Is Death Cool?

It's become more and more apparent in our world today that people, especially young people, are fascinated with the dead and the so-called "un-dead". Never before have I seen so many movies, television shows, YouTube videos, advertisements, social media posts and other media that deal with this subject. Our world is fascinated with zombies, vampires, ghosts, apparitions and demons. Why is that?

My opinion is that it is a direct result of the rapidly escalating moral decline in our world, led by the "prince" of this world and the "king" of death, Satan. The Bible clearly tells us that:

You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and has nothing to do with the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies. (John 8:44)

Indeed, Satan would have us all to believe that "living" as a vampire or ghost or zombie is somehow appealing. But Satan is a master counterfeiter and so he takes the bountiful, exciting immortal life that we will all live as followers of Christ and tries to create his own immortal life for humans in the form of these creatures of death. Satan, a murderer and thief from the beginning, has only one goal:

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. (John 10:10)

And when they say to you, “Inquire of the mediums and the necromancers who chirp and mutter,” should not a people inquire of their God? Should they inquire of the dead on behalf of the living? (Isaiah 8:19)

Don't be tempted by Satan's lies and tricks. He is desperate for he knows what his end will be. Instead, believe in the One who gave His life for you. Satan will continue to try and lure you and your children from the Light where every evil act is revealed for what it is and instead tempt you to believe what he's selling is better, sexier, more fun. It's a lie. 

But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death. (James 1:14-15)

Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, (Hebrews 2:14)

My friends, the only death you should concern yourself with is the death to your own selfish desires and sin. If you're willing to give up what is killing you, Jesus is faithful to give you a new birth into a new LIFE where there is no more death. You will truly live forever as a child of the Living God, the King of all Kings and will enjoy all the benefits of being part of this royal family. Don't go to the movies about ghosts, goblins, demons, zombies and vampires. Turn off the television shows that glorify these things. Don't read books and stories about such things. Doing so only leads you down a very dark and dangerous rabbit hole.  

A Child's Prayer

God is Great
God is Good
Let us thank Him for our food.

How many of us learned this simple prayer when we were kids? I've said it so many times, it took me close to 50 years to realize how important these simple words are. I would even argue that these are the two most important characteristics of God and can be used to explain most any circumstance: God is great and God is good. God is BOTH of these and He is both of these ALL of the time. This gives me alot of comfort. No matter what is happening to me or around me in the world, I know that God is in control. He is all powerful. There is nothing, no detail no matter how small, no event no matter how big that He is not in control of. But to me it is equally important to know that God is also good. This means that no matter what is happening under God's control, even if I don't like it or understand it, I know without a doubt that God's will and His intentions are all good, all the time. God's wrath is good; His discipline is good; the suffering He allows me to experience IS GOOD!


"Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever." (Psalms 107:1)

"O taste and see that the LORD is good; How blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him!" (Psalms 34:8)

"And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to [His] purpose." (Romans 8:28)

God and goodness cannot be separated because God IS goodness. There is no other thing that exists that is good. Certainly not man, as Jesus proclaimed when he stated,“Why do you ask me about what is good?” Jesus replied. “There is only One who is good...." (Matthew 19:17)  Or as Paul says in Romans 3:10-18:


"As it is written:
“There is no one righteous, not even one;
 there is no one who understands;
 there is 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.”


And yet many claim that God should let them go to heaven because they have done good works. It has taken me a long time to understand completely that there is NO good work that I can do for God. There is no action I can perform that would be righteous in the face of God's perfection. I just can't do it!! My sins are abominable and I can't ever do enough penance to make it up to God.

"All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away." (Isaiah 64:6)

God is the only provider of all that is good. As it says in James 1:17, "Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows." God's goodness cannot be more self evident than in the fact that He chose to send His Son to earth as a man, allowing Him to be vilified, rejected, beaten, cursed and ultimately hung on a cross by the very beings for whom He created and in whom He breathed life. It's unfathomable. There is no greater act of goodness and love than that which Jesus did for us on that day when he literally took all of our evil acts upon Himself so that we might live. I don't deserve that. I weep when I realize the magnitude of that amazing act of grace. God is great and He is very very good.

