Calling Strikes

You're never s good as everyone tells you when you win, and you're never as bad as they say when you lose.
Lou Holtz (1937-, American football coach)

Romans 8:1-4
Therefore, no condemnation now exists for those in Christ Jesus, because the Spirit’s law of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. What the law could not do since it was limited by the flesh, God did. He condemned sin in the flesh by sending His own Son in flesh like ours under sin’s domain, and as a sin offering, in order that the law’s requirement would be accomplished in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. (HCSB)

It’s something to ponder. Have you ever stopped to question what it is in the human genome that so pushes us to be umpires for one another? We seem to have a tendency to drift towards this occupation in life, and we all have our own numbers of strikes and balls that we tolerate before we call each other out. When it comes to judging others we will work overtime, for no pay.

We should be ashamed. We should have large hearts of mercy, and tolerance, but we seem as a society to grow smaller minded and less tolerant of one another. God in Christ Jesus gave us a way out and a way up. He made for us a way that we could walk without condemnation, a way around perfection, and away around the judgmental eyes of each other.

Our Father made a way for us to walk, and if we walk in it, we are justified, purified and we are un-condemnable. That is to walk in the Spirit and not in the flesh, to walk in the freedom of Grace and Mercy, and not under the spirit of sin and death. Now if God made a way for us…shouldn’t we also make a way for each other to walk in freedom and not condemnation…God Bless.
Pastor William

Committed Love

I am done with great things and big plans, great institutions and big success. I am for those tiny, invisible loving human forces that work from individual to individual, creeping through the crannies of the world like so many rootlets, or like the capillary oozing of water, which, if given time, will rend the hardest monuments of pride.
William James (1842-1910, American psychologist, professor, author)

John 13:34-35
"A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. "By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another." NASU

I have heard that often much more planning goes into the wedding, than goes into the marriage. One is ceremony and the other, a serious relationship. I am afraid that has also been the attitude of many that join the Church today. It is mostly ceremony, done for the Church, without any commitment to relationships with others in the family of God.

Jesus commanded us to love one another in John 13:34. In 1 Thessalonians 4:9, Paul says that we were taught by God to love one another, and in 1 Peter 1:22, the apostle tells us to love one another “fervently,” and from the heart. John goes so far as to say in 1 John 4:7-8 that everyone who loves is born of God and knows God, and the one who does not love, does not know God, for God is love.

What is this love we are to have for one another? It is a self-sacrificing love. Jesus tells us to love one another, even as I have loved you. This is a serious and committed love. It is one that knows that real love is a commitment that comes at a price, which you are willing to pay. It is these tiny capillaries of love working in the Body of Christ that will break hearts of stone, and call all men unto Him…God Bless.
Pastor William

Consolations of Religion?

Talk to me about the truth of religion and I'll listen gladly. Talk to me about the duty of religion and I'll listen submissively. But don't come talking to me about the consolations of religion or I shall suspect that you don't understand.
C. S. Lewis (1898-1963, British academic, writer, Christian apologist)

John 15:18-21
“If the world hates you, understand that it hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own. However, because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of it, the world hates you. Remember the word I spoke to you: ‘A slave is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. If they kept My word, they will also keep yours. But they will do all these things to you on account of My name, because they don’t know the One who sent Me. (HCSB)

We speak often of the peace that we have within us as Christians, but I think we often fail to communicate to new Christians the cost of this peace. The Truth that God has given us through Christ is always a point of contention. If you have the best the competition will automatically focus on what you have to find its weaknesses.

Northrop Frye, Canadian writer, put it this way; “The recurrent tendency in religion is to replace the object of its worship with its present understanding and forms of approach to that object.” You see, this is the point that C.S. Lewis was making. We make a mistake when we try to remold Him into something that we like, or that is not as offensive to the world.

The Truth is that if you love the Lord, you are already a target for retribution. Satan is angry, he has lost the battle and Jesus has won. Your very salvation is salt in the wounds of “The Prince of the World, the devil himself. So, now you can understand better why it is our duty to protect the “Truth,” and share it with the world. We have peace within, but in the world, affliction. But, Christ left us these comforting words, “I have overcome the world…God Bless.
Pastor William