606. Faithfulness
Christ In You,The Hope Of Glory
I have good news Jesus Is Alive! I have more good news For those who believe in Him Jesus Is Alive In You! Jesus is the perfect everything you will ever need living on the inside of you. I don’t know about you, but that just flat out makes me relax. Need provision? Jesus is […]
Confident to Engage
The bitter partisanship and the virulent bickering among our leaders is both reflecting the angst of the population and contributing to it. It is time for the body of Christ to accept our role and engage our world with the hope that is central to our existence.
“Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire.” -- Hebrews 12:28-29 ESV
While the nations rage in despair, our privilege and "acceptable worship" is to proclaim and demonstrate the good news of what God has done through his Son on the cross and resurrection. We are not deluded by the cultural religion that often goes under the name of Christianity, but is more akin to nationalism or moralism.
We are commissioned to engage. The body of Christ (Church) has a mission to bless the whole world.
We have been radically transformed by the greatest event in history. We do not look to the enlightenment as our defining moment. It was not the exaltation of mankind that sparked the rise of civilization, but the exaltation of the Son whose death and resurrection restored us be fully human again. We live with the consciousness of being forgiven and cleansed. We know that the message of Jesus carries the power of heaven and can transform even the vilest villain. In fact, we are certain that many of the leaders of tomorrow's restoration are probably drunk today.
We faint not at the present darkness. It cannot permanently sustain under the rising dawn of the gospel's light. The Word of God will not return to him without accomplishing what he intended. (Isaiah's perspective: 55:11). We joyfully trust the promise of our Lord who promised that his church would destroy the gates of hell. (Matthew 16:18). It is often camouflaged among the cultures of the world, but it will emerge and succeed.
It Takes More Than Morality
We are commissioned to engage. Our God loves the whole world. He saved Noah for the sake of the world. He exalted Joseph for the world's sake. He chose Israel for the sake of all other nations. Jesus came for the world. Now, the body of Christ (Church) has a mission to bless the whole world. But we know that American civil religion is not the mustard seed that will grow to harbor the birds of the nations. It is not the leaven that is now working through the lump of dough.
We know that even morality based on natural law will not transform people or cultures. It is the powerful proclamation that God has acted in his Son to restore us to full humanity, ready to enjoy him and work with him in blessing the world.
We are not intimidated by the misinterpretation of the deceived, nor the accusations of the defeated deceiver. We are not making plans to abandon planet earth or to escape the expected conflict with darkness. We feel no need to compromise with evil to survive, nor adapt the culture in order to appear relevant. We represent the latest thing in government. In fact, the launched kingdom of God is the freshest and best form of government ever seen on earth.
We speak the universally relevant language of love, while dressed in the finest fashion of humility, which makes even the most homely, beautiful. We are steadily marching from Calvary's victory to Zion's glory.
There is no need to rage along with those who have no grounds for hope. It does no good to curse the present darkness of divisiveness. It is time to rise and shine. It is our day. We are confident because our Lord has conquered.
578. If We Sin Willfully…
Unplug From The Pressure Of Stress (Enjoying Everyday Life TV program)
A number of months ago a panel of four of us had a great time recording a program on how to unplug from the pressure of stress on Enjoying Everyday Life, my Mom’s TV program. I hope you thoroughly enjoy this discussion and it helps you enter into a greater level of peace! If you […]
The post Unplug From The Pressure Of Stress (Enjoying Everyday Life TV program) appeared first on Sandra McCollom.
There is no us vs. them…..it’s just US!
In light of all the recent shootings that have taken place in Minnesota, Louisiana, and Dallas, Texas, our country is in an uproar. And, rightly so. My heart aches for my country and specifically for all those involved in these situations. Facebook is full of opposing commentary of these events.
Blue Lives Matter!
Black Lives Matter!
All Lives Matter!
We need more gun control.
We need more armed citizens.
They were thugs.
They were good men.
The police are corrupt and racist.
The police are heroes.
It just doesn’t stop.
We live in an “us vs. them” society. This attitude hasn’t ever and will never work. The problems in our nation will not be solved with an us vs. them mentality. It is going to take all of us to fix the mess that we are in. It’s going to take all of us working together to make things better for our children and our grandchildren. Otherwise, nothing will change.
When we begin to look to others to fix the problems (because we see them as the problem) we end up believing that the problem isn’t ours. Worse, when we begin to blame others for the problems we end up excusing ourselves as if we are not the part of the problem.
To some degree, we are all part of the problem.
How can I say that? Because we don’t stop to actually put ourselves in someone else’s shoes. We all carry judgments and presupposed ideas, even if it’s the slightest of judgements. Don’t believe me? Think about this.
