Revelations 4: 7-11
7 the first living creature like a lion, the second living creature like an ox, the third living creature with the face of a man, and the fourth living creature like an eagle in flight. 8And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and within, and day and night they never cease to say, "Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!"
9And whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to him who is seated on the throne, who lives forever and ever, 10the twenty-four elders fall down before him who is seated on the throne and worship him who lives forever and ever. They cast their crowns before the throne, saying, 11 "Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power,for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created."
So we have 4 creatures worshiping the Lord day and night. We have to pay attention to what kind of creatures they are. The lion, the ox, the human, and eagle are the creatures of note. The most regal, the strongest, the wisest, and the fastest creatures in the world all spend their days giving praises to the Lord. Furthermore the 24 kings are the twelve tribes of Israel, and the 12 apostles. They throw their crowns at his feet showing that all honor and glory are for the Lord alone.
This is a great passage that shows no matter what our status in this life. All glory and honor belong to Christ. All things in our life are accomplished through, and with him. It is for his glorification not ours. In today’s fast paced world it is easy to forget what the goal is. All life is represented in this passage, furthermore, they have eyes throughout, so they can see everything around them clearly, the people who held high positions on earth throw their crowns. I think the point is hard to miss, someone is in charge, and it is not us. It always has been and always will be for the Lord.
Peace,
Rev. T
Monday, June 23, 2008
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Dead or Alive
Revelations 3: 1-6
1"To the angel of the church in Sardis write: These are the words of him who holds the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. I know your deeds; you have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead. 2Wake up! Strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your deeds complete in the sight of my God. 3Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard; obey it, and repent. But if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what time I will come to you. 4Yet you have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their clothes. They will walk with me, dressed in white, for they are worthy. 5He who overcomes will, like them, be dressed in white. I will never blot out his name from the book of life, but will acknowledge his name before my Father and his angels. 6He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches
It is interesting to note that the problem that Sardis had to overcome was one of being a dead church. Notice that Christ says that they have the reputation of being alive, but they are dead. Sardis was a very well known, and prosperous city. The Church had a good reputation; they were doing works that Christ points out as not complete. Great at the start, but no follow through.
The problem that had to be overcome is that they were Christians in name only. They were going through the motions, but not working with the Holy Spirit, they were not letting Christ lead the church. As we look around today, do we not see the same things happening? We see dead churches, led by dead pastors, full of dead church members. A church quits living when it starts paying more attention to the world around them, than to their salvation. A pastor, or leader of a church becomes dead when he forgets that the Holy Spirit is the one that directs him and leads the service; he starts to believe that people are showing up because of him, not the Lord. Or when he becomes more concerned with how much money is in the plate, and not the condition of his congregation’s souls.
The worst death in my opinion is the death of the members. When the church becomes a place for the latest fashion show, or the gathering place for the gossip workshop, that is when the members start to experience spiritual death. It is up to each and every member to look after the health of the church. We have to remember that each one of us makes up the church, so the best place to start for a healthy church is within each of us. As this scripture shows a church can be healed, but the members and leaders must wake up! People live life on “auto pilot” every day. However our spiritual journey has no auto pilot switch. We are in control of how high we will fly, or the level we will descend. There is nothing in life that we cannot overcome with Christ; we all can wear robes of white. We just have to make sure we stay awake, and spiritually alive.
Peace,
Rev. T
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Life goes on
Revelations 2: 2-5
2I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked men, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false. 3You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary. 4Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love. 5Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.
You have forsaken your first love..... That is something that none of us want to be accused of. The problem with the Ephesians church, was that it was starting to get lax in it’s practices. While at one time they were very skeptical of self proclaimed apostles, and would be skeptical of the “apostle” until the apostle was vetted, they now were more willing to accept new “prophets” with new teachings, without all of the vetting they would do in the past. Their deeds in the beginning were great, as time went on they grew to be less. This easily leads in to the second question….sound familiar?
