Iron can sharpen Iron but not to be used to stab in the back

It feels weird not going to church. Even before going into ministry, Since becoming a Christian, I don’t like missing church. It never feels right. When I would miss I felt lost, I felt off. Yet today without having church services we can still have church. I am spending my morning reading my Bible. My family and I will do communion. Hailee and I will watch a service online. We can still do church, it won’t be the same as being around my loving church family though.

There is the phrase in Christian circles Iron sharpens iron. This is a great line for the church. Using one person to sharp another, we make one another better. Next weekend there is a great conference in this area for men, and this is the title for it: Iron Sharpens Iron. Such a great idea and men from our area will celebrate and grow together in faith. Sometimes this is done gently. Sometimes it involves tough love. The worst is when it’s used to make a sharp object to put into someone’s back. Christians can be quick to change face, that same iron sharpens iron can be brutal.

Hello, my name is Joel and I sin. I am not perfect, very far from it at times. Life has been painful at times, some my own doing and some outside my control. Some of the most painful has been from my own flesh and blood. From the people I wouldn’t expect it from, my brothers and sisters in Christ. I once took a class from Jim Estep about change and conflict management in the church. He opened the class with a line similar but not exact to: “We are all Christians we all love Jesus and therefore there is no conflict in the church. Class dismissed.” Everyone in this seminary class laughed, because we all knew it was the furthest from the truth. Fighting is the opposite of what Christians are called to be.

Galatians 6:1-5…

Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently. But watch yourselves, or you also may be tempted. Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. If anyone thinks they are something when they are not, they deceive themselves. Each one should test their own actions. Then they can take pride in themselves alone, without comparing themselves to someone else, for each one should carry their own load.”

Restoring a car takes special tools, you wouldn’t just take a sledgehammer to restore it, likewise with restoring a person. Restoration does not mean forgive and forget. Restoration is using precise tools to fix the problem. Restoration can be gentle. It makes me think of how Andy fixed Woody’s arm in the first Toy Story. He didn’t go to town on Woody with duct tape, he was careful precise and that’s what we need to do with our fellow believers.

The restoration needs to be comprehensive. It can’t be done by someone with limited knowledge of faith and understanding. The word restore in verse one had two meanings. 1. It meant for setting broken bones. 2. For mending fishing nets. Restoration happens by Christians who are mature in faith and knowledgeable that no one is perfect and can fall into sin. Nobody needs to carry their own burdens, we all have troubles but being a Christian is taking and helping someone going through a rough time. We can help others through the tough times but we also need to reflect and see if we are in the wrong with our own life. If we don’t look at ourselves how do we expect to help others? We need to help others out and sometimes the best help is by helping ourselves.

When Christians can restore one another it can make a world of difference. When we can have a moment of self-reflection and start walking towards the path God intends us to walk, we can change our life and the life of people around us. Iron sharpens iron can be good or bad depending on how you use it. How can you sharpen iron today? Who can you restore today?

Have a great day.

The rules of Christianity

Christianity can be funny and amusing when left up to people. We Christians like to mess up what faith truly is. When I first became a Christian, I loathed Christian music. I thought it was overplayed, had extremely bad cheesy lyrics from untalented musicians (A little judgmental, lol). I said to myself kill me now if I ever get caught listening to Christian music. Not everything was bad to me, I did enjoy some of it (DC Talk = amazing, Jars of Clay) but the majority of it, I made a point of liking the music I liked before I was a Christian. To make a point the same day I purchased an Eminem CD I purchased a Jennifer Knapp CD (Anybody who knows Jennifer Knapp would know the irony behind this). We Christians like to make faith our own sometimes and look down on those who don’t see things our way. The problem with this way of life, it doesn’t matchup biblically.

Christianity is not our view of faith but trying to wrap out minds around the way God see things instead of the way we see them. I once knew some Christians that had no problem and were pretty open about drinking, but if you watched an R rated movie you were going straight to hell for sickening your mind. Jesus brought about a major change in faith. When we look at faith there was a major change with rules. The Old Testament had the Mosaic Law. You followed the and you showed you were faithful to God, but then came Jesus, the old way was gone and a new way came forward. It caused friction between the followers of God. Some people were stuck in the old ways and couldn’t embrace what Jesus brought about. They were stuck in the old ways.

