The Big Lie

"For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." Gen.3:5

The big lie of the serpent in the Garden was not that you will be God, but that you will be more than human. He told them that as you are is not enough. His lie is that there is special knowledge that God has and that you do not have. And that knowledge will open your eyes to wonderful and exotic things.

What is the lie told to people today? That you only use 10% of your brain and that AI can do things that you cannot do. That you are not beautiful enough or thin enough or tall enough or strong enough. Men wanted to live like women, and women want to live like men. Men chose to become feminine and women chose to become  masculine. And in all of this there is a glaring absence of God.

So the biggest lie of the serpent was that you are not enough as you were made. That God is holding back what you need to be more than human. Satan is always promising things that he cannot deliver on.

Society shows me over and over again why the first word in the Gospel is repent.

Missing Church

I had an interesting experience yesterday. I was occupied at home staying busy when my phone rang. The guy who was calling never calls me. He asked if I was on my way to church. I looked at the clock and I realized that for the first time in my Christian life I was going to miss church. I wasn't sick or working late. I was distracted. I forgot what day it was. 

Today is a new day. I hope to never miss church like that again. 

Love And Marriage

 Here are my thoughts on love, marriage, and sex.

When I met Kathy, we did not fall in love as much as we grew in love. I liked her, I married her. And I loved her far more at the end than I did at the beginning. 

Sex in marriage is a good thing. But it is not the only thing. A marriage built on sex will not last.

The seven year itch describes what happens to a marriage built on sex. You get bored. You start thinking about someone new. This happens at the seven year mark in many marriages.

I encourage people to marry young and grow up together. You will develop a lot in common.

Marriage is a commitment. Marriage is an adjustment. You have to want to be married. You have to work at marriage.

Romance is overrated. You cannot keep up those appearances very long.

She thinks she can change him. He thinks that she will never change.

Marriage is two selfish people learning how to live under one roof.

Get married, enjoy sex, and you will learn how to love someone besides yourself.

Natural People Don't Get It

 "But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." 1Cor. 2:14

There will be people sitting in church this morning who just don't get it. There will be pastors preaching this morning who also don't get it. Why? Because they live in the natural world not the spiritual world. They seem to be Sadducees, who do not believe in spirits or angels or anything supernatural. For these people God can only work one miracle and that involves saving them from sin.

Another thing about people who live in the natural world is they have no dominion over sin. They cuss, they drink alcohol, they do things that any believing person would not do and they do not understand what is wrong with it. The Bible plainly tells us that they think that what we believe is foolishness.

My prayer for these people is that the Lord would baptize them in the Holy Ghost so that what is simple to me becomes obvious to them.

Truth is a mystery received by revelation. It is not just knowledge learned by studying.

This Light Affliction

"For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory." 2Cor. 4:17

Thursday evening I went to the ER thinking that I might be having a heart attack. I felt terrible. But the doctor in the ER, after running some tests, ruled out a heart attack. I was discharged and sent home.

Looking back, though it was bad at the time, God helped me and I am grateful to be in good health again.

I go see my regular doctor Monday morning as a follow up.

The Little Foxes

"Catch us the foxes, the little foxes that spoil the vines," Song 2:15

As we grow older we continue to change. We think that we are the same, but we are not. We think that we will never grow old, but we will. Most changes happen gradually. It is not like falling off of a cliff and plummeting down. Like the text, it is the little foxes, the little adjustments, the little differences that bring on dramatic changes.

One of the big changes that happens to all of us as we age is the loss of strength and reserve capacity. We find it harder to do what we used to find easy to do. We do not bounce back as quickly from injury or illness. We beat ourselves up for being lazy. We injure ourselves trying to beat the rap. We play mental gymnastics trying to convince ourselves and others that we are still able to do everything.  

This gradual decline does not mean that life is over. It just means that we have to adjust our lives to respect those changes.  Spend time in a hospital and see how that changes your life. Visit the ER and look at all of the terrible conditions that people find themselves in, including you.

I know that life must be lived to the end. That does not mean that you must live pedal to the metal up until you keel over dead. Adapting to changing circumstances is a part to life that we know we must do but we find it hard to put into practice.

Little changes produce big results in many areas of life. So why are we surprised when little changes slow us down at the end of life?

Peace or Fear

 "men's hearts failing them from fear and the expectation of those things which are coming on the earth," Luke 21:26

I have noticed something that seems to be emerging in the modern world. People are terrified of illness and viruses, but they refuse to be vaccinated. They are more afraid of the vaccine than Ebola or hantavirus. They fear the vaccine more than the measles or the flu. They were terrified of covid, but they will not get a covid vaccine.

I do not know all that people are afraid of. But this is something that baffles me. The anti-vaccers have convinced people that vaccines are evil and that it is a plot to hurt them. Diseases that were eradicated have made a resurgence. People with compromised immune systems are terrified of everything.

Notice that it is the fear and the expectation that causes trouble in the text. People are terrified at the prospect or the possibility of getting sick. On top of this people do not trust doctors. They look to Google rather than a medical professional. And now ChatGPT is god who has all the answers.

When my wife was sick pastor Mitchell told us to do what the doctor tells us to do. We did. I get vaccinated with no ill effects.

There is an answer to fear. It is found in Christ.

"Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid." John 14:27

Maybe it's time to go back to church. Maybe it's time to trust your doctors.