I do believe that this is one of the largest traps we all are prone to fall in to. Everyone remembers when Christ found them, the excitement, the feeling of peace, the strong sense of purpose; these are all common emotions that people feel in the beginning of the journey. The Ephesians fell in to the same trap, that lays in wait for each of us; complacency. Your relationship with Christ is a lot like other relationships in your life………..just more important! When the relationship is new, it is all you can think about, it consumes you, you want to shout from the roof tops! The relationship is the topic of conversation no matter who you meet.
As the road to Christ stretches out in front of us, life continues on around us, the world does not change just because we do. As life grinds away we are bombarded with so many distractions that it becomes very easy to lose focus on Christ, it becomes easier to let things slide that you know are wrong, many people will start to rationalize their actions, instead of correct them. Suddenly some find themselves looking for “loophole” to go do what they want to do. Oh they still believe in Christ, they still are “good Christians”, but it has not become work, the some of the choices that were easy to make in the beginning now are a little harder, maybe some just do not feel like putting the work in. John Cougar said it well, “oh yeah, life goes on, long after the thrill of living is gone”
It is human nature, and something that we all are susceptible to. This passage serves as a wake up call to each of us. We would all do well to keep Christ first in our lives, and then worry about what is next later. By staying adamant in the teachings of Christ, keeping him first in our life, and by staying on guard for the false prophets, and the wicked man, we will all find that when we stand before Christ in Judgment we will be able to hold our heads high, knowing that we, like Christ, carried our cross in life fully, not by half-measures. Christ gave every ounce of his life for us, he did not waver, he did not get lazy, we should do the same. Hold true to our beliefs, and never forget our first love.
Peace,
Rev. T
2I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked men, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false. 3You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary. 4Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love. 5Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.
You have forsaken your first love..... That is something that none of us want to be accused of. The problem with the Ephesians church, was that it was starting to get lax in it’s practices. While at one time they were very skeptical of self proclaimed apostles, and would be skeptical of the “apostle” until the apostle was vetted, they now were more willing to accept new “prophets” with new teachings, without all of the vetting they would do in the past. Their deeds in the beginning were great, as time went on they grew to be less. This easily leads in to the second question….sound familiar?
I do believe that this is one of the largest traps we all are prone to fall in to. Everyone remembers when Christ found them, the excitement, the feeling of peace, the strong sense of purpose; these are all common emotions that people feel in the beginning of the journey. The Ephesians fell in to the same trap, that lays in wait for each of us; complacency. Your relationship with Christ is a lot like other relationships in your life………..just more important! When the relationship is new, it is all you can think about, it consumes you, you want to shout from the roof tops! The relationship is the topic of conversation no matter who you meet.
As the road to Christ stretches out in front of us, life continues on around us, the world does not change just because we do. As life grinds away we are bombarded with so many distractions that it becomes very easy to lose focus on Christ, it becomes easier to let things slide that you know are wrong, many people will start to rationalize their actions, instead of correct them. Suddenly some find themselves looking for “loophole” to go do what they want to do. Oh they still believe in Christ, they still are “good Christians”, but it has not become work, the some of the choices that were easy to make in the beginning now are a little harder, maybe some just do not feel like putting the work in. John Cougar said it well, “oh yeah, life goes on, long after the thrill of living is gone”
It is human nature, and something that we all are susceptible to. This passage serves as a wake up call to each of us. We would all do well to keep Christ first in our lives, and then worry about what is next later. By staying adamant in the teachings of Christ, keeping him first in our life, and by staying on guard for the false prophets, and the wicked man, we will all find that when we stand before Christ in Judgment we will be able to hold our heads high, knowing that we, like Christ, carried our cross in life fully, not by half-measures. Christ gave every ounce of his life for us, he did not waver, he did not get lazy, we should do the same. Hold true to our beliefs, and never forget our first love.
Peace,
Rev. T
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Remember to show mercy
Jude 1: 22-23
22Be merciful to those who doubt; 23snatch others from the fire and save them; to others show mercy, mixed with fear—hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh.
