Tag Archives: ISIS

Distractions and Divisions: Majoring in the Minors

Sunday was an out-of-the-ordinary day for me. My beautiful niece, is just weeks away from blessing our family with a healthy baby boy. Baby JT (they aren’t giving us his name yet, just initials) will be my first great-nephew! He will also be my parents’ first great-grandchild. So it was only appropriate that we attend her baby shower, even if it was on a Sunday afternoon three hours away in another state. That’s what families do!

My sister-in-law offered to drive so we made a day of it. Sitting in the back seat of my brother’s brand new extended cab pickup truck, leather and loaded, my seat partner was my 12 year old niece Gracie. What fun we had telling stories that she had never heard before about family. Then on the way back, we played a game Gracie wanted to play: Start two words of a story then the next person repeats those words, adds their two words, and so it goes. I must say they were a bit ridiculous but I don’t know the last time I have laughed so hard.

I said all of that to say this: Driving down I-275 in Ohio, chatting away, all of a sudden my SIL swerves over into the median and then immediately corrects herself beautifully back onto the busy highway just like she had meant to do it. What I did NOT see was the driver beside us who was busy on his phone and not paying attention. He had wandered into our lane so quickly she had to react. React is exactly what she did; pickup trucks are not just for men! So many times in a situation like that you over-correct and cause a wreck, or you jerk so quickly to miss the guilty vehicle that you flip your own. Thankfully God was watching out for us and Shauna was an excellent driver.

It could have been so much worse; all because of distraction.

It’s been a busy time, to many a frustrating week. Don’t worry; I’m not going to become political. We all have opinions and convictions. Instead, let us think about spiritual warfare, about someone else who has been busy, very busy with distraction and divisions. The Bible tells us that Satan is like a roaring lion, roaming to and fro. Doing what? He is seeking whom he may DEVOUR. (1 Peter 5:8.)

“Now as they went on their way, Jesus entered a village. And a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to his teaching. But Martha was distracted with much serving. And she went up to him and said, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me.” But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.” Luke 10:38-42 ESV.

Martha was distracted. The scripture doesn’t say she was too busy, it doesn’t say she was guilty of doing something insignificant. But she was distracted by the things that were not important Distracted means to be physically pulled or dragged away from something. There was division between Martha and her sister, Mary.

Everyone had to eat eventually; even Jesus would share their meal. But Martha was distracted with MUCH serving. Mary was “at the feet of Jesus” which doesn’t particularly mean she was sitting right on His toes. It was used to signify that she was a follower of Jesus, she made it her purpose to hang on His every word and if He was in the room there was NOTHING else that would distract her from hearing from Him!

Is that where we find ourselves today? All of the political, social and economic happenings are important and not to be taken lightly. But what could we be doing that is more important, no matter how we feel about different situations?

As Christians in an ever-changing world, will we be guilty of majoring in the minors?

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Look at this passage of scripture that speaks so plainly (the bold emphasis is mine):

“But you must not forget this one thing, dear friends: A day is like a thousand years to the Lord, and a thousand years is like a day. The Lord isn’t really being slow about his promise, as some people think. No, he is being patient for your sake. He does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants everyone to repent. But the day of the Lord will come as unexpectedly as a thief. Then the heavens will pass away with a terrible noise, and the very elements themselves will disappear in fire, and the earth and everything on it will be found to deserve judgment.

Since everything around us is going to be destroyed like this, what holy and godly lives you should live, looking forward to the day of God and hurrying it along. On that day, he will set the heavens on fire, and the elements will melt away in the flames. But we are looking forward to the new heavens and new earth he has promised, a world filled with God’s righteousness.

And so, dear friends, while you are waiting for these things to happen, make every effort to be found living peaceful lives that are pure and blameless in his sight. And remember, our Lord’s patience gives people time to be saved. This is what our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you with the wisdom God gave him— speaking of these things in all of his letters. Some of his comments are hard to understand, and those who are ignorant and unstable have twisted his letters to mean something quite different, just as they do with other parts of Scripture. And this will result in their destruction.

You already know these things, dear friends. So be on guard; then you will not be carried away by the errors of these wicked people and lose your own secure footing. Rather, you must grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. All glory to him, both now and forever! Amen.” 2 Peter 3:3-18 NLT.

