Sin

If we make the decision to sin after we receive the knowledge of the truth, there isn’t a sacrifice for sins left any longer. There’s only a scary expectation of judgment and of a burning fire that’s going to devour God’s opponents. When someone rejected the Law from Moses, they were put to death without mercy on the basis of the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much worse punishment do you think is deserved by the person who walks all over God’s Son, who acts as if the blood of the covenant that made us holy is just ordinary blood, and who insults the Spirit of grace? We know the one who said, Judgment is mine; I will pay people back. And he also said, The Lord will judge his people. It’s scary to fall into the hands of the living God! (Hebrews 10:26-31, CEB)

This passage is interesting. It shows us that God is scary. I mean the last line is, “It’s scary to fall into the hands of the living God!”

But honestly who would choose to not be in the presence of God once you were? Well actually that is a silly question because all of us would say not me, but we all do choose to not be there when we put our own desires above those of God.

If we choose our own desires, or fulfill our wishes and get what we want, that is sin and we have made a decision to remove ourselves from the presence of God.

Let us so focus our lives on God and the love we have received that we see that following and fulfilling God’s will is the best thing for us and for all of the world.

Loving People. Loving God.

Integrity

Peter said, “Lord, are you telling this parable for us or for everyone?” The Lord replied, “Who are the faithful and wise managers whom the master will put in charge of his household servants, to give them their food at the proper time? Happy are the servants whom the master finds fulfilling their responsibilities when he comes. I assure you that the master will put them in charge of all his possessions. “But suppose that these servants should say to themselves, My master is taking his time about coming. And suppose they began to beat the servants, both men and women, and to eat, drink, and get drunk. The master of those servants would come on a day when they weren’t expecting him, at a time they couldn’t predict. The master will cut them into pieces and assign them a place with the unfaithful. That servant who knew his master’s will but didn’t prepare for it or act on it will be beaten severely. The one who didn’t know the master’s will but who did things deserving punishment will be beaten only a little. Much will be demanded from everyone who has been given much, and from the one who has been entrusted with much, even more will be asked. (Luke 12:41-48, CEB)

Integrity is one of my favorite words. I was told by a friend once that people seem to have issues with people of integrity because they always say what they mean and mean what they say and they are always the same no matter who they are with.

People are used to people being two-faced and saying one thing to one group and something else to another group. I have always found this tedious. Plus I can’t possibly remember everything I have said. So if I always tell the truth and live by integrity then I don’t need to remember what I told someone, because it is what I would tell everyone.

We should not live one way at church and another throughout the week.

God sees everything, and everything will be revealed.

Be a person of integrity.

Loving People. Loving God.

By faith

By faith Abraham offered Isaac when he was tested. The one who received the promises was offering his only son. He had been told concerning him, Your legitimate descendants will come from Isaac. He figured that God could even raise him from the dead. So in a way he did receive him back from the dead. By faith Isaac also blessed Jacob and Esau concerning their future. By faith Jacob blessed each of Joseph’s sons as he was dying and bowed in worship over the head of his staff. By faith Joseph recalled the exodus of the Israelites at the end of his life, and gave instructions about burying his bones. By faith Moses was hidden by his parents for three months when he was born, because they saw that the child was beautiful and they weren’t afraid of the king’s orders. By faith Moses refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter when he was grown up. He chose to be mistreated with God’s people instead of having the temporary pleasures of sin. He thought that the abuses he suffered for Christ were more valuable than the treasures of Egypt, since he was looking forward to the reward. By faith he left Egypt without being afraid of the king’s anger. He kept on going as if he could see what is invisible. By faith he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of blood, in order that the destroyer could not touch their firstborn children. (Hebrews 11:17-28, CEB)

When we read passages like this from the Bible and we see all of the great things that others have done, we wonder, or at least I wonder, have I really done anything by faith?

And the answer to that is yes, we have all done something by faith. We stepped out when we had no idea what would happen or how things would go trusting that the timing was right. God helped us trust that God was with us and even in the uncertainty the thing we were doing was the right thing at that moment.

So walk by faith and know that God is always with you and love the world.

Loving People. Loving God.

