Home Archives for Forgiveness

Preparing Our Hearts for Easter

0

Yesterday was Palm Sunday, which ushers in Holy or Passion Week. Yet, the White House Coronavirus Task Force is warning us that this could be a grim and difficult week as we see a “peak” in Americans contracting and succumbing to Covid-19!

It was also a difficult and grim week for Jesus 2020 years ago when He would die a horrific death on a cross out of love for each of us.

But three days later, He arose! Hallelujah!

16 “For this is how God loved the world: He gave[a] his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. 17 God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him. John 3:16-17 NLT

I passed on to you what was most important and what had also been passed on to me. Christ died for our sins, just as the Scriptures said. 4 He was buried, and he was raised from the dead on the third day, just as the Scriptures said. 1 Cor. 15:3-4

A New Kind of Easter Celebration

Easter is going to be different this year, but I wonder if the meaning of Easter might be more real to us during the stay-at-home restrictions of this Covid-19 crisis. In the past, we might’ve been more concerned with what we were going to do after church rather than what we would do at church.

Typically, family’s discuss who is going to host Easter brunch or dinner or is the family going to fight the crowds trying to get a reservation to eat out. What do the kids want in their Easter baskets and what’s everyone going to wear. Sunrise service or spend the morning hunting Easter eggs and go to church later?

We attend a worship service hearing the traditional Easter message and then out the door on to the activities planned for the rest of the day. We felt spiritual and reverent while we were in church, but now let the fun begin!

Believe me I enjoy having fellowship and fun with our family and I will greatly miss them this year, but I also think quarantined at home, I’ll spend more of the day truly reflecting on the actual meaning and significance of Easter.

President Trump has said he would’ve loved for the pandemic self-distancing to be over and churches filled on Easter Sunday. “What a beautiful thing that would be,” he said. It would for sure since it would’ve taken a miracle for that to happen.

But could it be that God has a bigger miracle in mind for us?! We’ve been forcibly removed from outside distractions and given the opportunity to renew and refresh our faith and commitment to the Lord—individually, as a family, as a church, and as a nation.

Church is a building, but the risen Savior lives in every believer’s heart every moment of every day no matter where we are—in church or in our homes.

Easter commemorates the foundation of our Christian faith. The Gospel! The Good News! Without Easter, there would be no hope.

Easter is the reason we can repent and ask forgiveness for our sins. The assurance of eternal life. People need to hear that message and know salvation is available to everyone. They don’t need to live in fear of the Coronavirus or of death, because for all who believe in Him, Jesus conquered death when He went to the Cross.

Then, when our dying bodies have been transformed into bodies that will never die,[a] this Scripture will be fulfilled:

“Death is swallowed up in victory.[b]
55 O death, where is your victory?
    O death, where is your sting? 1 Cor. 15:54-55 NLT

It’s our job as Christians to help others experience the love of Jesus for them. That could be the real miracle of this crisis.

Samaritan’s Purse has setup a temporary hospital in Italy and in New York’s Central Park to treat coronavirus patients. They openly say the volunteer doctors and nurses are there to save lives in the name of Jesus. The Mayor of New York City and others were skeptical and critical that not everyone would receive equal treatment! They needed to hear and understand that Jesus loved us enough to go to the cross while we were still sinners. Their concern underscores the misconception the world has of Jesus and believers.

As the Apostle Paul reminded the Corinthians, we need to share with the world:

Let me now remind you, dear brothers and sisters of the Good News I preached to you before. You welcomed it then, and you still stand firm in it. It is this Good News that saves you if you continue to believe the message I told you—unless, of course, you believed something that was never true in the first place.

I passed on to you what was most important and what had also been passed on to me. Christ died for our sins, just as the Scriptures said. He was buried, and he was raised from the dead on the third day, just as the Scriptures said.—1 Corinthians 15:1-4

9 But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness. 10 If we claim we have not sinned, we are calling God a liar and showing that his word has no place in our hearts. 1 John 1:9-10 NLT

Jesus lives within the heart of every Christian and He wants us to live as if we believe it, no matter what the circumstances!

So don’t let anyone tell you that Easter is cancelled this year. Easter, the commemoration of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ to offer every sinner forgiveness and eternal life, is NOT cancelled. Jesus cancelled our debt but no one can cancel Him. He is the same today, tomorrow, and yesterday.

What is happening in our world doesn’t affect Jesus. He only cares about what is happening in our heart!

I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.—Ezekiel 36:26

What should we do this Holy Week to prepare our hearts for an Easter celebration like none we’ve ever had before?!

1. Fill your mind with words from the Lord and not from the media.

Let’s take a break from the media that wants to scare and alarm us and focus our minds on the reason our Lord and Savior went to the cross—to offer us eternal life regardless of what happens in this life. No one wants to die, but if Jesus is in our heart, we have the assurance that we will be alive with Jesus for eternity. That should calm our hearts.

Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.—Romans 12:2

I heard Pastor Greg Laurie say in his Palm Sunday message, “There are five gospels . . . you’re the 5th! You are the temple of God.” Read the four Gospels, Mathew, Mark, Luke, and John. Get to know Jesus up close and personal. Walk with Him in His shoes; listen to His words and stories.

  • What was He trying to get people to understand?
  • What does He want you to understand?
  • Look for His personal message to you in your generation.
  • What would He be doing during this pandemic?
  • What does He want you to do during this crisis?

If you were giving the sermon this Easter, what would you include?

2. Tell people what Jesus means to you. Why you love Him. That even while you were a sinner, He still loved you enough to die for you!

Our church has a Cowboy Breakfast for the community on Easter Sunday, which we’ll all sorely miss this year. It was my privilege to share the gospel message one year, with my granddaughter reciting John 3:16. Other years, members of our church shared their testimony with their friends and neighbors who attend the breakfast. My husband also shared his testimony.

When is the last time you told someone your testimony of surrendering your life to Christ? It’s hands down the most important and meaningful day in your life. Yes, it’s greater than the day you married, gave birth, bought your dream house, or signed that important contract. Your rebirth in Christ should top them all!

And yet, we eagerly tell the story of these less significant events in our life, but often are reticent to tell the story of Jesus coming into our life.

We know He is with us every day, but do we give Him the credit and the glory for the things we know He has done and is doing in our life?

This week ask yourself why you don’t talk more about Jesus!

Then share your story with someone! Reflect back on the day the death and resurrection of Jesus really meant something to you. Tell people why it still does.

There is no greater witness to God’s goodness than sharing what he has done in your life. No one can question your testimony because it’s your personal experience.

Your story becomes your testimony when the focus is on God, not on you.

Your testimony simply shares your life before Jesus. How he changed your heart and spiritually, maybe literally, saved your life.

God has given you a story to share, so seize every opportunity to tell it.

Sometimes God redeems your testimony by surrounding you with people who need to hear your past so it doesn’t become their future.

Who needs to hear this Easter what Christ has done for you and could do for them?

At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another. But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life.—Titus 3:3-7

And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.—1 John 5:11-12

“Let’s use this time to reflect on our own relationship to God. And Pray. Pray for the medical workers, they’re really warriors. Pray for the families who have lost loved ones and ask God to comfort them in their grief.” President Donald J Trump

“Pray for God to protect us and release us from this plague. Pray for the patients. There is sin in the world. Ask for God’s forgiveness not to condemn but to save a fallen world.” Franklin Graham

I look forward to hearing how this Easter was your best Easter ever!

You might also enjoy an article I wrote for Crosswalk, 5 Refreshing Ways to Welcome Renewal Beyond Easter.

Have a blessed Easter the way the Lord leads you to celebrate this glorious day!

April 6, 2020
Return to top of page

Do You Need a Pardon?

0

Do you need a pardon?

Pardons were in the news last week as President Trump pardoned and commuted sentences of several prisoners. Speaking at a graduation ceremony for Hope for Prisoners, President Trump said that he “loves” finding those treated unfairly by the criminal justice system and offering them pardons.

The discussion of pardons started me thinking about how God has pardoned every Christian. Since Romans 3:23 reminds us that, “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” Christians are the recipients of unmerited grace and mercy.

In my Bible Study Face-to-Face with Euodia and Syntyche: From Conflict to Community, I describe it this way:

  • Justice is getting what you deserve.
  • Mercy is not getting everything you deserve.
  • Grace is getting what you don’t deserve.

Mercy is showing more love and kindness to a person than he or she expects or deserves. Undeserved pardon! Grace is undeserved forgiveness.

It’s so easy to look at the transgressions of others and say they deserved the punishment rendered, and often they do. But what about Christians who had their debt pardoned and paid for by Jesus who unjustly endured the brutal cross for us? He took the punishment that we deserved. That’s mercy! That’s grace!

As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2 in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh[a] and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. 4 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. Ephesians 2:1-5

All we had to do for a pardon was confess our sins to Jesus, ask for forgiveness, and repent! Our dark sins became white as snow. Erased! The Bible says that God has forgiven and forgotten and will never bring them up to us again.

“Come now, let us settle the matter,”
says the Lord.
“Though your sins are like scarlet,
they shall be as white as snow;
though they are red as crimson,
they shall be like wool. Isaiah 1:18

Now repent of your sins and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped away. Acts 3:19 (NLT)

15 And the Holy Spirit also testifies that this is so. For he says,

16 “This is the new covenant I will make
with my people on that day,[a] says the Lord:
I will put my laws in their hearts,
and I will write them on their minds.”[b]

17 Then he says,

“I will never again remember
their sins and lawless deeds.” Hebrews 10:15-17 (NLT)

What a gift! How did we deserve such a pardon? We didn’t! Yet, how often do we take our pardon for granted. Almost like we did deserve it. How often do we remember the price and penalty that Jesus paid for our release from the punishment due us? I would suggest, not often enough.

