Friday, August 31, 2018

Welcome?

Friday, August 31, 2018
The Psalmist poses a question most people don’t want to think over too closely before answering:  Who is welcome at your church?  Without checking what Scripture might have to say about the answer’s possibilities, the company line spills forth:  Everyone!  David may suggest otherwise here.  (In fact, it’s much more than a suggestion!)
Worship is for those who wish to acknowledge God as Creator, those who are willing to draw the harsh line between being self-willed as opposed to surrendering their will.  Worship itself is a matter of being discipled into the pattern of Jesus, Who, according to Paul, emptied himself and became like us, humbled to serve the Father’s will[2].  Jesus also declared that we must be willing to deny self-will, pick up our cross and (then) come along as He leads[3].  There is something very true here about not being able to have your cake (sins) and eat it too (come to worship as if nothing needs to change).
King David doesn’t seem shy about drawing that line in bold red.  He is willing to admit into the sanctuary those who are blameless truth-tellers, sincere in heart, refusing to gossip or harm others, or even speak evil of friends.  But, he narrows the opening of the church doors by refusing those who never speak up to call sin what it is, and honor Godly behavior.  He slams the church door in the face of rich people who use their wealth to oppress others.  Bad behavior and wrong attitude limit your access to God!
David would not be the evangelism director in just about any church today!
So, if you’ve had a bad attitude, lived in this sin or that, and generally not lived a faithful Christian lifestyle, does that mean your sins can not be forgiven?  Does it mean you are barred from the church club forever?  Does it mean you’re not welcome at my church?
Quite the contrary; the doors of the church rightly remain open as an invitation so that whosoever will may enter.  That’s how Jesus said it should be:
“Everyone who acknowledges me publicly here on earth, I will also acknowledge before my Father in heaven.  But everyone who denies me here on earth, I will also deny before my Father in heaven.  Matthew 10:32-33(NLT)
Everyone DOES mean EVERYONE; but notice, just coming inside the church house will mean nothing if there’s not going to be any change when you leave the church house.  Worship is all about acknowledging Christ as Savior and Lord, and then backing it up by surrendering your plans – your life agenda – your self-will – and inviting Christ to change all of what you do, think, and are…your life is His from that moment on. 
A decision to follow Christ carries with it the responsibility to live the Christ life.  That’s when you can call Him LORD; He is the Lord over your will, and all you do!
For You Today
You are always welcome at church, but only if you’re serious about following and serving Christ; that’s different than the bylaws of any social club.
You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day.

Go to VIDEO


[1] Title Image: Photo Courtesy of Pixabay.com
[2] Philippians 2:8
[3] Matthew 16:24, Mark 8:34, Luke 9:23

Thursday, August 30, 2018

The Silk Purse in the Sow's Ear

Thursday, August 30, 2018
This letter is from James, a slave of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ.  I am writing to the “twelve tribes”—Jewish believers scattered abroad.  Greetings!  Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy.  For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow.  So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.  If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and he will give it to you.  He will not rebuke you for asking.  But when you ask him, be sure that your faith is in God alone.  Do not waver, for a person with divided loyalty is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is blown and tossed by the wind.  Such people should not expect to receive anything from the Lord.  Their loyalty is divided between God and the world, and they are unstable in everything they do.  James 1:1-8(NLT)
The followers of Jesus were chased from Jerusalem; the church was in hiding.  Persecution had scattered the believers like water poured on a grease fire spreads it everywhere.  And, James, their praying pastor, told them to look at their displacement as an opportunity for great joy; you gotta love his optimism!
It’s just like James to give us the answer before he poses the question.  The reason the disciples’ trials and hardship were to be considered great joy isn’t that we are supposed to love getting clobbered for the faith, but that suffering any kind of humiliation grows our faithful endurance.  James was comparing their experience to what a fighter goes through in rigorous, determined, physical training, pushing the development of his stamina to the limit, so that when he enters the ring, his body is conditioned, strong and resilient, ready to prevail in the fight, whatever the enemy throws at him.
To tell you the truth I have never been partial to that kind of conditioning.  In high school I decided to try out for the football team.  That first day I never saw a football stadium, or even a football; there was only pushups, wind sprints and something the coach called up/downs.  It was a grueling 15 minutes of running in place until coach blew the whistle, and you were supposed to drop to the dust, landing on all fours.  But it wasn’t nap time; you had to spring to your feet and keep running to nowhere.  Up – down – up – down…up/downs!  It didn’t take too long before I wanted to go home!
But, for three weeks we conditioned our bodies.  Then we finally got to play a little football.  For me the emphasis there was on the word “little”.  I got clobbered (in practice, of all things) and wound up on the operating table with a ruptured spleen, bleeding internally.  After the operation the surgeon (bless that man) told my parents my young body’s muscle-tone was well-developed, and that conditioning I’d received in football helped control the bleeding, so I hadn’t needed a transfusion.  This turned out to be significant, because the nearest blood bank that had my type was in New Jersey.
The point – those wind sprints, pushups, and…heaven help me…up/downs contributed to the kind of endurance I would need to survive 11th grade.
So, this is the great benefit of accepting life’s hardships and trials with great joy – God is blessing us with a growing, faithful endurance, which conditions followers of Jesus Christ for spiritual warfare.  It may not be the kind of fun, or easy ride you envisioned when you became a disciple, but the up/downs, and running for the sake of endurance build a faith that cannot divide your loyalty from Christ; and that is the whole point of what you need…not what you wanted.
For You Today
It may look like you’ve been handed a sow’s ear with what you’re going through…but God has a way of making a silk purse out of the strangest circumstances!
So…rejoice today…greatly!
You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day.

