Which One?

Jesus Christ - will He be your Savior or your Judge?

2 Timothy 4:1 (NKJV) - "I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom."

Poison

The active, lethal ingredient in rat poison makes up just 1/2 of 1% of the rat poison ingredient mix.

Just 1/2 of 1%.

But that 1/2 of 1% gets the job done.

It kills.

The same concept applies to what one does with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Many churches and many pastors today have spurned the 100% purity of the gospel of Jesus Christ and, instead, have diluted it, corrupted it, and have turned it into something lethal.

99.5% of what they say may be pure.

But it is the other 1/2 of 1%, which they have corrupted, which makes it lethal.

1 John 3:3 (NKJV) - "And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure."

99.5% is not good enough when it comes to the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Only 100% is.

Be sure. Be pure.

Sugary

Too many Christian churches today offer the spiritual protein equivalent of a big bowl of sugary breakfast cereal.

Style is favored over substance.

Showy entertainment is favored over spiritual formation.

It is all one, big, sugary mess, devoid of any spiritual vitamins or protein, and absent any holy nutrition or fortification.

Matthew 7:21-23 (NKJV) - "Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, 'Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?' And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlwssness!'"

Too many sugary breakfast cereals rot your teeth.

Too many sugary Sunday sermons rot your soul.

Especially

Charles Swindoll:

"When life seems especially dark, God comes especially close to His followers."

Panic Button

God never panics.

Bring

Authentic Christians bring Christ to man and man to Christ.

I Surrender ... All?

"I Surrender All" is a great hymn that has been sung by Christians for more than 100 years. The hymn's refrain says, "I surrender all, I surrender all; all to Thee, my blessed Savior, I surrender all."

Yes, "I Surrender All" is a very precious hymn but, let's face it, very few Christians truly surrender all. In fact, it seems that the vast majority of so-called Christians only want to surrender about 1% instead of 100%.

How much do you surrender?

Do you surrender ... all?

Or do you surrender much less?

Surrendering all means making a 100% commitment to Jesus, without any reservations or hesitations (Luke 14:33). Since even most so-called Christians are consumed by the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches (Matthew 13:22), total surrender becomes something very difficult to do.

"I Surrender All."

Do you really?

Or is your percentage really a whole lot less than 100%?

Be willing to truly surrender ... all.

Comfort & Character

God is not interested in your comfort.

God is interested in your character.

Flee

Nigerian Pastor Olabode Ososami has written the following about the modern church:

"If Christ is not the hero in the movement you find yourself in, then pause and reflect again. If teachings and convictions of your parade do not strongly pass the test of sound Christian godliness, then it cannot be the work of the Holy Ghost. If your discernment warns you that this is a great show or a business - do not debate with your conscience - flee for your soul."

"Almost everything 'new' in Christianity would be moldy in a few more years. Madison Avenue market-driven movements can accomplish a lot and be very impressive but will always fail to produce Christlikeness simply because Christ was not at the heart of the movement in the very first place."

Gold

Job 23:10 (NKJV) says, "But (God) knows the way that I take; when He has tested me, I shall come forth as gold."

Is God testing you today? Do your tests seem Job-like? Even as Job was decimated by the God-ordained tragedies in his life, he still continued to believe in God, and he still continued to be obedient to God.

In the end, Job trusted in God's sovereignty and in God's will, even when his life's multiple devastations made absolutely no sense to him at all as he sat in the midst of the ashes.

Job's lesson for all of us is to trust God's sovereignty and to trust God's will, even when nothing in life makes any sense to us whatsoever.

It is not an easy lesson at all.

In fact, it is one of life's hardest lessons.

But if we can do it, as Job did, then we, too, shall come forth as gold.

Just like Job.

Preach The Gospel At All Times

St. Francis of Assisi:

"Preach the Gospel at all times and, when necessary, use words."

Under God Or Gone Under

Former United States President Ronald Reagan:

"If we ever forget that we are One Nation Under God, then we will be a nation gone under."

Hijacked

In a couple of months we will mark the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 airplane hijackings and terrorist attacks which left 3,000 people dead in New York, Washington, and Pennsylvania. That horrendous day changed all of our daily lives forever.

There is another type of hijacking that is even more reprehensible. It is when Satan hijacks a person's heart.

Matthew 24:12-13 (NKJV) says that in the end times, "the love of many will grow cold."

Revelation 2:4 (NKJV) talks about a church and its members that "have left your first love."

I see a lot of this in the world today. I see friends and loved ones who once seemed to be fervent in their faith, but who now have left the path of holiness and righteousness. Their hearts have been hardened. Their love has grown cold. They have left their first love.

