In the Beginning God......

In the Beginning God
“Genesis 1:1”
When my girls were young they knew that Jesus’ birthday was celebrated on Christmas, but they asked me one day; “Daddy, when is God’s birthday?” A fair question to ask seeing the celebration we have for the birth of our Savior. When I told them that God always was and had no beginning and no end, they could not grasp the reality of that, thinking that everyone had to have a day when they came into existence.
The best explanation that I could give is that God created time and is not subject to it. Of course they never would have understood that and now I wonder if I really do? In the beginning God set time into existence and began the circumstances that led to our lives today. The life that we lead is not the life that God intended for His creation, but it is the life that He foresaw. This raises a question, if God being all knowing knew that man would fall, why create mankind? I mean that if we were certain that a business would fail, would we begin the business? Fortunately, God is in the business of love, for I feel that God had so much love in Him that He wanted to share that love with beings that would serve Him because they wanted to, not because they had to. The scriptures teach that God is love, that it is His nature, and we are created in His image, therefore we have the ability to love as God loves, only He gave us also a free will and that is what ultimately led to our fall.
Deuteronomy 6:13 says; “You shall fear the Lord your God and serve Him,” Strong’s defines serve as: To work for, serve, do labor for someone; to be a servant, to worship. God is not an overlord who rules over his people and cares nothing about their prosperity, but God cares about His servants and rejoices when they prosper. Psalm 35:27 says; “let the Lord be magnified, Who has pleasure in the prosperity of His servant.” We are taught that we are created to serve God, and we are, but I feel that there is more to our creation than just to serve God. Don’t get me wrong, service to God is our highest calling, but I’m trying to get to the reason for creation itself. God rejoices when we prosper in the service for Him and we find peace with the Creator in that prosperity. We are also to find peace in the Creator when we can not see prosperity, and this takes love. As couples we have so much love to share that we desire to share that love with others that are created out of that love, thus children. We always look at other children and say that our children will never act like that, only to realize that they are worse. Does that make us sad that we had these children, these beings that are created out of love?
Genesis 6:6 “And the Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He grieved in His heart.” Though God was about to destroy man in the flood, His love for man kept Noah and his family alive, and gave man a second chance. God is a God of second chances and for this reason did Christ die on the cross. When our children fail to meet our expectations for their lives, we become disappointed, but love them just the same for we can not change the fact that they are still our children and our hearts grieve for them as well.
Do I now understand why creation? I think I get a better grasp on it, in that we were created out of love, to serve God, and to prosper in that love. Deuteronomy 6:5 says: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.” It impossible to love someone unless you know them, I do not believe in love at first sight, but that love is nurtured over time as we grow to know someone. We can not know God unless we come to know His Son. God desired that we know Him and sent His Son to earth for us to know Him. My accepting Christ as your savior you come into a relationship with God that you my know the nature of God and come to love Him.
God is Omnipresent in that He can be in all places at all times. His love fills the universe and beyond our knowledge of the universe. He is always near us and available when we call upon Him. When we humble ourselves before God, and come to Him in prayer He will hear our prayers.
God is Omnipotent, having virtually unlimited authority and influence on all that He has created. God is not a cowering old man who sits in wonder of what His people will do next, but is in control of everything and will finish what He set out to accomplish with creation.
God is omniscient, in that He knows all things, past, present, and future. He knows our every thought.
In the beginning God who existed in all places, with unlimited authority, and knowing all thing set all things into existence. He is the designer and creator of all things and rules over His creation. He set our very lives into motion and called us to be His. Astrophysicists have found that life could not exist if one of the following were not true;