Go to VIDEO


[1] Title Image: Photo Courtesy of Pixabay.com

Wednesday, August 29, 2018

Like Father; Like Son

Wednesday, August 29, 2018
You didn’t choose me.  I chose you.  I appointed you to go and produce lasting fruit, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask for, using my name.  This is my command:  Love each other.   “If the world hates you, remember that it hated me first.  The world would love you as one of its own if you belonged to it, but you are no longer part of the world.  I chose you to come out of the world, so it hates you.  Do you remember what I told you?  ‘A slave is not greater than the master.’  Since they persecuted me, naturally they will persecute you.  And if they had listened to me, they would listen to you.  They will do all this to you because of me, for they have rejected the one who sent me.  They would not be guilty if I had not come and spoken to them. But now they have no excuse for their sin.  Anyone who hates me also hates my Father.  If I hadn’t done such miraculous signs among them that no one else could do, they would not be guilty.  But as it is, they have seen everything I did, yet they still hate me and my Father.  This fulfills what is written in their Scriptures:  ‘They hated me without cause.’  John 15:16-25(NLT)
There are those who will attempt to soften what living as God’s children means.  But Jesus made it clear that’s not possible.  If we live as genuine children of God, we will bear the hatred Jesus experienced. 
What does that look like?  Jesus used three pictures to describe it:

Persecution

Persecution happens out of a guilt-driven indignation.  When someone feels morally-convicted because another lives a compelling witness to truth, while the other person is clinging to self-deception, the guilt usually winds up in hatred of the other.  That points up Jesus second picture:

Hatred without cause

Jesus obviously lived a sinless life; it drove his detractors crazy.  They couldn’t find something he did wrong to convict him, so their hatred drove them to false accusations and to have the Son of God crucified.

Separation

Jesus told the disciples that separating themselves from the selfishness and wicked ways of the world was what He expected of those who followed Him.  This separation – living Godly in a Godless world – is the heart of Jesus’ point.  When you, as a child of God, live like your Father, it causes guilt in those who choose otherwise.  That guilt makes the wedge of hatred greater.
Two things about that:
1.      When a person despises you because your Christ-centered life produces guilt in him or her, it is not on you…it is conviction, and it is driven by God’s Holy Spirit Who draws sinners back to God.  It is the way God works.
2.      You have a responsibility to continue living a holy life, so you give a consistent witness of what God expects.  Jesus didn’t soften the demands of being a child of Heaven; neither should we.  We must remain faithful.
For You Today
If bearing the unfounded hatred of my neighbor in a gracious, unselfish manner is the cost for being faithful to God and cooperating with God’s Spirit to possibly win that neighbor to faith in Jesus, so be it!
You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day.

