illusions

May 7, 2022

“We Don’t Try to Please People But God,…”

 4 Rather, we are always spreading the Good News. God trusts us to do this because we passed his test. We don’t try to please people but God, who tests our motives. – 1 Thess. 2:4 GW


1 Thessalonians 2:2-6 NLT

We don’t need smoke and mirrors, cards up our sleeves or any other sort of deceptive illusions or devices. We just need to spread the simple truth of the Good News that Jesus came in the flesh and died for our sins. When we feel the urge of God’s Spirit telling us to speak to someone He has put in our path, we can be sure that the soil has been tilled and the heart is ready to receive the Word. Just speak the Truth in Love and the rest is up to God. The answer won’t always be “Yes”, but just remember it is Jesus they are rejecting, not you. God gives us this assurance in His Word.

Isaiah 55:10-11 NLT

If we do our part, God will certainly not fail in doing His part. We must not quit just because people don’t like what we say. As long as we speak the truth in love from a pure heart, we are doing what God has asked us to do.

“The Gospel has come to you because it’s on its way to someone else.” -Anonymous

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December 31, 2018

“We Are to Be Beacons In the Storms of Life”

6 God sent a man, John the Baptist, 7 to tell about the light so that everyone might believe because of his testimony. — John 1:6, 7 NLT

John 1:6-14 NLT

God sent John the Baptist as a forerunner of Jesus.  The purpose and plan for John’s life was to tell the world about the Light that was coming.  John understood and accepted his mission wholeheartedly.  John spent his life in the wilderness living on locusts and honey, witnessing to those who came out to hear him.  He was not the Light but was a witness that the Light was coming.  John was so effective in his work that Jesus called him “the greatest man who ever lived”

.Luke 7:24-28

Yet, Jesus said “even the least person in the Kingdom of God is greater than he is”.  How can this be that we could be greater than John the Baptist who lived his life for and ultimately gave his life for Jesus?  The word “greater” here is used in the same sense that the word “greater” is used when Jesus said that we would do even “greater” works than Jesus did when He walked here on the earth.  It is not meant to demean or lessen the value of the work that John and Jesus did, but to emphasize the greatness of the Kingdom of God itself.   It is not written to give us illusions of grandeur or self-importance, but to encourage us to work for the Kingdom of God.  It is not as individual Christians that we are greater or can do greater works but it is our inclusion in the Kingdom of God that is emphasized as being of utmost importance.  So, the work we do for the expansion of the Kingdom of God is greater in importance than anything that we do that the world considers great or important.  If we are to be “greater” then we must finish the work that John started.  John was the forerunner, Jesus was the reason and we are the witnesses for this and future generations.  We are here as Light and Life to a dark and dying world.  So, we should be beacons and alarms that speak the words of Life to those around us wherever we are and whenever we can. There is no “greater” work to be done.

“The Gospel has come to you because it’s on its way to someone else.” – Anonymous“

Post 12-31-2018

March 15, 2017

Nothing But the Truth!

even-smaller-bug-light1

3 So you can see we were not preaching with any deceit or impure motives or trickery.
– 1 Thess.2:3 NLT
1 Thessalonians 2:2-6 NLT
We don’t need smoke and mirrors, cards up our sleeves or any other sort of deceptive illusions or devices. We just need to spread the simple truth of the Good News that Jesus came in the flesh and died for our sins. When we feel the urge of God’s Spirit telling us to speak to someone He has put in our path, we can be sure that the soil has been tilled and the heart is ready to receive the Word. Just speak the Truth in Love and the rest is up to God. The answer won’t always be “Yes”, but just remember it is Jesus they are rejecting, not you. God gives us this assurance in His Word.

If we do our part, God will certainly not fail in doing His part. We must not quit just because people don’t like what we say. As long as we speak the truth in love from a pure heart, we are doing what God has asked us to do.

“The Gospel has come to you because it’s on its way to someone else.” -Anonymous

Post 03-15-2017

August 29, 2016

The Little Foxes

even-smaller-bug-light1

12 If you think you are standing strong, be careful not to fall.
— 1 Corinthians 10:12 NLT
1 Cor. 10:12-17 NLT
No matter whether we are new Christians or have served God most of our lives, we still have faults and weaknesses.  Not one of us has a corner on the depths of the meaning of the Holy Scriptures.  We need to always have a teachable spirit and attitude.  When pride leads us to the point that we think we can’t be tempted, watch out, we are about to fall.  When we think “oh, I would never get to that point”, be very careful that you are so proud of your discernment.  The evil one knows our weaknesses and exploits them with amazing dexterity and cleverness.  The sly old fox is always lurking around us waiting for that moment of weakness when he can shoot an arrow through the chink in our Spiritual armor.  One of his favorite tactics is compromise.  A little of this, just this time, won’t hurt and anyway, who’s going to know?  The devil is very adept at showing us beautiful things that turn out to be nothing but illusions. “It’s just a little lie, it’s just a little sin” is a big lie that he wants us to believe. 
Be very careful, it is “the little foxes that spoil the vines” – Song of Solomon 2:15
Post 08-29-2016