Paul describes this with a weird story I had to read over multiple times in Galatians 4:21-27…

²¹ Tell me, you who want to be under the law are you not aware of what the law says? ²² For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman and the other by the free woman ²³ His son by the slave woman was born according to the flesh but his son by the free woman was born as the result of a divine promise.

²⁴ These things are being taken figuratively: The women represent two covenants. One covenant is from Mount Sinai and bears children who are to be slaves: This is Hagar. ²⁵ Now Hagar stands for Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present city of Jerusalem, because she is in slavery with her children. ²⁶ But the Jerusalem that is above is free, and she is our mother. ²⁷ For it is written:

“Be glad, barren woman,

you who never bore a child;

shout for joy and cry aloud,

you who were never in labor;

because more are the children of the desolate woman

than of her who has a husband.”

Paul uses an allegory (story with a hidden meaning) about Abraham’s two sons. He does this to show the new side of God, the side of grace after Jesus came. After Jesus came the Old Covenant (Represented by Hagar and a son that came from human ways) was gone. A new way of grace was shown, the New Covenant was from Sarah and Isaac being born amazingly from God’s promise. While the last couple of verses 28-30 explains this harshly about Hagar, but the overall point is grace.

Sarah show’s us God’s grace through Jesus. Abraham and Sarah couldn’t conceive, so they went about human ways to conceive a son. Yet later in life, God showed mercy and gave Sarah the son she couldn’t have on her own. God came through. We do this with faith when we look at following Jesus through our own understanding rather then Biblically. They conceived a son and a lot of major problems came from this. This is what happens when we follow rules instead of following God’s grace he shows us through Jesus and through scripture.

The old rules are gone and Jesus brought about a new side of faith, grace. It’s grace that saves us. I make plenty of mistakes and have struggles, but God gives us grace through Jesus. This is what Paul ends with: following the old laws misses the point of what faith is all about. When we make that decision to follow Christ we are now sons and daughters of God. No rules, just right. God gives us freedom through Christ, share that freedom and grace today.

Have a great day.

Robbed before opening Christmas presents

Ripping open presents is fun except when it’s your presents and someone else did the opening. When I was in middle school, we were in the process of going to my dad’s for Christmas. We arrived at the house to find a window open and all of our Christmas presents open and all the presents were gone. Christmas was stolen from us. It was a life long memory I will never forget. I will admit it was a tough day. As tough as it was for us, in the grand scheme of things it was so small.

 

 

Many people all over the world don’t get Christmas presents. They don’t get the experience of Christmas. A chunk of the world is happy just to survive the day or have food to eat in a day. We have so much to be thankful and can help others. This is what the Apostles told Paul in his ministry…

“Continue to remember the poor, (Paul responded) the very things I had been eager to do all along.” – Galatians 2:10.

Paul understood the point the Apostles wanted to share with him. Give to the poor. Every church gets called with people looking for meeting the basic needs everything from gas to paying bills to a place to stay at night. The church is meant to help those in need. You could be a blessing to someone else.

We had insurance and a little while later we got the Christmas presents that were taken from us, so many won’t get a Christmas present, this could change. There is an organization with this goal in mind. To bring Christmas to kids all over the world and you can help.

Samaritan’s Purse has a project called Operation Christmas Child. http://www.samaritanspurse.org/what-we-do/operation-christmas-child/

You can bring Christmas to someone else in the world. They take the Gospel message and present it along with your gift to people all over the world.

Every year I have our middle and high school students from my church do this ministry. They partner, bring money then go and buy Christmas presents to share with people all over the world. Each box needs $7 for shipping and we have a blast giving a present to someone that wouldn’t get one.

Paul calls us to take care of the poor. You can do this. You can make a difference help your community and help those in need. Check out this ministry and see what you can do to help. We might have had Christmas present stolen from us but at least we originally had presents waiting for us. Help someone else enjoy a Christmas present.

Have a great day.