I could have easily highlighted it all, it is so good. Peter is telling us that there are things out there that can easily trip us up, distract us and keep us from our ultimate purpose: that the Lord might delay His coming just so more people could be saved! While we are waiting for His return we are to be living peaceful lives, pure and blameless in His sight, pointing others to Him.

People are always going to twist the scripture, but it doesn’t CHANGE the Word of God.

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This is nothing new; these are the Apostle Peter’s words, not mine! So we must be on guard! Pour ourselves into study of the Word so we will not be fooled and confused and lose our own secure footing.

I am not taking lightly anything that is going on in the world from ISIS terrorism to racial relations, marriage redefinition, who will be the next president of the United States and on and on and on…it is all important! We should be praying, fasting, petitioning God to have mercy on our country and our world. None of these things should surprise the Christian…we have the playbook! We know these things must come to pass before the Lord will come to take us out of here and we will be ushered into His presence. We do not know when that day will be but I just have to think the Lord is grieved with our distraction and the devil is dancing with glee.

Let us remember the MAJORS: The Gospel, reaching the lost, sharing the literal Good News that Jesus Christ still delivers, still saves, still heals, still brings hope to the hopeless. If we don’t tell them, who will? May we not be so distracted by letting our voices be heard on the latest Supreme Court decision, mass shooting, or act of terrorism that we forget to tell the one sitting beside us at lunch that Jesus is the answer. And the way out.

Souls going out into eternity are the majors, everything else is minor.

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Separated at 30,000 ft. Part 2!

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Today’s post is Part 2, the conclusion of Separated from The Sweetheart. You can read Part 1 here. Today? Separated at 30,000 ft. Part 2!

This flight actually took place first, from the Mediterranean island of Malta to Frankfurt, Germany where we were staying overnight. We had about 18 hours total to see Frankfurt…no worries we have had much less on long layovers. We once only had eight hours in Copenhagen and we sure didn’t spend it in the airport! We hopped a taxi and headed for the river, took a cruise to see as much as we could, ate at the Hard Rock Cafe, saw the Tivoli and even shopped for souvenirs. It can be done!

So in Frankfurt, we had secured a room at a brand new Holiday Inn right downtown (for a steal!!) and were looking forward to seeing a little bit of the city, even though the sun wasn’t cooperating. Here are a few pictures of Römerberg, the historic heart of the city: (The church in the second picture dates back to the 13th century!)

So we have boarded our flight and this time The Sweetheart was BEHIND me. (Yes, I know, I need to start booking these flights myself) I had the aisle again and he did too so he was continually reaching up and bugging me, flipping my hair or asking me questions.

A few minutes later, a young man gave the customary “Excuse me.” He had the window seat and as the plane filled up we were both delighted to discover the seat between us would remain empty. Hooray for the little things.

I say “young” because I thought he was the age of my boys, 28-30 or so. After about an hour of conversation he told me he was 46!! Seven years younger than me! I wasn’t about to tell him that and have him gasp as I had, only for the opposite reason.

I noticed right away he was getting a lot of attention from the Lufthansa flight attendants. They came around passing out little bags of pretzels. I received one little bag but my friend received two! They were chatting in German so naturally I couldn’t understand them. When they came back a couple of minutes later with soft drinks they poured mine out of the can into the small plastic cup and handed it to me. His? He got the full cup AND the rest of the can! Laughing, joking, bantering back and forth and in the process one of the flight attendants opened another can and it spewed all over her. Being the ever-ready-and-prepared traveler, I reached into my bag for a giant wet wipe and handed it to one of the attendants who handed it to the one who had made the mess. She immediately looked at my friend and thanked HIM! I interrupted then, in English, and said, “No, no, no…” pointing to me. He was laughing hard by then and telling them in German. Right, this nice looking, single guy carries giant Wet Ones with him. Seriously.

So when they left I couldn’t resist asking, “So, do you know the flight attendants personally?”

“No.”

“You are receiving quite a bit of extra attention, extra snacks, extra drinks and tons of smiles!”

He laughed, winked and said, “Just me.”

He asked what we had been doing in Malta and I was delighted to tell him that we had been staying with resident missionaries while doing leadership training and teaching in the church. He had been sent there by his job to brush up on his English. We talked about life, families and just general things until we were almost ready to land. We had been talking a little about the world state of affairs when he said this:

“Oh, we will never have another world war again. Never happen. We have all learned our lesson and we don’t have to worry about that any longer.”

