timewithgod

I am a rich man.  Though you’d never know it by inspecting my balance sheet!  But there’s more to wealth than cold cash, or so I’ve been told!  Yesterday Mike phoned me up just to pray with me, that was rich!  He read a passage from Joel 2:11-17 that God had laid on his heart to share with me… great stuff!  You ought to read it!  And then Larry stopped by to talk and pray with me, and Ken joined us.  It doesn’t get any better than this, until eternity!  Thanks guys and keep praying!

Today’s Scripture reading is 2 Chronicles 14; Isaiah 66; Acts 27:27-44

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Today’s thought comes from 1 Peter 1:8-9  whom having not seen you love. Though now you do not see Him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, 9  receiving the end of your faith—the salvation of your souls.

Seeing is believing… or is it?  I’ve seen a lot of things I don’t believe in.  In fact our society programs us to see things we know are not and can not be true.  Every night, most of you watch television shows that portray imaginary scenarios that have never and will never happen. Yet there they are, day after day, carefully acted out before your very eyes!  We see far out fantasies like flying monkeys, transformers, superheros that can do gravity defying stunts, flame on, turn into a stack of bricks, gain spidey sense… and don’t forget the mind bending, physics defying, special effects that simply have no basis in the real world at all!  Seeing is not believing.  Believing is seeing!  Ask anyone, “Do you believe in UFO’s? Ghosts?  The Loch Ness Monster?  Black Helicopters?”  Next ask, “Have you ever seen one?”  Probably not, but don’t let that stop you!  I’ve seen it on TV!  Or, my brother has seen one, or my second uncle’s great nephew’s girlfriend’s fiancé’s neighbor has.  We expect to see what we believe in!  Ask any evolutionists you happen to see, what’s the best tuna soon to be?  A Chicken from the sea!  Has anyone ever seen a tuna turn into a chicken?  Has anyone ever seen evolution occur?  No way José!  But since believing is seeing, evolutionists all over the world have created an immense library of theories, charts, museum’s, documentaries and teaching tools all meant to convince themselves that it must be true!  If you believe it, you have the expectation of vindication.  Every real belief you have has real world implications.  I believe that love will make me happy, so I seek love.  I believe that money will give me the stuff I need so I seek profitable employment.  I believe that taxes and big government are good / bad so I either become a tax and spend liberal or a fiscal conservative.  I believe that discipline means I love / don’t love my children, so I become a firm disciplinarian or I let my kids do as they please.  Believing is seeing.  Unfortunately that means some of the stuff we believe is just wrong.  But it also means that some of the stuff that we’ve never seen is spot on!  Like Jesus.  Have you ever seen him?  But you believe He is God come in the flesh?  Why?  Well, we’ve got a library of charts, theories, museum’s, documentaries and teaching tools that tell us it is so.  But there are a lot of people who don’t believe?  They claim to have evidence to the contrary.  How do you determine what to believe about what you have not seen?  Examine the evidence.  Use some common sense… and then take a leap of faith.  Faith is just as necessary for atheists as it is for theists, for the godless and for the godly.  At some point you must choose what you believe.  Not to choose is to choose.  But here’s the hitch.  To choose erroneously is to believe a fantasy that, in the end will not only be laughable, but is downright dangerous to your health, life and future.  I’ve chosen Jesus.  Whom having never seen I love. And though I have never seen him I still believe in him and expect to receive His promised gift of eternal life.  That’s worth a hoorah!  It’s also something I’m willing to live for!

Dear Lord Jesus.  I believe in you.  I’ve read the stories.  I’ve checked out the evidence.  It is overwhelming.  I believe.  I place my faith in you with the expectation that reality will triumph in the end!  I stake my life on it!

There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus

Drip, drip, drip… Bill brought me outside.  “I’ve tried to patch this roof, and it’s not working!”  That’s not good!  Water always seems to find a way.  We stared up at the roof, crawled on top of it, scrutinized it from every angle and even prayed over it… it still leaks!  Bill is such a hard working guy.  Always doing for the Lord.  He’s here at church so often, by himself hammering away.  “Dear God, send someone who knows how to fix our roof!”  That would encourage him.

