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Do you think that all of the Bible is true? Last week we read about Jonah. The Bible says that Jonah was in the belly of a big fish for 3 days and then the fish spit him out—alive—on the beach. That seems pretty hard to believe. Here’s a second hard-to-believe story: Noah and the flood. Here’s what the Bible says. People had become so evil that God was sorry He made man (Genesis 6:6). So, God decided to wipe man out. Start all over. Clean slate. Only one man in the entire world found favor with God: Noah. God had Noah build an ark. Noah’s family and all the animals got in the ark and then the great flood happened. God “blotted out every living thing that was on the face of the ground” (Genesis 7:23). Only Noah and those with him in the ark survived. Sounds like a fairytale, doesn’t it? What about the story of God creating the world? God created everything in six days. Everything . Does this sound too far-fetched to be true? These are just a few examples of events in the Bible that many people don’t believe actually happened. Did a man really survive in the belly of a fish for 3 days? Was the whole world really flooded? Did Noah and all those animals actually live on an ark for over a year and survive? And what about Creation? Let’s see what Jesus had to say. First, let’s look at Jonah. Here’s the scenario: the Jewish leaders asked Jesus to do a miracle. Jesus refused. Instead, Jesus said that the only miracle they would get would be like that of Jonah the prophet. Wow, Jesus spoke about Jonah! Jesus told the leaders that just as Jonah was in the belly of the great fish for 3 days and 3 nights, so would Jesus Himself be in the heart of the earth for 3 days and nights (Matthew 12:40). What about Noah—did Jesus talk about Noah? Well, just before His death, Jesus spent time teaching His disciples. One of the things He taught about was what would happen in the end times. Jesus told His disciples how people acted in the days of Noah—they ate and drank without any concern even though Noah kept warning them again and again that disaster was coming. Jesus talked about Noah and the flood, saying “the flood came and swept them all away” (Matthew 24:39). Would Jesus, who never sinned therefore never spoke a lie, talk about what happened to Noah if Noah never existed and the flood never happened? Finally, what about Creation? Did Jesus ever make mention of God creating the world? Yep. Here’s the situation. As usual, the Jewish leaders were testing Jesus and they asked Him a question about divorce. Jesus responded by asking those leaders if they had not read that God created humans from the beginning, and made them male and female (Matthew 19:4). Now if God did not create Creation, why would Jesus talk about God creating humans? It's remarkable to me that I randomly chose these examples, without realizing that Jesus specifically spoke about each one of them!! What seems most important in this lesson is Jesus’s own incredible, hard-to-believe truth…that He was born of a virgin, that He lived a sinless life, that He performed all kinds of miracles, that He took God’s wrath on Himself for believers’ sin, and that He rose from the dead. Most people will say they believe in Jesus. But in what Jesus? The Jesus of God’s Word, who spoke only truth including talking about Jonah and Noah and Creation? He’s the only Jesus that’s real. You know, God doesn’t consult with us about what we will find believable or not. God works according to His will. He works wondrous deeds and performs mighty miracles. He operates on His timeline. It is His prerogative to use a fish or a flood or a man or any other part of His creation for His purpose. God sent Jesus. We can believe in Him or not. I pray you will believe. If you need prayer or a Bible, please let one of the Feed Your Soul team members know.

