What’s up Cain?

One of the strangest things in the Bible. Why did Cain kill Abel?

Cain was the oldest of the two sons and learned to toil the land with his father. Abel comes along and they have to find a job for him to do and the make him the tender of the flocks. Someone had to do it, so why not Abel? Doesn’t seem anything to be jealous about? Cain is working with his dad! That’s pretty special in itself, learning and working with dad.  So we have one child working with dad and the other son working under dad’s watchful eye.

So why was Cain so angry  (Gen 4:5). From the first verses of Chapter 4 we don’t see Adam or Eve noticing Cain as being angry? So what’s up Cain?

In Genesis Chapter 4 Verse 3 “And so it time that Cain brought the fruits of the earth as a sacrifice to The Lord . Then in Verse 4 Abel brings his offering; the first born of his sheep and his fatlings and God looked favorably upon Abel and his gifts. But in in verse 5 , God did not look favorably on Cain’s sacrifices and Cain was exceedingly sorrowful and his countenance fell! The Lord said to Cain, “why are you so sorrowful and why has your countenance fallen? ” If you do well , will not your countenance be lifted up? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door, and its desire is for you, but you must master it.” Reading the Septuagint what Cain did was he did not rightly divide the offering. He wasn’t straight with God right from the get go. And God knows everything. So God knew why Cain was angry!

Cain showed no remorse, he was angry, he was jealous, he had deception, he had self pity, evil  desired to have him and he was already plotting to kill his brother Abel.

So in the next verse, Cain says to Abel, God didn’t care for my offering! I can imagine that some conversation between the brothers took place like Abel asking why? What did you present to The Lord ? And if the The Lord could see his countenance was fallen, then I  would imagine that Abel could see that his older brother was not in the best of moods. He probably better than anyone else could see that cain was not right and hasn’t been himself for some time. We all have been around people like this? Some thing is bothering them, “sin” has gotten a hold of them. Next thing you learn is Cain kills Abel? Why?

God knows everything and He asks Cain; “Where is Abel your brother?” Cain said to The Lord , “I don’t know, I an not my brothers keeper” Then God says something that would rattle anyones soul’ “What have you done? The voice of your brothers blood is crying to me from the ground”!

Cain committed the first murder in the Bible, a monstrous act of killing his brother. He becomes a homeless wanderer, a man without a wife, a home, is unreliable, and restless, wandering from place to place.

Solomon would say “Cain’s soul has extirpated from itself, the principle of love virtue, the love of God and has died to the love of virtue.”

Then we have a huge jump with a lot of unknowns. Cain finds a wife and she conceives and gives birth to Enoch! Cain builds a city and names it after his son Enoch. Not knowing the age of Enoch, Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him.

I have read some theologians and they would say it was all about the offering; I would have to disagree. Remember that when Abel presented his offering it still had its fat? The  Law of removing the fat didn’t come along until Lev 4:6-8 and it was in  Ex 24:19; that you shall bring the choice first fruits of your soil into the house of The Lord your God.

So Cain was a bad seed from the fall. God knew it from the beginning, tried to change his ways to no avail. The Devil (evil) had gotten a hold of him and he became a wanderer protected by God! God had a plan! That plan included Enoch!

Later my fiends, Peace out

 

How long did it take you before God got a hold of your heart?

We were watching one of our favorite television programs the other night and once again we get thrown into our faces something that we do not agree with biblically. Even Max had a problem with it. But the bigger problem is this; the media is making this behavior “normal”. It is not “normal”.

In the Bible, the Apostle Paul writes in Romans that we shall not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect (Rom 12:2). This is extremely hard to do when we are constantly being bombed with imagines and scenes that are outside of God’s will. Why can’t the media executives see that Christianity and “good values” sell? Look at Duck Dynasty? I am trying to think of another television show that has some sort of values to it? Can anyone else think of a television show that does not have homosexuality in it? Adultery? Murder?  And many many more!!

Can  someone tell me who the Prince of this World is? I know but I am not  going to say, please let me know?

Conforming to this world? Conforming to the teaching of Jesus Christ? To conform is to behave according with prevailing modes and customs. This is a tough one isn’t it? You are out with your friends, your friends decide to do something to Mrs. O’Malley’s lawn. They are going to take their car and do donuts in her yard. So what are you going to do now? These are your homies? If you don’t go along with it you are teased by them and most likely thrown out of that circle of friends. Do you go along with your friends and  tear up Mrs. O’Malley’s yard? Let’s say you do and you do other things along the way that are not in the will of God. You lived the life according the the Prince of this world and at the end, you say “Lord, Lord, open up for us.” and The Lord answers back, “Truly I say to you I do not know you” (Romans 25;12)

Paul writes in Romans 8:29; ” For those He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren.”.  So let this one just sink into your mind for a few minutes. God foreknew you!@!!  And He knew that you would eventually be conformed to the image of His Son.  Oh my! It is such a great thing that our God is a patient God. His Son Jesus  who said the greatest Commandment  is to Love your God with all your heart, soul and mind and love your neighbor as you love yourself.

For me growing up there was a lot of  love in the home, most from mom when she was sober and a little from dad when he was sober after a football game or the next morning! This love thing was a little foreign to me. Had a great girl friend while I was in high school and college, failed. Got married after returning from the far-east. Failed. See not knowing this “LOVE” thing it cost me dearly in the beginning, but if you look at where God has me know, could it be any better? He “foreknew”.

Like I mentioned earlier, I was a trouble maker. And only by the Grace of God am I with you today! I keep telling the people that know me today, they would not have cared much for the old Scott. Or perhaps they would have? Knowing these loving people they would have made me a project to save me from myself!

It is the Easter weekend, Christ was crucified, he was laid in the tomb and he it is Saturday afternoon, where does it say he was before He burst forth from the tomb?

All week God has been impressing on my to “conform” to my Son! In doing so we need to focus on Christ and as God says Matthew 17:1-5′ This is my beloved Son whom I am well pleased; “LISTEN TO HIM”.  In other words take your mind off of Moses and Elijah and pay attention to what my Son says!

A man in Grand Rapids had his named changed from Kelly to Feinberg. Then a year later he had it changed from Feinberg to Garabaldi. The judge thundered at him,”Are you trying to make this court look foolish?” “The person answered the judge; not at all your Honor. My neighbors keep changing.”

Jesus would say, “listen and believe in me and you will be saved”. Regardless of what your name is, believe in Christ Jesus as your Lord and Savior and you will spend eternity with Him! It doesn’t get much better than this does it?

I have been listening for years, it has changed my life! All for the good. Sure there has been bumpy periods, but it has been a great ride. A ride I would not have traded for the world and now I look forward to standing before Him one day!  Are you?

 

 

Is God Calling you?

I can remember the day that God called me into this deep, unquenchable, life changing ministry. Me of all people I was initially thinking. But why not me as my wife would say? Or as my dear friend would say at the time of my mother’s death, “Why not you Scott? Who knew her better? ” So I officiated at her funeral.  Why not you! That is the question you have to ask yourself when you hear God calling or sense Him leading you into what you would consider uncharted waters. Why not you!! Hang on it can be a wild ride, but it all starts with you understanding or hearing and obeying God’s call on your life.