We may not have been in a cold, dark, prison cell, but we were in a cold, dark spiritual hellhole. Satan had us shackled to him in sin and shame. Then Jesus entered into our life and set us free. But Satan never gives up. He’s always trying to lure us back. We can never forget the cost of our pardon.

“He himself bore our sins” in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; “by his wounds you have been healed.” 1 Peter 2:24

Sin Has Consequences

Just like with all pardoned prisoners, there will always be consequences of our sins that we will have to bear ourselves and assume the responsibility. God told the Israelites who refused to follow His lead, “You will bear the consequences of your sin . . .” (Numbers 14:34 HCSB)

As Christians, we must ask for Jesus’ help and strength to make restitution for our sinful behavior when possible. If we broke the civic law, or God’s law, we’ll pay the penalty. The scars will be with us, and possibly with others, for life. Often our actions negatively affected someone else. That’s on us. Jesus forgives us when we repent of our sins, but we may need to forgive others or seek their forgiveness and they might not grant it. The hurt is too deep. The debt too high.

But President Trump also told the crowd of 29 graduates from Hope for Prisoners, “the best part of your life is just beginning.” “Today we declare that you are made by God for a great and noble purpose. You are valued members of our American family and we are determined to help you succeed,” the president said.

And that’s what the Lord says to us too:

Who is a God like you, who pardons sin and forgives the transgression of the remnant of his inheritance? You do not stay angry forever but delight to show mercy. Micah 7:18

My Second Pardon

Do you need a pardon?

In Praying for Your Prodigal Daughter, I share my testimony of accepting Jesus into my life at eleven, but as an adult I backslid into a sinful life for seventeen years while raising my daughter. I was a prodigal raising a prodigal. I can’t change those years, but when I rededicated my life back to Christ, He gave me another pardon I did not deserve. Praise God, He is the God of endless pardons. I was a changed person—a new creation in Christ.

Like President Trump told the released prisoners, God did have a great and noble purpose for my life as He used me to start the Woman to Woman Mentoring Ministry and write and speak for Him.

But there were consequences to my wayward years. I had to ask my daughter for forgiveness, and while she didn’t understand what that meant at the time, she does now. I prayed and begged God daily to open her eyes to the life she could have with Christ. After six years of a mother’s prayers, she accepted Christ as her Savior.

No matter what you’ve done in your past, or are currently doing, Jesus waits eagerly to mercifully forgive you and restore your life for a great and noble purpose. All you need to do is ask Him for a pardon.

Let the wicked forsake their ways and the unrighteous their thoughts. Let them turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy on them, and to our God, for he will freely pardon. Isaiah 55:7

________________________

God has put on my heart that my next writing project will focus on the loneliness epidemic in our culture. If you have a story of seasons of loneliness, or you’ve helped someone through their loneliness, I would love to hear your story. Please contact me or email at [email protected].

February 24, 2020
Return to top of page

Why Aren’t All Christians Extending Grace and Forgiveness to Trump?

5

praying-for-trump

A post that I wrote during the 2016 election is trending on my website and I know why! It’s just as applicable before this coming election as it was four years ago. Sadly, not much has changed with some Christians opposing President Trump, even in light of all he’s done to fulfill his promises that he would:

  • Be Pro-life and put action behind his words, even speaking at the recent March for Life and repeatedly confirming that “Every child is a sacred gift from Almighty God.”
  • Support and restore religious freedoms
  • Move the Capitol of Israel to Jerusalem and insure that America remains a strong ally of Israel
  • Choose two pro-life conservative Supreme Court justices and replace hundreds of liberal federal judges with conservatives.

At this year’s State of the Union address, President Trump publically affirmed:

“My administration is also defending religious liberty, and that includes the constitutional right to pray in public schools,” Trump continued. “In America, we don’t punish prayer. We don’t tear down crosses. We don’t ban symbols of faith. We don’t muzzle preachers and pastors. “In America, we celebrate faith. We cherish religion. We lift our voices in prayer, and we raise our sights to the glory of God.”

At the National Prayer Breakfast on February 6, 2020, the day after he was acquitted from a partisan hoax impeachment, he said, “Faith keeps us free. Prayer makes us strong. God gives us grace.”

At that same prayer breakfast Arthur Brooks, author of Love Your Enemies, was the speaker along with President Trump who responded to Brooks “I’m trying to learn. It’s not easy. When they impeach you for nothing it’s hard to like them. I’m doing my best.”

Yet many Christians are still refusing to grant President Trump grace and forgiveness.

So I’m reposting below my blog from October 17, 2016, “Why Aren’t All Christians Extending Grace and Forgiveness to Trump?” I think you’ll agree, except for Hillary being the opponent, I could’ve written it today!

What Does It Mean to be A Forgiven Christian?

I’ve been thinking a lot this week about what it means to be a saved, forgiven Christian, granted grace and mercy when I was so undeserving. Our Couples’ Group is studying Pastor Tony Evan’s Victory in Spiritual Warfare and he used a term I’d never heard before: “unsaved, saved person.” I realized that was another term for backsliding, which I did for seventeen years—saved at a youth camp at the age of eleven when I accepted Jesus as my Lord and Savior, and then living an ungodly life from my late twenties until early forties, a backslidden believer. Saved but living like an unsaved person, until I rededicated my life. I write about this time in most of my books—it’s my testimony—of how God redeemed me and has used me About His Work since the day I gave my life fully back to Him.

God forgave me for my sins as a “born again” young girl on fire for the Lord, and He never withheld His love or protection, even as He watched me do things that broke His heart and were so unworthy of someone who knew better. It was as if for seventeen years, I had blinders on, until Pastor Greg Laurie asked at a Harvest Crusade if I was ready to die that night. I wasn’t. God had been gently bringing His prodigal back to Him, as I had recently turned my dating life over to God and was dating the man He had picked to become my husband.

I’m so grateful I was attending Saddleback Church, which welcomes sinners and seekers and offers restoration, hope, and forgiveness for those who are willing to repent, ask for forgiveness, turn from their wayward ways, and follow Jesus’s biblical ways. I married my godly husband Dave, blended our two families, graduated from Fuller Theological Seminary, quit my secular job, and started the Woman to Woman Mentoring Ministry as a rededicated, divorced, remarried woman. I always was shown love, grace, mercy, support, and encouragement at seminary and Saddleback Church.

I felt so unqualified and ill equipped, but my church gave me the tools I needed, as I took a huge prayerful step of faith. I was the least likely woman to start such a ministry . . . many churches might not have let me serve. But I said, “OK” when God called me to “Feed my sheep,” and He did the rest. As a result, twenty years later, Woman to Woman Mentoring is an international ministry blessing thousands of women in Titus 2 mentoring relationships.

Dr. Charles Stanley’s wrote in “Faith Barriers,” In Touch Magazine October 13, 2016:

When we are called to serve, our strength, skill, and wisdom do not matter. Rather, it is the Lord who does the work through us. He doesn’t seek out the most qualified person for a particular job, but instead calls men and women who are willing to surrender themselves to Him. When His strength works through their weakness, it is obvious that only God could have achieved the result.

A Disturbing Lack of Forgiveness Among Evangelicals

Trump has always said that as a child he was a saved Presbyterian, but I think, like me, he probably became an “unsaved, saved” backsliding Christian. Michael Anthony on Godfactor.com shares part of an interview with Dr. James Dobson about Trump’s recent salvation this past summer. Dr. Dobson has seen a change in Trump and only God knows the condition of his heart, which is true for all of us. Anthony also explains how we all mature in our faith at different degrees: some are like microwaves—the change is instantaneous–others are like crockpots.

Anthony and Dobson both called for prayer for the new  “baby Christian” Trump, but I’ve not seen or heard much prayer for Trump, who represents the conservative political agenda in this election. Instead, I’ve seen more stone throwing and rock slinging at him from evangelicals for his past transgressions, right along with the progressive liberals. Many Christians, who are so distressed when called “deplorables” and “haters” by the liberals, have themselves called Trump terrible, unkind, slanderous names.

I can only wonder how many new believers would last if we treated them all that way? And why are Christians doing that, when evangelism is all about sharing the forgiveness of sin and grace of Jesus Christ?

In a political move, tapes of vial things Trump said over eleven years ago became public and many Christians and prominent ministry leaders reacted as if he said them yesterday. I’ve seen video clips of him surrounded by the many Christians he has on staff as he prayed for forgiveness and he asked publicly for forgiveness during the debate. Yet many Christians are unwilling to grant him forgiveness. Why?

If he is saved, God forgave him and wiped the slate clean from all the things he did before, just like He did for you and me when we became Christians. God forgives when we mess up and ask for forgiveness, but many evangelicals pulled their support and backlashed Trump, refusing to show any grace or mercy.

[Tweet “Letting Trump’s past transgressions divide us, another score for Satan. “]

How would any of us feel if our past sins haunted us as new believers? Badmouthing Trump and not looking at the real issues in this election, is just what Satan wants us to do. Letting Trump’s past transgressions divide us, another score for Satan.

Trump is a flawed man, as has been, and will be, every president, but he’s the first one I’ve seen who actually chose a born-again Vice President who told his testimony in the VP debate. He has Christians like Ben Carson on his team mentoring him, who see the bigger picture of the Supreme Court picks who will make decisions that will affect our religious freedoms for the next thirty years! Which will determine whether we as evangelicals can voice our faith publicly in the future in a blog post like this!

With men like that surrounding him, if not saved, he’s certainly a seeker, and aren’t we as evangelicals supposed to help draw seekers to Christ?