You know, sometimes as we are handing out meals and chatting, I’ll hear someone say, “Don’t talk like that—you’re in a church.” Now, I do appreciate this. I know it's motivated by a desire to be respectful. And, I understand that some people, when they come into a church, might be on their “best behavior” because of where  they are. That’s not a bad thing. I appreciate all of that—not to mention it would be disrespectful to other people to be loud, belligerent, or crude. But does it really matter where you sin? Actually, no. It doesn’t matter one bit. Why? Because God is present everywhere always and because He knows all things. No matter where you are, where you go, or what you do, God sees and knows all. There was a prophet that learned this truth the hard way. His name was Jonah. Jonah was not your typical prophet. Unlike most of God’s other prophets who preached to His people in Israel, God called Jonah to go to Nineveh, a city in Assyria. The Assyrians were known for their ruthless treatment of enemies—they were absolutely brutal to people, and Jonah hated them. He didn’t think they deserved to hear about God—what if they heard and believed in God? Jonah knew what would happen…because God is so gracious and willing to forgive all who repent of sin, if by some chance these vicious people repented, they would be saved. God would be merciful even to them! Well forget that! Jonah wasn’t about to let that happen. So, instead of heading east to Nineveh as God had told him to do, Jonah went west. What did he think? That God wouldn’t know where he was? That God wouldn’t be able to find him? All-knowing, all-seeing God knew exactly where Jonah was. In fact, because God knows the end from the beginning (Isaiah 46:10), God knew beforehand that Jonah would react like this — God knew he’d run away.  Now, God intended for Jonah to do His work in Nineveh so He caused a huge storm to overtake the ship that Jonah was on. The crew threw Jonah overboard—Jonah told them to do this—he knew the storm was God’s way of getting his attention. I’m sure Jonah expected he’d drown. But, “then the Lord appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah” (Jonah 1:17). God still knew exactly where Jonah was even though Jonah was somewhere in the depths of the Mediterranean Sea, and now, somehow still alive in the belly of a fish. Miraculously, God caused the fish to throw Jonah up on the shore. Off to Nineveh went Jonah. And the people listened and believed God. They repented and were saved. God never lost Jonah. He never loses you either. When He promised, “I will never leave you nor forsake you,” (Hebrews 13:5), He meant that there is no way He will ever, ever leave one of His followers…not ever. When you give your life to Jesus, you enter into a relationship that is based on a love that is so great that “neither life nor death, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation” can separate you from the love of God in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:38—39). What a love! And yet, God’s given us free will. You can choose righteousness or sin…Satan or Jesus...life in Him or death in sin. Though He loves us more than we will ever understand and doesn’t want any to perish, we have the freedom to choose. I pray that you will choose the Lord.

Jesus often told parables when he taught. Parables are short stories to teach a point. So, one of Jesus’s stories was about a Pharisee and a tax collector (Luke 18:9—14). In this parable, Jesus’s point is how wrong people can be about whether they are right with God or not. Jesus never let anyone believe they were okay with God when they weren’t. He always pointed out their true condition. So in this story, there is an ultra-religious Pharisee and a hated tax collector. Both men are in the temple and both are doing the same thing: they are praying. Let’s see what they are praying about. The Pharisee. He’s busy comparing himself to others—people he considers wretched sinners. And boy, is he thankful to God he’s not at all like them! Man, they are awful! The Pharisee ticks off the ways he’s better than these sinners: he fasts twice a week, far more often than what the Scriptures command—Jews were only required to fast once per year . The Pharisee tithes all that he gets—which means he gives 10% of his income, even giving 10% of what he grows in his garden (Matthew 23:23)! Can you imagine meticulously counting out 10 % of your garden produce? By his actions, we see the Pharisee is confident 1) that he’s far superior to others, and 2) that he’s in good graces with God. How is that possible? Because the Pharisee believes that God’s only interested in rules—to be good with God, you just have to follow God’s rules. If God says fast once a year, and I fast twice a week, I’m in fantastic shape on the fasting front—right? That’s his line of thinking. The tax collector. This guy is the complete opposite of the Pharisee. He’s a miserable man. The first thing Jesus said about the tax collector in His story is that he was standing at a distance from the Pharisee. Why? Because this tax collector considered himself so sinful in comparison to the Pharisee that he kept his distance to avoid any possibility of “contaminating” the Pharisee’s purer self. And, instead of raising his eyes to heaven while he prayed, which was the normal way people prayed back then, this man lowered his sinful eyes in shame. And there’s more. This miserable man was actually beating his chest. Why? Because he was so grieved over his sin! He knew in his heart what his true condition was: he was a sinner. He was without hope and rescue from his hopeless, sin-filled life was in God’s hands. His only hope was that God would be merciful. The tax collector cried out for mercy. How does the story end? The Pharisee was wrongly confident in himself and his fastidious rule-following. God is not into rule-following for the sake of following rules. He desires a repentant and sincere heart that obeys Him out of love. The Pharisee obeyed out of duty. He thought doing all the “right” stuff made him righteous before God. It simply left him lost and without God. On the other hand, God saw into that tax collector’s heart…God knew he was truly repentant of his sins…God knew the man understood he was completely dependent on Him to save him…God knew this man wasn’t perfect and never would be…and God knew that the man treasured eternal life with Him more than anything. God was merciful. He saved that tax collector. What about you? What is your true condition? If you need a Bible or prayer, let me know.

