“Mixed” Families and Friends

I hope this doesn’t apply to you, but we all know of families and friends who are at odds due to different political beliefs. There are families who no longer celebrate holidays together. There are friends who no longer speak. There is abundant advice about how to handle “mixed” gatherings without it degenerating into permanent separations and all-out-trouble.

I think these current experiences are a “heads up” about divisions among family and friends due to their beliefs about or rejection of Jesus Christ. Some people are getting to practice because of politics.

Jesus Christ told us He came to bring division.

Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I came to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and a man’s enemies will be the members of his household. (Matthew 10:34–36)

Do you suppose that I came to grant peace on earth? I tell you, no, but rather division; for from now on five members in one household will be divided, three against two and two against three. They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law. (Luke 12:51–53)

We know persecution of Christians is coming (and now is). We are warned. Read Hebrews 11 to see some examples of past events. Read stories of missionaries and stories (and books) about martyrs. Read current news! What if you have to deny Christ in order to keep your job? Your bank accounts? Your retirement fund? In order to shop for groceries? And what if your spouse, son, daughter adamantly oppose your refusal to deny the Lord? They are affected also, and think your refusal to deny Christ is silly, detrimental to them, etc. etc. etc.

Far-fetched?

Get ready.

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Father, please strengthen our faith and our determination to stay faithful. Please help us look beyond our trials to You. Thank you for Jude 24-25:

Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy, to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen. (Jude 24–25)

(I wrote this post and the previous one, God is At Work, prior to the assassination attempt on Donald Trump…)

I’ve read that humans cannot truly “multi-task,” but, rather, we rapidly shift from one task to another.

That is NOT true of Almighty God!

Our Almighty God is infinite. Infinite in knowledge and wisdom. He is everywhere at once. He knows everything. He is in control of everything all the time, choosing to allow or prevent our sin, choosing to allow or prevent evil, and determining the results. He is all powerful. Nothing is impossible for Him.

We sometimes talk about the number of our “irons in the fire.” God’s “irons in the fire” are infinite and the number does not task Him.

What we may think is chaos actually is God working in many things at once (like usual!). His “band-width” is infinite. No detail is too small. No future date is out of His mind.

A good or unwelcome event in our lives doesn’t just affect us. It affects people around us. And someone around us may actually be the important one. God is at work in it all. And all the time.

So …When we see what looks like chaos to us, we should see that as a trigger to trust God and pray.

God is at work:

In believers

For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus. (Philippians 1:6)

In those who will be redeemed

The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance. (2 Peter 3:9)

In the world

And He [the Holy Spirit] … will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment; concerning sin, because they do not believe in Me; and concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father and you no longer see Me; and concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged. (John 16:8–11)

In the heavens and earth

In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. (John 14:2)

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea. (Revelation 21:1)

Press On and Praise Him! Hallelujah!

Bewildered.

I can see an event totally differently than someone I know. Different perspective. Different language. Different reality. Different world-view. It can be very difficult or even impossible to have a conversation about that event. There are many instances of friendships ending, or even families splitting, over these differences.

Is that what happened at the tower of Babel when God confused people’s languages? They could no longer talk with or understand everybody, but could talk with and understand only some. People naturally gathered with those they could understand, and those separate groups moved away together.

Today’s world seems similar to me. People can have such firmly held points of view that others may not be able to explore those points of view with them. Folks can have entrenched patterns of behavior that are only acceptable to some, and they gather with those with similar manners.

I don’t have to fill in the blanks. You know.

From a spiritual perspective, we may or may not have a calling to reach out to some groups. But we need to pray.

Lord, come! Soon!

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. (Ephesians 1:3)

His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness… (2 Peter 1:3)

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We, believers, saints in Jesus Christ, have EVERY spiritual blessing. We have EVERYTHING pertaining to life and godliness.

We ALREADY have everything.

This truth is both enormously encouraging AND enormously sobering.

Our job through this life is to grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ, to learn to walk according to the Holy Spirit, and to appropriate, possess, what Almighty God, through Jesus Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit, has ALREADY given us.

Of course, we’ll never arrive, but our responsibility is to press on towards Christ’s likeness.

While this sounds like “mission impossible,” and while we will not achieve Christ-likeness until heaven, it IS possible to learn how to use what He has already given us and to live, more and more, in a way that is worthy of Him.

Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 3:12–14)

Press on!

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BLESSED! Rape to Redemption to Rewards is available at BookLocker, Amazon, and elsewhere. Kindle is coming soon.

After last week’s The Chain of Evangelism I heard from a friend who had always thought about telling others about Jesus Christ, regardless of the response, as planting a seed.

Yes! We are responsible to plant seeds that, God willing, will lead to redemption.

I planted, Apollos watered, but God was causing the growth. So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but God who causes the growth. Now he who plants and he who waters are one; but each will receive his own reward according to his own labor. (1 Corinthians 3:6–8)

And Yes! We are responsible to exercise the gifts given to us by the Holy Spirit.

Since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, each of us is to exercise them accordingly… (Romans 12:6)

And Yes! God is sovereignly responsible for the result.

Let’s be faithful in planting seeds, and rejoice in what God does.

Press on!

Discouraged about the lack of response, or negative response, when you tell someone about Jesus Christ?

I once heard an analogy that helped me. When you tell someone about the Lord, you are part of an evangelism chain. You might be the first link of the chain, or somewhere in the middle, or you may experience the thrill of seeing someone receive Christ. But all the links are important.

Our responsibility is not the result—that is God’s sovereign act–but faithfully telling others of our Lord as we are prompted by the Holy Spirit.

Press on!

My lifelong friend and I wrote a book. She lived it, I helped write it.

Suzanne Maurer, an ordinary Christian, is living proof that God turns horrors into blessing. Date raped at 19, her son, conceived by that rape, led her to Christ twenty years later. After 40 years of joyful living, she is now showing all of us how to live with ALS. Suzanne is truly blessed, and this book shows how.

BLESSED! is now available in print through BookLocker, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and elsewhere. Ebook is now available at BookLocker and soon in Kindle and Nook.

Helping Suzanne write this book challenged me, humbled me, helped me learn more about Gods’s loving sovereignty, and gave me hope. Come along and see how!

Missing the laundry basket may bring the wrath of Mom.

Missing God’s commandment brings the eternal wrath of God.

Don’t be deceived. God is our Creator and has every right to tell us how we are to live. (Genesis 1:27)

God has made His standard very clear. We are to love the Lord our God with all our heart, all our soul, and all our mind. We are to love our neighbor as ourselves. (Matthew 22:36-40)

Don’t deceive yourself. We ALL have sinned. We ALL fall short. We ALL deserve death. (Romans 3:23; Romans 6:23)

We ALL are sinners and we cannot save ourselves.

God provided a solution through Jesus Christ for His just, eternal wrath for our sin .

For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. (John 3:16)

In order to be included in God’s salvation, we must repent of our sins, and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Pray to receive Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.

Please!

Usually implied in this statement is that something bad happened.

If something good happened, we’re apt to think: “What a good girl I am.” “What  a good boy I am.”

But if something bad happens …

Christian Fundamentals When You Don’t Understand

God is good and does good. (Psalm 119:68)

For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts. (Isaiah 55:9)

We must rest on the facts that God is good, God does good, and that His ways and His thoughts are much higher than our own.

We Must Trust

We cannot fully understand why God does something. But we can and must trust Him.

As Christians, we are His children and He loves us, protects us, trains us, and grows us into Christ’s likeness. Everything that He allows into our lives is for a loving purpose, to bring us to glory.

Trust Almighty God and Press On