We Need a Refresher in Forgiveness

Christians are forgiven by the grace of God, and we need to extend that same grace and forgiveness to others, including Donald Trump: “In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace.” Ephesians 1:7

Yes, that would apply to Hillary too, but so far, she has only made excuses for her bad behavior, justifies supporting the things God detests, and puts political spins on her lies. Her agenda is anti-Christian and anti-God. I haven’t seen her sincerely ask forgiveness for anything, but she does need prayer to repent. Wouldn’t that be a wondrous miracle of this election!

4 FORGIVENESS MYTHS

MYTH #1:  Forgiveness must be quick like God’s forgiveness

TRUTH:  Forgiveness is a process

MYTH #2: If I forgive, that means that the offense was “ok.”

TRUTH: Forgiveness doesn’t turn sin into good. Sin is always wrong.

MYTH #3:  If I forgive the person gets off the hook.

TRUTH: Sin always has consequences.

Trump and every Christian can relate to and apply 1 Timothy 1:12-16, Paul’s own words about himself:

“I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has given me strength, that he considered me trustworthy, appointing me to his service. Even though I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man, I was shown mercy because I acted in ignorance and unbelief. The grace of our Lord was poured out on me abundantly, along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst. But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his immense patience as an example for those who would believe in him and receive eternal life.”

[Tweet “Let’s start showing grace, mercy, forgiveness, and pouring out prayer for Trump.”]

Let’s start showing grace, mercy, forgiveness, and pouring out prayer for Trump. He is the candidate for the conservative platform. This election is not about a person, it is about the platform, but God cares about every person’s eternal life. Instead of helping to feed the media beast, let’s pray for a flawed man who is being:

  •  made publicly accountable for past sins
  • humiliated and humbled
  • attacked and assailed
  • refined, renewed, and reformed

He could just be the unlikely person who becomes the future leader of America and allows us to put God back in the public square for generations to come. God could do that!

My last paragraph in that 2016 blog was almost prophetic. President Trump did become the leader of America and he is putting God back in the public square and just recently signed an executive order to allow prayer back in schools! 

I hope I didn’t confuse you, but I wasn’t being disrespectful in the 2016 blog by using “Trump” instead of President Trump, but as of that writing, he had not won the election. 

To read a passage where Jesus saw the good in someone who wanted to serve, but the religious Pharisees only saw her as a sinner read Luke 7:36-50.

I would encourage you to also read this excellent article (2020) How Can You Follow Jesus and Support Donald Trump?

February 10, 2020
Return to top of page

Is Your Church Being Invaded?

4

Is Your Church Being Inaded?

Since the beginning of time in the Garden of Eden, Satan’s sole purpose has been to destroy God’s kingdom on earth and overtake the world with evil and his tactical invasion is succeeding, not just in the world, but also in the church.

In the past, Satan’s tactics to divide churches were things like, chairs vs. pews. Hymns vs. contemporary music. Guitars and drums vs. pianos and organs. A young pastor or a seasoned pastor? Central campus or satellite campuses? These strategies of Satan seem trivial compared to today’s divisive issues that attack the central heartbeat and foundation of Christianity. Satan has methodically and effectively:

  • Changed God’s definition of marriage. Shockingly, certain denominations embrace gay marriage and gay clergy and it’s dividing their churches.
  • Legalized the killing of unborn and born babies—many of whom might have been Christian leaders, presidents, pastors, evangelists, parents, and loud voices in the wilderness.
  • Removed God, prayer, and Bibles from schools.
  • Eliminated God from the public square.

What has the church done to stop any of this? Very little.

Instead of the church influencing culture, the culture is influencing the church.

So is it any wonder that we see Satan zeroing in for a strategic blow: destroying unity in the church body and causing bitter divisions even among evangelicals.

Liberal politicians and commentators tout that Bible-believing Christians haven’t kept up with world changes and are thus becoming extinct. There’s no longer a universal definition of evangelical. The current political arena is revealing many shades of Evangelicals and Christians in what traditionally was simply, “the church.” Some Christians find it necessary to distinguish themselves as “gospel Christians” or “Bible-believing Christians.”

For a fantastic discussion on the biblical meaning and foundation of Evangelical Christians, and what liberal secularism will mean for our country if it takes over, watch this interview with Mark Levin and Pastor John Hagee, “Secularizing of America Will Lead to Heartache and Chaos.”

In Forsaken God? Remembering the Goodness of God Our Culture Has Forgotten, I warn of Satan’s impending invasion of the church if believers, who comprise God’s church, don’t take a firm stand against the devil’s schemes (Eph. 6:18):

Satan won’t like you making a concerted effort to remember God. Satan wants you to forget God’s goodness. Let that sink in a minute. If you forget God and his role in your life, then Satan has you just where he wants you. Satan’s target is believers. He doesn’t care about those who love the world because he already has them in his grip. He focuses on luring believers to love something else more than they love God. Satan wants to break God’s heart. Unfortunately, he seems to be succeeding in many areas. If he can get believers to look to the world’s ways, and forget God’s ways, Satan smirks.

Satan’s five strategic tactics to destroy churches with worldliness invading holiness.

“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” —John 10:10

Secularism

In an article in the Washington Post, Michelle Boorestein quoted Pastor Rick Scarborough, who is trying to politically mobilize evangelical voters: “Evangelicals are so divided….It’s because we are living in a growing age of secularism that is forcing itself on people who hold traditional values . . . .Some frame the split as Christian pragmatists vs. Christian idealists.”

No one, not even Satan, can force secularism or pragmatism on people who stay true to biblical values and principles. It’s a choice between compromise or commitment.

Satan is hijacking high-profile liberal pastors, speakers, authors, and several mainline denominations who expound that: the Bible isn’t inerrant or relevant, God is a myth, Jesus is a legend, and the church needs to catch up with the culture and abandon God’s Word regarding sin.

Culture never trumps Scripture.

Those who call themselves “progressive/liberal Christians” defiantly ignore Jesus’s warning that Christians are in the world, but not of the world. And Jesus didn’t come to conform to the culture; he came to reform the culture.

Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. —Romans 12:2

Selfishness

The center of all divisiveness is selfishness and pride. We want things our way, the way we think is right. The church often doesn’t agree on what Christ wants for His church.

No one likes admitting they’re wrong, but the heart of Christianity is admitting mistakes and misconceptions. Selfish pride is at the root of arguments, dissention, hurt feelings, gossip, and complaining. God hates pride; Satan loves it.

For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world.—1 John 2:16

Sin

When was the last time you heard a sermon on what Scripture calls sin? Parishioners often want a pastor who doesn’t challenge them. How many in congregations today are living a sinful life without feeling any pangs of remorse because the church isn’t confronting them? How many pastors are afraid of retaliation if they call homosexuality, living together, adultery, abortion, lying, or cheating a sin?

Satan is the father of sin and he has done well when the church cowers in fear of being called judgmental, haters, prejudice, legalists and the latest, racist. The very foundation of the church is that Christians confess their sins, repent, ask for forgiveness and turn their lives over to Jesus.

Why did Jesus have to endure the painful cross for forgiveness of our sins if the church now refuses to call sinning wrong? Jesus loves all people, but he hates sin—“the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 6:23).

If a church doesn’t know how to love the sinner without embracing the sin, it may abandon the sinner or avoid confronting them thus condoning their sin.

Woe to the world because of the things that cause people to stumble! Such things must come, but woe to the person through whom they come!—Matthew 18:7

Scandal

Pastors, church leaders, and prominent Christians succumb to moral or financial failures. Some even lose all hope and commit suicide. Churches don’t always have, or enforce, a system of accountability and mentoring at every level of leadership. Church staff may think they’re safe and above needing protective measures, and that’s right where Satan wants them with a target on their back. When one of these Christian leaders or someone in their family falls, the media and many Christians and fellow pastors are quick to voice opinions and denounce them publically. The church may not respond biblically, which is why nonbelievers characterize Christians as the only group that “eats its own.”

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.—Galatians 6:1

Social Acceptance

Many voices are screaming louder than the church, which in its attempt to be culturally relevant, may widen the road that Jesus said is narrow. Political correctness and ideological inclusiveness overshadows biblical truthfulness.

The church should only seek the exclusive acceptance of, and answer to, the Head of the Church—Jesus Christ.

If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you.—John 15:19

Sensationalism

Cultural Christianity creates an entertainment church, emphasizing popular people more than Holy God. Churches try the latest trend rather than leading from the Holy Spirit. Concert-style worship can detract from the purpose of musical worship—inviting in the Holy Spirit and drawing close to God, an atmosphere Satan hates.

Satan loves it when earplugs accompany the bulletin, little children plug their ears, and only those on stage sing. Or people don’t bring their Bibles to church because it’s too dark to read them.

For once you were full of darkness, but now you have light from the Lord. So live as people of light! For this light within you produces only what is good and right and true. —Eph. 5:8-9 NLT

What should the church do to combat Satan’s divisive encroaching tactics?

Believers must agree to stand together united as the Christian church—led by Christ and based on biblical truths—and fight Satan using prayer and the Sword of the Spirit, the Word of God, as our battle plan and strong fortress.

But, dear friends, remember what the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ foretold. 18 They said to you, “In the last times there will be scoffers who will follow their own ungodly desires.” These are the people who divide you, who follow mere natural instincts and do not have the Spirit.

But you, dear friends, by building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life. —Jude 1:17-21

Otherwise, “If a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand” (Mark 3:25).

“I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another in what you say and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly united in mind and thought” (1 Cor. 1:10).

Is your church being invaded?

