Christianity · Devotional · guidance · Jesus · searching · The Bible

Is the old Testament necessary today?

Is the old Testament necessary today?

We all hear it said. We have even said. “That’s old Testament stuff.” We say it as though the old Testament is no longer relevant. We say it as though it is something we have progressed past.
Old Testament is a term that came from the Biblical referral to the old covenant which required animal sacrifice, and the new covenant which is Jesus’s sacrifice. Calling the books that went from Genesis to Malachi old Testament and the books that went from Matt. To Revelation New Testament, began in 130 AD by a Bishop who was separating the books this way for clarity in a letter he was writing. Shows as easily things catch on.

We see old as a bad word. A subversive content that we need to avoid. I actually heard a girl the other day, (she was probably 14yrs old,) say, after looking at a designation plaque that honored an old lady who had passed away after being a patriarch of the area we were in, “why would they give that to her?” (Tone is everything in the illustration so try and hear the degrading whine in the voice) her mom explained the memorial. She then said, “so what? They just give these to old people. I don’t want her to have it.”
Welcome to 2023. Anyway. This is how old is seen. Not relevant or valuable. So the term ‘old’ being used for the pre-Jesus covenant marks the book unfairly.
So many who are confronted by the Old Testament want to do away with it. They do the, “Jesus made it irrelevant. Paul said it’s the law of death.” Thing. Yet Jesus Himself said:
“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.
Matt. 5:17 NIV
And Paul was addressing learned Jewish men as well as gentiles when he was speaking. These statements were for these men who were using the law to empower themselves and contorting it to fit their own agendas. The law they commanded was the law of death Paul meant. I would even go so far as to say that what is being preached in certain Churches today, that has been contrived from scripture and then mutilated to fit certain non offensive agendas, has become a law of death too. It’s no longer the Truth that guides you to Heaven, it’s just nice platitudes that fills seats and not souls. Working the Bible to your own life and choices is what the Pharisees and Sadducees did that caused many problems and eventually led Paul to make his bold statement. The Pharisees and Sadducees started out as great people. Dedicated to God and on the right path, until they slid off that path and started using their positions to further themselves instead of God. Sounds like many preachers today, doesn’t it?
However we are now off track. Jesus quoted the Old Testament when battling the devil. Paul himself often quoted the Old Testament. Matt. Mark. Luke and John quoted the Old Testament. If the guys who established the New Testament found the Old relevant enough to refer to it and quote it, then what makes us think that we have moved to a place of spiritual enlightenment that we can throw it away? It’s because a lot of the hard truths are in the Old Testament, truths we want to hide from so we ignore them. Yet most of those truths, rules and warnings were reestablished by either Jesus Himself or one of the New Testament writers.  And Don’t forget. If you throw out the Old Testament you also lose all the Psalms. How many of us rely on those Psalms to get us through a tough week?
Jesus made it clear with His own words that the Old Testament is still relevant and valuable and necessary, who are we to argue with Him?

Christianity · Devotional · dreams do come true · encouragement · free · guidance · holy spirit · Jesus · power of God · Prayer · searching · still fighting · thanksgiving · The Bible · True Joy

Are you waiting for answers?

Are you waiting for answers?

The promise of God does not always come fast. So don’t start doubting even if you have waited 10 or 20 years. He has His time.
Why do we become downcast and fearful when we have a God who loves us? When we have Faith in God and know He is God and He can and will deliver, why do we doubt?
James says that the doubters should expect to receive nothing from God.
But Jesus said ‘if you have faith the size of a mustard seed.’ So where is the cut off?
At what point does faith only the size of a mustard seed turn to doubt?
In the moment where you used to say ‘I know God can do this.’
And now you say, ‘God probably won’t do this.’
You aren’t doubting that God is real or that He is there, but you are doubting that He will answer you. I say this more to myself than anyone else because I have had too many of those moments.
(I have also had moments of complete doubt that God would answer and He did, probably because He knew that I needed to see Him do something because I was slipping. He is still good to us.)
His Word warns us that if we doubt who He is and what He will do that He won’t answer us. That’s not having only a little Faith when we pray. That’s having no Faith at all. We must believe or how else can we expect to see answers.
Now. There are times when we have Faith and still don’t see an answer. There were times like that all through the Bible. But our Faith cannot depend on what we see God doing, it has to depend on who God is. Our Faith is in God not in the works of God. We have to trust Him.

