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My friend’s husband has a lot of health problems. He’s maybe not always been the picture of perfect health, but he’s been fine. About a month ago, he found out he has cancer. And heart problems. So, practically overnight, he went from thinking he was healthy to knowing he had life-threatening diseases. Now, his days are filled with all sorts of doctors, appointments, tests, and phone calls. Maybe you have health problems too. Maybe you spend a lot of your time driving to appointments…waiting…seeing doctors…trying different meds…getting tests done. In general, when our health takes a nose-dive, we get on it. We take action. We get help. We want to get better.  You know, when Jesus was on the earth, He performed many miracles. He healed people of all kinds of diseases. He made blind people see. He made lame people walk. He made deaf people hear. He healed—fully and completely and instantly. Part of the reason Jesus healed almost everywhere He went was because He had compassion for people who were suffering. He cared about their aches and pains and suffering. So, He did something about it. But what truly motivated Jesus to heal people was His relentless effort to show people who He was: God in the flesh. Who can fully and completely and instantly heal other than God? No one. Jesus’s miracles were proof. Now, if people could understand who Jesus was—God—they could believe in Him. The miracles were evidence that Jesus was God in the flesh so that people would believe. But why did Jesus care about people understanding who He was? Because He cared about their spiritual health . Yes, He cared about their physical health, and so He healed. But even more, He cared about their spiritual health. How is your spiritual health? I’ll tell you: without Jesus Christ as the Master of your life and your Savior from your sin, you are spiritually dead. Dead. Get that? You’re not on life support. You’re spiritually dead. Jesus offers spiritual life to those who are spiritually dead. When He was here on earth, those who believed in Him, received spiritual healing: they received life. It’s been the same ever since. We spend a lot of time on our physical health. Maybe you try to eat healthy. Maybe you try to get some exercise. Maybe you take vitamins. And when big health problems happen, like with my friend’s husband, doctors become a way of life. Our physical health becomes The Thing that consumes our thoughts, our time, our money. But what about your spiritual health? You see, we all will die one day. Taking care of our physical bodies is important, but at some point, physical health won’t matter anymore. Our spiritual bodies are eternal. Jesus does not desire that anyone—not you and not me—should perish spiritually . Spiritual life is possible only  by putting your faith in Christ. Your spiritual health matters—and the only One who can meet your spiritual health needs is Jesus. Eternal life is found only in Him. If you need prayer or a Bible, let us know.

What if someone told you that what you believed about God was wrong? Let me tell you the story of the apostle, Paul. He wasn’t always an apostle… Paul was a deeply religious man. He grew up in what is now southern Turkey, and at some point, his parents sent him to Jerusalem to study. His teacher, Gamaliel, was the best-known rabbi of that time. Paul studied hard. I’m sure he had most, if not all, of the Old Testament memorized. Besides being super-educated, he was a Pharisee. This meant that he followed the traditions that, over the years, the Pharisees had come up with. These traditions were nit-picky, ridiculous rules. These rules didn’t come from the Bible, they were simply traditions. Keeping all of them was hard—impossible really. However, Paul was committed to keeping them. I’m sure he rarely failed. So here’s Paul, a die-hard, passionate, religious, rule-following man. But he’s also a killer—a killer of Christians. Why? Because those Christians believed Jesus was the Son of God, that He had died and then had risen from the dead. Those Christians actually believed that Jesus was alive again! They said Jesus fulfilled Old Testament prophecy—that Jesus was the long-awaited Messiah. “They lie!” he thought. Paul believed in the one true God— he thought . He worshipped the one true God— he thought . It enraged Paul! I mean he wasn’t just upset. It didn’t just cause him to lose a little sleep. To him, the Christians were beyond outrageous. They deserved to die. So, he hunted them down, threw them in prison, and even murdered them. And then one day, the living Jesus appeared to super-religious, defender-of-God Paul. And Jesus said, “Why are you persecuting Me?” I can’t imagine what it would be like to have the living Jesus confront me, in all His glory…and ask me why I was doing what I was doing…meanwhile, I’m thinking what I’m doing is super-religious and super-right. And then to learn I was actually totally wrong? This would be frightening to say the least. Well, a face-to-face meeting with the living Jesus caused Paul to see that everything he had believed all his life had been wrong. It took the power of Jesus to open Paul’s eyes to truth. Paul’s understanding of the Old Testament had been completely wrong. He had thought serving God was about following all the picky rules and working at being perfect. Honoring God was simply about doing the right stuff. What Paul learned is that God wanted His heart, his faith, and his obedience . Paul had been wrong. And it had all been right before his eyes all along…in the Bible. So what about you? What if the living Jesus told you that making sure you get a baby baptized has nothing to do with being saved or going to heaven?  What if the living Jesus told you that praying to anyone other than God, Jesus Christ, or the Holy Spirit is unacceptable to God? What if the living Jesus said eternal life is found by grace through faith in Him? What if the living Jesus said there is not one thing you can do that helps earn you a spot in heaven? What if the living Jesus told you that the Word of God is the only source of truth? He already has. In the Bible. Read it and believe. If you would like prayer or need a Bible, let us know.

