Remembering those who have fallen...



Source: The Sundries Shack

"Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends." - John 15:13 (NIV)

Today here in the United States, we mark Memorial Day, where we remember those who have died while serving in our nation's military. According to USMemorialDay, at the behest of U.S. General John Logan, the day, first called Decoration Day, was first observed on May 30, 1868, with flowers being placed on the graves of both Union and Confederate soldiers at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Va.

New York became the first state to make it a official holiday, with northern states following suit by 1890, USMemorialDay.org said. Southern states held their remembrances until after the end of World War I in 1918, when the holiday was changed to honor all who had fallen fighting in American wars rather than just those who died in the Civil War. Congress made it a national holiday in 1971, moving the holiday to the last Monday of May, where it currently stands.

Jesus had a similar attitude. In his talk comparing himself and his followers to a vine and its branches, he talked about the love of God for people. John 3:16 tells us that "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." (NIV)

To show this, God sent his Son, Jesus, to the cross, to bear the punishment for the sins and all of the wrongdoings that we have committed and will commit once and for all. This is despite Jesus having committed no sin of his own (see 1 Peter 2:22, 1 John 3:5, Isaiah 53:9).

That is great love, willingly giving your life to save others. We remember those who died for their country today on Memorial Day, and we can accept the gift of salvation through Jesus' sacrifice (and his resurrection) by repenting of our sins and proclaiming him Lord (see Romans 10:9-10).

Which way to heaven?

"Once more Jesus said to them, 'I am going away, and you will look for me, and you will die in your sin. Where I go, you cannot come.'" - John 8:21 (NIV)

A popular bumper sticker in some cities calls for us to "coexist." The letters are made up of the symbols of various faiths, such as an Islamic crescent moon making up the "C," a Star of David as the "X," and a Christian cross at the "T." It reflects an attitude that no matter what you believe, no matter what your faith is, you will go to heaven when you die if your good deeds outweigh your bad.

However, sadly, that is bad theology. For starters, many faiths such as Christianity and Islam are exclusive beliefs, as in according to their teachings, their way is the only way to heaven. According to them, all other faiths are not the way of God or whatever higher being there is and will not help you in getting to heaven when you die.

So if each faith says they are the way, which way is THE way?

The Bible teaches that only faith in Jesus Christ is sufficient in any of us getting to heaven. Jesus himself is quoted in John 14:6 as saying,

"I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." (NIV)

Jesus is quoted in Matthew as saying,

"Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it." - Matthew 7:13-14 (NIV)

Romans 10:9 tells us,

"That if you confess with your mouth, 'Jesus is Lord,' and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved." (NIV)

But why do we need a savior? Won't our good deeds, if they outweigh our bad ones, be enough to get us into heaven?

Unfortunately, sadly, no, they are not enough. Romans 3:23 says that "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." And even if we tried to be good, it still isn't enough:

"All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away." - Isaiah 64:6 (NIV)

Jesus also had this to say about calling on God to let us into heaven, even if you go to church on a regular basis:
 
"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?' Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!'" - Matthew 7:21-23 (NIV)
 
So how do we get to heaven then? One of the most famous verses in the Bible, John 3:16, says, "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." Eternal life means spending eternity with God in heaven. Death, in the eternal sense, means spending eternity apart from God, wallowing in our sins.
 
That is why Jesus is different.
 
"But he continued, 'You are from below; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world. I told you that you would die in your sins; if you do not believe that I am the one I claim to be, you will indeed die in your sins.'" - John 8:23-24 (NIV)
 
Romans 10:9-10 says that if we confess with our mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in our heart that God raised him from the dead, we will be saved. It's as simple as that.
 
Want to know more? Feel free to contact us today.

Leaning on Jesus

"'I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.'" - John 15:5 (NIV)

There has been many a time where Christians have been accused of using God as a "crutch," where they are unable to stand or do anything without God.

Somehow, that has been portrayed as a bad thing.

Throughout the Bible, it is proclaimed that we should rely on God, for he provides the strength that is necessary to live in a fallen world. Proverbs 3:5-6 tells us,

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight." (NIV)

The prophet Isaiah said for his fellow Israelites to "trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord God is an everlasting rock (Isaiah 26:4 (ESV))" even after they had been conquered and oppressed. In the beginning shortly after he created the world, God provided for his newly formed man and all of the animals (see Genesis 1:29-30). Later, as people were abandoning Jesus after a particular difficult teaching on his being the "bread of life" (see John 6:25-59), one of his apostles, Peter, told him,

"Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.  We believe and know that you are the Holy One of God." - John 6:68-69 (NIV)

In his comparison of himself and his people described in John 15, Jesus said he is the vine and we are the branches. A tree's branches cannot survive apart from the tree - anyone who has picked up dead branches following a storm can attest to this. We are the same way in that we cannot survive and do much of anything apart from God and by extension, Jesus Christ.

That includes being saved from our sins. In John 14:6, Jesus is quoted as saying,

"I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." (NIV)

That is because Jesus was the final sacrifice for our sins (and remember every last one of us have sinned) when he went to the cross. And we need to accept that gift is repent of our sins (see Mark 1:15) and confess that Jesus is Lord (see Romans 10:9-10), then we will be saved.

Questions? Concerns? Do you want to accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior today? Please feel free to contact me today and we can talk.

Who is God?

“I am the LORD, and there is no other; apart from me there is no God.” Isaiah 45:5 (NIV)
Who is God?

As we finished celebrating Easter, which marked the resurrection of Jesus Christ, one question comes to mind: who is God? What makes God stand out? What bother with Him in the first place?