Do you know the story of Zacchaeus? I remember singing a song about him as a kid. He was a rich tax collector. And he was hated. All tax collectors were hated by the Jewish people. Why? For a couple of reasons. First, they collected taxes established by Roman law, plus they also dreamed up taxes of their own that they forced the people to pay. Basically, they were thieves—taking money to pay phony taxes. Sometimes they even hired thugs to threaten people who “owed” taxes. Because of these practices, they were rich. Really rich. Now, most of the people were super poor so to have some rich tax collector illegally forcing them to pay more than they owed? No wonder they were hated. They were also hated because although they were Jewish, they worked for the Roman government. They were considered traitors who sided with the Romans against their own people. So, one day, here came Jesus, passing through the city of Jericho. As usual, He was surrounded by masses of people. For some reason, Zacchaeus was desperate to see Jesus. He climbed a tree to get above the crowd so he could catch a glimpse of Him. What happened next is amazing. Jesus got closer…and closer…until He was close enough to make eye contact. Jesus looked straight at Zacchaeus and said, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today” (Luke 19:5). What???? Jesus spoke to Zacchaeus! He knew Zacchaeus’s name! Jesus invited Himself to Zacchaeus’s house—not for a quick cup of coffee but to spend the night there. Jesus intended to spend some serious time with Zacchaeus. But Zacchaeus was a hated, thieving, tax-collecting traitor. He had stolen from everyone in town. Everyone hated him for it. The guy was a wretched sinner. Zacchaeus didn’t deserve to have Jesus notice him, let alone come and stay at his house, did he? Of course not. But that’s the same situation every single person in the world is in. No one deserves to have Jesus take notice of them. So what happened with Zacchaeus? Well, he rushed to welcome Jesus to his house. It was a day of great joy for Zacchaeus! He proclaimed Jesus as Lord. He vowed to give half his belongings to the poor. He promised to give back to those he had cheated four times the amount he had wrongly taken. What happened to Zacchaeus is that Jesus sought him out and saved him that day. He was a changed man. You know, on the surface, it doesn’t seem like Zacchaeus would be a good candidate for Jesus to go after. Zacchaeus had done so much wrong in his life, he was hopeless. Surely it was too late for him. But that’s the reason Jesus came to earth—He came to seek and save the lost, including the hopelessly lost. That means that He came to find sinners and to rescue them from their sin. You know, you might be thinking you need to clean up your act before you can respond to Jesus’s invitation to come to Him. Maybe you think you’re hopeless—too far gone. You’re not. No one is. Think about that thief who hung on the cross next to Jesus. There he was, dying, knowing he deserved to die for his crimes. He humbly asked Jesus to remember him when Jesus came into His kingdom. The dying man knew who Jesus was and believed in Him. Jesus graciously said, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise” (Luke 23:43). That man was not hopeless. He believed and was saved, at that very moment. I pray that you will respond to Jesus’s invitation today. If you need prayer or a Bible, let one of the Feed Your Soul team members know.

