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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.

You know, I so want to love God with all my heart. I want to be loyal, obedient, kind, patient, filled with joy. I know God loves me. I know that Jesus loves me and that He gave His life to pay for all my sin—this is the greatest gift anyone could ever dream of receiving. So, in light of all that God and Jesus and the Holy Spirit have blessed me with—when I think of all that I have to be thankful for, both spiritual blessings and material blessings, why would I ever get irritated and impatient? Why would I act in unloving and selfish ways? I was like that this morning. One little thing bugged me, and here I am. Irritated and impatient. I open my Bible. In the book of John (chapters 13-17), I read about how Jesus spent the night before He died with His disciples. He washed their feet. He said one of them would betray Him. He commanded them to love on another, in the same way that He Himself loved them. He told one of His disciples, Peter, that he, who professed undying loyalty to Jesus, would repeatedly say that he didn’t even know Jesus. Jesus promised His disciples that the Holy Spirit would come to them. Jesus gave them a lot to think about on this last night before He died. This certainly brings some perspective to my little problem—my problem is nothing compared to what Jesus faced that night. The other thing Jesus did that night was pray. What did He pray for? If it was us, we would pray for escape from death, right? Not Jesus. He prayed that God would be glorified…and He prayed for His disciples…and He even prayed for me! “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in Me” (John 17:20). Jesus prayed for all believers who would come. As He’s about to die for me, Jesus prayed for me! Every-single-day, constant prayer was how Jesus lived—Him, who was without sin. That says a lot about the importance of prayer, doesn’t it? Prayer is one of the ways that God has given us to connect with Him. It is a gift, so we have a way to talk to God. It’s pretty hard to have a relationship with someone you don’t talk to, right? So, as I consider how my morning went haywire with my irritation and impatience, I can see that one of the things missing for the last several days is spending time in prayer. When I neglect praying, my emotions take over—I’m irritable and impatient. Prayer keeps me in tune with what God desires, I am reminded of all I have to be thankful for. Prayer reminds me of what’s important, it takes my focus off of me and places my attention on the real treasure in my life, Jesus…His sacrifice for my sin, His love for me, His obedience to God no matter what the cost to Himself. When I pray, I’m humbled, I confess sin, and I am reunited with my Lord and Savior. Sin separates me from God. Prayer and confessing my sin reunites me with Him. Prayer restores my soul! How is it possible that I wouldn’t pray nonstop, just like Jesus?? Sin separates everyone from God. Maybe you are wandering through life, scared that this is all there is. Without Jesus, this is all there is. Faith in Jesus is the only way to real life. It doesn’t mean life turns into a bed of roses, and it doesn’t mean you just add church to your schedule. What it means is you consider your sin, you consider what Jesus did about sin, you confess your sin, and you pray that Jesus might have mercy on you and forgive you. There’s a cost—giving up your sin. Maybe you love your sin too much. Only you know. But the gift you receive is life through believing in Jesus. Think about it. If you need prayer or a Bible, let me know.

Last night, I laid in bed thinking  about forgiveness. As I thought about all the sin in my life that Jesus has forgiven me for, it just overwhelmed me! His forgiveness is real forgiveness—the kind of forgiveness we experience when someone doesn’t hang on to old hurts…when someone doesn’t remind us of that thing we did a long time ago. Partial forgiveness is not Jesus’s way. His way is complete forgiveness. But that doesn’t always happen in our lives, right? We see that situation in the Bible in the life of King David… A long time ago there was a king in Israel, King David. One of his son’s, Absalom, decided he wanted to be king (2 Samuel 15:10). So Absalom got his people together and they rebelled. King David was in trouble. He decided to leave Jerusalem—he knew Absalom would try to kill him! As he headed out, there was this guy, Shimei, who saw David and started cursing him (2 Samuel 16:5–14). He threw rocks and dirt at David. Shimei not only dishonored King David, but he was a traitor—he supported Absalom’s attempt to overthrow his father and take the throne. As it turns out, Absalom was killed and King David returned to Jerusalem. As David crossed the Jordan River, who came running out to meet him? Shimei. And he cried out to David about how he had done wrong…that he had sinned…and here he was, the first of his tribe to come out and meet the king. David was merciful to Shimei that day. He said, “You shall not die” (2 Samuel 19:23) even though Shimei’s traitorous behavior deserved the punishment of death. But you know what? David didn’t actually forgive Shimei. He just postponed punishment…because he later instructed his son, Solomon, to give Shimei what he deserved (1 Kings 2:9). That’s not real forgiveness. But let’s consider Shimei too. Real forgiveness comes in response to repentance, Did Shimei truly repent of his behavior? We don’t really know, but it seems to me he wasn’t really sincere running out to David. If Shimei was truly repentant, he would have actively sought David out and asked for forgiveness. Shimei did acknowledge his sin—but only when he got caught. Now David was back in town. He was king. That put Shimei in a bad spot—he decided to try and avoid the consequences of his betrayal. That’s not real repentance. What do we learn here? Real repentance and real forgiveness go together. When you truly repent, Jesus truly forgives. He remembers your sin no more (Hebrews 8:12). No more means just that: no more. Not like David, who remembered Shimei’s sin. Yet true repentance is not a flippant, “Hey, I’m sorry” and off you go to the next sin. It’s turning away from sin, hating sin, and turning to Jesus for forgiveness and for life. I pray that you truly turn from sin and receive the forgiveness only Jesus can offer. If you need prayer or a Bible let me know.

