What Would You Do?

If you had someone come to your home, or into your place of employment and they were in real need, what would you do? Would you see how you might be able to help them, or would you turn them away as someone else's problem?

You see, the answer to the question at that point is not if you have faith or not. The question at that point is does your faith impact your daily life? It is wholly a matter of choice, and if we are going to be the people of faith, as the Scriptures call us, then the choice is to do whatever it takes to help the other person.

I was reminded during my vacation that the early church was known for this kind of choice. In the Roman world, when a child was unwanted or defective or damaged, it was completely legal to just simply take the baby to the local garbage dump, and lay it there to die of exposure. But those who followed Jesus in that day were different. Their faith led them to believe that all life is sacred, and as a result, there were those who would very often go by the local garbage heaps to rescue those children who left for dead. This gained them quite a standing in the area as those who followed Christ.

So I ask you, what kind of reputation do you have in the community? Are you living for Christ, or are you living for yourself? It matters, folks, because if we claim to have Jesus in our heart, and that we believe in the Scriptures, then we must act in accordance to them.

Comment below about a time when your faith moved you to action, and we'll see you on Sunday!

Habitual Readers...UNITE!!!!

I hope that the title of today's blog post might have stirred in you a desire to read this post. If that is why you are reading this, then great! It worked! If you are reading this because you always read this, then I'm glad of that too. But the point of the post today is simply to remind you to read.

Reading is important. In fact, when I was a kid, there were Public Service Announcements (PSAs) on the Saturday morning cartoon circuit that encouraged kids to read. The group was called "RIF" and it stood for Reading Is Fundamental. One of the most memorable of these commercials was a group of kids hanging around a guy who played a newspaper editor on TV. He was talking about how reading was important if kids were going to learn. Then one of the kids spouted off some statistics (I can't recall those right now), and this man looks the kid straight in the eye and says, "Hey! You're pretty smart! How'd you get so smart?" And the kid leans in and says, "READING!"

I really have no idea why that made such an impression on me, but it did. You would think that having that kind of an impression put on my as a kid, I would have been more into reading. The fact of the matter is that I don't read as much as I should. It takes me a long time to read a book, because when I read I want to understand. So to fly through a book for me is counter intuitive.

But there is one book that I read often. It is a book that has been around for longer than any other book I own. It is a book that holds that secrets to life's mysteries and the answers to life's questions. It is a book that is capable of changing a man or woman to be better than they are, and it is also capable of bringing peace in the midst of some pretty dark times.

We are facing some dark times as a society today. We face killings and mass shootings and it is hard for us to think that things will ever change. But we can't look to the government to fix this. We can't look to politics to fix it. We can't look at race relations to fix this. We can't look at superheroes to fix it. We can't look to anyone to fix this, except the Author of this book.

Of course, that book is the Bible, and when we read the Bible, we are faced with the truth. We are faced with absolute moral truth that cannot be denied. But many in our society have tried to deny moral absolutes. Because of this, we are seeing what we saw last week, and we will continue to see it...more and more each passing day.

Friends, read the Scriptures. Don't let this be a habit that you allow yourself to break. Keep reading, but also do what it says (but more on that tomorrow!). ;-)

Please feel free to comment or ask a question below. We will respond to all comments!

And we'll see you on Sunday!

Ask Believing

On Sunday, we challenged each other to seek God when we need wisdom. We talked about what that means, and the fact that God (through James) told us that He is not stingy when it comes to giving the wisdom we need...especially when we ask with a heart that believes He will answer.

I remember a time that my father promised to do something with me on a certain day. I looked forward to that day because we had not done anything together for quite a while. When that day came, I knew that my father would be there when he promised and that there wouldn't be anything that would keep him form spending that time with me.

When the Heavenly Father makes a promise to His kids, He is always going to keep it. There is nothing in this world that will ever separate us from His love and goodness. So, we need to make sure that all of our asking for wisdom is with the confidence that God will honor His promise to give it to us.

But where do we find God's wisdom? There are a number of ways that we can gain God's wisdom. We can find God's wisdom in the teaching of those who speak for God. I'm speaking here of pastors and teachers who love God and know Him well. Many of us listen to Christian radio where we hear truth from God through men and women who know God and His Word.

Another way is through fellow Christians who have experienced the things we are going through. Many times the perspective of others can give us wisdom from God.

But the best place (and the place we should always start and end) is with God's Word. If a teacher, friend or preacher says anything that is contrary to the written Word of God, we should reject it. It is the Scripture that is the final authority for our life and doctrine. It the Scriptures that we should always begin with and return to when making wise decisions.

So believe that God will and has given you the wisdom you need. And then move forward with confidence!

Please feel free to ask a question or comment below. And we'll see you Sunday!