My friend, I stand in judgment now
And feel that you’re to blame somehow
While on this earth I walked with you day by day
And never did you point the way
You knew the Lord in truth and glory
But never did you tell the story
My knowledge then was very dim
You could have led me safe to him
Though we lived together here on earth
You never told me of your second birth
And now I stand this day condemned
Because you failed to mention him
You taught me many things, that’s true
I called you friend and trusted you
But now I learned, now it’s too late
You could have kept me from this fate
We walked by day and talked by night
And yet you showed me not the light
You let me live, love and die
And all the while you knew I’d never live on high
Yes, I called you friend in life
And trusted you in joy and strife
Yet in coming to this end
I see you really weren’t my friend

Jesus said, “For whoever is ashamed of Me and of My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will also be ashamed of him when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.” (Mark 8:38). NIV

Ever since I was saved I have had the feeling that I was given the key to the universe, the secret to everything. But how do I tell people about it? It always seemed to me that half the people didn’t want to know and the other half didn’t care. For the longest time I have worn a wrist band that says “His Witness Acts 1:8”. Acts 1:8 says “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” Part of the reason for the Faith section of this site is just that, to be his witness to the ends of the earth. You would be surprised the places around the globe that this site is read. But sitting behind a computer and being faceless is easy. I have always wanted to share my faith with others. Jesus commands us to do just that in The Great Commission.

Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” Matthew 25:18-20 NIV

So for the longest time I have had this terrible feeling. How can I sit around happy in my own salvation while literally millions of men and women sink into Hell because Satan stole their soul? There had to be a way to share the Gospel with people but quite honestly, it’s a bit of a frightening experience. I have recently found that this is quite easy and that most of my previous thoughts on the subject were totally wrong.

I have recently started taking a course on evangelizing the Gospel called Way of the Master and it is amazing and eye opening. I also realize that God has been leading me in this direction for months. I won’t go into detail of the course here, but just let me say that it’s all about sowing the seed of the Gospel. That seed may not sprout now but later. It may not sprout at all, and then it may sprout in someone else related to that person you talked to. Jesus says in the book of John that ‘One sows and another reaps’. The seeds we plant by spreading the Gospel may well be harvested by someone else. Remember, you can always count the seeds in an apple, but you can never count the apples in one seed.

Last week I went out for the first time here in town knocking on doors with another Christian who was more experienced so I could get started takin’ God’s word to the streets. It was one of the most exciting things I have ever done. You get to meet all kinds of people and at the same time know that you are doing what God calls you to do. If you have ever felt a calling to do this or even gave it a passing thought, I urge you to get involved with others that can help you along with evangelizing God’s word to others. If a person’s soul is so valuable to God that He sacrificed His one and only Son, how much of a priority should it be for all of us to share the good news of the Gospel? As John Wycliffe wrote “The highest service to which a man may attain on earth is to preach the Law of God.” So please, get involved, as the harvest is plenty and the workers are few!

Each strip had a large pile of rocks on it that the farmer cleared out in order to make the land productive. When they first opened the land the large rocks were easy to find and remove with equipment and were removed quickly. After that, there were many smaller rocks that had to be picked up and it was more time consuming. They actually had rock pickers for this process. There were many rocks just under the surface that could not be seen though and as the seasons wore on, the extremely cold winters would force those rocks to the surface and they would have to be removed. It was a constant process that never seemed to end.

Since coming to Christ, I have noticed that sin and other things in my life are following this same process. The moment I accepted Jesus and walked out of that lake almost 2 years ago, God removed some very big rocks in my life that I had struggled with for a long time. They were gone almost immediately. Once they were gone though, I noticed other things in my life, the smaller rocks, that needed removed also. Things that I didn’t think were a struggle in my life, but Christ showed me that they were and that they needed to be removed.

There is a line in Jeremiah 18:6 that says; “Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand.” The more God shapes and molds me into the type of person he wants me to become, the more I notice that there are small stones and pebbles that are forced to the surface in my life that I need to deal with. While some seem small on the surface, there can actually be much more to them than meets the eye.