The Bible explains a few reasons why God is who He says He is:

• He is Creator of all we see. (see Isaiah 64:8)
• He is everywhere (see Psalm 139:7-10) 
• He knows everything (see John 16:30, 1 Corinthians 2:10-11)
• He has a will for all of us, including His Son (see Luke 22:42)
• He speaks to us (see Matthew 3:17)

God also is three persons, in the form of the Father (see Philippians 1:2), His Son Jesus Christ (John 10:30), and the Holy Spirit (see Acts 5:3-4). In the form of the Father, He is God, creator of all there is and holy (see Habakkuk 1:13). In the form of the Son, He is the resurrection and life for us, redeemer of us from our sin. In the form of the Holy Spirit, He points to Jesus as the way to be saved (see John 15:26).

So what does it matter? Because God made us (see Psalm 139:13-14), and He loves us. He loves us enough that he sent His Son to die for our sins:

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” – John 3:16-17 (NIV)

If God is willing to go to that length to save us, creatures who have effectively spit in His face, doesn’t that say something to us? We were sentenced to death (see Romans 3:23), but saved through Jesus Christ (see Romans 6:23).

And if Jesus Christ is God in the flesh, shouldn’t He mean something? Shouldn’t He be worthy of our affection and our attention, our loyalty as King?

To end, please listen to this sermon by Dr. S.M. Lockridge, titled, “My King.”

The 10th Station of the Cross: Lean on Him

Courtesy: Libreria Editrice Vaticana

"When they came to the place called the Skull, there they crucified him, along with the criminals—one on his right, the other on his left. Jesus said, 'Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.' And they divided up his clothes by casting lots." - Luke 23:33-34 (NIV)

The prophet Isaiah in the Old Testament wrote one of several prophecies about Jesus being crucified. Isaiah 52:13-15 says:

"See, my servant will act wisely; he will be raised and lifted up and highly exalted. Just as there were many who were appalled at him — his appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any man and his form marred beyond human likeness — so will he sprinkle many nations, and kings will shut their mouths because of him. For what they were not told, they will see, and what they have not heard, they will understand."

Jesus had suffered much up to this point, with his arrest, a mockery of a trial and conviction, and the severe cruelty of being flogged by the Romans. He then, in his weakened and beaten state, had been forced to walk and carry a 110-pound cross (until He could go no further and the cross was passed on to Simon of Cyrene, who had been standing in the crowd) to Golgotha.

At Golgotha, the pain was just beginning. Crucifixion, as practiced by the Romans, was a method of execution designed for maximum pain and suffering, and had been reserved for the lowest types of criminals, according to David Terasaka at BlueLetterBible.org. First, nails of at least seven inches long were driven into the small bones of the wrists, the better to support the weight. The feet also then were nailed to the cross, Terasaka said.

Then the crucified person was left to hang until he died. Terasaka said that as a person who had been crucified hung there, it became very hard to breathe because of his arms being outstretched. The muscles would also start undergoing severe cramping due to a loss of blood and oxygen.

So it was a painful way to die. Psalm 22:14-15 prophesied of the suffering Jesus would go through:

"I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint. My heart has turned to wax; it has melted away within me. My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth; you lay me in the dust of death."

But the kicker in all this is Jesus' reaction. Yes, He is suffering immensely, first from the flogging and the march to Golgotha, and then dealing with being crucified itself. But He said this:

"Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing." (Luke 23:34 (NIV))

Jesus knew that the people doing this to Him did not believe who He was. He knew that they had believed that He was God, they would have never done that. At the same time, though, he remained compassionate and loving toward even those who were killing Him.

In the celebration of the Stations of the Cross by Pope John Paul II in 1991, the minister prayed this prayer:

"Lord, grant us merciful hearts that we may bring your reconciliation and forgiveness to all."

Through it all, God still had the gift of mercy for His people (see John 3:16-17). Jesus wanted people to believe and repent, and return to the God who had created them and still loved them.

God still loves people today, and He wants to believe in His Son, Jesus Christ, and repent of their sins. Romans 10:9-10 says all we have to do is this:

"That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved."

It is a matter of giving up the battle to do it all on our own. It's not a crutch, but it is the means of salvation and peace that only God can provide.

(Editor's note: This is part of a series of the Stations of the Cross.)

Free to think in Christ

"Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true." - Acts 17:11 (NIV)

A friend of mine recently posted this photo on Facebook, commenting that this was a bogus thing to say. I have heard others in the past comment on this teaching, saying this translates into meaning Christian believers should be mindless robots who cannot think for themselves.

For the record, the Bible is completely against this kind of statement.

 

Isaiah recorded that God told him, "Come now, and let us reason together" (Isaiah 1:18) even as the nation of Israel was rebelling against Him. Proverbs 15:22 says, "Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers they succeed." (In other words, talk and think things through). And 2 Timothy 2:15 tells us, "Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth." In other words, know the Word of God and how to use it. In addition, 1 Thessalonians 5:21 says, "Test everything. Hold on to the good."

The Bible does allow us to think, contrary to popular opinion. As noted in the verse from Acts at the beginning of this note, the Bereans were noted as having "more noble character" than their neighbors, the Thessalonians because of their eagerness in reaching the teaching on Christ from the Apostle Paul. However, they were noteworthy because they looked at the Scriptures themselves.

 

In other words, they didn't take what Paul was teaching them at face value, as has been the mistake of far too many Christians in the past and in today's church. They looked at the Word of God, testing Paul on what He said. If what Paul was teaching them was not from God, then it would have been revealed to them from Scripture.

 

We can have that same reasoning, because God not only gave us all brains, but He allows us to use them as well, all for His glory (Colossians 3:17). That is true freedom.