Go to VIDEO


[1] Title Image: Photo Courtesy of Pixabay.com

Tuesday, August 28, 2018

The Examined Life

Tuesday, August 28, 2018
The Philosopher, Socrates, was given a choice by the rulers of Greece to either leave and spend his remaining days in exile, or shut up, and never again criticize authority; he chose final silence – suicide! 
In one of his last speeches before taking poison as his ultimate protest, he uttered the phrase:  The unexamined life is not worth living.
It is difficult at best, and highly presumptuous at worst, to disagree with one so revered in thinking as this wise man, but, opting for staying close to Scripture rather than Socrates, I would say that the “unexamined life” is not possible.  God keeps his eye on every bit of His creation! 
But, Socrates was not talking about self-examination, as we are urged in Scripture to constantly do considering God’s prior claim on our lives.  The philosopher was referring to political examination; he was concerned about the freedom to decide for himself whether he approved of the way he was governed.  Considering how much resemblance our culture bears to ancient Greek views on individual freedom, it is not surprising that we would revere this individualist.
And how much we would misapply this one famous saying to glorify man’s sovereignty, and in so-doing, diminish God’s. 
There is a thin line here between being anti-liberty and theologically-faithful, and I don’t mean to blur that line in semantics.  God is the author of genuine freedom; man either acts with fidelity to that fact, or becomes his own God.
You can be loyal to only one God.  That isn’t a religious statement, it’s a matter of simple logic.  You cannot leave and remain at the same time.  Nor can you be tall and short, skinny and overweight.  You cannot be alive and dead simultaneously; considering this, how can you be divided (with integrity) and still be devoted?
We do not get to decide on what life is worth living.  God is the author, not only of freedom, but of life itself.  What He has given, man can only recognize and celebrate.  The created clay jar must bow to the potter’s hands!
For Socrates, opting-out of his God-given life proclaimed God could not use him as a silent witness, or that God could not somehow alter the circumstances.  But even putting that charge aside, what amount of hubris, or foolish un-thinking does it take to proclaim God has been wrong to allow suffering and injustice in life, and thereby justify ending that life?
Socrates was right to hold forth the human right, even the compelling duty for a citizen to criticize an unjust government; he was so wrong in the shape of his protest.  No matter how noble the protest, one can scarcely sanction murder by one’s own hand.
For You Today
Your life includes violations, some bigger, some smaller.  Some violations are your choice, others are when fellow humans cross the line.  We should examine what we do and be humble about the outcome.  That is what God-directed virtue demands.
You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day.

Go to VIDEO


[1] Title Image: Photo Courtesy of Pixabay.com

Monday, August 27, 2018

Collapsed Foundations

Monday, August 27, 2018
What, indeed, can the righteous do when the foundations of righteousness are collapsing all around them?  Our Psalmist, David, knew something about being honest, straightforward, and willing to die rather than betray trust, and despite all that seeing his whole world come unglued.  David had been a loyal servant, but King Saul hunted the boy like a dog, breathing out fire and death to destroy the one God had chosen to replace the king.  What can you do when the very person, country, or cause you have committed to support, defend, and, if necessary die for, becomes the enemy of itself?  What if the foundations of righteousness collapse, and, like the cartoon character, Pogo:  We have met the enemy, and he is us?
Of course, the recent political cauldron of intrigue, courts, he said-she said, malaise of high profile charges, convictions, and collusion investigations are an uncomfortable fit for any peace-loving average citizen.  Turn on either Fox news or CNN, and it won’t be three seconds before you hear about the president’s latest whine on Twitter, or the shots fired back across the White House bow by the opposition.  And the greatest loser here is truth.  It is a strange time to be alive.
So, to beg the question, what can a committed follower of Jesus Christ, who is also a citizen of a nation that demands responsive fidelity actually do when, no matter which way you look, the wheels are falling off the wagon on every side?
Perhaps David’s example is best here; he tried to do right and was rewarded by becoming public enemy #1.  He had to flee for his life, hide in caves, and just survive while the king chased him around the world.  But, even when presented with an opportunity to kill the king while he slept, David remained loyal, true to the faithful oath he’d sworn to serve God and his king.  The cost is incredible to live that way; but the cost of denying truth is so much greater.
John Wesley touched on that when his new movement in the 1740’s came under public attack by the very people he felt compelled to serve.  Methodism was seen as a tool of the devil.  Methodist preachers were beaten, sometimes killed as they attempted to spread spiritual holiness across America.  They meant to serve God, and, in the eyes of those who could not see that benevolence (and some who would not), they were the enemy.  Here is what Mr. Wesley advised those people called Methodist:
“Consider deeply with yourself, Is the God whom I serve able to deliver me?  I am not able to deliver myself out of these difficulties; much less am I able to bear them.  I know not how to give up my reputation, my friends, my substance, my liberty, my life.  Can God give me to rejoice in doing this and may I depend upon him that he will?  Are the hairs of my head all numbered; and does He never fail them that trust in him?”  Weigh this thoroughly; and if you can trust God with your all, then go on in the power of his might….Go on, I would earnestly advise you, Fourthly:  “Keep in the very path wherein you now tread.  Be true to your principles.”[2]
Now, isn’t that just like an Englishman?  Keep Calm and Carry On!
For You Today
Whether you subscribe to the Liberal News media, or the Conservative media, or watch both just to be informed (or confused), make no mistake that the Heavenly media, God’s Word, calls us to live above what the world does. 
It’s a tough day, and that means we have the same kinds of decisions Christians have always had in the face of darkness.  We can, to borrow a phrase from Ben Franklin, either complain about the darkness, or we can light a lamp where we are.
You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day.