Again and again, Jesus taught that He is the Son of God and that He, Jesus, was sent by God the Father into the world. Jesus gives ample evidence that He is not just half man and half God, but that He is fully human and fully God—both. Completely and at the same time. To demonstrate this, the Apostle John selected specific miracles that Jesus worked as evidence, proving the humanity and deity of Jesus in his gospel. And the first one John wrote about happened at a wedding. Here’s what happened… Jesus’s mother, Mary was at the wedding, and she noticed that the host had run out of wine. So, she turned to Jesus, and said, “They have no wine” (John 2:4). Mary wanted Jesus to do something about it—because she knew He could do something about it and spare the master of the wedding feast the social embarrassment of running out of wine. But how did Mary know Jesus could help out? Jesus had never done any miracles up to this point, so how did she know? Let’s think about what Mary had already experienced. About 30 years earlier, Mary had received a heavenly visitor (Luke 1:26—35)…the angel Gabriel. He came to tell Mary that she was going to have a baby by the power of the Holy Spirit. Remember how she became pregnant? By the power of the Holy Spirit (Matthew 1:20). Remember what the baby would be called? Jesus, holy, the Son of God. Mary raised Jesus as her son, yet He was also the Son of God. Back to the wedding. The party is proceeding but there was no wine. Jesus instructed the servants to fill stone jars with water. Water. And instantly, it became wine. Immediately. Jesus had the servants draw out some of the wine to take to the master of the wedding feast so that the master could taste it, to make sure that it was good. The master was stunned! Not only was the wine good, but this was better wine than they had had before. The bridegroom had held back the good wine to serve after the poor wine, the opposite of what would normally be done. Also, this was not just a tiny bit of wine, but six jars, each holding 20-30 gallons of wine! In a single moment, Jesus turned ordinary water into wine. We tend to read about Jesus’s miracles as if the events they tell us about are commonplace. None of Jesus’s miracles are commonplace. They are miracles. They are works of supernatural power that testify to who He is. He was born of a virgin birth to a human mother, conceived by the Holy Spirit. He was God in the flesh. As an adult, once His ministry began, He worked innumerable miracles. Works of divine power that put His identity and glory on display. There is no other way to understand Jesus other than Him being fully man and fully God, sent by God the Father into the world so that by believing that Jesus is the Son of God you may have life in His name (John 20:31). I pray that you, too, believe, and that you are alive in Christ, not dead in sin. If you need prayer or a Bible, let one of the Feed Your Soul team members know.

This week, I’m writing about an incident that is only written about in Luke 17: 11—19. Jesus is on His way to Jerusalem, and as He’s walking along the road, He encounters ten men. These ten have one thing in common: they’re all sick. Really sick. They have leprosy, a horrible and deadly disease. Let me give you a little background. People who had leprosy were outcasts. Forbidden to be a part of society. This was because not only were they sick, but since this was a killer disease, anyone who had it had to live separated from others, outside their town or village so that others wouldn’t get sick. If someone happened to be coming toward them, they had to shout out, “Unclean!” It warned the other person not to come any closer. Can you imagine? Dreadful situation. So, Jesus was walking along, and ten men with leprosy shouted out to Jesus. They didn’t shout out a warning like they were supposed to but they called out, “Master, have mercy on us.” As you might expect, Jesus didn’t do what everyone else did. He didn’t ignore these guys, He didn’t walk away, He didn’t even tell them to leave Him alone. Instead, Jesus spoke to them. He told them to go and show themselves to the priest. That seems like a weird thing to say, doesn’t it? In the Old Testament, if a Jew was healed of leprosy—which would have been a miracle—then to prove it and get a clean bill of health so to speak, the healed person had to go get “approval” from the local priest. The approval of the priest allowed the leper to rejoin society. That was the law. So, Jesus told the ten men to go do this. But there they were, still with leprosy! It doesn’t say in the Bible that Jesus had already healed them. Yet, every one of them listened to what Jesus told them to do…and then they were healed! Not before they left, but after. How do we know? Because the Bible also says that all of them were healed “as they went.” As they went. Think about that. This lets us know they had some level of trust in Jesus, right? It tells me they already knew who Jesus was and what He has done for others. So, even though they still had signs of their disease, every single one of them turned to go do what Jesus had told them to do. And then, one man turned back. He came back to Jesus. The others kept going, but this man returned Why? To praise God…to fall on his face at Jesus’s feet…to worship Jesus…to thank Jesus. Ten were healed, yet only one man returned to Jesus. This man praised God, worshipped Jesus, and thanked Him. And Jesus said to this man, this lone individual, these beautiful words: “your faith has saved you.” All ten men had been physically healed, but only one received both physical and spiritual healing. Only one received spiritual life. So what’s Jesus’s point here? Is He saying that if I say thanks to Jesus Christ, He will save me? Is Jesus saying that somehow I have to do something or say something to be saved? Not at all! The man believed who Jesus was and worshipped Him. He recognized Jesus was the Son of God, the source of true life, and he believed. He believed . It’s that simple. Put your faith in Jesus, dear friend. Believe in Him. And you too, will find life in Him. If you need prayer or a Bible, let me know.

