James 1:2-4 – “My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, 3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. 4 But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.”  NKJV

I remember as a brand new Christian realizing I needed to learn patience so I prayed for patience.  WOW!  I prayed for patience and everything that could go wrong went wrong.  I had more problems than I could handle and became frustrated.  I went to my pastor and said, “But I prayed for patience!”  He laughed and said, “How do you think patience comes?  It is not a gift that God deposits in your heart without tests it is LEARNED!”  That was a revelation for a new Christian and since that day I always put a warning label on the topic when I talk about patience with people.  If you pray for patience expect opportunities to demonstrate patience.  Now, I am not suggesting you do not pray for patience for it is a much needed character trait in our spiritual development but understand how it comes and is learned.  Patience is usually on the job training and is learned in the midst of opportunities to be impatient.

Patience is a fruit not gift of the Spirit.  It is a learned commodity not necessarily an inherited one.  I readily acknowledge that some people have a temperament much more conducive to exhibiting patience than others.  I believe we can help our children learn patience and impress upon them the need and value of patience and thereby help them to become more patient and less impatient.  Unfortunately, we live in a world with a micro-wave mentality and with the computer technology of fast, faster and fastest we want everything yesterday if not sooner.  Sadly, sometimes that is reflected in our relationship with God and our prayers.  We submit a quick memo to God and expect an immediate response.

Paul prays for those in Colossae, “May you be strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for all endurance and patience.”  (Colossians 1:11)  We are told in Lamentations 3:25, “The LORD is good to those who wait for Him, to the soul that seeks Him.”  Abraham learned patience through experience and although it took years for the promise to be realized it came.  He could have cast away his confidence in God through impatience and he and Sarah did take matters in their own hands through impatience and the world is still paying for that act.  Jesus, speaking of the Last Days instructed those listening, “By your patience possess your souls.”  (Luke 21:19)

If you want to be strong you have to do things to become strong.  In the natural you have to exercise and in the spiritual strength comes from spiritual exercise.  Albeit quite different approaches but the same principle.  In the natural you tear down the muscle to build the muscle and in the spiritual you tear down the old man to build the new man.  One does not become adept at things instantly.  I know that some are more naturally gifted than others thus we identify them as ‘natural born athletes’.  Learning to deal with people is not automatic, for most, and the more we learn what works and does not work and the varying personalities we must deal with the more proficient we become.  Parenting is a learning process and often we are much better with the 2nd or 3rd child than the first in many things.  Skills are developed they cannot be purchased or downloaded.  Patience is also a learned quality and to develop patience requires the existence of conditions in which it is challenged.  Patience is easy when things are going good and we are not negatively impacted but difficult when they are not good.

So, if you prayed for patience you need to realize that YOU ASKED FOR IT and God is giving you opportunity to develop that for which you prayed!   May the LORD continue to help you develop that which you desire and need to develop and mature in Him.   Blessings!

Ecclesiastes 9:10-12 – “Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might; for there is no work or device or knowledge or wisdom in the grave where you are going. 11 I returned and saw under the sun that — The race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor bread to the wise, nor riches to men of understanding, nor favor to men of skill; but time and chance happen to them all.  12 For man also does not know his time: Like fish taken in a cruel net, Like birds caught in a snare, So the sons of men are snared in an evil time, When it falls suddenly upon them.”  NKJV

First, let me address the issue of FAIRNESS and state that as defined by man “fairness” is a perception of what the individual determines to be fair.  It is not always based on reality, logic, evidence or facts but perception, preference and desire.  Therefore, if we do not get what we want we cry UNFAIR.  Was it unfair?  Many factors come into play in making that determination but I truly do not find a promise in the Bible that life would be fair rather that God would be and is just.

As the writer of Ecclesiastes says the fastest does not always win the race, remember the fairy tale of the tortoise and the hare?  The strong do not always win the battle sometimes it is the fortunate, the wise, the planner or schemer that wins the battle.  Just being wise does not put food on the table or money in the bank.  Having skill does not automatically mean you get the job.  Sometimes the chips fall your way and sometimes they do not.  Sometimes you are the windshield and sometimes you are the bug.  Sometimes life catches us in the cruel net of the devious and we fall prey to the schemes of those who are less than honest and trustworthy. But God is always faithful and just.