Pregnant, not married and in bible college

There is beauty in forgiveness and restoration. A major influence in my life spiritually almost never became a minister. This person told me while in Bible College and working a part time ministry, he got his girlfriend pregnant. For some people and places, this would have disqualified this person from ever being in ministry.

The church he worked at was in a dilemma. He was guilty of a sin. During this time it would have been more acceptable to no longer consider for ministry. Rather then ending his ministry career, they chose to give him a second chance.

A second chance is not a free pass. This man was told he was to take a break from ministry, focus on his soon to be wife and child. For several months he worked a job and worked towards getting everything in order. After this time the church allowed him to come back on staff in ministry. He was married, graduated from Bible College, had a beautiful child and went on to have an extremely successful ministry.

Restoration can be life changing. My mentor is still married to this day has beautiful kids that have grown up loving Jesus. I doubt I would be a Christian today without this man in my life. One decision that was made a long time ago had an influence on my salvation. The church had no clue the decision they made to forgive and restore this man led to me accepting Jesus in my life. They had no idea this man would play a big role in me going into ministry. Him and his wife are inspirations to Hailee and I. If we had issues or struggles we could go to this couple for help and guidance.

Good results can happen from restoration. 2 Corinthians 13:11-14…

“Finally, brothers and sisters, rejoice! Strive for full restoration, encourage one another, be of one mind, live in peace. And the God of love and peace will be with you. Greet one another with a holy kiss. All God’s people here send their greetings. May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.”

One churches decision to restore one person affected myself and numerous others. Paul ended the book of 2 Corinthians with this scripture. Imagine the effect restoration, peace and encouragement can have on the world? This is what the church is truly for. The church gives us the grace of Jesus, love of God and the close partnership/friendship of the Holy Spirit. We can all have this. Forgiveness even between two people can affect hundreds, thousands and even the world. One person’s restoration brought me to Jesus.

Imagine the difference you can make if you restore, repair and forgive someone in your life? I am not a perfect person. I have needed grace, forgiveness and needed to be restored. The grace of Jesus is a beautiful thing. I am glad this church offered grace and forgiveness because I am a Christian minister as a result. Show grace today.

Have a great day.

FU

Forgive you.

I have seen this video several times, I love it and have shared this video. Christians are supposed to be known for forgiveness and grace. Sometimes we are the furthest things from it. We want people to forgive us for the wrong we have done but don’t give the same gratitude. Honestly, we screwed this up.

Paul shares a story about this in 2 Corinthians 2:5-11. In this story it talks about a guy and how he shamed all these people. These people sent him away and he was an outcast. We aren’t sure what exactly this guy did but he was sent away. Paul is telling the church it’s time to give him a second chance.

2 Corinthians 2:7-8…”Now instead, you ought to forgive and comfort him, so that he will not be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. I urge you, therefore, to reaffirm your love for him.”

People deserve another chance. This isn’t a free opportunity to do something stupid and expect forgiveness, but when someone is in the wrong. They admit it and apologize, we can forgive them. When we as a Christian or as a Church don’t have a forgiving heart we are told in what happens in verses 10-11… “Anyone you forgive, I also forgive. And what I have forgiven – if there was anything to forgive – I have forgiven in the sight of Christ for your sake, in order that Satan might not outwit us. For we are not unaware of his schemes.”

I have seen where people have forgotten how to forgive. They grow more cold through the years. Their hearts and attitudes become calloused. When we forgive and accept someone back after forgiving there is a weight lifted off our back. We don’t have to carry that hatred and bitterness that can overcome us. Satan loves that aspect when good people become full of hate and resentful. Sometimes people live years of their lives like this. Imagine if we changed as people, we allowed those burdens to go away. Life can change and sometimes it’s up to us to relieve our selves of those burdens.

If your still feeling bitterness, remember FU.

Have a great day.

Ending on a good note

Leaving on a good note rarely happens.

This is how Paul left the letter of 1 Corinthians 16:23-24…”The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you. My love to all of you in Christ Jesus. Amen.”

This past week I had a friend Matt Troyer move from his church to a new church where he felt God calling him to go. On Wednesday he had a going away festivity at the church. It was awesome to see a good group of people there to see him go. The church took up a collection for him. People stood up and had nice encouraging words for him and his family as they left. How often do we get to leave on a good note?