There was a man in the Bible who believed a few things that people still believe today. His name was Simon (Acts 8:9-24). Simon was a celebrity in his town because of his remarkable magic tricks. Then one day, Philip, who had been one of the men chosen to help serve in the church in Jerusalem (Acts 6:5) came to town. Philip told the people about Jesus. Philip healed people…some had been paralyzed, some couldn’t walk. Can you imagine this? People listened  to what Philip was teaching them about Jesus, and many believed the good news of Jesus. Now all this fascinated Simon! Philip could do better tricks than he could! Simon decided he’d better get on board with this thing. So, the Bible says, “Even Simon himself believed” (Acts 8:13). And along with a whole bunch of people, Simon got baptized. He was saved! Or was he ? The story goes on. Simon hung around Philip and continued to be amazed by all that Philip did. I mean, these tricks were just incredible. Well, the apostles, Peter and John, heard about the people’s belief in Jesus and came to town to lay their hands on those who had been baptized in the name of Jesus. By the laying on of their hands, the truth of the people’s faith was confirmed, and the Holy Spirit was received by these believers. Simon was stunned. Just by simply laying their hands on people, the Holy Spirit could be made to come to people? Simon had to get his hands to work the same way. Note: obviously, Simon wasn’t a true believer—he obviously hadn’t  received the Holy Spirit. But, hey, this was no problem for Simon. He offered Peter and John money. He tried buy the ability to do the same thing: put his hands on people and cause the Holy Spirit to be received. Said another way, Simon thought there was something he could give  or something he could do  to get the Holy Spirit. Is that how it works? So, three things Simon thought and people still believe. 1) Was Simon saved because he said  he believed? Though he said that, those were nothing but words. And in the same way today, there are plenty of people who think that simply saying  the words, “I believe in Jesus” is all it takes. Here’s the truth: you can say anything you want. But it’s your life that tells the story. Does your life reflect a total commitment to the Lord? 2) But Simon must have been saved because he was baptized! It seemed to Simon that baptism sealed the deal. But baptism doesn’t save anyone…and yet, many churches today teach that baptism saves. Baptism is simply an action taken that declares to the world a change of heart—it tells friends and family that you are committed to loving and serving the Lord. A true change of heart means that what motivates you has changed. Is your motivation to love and serve the Lord wholeheartedly? 3) Simon believed that he had something that God wanted—his money. Seriously? Simon’s money could influence God? And yet it’s no different today. Many churches teach that what you do saves you…they teach that your giving and good deeds is the way to be saved. Back to the story: Peter called Simon out, saying, “your heart is not right before God.” Ah, and there’s the issue . A right heart. What is a right heart? The person with a right heart sees and is sick over his or her sin. The person with the right heart pleads with God for mercy and grace and forgiveness, made possible by Jesus’s death. Peter told Simon, “Repent!” Do you seriously think God is checking His records to see if you’ve been baptized, and if you have, that puts you in good standing with Him? Or that you can work way into or earn the right to be saved because of what you’ve done or not done? No. God looks at your heart. What does God see in yours?