The parable of the man who owned a vineyard and through the day hired laborers to work was considered unfair by some and wonderfully fair and just by others.  It was perception not reality.  Was it fair for him to pay everyone the same?  The vineyard and money belonged to him and he had the right to do what he did.  Do we want God to be fair in His treatment of us?  I SUGGEST YOU TAP THE BRAKES ON THAT!  I want Him to be merciful and in that mercy just but if I got what I deserved…  NO THANK YOU!

The expressed desire of many in our modern world to make everything fair is based on a false philosophy that life was meant to be fair and fairness can be mandated.  If one person works diligently and goes above and beyond in doing the job should they be compensated the same as someone who does not.  Is that fair?  Good things happen to bad people and bad things happen to good people.  It rains on the just and unjust and the wheat and tares grow in the same field.  There will be a day when we stand before God and if you want to call it, FAIRNESS will be demonstrated but it will not be FAIRNESS by the definition of man but Mercy and Justice by the definition of God.

Therefore, stop crying about FAIRNESS and realize that you are more than a conqueror through Him that loves you.  You can do all things through the Jesus Christ.  You are a child of God and no matter what the enemy sends your way you have the weapons of warfare, the armor of God and the power of His Spirit to STAND FIRM and RISE VICTORIOUS.  Life is not fair so get over it and begin to LIVE.

            God bless you as you go through this day!

Hebrews 12:25-29 – “See that you do not refuse Him who speaks. For if they did not escape who refused Him who spoke on earth, much more shall we not escape if we turn away from Him who speaks from heaven, 26 whose voice then shook the earth; but now He has promised, saying, “Yet once more I shake not only the earth, but also heaven.”   27 Now this, “Yet once more,” indicates the removal of those things that are being shaken, as of things that are made, that the things which cannot be shaken may remain. 

28 Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace, by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. 29 For our God is a consuming fire.”  NKJV

No I’m not talking about the song of yesteryear by Jerry Lee Lewis, “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On” I’m talking about the shaking God is about to and in some cases is doing.  The writer of Hebrews quoted a prophecy from Haggai 2…

6 “For thus says the LORD of hosts: ‘Once more (it is a little while) I will shake heaven and earth, the sea and dry land; 7 and I will shake all nations, and they shall come to the Desire of All Nations, and I will fill this temple with glory,’ says the LORD of hosts. 8 ‘The silver is Mine, and the gold is Mine,’ says the LORD of hosts. 9 ‘The glory of this latter temple shall be greater than the former,’ says the LORD of hosts. ‘And in this place I will give peace,’ says the LORD of hosts.”  NKJV

The warning is as clear as the solution.  He refers to previous judgments of God and plainly stated that those who rejected God did not escape nor shall we.  The people of Noah’s day did not escape.  Those building Babel did not escape.  Sodom and Gomorrah did not escape.  They all had a common thread, they rejected God unlike the city of Nineveh which repented upon hearing Jonah’s preaching.  The warning is clear, if we reject God we will not escape and I am totally convinced we are about to see a “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Going On” here in this present world including the United States of America.

This shaking will remove that which is not rooted and grounded in God’s Eternal Truth.  If we modify the Bible to fit our politically correct world interpretation that will be shaken.  If we dilute the message of the Cross to make it anything other than a foundational element in the redemption of man that will be shaken.  If we reject the truth that Jesus is the way, truth, life and the only door to God that will be shaken.  If we make our churches and ministries more of a social experiment than a spiritual hospital and university that will be shaken.  If we promote self that will be shaken.  I have talked with many today who are expressing being ‘fed up’ politically and political correctness and I usually say, “Do you think God is getting fed up with us?”  Have we become complacent and compromised our convictions for the sake of acceptance?  God is incredibly longsuffering as has been demonstrated over the generations but the Bible warns of a time when He will say ENOUGH and then look out for “A Whole Lotta Shakin’ Is Going to Happen.”