I find sometimes that I can read about some miracle that Jesus did, and not fully appreciate the unbelievable thing I’ve just read. The story about Jesus calming the storm can be like that. Maybe because it’s familiar. Maybe because it’s a short story with not a lot of details. Maybe because calming a storm doesn’t seem too exciting. Well, here’s the story and a few things to think about. The day that Jesus calmed the storm, He had spent a big part of His day up on a mountainside near Capernaum teaching His disciples what is now called the Sermon on the Mount (it’s kind of a long sermon, and you can read it in Matthew 5-7). After He finished teaching, Jesus came down from the mountain, healed a leper, healed a paralyzed servant, healed Peter’s mother-in-law, and then spent the entire evening at Peter’s house healing all kinds of sick and demon-possessed people (Matthew 8:1-17). A busy and exhausting day, don’t you think? People were still crammed all around Him, but Jesus must have decided it was time for some peace and quiet because He told His disciples they were leaving to go over to the other side of the Sea of Galilee. So, everyone got in the boat, and they headed off across the lake. Well, a terrible storm arose. This was no ordinary storm. It was like an earthquake in the middle of the lake—the wind whipped the waves up so high that when the boat was in the trough between the waves, the waves towered over the boat, hiding it from sight. They were getting swamped! The disciples were terrified! Now don’t forget, at least four of these disciples were seasoned fishermen. Peter, Andrew, James, and John had all left their fishing operations to follow Jesus. This storm was so violent, it even petrified fishermen used to rough, choppy waters. And where was Jesus? Sound asleep, exhausted from His long day. Now, remember what had gone on that day. How many miracles had they seen? Countless. Healing after healing. In that day alone, Jesus had demonstrated incredible supernatural power. They disciples had seen it with their own eyes. Still, in the heat of the moment, in the middle of a life-threatening, terrifyingly intense situation, they woke up Jesus and cried out, “Save us, Lord; we are perishing” (Matthew 8:25). They thought they were going to drown. And Jesus asked them, “Why are you afraid?” Then He calmed the storm. Just like that. Calm. Quiet. It was not a gradual thing. It was instant and complete. The storm ceased; all was peaceful. Immediately. Another miracle. Here’s what I love about this story. We get to see Jesus being fully human in His total exhaustion from a draining day and yet fully God in His power over nature. He made creation and everything in it, and it’s all subject to His command. Jesus is fully man and fully God. I think it’s so easy to see us in this story—like the disciples…scared, overwhelmed, feeling alone. But when you trust in Jesus, there’s no reason to feel that way. Jesus is always in control, and though He slept as a human while on earth, He is seated at the right hand of God, and He never slumbers nor sleeps (Psalm 121:4). And, Jesus shows us that we can trust Him in all situations, no matter what storms life brings. Fully trust Him. I pray you’ll fully trust Him today. Let me know if I can pray for you or if you need a Bible.

One of my favorite passages in the book of John is about a blind man that Jesus healed (John 9:1–41). Jesus had just left the temple after teaching the Pharisees this hard truth: unless they believed in Him, they would die in their sin. In saying this, Jesus is plainly saying that they are on their way to hell. So—Jesus walked out of the temple and encountered a man that had been born blind. The man didn’t ask to be healed of his blindness. He might not have even realized Jesus was nearby. Anyway, Jesus spits in the dirt, makes some mud and puts it on the man’s eyes. Seems a little weird, right? But the man simply let Jesus do this to him. Jesus told him to go wash his eyes in the Pool of Siloam. And the man did. It’s remarkable to me how submissive and obedient the man was to Jesus’s instructions. At Jesus’s command, the man gets up, makes his way to the pool, washes his eyes, and instantly he can see. An amazing miracle. Here’s my question: what would you have done in response to Jesus? What would I have done? Would I believe that going and washing my mud-covered eyes would give me sight? I hope so. What we see in this man is faith . He had faith that Jesus knew exactly what He was doing. All the man had to do was respond in obedience. And he did.  Another thing about this miracle is that this blind man was well-known in these parts—people knew who he was. He may have spent his entire adult life near the temple entrance because that would be a high-traffic place—the best place for someone to beg for help from his neighbors. Yet even though the people had seen this man over the years, once he could see  many of them doubted that he was the same man. The man even said, “I am the man” (John 9:9)—and still the people didn’t believe he was who he said he was. This is amazing to me. How would you have responded to this? Would you say, “No way,” and refuse to believe a miracle had just been worked in this man? It would be hard to deny a miracle standing right in front of your eyes, don’t you think? But a bunch of them did.  