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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 me know.

Rick and I have been studying John for quite a while now. 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 me know.

Last week, we read about Jesus’s birth. This week, we jump ahead a year or maybe even two years, to the time of the wise men’s visit to Jesus (Matthew 2:1—12). Here’s what happened. Following Jesus’s birth, wise men from the east arrived in Jerusalem. They had followed a star, and they were searching for ‘He who has been born king of the Jews.”  They had traveled hundreds of miles, a journey that would have taken several months, for the sole purpose of worshipping Him. King Herod, heard about these newcomers in town. He was not happy, and it’s easy to understand why. He was king of the Jews. Anyone else who claimed to be king of the Jews was a threat. And Herod took threats to his power very seriously. He had already killed one wife and two sons. A child who might have a legitimate claim to his throne would be an easy target. All Herod had to do was find out where this child was and kill him. Herod started plotting immediately. First order of business: find the child. Herod called together those who would know about these things—the chief priests and scribes who studied the Scriptures—to find out where the Messiah would be born. And these guys knew because the Old Testament prophet, Micah, foretold that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem (Micah 5:2). Next, Herod needed to know how old the child was so he was sure he killed the right kid. So, Herod set up a secret meeting with the wise men under the pretense that he too wanted to worship the child. In reality, Herod was quizzing the wise men about when the star had appeared so he could calculate the child’s age. After the meeting, the wise men left town. They again followed the star, and behold! They found Jesus! The wise men fell down and worshipped Him, offering gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Not much is known about these wise men. The term “wise man” has nothing to do with them being wise. What it means is that these men studied the stars—they were astrologers. Their study of the stars led them to believe that a great leader had been born in Judea. This was the reason for their journey. Were there just three of them? At least! It’s likely that they came in a caravan from Babylon or Persia—lots of people, lots of camels. The idea of there being three wise men is probably connected to there being three gifts offered to the Jesus. So what can we learn from the wise men? First, they saw a sign from God and responded. Jesus’s invitation to salvation is to all who believe in Him (John 3:16). You must respond to that invitation with belief. Second, the wise men were determined to find the one born king of the Jews despite the hardship and expense of a long journey. Are you that committed to Jesus? Would everyone around you see and know that you follow Jesus by the way you live? Third, when the wise men found the King they searched for, they worshipped Him. Do you worship the Lord with reverence? Do your thoughts, words, and actions reflect your love for God? I pray that today, two thousand years later, we all learn from these men. If you need prayer or a Bible, let me know.

The story of Jesus’s birth is in Luke 2:1—20…it goes like this. Caesar Augustus decided he needed to count all the people in the Roman Empire to make sure he was collecting all the taxes he was owed. For Mary and Joseph, this meant they had to travel about 80 miles to get to Bethlehem to be counted. Of course, it was during this time that Mary gave birth. Jesus arrived, and Mary laid her tiny newborn in a manger. A feeding trough. Tough stuff. The story continues…Jesus’s arrival on earth was announced to some shepherds by an angel—because of course, Jesus was no ordinary baby. The angel called Jesus “a Savior, who is Christ the Lord” (Luke 2:11). And this is the whole point of Christmas. We are celebrating the birth of the Savior of the world. But what exactly does “savior” mean? When I first met Rick, I was working at Jimmy Dean in Memphis. I had this big meeting to plan, had a whole bunch of people coming into town. I had no idea what I was doing. Rick knew I was in over my head, and offered to help me. I was so relieved! I mean, here I was, new on the job, expecting people from all over the US to come to my meeting—what if it failed? Well, Rick made sure that didn’t happen. We put in long hours, planned, strategized, and worked hard. It was a great meeting. Rick knew what I needed and I didn’t. He rescued me from certain disaster. He saved me from failure—Rick was a savior to me. Jesus as Savior is kind of like that. Except what Jesus rescues us from is much more desperate than some meeting. Jesus is able to rescue us from our sin. You see, sin is not just a problem, it’s a death sentence for you and me without Jesus. The reason we need a Savior is because God made man to be in a relationship with Him. But this is impossible because God is holy and man is sinful. And guess what? Man caused this problem. Adam sinned against God way back when, and now we all have this sinful nature. So sin is our problem. It’s not God’s, it’s ours. And even though it’s not His problem, God didn’t give up on man! He had a plan. His plan is Jesus. The Savior of the world. When Jesus was born, God in the flesh arrived on earth to save people from their sins. As you read the Bible, it’s obvious Jesus didn’t have an easy task. Not many people believed in Him. Why? Because people love their sin. We reject the idea that we are sinners. We reject the truth that we need to be rescued. We think we know what’s best for us. However, just like Rick knew what I needed in my meeting when I didn’t, God knows what we need, and we don’t. So God sent Jesus to earth anyway—so that if we believe in Him as the Son of God come to earth to die for sinners, and that He was raised from the dead, we will live now and forevermore with Him. Christmas is not about presents. It’s not about food. It’s not even about family. It’s about God’s gracious, loving, merciful nature reaching down to man to offer us salvation and hope. My prayer is that this precious gift that God has made available to you, salvation through Jesus Christ, is a gift that you will respond to today. May the Lord open your heart to believe in Jesus. If you need prayer or a Bible, let me know.