Christ was a source for immeasurable mercy. HE did not beat people over the head with his teachings, and demand they listen. HE came to earth to save everyone that he could, but to the ones who would deny him, he gave mercy. Doubt is a very common problem / emotion, and doubt is not to be confused with non-belief. Even Thomas doubted. We all have doubt from time to time. One of the best ways I have found to strengthen my faith, is to question it. The Lord always provides an answer. SO often people act as if there is something wrong with challenging the concept of Faith. Personally I believe you should hang a question mark on everything that you think of as fact from time to time. It provides a way for you to critically think about what you do believe in and why. As I have said before, you should know why you believe what you do. “because that is how I was raised” is not a good answer. We are all free thinking people, we should each accept Christ, not because our parents did, but because we have seen the truth for ourselves.
I think the key is in the last part of the passage, show mercy with fear. Here again it is important to remember that with the exception of the money changers in the temple, Christ always showed those around him respect. Christ was well aware of what was to come, but he did not force anyone to follow. He did not slight others for their belief. He only put his way out to them as a viable option, and informed them of what was to come. It was up to them to believe or not. HE offered them his mercy, he offered his grace, he did not offer his wrath. As it says in Romans 12:19 Leave room for God’s wrath.
I always come back to this because I think this is part of our problem today within the Christian faith. We, like Christ, want everyone to be saved. AS a result, many feel compelled to preach the word and condemn all who will not “fall in line”. Christ was an example of peace, his teachings were peaceful, full of mercy, and grace. I think that when we only do half of the work (preaching the word of Christ) and do not have mercy, and respect for others, we demean the work of Christ. It is quite unintentional, but it does more harm than good. So remember to show mercy, even when it is hard….no especially when it is hard.
Peace,
Rev. T
Monday, June 16, 2008
The armor of God
Ephesians 6: 14-17
14Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
This is easily one of my favorite passages form the scripture. Every day is a battle. Each and everyday we make choices that will effect the rest of our lives. It is only by using all of the tools the God provides that we can stand firm. For moving forward with half measures guarantees that you will come up short when the time of need arises. God has promised to protect his children, however how close you get to “falling off the edge” might well depend on how well prepared you are.
I know that I can think of times in my life that I have been very close to heading off down the wrong path. We all struggle daily with demons in our life. The opportunities that pop up that are so tempting. The times when we think no one is looking. I do not pretend to think that Christ will make my life easy, or the devil will give up on me if I have enough faith. Actually it seems the stronger my faith, the harder the ole’ devil tries to beat me down. The more opportunities arise that would lead me to stray. I know we can all think of times that we have walked right up to the edge and for some reason we stop, and are pulled back. We are saved, by no action of our own; unexplainably we are pulled back safely from the edge. That my friends is when the Lord is working his hardest to save us. It is only when we get suited up fully, that we can withstand the barrage that each day brings us.
Notice how it is the belt of truth, it will hold you and keep you together, the breastplate of righteousness, for your righteousness is your heart and your heart will be protected. Fit your feet with the gospel of peace, at the last second it will be your feet that will move you away from danger. Lastly The shield of faith will protect you, the Helmet of salvation, will help you keep your head when the world around you is crumbling, and the sword of the Spirit will strike its target straight and true.
We should all be striving to fully know the Lord. As I always will say, we are all sinners, we all make mistakes, and we all fall short of the mark. When we put on the full suit of armor that God provides, we can stand strong in faith and know that while we might stumble, the Lord will not let us fall.
Peace,
Rev. T
14Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
This is easily one of my favorite passages form the scripture. Every day is a battle. Each and everyday we make choices that will effect the rest of our lives. It is only by using all of the tools the God provides that we can stand firm. For moving forward with half measures guarantees that you will come up short when the time of need arises. God has promised to protect his children, however how close you get to “falling off the edge” might well depend on how well prepared you are.
I know that I can think of times in my life that I have been very close to heading off down the wrong path. We all struggle daily with demons in our life. The opportunities that pop up that are so tempting. The times when we think no one is looking. I do not pretend to think that Christ will make my life easy, or the devil will give up on me if I have enough faith. Actually it seems the stronger my faith, the harder the ole’ devil tries to beat me down. The more opportunities arise that would lead me to stray. I know we can all think of times that we have walked right up to the edge and for some reason we stop, and are pulled back. We are saved, by no action of our own; unexplainably we are pulled back safely from the edge. That my friends is when the Lord is working his hardest to save us. It is only when we get suited up fully, that we can withstand the barrage that each day brings us.