Back to the situation…now the leaders got in on the action. They actually do understand that Jesus worked a miracle in giving the man sight—obviously, the man could see. There he was, right there in front of them. But they also refused to believe it was Jesus who healed him…they rejected the truth that God’s power was on display right in front of them. The leaders asked the man again and again how it was that he could see. They even hauled the man’s parents into the temple to question them about their son’s sight. How was it that their son could now see? All they could think about was “How?” How did this happen? They completely ignored the fact that the man had been healed, and got stuck on the wrong question: “how?” We always want an answers. Why? How? God has given us much to know about Him in His Word, but not all can be understood. God does things His way, in His timing, according to His purposes, for His glory. Do you realize Jesus worked more than one miracle that day? Obviously, He healed that man of his physical blindness. But Jesus also worked a miracle in that man’s heart. He granted the man faith, a gift from God the Son. And the man responded rightly: he obeyed Jesus, he believed in Jesus, and he worshipped Him (John 9:38). And that, my friends, is what I’m so thankful for this Thanksgiving…I’m thankful that Jesus loved me enough to have mercy on me, grant me the gift of repentance and faith…and that Jesus forgave my sin. Like the blind man, I have been transferred from the road to hell to the way to heaven. That way is only Jesus, the Son of God. If you’d like to learn more, need prayer, or need a Bible, please let one of the Feed Your Soul team members know.

Did you know that God has been showing man His grace since the beginning of time? It’s true. In Genesis, God created the world and everything in it, including us. God created life, animals, plants, man—everything. God didn’t have to create man. Ever think about that? He didn’t have to breathe life into Adam and Eve. But He chose to do that, blessing man with with the gift of life. Man didn’t deserve life; God gave it to him. That means God’s very first act toward man was an act of grace. And how did Adam and Eve respond to being created and given the gift of life? By sinning. They did exactly what their Creator had told them not to do. God had specifically told Adam and Eve they would die if they disobeyed God…If they ate the fruit of this one particular tree, God had said, “in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die” (Genesis 2:17). They ate. Sin entered the world. And because death is the price man must pay for his sins, death now existed in the world. But Adam and Eve didn’t die immediately, did they? The Bible tells us more about Adam and Eve, so we know they didn’t die that same day. Why not? Because of God’s grace. That’s the only reason. Adam and Eve knew the consequences of disobeying. But in His grace, God didn’t give them what they deserved. Instead, He allowed them to continue living. God gave them time to think about what they had done, to repent of their sin, and live. It doesn’t mean they didn’t face consequences for their sin. They did. But God allowed them to live, giving them time to repent of sin and live. This is grace. So, I learned that God has been showing man grace since the very beginning.  Unfortunately, God is so gracious that we take His grace for granted. We expect when we go to bed at night that we will wake up in the morning—we take life for granted. We expect the sun to come up—we take that for granted. Plug in anything you like—we take it all for granted. And it’s only by God’s grace that all these things we take for granted actually happen. Yet we are so accustomed to living in sin, with sin, around sin, committing sin…the world, including us, is simply drowning  in sin. And yet we still think we’re pretty good people, don’t we? We are not . We are sinners, repeatedly sinning against God and everyone around us. We are so surrounded, immersed, and entrenched in sin that we have no idea how sinful our sin is. Often, we don’t even recognize when we’ve sinned! So, when we have problems or get sick or some bad thing happens, we think, “That’s not fair.” But here’s the truth: holy God has been so gracious to us in giving us life, allowing us to live in His world, and sustaining life in this world that when things go wrong, we blame God. And we think it’s unfair. I took God’s grace for granted most of my life until about 7 years ago. I lived with complete disregard for God, didn’t have any regard for Jesus and the work He did on the cross for my sin. I’ve caused the Holy Spirit more grief that I can imagine. Thank the Lord, He gave me time, just as He did with Adam and Eve. He was patient with me, drawing me to Himself. I repented of my sin and received that wonderful, priceless gift of life in Christ. The Lord showed me grace. The Apostle Peter wrote that God is patient (2 Peter 3:9). He also wrote that God’s grace is not without end (2 Peter 3:10). There is an end to His grace. I pray you’ll make good use of His gift of time today, and seek His grace and mercy. If you need prayers or a Bible, please let a Feed Your Soul team member know.