If you received this blog by email, please leave a comment here.

July 29, 2019
Return to top of page

Has the Church Focused too Much on God’s Love and Not the Fear of God?

10

Is the Church Focusing to Much on the Love of God and Not the Fear of God

“God is love. He doesn’t care,” she continued.

Those are the words of a “gospel singer” who left her husband to enter into a lesbian relationship. I couldn’t help but think this woman has sung many songs about God over the years and certainly heard as many or more sermons. So how did she conclude that because God loves us He doesn’t care when we sin? He’s fine with it?!

You can tell that she knows this is wrong or why try to justify this relationship?

Then there’s the gay Democrat presidential contender, Pete Buttigieg, who explains his homosexual relationship/marriage, “At a recent fundraiser, he said of his same-sex “marriage”: “[it] has made me a better man [and]…moved me closer to God. If being gay was a choice, it was a choice that was made far above my pay grade.”

He then added, “That’s the thing I wish the Mike Pence’s of the world would understand, that if you have a problem with who I am, your problem is not with me. Your quarrel, sir, is with my creator.”

“The reality, of course, is that the mayor’s quarrel isn’t with Mike Pence. His quarrel is with the clear texts of Scripture that both identify what marriage is and what it is for, as well as how homosexual behavior is sinful. His quarrel is with natural law, reflected in the biological roles our bodies play and the universally embraced connection of marriage and procreation, even by societies not influenced by Christian morality. And of course, his quarrel is with 2,000 years of unanimous Christian witness on marriage and sexual morality.”–The False God of Feelings: Mayor Buttigieg’s Pro-Gay Christianity

Buttigieg is rationalizing that how we live is God’s fault because He created us with the ability to make choices. Yes, it’s true God gave us free will, but we’re accountable for how we use it. We can’t blame God for the bad things we do or the sinful way we choose to live and then say He’s ok when I sin. Naught!

God made Adam and Eve too and He gave them a choice to follow His commands. And we know how their choice turned out. Following the politician and singer’s rational, it would be God’s fault for Adam and Eve’s bad choice so God was Okay with it. Again, naught!

[Tweet “Death and hell became realities when Adam and Eve chose the Devil’s ways and since the day God kicked them out of the Garden of Eden, we all have the propensity to sin, but God is not okay when we make that choice.”]

Death and hell became realities when Adam and Eve chose the Devil’s ways and since the day God kicked them out of the Garden of Eden, we all have the propensity to sin, but God is not okay when we make that choice. The Bible proclaims just the opposite. God is never OK when we give in to Satan’s evil wiles.

But the singer and “Mayor Pete’s” comments are worthy of our discussion because there are many today, even in the church, who agree that our feelings and what we want to do, even sin, is fine with God because He’s a God of love. However, they conveniently overlook the fact that just because He gave us feelings and choices, He also gave us commands and Scriptures to guide us in making the right choices and avoiding the wrong ones.

[Tweet “To say that God endorses sin of any kind in his creation is blasphemy, even when said by those who should know better in the church.”]

To say that God endorses sin of any kind in His creation is blasphemy, even when said by those who should know better in the church.

Satan knows how to twist Scripture and tempt with, “Did God really say_______?” Fill in the blank with any sin. It’s not just the homosexual lifestyle. Last week I wrote about Abortion: The Crime of Passion.

It can be cheating on your taxes, lying, stealing, coveting, taking the Lord’s name in vain, adultery, abuse, and so many more sins of choice.

Scripture is “Inclusive”

A popular word in today’s culture is “inclusive,” which can be used as a weapon for forcing people to accept precepts that go against their faith and beliefs. The Bible also uses inclusive words, but in a different  context. Everyone is born with potential to do many wrong things and we’ve all sinned. Absolutely everyone. Not just the singer or the politician, everyone. “For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard” (Romans 3:23 NLT). That’s pretty inclusive. We all have sin in common.

But God doesn’t want us to stay in that degenerate place of sinning. “If you love me,” Jesus says in John 14:15, “you will keep my commandments.”

[Tweet “Sadly, Satan makes evil look good and blinds to the Gospel.”]

Sadly, Satan makes evil look good and blinds to the Gospel. When he turns hearts away from Jesus, we become just as we’re born, selfish and self-determining. “Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me” (Psalm 51:5).

We want what we want and think a loving God would want that for us too.

Wrong!

Yes, God made us with the potential to do many things, but He doesn’t say everything is right. He doesn’t want us to stay sinful.

“No one is righteous—
not even one.
11 No one is truly wise;
no one is seeking God.
12 All have turned away;
all have become useless.
No one does good,
not a single one.”[b]
13 “Their talk is foul, like the stench from an open grave.
Their tongues are filled with lies.”
“Snake venom drips from their lips.”[c]
14     “Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.”[d]
15 “They rush to commit murder.
16     Destruction and misery always follow them.
17 They don’t know where to find peace.”[e]
18     “They have no fear of God at all.” Romans 3:9:18 NLT

There is an answer to our sinful nature: ask and accept God’s grace and forgiveness. 

All of us used to live that way, following the passionate desires and inclinations of our sinful nature. By our very nature we were subject to God’s anger, just like everyone else.

4 But God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so much, 5 that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God’s grace that you have been saved!) Ephesians 2:3-5 NLT

Well then, should we keep on sinning so that God can show us more and more of his wonderful grace? 2 Of course not! Since we have died to sin, how can we continue to live in it? Romans 6:1-2

Buttigieg may feel that his same-sex relationship has somehow brought him closer to God, but if so he would know and honor God’s commandments and sense the Spirit’s conviction.

The singer might think because God is love, he’s ok with her sinning. He is not. He loved her so much 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, so she could be forgiven to go and sin no more.

What Does It Mean to Fear God?

[Tweet “Have we forgotten how to fear God, but have turned Him into some fake God who loves us so much He has no problem with our sin.”]

Have we forgotten how to fear God, but have turned Him into some fake God who loves us so much He has no problem with our sin? My mom used to say, “Remember God is watching what you do.” That’s a good thing to remember. We’re not getting away with anything. God knows everything.

We always know our parents love us, but there should also be a healthy fear of them catching us doing something wrong because they’re going to discipline us. Not because they hate us, but because they love us. If they let us do anything we wanted from childhood, we would probably err on the side of selfishness and self-serving. That’s why they gave us boundaries and guidelines for life. And if we love our children, we should do the same.

That’s what the Bible is for Christians: a guide in how to live a life pleasing to God. And when we choose to live differently, it saddens Him because He knows we know better. But He will let us live with the consequences of our sinful choices. “Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts.” Romans 1:18-32 describes God’s anger at sin. Don’t think that those words don’t apply to all of us.

[Tweet “the consequences on judgement day will be a horrible fate for those who have spent their lives trying to make God the Deity they want Him to be: trying to make God in their own sorry sin-loving image. “]

It’s tough love and the consequences on judgement day will be a horrible fate for those who have spent their lives trying to make God the Deity they want Him to be: trying to make God in their own sorry sin-loving image.

[Tweet “Never doubt there will be a judgement day and how we have lived on earth will define our eternity.”]

Never doubt there will be a judgement day and how we have lived on earth will define our eternity. “Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows.” (Galatians 6:7)

That’s not fear, that’s fact.

Many try to describe the fear of God as simply meaning to be in awe of Him. That’s certainly one meaning, but the meaning of fear more prevalent in the Bible is reverent, respect, honoring, cherishing, fear of disappointing our Great God by doing wrong in His sight.

Just like we never stop being our parents children even when we hurt them by doing wrong, Christians will always be God’s children, but He will never be “ok” with our sin.

Dr. Jeremiah summarizes this contrast between the love of God and the fear of God in his book What Are You Afraid of?

“On many occasions throughout my forty years of ministry, people have questioned me about the subject of God’s judgement. Often they say something like this: “My God would never send anybody to hell or punish someone for doing evil. My God is a God of love.”

I usually answer by telling them that their God does not exist. There is a God to love and there is a God to fear, and He is one and the same! Did He not judge His own Son as a demonstration of His love for the world? And did He not then show His love for the Son he judged by raising Him from the dead? How silly to think that if He is a loving God, He cannot also be a fearsome God. The two attributes complement each other.”

I’m sure you’ve heard many sermons on the love of God, but when is the last time you heard a sermon on the fear of God? 

Don’t wait to hear it from the pulpit, read it for yourself in your Bible. You won’t be held accountable on judgement day for what your pastor did or didn’t preach. No, you’ll be held accountable for how you loved God enough to respect and fear Him by obeying His commands.

For the honor of your name, O Lord,
forgive my many, many sins.
12 Who are those who fear the Lord?
He will show them the path they should choose.
13 They will live in prosperity,
and their children will inherit the land.
14 The Lord is a friend to those who fear him.
He teaches them his covenant. Psalm 25:11-14

If you received this blog by email, leave a comment here.

Photo by Tyler Nix on Unsplash

June 10, 2019
Return to top of page

Abortion: A Crime of Passion

4

With all the discussion lately about abortion, the focus has been on the depravity of late term abortion now legalized in some states, and the life-saving efforts of other states to eliminate abortion completely. But what I haven’t heard in the public discourse is what leads to abortion in the first place: sex!

No one seems to want to touch the underlying cause of 59+ million babies murdered since Roe vs Wade became law at a time of sexual revolution with the advent of birth control pills and the availability of abortion to anyone who wanted it, regardless of age or reason. Though, originally abortion was supposed to be safe and rare, with the advent of Planned Parenthood it became another form of birth control and frequent. Approximately 20% of pregnancies end by abortion!