“Don’t talk to me about Jesus. Jesus was just a man.” Someone said that to me…and In a way, this is true—but it’s only half-true. Here’s the whole truth.  Jesus was  a man. The apostle, John, wrote very plainly that Jesus was a flesh-and-blood man. John wrote about how he had heard Jesus speak with his own ears, seen Jesus with his own eyes, touched Jesus with his own hands (1 John 1:1) Matthew, who was also one of Jesus’s disciples along with John, wrote about how Jesus said to him, “Follow Me” (Matt 9:9), and then he invited Jesus over to his house for supper along with a bunch of his friends. The gospels are filled with stories of Jesus interacting with people, traveling around Israel, preaching and teaching. Obviously, Jesus was truly a man. But Jesus was not JUST a man. John saw Jesus do things no mere man could do. Jesus instantly and completely healed hundreds of sick people…He fed a crowd of 5000 in the middle of nowhere with 2 fish and 5 loaves of bread…Jesus brought His dead friend, Lazarus, back to life—4 days after Lazarus died. These are just a few of the amazing miracles of Jesus. Who do you pray to when you’re sick? When you’re hurting? God. Jesus did all these miracles to let people know that He was God in the flesh, right there among them. Plus, Jesus knew peoples’ hearts. He answered Nicodemus’s question before Nick could even ask (John 3:2-3)…Jesus told the woman at the well she’d had 5 husbands and was living with a man she wasn’t married to—Jesus had never met this woman before and they hadn’t talked about her personal life (John 4:16-18). And I especially like the time when Jesus was at one of the Jewish leaders’ houses, and Jesus read this guy’s mind (Luke 7:36-50). “Now when the Pharisee who had invited Him saw this, he said to himself , “If this man were a prophet, he would have known who and what sort of woman this is who is touching him, for she is a sinner.” And Jesus answering said to him , “Simon, I have something to say to you.” Did you catch that? The Pharisee said to himself …and Jesus answered him . No mere man reads minds and hearts. God knows the hearts of man. So does Jesus. Jesus knew the future. Here are just a couple of the many examples. He told his disciples again and again that He would die and be raised from the dead (Matthew 16:21-23, Mark 8: 31-32, Luke 9:21-22). That’s what happened. Jesus told His disciples that Jerusalem would be destroyed (Luke 21:20). That happened, 40 years later, in 70 AD. God knows the future. So does Jesus. Going back to 1 John 1:1, we read that Jesus was described as “that which was from the beginning.” This means Jesus is eternal. John also introduced Jesus in his gospel as being eternal, being with God—and being  God (John 1:1). But how did John know this? Jesus told him! Jesus said that that He and the Father were one (John 10:13). God is eternal and has always existed. So is Jesus. What’s amazing is that God bothered to send His Son, Jesus, into a world that is full of sin, and to a world of people who say Jesus was nothing but just another man. It was because of God’s great, great love for us that He bothered. It was because of Jesus’s great, great love for us that He willingly died for our sins. Jesus was not JUST a man. He was also God in the flesh who came so that whoever believes in Him would not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16). Let me know if you need prayer or a Bible.