Got a couple things to talk about today. First, the holiness of God. You know, God made it really clear how He expected His people to live. Be holy. Of course, God knew this would be really hard because the world is a sinful place. So God spelled out exactly what He expected. Now, God didn’t require holiness just for the fun of it. God requires holiness in people because He made man in His image, and God is holy. Since we are made in His image, we are to be like Him. God is holy. Therefore, man, is to be holy. Holy. Be holy. That is God’s standard. Holiness. The other thing is the 10 commandments. In Deuteronomy, one of the commandments is this: “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain” (Deuteronomy 5:11). When I was growing up, saying the phrase, “Oh my God” in our house guaranteed getting your mouth washed out with soap. Never was that heard in our house. Saying “Oh my God” may not seem like that big of a deal to you. Maybe you think it’s just a casual, meaningless phrase. It is NOT a casual, meaningless phrase to God. Here are a few things I ask you to think about, all of you who, without thinking, take the Lord’s name in vain repeatedly throughout the day. The Lord God is the Creator of the heavens and the earth. He made everything you see, touch, taste, and hear. Everything. What you see in His creation is a display of power we can’t begin to appreciate. Second, the Lord is the source of all things. Without Him, you have nothing. No food. No water, no shelter, no family, nothing. Because God is the source of life, without Him, You would have no life. Without God keeping the universe going, you would not live. Third, the Bible is God’s Word. Did you ever stop to think that God did NOT have to give us any inkling of who He is or what He’s like or how we are to live? God didn’t have to do that. But in His kindness and graciousness, He gave us His Word. He tells us about Himself so that we can know Him and learn about Him. We can see who He is. What a gift to us! So, since God—the Creator of all and source of life—bothered to communicate to us, it’s logical that we should read what He has to say and LISTEN to what He has to say, right? Listen means to obey, to do as God tells us to do. It’s not complicated. All of this may seem silly to you. Who really cares if you say “Oh my God?” Maybe you didn’t catch the second part of that verse. “The Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain.” It’s a warning. It means God holds you responsible for speaking His name in any manner that does not reflect reverence and awe. It means you’re guilty before holy God for this kind of disrespectful language. Why am I so hung up on this today? Because I hear it all the time, and it makes me sick. Disrespecting the Lord is not okay. It is not acceptable. You know, holiness is hard. Actually, for people, it’s impossible. And God knows that. And that’s why Jesus came. To make it possible for man to be rescued from guilt for his sin. It is impossible to rescue ourselves from sin. We can only cry out to Jesus for grace and mercy, begging that our sins be forgiven so that we might be declared holy before God. May today be the day you cry out for mercy, grace, and forgiveness. Let us know if you need prayer or a Bible!

Jesus and all His miracles…there are so many. So very many. Here’s something that is so fascinating to me. If you’re a regular reader of these short messages, you know how much the Jewish leaders hated Jesus. But, did you know that they never denied Jesus worked all these miracles? Despite their hatred of Him, they knew He really did all these miracles. The leaders never accused Jesus of lying about working any miracles—not even once. They knew His miracles were true—He really did them. They even watched Him do them! In John 5, Jesus healed a man whose hand was withered, right in front of the leaders, inside the temple! In that instance, they were literally trapped by the truth: Jesus worked miracles. They could NOT deny it. And yet it still didn’t stop them from wanting to destroy Jesus and to kill Him. This too, is fascinating. No matter how many wonderful and compassionate things they witnessed Jesus doing, they refused to accept who He was: the Son of God. They were absolutely committed to making sure that Jesus was destroyed. How could they see all these miracles and still want Jesus dead? How could they reject Him as the Son of God? The same way people do today: hard hearts. Here’s what a hard heart might say or think. A hard heart might say, “I believe in God.” That’s it, no more. There’s no faith or belief in Jesus. A hard heart might say, “Yeah, I think Jesus existed. Seems like He was a nice guy, did a lot of nice things.” A hard heart might say, “I don’t have time for Bible stuff right now. I’ll get around to that sometime, but not right now.” A hard heart might accept some parts of the Bible, but not all of it, thinking it’s outdated and doesn’t apply to the real world anymore. A hard heart says, “That religious stuff is phony baloney.” For myself, for a long time, my own hard heart said, “I’ll go to church most of the time, because it feels like that the right thing to do.” We are born this way. We all suffer from hard hearts—from the second we are born. And there’s not one thing a person can do about that. You can’t change your hard heart. I couldn’t change my own hard heart. So now what? Here’s the only solution: the Lord Jesus Christ. He’s the only One who can do anything about hard hearts. Here’s what the Bible says. The Lord changes hearts…but it’s even better than just a change of heart. The Lord doesn’t just clean our hearts up or dust off those old hearts. It’s so much better than that! The Lord gives believers a new heart. “I will give you a new heart…I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh” (Ezekiel 36:26-27). A heart of flesh is a soft heart, a heart that has responded to the Lord, a heart that loves the Lord, and a heart that obeys the Lord. And here’s the truth: we can’t do any of this ourselves. We can do nothing to change or get a new heart. We are completely dependent on the Lord for this miracle—which means we need Jesus MORE than we can possibly comprehend! So, seeing that we can do nothing about our hard hearts, what can you and I do? We can pray. You can pray that the Lord might grant you forgiveness of your sins and create in you a new heart. You can pray that the Lord works a miracle in your heart. If you would like to find out more about how to have a relationship with Jesus, need prayer, or a Bible, please ask one of the Feed Your Soul team members!

