What Does God Hate?

It is fair game to say that God loves me. He does. He loves his own. We want to believe God will accept us. And it is true that he does on one level; however, the problem is we want God to accept us on our terms not His. We want to make the rules of our relationship. We want to say, “God loves everyone so much he would not let anyone go to hell.” Or, “I just can’t give up ______________, God will just have to accept it.”

Well, there are some things God hates. We cannot lie to ourselves and say, “God loves everything.” Not true.

16 There are six things the LORD hates,
seven that are detestable to him:

17 haughty eyes,
a lying tongue,
hands that shed innocent blood,

18 a heart that devises wicked schemes,
feet that are quick to rush into evil,

19 a false witness who pours out lies
and a man who stirs up dissension among brothers. Proverbs 6:16-19

Unfortunately none of us are without flaw and imperfection. I can pick a few things of the list to claim my own. Can you? Think about it.

God bless.

The Power of Weakness

The weak will be strong.

Sound foolish? You bet it does. No one wants to be weak. I mean intentionally. We try very hard to apeer strong, stoic, and unyielding. After all that is true power. I do not want you to see me cry, to blush in shame, to admit my failures and defeats. I refuse to let the secrets of my life leak out of the walls I have built to protect my honor and pride.

No, I will not be weak! And I lie too.

The only real problem with my strength is I know it is false and everything I am doing to perpetuate the illusion of strength is a lie. Lies all lies.

Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 12:7-10

To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

I cannot fully explain what Paul is completely saying here. I do not know what his thorn was. Don’t think it important or he would have told us what it is.

Consider this. God’s power is made perfect in our weakness. Power, what power? His forgiveness, his love, his mercy. His capacity to shape and mold us into the men and women he calls us to be. When God’s strength rests on me, what do I care about my weaknesses? When God has forgiven my sin, what do I care about my past? When God has set me free from my past, how much higher can I soar in the future?

It is only when I step aside and let God take control can I then look back and see how powerful and wonderfully God has worked in my life.

Isn’t it great to be weak? God bless.

The Power of Submission

Ever wondered if there were any power in submission? I think the two words are antonyms. Power and submission.

Power defined by Merriam-Webster is possession of control, authority, or influence over others; one having such power; specifically : a sovereign state; physical might or political control or influence.

Submission defined by Merriam-Webster is the condition of being submissive, humble, or compliant; an act of submitting to the authority or control of another.

By definition, submission is the act of putting another in power. The one in submission has given their power to someone else. Where is the power in that?

Think about these words from Jesus.

“Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.” (Luke 22:42)

“Now my heart is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour. Father, glorify your name!” (John 12:27,28)

Jesus submitted himself to God. For what purpose. Why alow himself to be hung on the cross to die?

For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.” (John 6:40)

The ultimate power in submission is Christ’s willingness to die in order to fulfill his Fathers will. It is the power to change you and me. To save you and me.

God bless.

Been Getting to Know God

It seems strange to be writing again. I am not sure why I have struggled to get back into the habit of posting. I need to. I have been studying and preaching so I have material. Just not been able to get myself to write.

To say I have been busy would be an understatement. Work is exactly that, work. Church has been a trial. Friends have gone. At times even my sanity seems to leave me.

But, one thing remains. God. He has been so good to me. I cannot describe the comfort I receive from the Spirit. A sense of his presence. Peace in the storm. There is nothing on earth like it.

To know God. The essence of reality. The purpose of Christ’s visit. You are right, his main purpose was to save mankind; however, ultimately, his purpose was help us know God.

1After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed: “Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. 2For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. 3Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. 4I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do. 5And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began. John 17:1-4

Christianity is not about what you do, how you act, what you believe, it is all about who you know. I know I am oversimplifying the whole thing. BUT. A real big but. You can have all the religion you want, obey all the rules in the book, give everything you have away, buffet your body and bring it under your complete control, say you believe….and not know God. And not have eternal life. God is everything. Knowing God is the ultimate goal. Being in his presence for eternity, the ultimate gift.

God bless.

A Heart of Flesh for a Heart of Stone

“They will return to it and remove all its vile images and detestable idols. I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh. Then they will follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. They will be my people, and I will be their God. But as for those whose hearts are devoted to their vile images and detestable idols, I will bring down on their own heads what they have done, declares the Sovereign LORD.” Ezekiel 11:18-21

Heart conditions are so important. The heart is the most important thing.  God tried so hard to teach the Israelites that what was most important is the heart.

Do you have a heart of stone? It was a heart like the idols the Israelites were following. Stone for stone. A heart far from God and unyielding, cold, callous, and hard. They did not follow God’s decrees. Their hearts were devoted to things, worldly things.

God longed to bring the Israelites home. To give them a heart of flesh. Soft, yielding, alive, and warm. A heart after God. One that would keep God’s laws and remove the things in their lives that distracted them from God.

Today?

God has paid the highest price for our heart. His own Son. Jesus came to teach us how to obey God. To show us what love means. To be the first born of many. He came to touch our hearts and turn them from hearts of stone to hearts of flesh.

