Disciple - Follow Me

 Disciple

June 18, 2025

Matthew 4:19

19 And He *said to them, “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.”

Where were you when you heard the call to “follow Me”? I was in a forest preserve in Illinois when the Lord made His voice known to me. I suppose it was some time after that when I began to understand the seriousness of the call and began to prepare myself. Of course I had lots of help with excellent pastors and teachers that disciples me and taught me many of the things that I need to know to serve the Lord. Since then, I have learned that being a disciple is not a one time thing that you can go to Bible school for, but is a lifelong quest. Every day you need to seek the Lord and ask where it is that you do. “Follow Me” is something that you need to listen for every morning. Where should I go? Who should I speak to? What Bible verse should I study? It’s a never ending task until He calls us home, but is rewarding when you see all the marvelous things that He does. I’ve been places and done things that I could never have imagined because I decided to follow Him. It’s an adventure and I’m glad I heard His voice. It’s not always easy, but it’s always rewarding. So listen for His voice, and go when he says “Follow me”.

Examine

 Examine

June 17, 2025

Galatians 6:3-4

3 For if anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself. 4 But each one must examine his own work, and then he will have reasonfor boasting in regard to himself alone, and not in regard to another.

1 Corinthians 11:28-29

28 But a man must examine himself, and in so doing he is to eat of the bread and drink of the cup. 29 For he who eats and drinks, eats anddrinks judgment to himself if he does not judge the body rightly.

Yesterday we talked about a clean heart. Today I want to talk about clean teeth. After I wrote yesterday’s blog, I went to the dentist. That was a good life lesson on what a thorough examination entails. Fist they lay you back and shine a bright spotlight in your face. You can’t really move or see anything, and then they break out the scary, sharp instruments and proceed to poke, prod and scrape. This time they even used the laser scalpel to cut away some offending matter. Then they may want to take an X-ray to look beneath the surface at things that can’t even be seen with the naked eye.  Now thats a thorough examination!

So are you willing to undergo such a though exam of your heart? In Galatians, Paul talks about how easy it is to deceive yourself, but if you want to be able to serve the Lord and have something genuine to boast about, you need examine yourself. The Lord can use anyone, but first He must examine you and prepare your heart. Humility is required, boasting of your own self worth is deception if you don’t first examine your own work to see if it worthy or not. Once you allow the Lord to examine your heart and scrape away the toxic buildup from the world, then He can use you to do things that you can truly boast about. You can boast in the Lord and the great things that He has done as long as you realize that it His gift and working and that we, in ourselves, can do nothing.

Clean Heart

 Clean Heart

June 16, 2025

Proverbs 16:2 (NASB95)

 Allthe ways of a man are clean in his own sight, But the LORD weighs the motives.

Psalms 51:10-13 (NASB95) 

10 Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me. 11 Do not cast me away from Your presence And do not takeYour Holy Spirit from me. 12 Restore to me the joy of Your salvation And sustain me with a willing spirit. 13 Then I will teach transgressors Your ways, And sinners will be converted to You.

In a recent Bible class, we were studying how to prepare our heart to serve the Lord. The Lord requires a clean heart, but how do we know we have a clean heart? According to the Proverbs, all of our ways are clean in our own sight, but that does not make it so! It is easy to deceive ourselves into thinking that everything is OK and that we don’t need to change or clean up anything. That is nearly always incorrect. The only way to know for sure that we have a clean heart is to seek the Lord and ask Him to show us what is truly in our heart. Psalm 51 is a good example of where King David had to face up to his own iniquity and confess his wrongdoing. Only by facing the truth and taking responsibility was he able to then ask the Lord for a clean heart. So if we desire to serve the Lord, we need to first ask Him to examine our hearts and help us acknowledge any impurity there. Once we face up to the truth, then He can forgive us and give us a clean heart and we will be able to lead sinners to be converted to the Lord.

Illness

 Illness

June 11, 2025

I’ve been a Christian for over 50 years, but I still have questions. When I was first saved, one of the burning questions was “can a christian have a demon?” The mainstream church at that time didn’t even believe that demons existed, but the fledgling charismatic movement taught that demons did exist and that they could oppress christians and that you could pray for deliverance and be healed. A related questions would be “Can a Christian get sick?”. There is not must disagreement on this one as most everyone has experienced illness. But a more important questions in “Can a Christian be healed? And will he always be healed, and if not, why not?” When Jesus sent out his disciples to pray for people, he grouped together deliverance and healing, so he expected them to be able to both deliver and heal in the Name of Jesus. So if this is the case, then why do Christians get sick an why don’t they always get healed?  The scripture admonition is clear:

James 5:13-15

13 Is anyone among you suffering? Then he must pray. Is anyone cheerful? He is to singpraises. 14 Is anyone among you sick? Then he must call for the elders of the church and they are to pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord; 15 and the prayer offered in faith will restore the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up, and if he has committed sins, they will be forgiven him.

So it’s clear that if you call on the elders to pray, the prayer of faith will heal you. So why are we still sick? It’s a relevant question for my because I came back from vacation with a summer cold. That’s really nothing serious, only unpleasant, but why do we experience such hardships? Some say lack of faith hinders your prayers, and there could be something to that, but sometimes when we pray in all the faith that we possess, we still don’t see healing, at least right away. It is also said that the Lord answers prayer in three ways, yes, no or not now. The “Not now” answer is the hardest because our sense of time is not the same as the Lords’. We want things to happen right now and often there is a purpose for us to endure a hardship for a season. The famous example of this is Paul’s thorn in the flesh:

2 Corinthians 12:7-9 - A Thorn in the Flesh

7 Because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, for this reason, to keep me fromexalting myself, there was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me—to keep me from exalting myself! 8 Concerning this I implored the Lord three times that it might leave me. 9 And He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.