Sanctification is a continual process for us and just as the farmers work is never done neither is ours. It can be very frustrating that sin keeps working its way to the surface in my life, but I can rejoice that the Lord helps me to recognize it and work hard to remove it.

So Last Friday I sat down to read the final days devotional. As I opened the book to April 30th, I decided to close it and pray first. I thanked the Lord for giving me the strength to make it a whole year in reading each day’s devotional. I admitted to him that there were a lot of things in there that, at this point in my life, were way over my head and beyond my understanding. While there may have been days and sometimes weeks that I didn’t understand things, I thanked him for those days that the words spoke to my heart and I carried the message with me.

Once I finished praying I began to read the last days devotional. It was about the spontaneity of love and how if we try to prove to God how much we love Him, it’s a sure sign that we don’t love Him. The evidence of our love for Him is the absolute spontaneity of our love, it comes naturally.

It also talked about how we live according to God’s standard and stop thinking certain things and believing others. As I read about that I thought back to the day of my baptism and acceptance of Jesus Christ. The minute I walked out of that lake, certain things were taken from me and I believed some things I never believed before. I didn’t walk out of there and say, “now I’m a Christian, I can’t do that anymore and I have to think a certain way.” Things were changed in me instantly. The power of Christ’s love and the Holy Spirit can have that spontaneous effect on you.

While I had been looking forward to sweetness of finishing the daily readings of this book, I found a certain disappointment in finishing it after I read that last day’s message. It seems the sweetness was not in finishing the book, but in the last days message itself. I will probably go back someday and read this devotional book again. I don’t know when it will be, but more than likely I will put some time between now and then for me to grow a little more. One thing I do know is that I will look forward to it, as I’m sure I will unearth some gems just as sweet as the message I received on this last days reading!

Well, recently over the last 4-6 weeks I have been struggling with some things in my personal life. One of my ways of dealing with that was to take control of things myself instead of making sure God was in control of everything. I should have known better as going down this path usually leads to disaster. One of my ways of coping with things was to shut down the website. I never really felt that God wanted me to do that and almost immediately I started seeing things from Him that suggested I made a mistake. I dug in my heals and tried not to see the signs. You might say I was “Kicking Against the Goads.” That came to a head today.

The Lord has blessed me with some really strong Christian men to work with that keep me strong and lift me up, even when they don’t know it. My friend Stuart is one of those people. We were working together today and discussing our weekend. Stuart had attended their men’s breakfast at his church Saturday and started telling me about their devotional. The devotional had to do with the fact that everyone has a calling in life, but sometimes we throw dirt on our calling and bury it. The farther we get from our calling the farther we get from God over time. Since this is Holy Week and is all about resurrection he said that for those who had buried their calling that they should resurrect it and get closer to God again.

I don’t think Stuart realized just what an impact God was having on me through him at that moment. Over the past year and a half I have heard God speak to me so clearly at times that I just look up at Him and say “could you have made yourself any more clear to me than you just did?” This was one of those times.

I knew in my heart that I had made a mistake and it was time to rectify it. The site is now up to date again and will stay that way. Hosting has been set up for another year.

I would also like to humbly and deeply apologize to all the loyal people that use this site and that have emailed me in the past week. I can’t apologize enough. Just know that I have things worked out in my life and have learned a lot from this. Thanks again for all you support.
-
Mike

The shortest distance between a problem and a solution is
the distance between your knees and the floor.

Matthew 10:32 says:
‘Whoever acknowledges Me before men, I will acknowledge him before My Father in heaven. But whoever disowns Me before men, I will disown him before My Father in heaven’

Every Sunday afternoon, after the morning service at the church, the Pastor and his eleven year old son would go out into their town and hand out Gospel Tracts.

This particular Sunday afternoon, as it came time for the Pastor and his son to go to the streets with their tracts, it was very cold outside, as well as pouring rain.

The boy bundled up in his warmest and driest clothes and said, ‘OK, dad, I’m ready.’

His Pastor dad asked, ‘Ready for what?’