Faith

Faith is the reality of what we hope for, the proof of what we don’t see. The elders in the past were approved because they showed faith. By faith we understand that the universe has been created by a word from God so that the visible came into existence from the invisible. By faith Abel offered a better sacrifice to God than Cain, which showed that he was righteous, since God gave approval to him for his gift. Though he died, he’s still speaking through faith. By faith Enoch was taken up so that he didn’t see death, and he wasn’t found because God took him up. He was given approval for having pleased God before he was taken up. It’s impossible to please God without faith because the one who draws near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards people who try to find him. By faith Noah responded with godly fear when he was warned about events he hadn’t seen yet. He built an ark to deliver his household. With his faith, he criticized the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes from faith. (Hebrews 11:1-7, CEB)

Faith is the reality of what we hope for, the proof of what we don’t see.

Do you believe the wind exists?

Have you ever seen the wind?

I have never seen the wind. I have seen the effects of the wind but I have never seen the wind. I have also never seen oxygen but I know it exists.

Sometimes we just need to trust that something is.
Sometimes we just need to believe that something is.
Sometimes we just need to have faith that something is.

In the Greek πιστος is the word for faith, and for trust, and for believe.

I have never seen the wind or God, but I have seen the effect of both, and that for me is enough to have faith that God and the wind are real.

Loving People. Loving God.

Treasure and heart

“Don’t be afraid, little flock, because your Father delights in giving you the kingdom. Sell your possessions and give to those in need. Make for yourselves wallets that don’t wear out—a treasure in heaven that never runs out. No thief comes near there, and no moth destroys. Where your treasure is, there your heart will be too. “Be dressed for service and keep your lamps lit. Be like people waiting for their master to come home from a wedding celebration, who can immediately open the door for him when he arrives and knocks on the door. Happy are those servants whom the master finds waiting up when he arrives. I assure you that, when he arrives, he will dress himself to serve, seat them at the table as honored guests, and wait on them. Happy are those whom he finds alert, even if he comes at midnight or just before dawn. But know this, if the homeowner had known what time the thief was coming, he wouldn’t have allowed his home to be broken into. You also must be ready, because the Human One is coming at a time when you don’t expect him.” (Luke 12:32-40, CEB)

Where your heart is there your treasure will be…

That isn’t how the verse is above.

Where your treasure is, there your heart will be too. If you show me your checkbook, I will tell you what had your heart.

Where is your treasure? We say when we join the church that we will see how this goes and then we will give. But I tell you if you truly do as this passage says and give everything away and trust in God, your heart will be so into what God has for you your life will be abundantly better than you could ever imagine.

Loving People. Loving God.

Where?

“Stop collecting treasures for your own benefit on earth, where moth and rust eat them and where thieves break in and steal them. Instead, collect treasures for yourselves in heaven, where moth and rust don’t eat them and where thieves don’t break in and steal them. Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. “The eye is the lamp of the body. Therefore, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how terrible that darkness will be! No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be loyal to the one and have contempt for the other. You cannot serve God and wealth. (Matthew 6:19-24, CEB)

This is an interesting passage. Jesus ends it with, “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be loyal to the one and have contempt for the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.” I have always said that if you show me your checkbook register I can tell you what your treasure is. Money is not a god to worship but is a tool. It helps us acquire things but is not something that can rule our lives unless we let it.

If you are serving wealth and trying to collect treasures for yourself, know that you can’t take it with you. You came into this world naked with nothing and that is how you leave, well maybe not naked, but with nothing. He who dies with the most toys dies. That is not winning.

Focus your life on God and use money to help get the message of Love to the world.

Loving People. Loving God.

descendants will be strangers

The high priest asked, “Are these accusations true?” Stephen responded, “Brothers and fathers, listen to me. Our glorious God appeared to our ancestor Abraham while he was still in Mesopotamia, before he settled in Haran. God told him, ‘Leave your homeland and kin, and go to the land that I will show you.’ So Abraham left the land of the Chaldeans and settled in Haran. After Abraham’s father died, God had him resettle in this land where you now live. God didn’t give him an inheritance here, not even a square foot of land. However, God did promise to give the land as his possession to him and to his descendants, even though Abraham had no child. God put it this way: His descendants will be strangers in a land that belongs to others, who will enslave them and abuse them for four hundred years. And I will condemn the nation they serve as slaves, God said, and afterward they will leave that land and serve me in this place. God gave him the covenant confirmed through circumcision. Accordingly, eight days after Isaac’s birth, Abraham circumcised him. Isaac did the same with Jacob, and Jacob with the twelve patriarchs. (Acts 7:1-8, CEB)

Descendants will be strangers in a land that belongs to others, who will enslave them and abuse them for four hundred years. And I will condemn the nation they serve as slaves…

God over and over again in the words of scripture tells us that we need to watch out for the orphan, the widow, the stranger, and the wanderer. We need to accept and unfold all into our lives and love as we are loved by God.

