How precious is Jesus to you

Read Matthew 26:1-30

And when Jesus was in Bethany at the house of Simon the leper,

a woman came to Him having an alabaster flask 

of very costly fragrant oil,

 and she poured it on His head 

as He sat at the table.

But when His disciples saw it, they were indignant, saying, 

“why this waste?

“For this fragrant oil might have been sold for much and given to the poor”

But when Jesus was aware of it, He said to them,

 “Why do you trouble the woman?  For she has done a good work for Me

“For you have the poor with you always, but Me you do not have always

“For in pouring this fragrant oil on My body, she did it for My burial

“Assuredly, I say to you,

 wherever this gospel is preached in the whole world,

 what this woman has done will also be told 

as a memorial to her.”

                                                                                    Matthew 26:6-13
How precious is Jesus to you?  Would you take the most costly thing you have and give it to him?  That’s possibly what this woman did.
We need to evaluate what is most important in our lives.  All too often, going to church is just another thing we do.  We see it as serving our church, not God.  It shouldn’t be that way.
We must remember that while we are called to work within a given church congregation, it is God we are serving, not the institution.
Our service to God should be so important to us, that we get uncomfortable, if we can’t be doing the work He has called us to.
This woman loved Jesus so much, that she anointed Him with the most precious thing she had:

“...‘You shall love the LORD your God 

will all your heart, 

with all your soul, 

and with all your mind.’

                                                                         States Matthew 22:37
Something to think about:
Ask yourself these questions
* Am I serving the institution (church denomination, or congregation) I attend or am I serving God?
* Do I look on serving God in the same way I look at coaching a sports team or is there truly more to it?
* What priority is God in my life?
* Am I truly doing what God wants me to do?
* Am I honouring God?
In my work place?
Around my friends.
In my home?
Do I love the LORD my God with all my heart, soul, and mind?
                                   Think about it.

God in a Box

Read John 11

Then they took away the stone form the place where the dead man was lying. 

 And Jesus lifted up His eyes and said, “Father, I thank You that You have heard Me.”

“And I know that You always hear Me, but because of the people who are standing by

 I said this, that they may believe that You sent Me.”

Now when He had said these things, He cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come forth!”

And he who had died came out bound hand and foot with graveclothes,

 and his face was wrapped with a cloth. 

 Jesus said to them, “Loose him, and let him go.”

Then many of the Jews, who had come to Mary, and had seen the things that Jesus did,

 believed in Him.

But some of them went away to the Pharisees and told them  the things Jesus did.

Then the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered a council and said,

 “What shall we do?  For this Man works many signs.

“If we let Him alone like this, everyone will believe in Him, and the Romans will come and take 

away both our place and nation.”

                                                                                      John 11:41-48
A very intelligent and wise friend, once said to me, regarding business strategies, “it is the short time thinkers, the ones who play politics that ruin a business.  Look and think to the future and not to the past.”
This truth is true, even in Christianity. Take a look at what we can now see, as a very silly statement.
Jesus had just raised Lazarus from the grave.  Something, none of the Pharisees had done.  He had performed miracles, in front of them, and all they did was try to find a reason to kill Him.  Their reasoning stated in John 11:47,48:
"Then the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered a council and said, “What shall we do?  For this Man works many signs.“If we let Him alone like this, everyone will believe in Him, 
and the Romans will come and take away both our place and nation.”
They were truly worried about losing their position of political power and their nation.  Their logic didn’t extend to the fact that Jesus had just raised a man from the dead.  
  That this was not the thing an ordinary man could do. It was one more proof that Jesus was who He said He was the Son of God, the Messiah.
They didn’t clue into the fact that were they to believe and follow Jesus, they had no need to fear because God would be on their side. That the power of Rome could not stand against the power of God.
These men were short term thinkers who played politics.  They were looking out for their own needs. They worried about losing their political power, their prestigious position.
Something to think about
Many church congregations have withered away, because of this kind of thinking.
Within these church congregations and denominations those in a position of power have become to worried about losing that power if change occurs. They have put God in a box of their own making, set a series of rules and rituals by which they hope to keep the status quo.
They fail to hear the voice of God and see what God is doing around them.
Throughout history great movements of God such as were initiated by, Martin Luther, the Wesley’s, Calvin, and other reformers, have been condemned by the church. All because they didn’t conform to what was considered by those in power to be the norm.
The same is true today in the 21st century. There are many within the church that would put God in a very tight box.
We as Christians must be careful to watch that first we don’t put God in a box of our own making and that our leaders don’t keep the status quo simply because they wish to stay in power.
We must constantly pray and study the word of God asking God for his direction for both ourselves and our church leaders.