Today’s Scripture reading is 2 Chronicles 13; Isaiah 65; Acts 27:1-26

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Today’s thought comes from 1 Peter 1:6-7  In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, 7  that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ

It has been estimated that about 1 in 20 verses in the New Testament speak either directly or indirectly about the Second Coming of Jesus Christ!  His coming is our hope.  Christians hold to the view that this same Jesus who walked the earth 2000 years ago and ascended into heaven will come back one of these days.  In His first coming, He entered into history in a way similar to every other child: He was born.  But that’s where the similarities end.  He was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of a virgin, unlike the rest of us.  He lived a sinless life, unlike the rest of us.  After he was certifiably dead for three days, he resurrected and then he ascended into heaven, unlike the rest of us!  While the disciples were staring up at Him, an angel stopped in and told them that Jesus would come back in the same way he left.  The second coming of Christ will be even more dramatic than the first coming!  There are some six Greek words that describe Jesus return.  They tell the story of what we can expect when He comes.  The first one is used in Acts 1:11 Erchomai – which simply means to come from one place to another.  The disciples were told that Jesus would come from heaven and come to the earth.  Zech 14:4 indicates that He will set down on the Mount of Olives.  If you want to have a front row seat, move to the Holy Land.  The second word is used in 1 Peter 1:7 Apokalupsis – It means a revealing or unveiling.  The second coming begins when Jesus enters our physical world and uses the sky and clouds like a curtain call.  First there is nothing there but a few clouds and blue sky, and then there is!  Jesus is suddenly revealed to the world with all His mighty angels in tow.  The next two words are similar to Apokalusis in meaning.   Phaneroo – means to make oneself visible or to expose oneself to view.  When Jesus shows up in the all his glory, good news! we will be with Him!  Col 3:4.  Optanomai means to allow one’s self to be seen.  If you haven’t seen Jesus lately, it’s because he is playing “hide and seek.”  Olly Olly Oxen Free day is the day He returns.  Heb 9:28 says that when he came the first time, he took our sin with Him, and when he comes the second time, he will come without our sin because he has disposed of it!  That’s good!  The next word is Parousia – which emphasizes His arrival plus His “personal presence.”  This is a word which means “I’m here!”  Again, the good news is that Jesus is “coming with His saints” 1 Thes 3:13.  The last word is Epiphaneia from which we get our English word epiphany.  This word means “the glorious manifestation of his magnificent presence.  2 Thess 2:8 talks about “the brightness of His coming!”  This is no anticlimactic event which gets only a passing sentence on the 11 O’clock news.  This is riveting and unavoidable.  It is the culmination of human history!  When Jesus comes, every eye will see!

Dear Lord Jesus, come quickly.  We are waiting.  As men waited for your first coming for thousands of years in hope that you would take our sins away, so we wait patiently for your return now that you have disposed of our sins!  Help us to love, desire and anticipate your coming!

To God be the glory, great things he has done

Dave called me last night.  He sounded very concerned.  He had just tuned into Family Radio and Harold Camping was answering questions on his program “Open Forum.”  Mr. Camping said some very confusing and disturbing things that prompted Dave to call me.  My answer was and is simply this: Harold Camping is a False Teacher and his station Family Radio which he founded and runs is also in apostasy.  Camping falsely predicted Christ’s return in 1994, when that didn’t happen he said he missed the date by 7 years. The new date is 2011.  He predicted the beginning of the Tribulation in 1988.  Among other weird and false beliefs, he says that Michael the Archangel is Jesus (Like the JW’s).  He teaches that people should leave all churches and instead should go to “Family Radio Meetings” where his strange doctrines are taught (like a cult!).  He claims to use the Bible as his own authority, but his viewpoints supersede the Bible.  My suggestion?  Tune him out.  The Bible says don’t even listen to false teachers – Rom 16:17, 2 Tim 3:5, 2 John 1:10