A dear friend lost her husband this week—it’s a very sad time for her. Have you noticed how when someone dies, we try to console one another by saying, “Well, now he’s in a better place.” What we mean by this is that someone who is now dead is no longer suffering here in this world and is now in heaven. I’ll bet we’ve all said this at some point—which means most people must believe it. The flip side of this is that apparently we don’t believe many people are going to hell. This is amazing because Jesus taught that few people find the narrow gate that leads to heaven and there are many people on the road to hell (Matthew 7:14). Did you know that Jesus said more about hell than you can find about hell anywhere else in the Bible? He did this to warn people! Jesus didn’t (and doesn’t) want anyone going to hell any more than we want loved ones—or ourselves—to end up there. One of the “hell parables” that Jesus told was about a rich man and a poor man (Luke 16:19–31). The poor man, Lazarus, was covered with sores, and he was hungry. Day after day, Lazarus laid outside the entry gate into the mansion where the rich man lived, sick and hungry. The rich man ignored Lazarus. Eventually Lazarus died and went to heaven. Now this absolutely shocked the Jewish crowd Jesus was talking to because they considered Lazarus a good-for-nothing outcast, someone who God punished with sickness and hunger because of some great sin he committed. Then the rich man died…and the Jewish people were even more shocked…because the rich man went to hell! They couldn’t believe such a thing. Here’s why: they thought the rich were rich because God favored them and therefore blessed them with all this money. The richer you were, the more God favored you. Here’s what they thought: all rich people went to heaven and all outcasts went to hell. But that’s not so… As Jesus continued the parable, the rich man tried to convince Abraham (from the Old Testament, remember?) who was also in heaven, to send Lazarus down from heaven to hell to cool off the rich man with some water. Abraham said no. He said this for two reasons: 1) it was now Lazarus’s turn to experience comfort in heaven just as the rich man had comfort on earth, and it was the rich man’s turn to experience anguish just as Lazarus had, and 2) there was no way for anyone to go back and forth between heaven and hell. Just not possible. Realizing there would be no relief for himself, the rich man asked that Lazarus be sent back to earth to warn the rich man’s brothers about hell, saying that someone like Lazarus—back from the dead—would be believed. Again, the answer was no. And the reason? “If your brothers don’t believe the Scriptures—which they already have—then they won’t believe a dead man either.” What Jesus is saying about the Scriptures—the Bible—in this parable is that the Bible alone says all that we need to be saved. The truth in the Bible has the power to make you believe in God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, Creation, sin, salvation, forgiveness, heaven, and even hell. Everything. That’s because it’s not just a book. It’s the very Word of God. And that’s why I so often ask if you’re reading your Bible—because God saves through His Word, and it has the power to turn unbelief into belief. I pray that you’ll pick up your Bible today and start to read. If you need one, let me know.