Have you ever met someone and decided that you didn’t like them? As time went on, you discovered their story and found out that they were not as bad as you thought. You may have even become friends. Has this ever happened to you? I am sure that it has. Which means you judged someone before you knew all the facts. All of us do this to some degree or another.
We are doing it now. Some of us blame the police. Some of us blame the victims. The problem is that we don’t have all the facts. Even if we did, if it went against our presupposed ideas, we probably wouldn’t believe the facts anyway, because it is always someone else’s fault. It seems that we always need a scapegoat, someone else to blame.
But the scapegoat is us, all of us. We are all capable of violence, being judgmental, being racist, and just plain being evil. We’ve all done things against someone else that we regret. It might not as bad as murder, but Jesus said that when you hate someone you might as well have murdered them.
You see, if we don’t learn to love then we will hate. More importantly, if we don’t learn to love, then we will fear. I believe that the opposite of love isn’t hate but fear.
There is so much fear in racism or most types of “isms” for that matter. When we fear someone we try to keep them “in their place.” But love believes all things, hopes all things, trust all things. Love looks for and believes in the good in people. Love looks at people through the eyes of God, and not the judgmental, log filled eyes of a fallen humanity.
I don’t have the ability to judge someone else properly and neither do you. I don’t have the ability to judge videos either because I can’t see everything.
Only God sits that high.
He knows the hearts, the backstories, the hurts and the reasons why people do what they do. Does that justify their actions? Absolutely not. It doesn’t give them the right to hurt others or treat others inhumanely. What it does do is make them somewhat understandable. Granted, they could be a sick, perverted, deeply broken, and even an evil person. However, they are still a person made in the image and likeness of God. They are being passionately pursued by a loving Creator who desperately wants a Father-child relationship with them.
I am not here to judge whether the police were justifiable in shooting these alleged victims. I have my opinions but they do not really matter. What matters is my response. My primary response needs to be love. Love for the police officers, love for those that were shot, love for the families of each.
My first response is to love those that are different than I am. I am to love those that disagree with me, that see things differently than I do. Jesus went so far as to even command us to love our enemies, to show them love by serving them. That’s a very radical, but doable, idea.
I do not, and cannot even pretend, to know what it’s like to grow up black, or to grow up in “the hood”, or to be racially profiled. I don’t know what it’s like to watch my friends die in the street or be pressured to join a gang. I went to a great school with beautiful pieces of artwork and statues everywhere. I don’t know what it’s like to go to an impoverished school with graffiti everywhere.
But I can empathize with those that have or do.
On the other hand, I do not know what it’s like to put on a uniform to protect people that hate me or want to kill me. I don’t know what it’s like to think that I may not come home to my family at the end of my shift. My dad was a cop when I was about 12 or 13. I never worried about that because we lived in a small town where nothing seemed to ever happen. The whole idea of mass shootings, riots, and cop killings was very foreign to me growing up in the early to mid-80’s.
But I can emphasize with those that have or do.
My point is that we have to stop blaming everyone else and look inside to see how each of us individually contribute to the problem. I don’t consider myself to be a racist but would I feel safe on a dark street with a black man in a hoodie approaching me? I have to seriously ask myself questions like these.
I know that we must start talking to each other and listening to each other. Love always wins, but love cannot even begin to win if we don’t start giving love a chance. It’s the only way. Stop blaming the other side and realize that it’s not us versus them, it’s just simply us. We are all humans. We are all creations of God. We are all in this thing together.
And yes, we are our brother’s keeper!
For further reading:
Don’t Be the Devil’s Star Witness
Thank God I am not like you! (blog)
Thank God I am not like you! (podcast)
Don’t Let Sin Be Your Master
For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace. (Romans 6:14)
This is such a freeing verse. Many Christians today believe that they will never get above sin. They believe that they are still sinners who are just saved by grace. But this is not the truth. We are not still sinners because sinners have sin as their master. Every born again person is the righteousness of God in Christ (2 Cor. 5:21). Sin is no longer our master. Jesus is our Lord and Master.
If you see sin as your master then you will always see yourself as a slave to obey sin. It will always be your focus. You will never truly live free. You are not under law. The Mosaic Law is no longer valid for a New Testament Christian. We are under grace. We do not live by a long set of “thou shalt nots”. We get to live under freedom which is relationship based, not rule based.
I know that many people still struggle with “sins”. They might be addicted to pornography, have anger issues, or gossip. They may live with incredible insecurities which cause them to do things to find security, rather than find their security in Christ. Does this make them a sinner? I don’t believe so. If any man is in Christ, he is a new creation. Therefore, he can’t be a sinner if he is a new creation.