‘Dad, it’s time we gather our tracts together and go out.’

Dad responds, ‘Son, it’s very cold outside and it’s pouring rain.’

The boy gives his dad a surprised look, asking, ‘But Dad, aren’t people still going to Hell, even though it’s raining?’

Dad answers, ‘Son, I am not going out in this weather.’

Despondently, the boy asks, ‘Dad, can I go? Please?’

His father hesitated for a moment then said, ‘Son, you can go. Here are the tracts, be careful son.’

‘Thanks Dad!’

And with that, he was off and out into the rain. This eleven year old boy walked the streets of the town going door to door and handing everybody he met in the street a Gospel Tract .

After two hours of walking in the rain, he was soaking, bone-chilled wet and down to his VERY LAST TRACT. He stopped on a corner and looked for someone to hand a tract to, but the streets were totally deserted.

Then he turned toward the first home he saw and started up the sidewalk to the front door and rang the door bell. He rang the bell, but nobody answered.

He rang it again and again, but still no one answered. He waited but still no answer.

Finally, this eleven year old trooper turned to leave, but something stopped him.

Again, he turned to the door and rang the bell and knocked loudly on the door with his fist. He waited, something holding him there on the front porch!

He rang again and this time the door slowly opened.

Standing in the doorway was a very sad-looking elderly lady. She softly asked, ‘What can I do for you, son?’ With radiant eyes and a smile that lit up her world, this little boy said, ‘Ma’am, I’m sorry if I disturbed you, but I just want to tell you that * JESUS REALLY DOES LOVE YOU * and I came to give you my very last Gospel Tract which will tell you all about JESUS and His great LOVE..’

With that, he handed her his last tract and turned to leave.

She called to him as he departed. ‘Thank you, son! And God Bless You!’

Well, the following Sunday morning in church Pastor Dad was in the pulpit. As the service began, he asked, ‘Does anybody have testimony or want to say anything?’

Slowly, in the back row of the church, an elderly lady stood to her feet.

As she began to speak, a look of glorious radiance came from her face, ‘No one in this church knows me. I’ve never been here before. You see, before last Sunday I was not a Christian. My husband passed on some time ago, leaving me totally alone in this world. Last Sunday, being a particularly cold and rainy day, it was even more so in my heart that I came to the end of the line where I no longer had any hope or will to live.

So I took a rope and a chair and ascended the stairway into the attic of my home. I fastened the rope securely to a rafter in the roof, then stood on the chair and fastened the other end of the rope around my neck. Standing on that chair, so lonely and broken-hearted I was about to leap off, when suddenly the loud ringing of my doorbell downstairs startled me. I thought, ‘I’ll wait a minute, and whoever it is will go away.’

I waited and waited, but the ringing doorbell seemed to get louder and more insistent, and then the person ringing also started knocking loudly…

I thought to myself again, ‘Who on earth could this be? Nobody ever rings my bell or comes to see me.’ I loosened the rope from my neck and started for the front door, all the while the bell rang louder and louder.

When I opened the door and looked I could hardly believe my eyes, for there on my front porch was the most radiant and angelic little boy I had ever seen in my life. His SMILE, oh, I could never describe it to you!

The words that came from his mouth caused my heart that had long been dead, TO LEAP TO LIFE as he exclaimed with a cherub-like voice, ‘Ma’am, I just came to tell you that JESUS REALLY DOES LOVE YOU.’ Then he gave me this Gospel Tract that I now hold in my hand.

As the little angel disappeared back out into the cold and rain, I closed my door and read slowly every word of this Gospel Tract. Then I went up to my attic to get my rope and chair. I wouldn’t be needing them any more.

You see– -I am now a Happy Child of the KING.. Since the address of your church was on the back of this Gospel Tract, I have come here to personally say THANK YOU to God’s little angel who came just in the nick of time and by so doing, spared my soul from an eternity in hell.’

There was not a dry eye in the church. And as shouts of praise and honor to THE KING resounded off the very rafters of the building, Pastor Dad descended from the pulpit to the front pew where the little angel was seated.