Christianity · guidance · Jesus · Prayer · searching · still fighting · The Bible

Built on the Graves of the children

Built on the Graves of the Children.

It has been said that certain modern cities were built on the Graves of the children. The ones who were left orphans, the ones who starved in the subway stations, the ones who were abandoned. Perhaps most cities could say this. But what about in our modern cities? What about the city around you? What about now? The city keeps on growing and changing, is it still being built on the Graves of the children? Or perhaps we shouldn’t say city, but rather, society. Modern society is being built on the Graves of our children.
The government tells us what we can and cannot say, and can and cannot agree with. Things that should be obviously wrong are being not only promoted to but forced upon our children. Kids so little that they can’t even write their names yet, are being told that they aren’t actually boys or girls. They are being told that if you are a boy and like flowers than you must be a girl deep down and should change. Or if you are a girl and like monster trucks you must actaually be a boy. I had a six year old come home from school who had been taught that day that big foot was real and was a fault in evolution. Come on people! Schools are teaching your children that big foot is real to promote evolution. Little children are being read stories in class that cover certain kinds of explicit sex so they are taught to be inclusive, and we don’t think that this is a problem? You shouldn’t be teaching any kind of sex to these kids. They are kids. We often hear about the death of innocence and it is too true. Super heros who once stood for justice and truth and told your kids to stay in school and not do drugs are now cussing and torturing people. Kids are told that if they don’t support certain people that they aren’t heros but villains. Kids are told that lying is okay. That hurting people is okay. They are being sent home from school with notes from their teachers saying that it was against school policy to bring their Bibles to read, not out loud, not in class, but quietly to themselves during lunch period. Because our Bibles are banned from being read privately in the class room but books that describe that most intimate parts of a sexual relationship are being read out loud by the teachers.
Kids aren’t being permitted to think for themselves or to choose for themselves, they are being ground into mindless society conformists who do and think as the TV and the government tell them to.
Now tell me. Is our society being built on the Graves of the children? On the minds that no longer know what an intimate friendship looks like because of the lies the government shouts in their ears. On the minds that don’t know wrong from right because everything is grey. On the minds that should be out there playing and envisioning butterflies that can take them to other worlds, but instead have lost the innocence of stories for the government agenda. When will we let kids be kids again and stop shoving adult problems down their throats? When will we stop building our warped society on the Graves of their innocence? When will freedom, true freedom, return? Perhaps not until the return of our Savior. But until then we are called to be occupiers and to help grow the next generation. Are we helping them grow? Or are we turning a blind eye as they are fading into the cracks? Stop digging the Graves that will bury your children. Fill in the holes and lead them to a safe place where the entity of this world can’t touch them. And remeber that Jesus loves your children more than you do, so don’t be afraid to trust Him with them and to bring them to Him where they are truly free.

Christianity · Devotional · encouragement · free · guidance · holy spirit · Jesus · power of God · searching · The Bible

Everyone welcome?

Everyone welcome?

I have noticed that certain groups who claim the title ‘church’ have decided to plant an ‘Everyone welcome’ slogan under their banners. We all know what they are gesturing at. But it made me feel like something should be said.
All Churches. All! Welcome Everyone to come and join. But the true Church refuses to dumb down or corrupt the Bible’s teaching just to make certain people happy. Guess what? There are parts of the Bible that are offensive to everyone. The lady who has just started attending after being involved in a messy legal custody battle may be offended by the verse that says to love your enemies, or the verses that tell about divorce being a sin. The man who has attended Church his whole life may suddenly notice 1 Thes. 5:12 and 13 says to respect and listen to those in the Church who give you spiritual guidance, but all that does is bring to his mind a mentor he once had who he didn’t like so he feels angry and offended. Do we change the words of God to suit these two people? No. God’s word is meant to be hard to handle at times and sometimes it even hurts or makes us angry. It’s supposed to help us change and guide us into being more like Christ. If the Bible says your lifestyle is a sin, it’s a call to look at yourself and to decide, do I want to live this way? Or do I want to change and become a new person through Christ? If you’re a mess and the Bible points it out that doesn’t mean it’s closing the doors on you, and neither is the Church that continues to preach the Truth, it means that the Bible and the Church are trying to help you and to guide you out of your mess and sin and into the fullness of living for Jesus. News flash. We all came through the front door of the Church with a set of sins. But that’s why we’re at Church. To sit down and listen to God and hear what He has to say. And when it’s uncomfortable and feels offensive, we choose to look at ourselves and see what God is calling us to change. If you want the Church to change what it says so you feel comfortable there, than you have missed the point of Church. It’s not here to make us feel good and then we go home, it’s here to prepare is to go forward as true followers of Christ. Everyone is welcome. But come expecting to be changed. That’s why we go. Because we want to be more like Him and less like the mess we were when we walked in.

