Focus

  Focus

Jesus said,

"Do not judge, or you too will be judged.  

For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you." Matthew 7:1,2.

The American evangelist Tony Campolo wrote,

“Let us preach Christ, let us be faithful to proclaiming the Gospel, but let's leave judgment in the hands of God.” Tony Campolo.

My question to anyone reading this who claims to be a true follower of Christ Jesus is, are you doing this?

Are you making sure you are not judging those around you?

Are you focusing on what Jesus commanded us to do when He said,

"Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.  

Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,  and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." Matthew 28:18-20.

Please think about it. 

Surely people are grass

  Surely people are grass

The Prophet Isaiah writes,

"A voice says, "Cry out." And I said, "What shall I cry?" 

"All men are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field. 

The grass withers and the flowers fall, 

because the breath of the LORD blows on them. 

Surely the people are grass. 

The grass withers and the flowers fall, 

but the word of our God stands forever." 

                                                                Isaiah 40:6-8.

We humans are a frail bunch. The strongest person in the world. The healthiest person in the world have usually past on to eternity before their hundred tenth birthday. 

All of our accomplishments if we are lucky will be written down in a history book destined to accumulate dust on a shelf. Or lost among the myriad of information on the world wide web.

Who remembers good men like William Hamilton Merritt (July 3rd 1793-July 5th 1862) People living around the Niagara region in Canada see his name on many things but do they know who he is and what he did?

Who remembers Charles Lightoller (30 March 1874 – 8 December 1952). If they remember him from the Titanic. Do they even know he rescued  127 British servicemen from the beaches of Dunkirk during world war two in addition to doing other things for the British Admiralty during world war two.

We might remember Guglielmo Marcon (April 25, 1874-July 20, 1937) or Albert Einstein ( March 14, 1879-April 18, 1955) but how many of us know what the full extent of their contribution to human history was?

While these men in their own way were great. Their flowers have faded with the passing of time. 

That being said the word on God is still standing. The Bible is being read daily by billions of people world wide. That despite some governments trying to prevent it.

“Surely the people are grass.” says Isaiah, “The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever." 

Please think about it.

Money God and your faith

 Money God and your faith

Jesus told this parable,

"There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day.  

At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores  and longing to eat what fell from the rich man's table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores. 

"The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham's side. The rich man also died and was buried.  

In hell, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side.  

So he called to him, ‘Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.' 

"But Abraham replied, ‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony.  

And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.' 

"He answered, ‘Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my father's house,  

for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.' 

"Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.' 

" ‘No, father Abraham,' he said, ‘but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.' 

"He said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.' " Luke 16:19-31

Before I proceed. There is nothing wrong with being rich and having a lot of money. The apostle Paul makes it clear,

“For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.” 1 Timothy 6:10.

The problem is the emphasis you put on the riches you have and how you use them. In the scenario above the rich man apparently had no compassion on poor Lazarus. His life was wrapped up in his wealth.

He even it seemed had turned away from his faith.

Jesus said,

"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.  

But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.  

For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also....

"No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money” Matthew 16:19-21,24.

So where is you faith?

Please think about it.

A decision to make

  A decision to make

In the book of Ecclesiastes we read,

"I denied myself nothing my eyes desired; I refused my heart no pleasure. My heart took delight in all my work, and this was the reward for all my labour. 

Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun." 

"Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole  duty  of man. 

For God will bring every deed into judgement, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil."Ecclesiastes 12:10-14. 

If you think about it. If all that there is, is this life. If all we are to do is live for a handful of years, then procreate die. Life is meaningless. 

On the other hand if life is eternal and this life is just the start of a journey through eternity. Then we should at least think of where we will spend that eternity. 

Now many would say we can’t determine where we will spend eternity. That is not so if we who believe in Christ Jesus are correct. 

Jesus said,

"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.” John 3:16,17.

Each individual however must decide for themselves if what Jesus is saying is true. Then if they believe they must take the next step. The apostle Paul writing,

"That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.  

For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.  Romans 10: 9,10.

Please think about it.

Chasing them away

 Chasing them away

In the book of Mark we read,

"While Jesus was having dinner at Levi's house, many tax collectors and "sinners" were eating with him and his disciples, for there were many who followed him.  

When the teachers of the law who were Pharisees saw him eating with the "sinners" and tax collectors, they asked his disciples: "Why does he eat with tax collectors and ‘sinners'?" 