He took his son in his arms and sobbed uncontrollably.

Probably no church has had a more glorious moment, and probably this universe has never seen a Papa that was more filled with love & honor for his son… Except for One.

Blessed are your eyes for reading this message.

Don’t let this message die, read it again and tell others. Heaven is for His people!
Remember, God’s message CAN make the difference in the life of someone close to you.
Please share this wonderful message…

As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”

“Who are you, Lord?” Saul asked.

“I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,” he replied. “Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.”

This story is told 3 times in Acts. Once here in Acts 9:3-6, again before the mob trying to kill Paul in Acts 22:6-11, and lastly before the Roman governor Felix and King Agrippa in Acts 26:12-16. In this last version Paul adds a line that is not in the other versions. It says:

“Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.”

Now I had read about goads in the Old Testament but forgot what they were, so I had to go look it up again. They could be used as weapons but most often were used to drive oxen.

1. (n.) A pointed instrument used to urge on a beast; hence, any necessity that urges or stimulates.
2. (v. t.) To prick; to drive with a goad; hence, to urge forward, or to rouse by anything pungent, severe, irritating, or inflaming; to stimulate.

I found this to be an interesting comment that Jesus made to Saul but the more I researched it the more it made sense, both in relationship to Saul and Jesus and myself also. Here is some interesting commentary from Barnes’ Notes on that line of scripture.

“The expression ‘to kick against the prick’ is derived from the action of a stubborn and unyielding ox kicking against the goad. And as the ox would injure no one by it but himself; as he would gain nothing, it comes to denote ‘an obstinate and refractory disposition and course of conduct, resisting the authority of him who has a right to command, and opposing the leadings of Providence, to the injury of him who makes the resistance.’ It denotes ‘rebellion against lawful authority, and thus getting into greater difficulty by attempting to oppose the commands to duty.’ This is the condition of every sinner. If people wish to be happy, they should cheerfully submit to the authority of God. They should not rebel against his dealings. They should not complain against their Creator. They should not resist the claims of their consciences. By all this they only injure themselves. No man can resist God or his own conscience and be happy.” Those words, which are omitted here but which were obviously spoken, give us to believe that Paul knew in his heart that Jesus was the Messiah and that the report of His resurrection from the dead was true.

This now makes perfect sense why Jesus said this to Saul. By resisting the Lord he was injuring no one but himself. As I look back over my life I can see many times that I have exhibited this same problem. On many occasions I resisted my parents. I resisted law enforcement on one occasion. I resisted management at work and loved ones in my relationship. Like the ox against the goad, I ended up hurting myself on most occasions. But none of this hurt me as bad as resisting the Lord for most of my life. Like Saul, I finally stopped resisting and realized there is only one way of living and that is through the light of Jesus Christ. Now, whenever I’m having a bad day or I’m frustrated that things might not be going the way I think they should, I stop and make sure I’m not “kicking against the goads” again. Invariably, I find that is my problem and by putting our Lord and Savior in control, all things come into focus again.

If your struggling at times, stop and make sure you are not kicking against the goads!

The Man and the Birds by Paul Harvey

The man to whom I’m going to introduce you was not a scrooge, he was a kind decent, mostly good man. Generous to his family, upright in his dealings with other men. But he just didn’t believe all that incarnation stuff which the churches proclaim at Christmas Time. It just didn’t make sense and he was too honest to pretend otherwise. He just couldn’t swallow the Jesus Story, about God coming to Earth as a man.

“I’m truly sorry to distress you,” he told his wife, “but I’m not going with you to church this Christmas Eve.” He said he’d feel like a hypocrite. That he’d much rather just stay at home, but that he would wait up for them. And so he stayed and they went to the midnight service.

Shortly after the family drove away in the car, snow began to fall. He went to the window to watch the flurries getting heavier and heavier and then went back to his fireside chair and began to read his newspaper. Minutes later he was startled by a thudding sound…Then another, and then another. Sort of a thump or a thud…At first he thought someone must be throwing snowballs against his living room window. But when he went to the front door to investigate he found a flock of birds huddled miserably in the snow. They’d been caught in the storm and, in a desperate search for shelter, had tried to fly through his large landscape window.