What you have to understand about yourself as I came to realize is, what does God really want me to do? Find a truth which is true for you, to find the idea for which you have such a passion that you can live and die for! Now that’s a calling. That is what I have had the opportunity to do over the past 16 years! For those who knew me when I was younger, they are simply amazed by they transformation in my life!

When I first made my calling public, the church was so excited, they had me already in the pulpit! That wasn’t my calling! God did not call me to lead a church. He led me to minister to my employees, to be there for 2 of my employees who died, to help them through the dying process. To be a spiritual leader for all my employees and pray with them. They were my flock and I was their shepherd in more than just a managerial role. I can remember walking through the factory and my employees would ask me “why are you always so happy?”, or they would shout out “Rabbi”, even though I am not Jewish, I think they were simply referring to me as a Teacher. I was honored to be their shepherd . And it continues today and you really don’t even realize it. So you have to find that one special thing that God has called you to do for Him. That one thing that you feel God sensing a real sense of accomplishment and you can feel God saying to you, Well done my faithful son/daughter.

My call was actually quite alarming because I was not brought up in a Christian home. Mom and Dad would dress us boys up for Christmas and Easter and off to church we would go. They tried sending me to Sunday School. The center beam and myself became best buddies as I would be hanging onto that metal post for all I was worth. Later on in life I would hear the term C&E kids or families. What was that? Christmas and Easter is the only time they come to church. I was one of them not only as a kid but also during my early adult life.

I can remember as a child growing up in Traverse City, Michigan and I was sent off to the local United Methodist Church for Summer Bible School. At the end of the summer classes each of us got a Bible with a front page that was specifically for us. Our name, the date of the Summer Bible School, the teacher and Pastors name. All of the kids had their Bibles with this page bound right into their brand new Bibles. Mine was not bound in. It was placed in the spot where it was supposed to be bound in. So I go up to one of the teachers, hurt because my Bible was not like my friends, mine was different. I ask the teacher why isn’t my page bound in like Mikey’s? The teacher said to me, “that is only for little boys and girls who come to Sunday school regularly” . I was crushed. Hurt! But God wasn’t done with me, I didn’t know it at the time, but He wasn’t done. I look back on this now and God was using this as a learning experience for me. Never let this happen again. Make people feel welcome in My name. A good example of this is, we normally sit in the same seat every week. However come Easter , our Pastor asks us to attend another venue so there are seats available for the first time attenders. I resisted at first, That is my seat! I sit there. But no, God knows I have been there before, so give up that seat and make that family feel welcome. It’s a weekend Scott, “Feed my Children”, make them welcome!

Then there was a time before God called me specifically into this unquenchable thirst and ministry that I was invited by my local church to attend the Annual Conference of the church. I thought that was pretty nice of them, so I take time off of work and I go to this Annual Conference . I get there, first no one speaks with me. Strike one. Second I go up to get my conference notebook, they don’t have one for me. Strike two. And the third strike was when the members of my own church decided to go to lunch and they didn’t even invite me to go along.  Again crushed and hurt. And it only gets worse! How can it get worse?

When I got my call from God that He wanted me to “Feed His Children”, off to ministerial training. A week long training by the local church. A short course to become a pastor of a local church. I arrive at the place in Indiana and walk into the meeting hall. Now remember these are all people like myself that have been called by God to minister to His children in one way or the other. I sign in and not one person came up to me, not one person made me feel welcomed. Me being a people person, I figured hey we are all on the same team so I go and start finding friendly looking people and quickly broke the ice.

God wasn’t done with me yet! My wife and I were at a Phillips, Craig and Dean concert and I stepped out to use the restroom and as I was reentering the auditorium I walked past a local seminary table. God was now calling me to go to the Seminary! I was as old if not older than the professors . One of my favorite professors while at the Seminary was Dr. David Turner. He asked me during one of the breaks, “Scott what are you doing here?” I said , Dave God has called me to learn more about Him and His word and that perhaps I will be teaching/feeding His children.

So here before you today is a former C&E kid, someone who had been hurt as a child by adults, not intentionally but hurt nonetheless, to a young man who was the Quarterback of his high school football team and before each game the Coach would have us recite the Lords Prayer.  That in itself is a story. Lord’s Prayer? I learned it by hearing and reciting it with my teammates enough! Did it have meaning to me at that point? No! Not a clue, but the main thing was God was not done with me and had much bigger plans for me. Little did I know!!

God took this raw piece of clay and molded it into what He desired, not what I desired! It took a long time and I thank God for His hand of protection while I was running wild and crazy. I could have easily spent eternity in Hell! But that wasn’t in God’s plan.  My calling by God has been the BEST thing that ever happened in my life. When God called me into this ministry I made a covenant with God. I would give up gambling and drinking as long as I had the unquenchable thirst for God’s Word. My library today is unbelievable, the knowledge that God has placed in this mind is truly a blessing, and the people I have been able to minister to along the way a true blessing.

C.S Lewis said, “The more we get what we now call “ourselves” out of the way and let God take over, the more truly ourselves we become”. During my time of getting out of God’s way and letting God be in control people noticed a huge difference in my life. I would often be asked, what happened to you? I just quit resisting and I kept learning and learning and learning all about God! In Isaiah 43:1 God says, “I have redeemed you; I have called you by name; you are mine”. Then the Psalmist said in Psalm 139:6; “such knowledge is too wonderful for me, it is too high, I cannot attain to it”. What knowledge was to wonderful to understand? The knowledge was the fact that God was everywhere! He was in heaven , in the depths of Hell,  and that Your hand shall lead me and hold me. Then in verses 13-16, “For I formed your inward parts, you wove me in my mothers womb, I will give thanks to you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; wonderful are your works, and my soul you know very well. My frame(bones) was not hidden from you when I was made in secret, and skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth. And Your eyes have seen my unformed substance and in your book were written the days that you have ordained for me, when as yet there was not one of them.” This is some awesome stuff. Consider the fact that God already knew us before He knitted us into our mothers womb! He made my frame in a hidden and secret place in the depths of the earth, and He knows the number of days He has made for me!  In other words hHe knows my expiration date. Pretty cool stuff.

Knowing that God knew us before He made us, knows the number of days He has ordained for us and made our bones in a secret place in the depths of the earth our strength of our call and our endurance is of the Lord’s Creation (Ps 62:5), in other words it is from God that my soul be subject for patience and strength.  If we look at Romans 5:3-5; we will rejoice in our sufferings knowing that sufferings produces that endurance we need and endurance produces character and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s Love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit. who has been given to us.