Today’s Scripture reading is 2 Chronicles 12; Isaiah 64; Acts 26

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Today’s thought comes from 1 Peter 1:6-7  In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, 7  that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ

Is your life to the “praise, honor and glory… of Jesus Christ?”  Maybe on a good day it is, or maybe not.  Perhaps you just had an argument with your spouse.  You can still feel the anger and venom in the pit of your stomach.  Or perhaps you just “slipped up” and took “the name of the Lord in vain.”  Or maybe you like to gossip about the faults of others, or you struggle with jealousy over how much other people have and how little you have, or maybe you have trouble keeping away from online porn.  There’s a long list of reasons why God could not possibly be pleased with us!  The works of the flesh are evident in your life and you are living in shame!  The goal of the Christian is to have a genuine faith that pleases Jesus, but how do I get that?  I have such a struggle with the flesh!  I find it difficult, almost impossible to live life the way I wish it could be lived!  Paul admitted that he had the same problem in Galatians 5:17.  Every Christian fights the same battle against various fleshly problems.  I want to see if I can lay out a few Scriptural principles that will help.  #1 Watch yourself!  Matt 26:41 - Set out “early warning” boundaries so that you catch the temptation early on when it is manageable.  #2 Pray hard!  “Watch and pray.”  Engage in fervent prayer.  I’d dare say that most of us haven’t really experienced the power of earnest prayer and fasting.  #3 Cleanse your conscience.  In the Old Testament when a person was considered unclean he would have to go through ritual washing, and then he was clean.  In the New Testament we are to wash ourselves with “Confession to Jesus” and then we are clean. 1 John 1:9.  Never fail to admit your faults to one another and to God – James 5:16.  #4 Walk in the Spirit Gal 5:16.  What this means is that you need to set your mind on spiritual things.  Stop focusing on those sins, going over and over them in your mind and instead begin praising God, memorizing Scripture, singing praise songs etc Rom 8:5.  This is primarily a spiritual battle and can only be won by living in the Spirit.  We gain the victory, not so much by avoiding our sins, but by embracing and pursuing God with all our heart.  …And that is what makes us pleasing to him!  That’s what brings him Glory!  Praise Him, Think about Jesus, Focus on God, live out your day in fellowship with God and like a giant spiritual transformation, you are to the praise of His glory. 

Dear Father, I want to be pleasing to You!  Please remind me to keep my mind focused on things that are spiritual so that I don’t slip back into the sad state of temptation.  I choose to think on Jesus.  I choose to think on things that are true, right, just and honorable and avoid thoughts that drag me down.

Cast your burden on the LORD, And He shall sustain you; He shall never permit the righteous to be moved.

Cody and Alyssa went to lunch with us.  It started with Vacation Bible School.  Ten or fifteen years ago Alyssa and her sister went to our VBS!  Now she’s a mom and her son came to our VBS this year!  From there it was a nice transition to Awana.  And yesterday the three of them were in church, so we invited them out to lunch!  Cody and I talked about Lacrosse and Soccer.  He played and coached Lacrosse in Roseburg.  We talked about his church background.  He grew up in a good church in Roseburg, the only contact that Alyssa had was our VBS!  Now that they have their own family they are seeking God!  What a great testimony to the faithfulness of God!

Today’s Scripture reading is 2 Chronicles 11; Isaiah 63; Acts 25

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Today’s thought comes from 1 Peter 1:6-7  In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, 7  that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ

Fools Gold!  A 2004 investigation revealed that more than half of jewelry stores around the US were selling “fool’s gold” and passing it off as real!  Who would have guessed?  I’m looking at my wedding ring, and there are some tiny markings on it, but I can’t read them.  Even if it said 24K there is no guarantee that an honest person did the job.  How do you know if your gold jewelry is real or fake?  There are several ways.  If you have owned it for a while, the easiest test is to see if it tarnishes.  Real gold does not tarnish.  Anything 10K or less is considered fake.  A 10K gold piece is only 42% gold!  So if it is only plated, sometimes you can use a magnet to detect fool’s gold.  Gold is not magnetic.  If it’s attracted to a magnet, forget it!  …or you can take it to a jeweler. The jeweler can do an acid test to determine the gold content.  However, the most accurate method is assaying or testing gold by fire.  First you weigh the gold.  Melt it at 1100 degrees C.  All other metals will be removed at this heat.  Now you have pure gold… sorry that you don’t have your original wedding ring anymore, but at least you’ll know it’s pure!  Gold that has been “tried by fire” is pure gold!  That’s the guarantee of purity.  Our faith is compared to pure gold.  Gold has always had intrinsic value since the beginning of human history.  Gold has been the measure of wealth and prosperity.  It has been the metal of choice for trading, buying and selling.  It is the Gold Standard.  There is something intrinsically valuable about faith.  Fidelity or faithfulness is the slogan of the Marines; “Semper Fidelis,” Always Faithful.  Who can calculate the worth of someone you can always depend on?  A solid rock, an unmoving bastion of faithfulness.  If you have a faithful friend, you are a wealthy individual.  God is looking for faith in his children.  Faith is not simply holding fast, it is holding fast to the truth.  There are two things that make it genuine.  #1 It’s ability to persevere and #2 it’s genuine content.  They are related.  If the content is not genuine, sooner or later the perseverance will fail.  But when genuine faith is tested by various trials… the death of a loved one, a debilitating sickness, loss of all earthly possessions, or heated persecution… certainly we may waver, that’s human.  But in the end, genuine faith will persevere!  When we are melted down so that we have nothing left but our faith and our character, and though we lie stripped, naked and bleeding beneath the torturers blows, if your faith is genuine, nothing can take it from you.  It is what is left over when all the niceties of life are melted away.  And genuine faith, like gold is priceless!  It is to the praise, honor and glory of God!

Dear Lord.  When through the fiery trials of life my pathway shall lie, your grace all sufficient will be my supply.  The flame will not hurt me, You only design the dross to consume and the gold to refine!  I believe that.  I don’t relish it, but I do relish the value of genuine faith! 

He shall regard the prayer of the destitute, And shall not despise their prayer.

“This is a step in the fulfillment o f a dream I had in 1992.”  I was having a conversation about our Home Groups with one of the guys in our church… I could sense that he was sharing something intensely personal with me.  “It was only a few flickering frames, but the vision deeply impressed me.  My wife and I were ministering to a group of people.  I don’t know where it was, but there we were.”  1992 is a long time ago.  It’s amazing how time can make us think that the dream is dead.  It’s also amazing that He keeps the dream alive!  “Do you dream of me?”  Jesus asks.  When believers dare to have great dreams about what God wants them to do, my job is to train, facilitate, bless and eventually commission them to the work!  “Do you dream of Me?”

Today’s Scripture reading is 2 Chronicles 10; Isaiah 62; Acts 24

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Today’s thought comes from 1 Peter 1:6-7  In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, 7  that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ

Jesus wants you well.  If you’ll just send me one thousand dollars, I’ll send you a twice blessed vial of holy olive oil that will heal any sickness or disease!  And for ten thousand dollars, I’ll send you a prayer shawl… If you pray regularly with this prayer shawl covering your head, you will become successful in every endeavor and have every prayer of yours answered!  Send money now!  Funny how American Christians think we can measure God’s blessings by health, wealth and success.  “Once you come to Christ he will make you happy and take all your problems away!”  Really?  In the rest of the world it works something like this.  Abbas Abu converts to Christianity and immediately loses his job.  His family tries to poison him.  He escapes from his home town with noting more than the clothes on his back which are bloodied from the beating that almost took his life.  He wanders from place to place, hungry, gaunt and cold, always fearing for his safety.  All for the crime of trusting Jesus!  How different this is than the health, wealth and prosperity gospel!  But this was the Apostle Paul’s experience.  Everywhere he visited they had a riot!  … or a beating, or a stoning, or a shipwreck, or hunger, or betrayal.  And this was Jesus message to us, “In the world you shall have tribulation.”  “If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you.”  NEWSFLASH!  Jesus didn’t come to make you happy, he came to make you holy!  You are here to make Him happy!  Now that is not to say that Christianity doesn’t bring joy.  But joy is a world away from happiness.  Happiness depends on happenings.  If things happen to turn out well, you and I are happy.  If I win the lottery, stay healthy, have lots of good friends, get an amazing birthday gift, go on a cruise, shoot a record breaking elk, get to go fishing every day, get promoted at work, see my football team win the Superbowl, get to go to the Superbowl… then I’m happy!  But Joy doesn’t have the same downer that happiness experiences when bad things occur.  Happiness is based on changing circumstances, while joy is based on the unchanging promises of God.  There is no question that trials and difficulties grieve us, but a Christian who understands his place in the kingdom of God rejoices not only because life is good, but because our real, genuine, lasting hope is in heaven!  Joy is based on what Jesus has done for me!  He saved me and gave me eternal life!  No threat of man nor trial on earth can take that from me.  So when I’m in a trial, I remember hope!  I remember heaven!  I rejoice because tomorrow the sun will rise on eternal joy!

Dear Father.  I want to learn to rejoice in good times and bad.  I want to learn to thank you for the things that are important like Eternal Life, Your presence in my life and Jesus!  These are things that can never be taken from me.  No matter what happens to me, I rejoice in You!

The LORD is good; His mercy is everlasting, And His truth endures to all generations.

I think it’s time I give a Time With God report to you all so you can better pray for this ministry.  Here is the state of TWG.  I send out emails to 40 individuals every day.  Some of them email me back on a regular or semi-regular basis.  I really appreciate feedback.  Keep those emails coming!  I also upload the Time With God podcast to the net.  Since my server no longer provides statistics it is impossible to know how many downloads per podcast I get.  Six months ago when stats were working I averaged about 1500 downloads per month, an average of 50 per day!  I have no idea what it is now.  I have been able to use Google Analytics since that time and can get different statistics… such as… people from 39 states and 35 countries have visited my site.  The most interesting is in Pakistan where I seem to have about 7 regular listeners!  In the United States I have 60 or 70 regular listeners.  Approximately 35 are from Oregon, Georgia is second with 13, and 10 in Washington… There’s more statistics, but I won’t bore you with them.  There you have it!  Keep us in prayer!

Today’s Scripture reading is 2 Chronicles 9; Isaiah 61; Acts 23:12-35

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Today’s thought comes from 1 Peter 1:5  Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.”

We all know, or at least we should know, that Christmas is all about Jesus.  But for sake of illustration, I want to talk about the main business of our commercialized society: Christmas Presents.  Every year a lot of thought goes into buying or making each other something significant that will say, “I love you and I’m thinking about you.”  Growing up, seeing gifts under the tree always brought on a spirit of anticipation.  What was in those brightly wrapped boxes?  I had to know!  Once I got carried away and peeled back the wrapping paper so I could get a sneak peek!  I had to bury the present in the back to avoid detection.  I found that the anticipation was better than the gift!  In fact sometimes the anticipation was so high that the gift just did not make the cut!  I expected more and got less.  As a child, sitting in the living room strewn knee high with wrappers and a pile of loot next to my chair, I frequently felt emptiness and disappointment.  Stuff just doesn’t satisfy, at least not for long!  That’s why we need to teach the kids about the heart behind the gift.  Someone loved you enough to think of you, so, no matter whether we like the gift or not we always say “thanks!”  I have a strange tradition that I have carried out for years.  I keep my gift for Susan hidden until the morning of Christmas and then sneak it under the tree before she gets up.  She never has any idea of what it could possibly be because it’s never revealed until Christmas morn.  It’s always the most expensive gift in the house.  (Expensive is relative, you understand.  Expensive to us may be a pittance to others and often is!).  OK… now I’m going to try to tie my illustration to the verse.  God has given us the gift of salvation!  IT is the best one in the house.  Believe it!  No one can steal this gift from us because “we are kept by the power of God.”  Our gift is secure.  However, none of us can tell who else has the gift and who doesn’t have it by the pretty wrapping on the outside!  We look on the outward appearance, but God knows the heart.  We live in anticipation of the day when God will step down into history and have the final Christmas present roundup of all time.  On that day He will reveal who has the gift and who does not.  God knows who are His!  If you have trusted Christ as your Savior, you are one of his gifts, and once the wrapping paper is off, the opening will be better than the anticipation!  Every expectation will be surpassed on that day!  The good news is that once he saves you, then he keeps you and finally he reveals you on that last Christmas day!  Saved, Kept, Revealed… that is what every Christian has to look forward to!  I can’t wait for him to unwrap that gift!