God bless.

Come, Let us Return to the Lord

When things are in the crapper who do you blame? Life hands me a bunch of sour grapes and I will be the first to tell you it is not my fault. When God deals out discipline, how should we react? The Israelites did one of two things, they grumbled or they returned to God.

1 “Come, let us return to the LORD.
He has torn us to pieces
but he will heal us;
he has injured us
but he will bind up our wounds.

 2 After two days he will revive us;
on the third day he will restore us,
that we may live in his presence.

3 Let us acknowledge the LORD;
let us press on to acknowledge him.
As surely as the sun rises,
he will appear;
he will come to us like the winter rains,
like the spring rains that water the earth.”

4 “What can I do with you, Ephraim?
What can I do with you, Judah?
Your love is like the morning mist,
like the early dew that disappears.

5 Therefore I cut you in pieces with my prophets,
I killed you with the words of my mouth;
my judgments flashed like lightning upon you.

6 For I desire mercy, not sacrifice,
and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings.

7 Like Adam, they have broken the covenant—
they were unfaithful to me there. Hosea 6:1-7

This is a good example of God’s grace in the Old Testament. God clearly states his desire, “mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings.” God wants the heart not your stuff. He want our whole self not lip-service. God wants us to be faithful to the covenant.

The Israelites fell into a very real and very modern trap. It is the same trap the nations around them had already fallen into. They  had forgotten what God wanted from their worship. (By the way, it is the same thing God wants from us today.) In their worship, over time, they began to focus on the wrong things. They focused on things just like the nations around them did. The nations around them focused on the actions associated with conjuring a god. They fell into the trap that if they did XYZ they would get anything they wanted. (Not to mention that the nations around them used sex, drugs, and power in their worship, these things still turn heads today.)

Stay with me here. When we really mess up at work or with our spouse. Lets say you cheated on your girlfriend. What do you do when you feel the guilt afterwards? You go by flowers, you get a card, maybe you take them out to eat at a special place. You increase the good things you do to try to win back or at least salve your conscience. If we got caught we might really grovel and straiten up. So what do you do when you sin against the God of Heaven? We buy indulgences. We might give more to the Church, read the bible more, go on a weekend mission trip, pray for hours on end, fast, or whip ourselves.

ARE WE SUCH FOOLS? Is God so simple, shallow, blind that we can control him somehow by buying His grace? Can we conjure him up and use some tool (sacrifice) to get things from Him? Can we commit adultery with the world and then come home to Church on Sunday and expect Him to not be angry?

God is trying to wake us up. He will use whatever is at his disposal in our lives to turn our hearts and minds to Him. What does he wand from us, love, mercy, and acknowledgment of God in our lives. To live differently. To walk with God.

There are two sides to God. One is love, grace, and mercy. This is the side those in a relationship with God see. The side those who return to God see. AND there is the other side of God one of justice, anger, and punishment. This is the side you see when you try to control God. When your love is like dew (very temporary) and you do not keep the covenant, there is only punishment.

God bless. Keep the faith. Return.

Do You Need a Doctor?

I want to know why we are so quick to judge one another yet so incapable of honest personal assessment? Do you? I am always wondering how I can do better, looking for sin in me and struggling with it. I am far from perfect. My desire is to know God and be like his Son. I hope you do too. However, let me warn you, if you do not think you need a good deep look at yourself then you are a good as dead. If you think you are sinless, a light to the lost, and the keeper of truth then watch out. You are in for a hard fall.

Jesus ran into this blindness often. When he went to teach and heal, he kept running into the “religious”. Don’t get me wrong, these “religious” people meant well, they were decent folk.  They were trying to do what was right. The problem was they had missed the point. I think we have missed the point as well.

As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him.

While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and “sinners” came and ate with him and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and ’sinners’?”

On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” Matthew 9:9-13

As a side note I find it interesting that on one occasion after talking to the Pharisees like this, Jesus’ apostles took him aside and asked him if he realized he offended them. NO! Not Jesus.

Are you offended? Have you asked yourself lately, “Do I need a doctor? Am I sick?” Let me give this warning…

Jesus is coming back to this world. Will he find anyone faithful? Will he find be faithful to death? I know I am a crazy fundamentalist bible thumpin’ red neck. I know I am not talking about anything real popular. This is not as fun as American Idol or 24. BUT, GOD IS REAL. And he has a very simple message for us.

“I desire mercy, not sacrifice.” Go and learn what this means. It should scare you to death. And at the same time thrill you. God loves you so much he was willing to give up the thing he valued the most, His Son. Jesus loves you so much he was willing to give up his position and come to earth to be a sacrifice for sin. To heal our relationship with God.

So now what.

Be a different kind of people. Be Jesus kinds of people. Want deeply to love and obey this God who loves you so.

God bless.

God Forgives Sinners!

That is the gospel. Pure and simple. God forgives. Think He does not? Think the God of the Bible is a vengeful and angry God who smites sinners down? Think there is no Grace in the Old Testament? Consider this from Ezekial.