Christianity · Devotional · dreams do come true · encouragement · Jesus · Prayer

Seek Him openly

Seek Him openly

Last weekend I was at our Church camp. I go every year. Since the pandemic (and I’m not blaming the pandemic itself) camp has been a little hallow. Where we used to hear messages from the Lord and saw people being healed and set free we now were interrupted by tye other christians who were skipping church to roar around near by on their quads and seadoos. Fine to do when service isn’t on. The alters were empty at the end of services and many of the seats were empty throughout. I thought that perhaps these two years were a shift that would mark the new normal in our Churches. Then this year came. The services were packed, the bikes out front of the kid’s chapel were so many you could hardly see grass. The alter was full at the end of the services and children of their own choosing came forward to pray. They prayed for others, they knelt by the alter with their Bibles clutched in their hands, teenagers went to the front to seek and anointing from God. It was marvelous! It was like God was saying, “this is the true shift. This will be the new normal.” Where even five years ago you would mostly see older people seeking God and standing for prayer, now we see people who are so young they are coming from kid’s church where they get to watch puppet shows to stand at the alter of the main tabernacle and give their souls to Jesus. No one coaxing them or calling them forward, just a longing to be there, nearer to the heart of God, seeking Him openly. Let us pray that we see more of this, a great revival coming forward as the Holy Spirit spreads afresh through our people. We can’t be good deciples unless we are filled and refilled by Him.

Christianity · Devotional · encouragement · free · guidance · Jesus · power of God

God has a reason for your defeat.

When God permits bad things to happen.

We use much of King David’s life as an example of good coming out of bad. Least in his family and promoted to King and all of that. But we don’t usually look at the Times when we saw bad things happen to David and didn’t really see something good come out of it. We don’t often mention the times when he was not redeemed by God involving something that God let happen to him. David was a warrior. As a warrior he fought countless battles, obviously. We like to talk about the battles that David won, but what about the battles David lost? Many people who wanted dispose of the Bible like to come up with ridiculous reasons for doing so. One such reason was that it was said to be Historically incorrect and used people that didn’t exist. I won’t spend the hours going through each group and person that has been proved just as real as God said in His word, but David (yes, David and Goliath, David) was one of them. Then, as so many times before, an artifact surfaced. It was a record account written by a prominent King at that time. It recorded a battle the King won against the king of Israel who was named David. In the moment when David was defeated by this King we have the record from, it was probably a crushing blow to him, something that felt horrible. David didn’t see God’s plan and goodness in his defeat during this battle. But like so many other times, God had a will that was beyond our understanding. God used David’s defeat to prove his existence and the truth of the Bible thousands of years later. Sometimes when we are defeated, many times when we are defeated, we don’t see God’s purpose or plan we just see the defeat. And sometimes we will never ever see what God was doing in that moment of pain, but like David losing this battle God will work it out for good sometime in the future. It might not even be something he’s going to work out for our good. But it will work out for the good of the Kingdom. Next time you are defeated and crushed, remember that God has a plan and a purpose whether you understand it or see it, or even if you never understand or see it, God is working and he has a plan.

Christianity · Devotional · Jesus · power of God · Prayer · The Bible · True Joy

What will we teach them?

What did we teach them?