“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men should do nothing.” Edmund Burke

Of course we all wish my newfound friend was right. As Christians, we know things are rapidly pointing to the coming of the Lord and that things in this life, as we have always known it, cannot continue forever.

Evil abounds and we are in the middle of a war against humanity. We see it every day on television and social media that ISIS is slowly, but surely, taking over city after city and eventually, country after country as they attempt to take over the world. Yes, the world! That is their goal and they have not kept it a secret.

How should we live? As my friend with his head in the sand oblivious to what is going on around him? It is easy to do that…we aren’t under imminent threat here yet, but we will be. We cannot shy away from that! ISIS is not becoming weaker but continues to take over city after city, week after week. We only see a small portion of what is actually taking place in the Middle East, it is much worse than we can possibly imagine.

So should we run through town with placards that state, “THE END IS NEAR”?

Yes. And No. We do have to sound the warning but at the same time we have the Good News! The purpose of the Church of the Living God is to reach out to the lost.

I have always thought the focus on endtime events, though very important and not to be ignored, should be more on what Jesus has done on the Cross, why He came, why He died and what He has done in our own lives. We should be praying for miracles, signs and wonders to be done in our midst again, that is what drew people in the time of the disciples and it will do the same today. People want to know that God is real and even if you don’t have a testimony of a blind eye being opened or a deaf ear unstopped you DO have a story of God’s keeping power, His deliverance, His “I will never leave you nor forsake you” promises.

The Church should be bringing the world the Good News of Hope in Jesus Christ.

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It isn’t all doom and gloom. There is Hope and His name is Jesus. Even as we work to spread the Gospel, the Good News is that Jesus, not Mohammed, is the One, True God who came in the flesh and gave His very life so that we could have eternal life. We serve a LIVING GOD!

Does that mean we will not suffer? Obviously that is not a promise; the Bible says we WILL suffer persecution for His name. We have seen that down through the centuries, we know the apostles and hundreds of thousands of Christians laid down their lives for the Name of Jesus. And we see it again today as we read bulletin after bulletin of Christians being beheaded because they would not denounce their faith.

So, you might ask, what is the point? Why did they do it? Why didn’t they just SAY they denied Jesus to save their lives?

Because He first loved them. And us. Because greater love has NO MAN than this than that He would lay down His life for His friends. Because He promised He would never leave us nor forsake us and will give us eternal life in His presence, eternal paradise, if we hold steadfast to the end.

God doesn’t want anyone to be lost and that should be our heart’s cry as well. He loves the sinner no matter what they have done, what they look like or even what they smell like. Would He have shied away from PigPen and his wife? I think not. I pray I have learned a lesson from these two travel partners. Sometimes we might have to get dirty, get uncomfortable, go where no man has gone before…we might have to stretch ourselves even when we don’t feel like it.

He reached for us, may we fulfill His purpose by reaching for those around us and giving them Hope.

The Daniel Fast Devotional is still going strong! This week I was privileged to be a part of a podcast interview on the Apostolic Informer with Host Rob Barrow. He allowed me to talk about the book, how it came to be, what is a Daniel Fast, etc. and even give away a book or two. Folks, I don’t do well listening to my own voice, yikes. But Rob is doing a great job getting information on district happenings within the UPCI for Indiana and beyond. Take a listen here and get your copy of The Daniel Fast, A Devotional, today!

A plea to the desperate

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“I used to think the worst thing in life was to end up all alone. It’s not. The worst thing in life is to end up with people who make you feel all alone.” ~ Robin Williams

Sometimes the impact of LIFE hits hard. I spent the last two days in Catania, Sicily with The Sweetheart. The sweet missionaries we are staying with encouraged us to take a short trip to Sicily, it is so close to Malta, flights are cheap and it only takes 40 minutes to get there. We had hoped to meet up with some national pastors but their schedule didn’t work out this time. But we prayed we would be able to do more than just sight-see and God made a way for us to witness for His name (I’ll share that story soon!) and intercede in a desperate situation. This is a plea to the desperate.

Catania sits at the bottom of Mt. Etna and right on the Iconian Sea. The beauty is unsurpassed friends, it is breathtaking.