"This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all." (1 John 1:5)

The Sins Of The Father

Are you a sinner? Most think only of liars and cheaters and murderers and thieves when we think of sinners. Or perhaps we also think of homosexuals or alcoholics. When I was growing up, my father was an alcoholic. A raging alcoholic. Not as angry as some, but much angrier than many. It was not uncommon for him to drag you out of bed to whip you at 1:00am when he got home drunk because you forgot to roll the water hose up in the front yard. It was normal for me to be sitting at the dinner table at age 7 or 8 excitedly relating something to him that had happened to me that day and to have him backhand me or thump my ear so hard I thought it would fall off because I had inadvertently put my elbows on the dinner table while I was talking. I lived in fear of those nights that he would want to slap me around just to "toughen me up" and "teach me to fight".

I grew up vowing I would never treat my children the way I was treated by my father. In my mind, he was bad and I was good. So when I inherited my father's anger and rage and let it loose occasionally on my kids by yelling at them or saying hurtful things to them, even though I felt bad later, I never felt like I was as bad as my dad. I could easily tell myself that my kids had it good compared to the treatment I got from my dad. I never hit my children. I never spanked my children. I gave my children most of the material things they asked for. I attended every school play and dance recital and performance. I told my children I loved them and I gave them encouragement and hugs. I thought I was a good dad.

But from what I've heard of my dad's dad, my dad's treatment of me was an improvement over what he got. He probably thought he was a good dad too because he didn't treat me the way he was treated as a kid. But the fact is, we are all heirs of the sins of our fathers. Whether you're a murderer or you occasionally yell at your kids, you're a sinner because you fall short of God's righteousness and what He expects of you. We are all heirs to the original sin of our father Adam and we have been sinners ever since. The heart of man is exceedingly evil, according to the Bible, and cannot be trusted. Jeremiah 17:5 says that "Cursed is the one who trusts in man..." and in verse 9 "the heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure".

And yet still, we can all rise above the sins of our fathers. How? By trusting not in ourselves and pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps and reading some self-help books to make us a better person. Not by trusting in mankind. But only by trusting in Jesus Christ, God's only Son, to save you from your sins. When you do this, you become an heir to righteousness instead of a slave to sin. You can then throw off the shackles of your bondage to the sins of your father and accept the love and guidance of your heavenly Father. That's what I did. And now I'm free. Free to forgive my father, free to forgive myself. My children or your children may never forgive us for the times we sinned against them. I pray not, for if so they are only remaining slaves to sin themselves. We are never completely free of sin until we leave this world and these bodies. But we are forgiven for it by God if we trust in Him. Jeremiah 17:14 - "Heal me, O Lord, and I will be healed; save me and I will be saved, for you are the one I praise."

Empty Hands

I've blogged about the fact that, like many, I used to say to myself "I believe in you Jesus and I offer my life to you and I appreciate your sacrifice on the cross but....... I don't think I've done anything worth you having to die for me". Then, in the last year, the Holy Spirit convicted me of my past (and present) that I thought was "not so bad", and I understood that I'm a sinner that does not deserve to be with God, that I deserve to die for my sins, the biggest of which I think is the sin of pride, and I knew what Jesus sacrifice was all about.

But that swung me to the opposite end of the spectrum and I have had a hard time accepting that I am saved, free and clear, and totally forgiven and don't have to lift a finger for it. What about James 2:14 I argue which says "What good is it my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him?" Having been brought up to believe that one can only receive great things by working hard for them, I have been tempted to believe that if I am not working hard enough for the Lord, I may lose my salvation. Or perhaps I never had it until I have proven myself by working out my faith through my good actions.

And so, I lament and worry that because I have not read my Bible every day, have not prayed fervently enough, have not given enough of my time or money to those in need, that I may be one of those to whom Jesus says, "Leave me, I never knew you". I've never been good at relationships with people who are standing right in front of me. How then can I possibly have a good enough relationship with Jesus, who I cannot see, hear or feel in the flesh? How will I know if I've "made the grade". Will I be a "keeper" or will Jesus throw me back because I didn't measure up?

My friends, these are things that zip around in my mind; all the while in my heart I know the truth. The truth being that Jesus' sacrifice was an act of mercy and grace, a gift that I can never earn or repay. The Bible says that my greatest acts are nothing but dirty rags in the Lord's sight. There is nothing I can give Jesus. Except myself. I don't know why He would want me, but He does!! Not only that but He courts and woos me like I am the rarest of gold. He wants to give me such an abundance of blessing that I cannot even conceive of its enormity. Jesus is a giver, not a taker. When I give my time or my money to the homeless or to children in need, do I do it hoping and expecting that they will give something back to me in return? Of course not!! And neither does Jesus give in order that I'll give enough back to make us even. I breathe out each breath every second only because of His grace, mercy, forgiveness, and love.