Dear Lord Jesus, thanks for your indescribable gift to me!  Save me, keep me and reveal me as one of your own on that day!  I have confidence in that process by faith because you promised it.  I thank you for security, now help me to live in gratitude and anticipation of that day!

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.

Be still and know that I am God.  Sometimes I just sit back in surprise at what is going on around me until I realize that God is at work!  And underneath are the everlasting arms.  I showed up at 6 PM (an hour early) for Men’s meeting and there was Kenny.  Earlier in the day we’d spoken on the phone.  “We’ve been to dozens of churches and we are back.  We listen to you on the internet!  We have heard a lot of preaching and we really appreciate how you stick to the Bible!”  Then Dale showed up!  I’m thinking, what’s going on?  Dale?  By the time 7 PM rolled around there were ten of us and Rich, who showed up on time said, “How come I feel like I’m late!  I feel like I’ve missed out!”  God was moving last night, no question about it!  Dave did a superb job of guiding us to what is important – prayer, fervent prayer, meaningful prayer.  I shared how every one of us needs to consider ourselves a potential leader… and Dale said, “Baby steps!  Take it slow.  First of all, I can’t even believe I’m here tonight!  But if God can do that…!”  I wish you could have been there!  God is moving, watch for it.

Today’s Scripture reading is 2 Chronicles 8; Isaiah 60; Acts 23:1-11 To Listen to Today’s Reading http://timewithgod.mypodcast.com to subscribe go to http://timewithgod.mypodcast.com/rss.xml

Today’s thought comes from 1 Peter 1:5  Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.”

You deserve hell.  Your sins are a stench in the nostrils of a holy God.  Don’t try to justify yourself by saying, “I’m not that bad!”  Shame on you.  What makes you think that your sins are any better than anyone else’s?  Is stretching the truth really any better than perjury?  Is a lustful look any less odious to God than adultery?  Is a grudge any less toxic than revenge?  Just because you hide all your sins behind your carefully designed middle class image, do you think that God can’t see behind the façade?  He knows, and so do you.  Sin is deathly serious.  Don’t minimize sin.  Don’t sweep your sin into the closet and pretend it doesn’t exist.  God knows you!  God hears every irritated, sneaky or selfish thought you think.  He sees you like no one else does.  You’ve been caught red handed with your fingers in the cookie jar.  There is no reason for pretence or keeping up appearances.  You are guilty and so am I.  In fact you are so guilty that you deserve hell, and so do I.  If you think otherwise, it only serves to illustrate another fault – smug self-righteousness.  There is nothing so offensive to God as those who are posers.  The self-righteous are caught in a labyrinth of self deception so deep that unless the light of honesty pierces their darkness, they will forever be entangled there.  It is precisely because of the serious nature of our sin that we need salvation.  Old fashioned terms, contemporary needs.  It is precisely because of the sheer weight of the charge against us that we cannot save ourselves.  That’s why we need to understand two very important principles: The Power of God and The Need For Faith.  In order to be saved and kept it takes the power of God, nothing less could possibly save us from our predicament.  The “sin pit” you have dug for yourself is so deep and the sides so slippery that not one of us is able to pull ourselves out of it.  Only the Power of God could reach down, save us and keep us.  Many want to add God to their lives as though He were optional or a nice accessory or a good addition to an already good life.  God is essential because without him we are lost.  A drowning man doesn’t want a nice accessory, he needs a savior.  The second truth is the need for faith.  You must believe your sins are so serious that you need a savior.  You must believe you are drowning in sin before you will reach up to the Savior.  You must believe that Jesus really can save you.  That’s what faith is all about.  You deserve hell.  Reach out in faith and you will get eternal life!  He’ll pull you out of the pit and set you on a solid rock where you can bask in the sunlight of His grace and mercy!  And that’s where he’ll keep you.  Thank God for His power!