Earth’s rotation was slower, or faster

We were 2% closer or further from the sun

Little Debbie quit making snack cakes

Earth had a 1% change in sunlight

Earth was smaller or larger

The moon was smaller or larger

We had more than one moon

Earth’s crust was thinner or thicker

Oxygen/Nitrogen ratio was greater or less

Ozone layer was greater or less

To believe that life spontaneously emerged from nothing requires great faith. There is no evidence suggesting this, only theory, which is the same accusation that is leveled against creationist. I have faith in God and that He created all things into existence, and the creation speaks of His glory. Dr. George Wald, Nobel Prize winner from Harvard University, states it as honestly as any evolutionist can: “One has only to contemplate the magnitude of this task to concede that the spontaneous generation of a living organism is impossible. Yet here we are-as a result, I believe, of spontaneous generation.” This statement demonstrates a greater faith than a religious creationist can muster. Even though Dr. Wald said that it was impossible, yet he believes. What can we say to this kind of reasoning? I think the words of Psalm 148 say it very well indeed.
Praise the Lord!
Praise the Lord from the heavens;
Praise Him in the heights!
Praise Him all His angels;
Praise Him all His hosts!
Praise Him sun and moon;
Praise Him, you heavens of heavens,
And you waters above the heavens!
Let them praise the name of the Lord,
For He commanded and they were created,
He also established them forever and ever;
He made a decree which shall not pass away.
Praise the Lord from the earth,
You great sea creatures and all the depths;
Fire and hail, snow and clouds;
Stormy wind, fulfilling His word;
Mountains and all hills;
Fruitful trees and all cedars;
Beasts and all cattle;
Creeping things and flying fowl;
Kings of the earth and all peoples;
Princes and all judges of the earth;
Both young men and maidens;
Old men and children.
Let them praise the name of the Lord,
For His name is to be exalted;
His glory is above the earth and heaven.
And He has exalted the horn of His people,
The praise of all His saints-
Of the children of Israel,
A people near to Him.

Praise the Lord!

Bearing One Another's Burdens

Bearing One Another’s Burdens
Galatians 6:1-5
“1 Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, considering yourself lest you also be tempted. 2 Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. 3 For if anyone thinks himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself. 4 But let each one examine his own work, and then he will have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another. 5 For each shall bear his own load.”
Paul uses the word “Brethren” as to say brothers and sisters we are family and approach this matter as a family would. I look at some families and even note instances in my own, where we did not approach matters as a family out of love for one another. Paul wanted them to show those who have fallen away, or are caught up in sin, love and that love was to bring them back into a right relationship with God.
The use of the word overtaken indicates that one is caught unaware in his sin. Surprised by another, and his sin is brought to the attention of others no matter how hard he has tried to hide it. We can walk in sin thinking that no one knows what we are doing, but the Spirit of God is bringing conviction upon us as we walk in sin. God loves us so much and wants so much more for us that He will only allow us to walk in our sin for so long, ignoring the convictions of the Holy Spirit, before our sins will find us out.
When Paul stresses that those that are spiritual approach this matter, he wants those who continue to walk daily in the Spirit of God, to restore this person for two reasons. One is that he will use gentleness, guided by the Spirit of God, and the other is that the restorer will not fall into the same temptation as the sinner. I knew a man that felt he had a call own his live to reach certain people caught in a certain sin. His heart was in the right place, but unfortunately he too was caught up in the same sin. He has been restored to the family of God and serves God even today, though not as he once did.
The spiritual person will be prayed up to deal with the fallen, in order that he can be guided by the spirit of God and that he will be protected from temptation that comes upon us all.
Jesus said; “let he who is without sin, cast the first stone.” we stand before those caught up in sin and ready our rocks to cast them at them. Our rocks may not be literal, but the words and actions that we use hurt just as much. As we approach the sinner, in love, remember that there but for the grace of God go I. For bearing another’s burden, does not mean shunning them, or hurting them, nor does it mean fixing the problem for them. Hiding another’s sin by helping them to cover it up will do neither of you any good. I watched a show where a grandmother went to great lengths to cover up her grandson’s wrong doing, only to be caught up in it herself.
Bear another’s burden in love, for this is the command of Christ. Galatians 5:14 “For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
We are to approach the restoration of another with humility, not thinking ourselves better than the fallen. The last thing another needs is condemnation, for this will turn others from your witness and make your help useless and unwanted. Let us look at how Jesus approached the fallen, in John 8:1-11. When the Pharisees brought the woman caught in adultery to Jesus, He did not recognize her sin nor did He condemn her. He wanted others around her to realize that they too were sinners, and needed grace as this woman did. He showed the woman love, and let her know that grace was available to her, He then encouraged her to walk free of the sin. Only through love are we able to help another to come out of their sin. Brow beating and shaming them will only drive them from your help, and we must remember that the Holy Spirit of God has the same goal as us, and will be there to aid in restoration. We are to love the sinner while hating the sin; therefore the person becomes more important than the sin itself.
Verse four is all about giving account for yourself, and not judging your neighbor. I struggle with this myself, looking at what others do and holding that against them. The answer Paul gives to this problem is to examine your own life and compare it to the life of Jesus, realizing that we walk in grace, forgiven of our sin only by the grace of God, and are walking in the spirit, only by the help of the Holy Spirit. This humbles us as we compare our own imperfection to the perfection of Christ.
We all must answer for ourselves and not for our neighbors. Our conduct will be before the eternal judge, and dealt with according to His will. We can not justify our smaller sins by bringing down another with greater sin. I leave you with a passage from Luke 18 of the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector. Also He spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and despised others. “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other men- extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even this tax collector. I fast twice a week, I give tithes of all that I posses.’ And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”
I friend of mine gave me a quote; “Here’s the book, read it, live it, see you next week!”