Boys and girls, men and women, felt the freedom to have sex with whomever they wanted whenever they wanted because if they got pregnant, all they had to do was find the money to get an abortion. And many girls and women have stories that they didn’t stop having indiscriminate unprotected sex after their first abortion. No, they did it again and maybe again…

Feminist actress Alyssa Milano by her own admission wanted women to go on a sex strike when Georgia passed a law prohibiting abortion after a detected heartbeat. She said women couldn’t afford to get pregnant because they couldn’t have an abortion. In other words, abortion, not protection, is your failsafe way to deal with the product of conception: a baby! “Our reproductive rights are being erased. Until women have legal control over our own bodies we just cannot risk pregnancy. Join me by not having sex until we get bodily autonomy back.” So says Alyssa Milano.

What she and many others fail to address is that a few moments of sexual passion and pleasure can lead to a lifetime of living with the murder of their own babies. Today, you hear women, especially liberal actresses and politicians, celebrating the death of their babies, but I surmise that they’re actually angry, hurt, and anguished over what they’ve done. If they can get a group together with similar feelings, they can live in denial knowing they’re not alone. They find comfort in commonality. Like the old adage, “misery loves company.”

[Tweet “Today, you hear women, especially liberal actresses and politicians, actually celebrating the death of their babies, but they’re actually angry, hurt, and anguished over what they’ve done”]

My friend Patti Smith wrote a blog about the devastation of her own abortions: Nobody Told Me the Truth. Maybe that’s you and you were misled or misinformed. Patti learned that God is the God of forgiveness as she learned the truth. I’ve heard good things about Project Rachel: Hope After Abortion. After your own healing, like Patti, God may use your past to help another woman not let it become her future.

[Tweet “Before ultrasounds and heartbeat monitoring, women bought into the lie they were told that it’s just a blob of cells that can’t feel pain.”]

Before ultrasounds and heartbeat monitoring, women bought into the lie they were told that it’s just a blob of cells that can’t feel pain. But now, we know none of that is true. We can see the baby developing and hear the heartbeat at six weeks. We know, without a doubt, that life begins at conception. Yet there are still many lobbying for killing that human being, even after it takes its first breath! Inhuman barbaric depravity is actually celebrated in Congress and some state governments.

[Tweet “The Devil tries to seduce with deception by calling the baby a “fetus,” which sounds clinical and not like a human being.”]

The Devil tries to seduce with deception by calling the baby a “fetus,” which sounds clinical and not like a human being. But I’ve never heard a woman say she’s pregnant with a fetus or a blob of cells. She says she’s going to have a baby: a precious, fragile, defenseless human being that she can “choose” to murder or let live.

Liberals and abortion advocates try to couch the killing of babies by using terms like: A woman’s right to choose. Reproductive rights. Control over our own bodies. Healthcare. A decision between the woman and her doctor. Prochoice. A war on women.

Even a SCOTUS said you can’t call a pregnant woman a “mother”!  A woman who exercises her constitutionally protected right to terminate a pregnancy is not a mother” – Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. If she’s not a mother what is she?

Read a father’s reply to Ginsburg’s outrageous statement as he discusses that even babies who die in miscarriage still have a mommy and daddy.

[Tweet “Abortion is not a constitutional right.”]

Abortion is not a constitutional right. The Constitution says everyone has a right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness and that includes everyone with a beating heart. You would think a Supreme Court Judge would know that. But that’s how delusional some people have become. Another sly deception is to confuse by denying biology that every baby has both a mother and a father.

Let’s look at some common deceptions.

  1. “A woman’s right to choose.” In 99.9% of situations, a woman does have a right to choose . . . if she’s going to have sex or not. That’s her choice.
  2. “Reproductive rights” start with the right to say yes or no to sex. Sex leads to reproduction. A scientific and biological fact and a right God gave to every man and woman who chooses to have sex.
  3. “Healthcare.” There’s nothing healthy for a woman to have a baby poisoned, burned, dismembered, or sucked out of her womb.
  4. “It’s my body.” It’s not her own body. She didn’t create herself. God did by her parents having sex to create her. Then she used her body to have sex and create a body separate from hers with its own heartbeat, eyes, ears, mouth, nose, brain, organs, skin, arms, legs, sensitivity to pain, and cry.
  5. “Bodily autonomy is a human right.” Autonomy does allow a woman to choose to have sex with her body, but when she creates another body, that little body has autonomy and a human right also.
  6. “Abortion is morally good.” When murder becomes morally good and justified, we’ve definitely regressed to barbarism and savagery. Promiscuous sex is morally wrong. Two wrongs do not make a right.
  7. “It’s a decision between a woman and her doctor.” When a girl or woman goes into Planned Parenthood, they don’t see the doctor until they’re in stirrups and he’s killing her baby. And often it’s not even a doctor performing the abortion.
  8. “Prochoice.” The argument is between prolife and prodeath advocates! That’s something no one wants to say.
  9. “A war on women.” Hmm. How about we stop the war on babies, both male and female.

Abortion is a crime of passion

Why is the Movie Industry so Pro Abortion?

That answer is clear: money. Sex sells. Sex leads to unwanted pregnancy, which often leads to abortion. So Planned Parenthood, Hollywood, elites, and liberals are in the Devil’s circle.

[Tweet “Sex sells. Sex leads to unwanted pregnancy, which often leads to abortion. So Planned Parenthood, Hollywood, elites, and liberals are in the Devil’s circle.”]

Almost every movie and most TV programs show couples going on a date and having sex. Maybe not even the date first. Entertainment exploits explicit sex. Everyone sleeps together, hook ups, casual promiscuous sex is presented as the norm, and sadly, it’s become the norm. You don’t see women saying no or concerned with pregnancy.

[Tweet “Virginity is only said with respect at Christmas with the “Virgin Mary.””]

Virginity is only said with respect at Christmas with the “Virgin Mary.” Young people often don’t even know what virgin stands for today. Girls and women who’ve had multiple sex partners are still married in white, maybe pregnant or carrying their baby and no one blinks at it. I saw a program with girls picking out wedding dresses and one of them laughed, “Maybe I’m pregnant.” It was funny, not remorseful. I applaud the women who choose to keep their babies, I just wish they had also chosen to save God’s gift of virginity for the man they want to spend the rest of their life with because you can only give the gift of virginity away once.

[Tweet “Today’s culture considers abstinence until marriage archaic and laughable and scoffs at anyone who dares to suggest it, or chooses to live by God’s moral principles.”]

Today’s culture considers abstinence until marriage archaic and laughable and scoffs at anyone who dares to suggest it, or chooses to live by God’s moral principles.

And that brings us to a place those of us who have lived a while would never have expected possible in America: infanticide.

Abortion has become the accepted crime of unbridled passion and lust. Sex for murder.

[Tweet “Abortion has become the accepted crime of unbridled passion and lust. Sex for murder.”]

There’s only one entity who could bring us to this despicable time in history: Satan.

[Tweet “No matter how anyone tries to twist God’s Word, he designed sex to be between a married man and woman. That’s it! No exceptions.  “]

No matter how anyone tries to twist God’s Word, he designed sex to be between a married man and woman. That’s it! No exceptions. Everyone who is having sex any other way is sinning. I didn’t make that rule, God did. Many today try to make God into their own image the way they want to live, but you’ll always be going against God’s will for you.

God spoke: “Let us make human beings in our image, make them
reflecting our nature . . . Reflecting God’s nature.
He created them male and female.
God blessed them: “Prosper! Reproduce! Fill Earth! Take charge!” Gen. 1:27-28 The Message

There’s no right way to do the wrong thing. There’s no justification for having sex and killing a baby because the sex was convenient, but the baby is inconvenient.

So what can you do about these atrocities?

  •  Let your voice be heard in your state’s legislature.
  • Be a voice for the voiceless. Boldly and unashamedly stand for prolife as an abolitionist.
  • Mentor women who are having indiscriminate sex, considering an abortion, or had an abortion. I give ideas about how to do this in my book Mentoring for All Seasons.
  • If you’re having sex outside of marriage, stop now!

[Tweet “Our culture today is playing God by choosing who can live and who should die. That’s not going to end well.”]

Our culture today is playing God by choosing who can live and who should die. That’s not going to end well.

Then I saw another angel flying in midair, and he had the eternal gospel to proclaim to those who live on the earth—to every nation, tribe, language and people. 7 He said in a loud voice, “Fear God and give him glory, because the hour of his judgment has come. Worship him who made the heavens, the earth, the sea and the springs of water.”

8 A second angel followed and said, “‘Fallen! Fallen is Babylon the Great,’[a] which made all the nations drink the maddening wine of her adulteries.”

9 A third angel followed them and said in a loud voice: “If anyone worships the beast and its image and receives its mark on their forehead or on their hand,10 they, too, will drink the wine of God’s fury, which has been poured full strength into the cup of his wrath. They will be tormented with burning sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and of the Lamb. 11 And the smoke of their torment will rise for ever and ever. There will be no rest day or night for those who worship the beast and its image, or for anyone who receives the mark of its name.”

12 This calls for patient endurance on the part of the people of God who keep his commands and remain faithful to Jesus.

Revelation 14:6-12

If you received this blog by email, please leave a comment here.

June 3, 2019
Return to top of page

Climate Change Won’t Kill You, but Moral Change Will

6

Climate change won't kill you but moral change will

Today, many are calling it a “moral obligation” to warn us about climate change before it “kills us.” But these are some of the same people who advocate legalizing immoral change destroying our country. They have no concern for killing babies, every second of every day; in fact, they champion it, but stop eating hamburgers now! That’s their real concern.

[Tweet “When’s the last time you heard a pastor speak on Romans 1:18-32 and speak about the truths of God’s anger toward sin?”]