Unifying love

Read John 17

I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me 

through their word;

“that they all may be one

 as You Father, are in Me,

 and I in You; 

that they also maybe one in Us,

 that the world may believe that

 You sent Me....

“I in them, and You I Me that they maybe made perfect in one, 

and that the world may know that You have sent Me, 

and have loved them as You have loved Me.

“And I have declared to them Your name,

 and will declare it,

 that the love with which You loved Me

 maybe in them,

 and I in them.”

                                                                       John 17:20, 21-23, 26
Here in Chapter 17 of John, Jesus prays for Himself, the disciples and in verse 20 to 26 for all believers.
He prays for their unity in love.  That the love of God, be in them, as it was in Christ.
We, as individual Christians, must first of all know what we believe and why we believe it.  That is why we must study the Word of God, and sit under a good teacher, we trust.
Then, it is absolutely, imperative, that we find a church congregation that believes as we do or as close as we can find.  A congregation where we feel God would have us work.  And we must submit ourselves to that group.
In order to do this, we must think, and pray.
A Bible School teacher once said to me, “most Christians think with their heart and forget God gave them a brain for that purpose.
They think their hands are only to use to pick things up with, not put together in prayer, and that their ears are the only thing they hear with.”
What he meant was, many Christians go to where they feel good, not necessarily, where God wants them.  That they never pray and seek God’s guidance about which church they should attend or what they should do.  They listen to others and what comes in through their ears, not what God is telling their heart.
Here Jesus talks about the unity of the believers, about them being one.  And He asks:
“that the love with which You loved Me  maybe in them,  and I in them.”
Something to think about:
I go back to the words of the Apostle Paul in 1Corinthinas 13:4-8a
“Love suffers long and is kind: love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil. does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails.”
This is what Jesus prayed for, for all Christians. This is the kind of love we must show to both our brothers and sisters in Christ and the whole world.

What Really Matters

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.... 

                                                                          Genesis 1:1

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, 

and the Word was God.  

He was with God in the beginning. 

Through him all things were made; 

without him nothing was made that has been made...

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. 

We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, 

full of grace and truth. 

                                                                                       John 1:1-3, 14

Perhaps one of the most controversial parts of the Bible is the Genesis chapter one, the creations chapter.
Non Christians point to it and say how could the world be made in six twenty-four hour days. They claim it took aeons.
Frankly I could care less. It doesn’t make any difference to my faith if the world was made in a hundred forty-four hours or a hundred forty-four billion years.
I believe the universe and everything in it was created by God. AND more importantly I believe that Jesus is God.
That he came to earth to live among His creation, to point mankind to heaven.
Jesus said of himself,

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, 

that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.  

For God did not send his Son into the world 

to condemn the world,

 but to save the world through him.  

Whoever believes in him is not condemned, 

but whoever does not believe stands condemned already 

because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. "

                                                                                                     John 3:16-18
God gives us a free will but he makes it clear that we have only two choices in this life.
To either accept Jesus for who he says he is. The very Son of God the Saviour of the world, or to reject him as a liar who has perpetuated the most monumental lie in human history.
The choice dear reader is yours.
Do you believe Jesus is Lord and God. The creator of the universe who came to earth to pay the price for your sins?
If you believe, then the question is, if you were to die tonight are you certain you would get to haven?
If not hear is a prayer you may want to pray.
Dear Heavenly Father
I know that I am a sinner. That I fall short of what you want for me in my life. 
I recognize that Jesus is your One and Only Son. That he came to die to take away my sins.
Please forgive me of my sins.
Please Lord Jesus come into my heart and life this day. Lead me and guide me from this day forward.
Amen

If you prayed this prayer and really meant it then Jesus will come into your life. I urge you to read the Bible. Start with the New Testament and read through the whole Bible.
Pray before you read each chapter that God will reveal Himself to you and that He will reveal what you are reading means to you personally.
The next thing is to pray and find a good church in your area.
I personally would recommend a good Baptist church as I have found their teachings to be very well balanced and in line with the word of God.
But above all of this Pray, Pray, Pray, that God would lead you to the right church or group of believers that can help you grow in Christ.
And remember always that with God in your life, if you let Him, He will change your life in a wonderful way.