Most people don’t leave on a high note. I think of professional football and it’s rare someone leaves when they are on top of their game. Often they weren’t the star player and got cut. I remember stud Brian Urlacher and when he retired this past year in part no team really wanted him. Tim Tebow just wanted another chance to show he was a winner. I remember when Barry Sanders retired and thinking NO! He had good years left. It’s tough to leave on a positive note. I think of people that retire way past there prime or when someone gets laid off or cut and they were good employees. We often in life don’t always get to leave on a good note. Sometimes it’s within our control and sometimes it’s not.

Paul leaves his letter on a good note. He wrote the letter trying to work on conflict that came up in the church and had to say some harsh and be pretty blunt with the people. Through it all, he did it out of love. Through all the conflict and harsh reminders he had to give he reminded them he loved them.

When you leave do you leave on a good note? No matter what Hailee and I have this agreement. Whether we are fighting or not, when we leave each other whether it’s going to work or to pickup the kids from school to leave saying I love you and meaning it. You never know when it’s your time to go.

How can you leave on a good note? Whether it’s going to work/school when was the last time you told those close to you, you love them? Paul ends this letter on a good note. How are you going to leave?

Have a great day.

Issues with sexual sins

We all have issues. Things we wish we could change about ourselves. For the church in Corinthians it dealt with sexual sins. They struggled with sexual immorality. This is an interesting word.

Sexual immorality in the original Bible language of Greek translated from the word porneia. It’s where we get porn from. It can be any sexual sin and not just homosexuality. It’s also sexual outside marriage, adultery, looking at porn, sleeping with relatives etc.1 Corinthians 6:12-13…

“I have the right to do anything,” you say – but not everything is beneficial. “I have the right to do anything” – but I will not be mastered by anything. You say, “Food for the stomach and the stomach for food, and God will destroy them both.” The body, however, is not meant for sexual immorality but for the Lord, and the Lord the body.”

Where was the author going with this? The Bible Knowledge Commentary, “Food for the stomach and the stomach for food was another slogan by which some Corinthians sought to justify their immorality. They reasoned that “food” was both pleasurable and necessary. When their stomachs signaled hunger, food was taken to satisfy them. So too, they argued, sex was pleasurable and necessary. When their bodies signaled sexual desire, they needed to be satisfied. But Paul drew a sharp line between the stomach and the body.”

They were living for unnatural ways. This is like the show Dexter being true. Dexter would feel a need to be a killer and would kill to help level himself out. It’s truly not natural. Sexual sin is hard. The church in Corinth would be somewhat like a very bad Las Vegas. They did what they felt their bodies called them to do. Paul had to tell them this wasn’t what our bodies were meant for. We were designed with a greater purpose.

God has a greater purpose for us and sexual sins can keep us from living a life we are called to live. We all have struggled with different sexual sins and lust, that doesn't make us bad people, just we have made bad decisions. What life do you want to live and how can sin like this keep us from this life. Be free from this sin and see what happens in your life. Have a great day.

Forget grace, we're playing cards

Leave Jesus out of this we are playing cards. Hailee and I love to play cards and it’s normal for us to have get together with friends and play cards. Jokingly while playing a tough game of cards and trying to win someone said something along the lines of forget about the grace of Jesus were playing cards. It was funny and joking but in real life situations sometimes we forget about Jesus’s grace and get wrapped into judging.

There was a story about a church that once was wronged. This one church paid for a service to be done by a company and looked forward to having this complete to improve the church, but the person changed the deal. The original deal was pay for the service 50 percent up front and the rest at completion. The business owner went up to the church and said before the finished product was done, they needed more money to complete the project.  The church paid the person the rest of the money.

Soon after that, the job wasn’t completed to a satisfactory mark. The job wasn’t done. When the church tried to contact this man, the man stopped returning phone calls, they would only answer when called from an unknown number. A shady business deal, what was the church to do? Should a loving church file charges against this business man that wrong them?