The issue here is how we see ourselves. Perspective is everything. Now, I am not saying that one can do whatever they want. Just because we live under grace doesn’t mean we can do whatever we want. May it never be!
What is does mean is that when we understand our standing in Jesus, that we are sons and daughters of the Most High God, we will not want to sin because sin is beneath us. It is not who we are anymore. We may struggle with it at times, but it is not our master!
Don’t allow the thought that you can’t conquer your vices, addictions, sins, bondages, etc. hold you back any more. You are under grace. God’s grace is sufficient. Will you mess up? Most likely, but you are not counted out because you messed up. Under grace, you are not guilty because you messed up. You are declared righteous because of your Lord and Savior. That is amazingly great news.
Don’t allow sin to have one more day as master over you. Begin to declare grace over every imperfection, weakness, addiction, and bondage you might be experiencing. You are free in Christ.
Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal any area where you have allowed sin to master you. Then submit that area to the Lordship and the grace of Jesus. Declare you are free and live as a free person. The way you see yourself is the way that you will live!
What about you? How do you see yourself? Does it affect how you live?
The above blog was taken as part of a daily devotional page from my FREE 30 day devotional, Going Deeper in Grace! It’s yours free if you sign up to receive updates from this blog. Just fill out the form on the sidebar near the top on the right.
How to Cultivate Hope
Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. (1 Pet 3:15) We Christians ought to be a hope-filled people but a mixed-up gospel has made us a wishful people. We ought to be strong in the faith but religion has weakened us […]
Seven Ways Religion Damages Hope
You can learn a lot about hope from watching the movies. When I was a kid I saw The Neverending Story, and for some reason one scene has endured in my memory. It’s the scene where Atreyu is confronted by Gmork, the wolf-like servant of the Nothing. Atreyu asks Gmork why he is helping the […]
The Final Word Has Not Been Spoken!
We just celebrated the apex of Christian beliefs – the resurrection of Jesus (Easter Sunday). On Good Friday, Jesus cried out from the cross, “It is finished.” From his perspective, everything that he came to do was now finished. He came to be sacrificed for the sins of the world and after unbelievable torture and crucifixion, his journey was now complete. He had accomplished what he came to do.
For the disciples and those that followed Jesus, his death was not just a death of a friend but a death of their hopes, dreams and aspirations. They had believed in Jesus, that he was going to set up a new kingdom and bring freedom to Israel. But his death struck a huge blow to those plans. All of Friday evening, and all day Saturday the disciples most likely replayed his words in their minds. They rehashed the events of the last three years. Broken hearts, broken dreams and unfinished business.
I believe that we have all been in places that felt like everything was finished, but not in a good way. When Jesus cried out, “it is finished,” it was one of the best things for humanity. Sometimes life happens to tell us the same thing, only from a different perspective.
Sometimes a spouse says, “it is finished,” and a marriage ends.
Sometimes a boss says, “it is finished,” and someone loses a job.
Sometimes a child says, “It is finished,” and they walk away from their parents to live a wild lifestyle.
Sometimes a doctor says, “It is finished,” and you are given a cancer death sentence.
It can be anything that destroys hopes and dreams. It can be a person, circumstance or an attitude.
The issue is that when life declares to you, “it is finished,” hope dies. When hope dies, a person dies inside. People cannot live without hope.
People without hope believe that the last word has been spoken over their situation. The disciples must have felt like that. If I were one of them, I would have taken Jesus’ statement, “It is finished” as his last word and the last word to all that we had believed for the last three years.
I have been in and am currently going through, a season where it feels, at times, that all hope is gone. Sometimes it feels like the light at the end of the tunnel is only a train coming full speed at me.
Have you ever been there?
Have you ever seen that train coming for you?
One of the best definitions of hope that I have heard comes from Anthony Chapman, a pastor from York, England. His definition is this: hope is the confident expectation that the final word has not yet been spoken. This is a powerful declaration.
When our dreams, goals, plans and even our lives have been given a death sentence, we can take comfort in the fact that God has the final word. He had the last word in Jesus’ life. The death of Jesus looked like the final word had been spoken but Resurrection Day was coming.
It is the same in our lives. Many times we are given a death sentence. Our hopes, dreams, and aspirations are lying in a tomb and we, like the disciples, are licking our wounds wondering what has happened. It’s a tough pill to swallow.
I have been living through my own “It is finished” season for a while now. 
At times, it seems overwhelming but I keep hanging onto my friend’s definition that hope is the confident expectation that the final word has not been spoken. Now, that’s not to say that I don’t have my moments of doubt, struggle and wonderings. I am very much like the disciples in that I often times want to hide and lick my wounds. I often retreat inside my own personal, emotional cave where I shut down and keep everyone at arm’s length.