 “Son of man, say to the house of Israel, ‘This is what you are saying: “Our offenses and sins weigh us down, and we are wasting away because of them. How then can we live?” ‘ Say to them, ‘As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign LORD, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live. Turn! Turn from your evil ways! Why will you die, O house of Israel?’

“Therefore, son of man, say to your countrymen, ‘The righteousness of the righteous man will not save him when he disobeys, and the wickedness of the wicked man will not cause him to fall when he turns from it. The righteous man, if he sins, will not be allowed to live because of his former righteousness.’ If I tell the righteous man that he will surely live, but then he trusts in his righteousness and does evil, none of the righteous things he has done will be remembered; he will die for the evil he has done. And if I say to the wicked man, ‘You will surely die,’ but he then turns away from his sin and does what is just and right- if he gives back what he took in pledge for a loan, returns what he has stolen, follows the decrees that give life, and does no evil, he will surely live; he will not die. None of the sins he has committed will be remembered against him. He has done what is just and right; he will surely live.

“Yet your countrymen say, ‘The way of the Lord is not just.’ But it is their way that is not just. If a righteous man turns from his righteousness and does evil, he will die for it. And if a wicked man turns away from his wickedness and does what is just and right, he will live by doing so. Yet, O house of Israel, you say, ‘The way of the Lord is not just.’ But I will judge each of you according to his own ways.” Ezekiel 33:10-20

In summary: 

God does not enjoy punishing the wicked, rather He wants us all to turn back to Him.

A huge amount of good is nullified by one bad, you cannot rely on goodness to cover anything with God. In other words you can lie to yourself (and think you are okay) but you cannot lie to God.

A huge amount of bad is nullified by one good, turning (repenting) back to God is the good you have to do. I think it interesting that God did not say, “sacrifice lots of animals, give away all your money, walk around in sack-cloth and ashes, and you will live.” NO! He said give back what you stole, give back what you have taken as security, follow my ways that give life, and stop sinning.”

God will judge by what you do. Your behavior matters. Even Jesus said this (Matt. 16:27) so don’t get off saying this is “Old Testament” thinking. It isn’t easy to talk ourselves out of this one. God wants us to act different. The world is into selfishness, sex (heterosexual and homosexual, both equal opportunity sins), cheating, hording, lies, idolotry, witchcraft, greed, hatred, jealousy, rage, drugs, and the list goes on.  A Christian cannot partake in the world and still have God, do not be fooled. Friendship with the world is hatred toward God, James 4:4.

God bless. Think about it.

Sin Happens!

Despite all the commands against sinning, you still do. It just happens. Paul wrote in Romans 3:20, “Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin.”

All the laws teach us how good at sinning we are.

The Israelites left Egypt in glory. God rescued them with many miracles and they still forgot. They did not get very far before they started to grumble and complain.

When they got to the promised land they were afraid to enter the land. God became angry and told Moses he would make a new nation through him. But Moses prayed.

“Now may the Lord’s strength be displayed, just as you have declared: ‘The LORD is slow to anger, abounding in love and forgiving sin and rebellion. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation.’ In accordance with your great love, forgive the sin of these people, just as you have pardoned them from the time they left Egypt until now.”

The LORD replied, “I have forgiven them, as you asked. Numbers 14:17-20

Don’t let anyone lie to you and tell you God does not forgive. Or that the God of the Old Testament gave no grace. He knew, more than that, He knows we are imperfect and we sin. That is why he sent Jesus the Christ to come and save us from this world of hurt we are in.

But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished— he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus. Romans 3:21-26

God did this. He loves us so much. He made the way to take care of our continuous sin problem. This does not mean we should just go do what we want. Do not be so ignorant of God’s Word. He did forgive the offense in Numbers, but he also punished the Children of Israel too.

We cannot make a practice of sinning. We must keep fighting. Don’t give up.

Stop Sinning!

God has always wanted the same things from people. From Old Testament times to the present, God has not changed. His desire for loving relationships with you and me has not changed. His distaste for sin has not changed either. We have to stop sinning. Here are a few verses from the Old and New Testaments.

Old Testament

Seek good, not evil,
that you may live.
then the LORD God Almighty will be with you,
just as you say he is.

Hate evil, love good;
maintain justice in the courts.
Perhaps the LORD God Almighty will have mercy
on the remnant of Joseph. Amos 5:14-15

 New Testament

Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world—the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does—comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever. 1 John 2:15-17

Old Testament

wash and make yourselves clean.
Take your evil deeds
out of my sight!
Stop doing wrong,

learn to do right!
Seek justice,
encourage the oppressed.
Defend the cause of the fatherless,
plead the case of the widow.

“Come now, let us reason together,”
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 1:16-18

 New Testament

If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless. Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. James 1:26-27

God does not want us to be polluted by the world. When we sin or practice sin, we cannot be in the presence of God. God says, “Wash and make yourselves clean.” Stop sinning.

God bless.