1 Corinthians 6 spends the first 11 verses talking about judging others and handling matters in a Christian way. The church people were taking lawsuits to courts against other Christians. Paul stated how wrong this was. He stated its better to be wronged and cheated then to do the likewise to brothers and sisters in faith. He ends talking about who will inherit the kingdom of God with verse 11…

“And that is what some of you were. But you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.”

We were sanctified by Jesus. Sanctify means to be set apart for special use or purpose. When we get stuck in matters that go to court especially if we are in the wrong, we are not living the sanctified life Jesus gave us.

Jesus gave us life, grace, mercy and peace. He never wanted us to put court cases against other Christians. Hopefully matters can be resolved that even though we have to obey the laws of the land Romans 13:1. Grace needs to be shown in every matter and that is what Jesus gives each and every one of us. Have a great day.

Boston

A marathon effects more than the city it’s in. My friend Kohon mentioned this marathon effected more people and countries then anyone can imagine. Boston has a strict time guideline in order to qualify for the race, some marathoners spend their whole lives trying to qualify for one of the races on their Bucket List. People from all over the United States and the world come to Boston.

Before two reconstructive knee surgeries, I had the goal of running the Boston (Boston is the one of the only marathons that require a qualifying time, I could not make the time cut yet). My time for the marathon was about the time the explosion went off. Long past my marathons days as I look at this tragedy as a minister of Jesus and see the hurt that people post from this. It’s a sad state and often people ask why would a loving God allow this to happen?

Throughout my time as a minister you see a lot of bad things happen to people. Sometimes it’s when people are already down and something worse happens. Haven’t they been punished enough? Then a tragedy like the Marathon happens and people without understanding call out to God, why God why? To answer this I am going to spend the rest of the time talking about suffering and choice.

We all have a choice. There is something called the free will defense that people a lot smarter then I came up with to explain when bad things happen. The free will defense is this…

1.      God is absolutely perfect.

2.      God created only perfect creatures.

3.      One of the perfections God gave some of his creatures was the power of free choice.

4.      Some of these creatures freely choose to do evil.

5.      Therefore, a perfect creature caused evil.

Every day we have the choice to do good or bad. Which do you choose? Today do you choose to go to work/school or the bar/or skip? It’s a choice an individual makes that can affect other people. We make thousands of choices every day that directly affect us and the people around us some directly and some indirectly. The people that chose to do this in Boston, chose to do evil. Their choice affected people all over the world for this international event.

Even with free will, why do people have to suffer? This is a tough question that you can look at with other questions. If God stopped all evil right now what would that look like? If God destroyed everything that caused unjust suffering and evil – what would survive? We can all do evil and that is where we struggle with sin. Suffering might cause us to be protected from an even deeper evil.

Not all suffering can be bad or evil, it can be pain. Sometimes in life we have to suffer to experience something great. I haven’t met a women who has cherished child birth but you love the result when you get that awesome gift of God in your hands. You sometimes have to suffer and endure hardships to get where you want to go in life (School, strict training, unpaid internship etc).

This doesn’t explain the event in Boston but hopefully you would understand a loving God does not want tragedies like this to happen in the world he created. While things like this do happen, sadly. God gave us Jesus to comfort us during these tough times. God is a loving and just God who cares about the people and I am sure is sad over this tragic event.

Through our lives we have a loving God who sacrificed his only son Jesus for us. Jesus took all of our sins and died for us. Through the bad things in life Jesus loves you cares for you and is sad when you are down. Through the suffering Jesus is always there with you. You can always go to him with your problems.

I didn't think someone could be so cocky

Confidence is great, arrogance not so much. There are people that think they know all. Cockiness flows from them like sweat on a hot day. There was a guy I used to play hockey with, we will call him Troy. Troy was a guy who grew up playing hockey and thought he was going to be drafted and destined for the NHL. He was a very good player, made me look like a fool a couple of times in net. Every time we stepped on the ice, there was only one speed, fast.

It didn’t matter if it was a pickup game or a playoff game, he went all out. My brother Zach and I were playing drop in hockey and Troy was playing like a jerk. In drop in there are people of all different skills yet most people are laid back. Troy was not one of them. Zach and I were just getting into ice hockey more that summer and this was about the fifth time Zach ever played ice hockey. So early in the session Troy came up to Zach with the puck did a sweet move and went right by him. It was a great move.