Your body normally gets strength from what? “BONES”. That hidden bone that was formed in our mothers womb in that secret space. To other Christians this inner bone that was made in us in the depths of the earth is well known as it creates:

1)  Firmness and strength

2)  Inner firmness of the soul

3)  whenever we are suffering, in distress, misfortunes fall upon us, that inner structure that God made in secret is firm in us and cannot be broke or even bend under pressure. The Apostle paul had that inner bone; 2 Cor 6:10, “as if sorrowful, we always have cause for joy.” Paul had been abused, beaten, stoned, put in prison and in chains, yet he remained in joy!

That strong bone was made known at Christ’s resurrection. The body which had died had not perished. The fear of death was gone! The strong bone had prevailed.

While I was working around the farm the other day a verse came to mind and stuck with me and stuck in my mind until I could figure out what Gospel it was in. It was in the book of Mark when Jesus says whoever is ashamed of Him and His words here on this sinful earth, the Son of man will also be ashamed of us when He comes in Glory of his father and the Holy Angels. So listen for God’s call, be obedient to the call, as;

God’s call will always do the following:

1)  challenge us directly to rise to our full stature as a human being.

2)  His call will resonate in us at depths no other call can reach and draws on us and out and up to heights no other call can scale or see.

3)  God’s call creates an ethic aspiration not just an obligation in us!

The reverse side of a Call is “Conceit and Pride. Pride has been traditionally been viewed as the first, worst and deadliest of the seven sins. So lose the bigheaded attitude, quit the self satisfaction, quit the self centeredness as the world does not revolve around you, trust me I know. Lose the arrogant attitude and ego!  The worse is when you look down on other people and don’t care what they think of you! Stop and realize people who you are hurting.Trust me, the world revolved around me for years and I hurt many people along the way until God got a hold of me and I realized God was indeed much bigger than I was! He got my attention! He won! I wish there was a way I could apologize to all those I hurt along the way! God knows my heart! He knows that I am sincerely sorry that I hurt people along the road of my life.

As we close this up you can differentiate a call from conceit/pride when you hear God whisper 3 things to you in a hundred intimate ways:

a)  you are chosen

b)  you are gifted

c)  you are special

That is so cool to wake up in the morning and know that you have been chosen, and you are very special to God!

I know this has been long, but have you heard God’s call? I would love to hear of how God is using you to further His work here on earth. Until next time, God loves you and so do I

Peace out

 

 

 

 

 

It’s all about relationships. Or is it?

Is it relationships or something else that makes this world go around? Or is it a combination of both? For over 30 years I have always taught that it was all about relationships. You needed a relationship to get into a new account. You needed a relationship to get a law through. You need a relationship to do most things in our world today. In other words you can’t do it by yourself. In our government it is no different. In fact these relationships extend across the oceans into foreign countries. These relationships in government are a lot different from the relationships we have as individuals. In government or the economy side of things it is about financial gain. However you still have to have a relationship. The relationship might not necessarily be friendly, but that doesn’t matter in the world of politics. It’s a matter of survival in some cases. It’s interesting today that we are all complaining about the price of gas! Gas here in Michigan is over $3.79 a gallon and I bet you dollars to donuts that come next Thursday they will raise it another 15 cents. But first they will drop it 2 or 3 cents before they raise it by 20 cents! But as you read the rest of this post you will be thankful for $3.79 for a gallon of gas. Did you know the world has what is called a world reserve currency? Two Hundred years ago it was Great Britain and the pound sterling. They held that status for quite sometime until the United States became the world power that it has become over the history of our nation. The  strong economic policies of past administrations, the development of the Federal Reserve, International Monetary Fund and others policies the US Dollar became the world reserve currency. Good for us, not so much for our friends in Great Britain. One of the benefits of being the worlds reserve currency is our ability to print money at will. No other country in the world is able to do that. Therefore countries like Brazil and others have run away inflation. With this ability to print money at will it allows us to spend far in excess of our tax revenues(intake). In normal economics you should be able to spend what you take in. You support your military, social programs and other programs with your intake or tax revenues. Now obviously we are spending a whole lot more than we are taking in, so our solution is to print more money and gor farther and farther into debt. Today the United States is in debt to the tune of $17 Trillion and by all estimates we are going to be reaching $28 Trillion in debt by 2028. Scary because someday that will all have to be repaid. How do you repay $28 Trillion in debts? Only way I know of is to raise taxes. One economist said recently that without continued or increased borrowing, we as a nation is in no better position to meet our unfunded liabilities than Detroit. Scary!! Okay so here is where the relationship and price of gas comes into play and probably why Obama bowed to the Saudi Prince, and trust me I am not trying to give Obama a free pass for bowing to a Saudi Prince but now understanding the issues and knowing that Obama is out of his neighborhood, I think he was scared to death knowing that his lack of economic policy and the relationship between Saudi Arabia and OPEC was mission critical. Even he could figure this one out! Here’s why? It is with Saudi Arabia’s help that we maintain the status of the worlds reserve currency. What Saudi Arabia and the other OPEC nations did was to create a demand for the US Dollar by pricing all their oil in the dollar and accepted only the dollar for payment for their oil. In an agreement established in the 1970’s OPEC created what is called Petro dollars. These Petro dollars engendered a consistent demand for the US Dollar, those stabilizing the dollar as the worlds reserve currency. With the demand for Petro dollars this enabled the US to maintain and expand its massive  welfare state and deficit spending simply by issuing debt securities purchased by these foreign countries. Why do we need to maintain our status of being the worlds reserve currency? First it allows us to spend far  more than our tax revenues. Simply print more money! Easy as 1-2-3. However in the past few years Iran, Russia and China have reduced their needs and desire to hold onto the dollar. China has made the largest moves in part because we are perceived as dysfunctional in our monetary and fiscal policies. Duh!! If we do lose the status of the worlds reserve currency we will be longing for the days when we were paying $3.79 for a gallon of gas and not $9.00 or more. There is already movement by the International Monetary Fund in the creation of the Special Drawing Rights or SAR’s that can be converted into any currency. There is also talk by the IMF of creating SDR denominational bonds which would reduce the central banks dependence on US Treasuries. So watch the Chinese. With our poor economy, lack of an economic policy that produces any growth for our economy, a poor fiscal policy, a move toward socialism, watch for China to move to make their currency the worlds reserve currency. If this happens interest rates will soar, mortgage rates will follow suit, stocks will plunge and if you thought 2008 was bad, consider something more than 10 times worse than 2008!! Perhaps this is why the conservatives are calling for a constitutional convention to force an amendment to the constitution calling for a balanced budget. This is a subject all of its own. My thoughts are this, if people realized the importance of this status and the possibility that someday we could lose the status and the ability to print money at will, they would think twice about drilling for oil in our own country. We have enough oil in our country to last for over 100 years but we can’t touch it? We have a president who stops the Keystone Pipeline, we have an administration that is shutting down coal plants. People this is all leading to losing the status of being the worlds reserve currency. It will be replaced by the SDR’s and when this happens life as we know it today will be done! So “relationships”. OPEC and the Saudi’s are a key relationship for the United States in more ways that one. And they know it. That’s why they are charging us over $100 a barrel when I can remember $18.00. They know the alternative is a whole lot worse, so pay up my friend. Because if you don’t pay me know you will pay later!! And severely!!! So it’s “Time to Wake Up America”. it’s time to get this debt under control, it’s time to develop strong economic policies that will put America back on top, it’s time to fund the military, we are the strongest nation in the world. Or we once were. We either right the ship now or soon we will be all calling out for Commrade Obama!!! Peace Out

Is it relationships or something else that makes this world go around? Or is it a combination of both? For over 30 years I have always taught that it was all about relationships. You needed a relationship to get into a new account. You needed a relationship to get a law through. You need a relationship to do most things in our world today. In other words you can’t do it by yourself.