Can you be shaken?  Will you be shaken?  Will you find that what you have set your hand to is something that cannot be shaken?  All questions we cannot fully answer until the shaking but things we should be considering as we move through life.  Shaking is coming and if we have run with the footmen and the minor wearied us what will we do when horses come and shaking begins?  I plead for each of us to make it our ambition to only do what we see Him doing and only say what we hear Him saying.  Let us SEEK FIRST the kingdom of God and His righteousness.  May God be our Lord and our Savior!

            God bless you richly as you go through this beautiful day!

Romans 5:12-19 – “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned —  13(For until the law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law. 14 Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not sinned according to the likeness of the transgression of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come. 15 But the free gift is not like the offense. For if by the one man’s offense many died, much more the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abounded to many. 16 And the gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned. For the judgment which came from one offense resulted in condemnation, but the free gift which came from many offenses resulted in justification. 17 For if by the one man’s offense death reigned through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.)

 18 Therefore, as through one man’s offense judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation, even so through one Man’s righteous act the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life. 19 For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous.”  NKJV

We have all heard stories and seen statistics of how one person or one vote changed the entire course of nations and history.  I call to mind the quote attributed to Benjamin Franklin, “For the want of a nail the shoe was lost, for the want of a shoe the horse was lost, for the want of a horse the rider was lost, for the want of a rider the battle was lost, for the want of a battle the kingdom was lost, and all for the want of a horse-shoe nail.”   That is a powerful reminder of how important one person, one event, one vote or one action can be and often is.

Here Paul reminds us of the power of one in two different situations.  Sin entered the race through the disobedience of Adam, one man.  Salvation came to mankind through the obedience of Jesus, one man.  I wonder how often we read this and although we rightly focus on the work of Christ we fail to allow the importance and power of one.  It only takes one rotten apple to spoil the entire barrel and sometimes only takes one act of kindness to totally reverse years of animosity, hatred, bitterness and conflict.  One word spoken at the right moment can complete change the course of events.  One word spoken at the wrong time can escalate things to full blown warfare.

I have heard people lament, “I am only one person” offering that a justification for not launching into the daunting task before them.  As the old saying, “A journey of a thousand miles begins with one step” we should never allow ourselves to stop believing in the Power of One.  I do not recall when I first saw it but I remember a Mercedes Benz television commercial in which the automobile collided with a concrete wall in a safety test.  Someone asked the company spokesman why Mercedes Benz did not enforce their patent on the energy-absorbing car design which was eventually copied by most manufacturers.  He stated simply, “Because some things in life are too important not to share.”   That is powerful.

You are one and I am one and we are one with Christ and are being formed into One (The Body of Christ) and although still one we are many and powerful.  In all matters of life we must never lose sight of the importance of ONE.  You are having an impact on your world whether you realize it or not.  If you omit one act of kindness or Christian charity it impacts others and if you commit one act of kindness or Christian charity it impacts others.  Therefore, never diminish the importance of one word, one deed, one prayer, one testimony, one vote or one life.

God bless you as you make the devil know you are ONE whose life is hidden with God in Christ and as ONE in Jesus you are a majority and powerful.   God bless!

2 Corinthians 11:14-15 – “…For Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light. 15 Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also transform themselves into ministers of righteousness, whose end will be according to their works.”  NKJV

Over the years I have had many conversation, heard much preaching and listened to speculative discussions about the Man of Sin or the Antichrist.  Most of those describe him as a reprehensible and disgusting individual and he is for he is or will be evil to the core.  However, I fear that many miss an important reality regarding the devil and his Antichrist.  The Man of Sin will appear as evil but good, otherwise he would not be embraced by as much of the world as he will be.  He give the appearance of caring about people, problems, the environment, the world and truly desiring peace and presenting ideas that will awe much of the world.  He will possibly be nice looking and appealing physically, intellectually, politically, socially, economically and even religiously.  He will be disguised as an angel of light as is the devil.  He will be the epitome of a wolf in sheep’s clothing and deception will be his prime weapon.