The Cost of Discipleship

The Cost of Discipleship
Luke 14: 25-33
“25 Now great multitudes went out with Him. And He turned and said to them, 26 “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, and yes his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. 27 “And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple. 28” For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it- 29. “lest, after he has laid the foundation, and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, 30 “saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ 31 “Or what king, going to make war against another king, does not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? 32 “Or else, while the other is still a great way off, he sends a delegation and ask conditions of peace. 33 “So likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple.”

V.25 Most of the multitudes that followed Jesus saw the miracles that He preformed and wanted the same in their lives, they too wanted to be healed. They saw Jesus as the one to drive out the Romans and establish His kingdom on earth.
People still do the same when we see a church that is vibrant and people being healed. We flock to churches that please us and have preachers that say all the right things, tickling our ears with the goodness of God and never challenging us to grow.
This is not to say that all churches growing are like this, there are many that are on fire for the Lord and are growing with God’s help. Choose wisely where you are going to worship, and do your part to continue that growth. If you ask God He will guide you to a place that He desires you to be. It may not make any sense to you, but to Him it does.
V.26 Was Jesus telling us to forsake all others and follow Him, and even to hate our own lives for the sake of serving Christ. A truer meaning to this verse is found in Matthew 10:37 “He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me.” Or in Romans nine verse 13 “Jacob I have loved, but Esau have I hated.” The meaning is simple; I have loved Jacob more than Esau. This is meaning Jesus takes in the verse that the love for Him needs to be greater than the love for family or even ourselves.
Jesus was saying in the strongest language available to Him that family ties could stand in the way of the Lord’s will for your life. It would be a sin for us to forsake the needs of our families when it is our responsibility to care for them. God would never ask us to walk away from the care of our families, but He does ask us to follow Him above our families.
When I first started giving to the church, I took a lot of heat from family members that said I needed to care for my family first. They could not see that by giving to the Lord I was taking care of my family. I believed that God would bless me, and did, by my faithfulness to Him. Years later a relative came to me and told me of his concern and confessed that I was right in what I was doing.
Could the cost of discipleship cost you the relationship with a family member? Indeed it could and does. Spouses, children, and parents that have not accepted the Lord as their savior, don’t understand your devotion to Jesus, and may misunderstand it as a rejection to them. I feel that I am able to love my wife more because of my relationship to God, through His Son Jesus. Following the will of God has led to some interesting discussions with her, some of which she is right, and others that we agree to disagree. This does not mean I love her any less, but cherish her opinion.
This verse can be summed as, who would you rather loose face with, your friends, family, customers, church, or Christ? For Jesus said in Matthew 10:33 “But whoever denies me before men, him I will also deny before My Father in heaven.”
V.27 A lot of people use the expression; “It’s my cross to bear” for every bad situation that comes along. This is not what Jesus is talking about. Troubles will come our way because of our stance on Christianity, but trouble can also come upon us for no reason at all, or better yet for our failing to pick up our cross. Job was persecuted by Satan because of his love for God, and Jonah met with trouble because of his unwillingness to follow through with God calling on his life. Still others will invite suffering in their lives, thinking that by suffering they are bearing the cross of Christ.
Picking up the cross of Christ means examining the benefits and hardships that come along with living a life centered on Christ. In Luke 9:57-62, we read of a story where potential followers of Christ are examining the cost of following Christ and found the cost too great, turning back to their old lives. Jesus tells His disciples in verse 62, “that no one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.” Christ does not ask us all to become preacher, teachers, or missionaries, but he does ask us all to follow Him and deny our old lives, for a life centered on Him. I know that in the ME generation that is hard to take, but it is not all about us, but all about Christ.
In verses 28-32, Jesus tells a parable to illustrate how absurd it is to attempt to become disciples of Christ with out first considering the hardships that they would endure, for both hell and the world, who are not a friend to the church, will come against them to destroy not only them, but their witness as well. When Satan is able to destroy our witness, he makes others to doubt if what we have been saying is true or not. We are to also consider what strength we have to go on to walk with Christ, realizing that we can not walk in our strength alone, but must rely upon the strength of God. Jesus has already taken the journey that He requires us to take, to be true disciples of His, and knows what we must endure. Just as God strengthened Him for the cross, so does He strengthens each of us to endure the hardships that come from making a stand for Christ.
We must be willing to lay aside our ambitions and desires for our life and call upon God for guidance, and the strength to go where He wants us to go. In John 21:18, Jesus gives these words to Peter; “Most assuredly, I say to you, when you were younger, you girded yourself and walked were you wished; but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will gird you and carry you where you do not wish.” God does not ask us all to go to the cross for our faith in Christ, but He does ask us all to be ready to endure it. Now that you are a new creature in Christ, you must not look to the past and what you were, but must go on to perfection in Christ. He is with you in the person of the Holy Spirit, guiding you and strengthening you for this journey that we call Christianity.