What Troy didn’t know was Zach was a little bit of a natural, it never looked like he only skated five times. So a little later Zach with natural ability did the same move to Troy and blew past. Troy was ticked and tried to slash Zach all the way down the ice. A little bit of info, Zach was 6-2ish 200 pounds, Troy was 5-9, 155-160 pounds. Zach didn’t put up with crap though and after getting hooked all the way down the ice, he took him into the boards. Needless to say, Zach laughed, Troy was ticked and as he tried to get up to get in Zach’s face twisted his knee and fell to the ice. Troy then hobbled to the bench. Zach didn’t want to be a complete jerk and went to the bench to check on him. Troy responded, “Get out of my face before I blast you.” Zach tried to be nice, but upon Troy being a jerk to him Zach said, “Man, this is my fifth time playing ice hockey and I went by you like nothing, try harder next time.”

We can all be nice or be jerks. Romans 12:3…

“For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you.”

We live life the way we want. We can be humble, respecting others or we can live like jerks. There is something about humble people that I just love. People who don’t think of themselves as all powerful. Paul shares with us the point of humbleness. We shouldn’t value ourselves above others. When we look at what we do compared to what God has done we are a bug on a windshield, we can’t compare.

Yet even in our small statue, we can still think highly of ourselves. We are not called to be conceited or big-headed but rather modest and simple.

What are ways you can be humble today? Who can you show that you are respectful? Can you put yourself in their place and show more respect? There is beauty in humbleness.

Have a great day.

Watching a police raid from your house

It’s fun to watch the TV show Cops, it’s even better in person. Hailee and I lived in a questionable area in Lansing, MI. While it would be classified as a bad area, there were mostly good people with just a few bad apples that ruined it. One of the bad apples lived across the street. It wasn’t even the family, it was a relative. This was when the fun began.

I arrived home to see a SWAT vehicle parked across the street. This was better than what I was doing so I stopped and watched Cops from my front porch. They got the guy arrested and a whole bunch of SWAT members were walking around with semi-automatic guns and rifles. I should have grabbed some popcorn because this show was awesome. I even got to witness the slowest get away possible.

As the situation died, another began. As the cops were talking and the front driveway was blocked by a couple of officers. A person walked right out the front door unnoticed and into a car in the driveway. Once the car was started, the officers noticed the car starting to move and one blocked the car from leaving and the other knocked on the window to get the person to stop. The car started edging away slowly and ignored the cops. Finally the cop knocked with the gun they had. The person stopped and got out, it was a 70+ year old women. Man, that was the slowest get away in the world. You can’t make this stuff up. The relative of hers was into selling drugs among other things. The family and neighbor needed help, what could I do?

Ignoring situations don’t prevent bad things from happening. Watching this was fun and interesting yet sad. They were a family in which one got into a bad situation and lived their lives selling drugs, how can I help with that? Romans 12:1-2 (The Message)…

“So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.”

We can either watch lives get ruined or do something to change lives. I look back at that situation in that neighborhood, I could have tried helping my neighbors or get to know them better instead of just watching. You can talk bad about this generation or you can do something to help.

Everyone can help even an 80 year old lady in a Mexico prison. A lady who grew up in Beverly Hills went to one of the most dangerous prisons in Mexico. She started serving and loving the inmates in a very dangerous situation. She even broke up a riot.

http://www.catalystspace.com/catablog/full/renegade_nun_a_walking_gift_of_love/

She could have thought she couldn’t help the situation, but God did. God puts people in your life for a reason, some for friendship, some for love, some for you to love. We aren’t going to get along with everyone we meet, but we can still show them love. We aren’t supposed to live life for the American dream. We are called to help others out when they are down.

God brings the best out of us. Jesus gave us the ability to show love to other people because he showed love to us. I wonder what would happen if I showed love to the people around me in Lansing? While you can’t go back, you can go forward, who can you help in your life today? Who can you serve and encourage today? God gave you his best in his son Jesus for your sins, one of the best ways to help others out is to serve them the way God served us. Who can you help today?

