Bad stuff.....it happens

Bad stuff will happen in our lives. A question I get about faith in God, if God is all knowing, all powerful, why would he allow bad stuff to happen? I wish I had answer for why bad stuff happens, it would be a lot easier to talk to people about faith. At the same time, could you imagine life if nothing bad ever happened? How would life look if nothing bad ever happened? Sports would stink, would we ever have an ending in sports? Not that I ever want bad things to happen, what would happen if only good stuff would happen?

Paul spent a chunk of 1 Thessalonians talking about the end times and what would happen in these times. The Thessalonians were new in faith. They weren’t sure and were nervous about the end times/when Jesus would comeback. Paul spent the majority of chapter 4 and half of chapter 5 talking about these end times. One of the last verses of this section of scripture was 1 Thessalonians 5:9…

“For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

God is not sitting up in heaven like a kid with a magnifying glass at ants lighting them on fire. God want to bring comfort to the people. Whenever then end times happen, people do not need to be wondering what is going to happen. There is no need to worry when you have faith in Jesus.

Put it this way. Where are you with your relationship with Jesus? Do you worry about what would happen in the end times? Do you worry what would happen if you past away suddenly and where you would go? What about your family/friends/loved ones? If you are worried, know that the only answer is Jesus. If you are wondering what this entails, talk to me or someone you know that follows Jesus. We can explain what it truly means to follow Jesus.

Have a great day.

Dying sucks, but it doesn't have too

Dying sucks, but it doesn’t have too

A death sometimes isn’t a death. Death sometimes feels like it’s all around us. We have lost people close to us, some expected and some unexpected. From my 35 years of life on earth, there is a major difference going to funerals. The difference is when I go to a Christian funeral compared to a (lack of a better term) normal funeral.

Now if you have lost someone close to you, I am so sorry, but please let me explain the difference between the two.

Paul shares these two verses in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-14: “Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope. For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him.” There is a difference in death.

This was shared in the Bible Knowledge Commentary, “Paul wanted the Thessalonians to be neither ignorant nor grieving like the rest of men, that is, like unbelievers, over the death of fellow believers. Christians do grieve over the loss of loved ones; this is a normal human experience which even Jesus shared (John 11:35). But the grief of Christians differs from that of unbelievers, for the latter have no hope of bodily resurrection to glory with Christ (1 Thes. 4:16). Two reasons why Christians should not grieve like unbelievers are that Christians have a revelation from God that gives them hope and they have a glorious future with Christ. Just as certainly as Jesus died and was resurrected by the Father, so God will unite the resurrected dead in Christ with their Savior at His coming.^[1]

Hope. It’s a completely different feeling when you are certain the person passing away is a Christian, the room has a calming presents that it’s hard to explain. The grief is more a feeling of joy then anything else. If you have someone that has passed away and you feel like they were far away from Jesus. I am sorry for that, but know that you have the opportunity to come close to Jesus today. Eternal life is avavliable through everyone who gives their life over to Jesus. You can have hope that you never had before with faith in Jesus. Don’t be afraid to ask someone what it takes to have faith in Jesus or what faith in Jesus is all about. If you do have faith in Jesus, be free to share this message with others today.

Have a great day.

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^[1] Thomas L. Constable, “1 Thessalonians,” in The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures, ed. J. F. Walvoord and R. B. Zuck, vol. 2 (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1985), 703–704.

The devil made me do it

Just because you are shown the wrong way to go, doesn’t mean you have to go that way. Before GPS, I was going to cover a basketball game with my friend Eddie. We headed to a small town in the middle of nowhere. I printed off my directions and we were on our way. We were confused and ended up asking for directions.

I thought I was about a mile from the school and driving around. The attendant said to go down the road we were on, go around a couple of long turns and the school will be right there. I followed the directions and ended up 10 miles into the middle of nowhere. After realizing we were lost we pulled up to the nearest gas station which happened to be about 10 minutes away.

He told us we drove by it, it was almost a half a mile from the previous gas station. We got to the game by tip off but it was close. After a minute we thought we were going down the wrong direction, but thought it was going to be right there. Our dark path ended up leading us far from where we needed to be. In life we can head down roads we don’t plan on going down. We can be lead far away. Even though we went in a direction we didn’t want to go, it was ultimately our choice to go down that road. If you think about doing something bad, it doesn’t mean you are going to do it. You have a choice.

Temptation is not a sin. The devil might present you a way to go but ultimately it was our choice. 1 Corinthians 10 some of 12 and 13…

“So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall! No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.”

This is hard to study sometimes. If you are tempted it doesn’t mean you will fall into sin. You have a choice. I know in the past I have been tempted to do some pretty ungodly things. You can feel like you have the whole world on your shoulders when it comes to these temptations or urges. You think it’s all on you to defeat this, because this scripture says you won’t be tempted beyond what you can bear. Know this, in order to overcome some sins/desires, it can take help from other people. God can help you through what you feel the Devil is making you do.

What is a temptation of yours? What is keeping you stuck in guilt, making you angry and being withdrawn from other people? You don’t have to bear the weight of the world on your shoulders. We have a God who loves and cares for you. He wants you to overcome the bad in your life. No matter what you feel tempted by, Jesus is there for you. We can over come being deceived by the devil. Start heading in the right direction today.

Have a great day.

A 45 minute trip turned into 3 hours

Getting lost is never fun.

It was my senior year of high school and we were heading out to a cross country meet in Maple Valley.

The trip should have taken about 45 minutes.

After two hours, the driver realized we were lost.

Our head coach had an appt. he could not get out of so our asst. coach Katie led the way along with me being a third year captain.

We end up pulling off the highway and go into the first thing we could find, a bar in the middle of nowhere.

These people gave us the weirdest look when we went in there and asked for directions.

They pointed out that we were about two hours from the meet.

No cross country meet for us that day.

We got on the bus and led the driver back down state to the actual meet.

We showed up as the rest of the teams were packing up and leaving for the meet.

It was crazy.

There were so many things that happen that would take so long to explain.

I will never forget that trip.

It was crazy, nerve wrecking, interesting, sad, entertaining and fun all in one.

The story could go on as I tell you what happened and what people said and such.

Sometimes the story just can’t go on without getting to the point.

Jesus tells us this in John 16:12…

“I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear.”

With a good story, we learn about so much more but there could always be more.

Jesus is telling about some important stuff in this section of scripture.

He is telling them about his about and coming death, how he won’t always be there and the Holy Spirit.

I don’t know how much the disciples got of this story until afterwards.

They couldn’t figure it out until after the fact.

Sometimes that is the way life is.

We find out after the fact.

My story about that bus trip could go on and on, nobody would read it except the people it directly affected.

It was a fun story.

With Jesus and his words he spoke in the section of scripture the story can go on longer and does, but some things we can’t comprehend until afterward.

That’s life sometimes.

Bad and good things happen, some we can bear right away and other times it takes a while to soak in.

We can bear only so much sometimes, but God can make us bear even more, whether good or bad.

We have a God that wants the best for us and gave us his son to bear our mistakes.

That is great to have.

Have a great day.