Archive: A Difference a Day Can Make

         Today while doing my devotions, I came across a verse in Psalm 138: 1-3 which states: “ I will praise You with my whole heart; Before the gods I will sing praises to You. I will worship toward your holy temple, and praise Your name for your loving kindness and Your truth; For you have magnified Your word above all Your name. In the day I cried out, You answered me and made me bold with strength in my soul.”

         As I read this, I began to wonder how many times I have taken God for granted for all of the wonderful things and blessings He has given me. How many times have I failed to proclaim Him? How many times have I cried out to Him and received what I asked for? More importantly, how many times have I praised and thanked him? In being honest with myself, I know the answer to these questions and sadly I know not nearly enough. What about you? I think it is possible for us all to agree there are improvements each of us could make. More than ever, I am being mindful to give time to stop and praise Jesus for even the simple things – like waking up this morning. It’s so easy to get distracted by all of the things we have competing for our time but we sometimes need to stop and realize that we have been given one more day to enjoy life, creation and fellowship.

         There is a saying “what a difference a day makes” – what if we don’t have the time to make a difference? I wonder how many of us are stuck on survive and the rat race that we are not left with anything to give back and therefore miss out on the opportunity to make a difference. A form of tunnel vision begins to implement its self and chokes out our vision and purpose. I saw as this happened in my own life – where I thought I wanted a prestigious job and the American dream. As I started to strive for this goal, I became increasingly unhappy. Why, you may be wondering – well God did not create us to live for ourselves and for us to raise ourselves above everything else. Perhaps, we could even say this form of existence could be called indifference or apathy. We eventually get to a point where we are only looking at ourselves and what’s going on in our own little world and it’s all that seems to matter. When we open our eyes and truly look at the world there is so much we can do and we begin to see everything as an opportunity – it’s all a matter of changing ones perspective. I know from experience, that if you truly want to make a change in your life ask God and He becomes the catalyst to make that happen- He becomes the strength, boldness and hope your soul so desperately longs for. He will put people in your path that will have a similar vision and so begins the journey to becoming free from all of those things that threaten to choke the very life out of you. In return, you will have a deeper more meaningful relationship with God as you watch Him transform your meaningless life into purpose.

         Here is another sobering reminder from the book of 2 Timothy 3:1-5 “But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come. For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying it’s power. And from such people turn away. Let this be a challenge to not be conformed to society’s pressures – don’t settle for comfort without commitment – stand up against this way of life and live the way God intended.

Archive: Backwards Perception of Good Works and Going to Heaven

         I recently had a conversation with a friend of mine, regarding heaven and how we get there. During the course of our talk, a couple of things were brought up like: the idea all religions are the same. I was amazed by this comment – are they really?? My friend went on to say that as long as you are a good person and did good deeds - that is all there is to it. I then said that if this statement was true then all religions say that you have to do something. That something would be doing and being a generally good person; however is that in line with our human nature? No, we are not good! Have you looked around the world lately and seen the destruction? When left alone, there are all kinds of vices we will find ourselves succumbing to. For a small example: power, money, greed, and deceit.

         This sparked an interest to know a little more about what is going on in the general American population and what they think and believe. According to the Barna Group, 90% of Americans pray, but 87% don’t believe in the 10 commandments, 92% own a bible but only 11% actually read it, and lastly 62% claim to have a personal relationship with Jesus. I don’t know about you but these numbers are a bit staggered. If 62% claim to know Jesus and 87% don’t believe in all 10 commandments – can we really say they truly have a personal relationship with Jesus? What does the word relationship mean? To have a bond, affiliation with or a connection between people – it means more than one. So how can they claim to know Jesus but don’t believe His word – the Bible. The Bible is our connection and main source in defining who and what God is and is about. It is through reading His word that the Holy Spirit can speak to us - thus defining the relationship part. Another survey went on to state that 54% of the American population believes that if a person is good enough, does enough and obeys the law that they will earn their place in heaven.

         However the bible says in Romans 3: 10-19 As it is written: "There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away; they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one. Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit. The poison of vipers is on their lips. Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood; ruin and misery mark their ways, and the way of peace they do not know. There is no fear of God before their eyes. Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God.”

         There are NO righteous people, which means that none of us are blameless, holy and pure. The rest of these verses are a reflection of the sinful human condition. Have you ever lied? Have you ever hurt someone with harsh words? Do you become angry with those that oppose you? Are you bitter towards anyone? If you answered yes to any of these questions: than this verse applies to you just as much as it does me and we stand guilty before a holy and just God. More importantly, we will be held accountable to Him for what we have done here on earth. So what can we do to fix our unrighteousness on our own? If we have never been righteous and we are sinful beings how then can we become blameless by our own works? 

         In light of the Christmas season, which has just passed where we celebrated Christ’s birth – in Matthew 1: 20- 21 …. “ Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary to be your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for he will save His people from their sins.” This verse clearly shows us that we needed an intermediate to go on our behalf and save us for our sins - we needed a holy and blameless sacrifice.

         Ephesians 2:8-10 states: “For it is by grace that you have been saved, through faith and not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.” I think 54% of our society has the way to get to heaven backwards – they are trying to do good works to get into heaven but God gave us Jesus for atonement of our sins and for Him to be the ONLY way to heaven. As a result, of accepting Him good works were created for those who have acknowledged Jesus as Lord and Savior and are shown as a by product to honor and glorify Him. Not to save us!!!!!

         In closing, the beginning statement of this post my friend suggested that all religions are equal. However, I disagree. Being a Christian is about having a personal relationship with God and believing that God sent His Son for atonement of our sins and that we accept him as such – realizing that we on our own will never be good enough or do enough good deeds to make up the difference. By accepting Christ as your personal savior, you are acknowledging that He has paid all your debt for sin and that you are not sufficiently able to cover that cost on your own. Whereby, not making all religions equal!