Dear Father.  I do recognize the seriousness of my sins.  I also recognize your great power to save.  I place my humble faith in your great power and trust you to do the saving!  Thanks for saving me, and thanks for keeping me.  It is because of your power that I have hope.

He shall regard the prayer of the destitute, and shall not despise their prayer.

Daniel K. Smith.  It’d been a long time since I heard that name.  But there he was on Facebook.  Dan wrote, “It is so weird…Sherry (his wife) connected up with other WBC classmates and I had the thought, I wonder what Dennis Kreiss is up to? Lo and behold you show up! I must be psychic!”  Psychic may be it… Yesterday was a day off and I was a little bored… rain and all. I happened to see a few Western Baptist College year books and began to look through them.  It has been a long time. I have only kept minimal contact with a few folks over the years. I began to wonder, as I looked through the pages about others. And there was Dan’s pic… I wondered “What are Dan and Sherry up to?” So I did a little search on Facebook, and lo and behold there they were!  Now is that cool or what?

Today’s Scripture reading is 2 Chronicles 7; Isaiah 59; Acts 22

To Listen to Today’s Reading http://timewithgod.mypodcast.com

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Today’s thought comes from 1 Peter 1:5  Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.”

Stuff worth keeping.  Let’s do a mental garage sale.  You might as well start where you are seated right now.  Look around.  How much of the stuff in the room is worth keeping, and what are you willing to part with?  There’s seven old time glass canning jars with the flip up lid holders sitting on the book case.  Keepsakes or garage sale?  I’m not much of a collector, so they are gone!  OOPS!  I forgot to consider Susan’s feelings.  Put them back NOW!  There are half a dozen VHS movies there too.  “Stuart Little,” gone, “Shark Hunter,” outa here.  Dump them all!  And how about those books?  How many of them will I ever read again?  The college pic of Susan and I can stay though.  It has some serious sentimental value.  We were such a cute couple!  What else?  How about the fake plastic lemon tree?  Please!  Take it from me!  We have rooms full of essential junk!  Our lives are cluttered with memorabilia!  Susan just can’t help herself!  She keeps bringing home more!  I’m suffocating in useless trinkets!  What was important yesterday, so important we HAD to buy it, isn’t worth keeping today!  I could easily dump half of what I own and not miss any of it for years!  So what if God had a garage sale?  How many of us are worth keeping?  Let’s start with Dennis?  He certainly isn’t looking much like Christ!  And what about Bob? (Pun intended).  He’s been sitting on the Christian bookshelf collecting dust for years.  He has to go.  And how about you?  Are any of us worth keeping?  When you consider my failures, flaws, slip ups, personal problems, issues, attitude adjustments needed, sins and downright uselessness to the cause of Christ (really?  Come on don’t you feel that way sometimes?), I don’t know why God doesn’t have a “FIRE sale” right now!  If it were up to me, and I had to write a ledger of why God should keep me around, I have to be honest with you… there aren’t enough good things on the positive side to outweigh even one of the negatives on the dark side.  Really!  I mean it!  Think of it this way.  Let’s say you are a good person, nice in every way.  You work hard, pay your taxes, love your spouse and children and are a good family guy.  You help old ladies across the street and do all manner of nice things… except one day you have been drinking and driving and you run over and kill a ten year old girl.  It was a mistake!  A slip up!  It was the only time in your life you ever made that mistake!  You are a model citizen in every respect except one!  Can 40 or 50 or even 80 years of goodness balance the scales in the trial?  Will the jury let you off because you are a “nice guy?”  Not going to happen.  God doesn’t keep us around based on our ledger.  We are kept by the power of God!  And believe me if it weren’t for Jesus, there would be no possible way for me to ever make it through life.  I need him to “Save me” and I need him to “keep me!”  I can do neither, he can do both.  Thank God he’s going to keep me! 