I saw recently a scene that made me think hard. An old man and a young man sat together, their shopping carts full of their lives on either side of them, the old man encouraging the young to do drugs. It was a raw moment and we passed by so quickly I had to thick about it to make sure I hadn’t been seeing things. It’s not an uncommon sight in many places, but it still made me sad. You don’t have a house or food, but you have drugs and have now encouraged another to do the same. We lived in the city long enough that I knew what I was seeing. But there’s where God said, “it’s what you teach them.” If that boy had been sitting next to my grandfather, he would have throw the drugs aside and heard a message of Faith and the truth of Jesus. He would have been taken for a hot meal and gotten in contact with a safe, Christian group that looked after housing kids from the street. Yet he sat next to a man who was just as lost as he was. And to my sorrow I wouldn’t have stopped even if there had been a place to, because I don’t know at all what I would have said to them or how I would have helped them. Be better than me. I’m not good at going and speaking with strangers and I need to work harder on that. But what I can do is teach the people I am given. I can teach my cousins love and gentlenss. I can teach my clients giving and charity. I can teach my fellow dog walkers respect and the power of a smile. Through my words and actions I can teach these things. And hopefully I will not be too afraid to speak the life giving truth of Jesus at every chance I get.
So. What will you teach them?

Christianity · Devotional · encouragement

The joy of seals

Seals

During holiday I have made some new friends. A group of harbour seals. I love seals! They play like no one else. Everything is a game. Growing up I lived for the days my little white poodle and I would go to the dock with my parents and see the seals.
This last time I had a thought as I looked at the seals. God put all his pleasure into them. Hang in there. I mean, they are playful and happy and goofy and I feel like God put His fun side into them. I know God is all powerful, but He clearly enjoys a smile and a good laugh too, or else He wouldn’t have created seals. So next time you laugh at something good, take a moment to thank God for it.

Christianity · Devotional · encouragement · Father's Day · free · guidance · power of God

Good good Father

Fathers

Recently I was reminded of the times when my dad really stepped up for me. Times when I just couldn’t do it on my own. Today my dad, with an injured foot, carried my Kayak down to the water for me, walked my dog and loaded and unloaded our truck twice. And it’s Father’s Day. It should have been about him, but instead he took care of me. Why? Because that’s what dads do. Not all, but the good ones do. He’s always putting me first becuse he’s my daddy and he loves me. A good father reflects our Heavenly Father. God is always putting us first. He takes care of us. He forgives our sins and fixes our screw ups. We hurt Him and then run back to Him and He pulls us into His arms and tells us that we are His. He punishes us so we will do better and won’t end up in hell. He helps us because He wants us and loves us. He even sacrificed His only true son so that we, unworthy kids he took in out of love, would be able to see Him some day. God, who is the best Father, gives everything for us. Just like a great dad always does. A true Father mimics God in how He cares for His kids. Just as my dad cares for me.

Happy Father’s Day!

Christianity · Devotional · guidance · Jesus · power of God · The Bible

We all forget the green bead.

We all forget the green bead.

Gold-Heaven
Black-Sin
Red-Jesus
White-New Life
Green- ?

When we tell the story of Christ via the color beads we go through the story of sin keeping us from Heaven and Jesus dying so we are redeemed through Him and made new. But there’s a fifth bead. A color we ignore and don’t promote though it’s vital. Green is for growth. Growth in Christ. Too many people come to Jesus and then leave it at that. There’s no growth. No learning. Jesus isn’t a one and done situation. He’s alive and wants a relationship with you. But if you don’t spend time with Him and don’t seek Him, then when the world starts calling (or shouting) you don’t know the truth to stand on. That’s how we end up with falling away Christians or Christians who promote a fake religion that has anti-Biblical statements, not the true word of God. It all begins with not growing in Christ.
I could go on with a list of recent posts and YouTube links I have seen that claimed to be Christian but misused the word of God or quoted something as a Biblical fact that was very much not in the Bible. But the point is that these people either don’t know their Bibles, or are banking on you not knowing yours. How can we know what are lies and what are truth unless we read it for ourselves?
You say ‘I don’t have time to read my Bible.’ Well, you can either make time to learn for yourself or wait to be taught by false movements who claim to be Christian. If you don’t know your Bible you can’t tell who is real and who is the devil masquerading as one of us. We need to grow in Christ. We must learn so we are not deceived. Don’t forget the green bead.