I love the story of Jesus’s birth. The angel, Gabriel, came to Mary and told her she would have a son by the Holy Spirit (Luke 1:31). She and Joseph traveled to Bethlehem (Luke 2:1-21). Jesus was born in a barn or a cave. Less than ideal conditions. Shepherds got word of Jesus’s birth from angels and came to see Him. Later, wise men came seeking to worship the One born King of the Jews (Matthew 2:2). A key player in  this story is Mary. How did all of this impact her? The story of Mary begins with her finding favor with God. For some unknown reason, Mary stood in God’s undeserved grace. Of all the women who have ever lived since He created the world, God chose Mary for the special job of conceiving and giving birth to a son by the Holy Spirit. His name would be Jesus, and He would be called the Son of God (Luke 1:31, 35). Gabriel, the angel, explained all of this to Mary. Now Mary and Joseph were engaged but not yet officially married. Gabriel’s announcement meant Mary would be a virgin when she conceived a baby. It meant she would be unmarried and pregnant. Hmm. Having a child out of wedlock was a serious problem for both Mary and Joseph because God’s law said that if an engaged woman had sex voluntarily, both the woman and the man were to be put to death by stoning (Deuteronomy 22:23-24). So there was that problem. There was also the problem of the pregnancy. As her condition became obvious to all, Mary surely suffered the shame and humiliation of sly looks, whispers, rumors, and rejection. Joseph, who of course knew he had not been with Mary, toyed with the idea of divorcing her, a legal step that was necessary to dissolve an engagement in ancient Israel (Matthew 1:19). Obviously this was not going to be a glamourous role, right? It wasn’t going to be easy. What went through Mary’s mind as she listened to Gabriel?  Would Joseph understand? What if he didn’t…and who could blame him when he didn’t? Her parents wouldn’t understand. What would people think? They would think she was a liar or crazy or both! If this had been me, I’m certain all the reasons why God’s plan was a bad idea would have flashed through my mind. But I don’t think any of these untrusting, faithless questions entered Mary’s mind, not even for an instant. Mary simply accepted God’s plan. The Bible tells us that Mary responded, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word” (Luke 1:38). In other words, Mary was a ready, willing, trusting believer in God Almighty and His plan for her. Though God suddenly and unexpectedly stepped into her life, she received His calling with grace. What a heart attitude! What faith to imitate! And so it happened. Mary gave birth to the promised Savior. Do you remember why Jesus came? To die. Years later, Mary watched as Jesus suffered and died on the cross. But also remember this: Mary was a sinner like you and me. She needed her Savior, Jesus, to die and rise again so that He would rescue her from sin and transfer her into His kingdom of light. Mary needed the salvation that is possible only through Jesus Christ. Mary was just like you and me. In this season, let’s learn from Mary’s faithfulness and readiness to serve her Lord and her Savior. If you need prayers or a Bible, let me know.