What about you? Have you ever experienced an “It is finished” moment in your life? Have you ever had a “death sentence” given to you in an area of your life? If so, I just want to encourage you that God knows! He sees and He understands! He hasn’t spoken the final word in your life because you are still alive. You are still breathing. You are still here!
Your final word has not been spoken!
The Gospel of Hope
Someone once told me that Christians are in the business of hope, which is ironic since many Christians don’t know what hope is. Do you know what it is? For some hope is little more than wishful thinking. “I hope I win the lottery.” “I hope the Cubs win the World Series.” “I hope he’ll […]
Chicken Little is Not Our Prophet
DUDLEY HALL -- For hundreds of years children have been told the story of Chicken Little, or Henny Penny, as the chicken is sometimes called. An acorn falls on the unsuspecting chicken's head, and she interprets it as the sky falling. In her panic she relays the event to other animals in the yard and they buy into her interpretation. Fear reigns.
In one version, a fox invites them to his lair and finally eats them all. In other versions, they escape when the truth is revealed. "The sky is falling!" has become a favorite way to describe it when people over-react to negative events.
When the news seems mostly bad we tend to listen to Chicken Little. After all, there is a verifiable lump there: something painful did happen and the victim is an eyewitness. Her interpretation must be considered. But is it truth? Not necessarily.
We're entering a new year. We could look back at 2015 and say we took some lumps. Why then do we tend to jump to the conclusions that things are as bad as they can be? Why assume that secularism has won? Why assume that we've lost our religious freedom? Why assume that the current Supreme Court's decision is the final nail in the coffin of the family? Why conclude that the church is on the wane; that younger people are no longer interested in God? Why would some theologians be developing means to accommodate the seeming spread of evil, giving up hope of victory this side of escape? Why do people say they're going to move to Canada if the opposite political party wins the election?
I can think of at least one reason. (It isn't a good one.) Possibly, down deep we believe we deserve such punishment. We live, waiting for the other shoe (or the sky) to fall.
Some people hold up polls and surveys to authenticate their dire interpretations. No doubt if a poll had been taken in Chicken Little's barnyard, the results would have confirmed that the sky was indeed falling. Panic is like that: it makes the worst possible outcome seem like the only possible outcome, whether it's true or not.
We should make no mistake. Evil is real. Refusing to call it evil doesn't eliminate it. But it is not superior to God's truth and goodness, just as darkness is not superior to light.
We don't need Chicken Littles in today's world. We need true prophets to help us know the meaning of what's going on. Consider the first Pentecost. Even the believing disciples didn't know what was happening there, when unusual phenomena began to take place. (Acts 2:1-36) If Peter had not acted as God's prophet, they would have gone away thinking that the believers were drunk, or that magic had been introduced to this already dubious sect. Peter explained that God had acted, and that what they feared most, death, had been dealt a deathblow.
If there was ever a time for a "Chicken Little" to speak, that should have been it. The greatest evil of all time had just been done. Horrifically deceived religious leaders, along with power-hungry civil leaders, had led the crowd to unjustly crucify the "Author of life." (Acts 3:15) Hope had been dashed. Injustice had won.
But there was another interpretation. "Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified." (Acts 2:36) It was the best news ever. God was working (God is always at work!) through the atrocious events of that fateful weekend, to establish His kingdom above all powers and forces, even death. Justice had been done as Jesus had taken the place of guilty criminals and paid their debt. Goodness had won over evil. Light had penetrated the darkness. Death had been defeated. Love was enthroned.
The same one who created this world has redeemed it. It will be restored and forever display the wonder of his glory. We have God's assurance of that. We who follow Christ have been privileged to be his instruments of restoration. We refuse to flinch when darkness exposes itself. We have the light.
We're not here for personal comfort, but for the glory of our Lord who rules in love through us. We have challenges, but nothing compared to the tomb that Jesus conquered. We live by the same Spirit that raised him.
So as we look ahead to a new year I call for true prophets to stand and declare what God has done, and what it means. The media tells us about events. We need interpretation -- true interpretation, according to God's Word. Chicken Little's interpretation can't be trusted.
This is our Father's world. The sky is not falling. God is working through all events to display the glory of His own endless love, which transforms everything it captures. We are anything but victims. We represent the King who reigns forever. Presently, darkness covers too much of His purchased possession, but we have only just begun. It is time for those who have seen the light to carry it forward into the darkness.
We don’t know what 2016 will bring, but we know this: the sky is just fine. God is in control, and all the heavens are bright with the glory of the Lord.