Notice how it is the belt of truth, it will hold you and keep you together, the breastplate of righteousness, for your righteousness is your heart and your heart will be protected. Fit your feet with the gospel of peace, at the last second it will be your feet that will move you away from danger. Lastly The shield of faith will protect you, the Helmet of salvation, will help you keep your head when the world around you is crumbling, and the sword of the Spirit will strike its target straight and true.
We should all be striving to fully know the Lord. As I always will say, we are all sinners, we all make mistakes, and we all fall short of the mark. When we put on the full suit of armor that God provides, we can stand strong in faith and know that while we might stumble, the Lord will not let us fall.
Peace,
Rev. T
Thursday, June 12, 2008
Let It Go
Romans 12:17-19
17Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody. 18If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. 19Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written: "It is mine to avenge; I will repay," says the Lord.
Live at peace with everyone, that sounds like a great ide, and it is one that is attainable, however it take quite a bit of discipline on our part. For us to be at peace with others we first have to be at peace with ourselves. That means that we have to learn to let things go. We cannot hold tight to the wrongs that have been done to us. We have to forgive. You don’t have to forget, you don’t have to hand out a free pass, and let people walk all over you, but you do have to forgive them, and move on. As the passages reads: Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God’s wrath.
This same theme is throughout the teachings of Christ. Do unto others, as you would have done to you. (Luke 6:1) Or, But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins. (Matthew 6:15). The only way we can truly forgive is to let go. We cannot go around holding all of the baggage, it will be too heavy for the trip ahead of us. Throughout our life we will be wronged, and persecuted, we will have people go out of their way to attack us. It happens all the time to everyone. We must remember not to burn our precious time and energy on plotting revenge, or looking for opportunities to “settle the score”. Just leave room for God’s wrath, and be done with it.
When we let go of all of the hate, and hurt that we carry around we open up more room in our hearts for Christ to come in and work. If we think about it, when we let those emotions harbor and fester inside of us, not only do we close ourselves off to the Lord, we are letting that person who already hurt us once, continue to hurt us on a daily basis. When we give up all of those wasted emotions we regain control over our world. We must remember that we are the children of God, no hurt done to us here in this world can match the hurt that Christ suffered for us. Oh I know what you are thinking, that I just do not know how badly you have been hurt, or all of the things that you have gone through. I tell you the truth, turn that pain over to the Lord. Let him sort it out, and avenge you.
I do want to be clear here, you should remove yourself from the person that is hurting you, you have to protect yourself, but what’s done is done. Being a Christian does not mean that you are a floor mat, but once the situation is over it is over, you cannot change it; you can only change how you let it effect you.
I think of it this way. Christ died for each and everyone of us, yet we are all sinners, we all stumble and fall. The Lord does not hold a grudge; he lives in the hope and anticipation of us realizing our mistake, and coming back to him. HE is always looking for the lost sheep, he is happier when the seep return that he is about the ones that stayed and never left. If Christ will do that for us, how can we hold a grudge against our brother?
Peace,
Rev. T
17Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody. 18If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. 19Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written: "It is mine to avenge; I will repay," says the Lord.
Live at peace with everyone, that sounds like a great ide, and it is one that is attainable, however it take quite a bit of discipline on our part. For us to be at peace with others we first have to be at peace with ourselves. That means that we have to learn to let things go. We cannot hold tight to the wrongs that have been done to us. We have to forgive. You don’t have to forget, you don’t have to hand out a free pass, and let people walk all over you, but you do have to forgive them, and move on. As the passages reads: Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God’s wrath.
