You know, Christians pray a lot of prayers asking God to speak to them plainly. It's not a bad prayer. We also ask God to show us who He is. We expect an experience, a moment where God just shines so brightly we can't miss Him. We also want to hear Him, literally with our ears, speak to us so we know what He wants. None of these things are wrong but...
I was reading the other day about Philip and Jesus. Before Jesus went to the cross He spent some time with the disciples, teaching them as much as He could, giving them what they needed to hear before he left them. Jesus was teaching and Philip asked Jesus to show them the Father and that would be enough. Jesus responded with a question: "Don't you even know me?" See, Philip asked a question every one of us ask Jesus about every day, "Show us the Father, reveal Yourself." One-sided questions with only one thing in mind - give us some proof of who You are, Lord, show me why I should believe in You now.
What's sad is that we keep asking to know who He is without doing anything about our request. How often do we meet people and ask them to tell us about themselves then leave their presence? How often do we hang out with our friends and want to get to know them personally and yet never really pay attention to how they respond to issues, or even how they normally dress? Philip was with Jesus a lot, traveling all over the country with Him and listening to Him teach. For some reason He didn't quite understand who Jesus was. Show us the Father!
Jesus has shown us the Father! Jesus said that if you have seen Him you have seen the Father. Do you want God to reveal Himself to you? Look in His word! Do you want Him to speak to you? Listen to His word! We spend so much time asking God to reveal Himself when He already is revealing Himself through His word. We spend so much time wanting God to show us who He is, we read, we pray, but we don't do. We look for Him our own way and miss Him in our daily life because we don't see Him as plainly as we like. Jesus made a comment during a parable that if you want to see Him look at the least. "Whatever you have done to the least of these you have done it unto me." And it's the same if we don't do anything. The people we pass on the road without a home, there He goes. The orphan in the alley or different country, there He sits. The least...
You want Jesus to show Himself? It's love. Later on Jesus tells His disciples that they need to abide in His love. How do we do that? Jesus said that we abide in His love when we obey His commands. What is His commandment? He said that the new commandment is to love one another.
The world doesn't know what love really is and has distorted the meaning of love and defined it as infatuation or lust. Advertisements on the internet with women dressed seductively have signs posted around them, "Find true love today!" What a bunch of balogna! True love is sincere, sacrificial, and completely unselfish. Loving as Jesus did means looking beyond ourselves to the needs of others, and then get over ourselves and go and meet the need. Showing love is being a servant. Jesus said that there is no greater love than one who lays down his life for his friends. Jesus did that on the cross...sacrificial love to the fullest extent.
So, you want the Father to show Himself to you? Abide in His love by keeping His commandment to love one another just like Jesus loves.
Tuesday, November 29, 2005
Friday, November 04, 2005
The Truth is...
It's funny how for years people have been looking for the answer to the question, "What is truth?" Philosophers from long ago have asked the question and sought the answer but never found it. People look at stars, call psychics, perform deductions, but still can't seem to find "truth". Is truth solely a correct answer?
I can remember the first time I lied to my parents. I was five years old and had just gotten home from one of my teeball games. I hit my brother, he tattled, I lied. The truth still came out though. I was wrong and couldn't live with myself for not telling the truth. As I grew older I figured out how to tell "white lies", which are only half-truths, enough truth to keep me out of trouble and punishment. It is still a lie that I was telling. It would be like someone saying that they met your wife somewhere and became friends with her, but the truth doesn't stop there when there is an affair present. The truth is, is that no matter how we try and cover up whatever it is that we have done the truth will still prevail in some way.
I read a story in a book about a carpenter who had been honest all his life. His boss came to him and gave him charge over the building of the next house. The carpenter reasoned to himself that if he would use second grade and report it as first grade, he could skim the profits, and after everything would be finished no one would notice what he did. So he did it. After the house was built, the boss came to him and said, "Joe, you did excellent work! As a token of our gratitude for all the good, hard work you have done with us through the years, we have decided to give you this house!" Its' funny, the truth continues on. And all the lies that we continue to tell over and over eventually become our "home" or our way of life--we have to live in it and live with it! Even though no one else knew about what the carpenter did, he still knew. Every lie we tell we have to live with.
We have all heard it said that the truth never changes. The truth is, a lie does change the truth. And when that happens the truth is no longer a truth.
We have also heard the expression, "Truth hurts." It does. No one likes to hear that they have been wrong. But if people would have done the right thing they wouldn't have been told that what they did was wrong. I read in 2 Timothy 4 that people will get tired of listening to the truth, so they will hire people who tell them what they want to hear. Well, sometimes what people want to hear and what they need to hear are two different things. The truth is, if the truth hurts then something is wrong, and if it deosn't then maybe something is ok. But most of us get defensive when we are told the truth. If we are to learn how to become a better person we need to hear the truth in order to change.