In our government it is no different. In fact these relationships extend across the oceans into foreign countries. These relationships in government are a lot different from the relationships we have as individuals. In government or the economy side of things it is about financial gain. However you still have to have a relationship. The relationship might not necessarily be friendly, but that doesn’t matter in the world of politics. It’s a matter of survival in some cases.

It’s interesting today that we are all complaining about the price of gas! Gas here in Michigan is over $3.79 a gallon and I bet you dollars to donuts that come next Thursday they will raise it another 15 cents. But first they will drop it 2 or 3 cents before they raise it by 20 cents! But as you read the rest of this post you will be thankful for $3.79 for a gallon of gas.

Did you know the world has what is called a world reserve currency? Two Hundred years ago it was Great Britain and the pound sterling. They held that status for quite sometime until the United States became the world power that it has become over the history of our nation. The  strong economic policies of past administrations, the development of the Federal Reserve, International Monetary Fund and others policies the US Dollar became the world reserve currency. Good for us, not so much for our friends in Great Britain.

One of the benefits of being the worlds reserve currency is our ability to print money at will. No other country in the world is able to do that. Therefore countries like Brazil and others have run away inflation. With this ability to print money at will it allows us to spend far in excess of our tax revenues(intake). In normal economics you should be able to spend what you take in. You support your military, social programs and other programs with your intake or tax revenues. Now obviously we are spending a whole lot more than we are taking in, so our solution is to print more money and gor farther and farther into debt. Today the United States is in debt to the tune of $17 Trillion and by all estimates we are going to be reaching $28 Trillion in debt by 2028. Scary because someday that will all have to be repaid. How do you repay $28 Trillion in debts? Only way I know of is to raise taxes. One economist said recently that without continued or increased borrowing, we as a nation is in no better position to meet our unfunded liabilities than Detroit. Scary!!

Okay so here is where the relationship and price of gas comes into play and probably why Obama bowed to the Saudi Prince, and trust me I am not trying to give Obama a free pass for bowing to a Saudi Prince but now understanding the issues and knowing that Obama is out of his neighborhood, I think he was scared to death knowing that his lack of economic policy and the relationship between Saudi Arabia and OPEC was mission critical. Even he could figure this one out!

Here’s why? It is with Saudi Arabia’s help that we maintain the status of the worlds reserve currency. What Saudi Arabia and the other OPEC nations did was to create a demand for the US Dollar by pricing all their oil in the dollar and accepted only the dollar for payment for their oil.

In an agreement established in the 1970’s OPEC created what is called Petro dollars. These Petro dollars engendered a consistent demand for the US Dollar, those stabilizing the dollar as the worlds reserve currency. With the demand for Petro dollars this enabled the US to maintain and expand its massive  welfare state and deficit spending simply by issuing debt securities purchased by these foreign countries.

Why do we need to maintain our status of being the worlds reserve currency? First it allows us to spend far  more than our tax revenues. Simply print more money! Easy as 1-2-3. However in the past few years Iran, Russia and China have reduced their needs and desire to hold onto the dollar. China has made the largest moves in part because we are perceived as dysfunctional in our monetary and fiscal policies. Duh!!

If we do lose the status of the worlds reserve currency we will be longing for the days when we were paying $3.79 for a gallon of gas and not $9.00 or more. There is already movement by the International Monetary Fund in the creation of the Special Drawing Rights or SAR’s that can be converted into any currency. There is also talk by the IMF of creating SDR denominational bonds which would reduce the central banks dependence on US Treasuries.

So watch the Chinese. With our poor economy, lack of an economic policy that produces any growth for our economy, a poor fiscal policy, a move toward socialism, watch for China to move to make their currency the worlds reserve currency. If this happens interest rates will soar, mortgage rates will follow suit, stocks will plunge and if you thought 2008 was bad, consider something more than 10 times worse than 2008!!

Perhaps this is why the conservatives are calling for a constitutional convention to force an amendment to the constitution calling for a balanced budget. This is a subject all of its own.

My thoughts are this, if people realized the importance of this status and the possibility that someday we could lose the status and the ability to print money at will, they would think twice about drilling for oil in our own country. We have enough oil in our country to last for over 100 years but we can’t touch it? We have a president who stops the Keystone Pipeline, we have an administration that is shutting down coal plants. People this is all leading to losing the status of being the worlds reserve currency. It will be replaced by the SDR’s and when this happens life as we know it today will be done!

So “relationships”. OPEC and the Saudi’s are a key relationship for the United States in more ways that one. And they know it. That’s why they are charging us over $100 a barrel when I can remember $18.00. They know the alternative is a whole lot worse, so pay up my friend. Because if you don’t pay me know you will pay later!! And severely!!!

So it’s “Time to Wake Up America”. it’s time to get this debt under control, it’s time to develop strong economic policies that will put America back on top, it’s time to fund the military, we are the strongest nation in the world. Or we once were. We either right the ship now or soon we will be all calling out for Commrade Obama!!!

Peace Out

 

Do you love Me, then do as I commanded you.

Picture if you will Jesus is reclining at the Last Supper with His disciples. During this time with His Disciples he instructs them “If you Love Me, you will keep My commandments.” (Jn 14:15) And if you do keep me commandments I will ask the Father and He will give you another Helper, and he will be with you forever. (John 14:16) Note that Jesus was “asking” the Father if who? Another Helper could be sent  to us and that unlike Jesus, this new helper will be with them (us) forever. You have to wonder if the disciples were perplexed at this time? Who was coming to take Jesus’ place since Jesus was leaving them? During this time in history there were many false Messiahs, ones that laid claimed to be the Messiah but were not, so who was Jesus referring to? Perhaps the disciples were scholars or very familiar with the Hebrew Bible or the Scrolls. They had to be wondering and Jesus was not clear as to who He was asking the father to send.   If you recall from the Old Testament the Holy Spirit or the Spirit of God/Lord was only sent on special occasions, now Jesus is asking the Father to send Him to live with us forever! The Holy Spirit!! 

