Lots of Dead People Walking Around

Perhaps we have a lot of dead people who claim to be Christians. They do not feel the weight of sin on them, they merely explain, excuse and enjoy it.

We Cannot Love God if We Do Not Love One Another

Very well put!!!!! If we have not love for one another its unlikely that we love God.

Bryan VanHoose

the greatest commandment?"

Jesus was asked this very question by a Pharisee who was considered to be “an expert in the law” (Matthew 22:34–36). Jesus answered by saying, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and most important commandment. The second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets depend on these two commandments” (Matthew 22:37–40).

Jesus gives us two commandments that summarize all the laws and commands in Scripture. The Ten Commandments in Exodus 20 deal with our relationship with God and then our relationship with other people. One naturally flows out of the other. Without a right relationship with God, our relationships with others will not be right, either. The cause of the world’s problems is that man needs to be reconciled to God. We will never love our neighbor as ourselves if we do not first love God with all our heart, mind, and soul. All of man’s best efforts toward world peace will fail as long as men are living in rebellion against God.

When asked by another Pharisee how one could “inherit eternal life,” Jesus answered that it is by keeping these two commandments (Luke 10:25–37). Only two commandments to obey, yet how often do we, like this Pharisee, try to “justify” ourselves because saying we obey these commandments is much easier than really living according to them.

When carefully considered, Jesus’ answer was really a perfect response not only to the Pharisee of His day, but also to all modern-day “Pharisees” who try measure a person’s righteousness by how well he conforms outwardly to a series of laws or commandments. Both the Pharisees of Christ’s day and today’s many versions create a whole system of rules and regulations for people to live by and yet are guilty of breaking the most important commandments of all because they “cleanse the outside of the cup and dish, but not the inside” (Matthew 23:25–26).

When we prayerfully consider Jesus’ words and the fact that all the laws and commands in Scripture can really be summarized by these two commandments, we understand just how impossible it is for us to keep God’s commandments and how often we fail to do so and can therefore never be righteous before God on our own accord. That only leaves us with one hope, and that is that God “justifies the ungodly” (Romans 4:5). God’s law and our failure to keep it “brings about wrath” (Romans 4:15), but “God demonstrates His own love toward us that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).

While we will never keep God’s commandments or be righteous before Him by our own efforts, Christ did. It is His sacrificial death on the cross that causes our sins to be imputed to Him and His righteousness imputed to us (Romans 4—5). That is why “if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation” (Romans 10:9–10). After all, the gospel of Christ “is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes,” for “the just shall live by faith” (Romans 1:16–17).

Because Jesus answered this very question and His answer is recorded in Scripture, we don’t have to wonder or search for the answer ourselves. The only question left for us to answer is do we live according to these commandments? Do we truly love God with all our hearts, all our souls, and all our minds, and do we really love our neighbor as ourselves? If we are truthful with ourselves, we know that we do not, but the good news is that the law and commandments were given as “a tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith” (Galatians 3:24). Only as we realize our sinfulness and hopelessness will we turn to Christ alone as the only hope of salvation.

As Christians, we strive to love God with all our heart, soul, and mind, and as our hearts and minds are transformed by the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit we are able to begin to love others as ourselves. Yet we still fail to do so, which again drives us back to the cross of Christ and the hope of salvation that stems from the imputed righteousness of Christ and not from any merit of our own. Bashir Yaqub

Have You Grown or Stagnated?

Those who live to joke or laugh are covering flaws withinn themselves to disguise themselves from others.

Have you ever met someone who jokes all the time? In fact when attempting to engage this person in serious meaningful conversation in a substantive way is nearly impossible.

Those who despise important topics, making a joke out of everything are ones who are covering their heart. If they can deter someone from seeing the real them by joking, they feel they have managed to obtain favor from those with whom they joke.

The purpose of joking continually is to acquire the supply they seek. By supply I mean the need to have the attention of others while being seen as a happy person. Continual joking is a way of hiding the sad person that remains inside.

We all joke at times, this is not the about the funny things we say from time to time, its about a person who does almost nothing else except joke. When we attempt to bring up a serious subject and are met with a joke about it, we are watching someone who cannot be serious. Seriousness offends these joke crackers, they hate rational serious conversations that might cause one to grow in wisdom.

Fear of exposure is the reason for excessive levity. Hiding is the reason. I have seen this for myself, generally when we attempt to talk seriously with these people they end up raging while accusing, if they are not raging they are joking, there is no in between.

Those who are jokesters hate rebuke, they hate correction and they hate any seriousness that might cause them to self reflect.

Those who avoid correction or seriousness never learn good lessons. They have avoided deep thoughts all their lives, no one can grow living a superficial life continually into old age.

Ecclesiastes 7:4-6 "…4 The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of pleasure. 5It is better to heed a wise man’s rebuke than to listen to the song of fools. 6 For like the crackling of thorns under the pot, so is the laughter of the fool—this too is futile.…"

Those who love to think only happy thoughts tend to be superficial, not of very much use to God.

"Sunshine every day makes a desert." Arab Saying

Do you want to live a righteous and good life? Embrace a rebuke and correction in order to grow.

Rebuke and correction opens the doors to learning about our flaws that help us grow. Those who refuse correction because they are satisfied with their elevated false self will remain spiritual and emotional babies their entire life. Until one is open to correction and rebuke there can be no growth.

James 1:2-7 "2 Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials,
3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance.
4 And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
5 But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him.
6 But he must ask in faith without any doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind. 7 For that man ought not to expect that he will receive anything from the Lord, 8 being a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways."

When we ask God to reveal our flaws we need to be willing to receive correction from others in humility.

I am reminded of the class reunion I went to a few years ago. The reunion was my 30th from high school. I was struck with the fact that most of the people there had not grown emotionally past their high school years. They were in their fifties and yet acted a silly and foolish as they were when they are in high school. There was a sense that they had lost something back in the day, that going forward in their lives had left behind the best part of their existence. Those who attended were wanting to relive those old days as though everything after that had no value.

I feel sorry for people who mentally and emotionally live in the past as though their life was over when that past was over. Continually attempting to relive the past or remember the past demonstrates a lack of emotional maturity.

Philippians 3:13-14 "13 Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus."

There are those narcissists who love to brag about their youthful days and the past. These same people love to remember your youthful and sinful days. They recall their own happy past and repeat your sins, as though they had no sins if you are a scapegoat. I know of no person who can brag about what a wonderful spiritual and wise person they were when they were young. Some were wiser than others but no one was as wise as a 60 year old who has walked with the Lord 40 years of their life.

As for me, I see the past as nothing I would want to return to. I didn't even like the past, it had ugly times I prefer to forget. The only part of my past I will never forget is the day I believed on the Lord Jesus Christ. Thankfully and unlike my class mates my future was and is far better than my past.

When we are born again we grow, we change and hallelujah that we do. I miss nothing from the past but have a glorious and wonderful future. Looking back holds nothing for me. Looking today and the future there is all joy and wonderful expectation.

Hallelujah for the born again believer the past holds no power over us nor does it comfort us. Our comfort comes from Christ Who lives in us and His promise to us.