Two Types of People

"I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world." John 6:51


     There are only two types of people in this world... "Believers" and Non-Believers".  If one accepts that Jesus Christ is their Savior and Lord then they are a "Believer".  If not, then they are a "Non-Believer" and that is just how it is.   Believers are often identified as Christians which is correct.  However, not everyone who calls themselves a Christian is actually a "Believer".   


     Every one of you was raised within a religion.  Whether it be Protestant, Catholic, Methodist or some other religion.  You worship wherever you worship now, and in many of your cases that would be in our church.   You now identify yourself as a Christian or as a Believer rather than as a Catholic or Methodist or whatever religion you were raised in.  And that would be correct.   A religion is NOT a heritage.  The religion of your family should not identify who YOU are.  You should be identified / labeled by what YOU believe rather than by what your family may believe.  And no one should ever make assumptions because of that.   


     Look  in the bible.  There are only two types of people Believers and Non-Believers, there is NO IN BETWEEN.  Either you believed or you didn't ...  John 14:6 says "There is only one way to the father, but through Me."  Either Jesus is your bread, or he is not... 


     If you were raised a Catholic and now you have accepted Jesus as your personal savior then you are called a Believer or a Christian... you are not know as a Catholic who has accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior.   For that matter if you were raised in Canada and believed that Jesus was Lord, you would also be called a Believer or a Christian instead of as a Canadian for Jesus.  So why would anyone dare to label someone else that way? No wonder people keep secrets...  it's got to make you wonder...


     Dear Lord, I love You.  I believe that You love me too.  I give my life to You to use as You see fit, and not as I might want to...  Please help me to be able to forgive those who make assumptions about me and about others that are not based on who we are and what we believe.  And please help my friends to understand that my anger is something that I am dealing with and that I understand that I am not big enough to lose the anger on my own, but only with Your devine help.

If you thought you were having a bad day...

"I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand upon the earth.  And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God; I myself will see him with my own eyes—I, and not another. How my heart yearns within me!" Job 19:25-27


        Today marks the one month anniversary of my father's death.  I have been pretty well caught up in feeling it.   I was numbing myself out for the first two weeks but then it set in and I felt like someone had ripped out my heart.  I was pretty surprised by how much it hurt, especially as my dad and I had not been that close.  But this morning the voice of God just kind of said to me "If you thought YOU were having a bad day, try looking at Job."  I have been caught up in my own grief and haven't wanted to join the rest of the world as life moves on...  but I listened to God and took a look at the book of Job.   A good look.   Job really had it bad... He lost so much more than I did... And boy did he suffer....   God allowed Job to suffer...  God did not cause the pain, but He allowed Job to feel it.  And He used it to teach Job and his friends a thing or two...


      A key thing to note is that Job felt the pain.   He had to work through it.  He never blamed God.  Was he angry and frustrated about the pain.  Yes. Of course he was.  But he never felt it was a punishment for any wrongdoing.   He trusted that God would get him through it...  Remember that doesn't mean he liked it.  It means he knew he would get through it with Gods help.  He knew that God was the answer.  


      I think that the verses I quoted above are really the key to the book of Job.  He knew that in the end he would be with God and all would be well.  He knew that was the goal.  To be with God for eternity.  I can't help but think that when Job says that his Redeemer lives and will stand upon the earth in the end - he is talking about Jesus.   I think that was pretty amazing all things considered.  It's like God gave Job a prophetic vision to see how it will be so that he could use that to keep the faith that his savior would redeem him. 


     Job did not have a church, Jesus had not yet even been born.  He was surrounded by a people who did not have the same feelings about God that he did.  From reading this book it appears that Job had a personal relationship with God and he trusted that God was there for him.  Even though it didn't look like it on the surface.   


     What can you and I take from this lesson.   Well lets see...   1. We are going to feel pain.    2. It is ok to feel the pain.   3. God is with us.   4. God will allow us to suffer.  5. The pain WILL eventually end, even if it doesn't seem like it.  6. Often God will use that pain and suffering to teach us some type of life lesson.   7.  We need to keep our eyes on God.   It's got to make you wonder...


     Dear Lord, please help us to keep our eyes on you when everything seems to be falling apart around us.  Remind us that you are there even though we feel so alone.  And please help us to fill the hole in the area where our heart used to be.  And please, please, please when the pain seems so unbearable, remind us that it will eventually end.  So that we can keep on keeping on... Thanks...

I've Got A Secret, and So Do You

 "...would not God have discovered it, since he knows the secrets of the heart?"  Psalm 44:21


      Secrets, everyone has them.  We've all got secrets that we keep.  Things that have happened in our lives that either scared the bejeevers out of us, upset us greatly or just plain old embarrassed us.   We hide them from each other.  We try to hide them from ourselves but they are always there, lurking in the background of our lives.  We try to hide them from God, but we can't.  He knows what is in our hearts.   Secrets aren't always bad things.   Sometimes we just don't need to share everything with our friends.  You know what they say "TMI! TMI!" But sometimes we hide things because we believe that if these things got out it would cause us great pain.  The problem is that we hide things because we are afraid that our friends won't look at us the same if we share our secrets.  Our friends, our real friends in Christ love us for who we are.  If we are afraid to share all of ourselves with them then do we really trust them? Do we actually trust that their love is stronger than just on the surface?  Do we trust them enough to let them see all of us?  And that brings us to God.  If God brought us together to be able to support each other and to love and care for each other, then does it not seem that if we can't trust the ones that God brought to us, are we really trusting God? 