Abraham got no inheritance, but the promise was his descendants would get an inheritance after they were enslaved and mistreated. And yet we enslave and mistreat people all the time and say that is what God called us to do. We say that we need tighter border security and to not allow any sojourners into our land, but God tells us over and over we need to welcome the stranger, the sojourner and to treat them as part of the family.

What inheritance will we get? We deserve nothing, for we have not loved as we have been loved. So how can we change and make a difference in the world?

Loving People. Loving God.

Children

I’m speaking the truth in Christ—I’m not lying, as my conscience assures me with the Holy Spirit: I have great sadness and constant pain in my heart. I wish I could be cursed, cut off from Christ if it helped my brothers and sisters, who are my flesh-and-blood relatives. They are Israelites. The adoption as God’s children, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the Law, the worship, and the promises belong to them. The Jewish ancestors are theirs, and the Christ descended from those ancestors. He is the one who rules over all things, who is God, and who is blessed forever. Amen. But it’s not as though God’s word has failed. Not all who are descended from Israel are part of Israel. Not all of Abraham’s children are called Abraham’s descendants, but instead your descendants will be named through Isaac. That means it isn’t the natural children who are God’s children, but it is the children from the promise who are counted as descendants. The words in the promise were: A year from now I will return, and Sarah will have a son. (Romans 9:1-9, CEB)

Flesh and blood don’t matter here.

It doesn’t mean you are a child of the promise if you are an offspring of someone who is a part of the promise. Flesh and blood are not the markers for in or out.

If you are part of the promise you are counted as a child of God. Your flesh and blood doesn’t matter.

If you are a part of the promise. You are a child of God.

Loving People. Loving God.

Don’t worry

Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Therefore, I say to you, don’t worry about your life, what you will eat, or about your body, what you will wear. There is more to life than food and more to the body than clothing. Consider the ravens: they neither plant nor harvest, they have no silo or barn, yet God feeds them. You are worth so much more than birds! Who among you by worrying can add a single moment to your life? If you can’t do such a small thing, why worry about the rest? Notice how the lilies grow. They don’t wear themselves out with work, and they don’t spin cloth. But I say to you that even Solomon in all his splendor wasn’t dressed like one of these. If God dresses grass in the field so beautifully, even though it’s alive today and tomorrow it’s thrown into the furnace, how much more will God do for you, you people of weak faith! Don’t chase after what you will eat and what you will drink. Stop worrying. All the nations of the world long for these things. Your Father knows that you need them. Instead, desire his kingdom and these things will be given to you as well. (Luke 12:22-31, CEB)

How many times do we hear don’t worry about that?

But does that help? Usually when I hear don’t worry, I seem to worry more.

But here Jesus says that the flowers don’t toil about how they will look and the birds don’t worry about how their wings will look, so if God cares for the flowers and the birds, we shouldn’t worry about what we will wear or eat, or how we will look.

Well, Jesus that is easier said than done. And it might be easy for you to not worry but it is not so easy for me. There are things I need to get done and people I have to care for. There are people who are depending on me to get things done and to be there for them and I just can’t not worry.

And if you are like me that is how you respond to this reading. But really if we let go and allow God to control the things we think we can control (which we can’t). If God is in control things will go better than we think they ever could.

So struggle with me in not worrying, let go, and allow God to care for you as God does. And allow God to do what God does, provide and love.

Loving People. Loving God.

gracious

Keep on praying and guard your prayers with thanksgiving. At the same time, pray for us also. Pray that God would open a door for the word so we can preach the secret plan of Christ—which is why I’m in chains. Pray that I might be able to make it as clear as I ought to when I preach. Act wisely toward outsiders, making the most of the opportunity. Your speech should always be gracious and sprinkled with insight so that you may know how to respond to every person. (Colossians 4:2-6, CEB)

Your speech should always be gracious and sprinkled with insight…

I know I struggle with this. We need to be gracious in everything we say.

Our lives should show forth the wonders of God’s love in everything we do and say. So our comments should always be gracious and inspired by God. Do not succumb to the flesh and speak with an evil tongue. But be gracious in every way.

Speaking truth in love and spreading joy and hope through your actions and your words.

Loving People. Loving God.