Paul addresses the problem of false apostles and informs his audience (and us) not to be surprised that there are those who are not truly followers of Christ who are deceived and believe they are God’s voices, drawing crowds and having a following.  Why?  Because the devil himself transforms or disguises himself as an angel of light.  It does not say he can he says he does!  Therefore, when anyone deceived or diabolical strays from the biblical truth they participate in the disguise and/or deception.  Paul says, that in the end their works will be judged by God and their exposure will be sure, even if it is not in this life.  Leading others astray carries a heavy weight of judgment and I always seek to be careful when I preach or lead congregations that I not present a false doctrine.  I have always pleaded with people never to take what I say as absolute truth but study, examine the scripture and determine if what I say is biblical and if it is follow it and if not help me understand and reject it.

I am not surprised that we are seeing prominent minsters and ministries promoting a gospel I believe foreign to the Word of God.  They are calling things God calls abominations acceptable and thousands if not millions of followers are being swayed to follow a false doctrine in the name of compassion, political correctness and tolerance.  They do not come across as evil and I do not believe that in most of those individuals their motive is evil but is a result of deception.  Sadly, as the Bible describes conditions of the Last Days some if not many will fall into deception and believe the lies of hell.

I have been castigated by well-meaning people who name the name of Christ over my stance on abortion, same sex marriage, false religions such as Islam and other things.  They tell me that if I were truly a follower of Christ I would embrace differences and realize that God made the homosexual that way (which I do not believe) and that the narrowness of my Christian view that Jesus is the only way to God is not consistent with the Bible’s teaching on love thy neighbor.  I believe they are deceived and the lie of the disguised one, as with Eve in the Garden she saw the good in the tree and in seeking the good disobeyed the commandment of God.  Disguised as an angel of light the devil has for centuries been able to deceive in the name of humaneness, love and tolerance many.  They then become blind leaders of the blind and the ultimate end is both will fall in the ditch. 

I love people and want to do good for all mankind whenever possible but I never want to offer a salvation that is contrary to the path described in the Bible, Jesus Christ!   I want to live in peace with all whenever possible but I do not want to cast aside my conviction that the true path from darkness to light is through the Work of Christ on the Cross.  The devil is not always easily detectable and often very convincing and presents partial truths in such an eloquent and powerful manner many are deceived.  Do I have all truth?  No, but I have the one that has all truth living in my heart. 

            May God be with you as you go through this day!

John 7:37-39 – “On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink.  38 He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.”  39 But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.”  NKJV

There is more that could be said than I have the time, space or even ability to say so let’s focus on that which is overflowing in my heart today.  Jesus addressed a thirsty crowd and His choice of words for in the ritual and celebration of the feast we have the water pouring ceremony and to a people of an arid region the often scarcity and preciousness of water was in everyone’s mind.  The people understood that the water pointed to the Messianic Age and the Hebrews longed for the coming Messiah.  Jesus took their quest for the Messiah to drive home a powerful message.  They were observing water poured by the priest and no matter how pronounced we make that flow it is still incredibly limited.  It was symbolic but Jesus cries out something that went beyond any dream they could have short of the Messianic Age’s arrival.

Jesus cried out, “If you want God as a constant in your life and are as David cried, the heart is panting for God like the deer at the watering places then here is the path to that reality.  If you are thirsty, truly thirsty and consumed with desire for God then here is the means whereby you can climb that pinnacle and have that which you are longing.”  The solution is JESUS.  If we want what He is offering the two things must transpire:  Come to Him in repentance and faith and receive His Lordship and then Drink.  It is one thing to believe something real and another to embrace it so completely in your heart, mind and life that you become one with it. That is what He is speaking of.  He is identifying thirst that compels one to action.

The promise that Jesus gave was that if they did this then the Living Water of God would, like an Artesian well that would be a continual flow and the most natural picture was a river.  This spiritual flow from within the core of the being would be constant, consistent and continual.  The Bible says it is out of the abundance of the heart that the mouth speaks and Jesus is talking about a heart that is so completely one with Him that only that life can proceed.

