?" they asked him. "I don’t know," he said.
Feeling curious about somebody’s problem? Shift into Jesus’ mode and move past the point of curiosity to his or her point of need. Reach out and touch someone’s pain.

Show the compassionate love of Jesus in action.

BANNED!

Jeremiah 36: 1 – 8, 21 – 26
The Bible is the all-time bestselling book, but in some parts of the world it is banned because it’s considered dangerous. The Bible is dangerous, however, only to those who fear finding out that they are wrong. It’s dangerous to those who exploit the weak and the innocent, who use force to keep others enslaved in poverty and ignorance, who don’t want to give up their favorite sin, who believe that salvation can be found apart from Christ.
I read that in ODB this morning and thought it to be a powerful truth. Nobody wants to be reminded that what they do is sinful, especially if it feels so right to them, so the finger pointer must be removed whether it is a book or a person.
Think of what is going on in this world today. There is a country directly to the north of us that consider parts of the Bible to be “Hate speech”. There are areas of this planet where the Bible is thought to be false in it's teaching be cause it doesn't mention the prophet Mohamed. We have on our world, dictatorships that ban the Bible because the truth in its pages would bring their regimes to their knees and remove the power they hold over the populace, and will arrest and torture those who dare to possess a Bible not to mention the penalties suffered by the brave souls that try to smuggle Bible's to the people.
2 "Take a scroll and write on it all the words I have spoken to you concerning Israel, Judah and all the other nations from the time I began speaking to you in the reign of Josiah till now.
3 Perhaps when the people of Judah hear about every disaster I plan to inflict on them, each of them will turn from his wicked way; then I will forgive their wickedness and their sin."
5 Then Jeremiah told Baruch, "I am restricted; I cannot go to the LORD’s temple.
6 So you go to the house of the LORD on a day of fasting and read to the people from the scroll the words of the LORD that you wrote as I dictated. Read them to all the people of Judah who come in from their towns.
23 Whenever Jehudi had read three or four columns of the scroll, the king cut them off with a scribe’s knife and threw them into the brazier, until the entire scroll was burned in the fire.
24 The king and all his attendants who heard all these words showed no fear, nor did they tear their clothes.
25 Even though Elnathan, Delaiah and Gemariah urged the king not to burn the scroll, he would not listen to them.
26 Instead, the king commanded Jerahmeel, a son of the king, Seraiah son of Azriel and Shelemiah son of Abdeel to arrest Baruch the scribe and Jeremiah the prophet. But the LORD had hidden them.
People hate to look into mirrors that reflect our true images, we don't always want to hear the truth.
Read the all-time bestselling banned book, and let it reveal to you the truth about God—and about yourself.

O.D.A.A.T.

James 4: 13 – 17
One of my favorite phrases is; “If the good Lord's willin' and the creek don't rise”. It is my reply to my clients who always want to know whether I will be driving them the next day, or the day after. They, like most people, have a need to know the future and also a need for stability, change is always scary to a lot of people.
Many years ago I learned the lesson that taught me to live One Day At A Time.
I had spent everyday of my life in a drug induced fog, with one day just blending into the next. I made great and grandiose plans extending out years that I never came close to achieving, leaving me more depressed and self destructive, and I became a huge disappointment to those who counted on me.
When I came to, I knew that if I extended out my plans for years at a time, it was too much to comprehend. I couldn't think or plan more than 24 hours in advance because we learned that it was impossible to think that we could go the rest of our lives without a drug, but that we could go one day without one, and thereby getting sober for long periods at a time doing it one day, then another after another.
13 Now listen, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money."
14 Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.
15 Instead, you ought to say, "If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that."
16 As it is, you boast and brag. All such boasting is evil.
17 Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn’t do it, sins.
That lays it out pretty clearly, don't ya think?
We have enough to worry about today without worrying about tomorrow.
My A.A. Sponsor once gave me some advice that I still refer to today 18 years later. One night when I was F.I.N.E. (Fouled up Insecure Neurotic and Emotional) he told me with all sincerity;
“No matter how much today sucks, tomorrow is going to suck in a completely different way”.
I laughed, felt better, and sucked it up to get through what I was going through and started to not worry about the coming days and live in the one I had.
There are so many ways with cute little catch phrases that vary from the cute to the vulgar, that we won't get into here, that express the same thing that James spoke of, and by the way so did Jesus.
Once again, take wisdom from the bible and apply it to your life.

DO WHAT I SAY...

Proverbs 1: 8 – 19
There was a guy with an advertising company who came up with an idea as to how to advertise his business. He made life size cardboard cut outs of children, and was able to place them in different places all around town. He noticed that when he placed them close to the road, drivers would automatically slow down thinking that they were real kids. So, the advertising guy now sells cardboard cut out children to parents who live in areas where people speed as a way of protecting their kids from reckless drivers.
As parents, we have a tendency to act to protect our kids, by either showing them what to do in certain situations, or telling them what they are to do when we aren't around to help. We will try anything to help protect our kids.
Solomon, history's wisest man, wrote down sayings for his children and called them proverbs.
8 Listen, my son, to your father’s instruction and do not forsake your mother’s teaching.
9 They will be a garland to grace your head and a chain to adorn your neck.
My father was never as elegant as this, he would say things like; “Just do what I tell you.” “Okay?” he would also try to confuse me with the old do as I say, not as I do thing.
Parents work at protecting their children from physical danger. But there are other dangers as well. Solomon, the writer of Proverbs 1, was concerned about the people who would pose spiritual danger to his son. He warned him about those who would entice him to do evil and told him,
10 My son, if sinners entice you, do not give in to them.
“Do not walk in the way with them, keep your foot from their path; for their feet run to evil”
15 my son, do not go along with them, do not set foot on their paths;
16 for their feet rush into sin, they are swift to shed blood.
We need to protect our children by teaching them God’s Word and training them to avoid evil influences. Busy streets are hazardous for our children, but the enticement of taking an evil path is far more dangerous.

Tomorrow’s world will be shaped by what we teach our children today.