We made a trek up to Mt. Etna, the largest active volcano in Europe. In the late 1600’s, the city of Catania was nearly wiped out by a volcanic eruption that took 16,000 of the 20,000 living in the city! We took a tour bus to the top, about 1 ½ hours straight up. I will write about that in a day or two…pictures are AH-MAZ-ING!

Back on the ground the next morning we witnessed something entirely opposite.

Heading down Via Etnea, the main thoroughfare through Catania, we came upon a large gathering of people all looking upward and we were trying hard to focus on what had grabbed their attention.

Then we saw him.

Dangling on a pedestal on top of a roof, four stories high, was a young, teenage boy about to take his own life. (You can see him at the very top, on the middle limestone pedestal with his leg hanging over the side.)

We could see he was desperate, he kept motioning for those that were trying to talk him down to get back or he would jump.

I have never witnessed anything of this nature and The Sweetheart kept saying, “Let’s go, let’s just go, you don’t want this scene in your mind the rest of your life.” He was a nervous wreck but yet we knew we had to pray. Someone had to pray!!

We began to intercede for this young man, praying in the Holy Ghost and asking God to intervene on His behalf. There was no net, no fire department to help as of yet. Friends, it was intense.

What makes a soul so desperate to leave this earthly life?

This is the way of the lost soul. The soul without Jesus Christ. There is desperation, there is extreme anxiety and frustration. To them, there is nothing that will make it better; nothing you can do or say that will ease their hurt and anger. You can make no promise that they will believe.

The world is in turmoil. There is fear on every hand; threats of war, famine, unemployment, hunger, drought, and of course ISIS. It is real around the world, not just in places like Italy, Malta, South African and Libya. This danger is global and getting worse.

No wonder people who have no hope are intimidated by the enemy into thinking that suicide is their only recourse! The devil wants to put desperation and fear into every heart that will listen and then he stands there, ready to push them over the edge where we know, and he knows, is everlasting darkness.

We must rescue, we must intercede!

Watching this scene unfold before us, and praying as hard as we have ever prayed in our lives, a policeman and another unidentified man had crept up to the floor just below the young man. He could not see them since he was perched on this pedestal on his stomach with his legs dangling.

The man you see in the blue t-shirt then jumped up to the ledge, risking his life for sure, and with all of his strength shoved the young man as hard as he could to the safety of the balcony.

And the crowd roars.

Are you feeling that desperation in your life at this moment? Have pressures from just trying to get by weighed you down so much that you see no way out? Friend, there is HOPE.

“Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. “ 1 Peter 5:7.

Jesus Christ gave HIS LIFE so you wouldn’t ever have to take your own. When He died on Calvary’s cross, He did away with the need for sacrifice, He paid the price, the ultimate price for YOUR salvation and mine. Look at this promise He left with us:

“Before they call I will answer; while they are still speaking I will hear.” Isaiah 65:24.

There is nothing in this life worth taking matters into your own hands in desperation. Jesus truly offers a way out; He is the way! He promises to never leave or forsake us even though times are difficult; they may prove discouraging, frustrating and just plain hard at times. Yet He promises to walk with us through EVERYTHING, bringing Hope, Peace and Comfort in our most challenging circumstances.

“For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.” Jeremiah 29:11.

Not only is there hope in this life but He offers eternal salvation and hope for eternity! Yes, things will get better even if it is not in this life. There is no peace that compares with the peace of God. It can carry you through ANYTHING!

“The LORD your God in your midst, the Mighty One, will save; He will rejoice over you with gladness, He will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing.” Zephaniah 3:17.

He will quiet you with His love; bringing the security that you are desperately seeking. And then…Hope for today and the promise of living with our Savior in perfect peace for all eternity.

“He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever.” Revelation 21:4. NLT

If you are desperate today, please feel welcome to email me if you need guidance to a Bible-believing church or need prayer. Reach out to family, friends or a pastor; someone who will help you find Hope in Jesus Christ. He loves you more than you can imagine and desires to set you free and give joy unspeakable in the midst of your trouble.

If you are struggling with believing you are forgiven, or feel as if you cannot come back to God, please read my post If God has Forgiven me, why can’t I Forgive Myself here.

Tag Archives: ISIS

Distractions and Divisions: Majoring in the Minors

It could have been so much worse; all because of distraction.

Souls going out into eternity are the majors, everything else is minor.

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