This same theme is throughout the teachings of Christ. Do unto others, as you would have done to you. (Luke 6:1) Or, But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins. (Matthew 6:15). The only way we can truly forgive is to let go. We cannot go around holding all of the baggage, it will be too heavy for the trip ahead of us. Throughout our life we will be wronged, and persecuted, we will have people go out of their way to attack us. It happens all the time to everyone. We must remember not to burn our precious time and energy on plotting revenge, or looking for opportunities to “settle the score”. Just leave room for God’s wrath, and be done with it.
When we let go of all of the hate, and hurt that we carry around we open up more room in our hearts for Christ to come in and work. If we think about it, when we let those emotions harbor and fester inside of us, not only do we close ourselves off to the Lord, we are letting that person who already hurt us once, continue to hurt us on a daily basis. When we give up all of those wasted emotions we regain control over our world. We must remember that we are the children of God, no hurt done to us here in this world can match the hurt that Christ suffered for us. Oh I know what you are thinking, that I just do not know how badly you have been hurt, or all of the things that you have gone through. I tell you the truth, turn that pain over to the Lord. Let him sort it out, and avenge you.
I do want to be clear here, you should remove yourself from the person that is hurting you, you have to protect yourself, but what’s done is done. Being a Christian does not mean that you are a floor mat, but once the situation is over it is over, you cannot change it; you can only change how you let it effect you.
I think of it this way. Christ died for each and everyone of us, yet we are all sinners, we all stumble and fall. The Lord does not hold a grudge; he lives in the hope and anticipation of us realizing our mistake, and coming back to him. HE is always looking for the lost sheep, he is happier when the seep return that he is about the ones that stayed and never left. If Christ will do that for us, how can we hold a grudge against our brother?
Peace,
Rev. T
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Christ is the example
Philippians 2:1-5
1If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, 2then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. 3Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. 4Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. 5Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:
Do nothing selfish, or in vain conceit.... AS I read this it saddens me to realize that this is the world that so many are building. Humility is not something that is taught anymore, now it is all about how special each of us are. How our needs are the ones that count. We strive for personal gain, and personal recognition, so many today will pass right by a brother in need, and in the next second admonish someone under their breath for “making them wait”, or for getting in the way.
Have we forgotten Matthew 25:40? “"The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'”
I have found that when I spend less time focusing on my life, and more time looking to help others, my life improves greatly. However, when I catch myself caught up in the race of life, trying to force a square peg into a round hole, trying to reach that next brass ring….that is when I feel lost, full of turmoil, and frustration.
As I stated yesterday, Christ walked in our shoes. Now it is our turn to try to walk in his. Oh they are big shoes indeed, without a doubt we will stumble, and the shoes will not fit us as well, but it is our turn to walk in them. We should be shaping our lives in the mold of Christ, not in the mold of the CEO in the spotlight!
We are the examples that can change the way life is lived. Our lives can show others how it can be done. Most will tell you that one man cannot make a difference. I am not one man; I am one man standing with Christ, just as you are. That makes us unstoppable!
Peace,
Rev. T
1If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, 2then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. 3Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. 4Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. 5Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:
Do nothing selfish, or in vain conceit.... AS I read this it saddens me to realize that this is the world that so many are building. Humility is not something that is taught anymore, now it is all about how special each of us are. How our needs are the ones that count. We strive for personal gain, and personal recognition, so many today will pass right by a brother in need, and in the next second admonish someone under their breath for “making them wait”, or for getting in the way.
Have we forgotten Matthew 25:40? “"The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'”
I have found that when I spend less time focusing on my life, and more time looking to help others, my life improves greatly. However, when I catch myself caught up in the race of life, trying to force a square peg into a round hole, trying to reach that next brass ring….that is when I feel lost, full of turmoil, and frustration.
As I stated yesterday, Christ walked in our shoes. Now it is our turn to try to walk in his. Oh they are big shoes indeed, without a doubt we will stumble, and the shoes will not fit us as well, but it is our turn to walk in them. We should be shaping our lives in the mold of Christ, not in the mold of the CEO in the spotlight!
We are the examples that can change the way life is lived. Our lives can show others how it can be done. Most will tell you that one man cannot make a difference. I am not one man; I am one man standing with Christ, just as you are. That makes us unstoppable!
Peace,
Rev. T
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