We are never told exactly what this is, but it could have been some sort of infirmity or disability. Paul certainly had lots of faith, who why wasn’t he healed? As I said in the opening, I have questions. Paul’s answer is that His grace is sufficient, and that power is perfected in weakness. So maybe there is a purpose in suffering. Anyway, that is one of life’s unanswered questions of why Christians are not always healed. Maybe when we get to heaven we will understand these things, but for how it remains a mystery.

Anyway, we are commanded to pray for the sick and to cast out demons, so we need to do that in faith, and let the results remain with the Lord. We need to have the most faith that we can muster, but need to depend on the Holy Spirit for the power to heal and deliver. Sometimes, we see great miracles, and sometimes not, which reminds us that we are only human, but the He is able! 

All Things Work Together for Good

 All Things Work Together for Good

June 8, 2025

Romans 8:28

28 And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.

When we look around at our circumstances and the condition of the world around us, we see difficulties, disease and death. So what do we make of this verse that promises that all things work together for good? Paul was aware of suffering in this world as he continued later in this same chapter with this verse.

Romans 8:35

35Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?

So tribulation, distress, etc. are clearly all around, so what is good about it? 

First of all, there is the modifier, “God causes”. There are many things in the world that cause us problems, Satan, The Fall, enemies, even just bad luck, but it is God that works good out of everything. The second modifier is “those who love God”. It is reserved for those who love God, who are close to the heart of God, to receive special consideration. God loves you and wants your good. The third modifier is “who are called according to His purpose.” It is God’s purpose that is working out in your life that is good. Trials and difficulties may frustrate your plans, but it is often the case that the hard times prepare us for God’s purpose. In our wedding ceremony, a word was given to us that we would minister to others out of the things that we suffered. I think this it true for all of us. Going though hard times gives us a perspective and understanding to be able to minister to others in similar circumstances. 

The bottom line is that God loves us and uses all things to work in our lives to fulfill His purpose. In the end, we remember that nothing can separate us from the love of Christ. So be encouraged, if you are experiencing hard times, that God loves you and will keep you as the apple of His eye through all things, and hide you in the shadow of His wings.

Psalms 17:7-8

7 Wondrously show Your lovingkindness,

O Savior of those who take refuge at Your right hand

From those who rise up against them.

8 Keep me as the apple of the eye;

Hide mein the shadow of Your wings

Friends

 Friends

June 5, 2025

Proverbs 17:17 (NASB95) A friend loves at all times, And a brother is born for adversity.

Friends and brothers. One of the blessings of vacation travel is the opportunity to rekindle old friendships. There are friends and brothers in the Lord that have gone through many trials with us. It’s good to reconnect and remember past victories and to be there to support them in current adversity. Life happens and trials come and go, so it’s good to have friends to stand with you in all times. It’s easy to forget those who you don’t see every day, but it is good to be reminded of those who have stood with you through thick and thin, and to remember to pray for them in their current struggles. So, Lord, thank you for friends and brothers, and may we always remember to be thankful for them and remember them in our prayers.

The Eyes of Your Heart

 Eyes of Your Heart

June 4, 2025

Ephesians 1:18-21 (NASB95) 

18 I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, 19 and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might 20 which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, 21 far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come.

In the first chapter of Ephesians, we run across this rather unusual phrase, “the eyes of your heart”. How do we see with our heart? Perhaps Paul was recalling the commission that the Lord gave him on the road to Damascus; to open the eyes of the people:

Acts 26:15-18

15 And I said, ‘Who are You, Lord?’ And the Lord said, ‘I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. 16 But get up and stand on your feet; for this purpose I have appeared to you, to appoint you a minister and a witness not only to the things which you have seen, but also to the things in which I will appear to you; 17 rescuing you from the Jewish people and from the Gentiles, to whom I am sending you, 18 to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the dominion of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who have been sanctified by faith in Me.’

Open the eyes of your heart, that you may be enlightened. Jesus said that the eyes are the lamp of the body. They let the light in. So to enlighten your heart you need to let the light in. Let in the light, the hope and the knowledges of His glory and greatness. We can’t see the Lord and His greatness with our physical eyes, but with the eyes of our heart we can truly see how magnificent He is. It is only with spiritual vision that you can see the Lord, seated at the right hand of the Father, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion. We don’t see these powers and dominions with our physical eyes either, but in order to do spiritual warfare against them, we need to have spiritual vision, to see how much greater the Lord is than these demonic powers. 

When our spiritual eyes are opened, we can battle in heavenly places to bring healing and deliverance into the earthly realm. It is seeing this power that enables us to preach the gospel to the people to open their eyes to turn them from darkness to light and to free them from the dominion of Satan. Many in the world are oppressed by these powers and authorities, so we are the ones called to bring the light of the gospel to them and help them to open the eyes of their heart. People need healing and deliverance and and when we see the spiritual realities of the Kingdom of God, we can bring that kingdom power to open their eyes to see and receive the glory of the Lord. So today, may the eyes of your heart be opened that you may see, and help others to see, the glory and majesty and power of the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, and to help many others to enter the Kingdom of God and to live in liberty.