Blessed is the Man

“Blessed is the man who does not fall away on account of me.” 

                                                                                                    Matthew 11:6

John who is now in prison hears of Jesus ministry. He then sends his disciples to Jesus to ask if He is indeed the Christ.
Jesus in essence tells him to look at the signs. The blind receive sight, the lame walk, the leper is cured, the deaf hear, the dead raised and the good news is preached to the poor.
Then Jesus adds “Blessed is the man who does not fall away on account of me.”
It is so easy to fall away from Christ especially in our day and age. We are and have been waiting for Christ’s return for over two millennium.
It takes a lot to wait that long.
Jesus is the only founder of a religious group that said he will return. This is something we must hold onto as a true statement.
We are called to follow Jesus by faith.
We must have faith that the Bible is true. That the miracles spoken of in the Bible are true.
We must have faith in the words of the apostle Paul when he says in Ephesians that we are saved through our faith not our works.
Christianity is very much a walk of faith. We are presented the truth about Jesus in the Bible and are asked to make a decision as to wether we believe it or not. There is no middle ground.
Moreover we must live our faith openly before those around us.
We must not be ashamed of what the Bible tells us about Jesus no matter what those around us say.
Jesus performed miracles, something that in the twenty first century or for that matter in any century can seem far fetched. Yet the Bible asks us to believe them.
And through the ages the words Jesus said to John the Baptist calls out to us, “Blessed is the man who does not fall away on account of me.”  

Something to think about.

Do you truly believe that Jesus is the Son of God and that he did indeed perform all the miraculous things spoken of in the Bible?

Beware

Read Matthew 16:1-12

Then the Pharisees and Sadducees came,

 and hailing Him asked that He would show them a sign from heaven.

He answered and said to them, 

“When it is evening you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red’;

“and in the morning, “It will be foul weather today, for the sky is red and threatening.’  Hypocrites!  You know how to discern the face of the sky,

 but you cannot discern the signs of the times.

“A wicked and adulterous generation seeks after a sign,

 and no sign shall be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.” 

 And He left them and departed.

Now when His disciples had come to the other side, they had forgotten to take bread.

Then Jesus said to them, 

“Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees.”

Then they understood 

that He did not tell them to beware the leaven of bread, 

but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”

                                                                                             Matthew 16:1-6,12
Do you know what you believe, and why you believe it?  Is what you believe based on the Scriptures?  Can you support your beliefs from the Bible and not take verses out of context?  Is what you believe based only on what you have heard from pastors, priests, evangelist, and those on television?
We are not all Bible scholars, but we should all have a good idea of what the Bible says.  We should believe it, read it, as often as we can, from cover to cover, and ask God to reveal His truths in it.
Most Pastors, priests and evangelists are good people, they truly believe what they teach.  I know I thank God for some very well educated pastors, that have come into my life.
One in particular, couldn’t emphasize enough the need to read the Word of God.  “Study to show thyself approved.”  (2 Timothy 3:15) was a quote he used.  He always asserted that any teacher, no matter how good is “human”, therefore, imperfect and prone to make the odd mistake.  He noted that no church, no denomination has it all right, all make mistakes although, they do their best to get it right, for the most part.
It is therefore, up to us as individuals to read the Scriptures, to know what God is saying.  To know that we are in the right place with God.
Throughout the history, the church, has let the leaven of the Pharisees creep in, every now and then.
The Pharisees simply put, let traditions and man’s interpretation of Scriptures get in front of what God’s word actually said.  They covered the spirit and original intent of the Word of God with traditions and mistaken interpretations, thus changing it’s meaning.

Something to think about

Millions of books have been written, interpreting the Scriptures. Each writer with  a slight bias derived from what they were taught.
That is understandable no factual book has ever been written without some kind of bias. It’s the consequence of “being human” and the free will God has given us.
The bottom line in all of his however, is to be aware of what is being taught.  Read the Scriptures.  Question doctrines that you don’t understand.  If it is truly based on the Scriptures, it will stand to independent scrutiny, and those preaching it will not be afraid to have it questioned.