The truth is, Jesus reigns. God is God and we are not. The truth is, there is a heaven and there is a hell. Those who say they don't believe it are simply denying the truth! And even is that isn't enough they will be proven in the end. The Bible says in Matthew 16:27 that Jesus will come and judge each person according to what they have done. So believing is not all there is to Christianity, but proving you believe and love Jesus is also part of it (James 2). He won't judge people according to what they believe but according to what they have done during their life on earth. The truth is, Jesus is coming back again. The truth is, America has hired people to say what they want to hear and we all are suffering from it! The thing Amerca doesn't need to hear is one more comment that excludes the need for morality, truth, honesty, purity, doing what is right, God, respect, and honor. We need to hear the truth!!! There is a right and wrong, deceiving people gets us nowhere in life but earns disrespect, love is not sex but something deeper that looks beyond our emotions and into whole-hearted service, Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life and no one comes to the Father except through Him!!!
The truth...I found it. We have been looking for it all along and keep running around in circles. Here is the truth. It is written in John 17: 17. Jesus is praying for His disciples before He went to the cross. He said in His prayer, "Sanctify them by the truth; YOUR WORD IS TRUTH." There it is, y'all. The truth is the Word of God, the Bible, God's love letter to us. Are you looking for the truth? I found it and I am telling it to you...it is Jesus.
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I can remember the first time I lied to my parents. I was five years old and had just gotten home from one of my teeball games. I hit my brother, he tattled, I lied. The truth still came out though. I was wrong and couldn't live with myself for not telling the truth. As I grew older I figured out how to tell "white lies", which are only half-truths, enough truth to keep me out of trouble and punishment. It is still a lie that I was telling. It would be like someone saying that they met your wife somewhere and became friends with her, but the truth doesn't stop there when there is an affair present. The truth is, is that no matter how we try and cover up whatever it is that we have done the truth will still prevail in some way.
I read a story in a book about a carpenter who had been honest all his life. His boss came to him and gave him charge over the building of the next house. The carpenter reasoned to himself that if he would use second grade and report it as first grade, he could skim the profits, and after everything would be finished no one would notice what he did. So he did it. After the house was built, the boss came to him and said, "Joe, you did excellent work! As a token of our gratitude for all the good, hard work you have done with us through the years, we have decided to give you this house!" Its' funny, the truth continues on. And all the lies that we continue to tell over and over eventually become our "home" or our way of life--we have to live in it and live with it! Even though no one else knew about what the carpenter did, he still knew. Every lie we tell we have to live with.
We have all heard it said that the truth never changes. The truth is, a lie does change the truth. And when that happens the truth is no longer a truth.
We have also heard the expression, "Truth hurts." It does. No one likes to hear that they have been wrong. But if people would have done the right thing they wouldn't have been told that what they did was wrong. I read in 2 Timothy 4 that people will get tired of listening to the truth, so they will hire people who tell them what they want to hear. Well, sometimes what people want to hear and what they need to hear are two different things. The truth is, if the truth hurts then something is wrong, and if it deosn't then maybe something is ok. But most of us get defensive when we are told the truth. If we are to learn how to become a better person we need to hear the truth in order to change.
The truth is, Jesus reigns. God is God and we are not. The truth is, there is a heaven and there is a hell. Those who say they don't believe it are simply denying the truth! And even is that isn't enough they will be proven in the end. The Bible says in Matthew 16:27 that Jesus will come and judge each person according to what they have done. So believing is not all there is to Christianity, but proving you believe and love Jesus is also part of it (James 2). He won't judge people according to what they believe but according to what they have done during their life on earth. The truth is, Jesus is coming back again. The truth is, America has hired people to say what they want to hear and we all are suffering from it! The thing Amerca doesn't need to hear is one more comment that excludes the need for morality, truth, honesty, purity, doing what is right, God, respect, and honor. We need to hear the truth!!! There is a right and wrong, deceiving people gets us nowhere in life but earns disrespect, love is not sex but something deeper that looks beyond our emotions and into whole-hearted service, Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life and no one comes to the Father except through Him!!!
The truth...I found it. We have been looking for it all along and keep running around in circles. Here is the truth. It is written in John 17: 17. Jesus is praying for His disciples before He went to the cross. He said in His prayer, "Sanctify them by the truth; YOUR WORD IS TRUTH." There it is, y'all. The truth is the Word of God, the Bible, God's love letter to us. Are you looking for the truth? I found it and I am telling it to you...it is Jesus.
email me for more info
Thursday, November 03, 2005
Finally!!!
Well, here it is...finally!! The long awaited blog that people have been begging me to make for some reason. Actually, they weren't begging me to make it but it is nice to think that I can make someone happy by finally putting one up for them. I have to admit, trying to come up with stuff to write about is an interesting attempt for me to pursue. But I will attempt nonetheless.
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