What does it take for you to believe something? You know, the reason Jesus came to earth was to tell the truth of who He was, the Son of God, so that people would believe in Him—and by believing in Jesus, people would have eternal life, now and forever. That’s it in a nutshell. Along with that purpose, Jesus had a whole bunch of work to do, stuff that only the Son of God could do…living a sinless life…working miracles of healing and restoring life…taking the wrath of God on Himself in place of sinners...being raised from the dead. This is work only the Son of God can do. No man could ever, ever do this. The thing I want to think about today is Jesus living a sinless life, because that means there was never a lie that came out of His mouth. Think about that. Not one lie, white or otherwise. Absolute truth. His desire was to obey God, and in doing so, that meant speaking the truth always. Very often, people didn’t like the truth He spoke, then and now. Here’s why: accepting what Jesus said as truth meant they would have to admit they were sinners, that they are helpless to do anything about their sin, and they need to be rescued or die. Here’s an example. In John 5:40-47, Jesus is telling the Jewish leaders that they refuse to honor Jesus as their Messiah, that they don’t love God, and that they don’t even believe their own Bible. That’s pretty strong stuff, don’t you think? To tell super-religious people that they don’t love God? To tell super-religious people that they don’t even believe the Bible they tote around and quote and know backwards and forwards? That’s right. That’s exactly what Jesus told them. Why would Jesus be so blunt? Why wouldn’t Jesus take these guys aside and say, “Guys, I don’t want to embarrass you in front of all your friends and all these people who you teach every Sunday—let’s get together on these things over coffee, and let’s figure out how we can find a solution that works for us both.” No way. Jesus didn’t do that. Why not? Because Jesus committed no sin. He spoke no lies, only truth (1 Peter 2:22). And because of His great love for the lost. Now, Jesus knew what these guys were up to…He knows the hearts of men (John 2:25), including your heart. He knows your motivations, your desires, your fears. He knows your lies and all your sins. These guys Jesus was talking to—the super-religious ones—He knew the truth that they loved themselves, and they were totally committed to hanging on to their positions of status. They didn’t love God or the Scriptures. So let me ask you this. What if Jesus had said, “Let’s have coffee and figure this out.” How would that help these super-religious guys? It wouldn’t!!! All that would accomplish is to let them continue to believe the lies they told themselves. The only way Jesus could help these guys was to speak the truth to them. So is it more loving to speak truth or lies? It’s certainly easier to speak lies, but easy is not Jesus’s way. He chose the hard way because He didn’t want these guys to suffer eternal destruction. The Bible says that God is patient, not wishing that anyone would perish but that all should reach repentance (2 Peter 3:9). Jesus taught these super-religious men for about 3 years before these same men crucified Him. Though they hated the truth, Jesus kept speaking it to them. He was incredibly patient with them. The truth Jesus spoke two thousand years ago will never change. What He spoke then is still true today. Oh, I pray that you would believe, that you would come to Him while His patience remains. If you would like to find out more about how to have a relationship with Jesus, need prayer, or a Bible, please ask one of the Feed Your Soul team members!