You have to ask yourself why did Jesus ask the Father to send the Holy Spirit for us to live with us forever? I think perhaps Jesus knew we could not do this walk alone or follow his commandments with help. Check this out; in Matthew 19:26 Jesus says; “With people this is impossible(following the commandments), but with God all things are possible.” Therefore our Triune God lives with us daily through the Holy Spirit and only tells us what Jesus wants us to hear. What are you saying, what Jesus says? Yes when we quiet our hearts and listen to the Holy Spirit talk to us it is actually Jesus Himself (John 16:14). To me, knowing that the Creator of the heavens and the the universe talking to me directly through the Holy Spirit is breath taking!
Living by Jesus’ commandments are not easy. I don’t believe they were meant to be easy. In fact Jesus says to us in Matthew 4:13-14, “Enter through the narrow gate, for the gate that is wide and the way is broad is what leads to destruction, and there are many who will enter through it. For the gate that is small and the way is narrow, that is the path that leads to eternal life, however few will find it. Wow, now that is a tough one to swallow or understand.

Prior to 1986 I was on that wide path and running wildly. It was a wild and what I thought was an incredible ride. While you are on that wide path you aren’t concerned about destruction or anyone else, in fact you really don’t even think about your own mortality! At this time you are thinking about “how can I please myself”, after all it is all about me isn’t it??? Then there was that day when God gets a hold of you! My life turned from a wild ride  into a mustard seed that had just started to grow. Same Scott, but a transformation had begun.  God had gotten my attention and made it abundantly clear that He was much bigger than I was!! During my personal ride He has taken me to the lowest of lows to highs that can only be attributed to Gods blessings.  He showed me the errors of my ways and it was almost like Jesus Himself was saying and now I am paraphrasing; ” Scott, you keep my commandments and love me, you will be loved by My Father and I will make Him known to you” (John 14:21). Little did I know I was in for a wild ride, one that developed an unquenchable thrist for knowledge of Gods Word, the Early Church, The Early Church fathers, He was taking me on a ride that would eventually help a lot of different people. I can recall while I was at the seminary one of my professors asking me what I was doing here at this late stage of my life? I told him that perhaps someday I would like to teach the New Testament much like yourself. The early church? The ones that followed the disciples. Polycarp, Justin Martyr. St. Augustine, Clement, and of course an in depth study of the Apostle Paul.

Like I said, prior to God calling me and me being obedient to that call, I was on that wide path to destruction. I was that person described in Proverbs 6:16-19. (1) Haughty arrogant and proud eyes. Like I said, it was all about me! (2) a lying tongue. This one not so much because I learnt from an early age to tell the truth or you would get a bar of soap in your mouth! The punishment was a lot easier if we told the truth than to be caught in a lie. So lying not so much for me. (3) Hands that shed innocent blood. I wasn’t a murderer but because of my attitude and arrogance, I know I hurt people along the way. I wish there were ways to apologize to all those I hurt but there isn’t. God knows in my heart that I am truly sorry and He has forgiven me for my sins. I can remember my best childhood friend coming up to me after I officiated my own mothers funeral saying to me, “when did this change happen?”(4) A heart that devises wicked plans. Well, wicked might be a little harsh, but yes, I was always scheming, always just on the edge of trouble. (5) Feet that run rapidly to evil. Well, again, define evil? I was a mischievous young man, and looking back at things I thank God that I had people that loved me regardless. They could have possibly saved my life or changed the direction of my life, it wasn’t just luck or coincidence, it was Divine Intervention. God had placed these people in my path to save me because my calling had yet been accomplished. Thanks Tommy Stone! Standing before Judge Swallow as a frighten young man was something I would wish on no one. Thank you for all you did. Dad always said, you get yourself in trouble, you will be doing weekends in jail. Yikes!! Here I am a honorable mention all-state quarterback, a jock, student council president and I could be facing jail time if it wasn’t for Tommy? Thank you God for placing Tommy in my life. There are many many more stories and I know now that if it wasn’t for Gods future plans for me I would of or should have died doing some of the crazy things I did!!

At this point in your life you think you are invincible. However if I would have been killed during that time, before I accepted The Lord Jesus Christ as my personal savior, I would have heard the words “Depart from Me, all you who do iniquity”(Ps 6:8) and depart from Me all you evil doers” (Ps 119:115). Yes, I could have been sent to HELL. And my friends Hell is real!! That is a subject all in itself.
So, now that my mustard seed has been planted and growing like a bad weed, I am really no different than the disciples with all the questions. What commandments did Jesus mean when he said “if you LOVE me you will keep my commandments”. Was he referring to all the commandments of God recorded in the Hebrew Bible? Was He referring to the 10 Commandments or the Decalog?(Ex 20:1-17 and Deut 5:6-16), or His own twofold command to Love? Love God and your Neighbor? (Matthew 22:33-40). Or all of His own ethical teachings in general?

There are 16 occurrences of commandments in the synoptic gospels; we find 6 in Matthew, 6 in Mark and 4 in Luke. 11 of these are in just 3 passages:
1) the debate over ritual defilement (Mark 7:1-23) and (Matt 15: 1:20)
2) the question of the rich man to Jesus (Mark 10:17-22) (Matt 19:16-22) and (Luke 18:18-23).
3) the question about the first or the greatest? (Mark 12:28-34, Matt 22:34-40, Lk 10:25-28)

Going back up to Mark 12:28-34 we find that Jesus is saying that The Lord our God is ONE God, and that you shall love your God with all your heart, all your soul and your mind and strength. You shall also love your neighbor and yourself, and your enemy. And guess what? There are no greater commandments than these. Much like one of my blogs posts about how can you love someone you don’t know? It is  impossible. But we are commanded by our Lord and Savior to Love HIM with all our heart, soul, mind and strength. So how are you doing with these? Not so good? Or ok? As my knowledge of God increases, so does my love. But it takes work my friends, a lot of work, time and passion. Have you gotten to the point where you cry when we sing a song? For me it is the song “It is well with my Soul”. I can’t sing that song without crying!! It is well with my soul now, but back in the day? In my eyes and mind back then it was great, but in Gods eyes I was a mess. My tears are tears of thanks and joy. I am Gods treasured son.

In Mark 12:32 a Scribe is talking to our Lord and he says to Jesus “Teacher by loving God and your neighbor, this is more important than all these burnt offerings and sacrifices?” And in verse 34 Jesus answers him as He realizes that the Scribe answered relatively intelligently and Jesus said to the Scribe, “You are not far from the Kingdom of God”. Not far! That’s not were we want to be now is it? The Scribe hears from Jesus, hey, you are close but not quite there yet. How would you like to hear that when you are standing at the Judgment seat of our Lord? Close, not far, but, ????? Scary thought huh? Close but no cigar!! Depart from Me. And if you are not with the Lord you are where?

I spent over 30 years in business as an executive of one of the largest companies in Western Michigan, while in this position some of those years were before my calling, many of those years were in my growth period, and then the later part of my career I was praying with my employees, they would ask m why I was so happy all the time, and people had noticed a huge transformation in Scott. One of my favorite books of the Bible in fact I call it my cornerstone is a commentary on the book of Matthew. In Matthew we find the Sermon on the Mount where we find more of Jesus’ teachings and commandments. These teachings in Chapters 5-7 are more on our personal relationships. In fact my entire career I was known as a black and white type of person. My yes meant yes and my no meant no. There were no gray areas in my positions and answers. People in my industry I found out later greatly respected that about me. Just so happens to be part of the Sermon on the Mount. Matthew 5:37, in fact Jesus goes a little further and clarifies it, anything besides that is “EVIL”. So let your yes be yes and your no mean no! 