Have a great day.

Wrap that sausage in bacon

My heart hurts. A phrase echoed from young Bart Simpson as Homer tells him he will do things his way. Then he repeats the phrase, "Wrap that sausage in bacon." Bart complies, a tough life lesson. Sometimes our heart aches physically other times mentally. We all have times when we are hurt.

What's a lesson and what's true pain? One of the worst things I have heard people say at a funeral or in a bad situation is God put you through this for a reason. Really? Bold statement to say, often the people that say this have little to no faith at all. They have no way to explain the situation that just happened.  Somebody or a group of people are hurting and this is the best you could come up with? Ouch.

God is so much more then a kid with a magnifying glass and we are the ants. This used to be God from the Old Testament (Romans 9:18)...
"Therefore God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden."
Life changed with Jesus. God is not the same God that showed this in the Old Testament. He is love and gave us Jesus. We will still go through rough times, sometimes we bring this on ourselves and other times it's unexpected. Through it all God is still God.

God is full of grace. Through the wrong we have done and the tough times we face, God gives us grace. When we don't understand the bad that is going on in our lives, God gives us comfort and someone to always rely on. Through the bad you are going through right now, remember God loves you, he cares so much for you he gave is only son to die on the cross for you. That is how special you are to God. You are made in his image.

Life is sometimes hard. Our hearts are harden and damaged at times. Yet God can make the harden in our hearts go away when we trust in him. It might not be the case if you always wrap sausage in bacon, that could be tough to swallow. God loves you and gives you grace that we don't always see or feel but it's completely real. When you move closer to God he will move closer to you.

Have a great day.

Giving up because of you

It’s all on you. Imagine if the good and the bad of people was blamed on you? People weren’t afraid to say you are the reason someone else isn’t held in high regard. What you did and how you act effects other people. This is true with faith. What if instead of a person it was God?

If you say one thing and do another it makes people question you. I was in high school and still trying to figure out what faith was all about.  I attended several different churches and talked about faith with several different friends. One friend invited me to church and infrequently I would go with him.

Seeing this guy at church and outside of church was a different world. This was a guy who drank, smoked, did drugs and would have sex with any girl he could. Once we got into church it was a different world. We were in a class and he was the one people looked up too. He had scripture memorized and would quote scripture as he talked. People would come up to him and tell him how amazing it is that he takes his faith so seriously. These same people would give me the dirtiest looks at church. A major reason I thought all Christians were hypocrites was because of friendships like this, people that lived one way and did another.

Paul calls out the people faithful to God at the time. In this case, if you were a follower of God during this time (Esp. before Jesus came) you were a Jew. Jesus was a Jew too. Romans 2 has some harsh words about these people that claimed faith but lived a different way. He said this in Romans 2:24, “As it is written: “God’s name is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.”

God is not lifted up among those without faith because of you. More and more studies show that most people have attended church for a while when they were younger and give it up after high school. One of the main reasons, Christians are hypocrites. They live one way Sunday morning and completely different during the week. When people know you are a Christian you represent God wherever you go.

Some people don’t mind representing God and are good examples of Jesus others are not. A while ago I talked to a student whose parent always talked down to them. This parent would say why aren’t you like Jimmy, Susie and Johnny (Made up people)? The student wanted to tell them because they drink, smoke and have sex all the time. This parent thought the people they mentioned were great Christians, but they had no idea. Little did they know their son was one that did none of the three.

We all make mistakes and misrepresent ourselves at times. As a Christian, I have done things that have turned people away from faith, I am not proud of that. I screw up and honestly don’t represent Jesus well at times. Yet Jesus forgives me and can forgive you too. Church was never meant for the perfect but the imperfect. The home of Jesus is meant for everyone no matter how righteous or unrighteous you are.

If someone has caused you to turn your back on God because of them, I’m sorry. Give God, Jesus and the Church another chance. What other place can you seek forgiveness like the Church? Don’t give up on Jesus because of the actions of a Christian. We can all make mistakes and God is a graceful and forgiving God. Jesus loves you.

Have a great day.