Go to VIDEO


[1] Title Image: Photo Courtesy of Pixabay.com
[2] John Wesley, Advice to a People Called Methodist, October 10, 1745

Sunday, August 26, 2018

What's On YOUR Throne?

*
Look here, you rich people:  Weep and groan with anguish because of all the terrible troubles ahead of you.  Your wealth is rotting away, and your fine clothes are moth-eaten rags.  Your gold and silver are corroded.  The very wealth you were counting on will eat away your flesh like fire.  This corroded treasure you have hoarded will testify against you on the day of judgment.  For listen!  Hear the cries of the field workers whom you have cheated of their pay.  The cries of those who harvest your fields have reached the ears of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.  You have spent your years on earth in luxury, satisfying your every desire.  You have fattened yourselves for the day of slaughter.  You have condemned and killed innocent people, who do not resist you.  Dear brothers and sisters, be patient as you wait for the Lord’s return.  Consider the farmers who patiently wait for the rains in the fall and in the spring.  They eagerly look for the valuable harvest to ripen.  You, too, must be patient.  Take courage, for the coming of the Lord is near. 
James 5:1-8(NLT)
The whole issue of the Bible’s warning against being materialistic is summed up in the 5th verse of our chapter:
You’ve looted the earth and lived it up. But all you’ll have to show for it is a fatter than usual corpse.  James 5:5(MSG)
This is James’ way of describing the transformation that can happen to you when your preoccupation in life is on material things. 
Two businessmen, vacationing at Miami Beach, were comparing notes.  I’m here on insurance money, one said.  I collected $50,000 for fire damage.  Me too, the other replied.  But I got $100,000 for flood damage.  After a long pause, the first man asked, Tell me, how do you start a flood?[2]
At the outset, let us remember one important thing about money, or things.  Money has no spiritual characteristics, no morality – money is amoral; there is nothing intrinsically negative or positive about money. 
James is not saying it is a sin to be rich.  That’s just a matter of how much money you have.  Rather, James wants us to see that the potential for spiritual problems is the relationship one bears to money – his own, or that which his neighbor possesses.  That is what gives money its power to become a god.  Timothy told us) it is…
…the love of money is the root of all evil: 1 Timothy 6.10a(KJV)
The love of money – materialism; when your things become your gods; when what you can get and keep sits on the throne that rules your life.
This morning we will be like a skilled diagnostician.  We will first look at the sickness – the Malady of Materialism.  Then we will see the cure, the Medicine for Materialism.  Let’s take a look at what you become, when things become your gods.
The Malady of Materialism
A person is transformed into many things when things or money becomes god in life:
1. You Become an Idolater
Jesus told the story of a rich fool (Luke 12).  The man had so much.  His harvest was many times larger than his barns.  He decided to hoard it all – he would build bigger barns.  That night he died – and he kept nothing.  He was a fool.
We have that mentality in our culture today.  Get it, spend it on yourself, or hold onto it for dear life.  Friend, it doesn’t matter if you’re:
þ a spendthrift, always in debt, wondering how you’ll pay this month’s light bill
þ rich and enjoying every luxury