In the Gospel of John there are 10 more commandments! I especially like John 12:49-50. Remember earlier I mentioned that in John 16:14, Jesus is the person who instructs the Holy Spirit what to say to us. Now check this out; Jesus is saying “For I did not speak on my own initiative, but the Father Himself who sent Me has given Me a commandment as what to say and what to speak. And I know that His commandment is eternal life; therefore the things I speak, I speak just as the Father has told ME. (John 12:49-50). Full circle my friends, God the Father tells Jesus and Jesus tells the Holy Spirit who lives in us. So when you are hearing from the Holy Spirit you are in fact hearing from God the Father!
It’s not easy to follow all of Jesus’ commands, but it gets easier as you get to know God better! Jesus says “if you love me you will keep my commands”. It’s just  that Narrow Gate or the eye of a needle that cause us trouble,it may be tough but doable.
Just remember this if nothing else; one of the last things Jesus said while here on earth was “Father, I desire also, whom you have given Me, be with Me where I am, so that they may see My glory which you have given Me, for you have Loved Me before the foundation of the world”. Jesus wants us to be with Him. He wants us to see Him in His glory!

Jesus is telling His disciples just as He is telling us today; “you can’t do this on your own – but everything I have commanded of you is possible with God”

 .
I personally have come a long way and I am still growing, I am a sinner, far short of the glory of God, but through His mercy and grace I am His beloved son. And one day, a day we all should be looking forward to is when He says to us, “Well done My good and faithful Servant”

Until next time, God Loves you and so do I.

Peace Out

Do you love Me, then do as I have taught you

Is this “Transformation” or “Incompetence”

Ok here we go!! We have a President who campaigned and promised us that he would “fundamentally” transform the United States of America. In my opinion he has failed miserably at everything he has promised to “fundamentally” change. Is it that he is basically incompetent or has he surrounded himself with people who are, or is he just a puppet? I am beginning to believe seriously that he is simply a puppet and the puppet master has not yet been disclosed. However we have a pretty good idea who it could be don’t we?

I guess we first should see if it is actually a failure or is this simply part of the overall plan to get more and more people reliant on the government? I have talked to numerous people who have said that we have already moved past socialism and are heading even deeper into what? Marxism? Communism? And the number of people who claim that he will not go out of office easily? Watch for something to happen in 2015 or early 2016 that he declares marshal Law and sets himself up as dictator. Scary, but these have been the comments I have heard.

Let’s take a quick look at our environment that he cannot blame Bush for:

1) Over 49% of the American public is on some sort of government subsidy. It has never been higher in our history!
2) We have Benghazi!! Where has this issue gone? It is surely off the radar screen. But let us never forget Kiliary Clinton in her green jumpsuit yelling at the congress, “What difference does it make? They are dead!!” What difference does it make? 4 Americans were killed and Obama and Rice and Clinton all lied to the American public. The killings were because of some You-Tube video?
3) IRS scandal where Obama was scrutinizing the conservative non profits and that he met with the Director of the IRS more than 157 times and according to Obama not one smidgen of untruth or anything dishonest was going on? Then why did he have to meet with this Director 157 times?
4) This is one of my all time favorites; Obama is pushing for immigration that would allow immigrants into the United States that have “LIMITED” ties to known terrorist!!! Are you kidding me! If you have any ties at all, even a distant distant distant cousin, guess what? You are not coming into the United States.
5) Obama is single handedly eliminating our primary source of electricity; coal!! Yes, when he took office over 50% of all our electricity came from coal. Now it is down to less than 30% and falling. And where is the alternative energy coming from? Can’t build a nuke power plant because of all the red tape, in fact third world countries us nuke power more than we do???
6) He continues to block the development of the Keystone Pipeline. Even though it would provide thousands of jobs.
7) He is against “fracking”, even as the cost of energy is bankrupting us. Now that he has effectively stopped fracking, Natural gas has increased 708%!!
8) Obamacare, what more can be said? He has used his “pen” more than 29 times changing the requirements for this mess called Obamacare. I first refused to call it Obamacare and only referred to it as The Affordable care Act, but now to remind people who the author of this legislation is, I refer to it as OBAMACARE. This is one of the best topics ever, first people that were told it was free healthcare are finding out just the opposite and now are not paying the premiums. Second, the young people are not signing up, third over half of the people that this was designed to help, yes those uninsured Americans that this healthcare was designed to help haven’t signed up. Obama lied to the American public about keeping your doctors and health plans, Harry Reid says all the people are lying when they tell their horror stories. The latest one is the gentleman from Las Vegas who because of this OBAMACARE is in debt now over $407,000. Yes Harry one of your own citizens. And to close this one up, Nancy Pelosi’s comment about the law; “We need to pass the law in order to know what is in it”! They didn’t even ready the law they passed. And remember my friends not one Republican voted for this law! Not one!!! So don’t blame it on them!!

These are only a few of the examples of this failed administration. If Obama can’t fundamentally change the economy, healthcare, unemployment and other issues why does he have his hands into Education? Check out the examples; its called The Common Core. First of all according to Article 1, Section 8 of the constitution, nowhere in this list of powers does the Feds have any authority in the education domain. But with State budgets so tight and education budgets falling every year, Obama is now pushing this socialist/marxist educational system onto our children. It all started with the 2009 stimulous package. It was the carrot and the stick! Money $$$ to states and schools was the carrot and NEW federal regulations is the stick. Take the time to Google “Common Core Standards”. You won’t believe what you read and see???

What I see is this; people just don’t care anymore. They have basically given up. Unless it effects them personally, they don’t care. We quit reading, we believe that everything the news tells us is the gospel, even though for 17 1/2 weeks one of the major networks has not reported anything on OBAMACARE!! Yes, 17 1/2 weeks.

And then the comments we hear from the liberals some are quite good:

Nancy Pelosi says that we should use the longer waiting times in the ER to meet and make new friends! Now that’s a place where I would go to make new friends, how about you?

Harry Reid saying all the comments from people who have lost their doctors, policies, and healthcare policies are all liars! Seriously Harry? What world are you living in? Earth to Harry?

Here in Michigan we have a Senate race going on and the Republican candidate is using an ad featuring a woman who has leukemia and is explaining how Rep Gary Peters who voted for Obamacare should be held accountable. Rep. peters is hiding behind lawyers instead of coming out and telling us why he is so upset about this most effective commercial. Come on Gary, what is your problem?