What would it take to cause you to believe in Jesus as your Lord and Savior? In Acts, the book of the Bible that tells us how the church began. When the church started, it had only been about 5 weeks since Jesus was crucified and raised from the dead—not very long at all. Peter, one of Jesus’s disciples, was now the leader. Once Peter and the rest of Jesus’s followers received the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:2-4), Peter’s heart  was transformed! He’s been filled with the Holy Spirit—and now he’s preaching so powerfully and with tremendous courage to the very same people that had screamed for Jesus to be killed a month earlier. And they had succeeded—these guys did get Jesus killed. Vicious, wicked men. Not the sort you’d want to mess with. But, Peter is fearless. And why not? He’s got the Holy Spirit! So, Peter and John were in Jerusalem and they went to the temple to pray. As they arrived, they saw a man near the entrance. This man had been crippled his whole life. The only way he survived was begging for money and this was the best spot. So, every day, the crippled man sat in the temple entrance. The point is this: everyone  knew who this beggar was. They had seen him a million times. Peter came up to him. He didn’t have money for the man, but he did have something much better—the message of salvation through Jesus. And then, in the name of Jesus, Peter healed that man! Healed  him. The crippled man’s feet and ankles were made strong and he leaped to his feet—he “began to walk…walking and leaping and praising God” (Acts 3:8). It was a miracle! Everyone around there saw what happened . You’d think people would run to Peter and John to hear more about Jesus. Nope. They didn’t have a chance because the leaders had Peter and John arrested. Why? Because they were preaching about Jesus. So, Peter and John were tried for their “crime” the very next day. Peter and John stood before the same guys who got them arrested—and remember, these same guys also saw the crippled man healed. And guess who was standing right beside Peter and John—the man who had been healed! Oh boy, these leaders were in a real pickle. They couldn’t deny the truth of the miracle because they had seen it and the guy was right there. But, they refused to admit it—because if they did, then they would have to admit that all Jesus had taught and all the miracles He performed could only mean one thing: that Jesus was God in the flesh. No way were they admitting that! Instead, though face-to-face with the truth, they refused to believe in Jesus. People are the same today. We see God’s miraculous work every day—this world, His creation…and most say “Oh no, it’s all random chance and evolution.” The plain miracle of God’s creative work is rejected. Why? Because of hard hearts. The truth of Jesus just bounces off of hard hearts. Maybe you have a hard heart. The good news is it’s a heart condition that can be healed. Jesus died for the sins of those who would believe in Him. He rose from the dead, giving hope of life beyond death to those who believe in Him. He will transform your hard heart—if you truly believe in Him as the Master of your life and your Savior. Let us know if we can pray for you, or, if you’d like to start reading the Bible to learn more, let us know…it would be our joy to help you get started.

There’s an event in the Bible you might be familiar with—when Jesus fed the 5000. Here’s what happened. Jesus’s twelve disciples had just returned from a trip through Galilee. They had been preaching and healing people. Their healing of people would have drawn huge crowds. So these guys had been on this preaching tour for a while, and when they got back to Jesus they were tired. Really tired. They needed a break—some rest and time away from all the people. Now, Galilee was pretty small, only about 25 miles by 50 miles. In this small area, there were 204 villages. Very crowded. No quiet place to get away and be refreshed. So, Jesus took them across the Sea of Galilee to find a quiet place away from the crush of people. But, of course, lots of people followed. Who wouldn’t? These guys were healing the sick, the lame, the blind. The people were desperate for more. Well, the crowd got big. 5000 men, plus women and children. So, maybe there were as many as 20,000 people there, maybe more. That’s twice the size of Fort Atkinson. Jesus taught. He healed. The day was starting to wind down. Remember, this is a place Jesus had sought out because it was quiet and away from towns. So as it got later in the day, the disciples got to thinking about how the people would be hungry. The people had walked a long way, and now they’d been there all day. So, the disciples told Jesus to send the crowds away. He should stop teaching and healing, and give people a chance to get food. Time to wrap things up. Jesus said, “You give them something to eat.” What??? With what? Jesus must have been out of His mind! They were in the middle of nowhere facing 20,000 hungry people. There was no place to buy food out there. And never mind they didn’t have the money to buy food for so many people. Even if they had been able to buy food, nobody would have gotten more than a crumb. This was impossible! But not for Jesus, the Son of God. There were 5 loaves—crackers actually—and 2 fish. That’s it: 5 crackers and 2 pickled fish. Jesus thanked God, and began to give food to the disciples for them to give out to the people. The food kept coming. And coming. Until everyone had eaten their fill. The people ate as much as they wanted. When they were done eating, the disciples gathered up the leftovers. From 5 crackers, there were 12 baskets of leftovers. Imagine all of Fort Atkinson being fed with just 5 crackers and 2 fish. And they didn’t get just a nibble or a snack, but a satisfying, filling meal. And there were even leftovers! Jesus worked an incredible miracle. What’s stunning is that a few hours later, most of the people who Jesus had just fed ditched Him. Why? Because Jesus told them the truth. He said that He is the source of life. He told them that believing in Him, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, was—and is—the way to eternal life. But they didn’t like that truth. So they ditched Him. You know, in the Bible, we have all these stories of the miracles Jesus did. We have the words of Jesus—we can hear and read what He taught. And then, we are just like those who Jesus fed. We turn away and say, “Nah.” Or, “Yeah, but not right now. Someday.” Believe the truth of Jesus’s words and the evidence of His miracles. I pray you believe in Him. Today.