þ or a skinflint, pinching every penny, stuffing 401K’s under 12 different assumed identities.
The problem with spending or hoarding for you is the sickness of selfishness.  It is self-idolatry.  You tell God with your actions that generosity, willing to give to my neighbor in need, is wrong – getting for me, and holding on is right.  It is a form of idolatrous gluttony.  Things become gods…and gods rule wherever they’re worshipped.
#2. You Become an Oppressor 
If you’re successful enough to control a lot of money, you can then control people with it.  Jesus told another story a rich man/poor man story.  In Luke’s gospel again (ch 16) we read of Lazarus and Dives.  Lazarus was the poor beggar, sitting at the Dives’ doorstep.  He got scraps for his living. 
In some way the rich man was responsible for the poor man.  We know that because when they both died, the rich man went to hell, and in the conversation he had with God from Hell, Jesus tied the reason for that destination to the way he lived his life in relationship to the poor man.  It is the same as Cain and Abel.  God told Cain that the blood of his brother Abel called out from the ground to convict Cain for his actions.
In our day we also have excuses:  I can’t feed everyone…The government should… God helps those who help themselves.  In our country we should be ashamed to use excuses.  The poorest of us have ten times more than half the world’s population.  Most Americans have a hundred times more than 90% of the world’s people. 
Oppression is when you have – and others do not – and you won’t even try to help.  It means the possessions you have possess you!  Things have become gods.
#3. You Become an Outsider
The Kingdom of God is populated with people who voluntarily place themselves near the King.  It means we love what the King loves, do what the King wants – we love the King. 
The fact is that God is not materially minded.  He spoke the universe into existence – along with the cattle on a thousand hills.  All of that means little to Him – he simply did it to display His sovereignty and His glory. 
Our correct response as His created beings is to worship the Creator, and enjoy what He has given us.  When we begin to worship our stuff, our nature changes.  We are outside of the Kingdom.  Outside the kingdom?  This is what it means to be an outsider:
Blessed are those who wash their robes so they can enter through the gates of the city and eat the fruit from the tree of life.  Outside the city are the dogs—the sorcerers, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idol worshipers, and all who love to live a lie.  Revelation 22.14-15(NLT)
What should be the cure?  How do you change from being a materialist?
The Medicine for Materialism
James is really specific.  Here is how he tells us what to do:
#1.  If you’re poor, have Patience
Jesus is the Master gardener, and he knows when the time will be ripe to settle everything.  We are not to grow impatient with the way He handles things. 
If you are part of the have-not’s – don’t get impatient.  Impersonating God (trying to call the shots, run the world) carries an awful burden.  Rather, wait patiently, and let the Lord decide.  You be faithful with whatever He places in your hand.  After all, if He owns it all, He can decide where it goes.
#2.  If you’re well-blessed, be Generous
A wake-up-call to the rich:  
It matters how you get money, 
and it matters what you do with it.

I want to end today by sharing a testimony from a preacher’s daughter…my oldest daughter, Jennifer Klim:

 My husband and I met the most extraordinary person today. I spent much of the afternoon in tears, just humbled by this gentle, sweet man. His name is Zaki - Zaki Khalifa, and he made such an impression on me today that I have to share this with you.
He owns one of the largest imported oriental rug stores in the United States. Ken and I have been just taking our time looking for a new rug for a room in our home, when we decided to visit Zaki's showroom today.
Zaki sat down to go over cost of the rugs we had chosen, and he was a quiet, calm person, not in any rush to make the sale, just so polite, and acknowledged that my husband seemed tired and told him he was glad he had the day off of work to relax, ha! Ken asked him how long he had been there. He'd been in this building for over 20 years, in business for over 40 years, and was closing this location probably after market this year (our area has a famous furniture market twice a year, the next one is in October). I asked him where he will go after he closes it, and he said he would say good-bye!
I assumed he was retiring but that was when he said something so unexpected, that I actually did the Home Alone, Macaulay Culkin double-handed face smack ... and he brought me to tears. He said,
"You know, I have given much money away over the years to help as many people as I can." We had just been shown a special room where some of the rugs cost $350,000 and were told of others that had recently sold for millions, so I knew when he said that, he was talking about a lot of money.
"I've been in America for 40+ years, it has been my home, and I want to help those who need the most help. People talk about poverty here, but you don't know poverty until you've been to Pakistan. It's horrible. And what the children go through is unimaginable. My wife and I try to go every year, but you know, I am coming up on my 74th year. We were never able to have any children. I have one brother who isn't married so I have no nephew ... you know, I have to do something with my life from here. I've donated the previous buildings for my company every time I move to a larger building, to help my community [one of these houses a community against violence non-profit]. This current building, and the rugs, are worth over $17 million. When it sells, I am donating it to Akhuwat [a Pakistani non-profit that provides micro-loans with a 99.4% return rate and free grade school education]. I'm not going to take a penny. [cue tears and Home Alone] Pakistan is my home country. I've helped my community here in America for the past 40 years, it's time to help those in poverty where I am from, so I will do this. And my wife and I will move there, and teach the children in the schools. [remember, he's 74] I could buy a house on the beach and relax, but what is in that? There is no worth or value. Many of these children will eat rice and beans for most of their life, very, very once in a while will they eat a piece of chicken. Not like here in America."
This brought us to a conversation about the standard american diet, of which I told him I don't consume [if you know me and how I eat, I eat no animal products at all, and eat a mostly unprocessed, whole foods diet.] He said that was just like his wife. I told him even though I started eating that way to stop spending so much time in the hospital, I couldn't eat an animal today if I had to, that for me, I feel like animals are companions, not food. He agreed and said, "Of course, it's a living thing - that wants to live!"   Then he continued ...
"You know, a thief is never successful enough - he always wants more. In the same way, any amount of benevolence is never enough, the more you give, the more you want to give. People are in need. Children pass out from not enough food. They are disturbed when they have to not attend school on Sundays because it is the only meal they get. My grandfather wrote a beautiful poem when helping to negotiate the Indian subcontinent's independence in the 1940's that went something like this, I will try to translate as best I can to English, my English is not that good![it was great!] The poem says: 'Do not fear the adverse and hostile winds, o eagle, for through them, you are lifted to the heavens.' It was hard starting a new business, but today, my reward is that I can give it all away. I am very blessed. [At this point, I can't control the tears, they were just streaming down my cheeks.] Ken says, "You know, I believe there is scripture that supports that as well ..." And Zaki said, "YES! There is!" <3
He continued,
"I could buy a Rolls Royce if I wanted to ... but why? No, I couldn't. Not when people are hungry and dying. No. We all have an obligation to get to know something abut the world today that we didn't know yesterday, and the closer the area is to us, the greater the obligation. So, do we get to know something about our town, or do we stay very comfortable in our own very, very small comfort zone? If we have lunch and dinner with the same people, and if we go dancing in the ballroom and in the country club with the same people, we may consider ourselves sophisticated, but the reality is the other extreme. Stop seeing and start observing. Stop hearing and start listening. Most importantly, try every day to reduce ignorance, arrogance and prejudice. I will always plan to carry out my mission to serve humanity anywhere in the world and to promote understanding between different people from around the world."
This was only a snippet of what all he said to me. He talked about the missionary professor [one of his professors from college] who helped him as an immigrant open his business and all the kindnesses he has been shown through the years. Ken and I asked him lots of questions, and he asked us questions too, we talked for almost an hour until another customer came in, who had purchased rugs from him since the 1980's and also sang his praises. It was my utter privilege to meet him and hear his great love for people - how hard he worked, JUST so he could give. Since we left, I have read how he has been honored locally and nationally, people everywhere can see his huge heart.
I left with a very full heart.    (see Jennifer's post & leave a comment HERE)
If God has placed material things, riches in your hand, the faithful response is, what, Lord?  This is a good reminder – things are NOT gods.

If God has placed material things, riches in your hand, the faithful response is, what, Lord?  This is a good reminder – things are NOT gods.
These things have I spoken unto you, That my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.   – Jesus
In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; Let the church say “Amen”!

Go to VIDEO


[1] Title Image courtesy of Pixabay.com
[2] Joe McCarthy in The American Weekly, as quoted in Reader’s Digest