Well, he couldn’t let the poor creatures lie there and freeze, so he remembered the barn where his children stabled their pony. That would provide a warm shelter, if he could direct the birds to it. Quickly he put on a coat, galoshes, tramped through the deepening snow to the barn. He opened the doors wide and turned on a light, but the birds did not come in. He figured food would entice them in. So he hurried back to the house, fetched bread crumbs, sprinkled them on the snow, making a trail to the yellow-lighted wide open doorway of the stable. But to his dismay, the birds ignored the bread crumbs, and continued to flap around helplessly in the snow. He tried catching them…He tried shooing them into the barn by walking around them waving his arms…Instead, they scattered in every direction, except into the warm, lighted barn.

And then, he realized that they were afraid of him. To them, he reasoned, I am a strange and terrifying creature. If only I could think of some way to let them know that they can trust me…That I am not trying to hurt them, but to help them. But how? Because any move he made tended to frighten them, confuse them. They just would not follow. They would not be led or shooed because they feared him.

“If only I could be a bird,” he thought to himself, “and mingle with them and speak their language. Then I could tell them not to be afraid. Then I could show them the way to safe, warm…to the safe warm barn. But I would have to be one of them so they could see, and hear and understand.” At that moment the church bells began to ring. The sound reached his ears above the sounds of the wind. And he stood there listening to the bells – Adeste Fideles – listening to the bells pealing the glad tidings of Christmas. And he sank to his knees in the snow.

This was quite an accomplishment for me since I don’t feel that I am the best of readers. In fact I don’t think I read more than one book that wasn’t a text book in High School. Reading just wasn’t something I did much of. So finishing over 2000+ pages of the NIV Study Bible seemed like almost an unreachable quest for me. I had started out in the New Testament for the first few months, mainly because that was where several of my Bible studies were at that time. But by the first of this year I had decided to start at Genesis and make my way through the entire Bible.

There were a lot of things in the New Testament that I had not understood until I started reading the Old Testament. There is a lot of tradition and law in the Old Testament and once I started reading through it, a great many questions I had from the New Testament readings I had done were answered. I think if someone who had not read the Bible asked me where to start I would probably have them start with the New Testament. After a time though, I would suggest that they read the Old Testament. In fact, if you haven’t read it all, I highly recommend it. The Old Testament is a wealth of knowledge, history and tradition that ties directly to the New Testament in ways that are amazing. Sure, some of the chapters are tough reading. Who would ever give thought to a robust Saturday evening reading Numbers or Deuteronomy? But sometimes it takes a lot of effort to root out the gems and there are some gems hidden in chapters like that if you stay with it. If you are like me, you will find that you will start to dig deeper and deeper in the scriptures and the meaning behind some of the things you read in the Bible, as it will bring out the richness and grandeur of our God and his people over the millennia and what it means to us to be his children.

I also want to say that just because I have finished reading the Bible this year does not mean I am done. I don’t think there really is enough time in a lifetime to read, study and understand all that is God’s word. I have the next 2 years mapped out though. Between now and the first of the year I plan on a little light reading over the holidays. I’m going to read a book by Richard Wurmbrand, the founder of The Voice of the Martyrs called “Tortured for Christ.” Then I want to read C.S. Lewis’ “The Screwtape Letters.” Once 2010 gets here I plan on another yearly reading of the Bible but this time I am going to use Max McLean’s NIV Audio Bible. I love listening to McLean as he is one of the best narrators, in my opinion, and I can read along in my Bible while he narrates, adding emphasis and emotion to the passages. Then in 2011, I plan on reading the Bible in chronological order. That one I am looking forward to. I will have to jump around a lot, but I think it will answer a lot of questions also.

After pretty much a year now of posting to this Faith Blog that is where I am at the moment. My walk with Jesus is a never ending journey as it is for all of us. I hope your journey is as exciting and adventurous for you as it is for me.