Then He explained how this could be and as John tells us, this was a reference to the Holy Spirit who was to be given in the days to come.  That time could not come until Jesus went to the Cross, rose from the dead and ascended to the Throne of Heaven Glorified.  Then the reality of Acts would be introduced in this world to believers.  The Holy Spirit’s indwelling in the heart and life would produce a continual flow of God’s Living Water.

I have people tell me they are filled with the Spirit but their lives are in shambles, out of their mouths proceed blessing and cursing and rather than manifesting Christ they manifest carnality.  I cannot believe that is the Holy Spirit for it is inconsistent with the Scripture and most assuredly inconsistent with this passage.  What would we expect from the Holy Spirit for He is our comforter and teacher!  He takes the deep things of God and communicates them to us and as His name declares He is HOLY.  If anything comes from Him but that which is Holy He is no longer Holy and not the Spirit of God.  So, if things are flowing out of your heart or mouth that are not consistent with the Living Waters of God I suggest that you and I find an altar and once again lay our hearts on it asking God to let the river flow in our lives.  I long for the river!

            May God be with you as you go through this day!

Jeremiah 2:13 – “For My people have committed two evils: they have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, and hewn themselves cisterns — broken cisterns that can hold no water.”  NKJV

The prophet Jeremiah, known as the weeping prophet because of his heartbreak over the condition of his beloved nation, declared a strong word from the LORD regarding the condition of the nation.  The word was that the people, God’s people, had committed to evils which brought about the predicament the nation faced.  They had forsaken God, the fountain of living waters and hewed themselves cisterns that were broken and incapable of holding water.

Some have asked what is virtually the chicken or the egg question as to which of these came first.  I do not for I believe that the natural result of allowing one’s heart to drift away from God is to do what Adam and Eve did in the garden and place self in the place of God.  I see much of this in today’s Christendom with the incredible rise of secularism and the drive to be consolatory to every religious view in existence.  It is one thing to be charitable to everyone and respect their views but to alter the framework of the Gospel to accommodate those opposing views can only produce a condition in which God is not the definitive voice of authority.  I have heard some nationally recognized preachers declare that although people who follow Islam or other religions do not accept Christ they too are accepted by God based on their beliefs.  If that were true then a person that believes that his god (self) deemed it acceptable to live in total debauchery and licentiousness would also get in based on his beliefs.

The fact that Jesus Himself declared that there was only one door through which we could gain access to the Father and that was Him is ignored, diminished or altered.  The fact of the requirement of the Blood of Christ shed for man’s sin is reinterpreted to mean that it is a way not the way.  The human heart, aside from the transforming work of Grace, cannot house the Living Waters of God and become broken cisterns that can hold no life giving water.  In John 7 when Jesus stood on the great day of the feast and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink.  He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his INNERMOST BEING will flow rivers of living water.”   That river which continually flows only comes from believing in Jesus and a relationship with Him through the Holy Spirit.  It is by grace that we are saved and that through faith.  Jesus is the way, the truth and the life.  He is not a way, a truth and a life.

Attempting to be politically correct and modify the Bible to fit the secular and popular mindset of the day does not and cannot produce life it produces broken cisterns that cannot contain the living water.  God called this mentality and activity EVIL.  If we allow our hearts to drift from God and reject His place as Lord of All in our lives the natural and only result is that His place of Lordship and sovereignty will be replaced with something and at the heart of that something is SELF. 

God shares His glory with no man and rejects, as thieves, any philosophy that attempts to enter through any means other than THE DOOR, Jesus Christ.  I see a condition in our world where political correctness and the attempts to demonstrate compassion and Christian charity have resulted in ministers, churches and people call evil good and good evil.  If there is a singular reason that our nation and world is in the state it is in I would suggest it is what Jeremiah declared.  We have forsaken the LORD and His Living Waters and have become cisterns that are broken and cannot house His life giving flow.  We are trying to put the New Wine into Old Wineskins and the New Wine will destroy the Old Wineskin.

It is time that we return to the LORD with a whole heart and as we return to Him in repentance and faith we will see God move on our behalf and then and only then will we see positive change in our world.

            God bless you as you go through this day!