So, yes I want to do a better job of reading God's Word and talking to Him daily in prayer and offering my time and money to help others around me and loving those who frustrate me and anger me, but........ not so that I will feel I've done enough to earn my place in heaven. If I come to Jesus with hands and arms full of stuff to present to Him, I am just denying myself His rich blessings. But when I come to Him with empty hands, though I may have done innumerable good deeds, when I come to Him humbled with my hands outstretched offering only myself, then I am able to have my arms filled with His blessings. So filled that I can't hold them all and so I run out and pour out my blessings on others and I return to God again with empty hands, ready for Him to fill me up.

The Cross of Christ

Recently in reading my Oswald Chambers daily devotional, I was struck by Chambers' statement that most of us tend to focus primarily on the effects of Christ's death on the cross instead of the event itself. It struck me as odd at first because I thought that the effects of the cross, i.e. salvation, mercy, grace, forgiveness, was the main point that we were to be preaching to others. This is the Good News after all, is it not?

But then I considered the fact that, while many of us were horrified the first time we heard the details of Jesus' death on the cross or saw re-enactments like the movie "The Passion of the Christ", after awhile we get used to it, are kind of numbed to it, and don't really think much anymore about the horror and agony of it. The beating with clubs and fists that broke bones, the whipping with the cat-o-nine-tails that ripped flesh, the spitting in His face, the taunting, the crown of thorns digging deep into His head, the mocking, the agonizing trip up the hill carrying a heavy, rough, wooden, splintered cross on His ripped open flesh, the humiliation of being stripped bare in front of his mother, friends and everyone, the huge spikes being hammered through each of His hands and each of His feet one at a time in slow succession, the cross being raised with his body nailed to it, thumping into the hole, jarring His body and causing Him to hardly be able to breathe, the jeers, the hoots and hollers and self-satisfied smirks..... this is only a fraction of the agony He endured on the Cross. And yet, we condense all of this to "Christ died on the cross for our sins".

I agree with Chambers that the Cross is everything. While we are all happy about the rewards of the cross to us, the Cross itself and the tribulation that Jesus endured on that cross to gain us those rewards is the MOST important thing and ought to be where we place our primary emphasis. For me, this does several things. First of all, it continually reminds me of the terrible sacrifice that was made for me and for the whole world. A sacrifice that was made for a world of egotistic, unloving, ungrateful, and evil-minded people. A seemingly insane sacrifice except that it reveals the unbelievable passion that Jesus has for all of His children and His determination to do whatever it takes to save them. Remembering the horror and agony of that sacrifice makes the reward of salvation so much sweeter and so much more appreciated.

Focusing on the Cross of Christ also keeps the focus off of me. Let's face it, by focusing on the effects and rewards of the cross, it's almost like saying "What's in it for me?" It's all about "what can Jesus do for me?" instead of "what can I do for Jesus?". It helps to reverse my natural selfish mindset and engenders a spirit of gratitude and humility in me. These are the kinds of traits we want people far from God to see in us. We want them to see how grateful and humbled we are by Jesus selfless sacrifice for us, and not just gleeful that we get to go to heaven. Sometimes I think we just get too caught up in telling people "Dude! This is the deal of a lifetime! This Jesus dude already paid for everybody's ticket to heaven and all you have to do is believe! It's so easy!" We forget how much was paid and in what manner for that ticket.

So Paul says in 1 Corinthians 1:17 "For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel - not with words of human wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power". Think about the times you have tried to bring the message of Christ to unbelievers. Did you focus on the rewards of being a Christian or did you focus on the event of Christ on the cross? I think we're afraid to go to the cross in our ministry because we think it will turn people off. In 1 Corinthians 1:18, Paul goes on to say "For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God." And in 1 Corinthians 1:22-25, "Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man's strength."

I believe Chambers has it right when he says, "The proclaiming of Jesus will do its own work. ".....and even if your listeners seem to pay it no attention, they will never be the same again. We have to focus on the great point of spiritual power - the Cross. If we stay in contact with that center of power, its energy is released in our lives." "If we get away from dwelling on the tragedy of God on the cross in our preaching, our preaching produces nothing. It will not transmit the energy of God to man; it may be interesting, but it will have no power."

You may say, "But I am not a preacher, what does this have to do with me!" If you are a Christ follower, then you are a preacher, or should be, to everyone in your sphere of influence and contact. So don't forget the power of preaching the tragedy and agony of the Cross that Christ endured out of His passionate love for us to bring us eternal life with Him.