Our pastor recently spoke on Romans 1:18-32. When’s the last time you heard a pastor speak about the truths of God’s anger toward sin, many of which our culture idolizes and tries to force on us as “tolerant” and acceptable. God is never tolerant or acceptant of sin. Never! I put a link to these verses because I want you to go read them and then think about the moral change happening in our country today.

You can’t study the great Book of Romans without addressing these verses, and yet many churches, pastors, and Christians are not only ignoring them, they’re trying to whitewash them out of the Bible. God’s Words ignored because the world tells us they’re irrelevant and don’t actually apply to a 21st Century culture or even worse that they’re “hate speech!”

[Tweet “God’s Words ignored because the world tells us they’re irrelevant and don’t actually apply to a 21st Century culture or even worse that they’re “hate speech!””]

Many have applauded my last few blogs, and others have said I’m preaching to the choir. Well that’s exactly who I want to reach. I want the “choir” to get out of their safe pews, take off their protective, comfy choir robes, move out of the safety of like-minded people groups, and take a stand for God’s Words and God’s ways before moral change completely envelops our country.

[Tweet “Today the biggest problem facing America is how humans are redefining morality not how humans are changing the climate.”]

Today the biggest problem facing America is how humans are redefining morality, not how humans are changing the climate.

In my blog, 5 Examples of How to Join God in Bringing Good out of Evil, I made the point that everyone knows right from wrong and has a conscience. People who are doing wrong, know that it’s wrong, but they do it anyway for any variety of reasons: greed, power, social pressure, self-gratification.

[Tweet “People who are doing wrong, know that it’s wrong, but they do it anyway for any variety of reasons: greed, power, social pressure, self-gratification.”]

Romans 1:18-23 (NLT) reminds us that every living human being has to acknowledge God. Even those who are so worried about the climate change are looking at the air they breathe, the forests, the water, the animals . . . and so: 19 “They know the truth about God because he has made it obvious to them. 20 Forever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God.

Yes, they knew God, but they wouldn’t worship him as God or even give him thanks. And they began to think up foolish ideas of what God was like. As a result, their minds became dark and confused. 22 Claiming to be wise, they instead became utter fools. 23 And instead of worshiping the glorious, ever-living God, they worshiped idols made to look like mere people and birds and animals and reptiles.”

So anyone who doesn’t acknowledge God and his ways, leaves himself or herself wide open for Satan to take hold of their mind, will, and actions. They become dark and confused . . . “utter fools” . . . which aptly describes many of the secular population.

[Tweet “Anyone who doesn’t acknowledge God and his ways, leaves himself or herself wide open for Satan to take hold of their mind, will, and actions. They become dark and confused.”]

And don’t we see a flood of dark, confused, “foolish ideas” today. We’re baffled how adults can actually champion with a straight face the absurdity of “the new green deal” with no cows, no planes only trains, every building in America rebuilt and on and on…and if you don’t get on board you’re going to die in 12 years, which was also predicted in 1989, 1999, and will still be “12 years” in 10 years from now! Foolish!

Or foolish talk of Socialism for America. Or defending and lying about an illegal coup to take down a duly elected president. Or an actor who gets away with a sloppy contrived hate hoax. Or rich parents thinking they’ll never get caught cheating their children’s way into college. Foolish! Dark!

[Tweet “How deceived the churches, denominations, pastors, and Christian speakers/authors who are foolishly ignoring Romans 1:24-32 and trying to convince us that these sins aren’t really sin”]

But what about the foolish confused churches, denominations, pastors, and Christian speakers/authors who are foolishly ignoring Romans 1:24-32 and trying to convince us that these sins aren’t really sin. I just read an article “French bishops spokesman calls homosexual relationships ‘something of God’. Here’s what God’s something says about it:

24 So God abandoned them to do whatever shameful things their hearts desired. As a result, they did vile and degrading things with each other’s bodies. 25 They traded the truth about God for a lie. So they worshiped and served the things God created instead of the Creator himself, who is worthy of eternal praise! Amen. 26 That is why God abandoned them to their shameful desires. Even the women turned against the natural way to have sex and instead indulged in sex with each other. 27 And the men, instead of having normal sexual relations with women, burned with lust for each other. Men did shameful things with other men, and as a result of this sin, they suffered within themselves the penalty they deserved.

Since they thought it foolish to acknowledge God [and the way he created them sexually] he abandoned them to their foolish thinking and let them do things that should never be done. 29 Their lives became full of every kind of wickedness, sin, greed, hate, envy, murder, quarreling, deception, malicious behavior, and gossip. 30 They are backstabbers, haters of God, insolent, proud, and boastful. They invent new ways of sinning, and they disobey their parents. 31 They refuse to understand, break their promises, are heartless, and have no mercy. . . .Worse yet, they encourage others to do them, too. Romans 1:24-32 NLT

So what are we to take from these verses that describe the same world today that Paul described in Rome? And almost every family today has one of these issues described in the above verses. God says he doesn’t release people to sin, but if they won’t listen to him, he does withdraw his loving restraint. (Romans 1:24) Like so many claim today, they do have a choice and a right to do what they want, and God will let them make that choice, but He’ll also let them suffer the consequences.

[Tweet “Like so many claim today, everyone has a choice and a right to do what they want, and God will let them make that choice but He’ll also let them suffer the consequences.”]

So does that mean we should give up on them? Absolutely not! But it does mean that we don’t get caught up endorsing what God calls wicked by redefining sin. That’s not helping them. If we say that because we love someone it means their sin is Okay, we’re essentially giving up on them and their eternal salvation.

[Tweet “If we say that because we love someone it means their sin is Okay, we’re essentially giving up on them and their eternal salvation.”]

C.S. Lewis summed it up this way: “There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, ‘Thy will be done’ and those to whom God says, in the end, ‘Thy will be done.’ All that are in Hell, choose it. Without that self-choice there could be no Hell.”

I would add that all who are in Heaven choose it too.

Climate change is nothing compared to eternity in Hell. That’s what kept me on my knees praying for my daughter, and I hope there’s someone you’re staying on your knees for too. Because if you’re truly a Christian, you know that Heaven and Hell are real. Pastor Greg Laurie recently wrote a devotional where he said:

“I want to do everything I can to warn everyone I know so they won’t end up in that horrible place. Tell them about what Christ has done for you. Tell them about the hope of Heaven. Tell them about the forgiveness of sin. And tell them what the repercussions are if they don’t believe. Don’t leave that out. Don’t dilute it. We have the hope of Heaven, but we don’t want anyone to go to Hell.”

But let’s make that clear. “You don’t get to Heaven by living a good life. And you don’t end up in Hell by living a bad life. Heaven is not for good people; Heaven is for forgiven people. Everyone who turns from their sin can go to Heaven. This is why God sent His Son, Jesus, to die for us on the cross.”

[Tweet “We’re not helping or showing love to anyone when we condone their sin. And much of what the world endorses, God condemns. “]

This is why we celebrate Easter. This is the message churches should be sharing. We’re not helping or showing love to anyone when we condone their sin. And much of what the world endorses, God condemns. And so should we. When immoral evil is condoned and legalized, as Christians we don’t tolerate it or obey it. We fight it with everything we have in us.

O.S. Hawkins says in his book The Believer’s Code: “Yet the Bible gives clear instructions: we are compelled to disobey civil law when it is in direct opposition to God’s laws.”

[Tweet “Today, you will be called all sorts of horrible names when you don’t go along with immoral laws. But so what?”]

Today, you will be called all sorts of horrible names when you don’t go along with immoral laws. But so what? Jesus said: “Remember what I told you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also” (John 15:20).

If we offend with the Gospel, then Glory be to God. Hardships and persecution are all part of a life devoted to Christ.

[Tweet “If we offend with the Gospel, then Glory be to God. Hardships and persecution are all part of a life devoted to Christ.”]

Don’t shy away from calling sin a sin. Even in our own lives. We sin too. Hopefully, not in the ways described in Romans 1:18-32, but in other ways unpleasing to God.

[Tweet “Don’t feel like you have to defend God. He can defend himself. He’s made his presence known to everyone, some just choose to ignore him”]

Don’t feel like you have to defend God. He can defend himself. He’s made his presence known to everyone, some just choose to ignore him. But God is always good in His invitation: His call to everyone is to repent and be saved. Not saved from climate change, but from moral change.

[Tweet “But God is always good in His invitation: His call to everyone is to repent and be saved. Not saved from climate change, but from moral change.”]

John 3:18 says,  “Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.”

It’s not just that someone is a sinner; it’s that he or she rejected God’s solution to moral change in his or her own life.

“God is saying, ‘I love you. I don’t want you to go to Hell. I put My own wrath on my Son, whom I love, so you can be forgiven.’ That rejection of Jesus is what brings judgment. It isn’t going to be a sin question in the final day. It’s going to be a Son question: What did you do with Jesus?” Pastor Greg Laurie

[Tweet “The most loving thing you can do as a church and as Christians is to not give up on someone you know who has rejected Jesus. Climate change is nothing compared to an eternity separated from God.”]

The most loving thing you can do as a church and as a Christian is to not give up on someone you know who has rejected Jesus. Climate change is nothing compared to an eternity separated from God.

If you received this blog by email, please leave a comment here.

If you haven’t already read last week’s post, Why You Should See #Unplannedmovie.

If you haven’t seen Unplanned, please go see it and take someone with you. Lives are depending on the truth of the immorality of abortion to be known.

April 8, 2019
Return to top of page

Tell Me the Old, Old Story of Jesus and His Love

0

Tell me the old old story of Jesus and His love in your testimony

Several weeks ago, Dave and I flew into Alamosa, CO. to keynote at the Southern Colorado Women’s Conference. We met a wonderful group of women, and I’m pictured above with the sweet women who worked so hard to make this annual conference possible. Dave and I had quite an adventure as we took an 8-seater tiny plane from Denver to Alamosa. Let’s just say my 6’4’ hubby had to bend in half to get to his seat. When we arrived, only his bag arrived with us!

Treasured memories. That’s a cedar chest in the center made by the pastor for his lovely wife Kay!

The theme of the conference was “Remembering the Goodness of God,” which the conference coordinator chose after reading my book, Forsaken God?: Remembering the Goodness of God Our Culture Has Forgotten. The decorations were amazing designed to help us remember our treasures. Dave has traveled with me to many conferences and retreats and he said he’d never seen such beautiful and detailed decor.

On Friday night, I gave my testimony, and then Saturday morning, I talked about eight of the twenty-three ways I share in Forsaken God? to remember God’s goodness in your life, starting with sharing your testimony. There’s no greater witness to God’s goodness than sharing what he has done in your life. No one can question your testimony because it’s your personal experience.

[Tweet “There’s no greater witness to God’s goodness than sharing what he has done in your life.”]

 We often start conversations with questions like:

  • How was your day?
  • What’s going on in your life?
  • How are you doing?

Or when meeting someone new:

  • Where do you live?
  • What do you do for a living?
  • What church do you attend?
  • Where did you and your husband meet?

But when is the last time you asked:

  • What is your spiritual journey?
  • What’s your salvation story?

When’s the last time you told someone about your spiritual/salvation story?

Many think the Great Commission is just for the disciples and pastors, but it’s for every follower and believer of Jesus Christ. You don’t have to be an evangelist to share your story.

[Tweet “There’s no greater witness to God’s goodness than sharing what he has done in your life.”]

God authorized and commanded me to commission you: Go out and train everyone you meet, far and near, in this way of life, marking them by baptism in the threefold name: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Then instruct them in the practice of all I have commanded you. I’ll be with you as you do this, day after day after day, right up to the end of the age. (Matt. 28:18–20 The Message)

You and I are Christians today because those twelve disciples did just what Jesus instructed them to do. They shared the gospel they had experienced with anyone who would listen . . . and with many who didn’t listen.

We receive the Advocate—the Holy Spirit—when we become Christians and our charge is the same as the disciples: you must testify with everyone you meet.

You’re here to be light, bringing out the God-colors in the world. God is not a secret to be kept. We’re going public with this, as public as a city on a hill. If I make you light-bearers, you don’t think I’m going to hide you under a bucket, do you? I’m putting you on a light stand. Now that I’ve put you there on a hilltop, on a light stand—shine! Keep open house; be generous with your lives. By opening up to others, you’ll prompt people to open up with God, this generous Father in heaven. (Matt. 5:14–16 The Message)

[Tweet “Your spiritual journey is your testimony that describes your life before you turned it over—or returned—to God”]

Your spiritual journey is your testimony that describes your life before you turned it over—or returned—to God and how you’ve transformed into a new creation in Christ.

You may not think you have a testimony if you’ve been a Christian most of your life and life has gone smoothly for you. Well, that smooth life didn’t just happen. God has been walking beside you guiding your life every step of the way. That’s your testimony to others who worry about losing something by turning their lives over to God. You’re a living example of how good God really is!

[Tweet “God can use every experience for His good and glory”]

If you have a hidden past you’ve been too embarrassed to talk about, now is the time to deal with those buried hurts and hang-ups. God can use every experience for good, but not if we don’t let him. The Bible tells us “The wages of sin is death” (Rom. 6:23), so hidden sin holds us in a death grip that silently destroys us spiritually, and often physically, from the inside out.

Exposed sin loses its power.

We don’t have to waste energy and emotion worrying about others discovering our past. We can “thank God we’ve started listening to a new master, one whose commands set us free to live openly in his freedom!” (personalized from Rom. 6:18 The Message).

Think back to an experience where you know it had to be God who rescued you and how you might make that a testimony to his goodness.

Ways to Remember God’s Goodness—Share Your Story—Make It Your Testimony

[Tweet “The most effective encouragement for trusting God in the present is remembering His Goodness in the past.”]

The most effective encouragement for trusting God in the present is remembering His Goodness in the past. As we mature spiritually, we move beyond just remembering God’s goodness for our own benefit and start retelling our testimony to help others.

Every time you give God the glory for something in your life, you testify to God’s goodness.

[Tweet “Sometimes God redeems your story by surrounding you with people who need to hear your past so it doesn’t become their future”]

Sometimes God redeems your story by surrounding you with people who need to hear your past so it doesn’t become their future.

When we don’t share our story, we don’t share His story.

Being willing to share how God helped you through difficult times requires vulnerability, approachability, and responsibility. It’s your witness to His faithfulness. It’s the opportunity to give purpose to a crisis.

Otherwise, you might spend your life feeling sorry for yourself—living as a victim instead of victorious.

[Tweet “Revealing is the first step to healing.”]

Revealing is the first step to healing.

Your story doesn’t have to have a “happy ending” for you to share it. You give your testimony to show God’s faithfulness regardless of the circumstances, and to assure others they’re not alone or to stop someone else from making the same mistakes you did.

Every day you encounter opportunities to share your testimony, and every time you tell it, you’ll remember how good God has been to you. Let your loving heavenly Father guide you.

Sometimes you’ll only share a short snippet—less than three-minute—an “elevator testimony.” Other times, the whole story.

Tell me the Old Old STory of Jesus and His Love as your testimony

Women sharing their 3-minute testimony with each other.

Don’t dramatize how bad you were; characterize how good God is!

Your story becomes your testimony when the focus is on God, not on you.

[Tweet “Your story becomes your testimony when the focus is on God, not on you.”]

Don’t tell graphic details or anything to make someone else or you uncomfortable. It’s not a tell-all, and it’s not a time to tell someone else’s story.

If you haven’t written out your spiritual testimony, think of it in five parts:

  • Your life before Jesus.
  • How, when, why you realized you needed a Savior.
  • Making the commitment, or re-commitment, and surrendering your life to Jesus.
  • The change in your life since becoming a Christian.
  • What being a Christian means to you. How does knowing Jesus help you do life?

In Psalm 71:15, the psalmist admits he’s not sure if what he says will help, but he’ll tell his story and let God choose how to use it: “My mouth will tell of your righteous deeds, of your saving acts all day long— though I know not how to relate them all.”

Some people may reject or rebuff your testimony. That’s not a sign to stop telling it; you plant a seed, and God does the watering. Peter reminds us always to be ready to share our testimony.

But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander. (1 Pet. 3:15–16)

So don’t worry about how God will use your testimony, or how someone will receive it. Just be willing to speak up when you feel the prompting of the Holy Spirit, and He’ll use it for God’s purpose. Sometimes it will be in a spiritual setting, other times when you least expect it. Be ready to share with or within . . .

  • Bible study group or small group.
  • Mentoring relationships.
  • Others going through something similar.
  • Conversations acknowledging God’s goodness in your daily life.
  • Social media.
  • Unbelievers or skeptics.
  • Support Groups.
  • Where else?

“And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.” —1 John 5:11–12

But as for me, how good it is to be near God!

I have made the Sovereign Lord my shelter,

and I will tell everyone about the wonderful things you do.

—Psalm 73:28 NLT

What testimony does God want you to share and who needs to hear it? Who needs to know the reason for your hope?

If you received this blog by email, please leave a comment here.

*This blog uses excerpts from Forsaken God? Remembering the Goodness of God Our Culture Has Forgotten.

Remember the goodness of God so you don't forsake Him in your life.

 

October 22, 2018
Return to top of page

How To Stand Against Cultural Opposition & Disunity In The Church By Erica Wiggenhorn

5

Erica Wiggenhorn, author of An Unexplainable Life: Recovering the Wonders and Devotion of the Early Church, is our guest blogger and Erica and I both have a heart for the church today to learn from the church of the past to impact our current culture. In Forsaken God?: Remembering the Goodness of God Our Culture Has Forgotten, I trace the mishaps of the Israelites and how we can learn from their mistakes and forgetfulness of God’s goodness. Erica traces the biblical conflict that started right from the beginning of the church and offers solutions of how to confront inevitable conflict in the current church that is sadly influencing our culture away from God and the church. I’ve also written about resolving conflict biblically in Face-to-Face with Euodia and Syntyche: From Conflict to Community.

I also wrote a recent article for Crosswalk.com you might enjoy reading, Biblical Responses for When the Church Offends or Hurts You.

Enjoy and pray about Erica’s post below.

How can the church not be effected by today's culture

Author/Mentee Erica Wiggenhorn

One of the very first things I noticed about the early Christian church is that trouble started right away. The church was barely a week old before issues arose.

This shouldn’t be a surprise since the Christian church is made up of people—flawed, imperfect human beings. Yet we are somehow shocked today when issues occur within the church. We shake our heads in disbelief when believers disagree with one another, or are outraged when others come against the church because we don’t condone their lifestyle or support their beliefs.

[Tweet “The early Christians in the book of Acts realized that regardless of what they faced, God was on their side and the church was going to continue.”]

The church should expect opposition within its walls and without. By living in a false mentality that the Christian church will perpetually function in peace and unity, we are deceived into not dealing with it. We think something is wrong. But what if we opened up the pages of Scripture, realized that there have always been issues, and therefore actively prepared for them? What if we intentionally wrestle and pray through difficulties before they even arise?

[Tweet “Disagreement and opposition are nothing more than the enemy’s plans to thwart the church.”]