Death. Ever thought about your own? What awaits us once we are dead? Nothing? Is it like the end of a movie—just over and done with? If you have some kind of belief in God, then you probably believe death is entry into one of two places: heaven or hell. There are lots of ideas people have about what happens after death, and many people think that heaven is the next stop for them. I used to think that, until about five years ago when God opened my eyes to the truth that I actually wasn’t a follower of Jesus. I was actually on my way to hell. But how could that be? I went to church and did lots of church work. I was doing  all the supposed “right stuff.” I had believed the lie that doing all the “right stuff” meant heaven was my next stop. There was this man who went looking for Jesus (read John 3:1–21 for the whole story). His name was Nicodemus. If there was anyone on his way to heaven because he had done all the right stuff it was this guy. Nicodemus was super-religious, prayed all the right prayers at the right time, followed all the rules. He even taught others—he was a teacher of how to do all the right stuff. But there was something wrong. Nicodemus was worried. Something was missing. He should have felt absolutely secure about ending up in heaven because he was doing all the right stuff. But he wasn’t. Nicodemus was anxious. So, he went to Jesus, who was clearly from God, to find answers. Jesus was not easy on Nicodemus. He didn’t say, “Well don’t worry about it, Nick, you’re a really decent human being. You’re making a good effort. Keep up the good work.” Instead, Jesus basically said, “Are you kidding Me? You teach Scripture and you don’t know that all your goodness does nothing for you? That your good works and your religious ceremonies are worthless?” Wow. Here was the problem. Nicodemus had bought into the lie  that by doing good things, he would wind up to heaven. After all, Nicodemus believed in God. Surely, that was enough, right? Nope. Nicodemus prayed. Didn’t that count? No. Nicodemus studied the Scriptures. Did that help? No. I was in the same boat. I had the same problem that Nicodemus did. I thought that doing good things and right things had something to do with me being saved and having heaven to look forward to. I thought that my own “goodness” was connected to what happens to me after I die. But I was still worried. Something was missing. Jesus had the answer, for Nicodemus and for me. He said, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). This is an invitation that is life-changing. Believing in Jesus is not just saying, “I believe in Jesus.” It’s admitting you are a sinner. It’s repenting of your sin, hating your sin. It’s trusting in Jesus that He might graciously forgive your sin and give you a new heart. It’s a total submission to Jesus and all that He taught. Jesus paid a high price—He died for sinners. For those who respond to Jesus’s invitation, who truly believe, you receive the best gift you could dream of: life, now and forever. Life that you can NOT obtain in any other way. If you need prayer or a Bible, please let us know.