Satan is a master hijacker. He fills people with the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches (Matthew 13:22) and, tragically, he succeeds in getting many people to harden their hearts, let their love grow cold, leave their first love, and also leave the narrow path.

If you have friends or loved ones who have had their hearts hijacked by Satan, then pray for them. Urgently. Fervently. Only God can change their hearts, and it may take some extremely radical pruning to do so.

Only God can rescue a hijacked heart.

Find Your Own Calcutta

Mother Teresa frequently would tell people, "Find your own Calcutta." By this she meant that each person needed to find his or her own place to love others and to serve others, wherever that place was located in this world.

In Matthew 25:35-36 (NKJV), Jesus said, "For I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me." In Matthew 25:40 (NKJV), Jesus added, "Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me."

James 2:26 (NKJV) says, "For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also."

Show your faith through your works.

Love and serve the least of the brethren, as Jesus commanded.

Find your own Calcutta.

A Single Grain Of Sand

It is always important to remember that your time spent here on earth, as compared to eternity, is like a single grain of sand compared to all of the sand on all of the beaches on all of the earth.

Counterfeit

A law enforcement official once showed me a counterfeit $100 bill. I looked at it, felt it, and held it up to the light. It was masterfully made, and very, very similar to an authentic $100 bill.

But it was still counterfeit.

It was still a fake.

It still had no value.

It still was worthless.

It's the same thing when we talk about the gospel of Jesus Christ.

There's the authentic gospel, and then there are a whole lot of counterfeits out there in the world that look and feel like the real thing, but which are not.

There are lots of counterfeit ministries, churches, and pastors out there, pushing a counterfeit gospel that says that God is nothing more than a genie in a bottle to be used for our pleasure and to grant all of our earthly wishes, or that Jesus is our slave instead of our master, or that the church only exists for the young, the cool, the healthy, the wealthy, the successful, or the stylish.

It's all counterfeit.

It may look and feel authentic, but it's not.

1 Timothy 6:3-10 (NKJV) talks a lot about false teachers, and how they "teach otherwise", do "not consent to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ", and how they reject "doctrine which accords with godliness." Paul says that in actuality they are "proud", "know nothing", and are "men of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth, who suppose that godliness is a means of gain." Paul says that we are to withdraw ourselves from such false teachers.

They are counterfeit. In Matthew 7:23 (NKJV), Jesus says that He will say to such false prophets, "I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!"

Withdraw yourselves from ministries, churches, and pastors that practice such lawlessness. They are not authentically presenting the true gospel of Jesus Christ. They are counterfeit, and of no value, just like the fake $100 bill I saw.

Caves

David wrote Psalm 142 when he was hiding from Saul in the cave of Adullam. Saul was jealous of David and was hunting him down in order to kill him, and David was praying to God for help and deliverance.

In Psalm 142:4 (NKJV), David cried out, "For there is no one who acknowledges me; refuge has failed me; no one cares for my soul."

Have you ever felt the exact same way?

Have you ever felt that the whole world has forgotten you, has forsaken you, and has turned its collective back on you?

If you are feeling that way today, and I know that many of you are, then pray the same prayer of David found in Psalm 142:7 (NKJV), when he cried out, "Bring my soul out of prison, that I may praise Your name; the righteous shall surround me, for You shall deal bountifully with me."

Even if the whole world has forgotten you, God has not.

Even if the whole world has forsaken you, God has not.

Even if it seems that no one cares for your soul, God does.

Even if you are in a cave today, God will deliver you, and He will deal bountifully with you.

God Bless America?

It's July 4, Independence Day in the USA, and all across the nation people are lighting off fireworks, waving flags, watching parades, and saying "God bless America."

But can God bless America?

Should God bless America?

Is America still deserving of God's abundant blessings?

Or has America turned its back on God and His Word?

I shudder at these questions and their likely answers.

2 Chronicles 7:14 (NKJV) - "If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land."

Proverbs 14:34 (NKJV) - "Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people."

In The Belly

In Jonah 2:7 (NKJV), Jonah found himself in the belly of a great fish after his disobedience in trying to flee to Tarshish when God really wanted him to go to Nineveh. In verse 7, Jonah says, "When my soul fainted within me, I remembered the Lord; and my prayer went up to You, into Your holy temple."

If you find yourself (symbolically) in the belly of a great fish these days, then look heavenward. Jonah did, and then God gave him a second chance, and God used Jonah to preach repentance in Nineveh and spare 120,000 people from damnation. God can similarly give you another chance to bring great glory to His holy name.