The Lord the Shepherd of His People Part 2

The Lord the Shepherd of His People Part 2
Psalm 23

1. The Lord is my shepherd: I shall not want.
2. He makes me to lie down in green pastures;
He leads me beside the still waters.
3. He restores my soul;
He leads me in the paths of righteousness
For His name’s sake.
4. Yes, though I walk through the
valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil;
For you are with me;
Your rod and your staff, they
comfort me.
5. You prepare a table before me
in the presence of my enemies;
You anoint my head with oil;
My cup runs over.
6. Surely goodness and mercy shall
follow me
All the days of my life;
And I will dwell in the house of the Lord
Forever.

“He makes me to lie down in green pastures” As a Christian we have available to us an inner peace that no matter what the trouble, we are able to have that peace that goes beyond our understanding. In John 14:27 Jesus says; “Peace I leave with you, My peace I give you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”
The world finds peace in the security of its own ability to comfort itself. By surrounding oneself with worldly possessions and people who agree with your thinking you find peace. By securing the right spouse, the right job, the perfect house, and the best friends, you can find a temporary peace that makes you feel secure enough to lie down in the pastures that you have created. But what would happened if those pastures that you lie in dry up and catch fire, fueled by the winds of trouble. Are you able to rest in the temporary peace that you have created? What if the right spouse becomes your worst nightmare, the right job tells you it doesn’t need you anymore, the perfect house is claimed back by the bank, and those friends you thought would stand by you don’t, will we see how soon that peace flees from us in the fires of trouble?
These things happen to Christians as well, but they do not have to affect us in the same manner. This peace that we receive is not based on the things of the world, but an inner peace, fueled by the Holy Spirit, and resting in our eternal salvation. That no matter what happens to us, though our heart seems to be breaking into a thousands pieces to be swept away in the winds from fires of trouble, we have a peace that goes far beyond our ability to understand.
“He leads me beside the still waters.” Those that follow God must be led, by His Holy Spirit. For it is the Spirit that will lead us not to stormy seas, not to flooded rivers, not to dry stream beds, nor to bodies of water that become stagnate, but to flowing streams that will refresh us and revive us, in order to face lives trouble.
Jesus said in John chapter four and verse 14: “but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.”
Jesus talks of water that not only refreshes us but gives us joy, and a spirit of lasting peace, fueled by the Holy Spirit. A joy that makes us want to share it with others, and a peace knowing that we are eternally secure, no matter what happens to us on earth.
The Apostle Paul took on the attitude while imprisoned that, if killed he would go to be with Jesus, if he remained in prison he was imprisoned for Christ, and if set free he was free to preach the gospel of Christ. In other words no matter what you do to me you can not change my eternity. The peace that Jesus gives us is not given by this world and the world can not take it away.
“He restores my Soul” When our troubles become so great that we feel that we can’t go on. It is that water that refreshes us and allows us to go on. Death, divorce, financial ruin, come upon us and overwhelms us till we feel that we can not take another breath, nor desire to do so. When faced with divorce, my depression became so great that I lie in a fetal position, just wishing I could die. It was only over time and the gentle restoration of my soul, by the love of the Father for me, that I was able to live and love again.