Here’s what Jesus was up to from Mark 1:21 – Mark 3:6: He cast out an unclean spirit from a man. This miracle made Jesus famous…people all over Galilee were talking about Him. Jesus healed a woman from a fever. He took her hand and healed her. Instantly. How do we know it was instant? Because this was Peter’s (one of Jesus’ disciples) mother-in-law and she started to serve them—it was her house and they were her guests. Later than same day, the whole village of Capernaum came to Jesus for healing. And He healed them. Jesus went out to the surrounding towns. Everywhere He went, He healed people including a man who had leprosy, a terrible, fatal disease. No drugs, no bed rest to fully recover. Jesus healed, leprosy gone.  When Jesus returned to Capernaum, news traveled fast He was back in town. People jammed into the house where he was teaching. One group was so determined to get their paralyzed friend to Jesus for healing that they went up on the roof, removed the roofing tiles, and lowered the mat that their paralyzed friend laid on down into the house, right in front of Jesus! Jesus healed him. There’s more! On another day, Jesus went to the synagogue. Another guy needed healing. (Frankly, I would think Capernaum would be running out of sick people by now.) This guy had some kind of hand deformity. Jesus told him to stretch out his hand, and He healed that man’s hand. Right there, fully and immediately, in front of everyone. That’s a whole bunch of miracles, all packed into the first 3 chapters of Mark. Plus, they are all happening in one little area – Jesus performed all of them in and around Capernaum. One small village…miracle after miracle, again and again and again. You’d think the whole place would’ve believed in Jesus. I mean, think about it. You had either been healed yourself, or you had a relative or friend who was healed, or you had seen someone healed with your own eyes, and at the very least, you had heard about all these healings and knew someone who knew someone who had been healed. As it turns out, this tiny village was one of the towns where Jesus did most of His miracles (Matthew 11:20). And they still rejected Jesus. They didn’t believe He was God in the flesh. No matter how remarkable they thought Jesus’s teaching and miracles were, they just kept on living life as usual and ignored His call to repent. The hardness of their hearts grieved Jesus (Mark 3:5). It was their complete indifference that grieved Him. His message of repentance and salvation just didn’t matter to them. This used to be my response to Jesus. Hope and salvation and eternal life wasn’t important to me. Work, family, having a busy life—that was important. All that Bible and Jesus stuff was for Sunday morning and that was enough. I was indifferent. I was just like the people of Capernaum. Praise Jesus, He didn’t give up on me. But you know what? He did give up on Capernaum. Read Matthew 11:20-24. I hope that you won’t continue in your indifference to Jesus. He’s still offering you hope and salvation. But He won’t offer that forever . Lord Jesus, may all who read this respond to You today, and receive Your forgiveness by Your mercy and grace. Amen . Let me know if you need prayers or a Bible.

If you’ve never read the Bible, the book of John is the place to start. Here’s why. John is written by one of Jesus’s disciples. As a follower of Jesus from the very beginning, John had the opportunity to be with Jesus for all of Jesus’s three-year ministry. John walked all over Israel with Jesus, learning from Him, seeing all the miracles Jesus performed. John heard straight from Jesus about who Jesus is, about sin, about turning away from sin, about eternal life. He saw and heard it all. John was there the night Jesus was arrested. He was there the next day when Jesus hung on the cross and died. John was the first disciple to reach the tomb the morning that Jesus rose from the dead. John ate and talked with resurrected Jesus. John was there when Jesus ascended into heaven. John saw everything. He lived it all. Late in his life, John wrote this book. The other gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke had already been written. John didn’t write his gospel to repeat what had already been said about Jesus. He wrote so that people would believe in Jesus, and in believing find eternal life. That was his whole purpose. His approach is very different from the other gospels. He wrote it kind of like a court case—he presents evidence. How? With witnesses. He provides witnesses that prove that Jesus is who He said He is: the Son of God. His witness list is impressive: First, John the Baptist who was known by the people of Israel as a prophet sent by God. John the Baptist said to those he was preaching to, as Jesus approached him, “this is the Son of God” (John 1:34). A few of the men who had followed John the Baptist went to Jesus and began to learn from Him (this was the start of the group that became Jesus’s twelve disciples). A few more men joined and they quickly realized who Jesus was. Nathanael exclaimed to Jesus, “You are the Son of God!” (John 1:49). Next, there is the Samaritan woman. Jesus had never met this woman, yet He told her everything she had ever done—how could He do that if He wasn’t God in the flesh who sees and knows everything? Well, this woman immediately believed, and she told everyone about Jesus—that He was the long-awaited Messiah, the Son of God (John 4:1-45). Next, the miracles that Jesus did are evidence that He is the Son of God (John 5:36 and 10:25). Next, there is the  Old Testament…Jesus said it was Scripture that gave evidence of who He was (John 5:39-40). Also among John’s witnesses: God Himself (Matthew 3:17) and the Holy Spirit (John:26). John keeps pounding home the point that Jesus is the Son of God. John does this for this reason: so that “you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have eternal life” (John 20:31). That was John’s whole point. He wanted to help every person, every reader, see the evidence, believe the evidence and turn from sin to the Lord Jesus. If you’ve never read the Bible, start with John. We pray that you might truly believe in Jesus, who is the Son of God, and in believing, give your life to Jesus and have eternal life. If you need prayer or if you need a Bible to start reading about Jesus, please let us know.

