Two Fathers, One Choice



I know I am going crazy with the videos now that I have discovered how to blog them. But I could not keep this one to myself.

The Bible says "But as many as received Him (Jesus Christ), to them He (God) gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God" (John 1:12-13). So the only ones who can call the One True God their Father are those who recieve Jesus Christ by placing their trust in Him and what He did for them. Now, if someone never places their trust in Jesus, whose child are they? Jesus Himself said to His own people, the Jews, and answers that question: "If God were your Father, you would love Me, because I came from God and I am here. For I didn’t come on My own, but He sent Me. Why don’t you understand what I say? Because you cannot listen to My word. You are of your father the Devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning and has not stood in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he tells a lie, he speaks from his own nature, because he is a liar and the father of liars. Yet because I tell the truth, you do not believe Me" (John 8:42-45).

Jesus makes it clear. Either God or the Devil is your father. There is no other father to claim. I wish for the sake of those I know who are not Christians that there was a loop hole somewhere, a gray area. But there is only one way to know God as your Father. As a follower of Christ, there are two things I need to keep in mind if I am going convince anyone of this truth. First, when we, Christians, claim to be the only children God has, we do not pull it out of a hat somewhere. We simply tell the world what God has already said about us. Second, we do not and can not condemn anybody else, whether they are muslim, mormon, budhist, etc., or if they claim no religion at all. Again, hear the words of Jesus: "Anyone who believes in Him (Jesus Christ) is not condemned, but anyone who does not believe is ALREADY condemned, because he has not believed in the name of One and Only Son of God" (John 3:18). Our job is not to condemn, but only to point out that condemnation. Thus, those who don't follow Christ and only Him, already stand condemned and we have the responsbility to do what we can to relay that message. I look up to these men and women like Al Mohler, Pat Robertson, Billy Graham and his son, who all have the world on their hearts and the gospel on their tongues.

Grandma is in heaven

Do you have that special someone that always smiles when you walk into the room? I am not talking about just a smirk, but it’s as if the president of the United States just entered their presence. For me, that special person was my grandmother. It didn’t matter if I was coming over for Thanksgiving or I was just dropping off something, grandma always made me feel like I had just made her day. These people are special to us because no one else does that for us. No one else makes us feel so important.

My Grandma passed away last Saturday and I am happy for her because she is now gazing into the eyes of her Savior. She is holding His hand, walking along, and He is telling her how proud He is of her. She and Jesus are together finally and I am happy for her, but I will miss that smile, that excitement in her eyes when I walked into the room. Two things are keeping me from losing it as I write this. One is that smile of Jesus that my grandma received. Now she knows what it is like to feel as cherished as she made me feel. The other is the smiles I am going to get when I enter into eternity, one from Jesus and one from grandma. Grandma gave me the perfect picture of heaven and because of that, she is one of many special people God has placed in my life.

New Counseling Method

After a bachelors degree and a masters of divinity degree, I have finally found my perferred method to counseling. 9 out 10 pastors believe this to be the best approach to ministering to those who need direction and comfort. It is truly revolutionary. Actually, I just wanted to see if I could post a video.

ZZZZ....ZZZZ

Two days ago, I turned 33 years old. I am at that age where anybody in college and high school will say, “wow, your old,” and yet everyone on the AARP list still calls me a young pup. They always follow it with a “just wait till you get my age.” It’s like I am too young to know anything, but too old to do anything about it. But life is great now. And with God’s grace, I know when I do get that old, life will be great then too because He is in it.

One thing about my birthday is that it always falls around Daylight Savings. As kids I think we liked it when we got to spring forward one hour because we had more time to play outside in the evening. But as I get older, I discover more and more of how much I appreciate that extra hour of sleep in the fall. I mean come on…a whole extra hour of dreamland. That means I get to tack on one more Z onto my ZZZ. I didn’t think twice about this when I was kid. I always heard adults talking about it, but I never knew what it was like. It’s like a whole new world has opened up to me.

Now I know some people hate Daylight Savings. I say we got two states for you to live in: Indiana and Arizona. One cold, one hot. What more could you ask for? I even say why not make Daylight Savings into a holiday. I mean why are we celebrating Labor Day? Oh, yea we get to work. Whoopee. This is an extra hour of sleep we are talking about. Come on, who is with me on this? It would be another opportunity to eat turkey (Gasp!!! food and sleep). It’s true, I love sleep more today than yesterday, but I love the one who makes me sleep even more. He lets me lie down (Psalms 23:2). May our love for Him grow faster than anything else He gives us.