Several years ago, Rick left Chicago on his way back to home. He had a couple people with him…he was busy talking, probably telling stories. About an hour later, one of the guys realized Rick was headed south not north, and was now closer to central Illinois than he was to home! Crazy isn’t it, that you can go that far in the wrong direction and not realize it? Thankfully, someone was with Rick both times—someone who read the road signs and got him turned around. It’s good to have someone tell you you’re headed in the wrong direction, right? Well, it should be. But people usually don’t like being told they’re wrong. Let’s think about Jesus… Imagine you’re in Israel. Jesus is doing all these amazing miracles, but he teaches a different message from the religious leaders you’ve known all your life. He’s is teaching that you must repent or you will die in your sins. He says that He is the light of the world and that belief in him is the only way to eternal life in heaven (John 8:12). That is not what the leaders teach. They teach that you must keep these 600+ rules and you’re all set. Obey every rule and you’re on your way to heaven. But keeping all these rules is impossible. So maybe you’ll get to heaven, but maybe you won’t. What Jesus teaches is faith in Him is the way to heaven. It’s that simple. Jesus teaches this to the people,  AND He tells the religious leaders right to their face that they are wrong. It’s not about rules. It’s about faith and repentance of sin. They too must repent, which is incredible because these religious leaders make themselves out to be perfect. Man, does that make them mad! Then Jesus makes them even madder when He says He’s God. They’re stunned! They ask Him, “Who do you make yourself out to be?” (John 8:53). After all, Jesus is just some carpenter’s son from a nothing little town in Galilee…He’s a nobody. You know what made the leaders mad? Jesus told them they were wrong. The leaders thought they were being ultra-religious when in reality they were sons of Satan (John 8:44). They were going in the wrong direction. What the people AND the leaders needed to do was change direction. So here’s a question for you: was it wrong of Jesus to tell the people and the leaders they were wrong since it upset them and made them so mad? No. They needed to hear the truth so they could change. Without hearing the truth, there’ no possibility of changing and no hope of eternal life. It’s no different now. The truth is that Jesus was God in the flesh when He was here in the world. He lived a sinless life. Jesus died on the cross to pay the penalty for the sins of all who would believe in Him. He was raised from the dead and is now in heaven. The truth is that the only way to eternal life is belief in Jesus—repenting (turning your back on living a sin-filled life) and believing in Jesus through faith that is granted to you by God. When you follow Jesus, you are a new creation (2 Cor 5:17). Isn’t that exciting news? And as you follow Jesus, the Holy Spirit will cause you to want to be more and more like Jesus. Your life will be changed. You will be headed in a new direction that will be evident to everyone around you. The other truth is that without Jesus, you are going in the wrong direction, and you’re on the road to hell. My prayer is that you will desire to follow Jesus and that God will grant you repentance and faith. If you need a Bible, let me know.

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, let me 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.

One of the things I thought about this week is how thankful I am that I don’t know what my future is. What if I had known my whole life that I would get cancer? How on earth would I handle that kind of knowledge? Who could handle such knowledge? Only Jesus Christ, the Son of God. The Bible tells us that God knows the end from the beginning (Isaiah 46:10). This means God knows everything that will happen. Not only does God know what is going to happen to me (and you), He knows what I will do and say and think. “Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O Lord, you know it altogether” (Psalm 139:4). One time, Jesus was with one of the Jewish leaders, a man named Simon. As He was sitting there with Simon, a woman—a sinner!—came to Jesus and poured oil on Him which would be considered a sign of the woman honoring and worshiping Jesus. She was crying and mourning over her sin (Luke 7:36-40), desperately wanting forgiveness for her sin. Meanwhile, Simon sat there thinking to himself that If Jesus knew the kind of person this woman was, Jesus would never let her touch Him. The whole time, Jesus knew exactly what Simon was thinking! Jesus answered Simon’s unspoken criticism of the woman—He responded to the guy’s thoughts!—saying, “Simon, I have something to say to you.” In the same way that God knows the future, Jesus also knew what He Himself would experience here on earth. For example, Jesus knew He would experience the pain of rejection over and over. One time, Jesus was teaching in his own hometown. When He read a prophecy from Scripture that Isaiah had written 700 years earlier about what the promised Messiah would do, Jesus told the people the prophecy they had just heard had been fulfilled. This means that He was saying to his hometown crowd that He, Jesus, was the Messiah. The Messiah they had waited for hundreds of years. You would think this would be joyous news, right? Nope. They tried to kill Jesus. His own hometown, people that He had known His whole earthly life, tried to kill Him. That’s pretty harsh. But even before it happened, Jesus knew it would happen. So, let’s think about this. Jesus knew exactly what His future was. He knew that He would be rejected. He knew He would suffer. He knew He would take the wrath of God upon Himself for the sins of the world. He knew He would die a horrible and painful death. So, knowing all that would happen to Him, how could Jesus go through with it? Because of His great love for God the Father and His great love for sinners—that means you and me. Jesus loves you and me that much. God sent Jesus to take the sins of the world on Himself. Jesus knew this was His future. And He knew what it would cost Him: His life. But He also knew the truth that God triumphs over death, that God had promised that Satan would be defeated (Genesis 3:15). And that’s exactly what happened. Because God does know the beginning from the end. Jesus did rise from the dead. Jesus did overcame sin and death. And through His sacrificial death, all who believe in Jesus do have eternal life. That’s not a pipe dream, that’s a promise. A promise from the God who knows the end from the beginning. I pray you will not neglect so great a gift, eternal life, which Jesus made possible to sinners. If you want to talk about this, need prayer or would like a Bible, let me 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, let me know.

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’d like me to pray for you, let me know.

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’d like me to pray with you or for you, call me or text me. (920) 650-8288. I always have Bibles too.