We need to connect the dots people. We have become more and more dependent on the US Government for something, falling right into their overall plan. We are in debt to the tune of $17 TRILLION and growing. Growing so rapidly that China and Russia are beginning to sell our debt and talking about becoming the standard for the worlds currency. If this happens, you will be seeing prices of gas above $9 a gallon for sure, inflation like the uncontrolled inflation in Brazil. Why you ask? As the standard for the world currency we are the only country that can print money anytime we want. Other countries do not have that liberty. So lose the status of the benchmark for the world, inflation will skyrocket!! Look it up. Go the the International Monetary Fund and read about it. Obama wants to raise the minimum wage to over $10 an hour. Even my nephew, a junior in college can see the negative effects this would cause!!

We have a very serious mess on our hands and it is getting worse by the day! My heart aches, literally aches for my grandchildren as the days of innocence is gone! The world I grew up in during the 50’s and 60’s are long gone and will never be back. Instead young people today will have the government in every aspect of their lives, they will never be able to send their children out to play without security, they will be living pay check to pay check, retirement is not in the cards, you will work until you die and you can only hope that it won’t be in some uniform where you have to pledge alligance to Obama!!

To know you is to Love you!

Have you ever been in love? Yes, that butterfly in the stomach love? That love where you can’t sleep at night? That love where all you can think of is that special someone? That someone who you would do absolutely anything for? We all have had that “memory burn” love haven’t we? But would you die for that “love”? Wow, stop and think about the depth of that love. Can you think of someone that you would die for? Your spouse? Your children? Your grandchildren? Anyone? And think about it, people have died and are continuing to die for Christ, even today! Now that is LOVE. Love, faith and grace.

C.S Lewis said; “When I love God more than I love my earthly dearest, then I shall love my earthly dearest more than I do now.” Or;

F.B Meyer equated the magnitude of God’s love in this very descriptive manner; ” The love of God toward us is like the Amazon River watering a single daisy.” And you thought you loved someone? I don’t think it is humanly possible to equate human love with the love God has for his children. Yes, we all have loved someone with what we thought was our entire being and heart. You probably didn’t think you could love another person any more than you do right now. But would you die for them?

Let’s go back to C.S Lewis for a moment as I just love his quote, “for when I love God more than I love my most dearest earthly person, then and only then will I love my earthly dearest more than I do now”. But how is it possible to love someone more than you do now? C.S Lewis made it quite clear as does the Bible that the love of God leads to a deeper love for others.

I recently was talking to a good friend and I asked him, “how can people claim to love God when they don’t know Him”? He said to me, Scott that is a great question, let me think about that one for a while. It has been a while, and we still ponder that question. But doesn’t it make sense? Think about it this way; that butterfly love you had with your first love didn’t just happen overnight, did it? The more you got to know that “special” loved one, the more you loved them, the more your stomach fluttered, the more you thought about them, the more you wanted to be with that person! I hear people all the time tell me they love God and love His son Jesus Christ, but do you know them? What have you done to get to know God? What have you done to get to know Jesus? Do you spend time with them by reading your Bible? Do you spend time with them in prayer, just talking to them?

I love music, I love the Beatles and all oldies music. Maybe it was because it was the music I grew up with? Maybe it is the lyrics? One of my favorites is by Bobby Vinton and his love song called “To know you is to Love You?” Yes of course it’s a love song about young love, but it could also be about our relationship with Jesus. In his song he writes;

“I bring love to you”, this could be God saying to us, “I love you”.

“I walk alongside of you”, could be a picture of Jesus walking side by side with us in our daily lives.

“Why can’t you see how blind love can be”, could be God calling us to Himself with all our faults and sins!

And then Bobby wrote, “to see you smile makes my life worthwhile”, could be that when God sees that we love Him he is smiling.

Loving God is “work”!! Let’s be honest. In Deuteronomy 6:5 we are called by God to love our God with all our heart, soul and mind! Whew, that’s a lot! We are born of a sinful nature and we are called to love our God with all our heart, mind and soul? In Leviticus 19:18 we are to love our neighbor as ourselves. Now that isn’t fair! There are some people we just can’t stand to be around. I know I am not alone on this issue, but nope, got to love them as ourselves. Then in the New Testament Jesus tells us in Matthew 5:44 that we are to love our enemies. Now come one, even those who persecute us? Those who harm us? Yes, even those!! In Mark 12:30-34 Jesus stresses that the love of God is meaningless unless it issues in the love of others. Then the Apostle Paul tells us that LOVE is the premier Christian quality (Gal 5:22, Col 3:14, 1 Tim 1:5 and 4:12). And John while exiled to the island of Patmos tells us in 1 John 4:16 that God is LOVE, and that if we abide in love, God abides in us and that because of this LOVE we should have no fear because there is no fear in LOVE. We are able to LOVE because He first LOVED us! It is simply amazing that we have a God that loves us that much!! Even with all our faults and sins, He still loves us.

Okay, I got it, Love God with all your heart, mind and soul and love others as you love yourself. And fear not, because if you LOVE, God LOVES you. It’s tough sometimes to comprehend and realize that God loves us that much! And to be brutally honest with you, as my spiritual growth and knowledge of God has increased, so has my LOVE for Him and others grown! I have been transformed from a person you wouldn’t wan to have been around, a person that thought it was all about me and that there was nothing bigger than I was! Then God got a hold of me and transformed this lump of clay into a very caring and loving person. People are amazed that I have changed so radically. It is all because of the LOVE of God. A few years before I retired I had employees stop me and ask me why I was so happy all the time. It was perfect time to tell them how much God loved me and how I loved them. But it didn’t happen overnight! This is a process! A process to realize that LOVE is the greatest of all God’s gifts and through this LOVE we grow in faith and grace! But before we look at faith and grace lets take one more quick look back at LOVE.

When do you learn the most in life? I think during two periods of time. One is when you are a child and second is when you are so far down that you are “eating with the pigs”. We will get back to “eating with the pigs” later, but now let’s look at the mind of a child?
A child’s mind is so moldable and I think that is why Jesus said in Matthew 18:1-6; V3 “Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven,”, here Jesus is saying that the matters of the world have not yet corrupted the young mind of children and they are able to learn and understand His love. In V4 Jesus says, “humble yourself like a child”, in other words be willing to learn and Jesus says V6; ” whoever causes one of these little ones to stumble, it would be better for him to have a heavy millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea”. So in other words, if you corrupt or harm one of these little children and their learning, you are going to pay dearly.

I can’t take credit for the phrase eating with the pigs. That quote comes from a dear friend Steve Swanson . Steve is a pastor of a church in Minneapolis and one day we were talking about spiritual growth and people willingness to change and learn. Steve said that a person will not learn or change until they hit the lowest point in their lives, thus like the prodigal son found eating with his fathers pigs, he was unwilling to change or to learn from the father. So a question to all of you is this; “have you eaten with the pigs”?