What is salvation? God sent Jesus, His Son, into the world to bring salvation—to save people. Jesus spent just three years—only three years!—preaching before He died on a cross outside of Jerusalem. In that time, His sole focus was telling people to repent of sin. For the longest time, I thought that mainly meant I needed to stop doing bad things. And, that is true. If you are saved by Jesus, you do make every effort to stop doing bad things. But that’s not the big sin to repent of. The real sin to stop committing is rejecting Jesus. Jesus called people to stop rejecting Him as Lord and Savior and to believe in Him. Think about what you do when you believe in someone. When you believe another person, you accept that what they say is true. You also trust that person. If you trust someone, you know they have your best interests in mind. They want the best for you. Believing in someone has an impact your life. For starters, since what this person says is true, your thoughts and actions begin to line up with what they say. Simple example. If you believe what your mom said to you as a child—you’ll get hurt if you play in the street—then you don’t play in the street. What you did reflected that you believed your mom told you the truth. In the same way, if you trust someone, you follow their advice. You listen to them. Believing in someone shows up in how you live. You have become committed to that person. So, when Jesus called people to believe in Him, what He was telling them was that His words were true, that He was trustworthy, and they should commit themselves to Him. When Jesus said, “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30), He was saying that He was God in the flesh. God walking among people in human form. Those who believed in Jesus, accepted His words as truth—that He was God in the flesh—and they followed Him. It effected their lives. Their belief in Jesus changed how they lived. Naturally, there were those who doubted. Some even said Jesus was demon-possessed and insane (John 10:20). Maybe they thought, “Nah, not possible. He’s just some guy. He’s out of his mind.” They rejected Jesus. This is the great sin. • How do you know if you truly believe? Your life is changed. Your mind is changed. Your heart is changed. Believing in Jesus transforms you. You and I can say  all day long that we believe in Jesus—that we believe that He walked on the earth, that He died, that He rose again. Anyone can say  they believe all these things. But if your heart, your mind, and your life is unchanged, you don’t truly believe in Jesus. You’re simply saying all the right stuff. I have to tell you, the apostle, John, was blunt. He said if you say you believe but continue in your old ways, you lie (1 John 1:6). In fact, you’re continuing to reject Jesus. Jesus came to save—to pay for our sin and give new life to those who follow Him. So what is salvation? Believing in Jesus and being transformed through repentance of rejecting Him as Lord and Savior. If you’d like to know more, call me. If you would like prayer or want to start reading the Bible but don’t have one, let us know.