The God Filter

As usual, I'm going to talk about something that is so fundamental to most of you mature Christians out there that I almost feel silly talking about it. But God puts these things in my mind I think for a reason, and He doesn't let go of me until I obey and write about it. Plus, I still don't consider myself in the real mature Christian category, so this is one of those things that, even though I've heard it a million times, I'm just now starting to really learn and apply to my own life.

I'm talking about the God filter. You know, that lens that you look through in order to help you sort out what is important and what is not. We all have worries and problems in our everyday lives, but when viewed through the God filter, most of them vanish like a wisp of smoke. When things aren't going that well at work, when I think I may even lose my job, I look through the God filter and it just doesn't matter. Through faith, I know that God controls my destiny and that includes my job. Looked at this way, losing a job can actually be kind of exciting. Not that I want to lose my job, cause I don't. Not that I will stop doing my best at my work because I must, as I work as if I am working for the Lord Himself (and I am).

The stock market may tank tomorrow and we may lose every penny of our retirement fund. Oh my gosh, how will we survive in our old age? So, I put on my God filter and suddenly I know that we will be just fine. Who knows, maybe we will be whisked up to be with Jesus before retirement age ( a very likely scenario) and those retirement funds will not be needed anyway. I need new carpet for the house, need to fix the fence, need to repair some holes in the wall from the plumber's excavation to fix a slab leak a year ago, and on and on. Can't afford any of that. My friends are all renovating and getting all new everything. Should I worry? Should I be envious? When I look through the God filter, which includes reading my Bible and many passages telling me specifically not to worry and not to be envious, it's pretty obvious the answer is no. But more importantly, it's about faith in a God and Savior and Friend who I now know without a doubt loves me more than anyone on this earth is capable of loving me and who says "I know the plans I have for you.... plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future" (Jeremiah 29:11).

The love I talked about in my last post changes everything. When I really believe in that love, I put everything through the God filter and nothing can cause me to tremble in fear. "For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 8:39-39). That love filters everything I do and think now. Occasionally I still stumble and let the world get me down. But it doesn't last as long anymore. I have let Jesus eyes be my own eyes, his ears be my own ears and His heart be my own heart. One cannot see through His eyes, hear with His ears and feel with His heart and do anything but smile.

To Make You Feel My Love

It seems like the longer I am in relationship with Christ, the more I view every love song I hear to be about Jesus love for me. I was listening to the song "To Make You Feel My Love" sung by the young British artist Adele, and it just seemed like it was Jesus singing to all of us. This was originally a Bob Dylan song that has been covered by Garth Brooks, Trisha Yearwood and many others and I don't think any of them were singing about Jesus, and yet that's who I think of when I hear the song. Adele has a particularly beautiful voice on the song (listen at www.adele.tv). Here are the words:

When the rain is blowing in your face,
And the whole world is on your case,
I could offer you a warm embrace,
To make you feel my love.

When the evening shadows and the stars appear.
And there is no one to dry your tears,
I could hold you for a million years,
To make you feel my love.

I know you haven't made your mind up yet,
But I would never do you wrong,
I've known it from the moment that we met,
There's no doubt in my mind where you belong.

I'd go hungry, I'd go black and blue,
I'd go crawling down the avenue,
There ain't nothing that I wouldn't do,
To make you feel my love.

The storms are raging on the rolling sea,
And on the highway of regret,
The winds of change are blowing wild and free,
You ain't seen nothing like me yet.

There ain't nothin' that I wouldn't do,
Go to the ends of the earth for you,
Make you happy make your dreams come true,
To make you feel my love.

Think about how much Jesus loves us. How passionately He pursues us. How much He was/is willing to sacrifice for us. It blows my mind. You know, in this world they tell us that if it seems too good to be true, it probably is. The fact that the God of creation, the Maker of the universe loves us so much even though many ignore Him, yell at Him, spit on Him, deny Him and despise Him seems way too good to be true. That He says He has paid the debt for all my crimes and wiped my filthy heart clean, seems impossible to believe. The fact that He woos us with the love of a starry eyed teenager, willing to do anything for us if we would only believe in Him and return His love, it's unfathomable. I used to feel a little weird frankly about this love for me that Jesus has; the fact that I'm to be His "bride". I'm a dude man! That just seemed weird. Now it's incredibly romantic and exciting. His love for us is truly too good to be true; and yet it is true!

He really would go to the ends of the earth for us, go hungry or go black and blue. There is nothing He wouldn't do to make us feel His love. Can you say the same thing back to Him? I love you Jesus.