The greatest gift of all from God is LOVE (1 Corinthians 13;13) and through this LOVE we are developing a deeper FAITH and GRACE. So basically it looks like this:

LOVE
/ \
/ \
FAITH GRACE
\ /
\ /
GIFTS

Now we get into some sticky stuff. When we look at FAITH, in 2 Thes 3:2, “Not all have FAITH”. Now I can believe this based on some of the comments I read on blogs or papers. Those comments from people denying Gods existence and swearing and using God’s name in vain hurt me deeply. They hurt because I know where they are heading when they die. If you don’t believe in God you certainly will not have FAITH, not Faith in Him or His word that’s for sure. I like what the Apostle Paul says in his letter to the Romans; “God has allotted to each a measure of faith” A measure of faith? If I am understanding the definition of a measure, that would indicate that God does not give each of us the same amount faith? Agree or disagree? Looking more closely at Romans 12:3 Paul says “For the Grace given to me, I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but think as to have a sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a “measure of faith”. Thoughts?
Then you have the Apostles of our Lord saying to Jesus in Luke 5 forward, “Lord increase our faith”. Increase our faith? What more do you need to have faith in The Lord Jesus Christ than to have had the opportunity to walk with him daily, to see his miracles, to hear him teach! And they ask for more??? If you read the commentaries on Romans they refer you to the Book of Wisdom where they say about Romans 12:3; ” One searches into matters of which the law does not speak is trying to be wiser. This is why Solomon says;”Do not inquire after things higher than yourself and do not search after things greater than yourself but think always on things that God has commanded you. Sir 3:22″
So summarizing Faith; Saint Augustine said; “Faith is to believe what we do not see. The reward of this FAITH is to see what we believe.” Faith will not always get for us what we want, but it will get what God wants us to have. So as our love for God increases our Faith also increases. it increases to the point where we are not leaping into darkness, we are actually leaping out of darkness and into the LIGHT!!

Grace; something I surely didn’t have a lot of before my love for Christ grew and continues to grow, but I know many people whose Grace just flows out of them. I have a sister-in-law Mary that is the most gracious person I know. When Paul wrote in Ephesians 4:7 “To each one of us Grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gifts”, Mary got a full load of grace that’s for sure. These gifts are spiritual gifts! Do you know what your spiritual gifts are? There are numerous spiritual gift surveys, one that I used to teach was called Network. For a list of spiritual gifts see 1 Corinthians 12. What do you think your gifts are?
As A.W Tozer wrote about grace; ” Grace is the good pleasure of God that inclines Him to bestow benefits on the undeserving.” The undeserving is ALL of us!! We all fall short of the glory of God. Jesus’ younger brother Jude writes in Jude 1:4 “ungodly people turning the GRACE of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord Jesus Christ.” In 1:16 Jude tell us who these people are and we all know them. They are the grumblers, finding fault in anything and everything, following their own lusts, they are the ones that speak arrogantly and flatter people for their own gain. You know them, I know people exactly like that! There is no denying the fact.What we ought to know to protect ourselves from these people Jude describes is what measure of Grace we received and what measure of faith we have been given.

I believe Stephen, the first Christian martyr knew his measure of faith! He had to!!To go to his death by stoning? Or one of the later teachers of God’s word, Polycarp. Polycarp died in 150’s at the age of 86. He was a Christian all his life and was old enough to remember people who met Jesus themselves. Polycarp became Bishop of Smyrna in Asia Minor. The way Polycvarp went to his death is nothing short of amazing and a testament of his strong faith in The Lord. See the jews wanted :Polycarp to swear by the genius of Caesar. He refused!! The proconsul said I have wild beasts, I will throw you to them unless you change your mind. Polycarp stayed fast in his conviction and faith in The Lord Jesus Christ. The proconsul then said I will have you consumed by fire since you despise the wild beast, unless you change your mind! Hold fast to his faith Polycarp says NO. Polycarp went onto say that “you threaten with fire that only burns briefly and after a little while it is extinguished, for you ignorant of the fire of the coming judgment and eternal punishment which is reserved for the ungodly. But why do you delay. Come, do what you wish”. Okay lets be honest here, how many are running at this point? How many are saying ok Caesar is the god? Not Polycarp! With courage and joy, and his face was filled with grace, so that not only did he not collapse in fright at the things that were said to him.

So the crowd quickly gathered the wood and built the Pyre. When the pyre was ready they took all of his clothes off and they were getting ready to nail him to the wood and he said to them”Leave me as I am, for the one who enables me to endure the fire will also enable me to remain on the pyre without moving, even without the security you get from the nails. So they didn’t nail Polycarp but tied him instead with his hands behind his back. Before they lit the pyre he asked if he could pray? They granted Polycarp’s request and he prayed; ” O Lord God Almighty, Father of your beloved Son Jesus Christ, through whom we have received knowledge of you., the God of angels and powers and of all creation, and of the whole race of the righteous who live in your presence. I bless you because you have considered me worthy of this day and hour, so that I might receive a place among the number of martyrs in the cup of Christ (Rev 6:9-11), to the resurrection to eternal life, both of soul and body, in the incorruptibility of the Holy Spirit.” Polycarp goes on “I praise you, I bless you, I glorify you, through the eternal and heavenly high priest, Jesus Christ, your beloved Son, through whom be the glory to you, with him and the Holy Spirit, both now and for the ages to come. ” Amen!

After he said his Amen the men lit the fire, it was a mighty flame and a miracle occurred. The fire took the shape of an arch, like the sail of a ship and completely surrounded the body of Polycarp. We perceived a very fragrant aroma as if it were like bread baking or incense or some other precious spice burning. When the lawless men realized that the body could not be consumed by fire the executioner went up and stabbed him with a dagger. And when he did this, there came out a dove and a large quantity of blood, so that it extinguished the fire; and the whole crowd was amazed that there should be so great a difference between the unbelievers and the elect!!

Polycarp had a faith that we should all strive for in our lives. Him and all the martyrs for the faith. But how? How do we get there and is it humanly possible? Good question? Not sure I have the answers but I do have God’s word.

First we need to renew our minds (Romans 12:2). Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. How can we start renewing our minds?

1) practice wisdom
2) reflection on God’s word, in other words read your Bible, join a small group, get involved with your local church.
3) develop a spiritual understanding of God’s laws. Like do not murder, commit adultery, do not covet your neighbors property and many others. This one is tough!! First you have tom learn what God’s laws are and then follow them. Then you can start wrestling with voting for a candidate who supports abortion!
4) Perfect the will of God – Jere 32:37-44 which in summary says that a spiritually minded heart will know what is good and acceptable to God.

I wish I could leave you with something prophetic but I am drained! I will leave you with this from the Gospel of John:

“I write my Gospel so that you may come to believe”.

God Bless all of you…….

Welcome

Just a simple reminder!

I am really excited about starting this new blog. I will be able to share with my audience current event items that are relevant to everyone today. We will be exploring politics, the economy, the constitution, education reform, religion and theology, and other items of interest. I have over 30 years of executive management experience, a deep passion for theology, a love for politics and ethics! I am looking forward to sharing thoughts and ideas on managerial items, the economy, law, patents, and theological issues. Welcome aboard, let’s have fun, lets learn and let’s be heard!!!!