There are times when I feel overwhelmed by my sin. I know that what I’m thinking or saying or doing is sinful, but I do it anyway. Even more than that, I know that what I need to do is pray—to repent of my sin to God, pray for His forgiveness, thank Him for all that He has done for me…and I don’t. Because I don’t feel like it. “I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing” (Romans 7:19). YUK! This is how my week has been. At the same time (in total contrast, oddly enough) I’ve been thinking a lot about how God is holy. And, interestingly, I keep coming across  the word “holiness.” I just received a book called “The Holiness of God.” A sermon I’m in the middle of listening to is called “Born to Holiness.” I’ve been playing the piano some this week, and nearly every song I turn to has “holiness” in the title. So, instead of writing first thing this morning, I read the first couple chapters of my new book on God’s holiness. Right off the bat, the prophet, Isaiah is mentioned. Isaiah had a first-hand experience with God. He saw God with his own eyes. Isaiah came into the very presence of God!! From Scripture, it’s clear that Isaiah was a godly man before  this face-to-face encounter with God, but still, when he faced the sheer and absolute holiness of God, it dropped Isaiah to his knees. He could see with painful clarity the how sinful he was. Instantly, he understood the extreme contrast of holy, holy, holy God and his own sinful self. Where Isaiah’s experience encouraged me this morning is when I reread what God did for Isaiah. God didn’t just leave the prophet laying there on the ground, crushed by the guilt and awfulness of his sinfulness. God didn’t say from His lofty throne, “See, I told you how full of sin you were, and now you finally know it too.” Instead, God cleansed Isaiah of his sin. Immediately. Not after a few weeks, or a few days, or some long conversation. The Bible says God cleansed Isaiah and right then, his “guilt was taken away” (Isaiah 6:7). Taken away. His guilt wasn’t set aside for future discussion or to be rehashed with God some time down the road. Isaiah’s sin and guilt was taken away, gone, meaning God saw it no more. It didn’t exist to God any longer. In recognizing his own sinfulness before God, Isaiah received the wonderful gift of God’s forgiveness. And this is what I forget sometimes. I wallow around in anger or irritation or self-pity…and I turn my back on God. But if I let go of my pride and go to God…if I confess the multitude of my sins, He will forgive me. God is full of mercy and grace for those who come to Him with a broken and contrite heart (Psalm 51:17). Just like Isaiah, I get to experience instant cleansing, knowing in my heart that through my faith in Jesus and His atoning death, God graciously forgives me. Sin carries with it a tremendous burden of guilt. You don’t have to haul that guilt around any longer. You too, can experience forgiveness for your sin when you put your faith in Jesus. You too can be cleansed. If you’d like prayer, have questions, or need a Bible, let me know.

Mercy and grace. These are such lovely words, aren’t they? I would like to be described like that: “Oh, she’s a merciful and gracious person.” In Exodus 34:6, God is speaking to Moses, and He tells Moses that He is a merciful and gracious God. What does that mean? Mercy and grace are kind of like opposite sides of the same coin. Let’s talk about mercy first. Let’s say you’ve done something wrong. There’s a punishment coming. If you receive mercy, whoever is handing out the punishment decides to forget about it. Let it go. Even though you deserve some kind of punishment, you don’t get it. The punishment just goes away, or is something less harsh than what you had coming. That’s mercy. When God is merciful, He’s not handing out the punishment that is deserved. Grace is kind of the opposite. It’s receiving something good, some benefit that you don’t have any right to receive. You’ve done nothing to receive this good thing, you don’t deserve it, and yet you get it anyway. When God is gracious, He’s giving a gift that hasn’t been earned and isn’t deserved. So…here’s how God is merciful and gracious. God made a perfect world a long time ago but sin messed it all up. Sin is committing wrongs against God, and He hates sin. Sin is like this giant barrier between God and man and it can’t be crossed. There’s no way around it, over it, or under it. There’s not a thing you can do to break it down, nothing I can do…PLUS there’s a price for all that wrongdoing against God. That price must be paid to make things right with God. So, because God is both merciful and gracious, He did something about both the barrier and the price. First, He made a way for the sin barrier to be broken down by providing a way for the punishment of sin to be paid. Jesus is how. You see, sin always has a price and someone has to take the punishment for sin. So, in dying on the cross, Jesus paid the price for sin for those who believe in Him. This is God’s mercy. You aren’t punished. If you put your faith in Jesus, God will not punish you for your sin as you should be—Jesus already did that for you. Next, there’s God’s grace. Do you deserve this great reprieve of your sin being paid for? No. You’ve done nothing to earn it, nothing to deserve it. It’s a gift. It’s a benefit that you don’t deserve. But you can receive it. This is God’s grace. What does it take to experience the mercy and grace of God? Faith in Jesus Christ. If you’d like to know more, let me know. If you need prayer or would like a Bible to start finding out about God and Jesus, let me know.