Dear Father, thanks for saving me from my sins.  Thanks for keeping me despite my sin!  I am trusting you.  I realize that it is only by the grace of God that I am in your kingdom.  I have no reason to brag, and every reason to be grateful!  Thanks, Lord Jesus!

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they shall be filled

Susie from Eugene writes… I always enjoy reading what is going on down there, almost as much as the devotionals.  (That’s a relief!)  Is Pine Grove feeling the effects of the evil one?  He seems to have stepped up his attacks in Eugene….Please be praying for us.  The sickness, the emotional turmoil,…this week we even had a member of our church run over and killed out by the Fern Ridge.  It just seems to be never ending….Maybe if he is working so hard up here, he is letting up on you guys…..   Have a good day.  —- Thanks Susie!  I always enjoy hearing from you!  I doubt that the enemy every stops attacking, when his attacks aren’t visible, he’s setting up an ambush.  Pray for us as we pray for you!

Today’s Scripture reading is 2 Chronicles 6:22-; Isaiah 58; Acts 21:17

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Today’s thought comes from 1 Peter 1:3-4  “3  Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,4  to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you,

What do surf boards, bird watchers, American’s, wii and Eminem, all have in common?  I googled them and discovered that they all claim to be “born again.”  Born Again Boards presumably remakes old surf boards.  Born again bird watchers probably have bought some new binoculars re-energizing their hobby.  Born Again Americans have rediscovered their heritage.  Wii came out with a retooled product, and Eminem is clearly in an unknown metamorphosis in its very earliest of stages, though you’d never guess it from his filthy lyrics that some call music.  What’s going on here?  Clearly the term “Born Again” has been hijacked!  It has taken on a life of its own, meaning anything that is transformed or anyone who has “reinvented” himself in the public eye.  We have clearly come a long way from Chuck Colson who popularized it back in the 70s and 80s and Jimmy Carter who first mentioned being born again in a Playboy Magazine interview.  But 1 Peter says God has “begotten us again to a living hope!”  Peter says we have been begotten or born again!  So how does one become born again?  Catholics and some Protestants hold that it happens during water baptism.  You must be baptized to be born again.  They quote Jesus words, “you must be born of water and the Spirit” John 3:5, and Peter’s words in Acts 2:38 “be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins.”  But Paul claimed that “Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel… lest the cross of Christ should be made of no effect” (1 Cor 1:17).  And Jesus himself did not baptize (John 4:2).  Clearly if Paul or Jesus felt that Baptism was the way to Eternal Life, they would have been dunking people left and right!  The theme of Christianity would have been “let’s get as many people wet as possible!”  “Dunk the world!”  The headlines might have read, “Jesus holds largest mass baptism ever and claims that now all wet people are going to heaven!”  If you thought that it was holy water, a holy ritual, or holy hands that dunk you in the water, Jesus and Paul didn’t see it that way.  They didn’t do it.  And Peter tells us that we are “born again… through the Word of God” (1:23).  How does the Word do it?  “whosoever believes” John 3:16, “he who believes” John 3:18, “whoever believes” 1 John 5:1, 1 John 5:13, James 2:23, Heb 11:6, 1 Thess 4:4, Eph 1:13, Galatians 3:6, Rom 10:9, and on and on.  To be “Born Again,” you must simply place your faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior from sin and mean from the depths of your heart, “I believe in You!”  God does the rest… he brings about the new birth and you are “born again.”

Dear Lord Jesus, I do believe in You.  I believe you are God the son.  I believe You came to earth to save me.  I believe You died for my sins.  I believe you rose from the dead.  I believe that there is no other way to heaven but through You and I am trusting You to save me!

And the Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let him who hears say, “Come!” And let him who thirsts come. Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely.