Luke 11:33-36 “No one lights a lamp and then hides it or puts it under a basket.  Instead, a lamp is placed on a stand, where its light can be seen by all who enter the house.

³⁴“Your eye is a lamp that provides light for your body. When your eye is good, your whole body is filled with light. But when it is bad, your body is filled with darkness. ³⁵Make sure that the light you think you have is not actually darkness. ³⁶If you are filled with light, with no dark corners, then your whole life will be radiant, as though a floodlight were filling you with light.”.

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So we’ve been having this heat wave go through the whole Midwest, and everybody on the news is telling people how dangerous it is and to drink lots of water and stay indoors when possible.  You’d think people had never been outside on a hot day before.  It really hasn’t seemed all that hot to me.  But I sure am glad not to be putting on a new roof or anything like that lately.  And I’m also glad that we got a reprieve from the hot sun,  My yard had been getting pretty brown, and I noticed some clouds out in the distance.  So I asked God if he could give us a couple inches for the crops and the grass.  And guess what?  We got 2 & 1/4 inches.  It was a real blessing.

But you know, even if we hadn’t gotten any rain, there is still so much to be thankful for.  There might be dry grass in the yard.  But in the heart of a true Christian, the grass is always green.

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You know the difference between puppy love and true love?  True love has NOTHING to do with the butterfly feeling in your stomach, or a magical first kiss or “falling” into anything.  Puppy love is the purely emotional stuff.  True love is that which remains committed regardless of emotion–so that even when you don’t feel like it, you still work to serve the other person and make sacrifices to give the other what is best.  A relationship of true love is the only kind that lasts, because it is committed through thick and thin.  Emotions can go up and down and butterflies fly away and initial feelings always change, but true love never gives up.  True love isn’t fallen into, it’s committed to with perseverance and integrity.

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We all know that Jesus was brutally flogged and then nailed to a cross to die a terrible and painful death.  But the kind of suffering and death he went through was not that uncommon in his day.  Lots of people were flogged, and crucifixion was a normal tool for Roman capital punishment.

What makes Jesus death way different (besides the fact of his innocence) is that Jesus died voluntarily.  If a bunch of trained soldiers tie you up to a post and proceed to whip the flesh from your back, there’s probably not much you could do about it.  And if your limbs are connected to wooden beams by iron spikes driven through your hands and feet, what are you going to do?  But at any point, Jesus could have snapped his fingers and stopped it all.  I doubt you or I would have the strength and commitment to endure that kind of torture for more than a few minutes if we had the power to end it.  But Jesus held strong for hours of gruesome pain and suffering until his body couldn’t take any more and finally died.

Praise the Lord for his dedication, because otherwise none of us would have any hope.

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CHAPTER NINE – Remember

Have you ever set down your car keys and forgot where you put them?  How about the remote control?  Ever lost anything really important?

How do you go about remembering what’s most important?

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Too many times I’ve been asked the question, “Do you have to go to church to be a Christian?”

The technical answer is, of course, no.  Going to church does not make one a Christian.  There are plenty of non-Christians who go to church all the time.  They might even think they’re Christian because they go to church.  But going to church doesn’t make you a Christian anymore than going to Washington makes you the President.  And going home again doesn’t remove any of your Christianity.  Proximity to a church building, is not how one determines whether or not they belong to Jesus Christ.

However, the question itself reveals a flawed view of Christianity.  A Christian IS the church.  All true believers are part of the body of Christ.  You can’t help it.  And the body has to work together.  You simply can’t work as part of an integrated body of believers if you disconnect yourself from it.  So real Christians seek out the opportunity to worship in unison with other believers, to serve and encourage each other in community, to carry out their mission to preach the Good News of the Gospel to the world as a team.

So you can become a Christian without ever having darkened the doors of a church building.  But you can’t live as part of the body of Christ while keeping yourself removed from the fellowship of the church.

In other words, don’t just go to church…BE the church.

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I think too many people think marriage is just a wedding.  It’s all about planning the perfect day.  And usually that day flies by and after a few months you can’t even remember everything that happened on that day that was supposed to be so special.

How much more stable could our society be if people took planning for marriage as seriously as they took planning for the wedding?  If people actually kept their wedding promises, it would mean the relationship would be lifelong and rewarding, so the families would be stable and the culture made up of all those stable families would be stronger.

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Happy Mother’s Day!

Ok, so this is from awhile ago.  But it was fun.

Any day is a good day to hug your mom.  Why not do it today?

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Are you making opportunities to obey the Spirit and teach the world about who God is?  It’s kind of a big deal if you think about it.  If you’ve been saved by God, that means you were rescued from death–plucked from the fiery pit of Hell and turned from a wicked and sinful monster into a saint.  But Jesus didn’t sacrifice himself to turn you into a decoration (like the statues you see of dead people).  He gave his life so that you could have life, and then he said it’s your turn now!  Go into all the world and save some people!  Don’t waste the precious gift you’ve been given…spread it around.  There’s more than enough to go around.  God doesn’t want anybody to die without him.  If you’ve found God’s grace don’t hide it, divide it!

If you haven’t been saved, that means you’re still dead in your sins.  And you probably already know exactly what I’m talking about.  Your own conscience is probably telling you exactly what it is that is keeping you apart from a relationship with your Creator.  Today is the day of salvation.  Make the choice to leave your sins in the past and to start living for God, and you will find a life more amazing than anything you’ve ever known.  It’s not always easy.  In fact, Jesus guarantees that you’ll face persecution if you live life his way.  But it is so worth it!  To actually live in relationship to God and know his presence in your life outweighs all the troubles you could ever face.  And we haven’t even gotten to Heaven yet.  That’s the icing on the cake of a real relationship with Jesus!  Make the decision to find forgiveness and turn your life around and live by the awesome power of the Holy Spirit.  You won’t be disappointed!

PS. Thank you to NASA for a great title. 🙂

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Who doesn’t love free stuff?  God has a pretty cool free gift he’d like to give you.  Wanna hear about it?

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