“He leads me in the paths of righteousness” When I first read that God compared us to sheep, I was insulted, we His creation, sheep! No creature is as apt to lose its way and not be able to find its way back as sheep. On driving to work I noticed two sheep that even though they were fenced still had to be tethered in the field. I didn’t understand this till I saw them in the middle of the road unsure of which way to go. The field they stayed in was within sight, and still it seemed that once they had acquired freedom they did not know what to do with it. I think back on that now and realize how wise the Creator was to liken us to sheep. What would happen if children were left to make decisions for their lives, with no parental guidance? What if God left us to make decisions for ourselves, without the guidance of the Holy Spirit? We soon would become lost on the paths that we had made for ourselves and unable to find our way out, stumbling over our own mistakes. It is that still small voice of the Holy Spirit of God, which leads back on to the paths of righteousness.
When we are lost on the paths of trouble, or sin, surrounded by the enemies that seek to devour us, unable to hear that still small voice, what then? Does God leave us in our sin, or to languish in the shadow of death? Does God leave us out there to suffer and stumble for the right answer on how to get on the path that we once were? David chose the word through instead of in, having faith that this trouble was only temporary. We never have to walk through our troubles alone. I am reminded of the story of the footprints in the sand; One night a man had a dream. He dreamed he was walking along the beach with the Lord. Across the sky flashed scenes from his life. For each scene he noticed two sets of footprints in the sand: one belonging to him, and the other to the Lord. When the last scene of his life flashed before him, he looked back at the footprints in the sand. He noticed that many times along the path of his life there was only one set of footprints. He also noticed that it happened at the very lowest and saddest times in his life. This really bothered him and he questioned the Lord about it: “Lord, you said that once I decided to follow you, you’d walk with me all the way. But I have noticed that during the most troublesome times in my life, there is only one set of footprints. I don’t understand why when I needed you most you would leave.” The Lord replied: “My son, my precious child, I love you and I would never leave you. During your times of trial and sufferings, when you see only one set of footprints, it was then that I carried you.”
The shepherd does not carry a rod and staff to lean upon. It is used to guide the sheep, and fight off those who seek to destroy the sheep. It is God who fights for us, the battles that we can not see and those that we can. It is God who will lead us by gentle persuasion back into His will. It is God who will carry us out from the shadow of death to life everlasting.
The final two verses of David’s Psalm talks of the security that David rests in from the provisions of God, provision that stretches beyond today, to an everlasting security that goes beyond our daily needs to an eternity with the Father in heaven. God’s goodness is like the breaking of the day, with its rays of sunshine breaking the hold of darkness, giving us the hope that this is only the beginning. His goodness extends far beyond the mornings sweetness to the fullness of day, with its warmth and comfort. Our journey with God began with our acceptance of His Son as our Savior, to a life filled with His mercy and grace, to an eternity ushered in by the return of Jesus for His flock, as He shepherds us into His kingdom where we shall sing His praises forever.