Disagreement and opposition are nothing more than the enemy’s plans to thwart the church. Here are just a handful of accusations that came against the early Christian church within weeks of its inception:

  • Prejudice
  • Favoritism
  • Insurrection
  • Governmental and social unrest
  • Hypocrisy
  • Deceit

How many of these do we see today? Nothing has changed, friends. But what if we changed, went back to the beginning, and prayed specific, powerful prayers like the early believers did?

[Tweet ” Nothing has changed, friends. But what if we changed, went back to the beginning, and prayed specific, powerful prayers like the early believers did?”]

How Should We Respond? What Should We Do?

[Tweet “Next time you feel overwhelmed by cultural opposition—pray. Next time you’re discouraged by disunity within your church—pray. Even before either one happens—pray, because it’s going to happen. Make sure you’re ready.”]

“You spoke by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of your servant, our father David: ‘Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth rise up and the rulers band together against the Lord and against his anointed one’ … Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness.” (Acts 4:25-26, 29)

Look at what God did as a result of this prayer: “After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.” (Acts 4:31)

God gave them a visible demonstration that His power was mightier than Rome’s greatest emperor! The early Christians didn’t cower in the corner wringing their hands because they faced opposition. They confronted it head-on by addressing the One powerful enough to help them overcome it! They prayed to God. The early Christians in the book of Acts realized that regardless of what they faced, God was on their side and the church was going to continue.

[Tweet “But what if we opened up the pages of Scripture, realized that there have always been issues, and therefore actively prepared for them? “]

God has warned us that we need to prepare for disagreement and opposition. We need to prayerfully decide how we are going to respond to difficult issues. We need to study the Word of God so we are aware of our enemy’s schemes.

We need to realize that trouble is often our greatest indicator that our enemy is threatened and God is at work. And as we study, pray, and come together with other believers wrestling through issues and injustices, the Holy Spirit will move with power—wall shaking power—and give us everything we need to continue to spread the news of Jesus! Two thousand years later, the gospel is still spreading!

[Tweet “The early Christians didn’t cower in the corner wringing their hands because they faced opposition. They confronted it head-on by addressing the One powerful enough to help them overcome it!”]

Next time you feel overwhelmed by cultural opposition—pray. Next time you’re discouraged by disunity within your church—pray. Even before either one happens—pray, because it’s going to happen. Make sure you’re ready.

[Tweet “God has warned us that we need to prepare for disagreement and opposition. We need to prayerfully decide how we are going to respond to difficult issues.”]

[Tweet “Next time you feel overwhelmed by cultural opposition—pray. Next time you’re discouraged by disunity within your church—pray. Even before either one happens—pray, because it’s going to happen. Make sure you’re ready.”]

For more information about her latest Bible study, An Unexplainable Life: Recovering the Wonder and Devotion of the Early Church, and Erica’s Every Life Ministry click here.

Now It’s Your Turn

What is your general response when disunity occurs within your church?

How do you specifically pray for your church’s protection against cultural opposition?

What is one key way to prepare ourselves for opposition within our church or from without?

You can comment below or if you received this blog by email comment here.

An Unexplainable Life

Euodia and Syntyche: From Conflict to Community

July 23, 2018
Return to top of page

Why Do We Care What Everyone Thinks?

0

“Everyone thinks this about you.”

“They’re all talking about you.”

“You make everyone feel” __________________.

“Everyone thinks you should”_____________.

These types of phrases can be negative or positive.

We love it when the context is everyone thinks you’re wonderful! They’re all talking about how you make everyone feel so good and everyone thinks you should do more to let people know about the great things you’re doing!

But what about a negative context when everyone thinks you’re not wonderful. They’re all talking about you because you make everyone so uncomfortable and everyone thinks you should change your ways and keep to yourself!

When I was starting the Woman to Woman Mentoring Ministry, and then when other churches wanted to know how to start one and God chained me to the computer to write the Woman to Woman Mentoring resources, I heard both negative and positive comments. That was twenty years ago. If I had listened to the negative, there would be no Woman to Woman Mentoring Ministry today; but likewise if I had let the positive puff me up instead of just encourage and motivate me, I don’t believe God would have blessed this ministry. Yet even as I sit here writing to you, I see a confirming email come in from a church telling me they started the ministry last year and they’re so thankful for the resources. To God be the glory. Only God starts an international life-changing ministry and keeps it going! We can’t do anything without Him, but with Him all things are possible.

[Tweet “Only God starts an international ministry and keeps it going!”]

Positive or negative comments; let’s look objectively.

Receiving Negative Comments

 

No one can speak for everyone. More than likely there’s a group with a perception about you, which could actually only be two or three people.

[Tweet “We hear sweeping comments in the news today, and it’s easy to transfer similar all-inclusive conversation to our private lives”]

We hear sweeping comments in the news today, and it’s easy to transfer similar all-inclusive conversation to our private lives. Especially, when someone wants to convey something negative. Everyone sounds more impressive, meaningful, and authoritative.

Words are easy to release, but impossible to retrieve!

[Tweet “Words are easy to release, but impossible to retrieve!”]

Hurtful words and connotations are like an arrow to the heart. They penetrate our identity, our purpose, our character. As our curiosity fuels thoughts of who is “everyone,”  our anger and defenses go into high gear. We want to know why people are thinking or saying these things about us. We’re hurt. People are gossiping about us, which never comes to any good!

A perverse person stirs up conflict, and a gossip separates close friends. Prov. 16:28

A gossip betrays a confidence; so avoid anyone who talks too much. Prov. 20:19

Without wood a fire goes out; without a gossip a quarrel dies down. Prov. 26:22

Remember Paul is talking to the church at Corinth here:

For I am afraid that when I come I may not find you as I want you to be, and you may not find me as you want me to be. I fear that there may be discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, slander, gossip, arrogance and disorder. 2 Cor. 12:20

[Tweet “It takes two to gossip—the gossiper and the listener—so beware of becoming an accomplice to sin by listening to gossip.”]

It takes two to gossip—the gossiper and the listener—so beware of becoming an accomplice to sin by listening to gossip. Our role as Titus 2 women is “to be reverent in the way they live, not to be slanderers or addicted to much wine, but to teach what is good train the younger women.” (Titus 2:3)

So consider the following when you hear an “everybody” negative comment about you. Believe me when I say, I haven’t always done this on the spot, and sometimes need to give myself time to pray and put everything into perspective.

  1. Rather than trying to defend yourself or lashing out—Say a quick mind prayer, stay calm, and ask God for wisdom. Ask yourself before responding: Why do I care what these people think?
  2. Question: “Really, everyone thinks this?”
  3. Ask: Why are they telling you this? Steer the conversation away from everyone to one-on-one.

My point:

[Tweet “We worry too much about what other people think about us and not enough about what God thinks about us.”]

We worry too much about what other people think about us and not enough about what God thinks about us. He’s the only One we’re concerned about. Consider if there’s something you should search your heart about and act on and if not, let this go. If there is something, then take it to the Lord. And be watchful of not doing an “everyone” comment yourself.

Don’t replay the encounter or comments over in your head, so Satan gets a foothold in your mind. It’s best to forgive, pray, and carry on. Easier said than done? I offer many helps and tips in my Bible study Face-to-Face with Euodia and Syntyche: From Conflict to Community.

Receiving Positive Comments

But what if all those “everyone” statements are positive building us up and making us feel good about ourselves? Well there’s certainly nothing wrong with encouragement, but again, we have to remember a couple of truths:

No one knows what everyone is speaking and they can’t speak for them. Hopefully, there are many who agree with them, but “everyone” is still an encompassing sweeping generalization.

If we think that we’re just fine because everyone likes us, then we might miss some areas we do need to change and improve, because after all . . . everyone thinks we’re great.

And we know what that leads to—pride—taking credit ourselves, instead of praising God giving Him the glory and honor He deserves. Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall. (Prov. 16:18)

[Tweet “If you’re living out loud for God, everyone is not going to like you”]

There will always be areas in our life we need to improve, change, sanctify, ask God for wisdom. We can be grateful for approval of how we’re living and serving the Lord, but I guarantee that if you’re living out loud for God, everyone is not going to like you. If everyone does, do an internal check and see if there are areas in your life you’ve compromised to be liked by everyone.

When Paul was accused by the Jewish high priest Ananias, some of the elders, and a lawyer named Tertullus, and they brought their charges against him before the governor, Felix for doing nothing more than sharing the Gospel, Paul told them in his defense: “So I strive always to keep my conscience clear before God and man” (Acts 24:16). That should be the goal of every Christian, don’t you agree?

Sadie Robertson of the Duck Dynasty Family, who I’ve written about before, recently gave an amazing “sermon” to a college group and challenged those millennials who might be leaving their values and faith behind because they want to fit in: “Worry more about your relationship with Jesus than your reputation with people you don’t even know.” Here’s the link and I recommend you listen to it with your kids or college age youth groups. It’s excellent!

So I close with a modification of Sadie’s advice:
Worry more about your relationship with Jesus than your reputation with everyone!

Be careful to live properly among your unbelieving neighbors. Then even if they accuse you of doing wrong, they will see your honorable behavior, and they will give honor to God when he judges the world. 2 Peter 2:12

If you received this post by email, please leave a comment here.

If you would like to know more about the Prayer and Launch Team for Mentoring for All Seasons: Sharing Life Experiences and God’s Faithfulness releasing September 12, please contact me soon.

July 17, 2017
Return to top of page
« Previous Page
Next Page »
Return to top of page · Copyright © 2024 Crown Laid Down Designs All Rights Reserved · Our Privacy Policy