My Bible study group studied two women over the last 2 weeks: Lydia and an unnamed slave girl (Acts 16:11—18). Let’s meet Lydia first. The Apostle Paul and his fellow missionaries arrived in Philippi (in Greece today). As they searched for Jews to preach to, they met up with a small group of women, including Lydia. Naturally, Paul taught them the good news of Jesus. A miracle happened! The Lord opened Lydia’s heart, which means the Lord worked the miracle of salvation in her heart! At the same time, Lydia listened and understood the Word that Paul preached. She believed the gospel—and she was saved! A week later, the missionaries encountered a slave girl who was a fortune teller—she predicted the future for money. How did she do this? Well, the Bible says she had a spirit of divination. What this means is that she was in contact with demons. So apparently, her fortune-telling skills were the result of her demon connections. You know, you may think that fortune telling is an innocent activity. It is not. Did you know that God considers fortune-telling and divination an abomination? “Abomination” means detestable, something that is absolutely hated. In Deuteronomy, you’ll find several lists of things that God hates. Here are a few examples: child sacrifice, divination, fortune telling, speaking to the dead, and sorcery (Deuteronomy 18:10, 11). Did you catch that? Child sacrifice and fortune telling are equally detested by the Lord. Are you surprised by that? You shouldn’t be—because God hates anything and everything satanic and demon-related. These demonic things go on today. I was shocked last fall when our grandson came home from school and said the mom of one of his classmates practiced witchcraft. Several years ago, I was stunned when a coworker talked about what it was like to talk to her dead father. ALL these things are just as abominable to God today as they were 2000 years ago. All these things are still as sinful. What is done about demon-possession? Well, fortunately for the slave girl, a few days later, Paul commanded the demon to come out of her, and the demon obeyed. And while the demon departed from the girl, the Bible doesn’t tell us she was saved. In the gospels, Jesus often cast out demons. And though He gave that ability to His disciples, even they weren’t always able to cast them out (Matthew 17:16). Why not? Because it seems that the disciples became overconfident in these supernatural gifts and forgot that they were completely dependent on God for everything including the gift of casting out demons. The gift of casting out demons like the apostles doesn’t exist today as it did then, and deliverance from demons depends on exercising faith in the Lord Jesus Christ—in other words, believing in Jesus. Demons cannot remain in one who is truly saved. It is also possible through prayer, just as Jesus said (Mark 9:29). Did you know that the demons recognize Jesus as the Son of God (Luke 8:28)? They know exactly who He is, and they hate Him. Perhaps you’re on the fence about Jesus…you know in your heart He’s the Son of God but you’re hesitating. Don’t hesitate. Come to Christ—He is truth and life. Be like Lydia…listen and understand and believe. If you need prayer or a Bible, let me know.

I like to read for a while before I turn the light off at night. I’ve been reading 1 Samuel, which is the history of how Israel went from being a theocracy to a monarchy. Here’s what that means.  A “theocracy” means that God was their King, their leader, and that He chose men who acted as His representative ruler over Israel. These men were not kings.  In a monarchy, of course, a human king is the leader of a country. So, as a theocracy, Israel had what were called “judges.” From time to time, Israel’s judges did what our judges do today: they judged in disputes and resolved problems between people. But for the most part, they were military leaders chosen by God…and their main job was to act on God’s behalf by leading the nation through times of distress, usually when enemies were gathering their armies to attack Israel. God relied on His judges to lead Israel for about 300 years, and the prophet, Samuel, was the last of them. When Samuel was old and gray, the elders of Israel came to him and said, “Appoint for us a king” (1 Samuel 8:5). Had God failed them as their King? Of course not. What happened is that Israel started looking at the nations around them and started to envy those nations—they wanted what those nations had. And what those countries had that Israel didn’t have was an earthly king. A human they could call “king.” Unlike their neighbors’ kings, Israel’s judges were instructed by God (what a blessing!), and God made Israel victorious over their enemies again and again (what a blessing!). God made them winners! But Israel didn’t want God to be their King anymore. They actually told Samuel that they wanted to “be like all the nations…that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles” (1 Samuel 8:20). What short memories they had! With this request, Israel actually rejected God. They decided a human king was a better idea. What a mistake. But, God let them have their way. He gave them a king. How do you think having a king worked out for Israel? Well, it was disastrous for the most part. After just three kings, the nation split in two: Israel in the north and Judah in the south. Not one single king of the northern kingdom was a good king. None of them followed or obeyed God. They were such evil leaders that  eventually the northern kingdom fell to one of their enemies, Assyria. They were destroyed…forever…permanently. The southern kingdom had a mix of good and bad kings. They lasted longer but ended up the same way: defeated by the Babylonians, the temple destroyed, the land wiped out, and the people slaughtered or carted a thousand miles away into exile. This was what human kings did for them: total destruction. Isn’t it easy to ask God for what we want? Like Israel, we are proud and think we are so wise. But God always knows what’s best for us. When we trust God and His will for our lives, we can confidently ask Him to provide what we need. We can depend on Him to provide for us and sustain us. It’s when we focus on our wants that we lose our way. The Bible tells us that the Lord is worthy of our trust. Keep your focus on God and trust in Him. If you need prayer or a Bible, let me know.

Got a couple things on my mind today. First, the holiness of God. I’m reading on book on this topic. 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 on my mind is the 10 commandments because I’m reading 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 me know if I can pray with you.