      God knows everything that is in our hearts.  There are no secrets from Him.  He knows our innermost thoughts and fears.  He has plans for us as stated in several spots in the Bible.  He want's good for us.  He want's us to be able to love and trust each other.   He brings people to us whom He wants us to bond with.  He brought together David and Jonathon, Moses and Aaron.  God provides people who can figuratively "hold our arms up" when we are trying with everything we have to hold onto God's coat tails but just need some human support in the process.


      Those of you who know me know that I have recently gone through a great loss.  It has hurt much more than I could have ever imagined.  I have been hanging onto God's coat tails with everything I have in me.  But I also needed my friends.  I needed to be able to just sit with them.  Talk with them.  Cry with them.  Quietly play on the computer with them.  I needed them to hold up my outstretched arms as I reached for God.  But I had secrets.  And I could not let them into a part of my life that I was hiding because I was afraid that it would change our relationship.  I had seen things in the past (not with these folks) but I had let it scare me enough to not trust completely.  I wasn't trusting my friends.  I wasn't trusting God totally either.   Because if I was trusting God totally, I would have realized that this wasn't a problem.    God worked on my heart.  He showed me that I had to trust Him enough to go to my friends and share the "big secret".   He really had to work hard to convince me because I can be pretty stubborn at times.   


      But God's will is much stronger than mine and I finally gave in.  I went to my friends on the morning of my great loss, and shared my secret.  And it turned out that God was right.  Go figure...   As my one friend said, I might as well have told them I was Canadian.  It was no big deal.  What was traumatizing me  for years was not even a problem for my friends.  They loved me anyway.  It didn't change anything.  Well it did change something.  I was now trusting them the way that God wanted me to.  And this allowed me to let them in when I needed them most.  


      We all have secrets, things that we won't share with others.  But ask yourself this:  Do I trust God enough to share myself with those whom he has put in my life to support me?  There will always be things we don't share because it would just be "TMI" but there are other things we try to hide that really are barriers to trust.  We let them out only when we need to.   They make it so that we can't share ourselves or ask for help when we really need it.  God knows what's in our hearts.   And He still loves us.... so will our REAL friends... it's got to make you wonder...


      Dear Lord, please help us to remember that You know everything.  And that You, like a perfect parent (as You are) want the best for us.  And help us to remember that You bring people into our lives because you want us to be in relationships.  Relationships that edify, build up and support each other.  But to do that we must have true trust.  Trust in each other, and trust in You.   Help us to have that real trust.  Help us to not hold back, if we need  to share.  And help us to really love each other in spite of our very human idiosyncrasies.  Thank You for always being there.  And thank You for the friends that You have surrounded me with.

Jesus Loves Me

"Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the Kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it at all."  Mark 10:15


     I love to watch my friends child at church.  She jumps up and dances without abandon each week as we have a time of worship.   She doesn't care who sees her.  This is a time between her and God, and it's as if none of us were in the room.   That is so cool.  Children are not afraid of being embarrassed.   I think that we need to be more childlike sometimes.
     On Christmas eve we sang a song that I have not heard since my childhood.  It was one of the first songs that I ever remember learning.  The song was called "Go Tell It On The Mountain".   Such a cool song.  And there are others.... There are a few children's songs that I often sing to myself as I drive my car or putter around the house.   I don't know all of the words because I was not raised in the church but I sing them anyway... or at least what I can remember of them.   One says "Jesus loves me, this I know.  Cause the Bible tells me so... la, la, la, la, la, la, la.  We are weak but He is strong.  Yes Jesus loves me. Yes Jesus loves me. Yes Jesus loves me.  The Bible tells me so..."   (the la, la's are because I don't know the words that belong there).   Awesome song, so simple, so basic, and yet it says so much.  There is another song that goes "This little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine.  Let it shine, let it shine let it shine...."
     I hope that some day my friends who like music can teach me these songs and more...then I can really sing them.... For such simple little songs they bring me much joy.
     We need to be able to receive God's kingdom like children do...  
     When my father died; my young niece was quite upset.  She missed him.  Trying to ease her pain, I explained that he was with God now.  And I went on to tell her how when people go to live with God, there is no pain, no suffering, no trouble breathing or walking or running.  That no one needs oxygen or canes or wheelchairs.   Her eyes brightened.  She thought for a moment and then she said.  "Well I did ask God if he was ok, and He said he was."   Then after a few more moments of conversation about living with God, she said that she wanted to give her grandfather a hug.  She just reached out and did a big "air hug".  And then she exclaimed, "I think I might have squeezed him too hard."   THAT IS FAITH.  Childlike faith.  We need to be able to keep it simple, and not overanalyze things.  Trust it to be true.   And allow ourselves to be awed by how great God is.  We need to be able to give ourselves freely to God.  And our lights will shine... and the world will see... and maybe, just maybe... they might want to get them some of that....kind of like how I feel when I watch my friend's child dance for God.  It's got to make you wonder...
     Dear Lord,  help us to simplify our lives and to see Your greatness in everything around us.  And let us love You without abandon, the way You love us.... Help us to just believe, without question, like young children do.   And please help us to shine our lights so that maybe someone might see the light and decide  that they want to get them "some of that".  Please use us, make us Your tool.