On hearing this, Jesus said to them, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners." Mark 2:15-17

In the Talmud we read,

“An aged man, whom Abraham hospitality invited to his tent, refused to join him in prayer to the one spiritual God.  Learning that he was a fire-worshipper.   Abraham drove him from his door.  That night God appeared to Abraham in a vision and said: ‘I have borne with that ignorant man for seventy years: could you not have patiently suffered him one night?” The Talmud.

Now while the Talmud is not a Christian book the illustration given here of Abraham chasing away a non-believer, illustrates what a lot of Christians do. They drive people from Christ.

Jesus as recorded in Matthew 28:18-20, makes it clear that we as His followers are to make disciples. Teaching them what He has taught us.

The only way we can do this is if we sit with sinners and don’t judge them. It’s that simple.

Our job is to present the gospel message of salvation through Christ Jesus. To tell unbelievers the same thing the apostle Paul wrote about,

"You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die.  

But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." Romans 5:6-8.

Paul also writing,

"That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.  

For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.”  Romans 10: 9,10.

When you interact with those around you are you telling them this message or are your words and deeds chasing them away?

Please think about it.

The greatest of all light

  The greatest of all light

The apostle John writes,

“Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.  

This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.  

This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.              

Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.” 1 John 4:8-11

There is a Lebanese Prayer that states,

“O God, Creator of Light:

at the rising

of your sun this morning,

let the greatest of all light,

your love,

rise like the sun within our hearts.

Amen.”

Is the Love of God truly in your heart today?

Please think about it.

Jesus and God

 Jesus and God

In John’s gospel we read,

"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.  

In him was life, and that life was the light of men....

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 1:1-4,14.

Here in a nut shell is what Christians believe. We believe that God made the heavens and the earth. But we do not stop there. We believe that Jesus and God are one. That God in the form of Jesus entered the world He created to point mankind to heaven.

The apostle John tells us Jesus said,

"I and the Father are one." John 10:30.

The apostle Paul explains 

"You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. 

    Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die.  

But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." Romans 5:6-8.

That being said neither I or anyone else can force you to believe this. 

As Yeshayahu Leibowitz, a Judaic scholar and professor of biochemistry said,

“You can ‘t force people to do what they don't want to do, to feel what they don't feel.  If someone wills one thing, you cannot tell it to will another.  It has to come from within.” Yeshayahu Leibowitz.

So what do you believe?

Turning from

 Turning from

The Psalmist writes,

"I will praise you, O LORD, with all my heart;

 before the "gods" 

I will sing your praise.”

                                     Psalm 138:1.

Whether we like to admit it or not there are a lot of gods in twenty-first century society. Money, possessions, even adoration of sports, entertainment, and political figures to name a few.

As believers in Christ Jesus. As true Christians we need to shun these gods. 

We need to be praising our God. The LORD of lords and King of kings. The LORD GOD ALMIGHTY. 

Are you doing this? 

Are you turning from the gods of this world and praising THE LORD GOD ALMIGHTY?

Please think about it.

Come Praise the Lord!

  Come Praise the Lord!

The Psalmist writes,

“Praise the LORD, all you servants of the LORD 

who minister by night in the house of the LORD. 

Lift up your hands in the sanctuary 

and praise the LORD. 

May the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth,

 bless you from Zion. Psalm” 

                                                    134:1-3.

If you are a believer in Christ Jesus. If you claim to be a true Christian will you take time now to Praise The Lord?

Please don’t just think about it. Do it!

Look out

   Look out

"Let each of you look not only to your own interests, 

but also to the interests of others."

                                                                  Philippians 2:4.

I live in Canada and since the pandemic hit I have heard many Christians say, “I’m not taking the vaccine that’s my right.”.

And it is there right. In Canada everyone has the freedom to choose to do as they wish. 

Christians however have a duty to those around them to look out for the interest of others. And if that means taking a safe vaccine so be it.

The pandemic and vaccine aside. Christians have a duty to those around them the help those in need. Especially those brothers and sisters in the church.

So, especially if you live in one of the worlds true democracies, are you looking out for those around you?

Please think about it.

Jesus flips it

 Jesus flips it 

In the gospel of Mark we read,

“Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, "If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last, and the servant of all." Mark 9:35.

Do you have a servants heart?

If you consider yourself a Christian, a true believer in Christ Jesus do you truly have a servants heart? Do you do your best to help those around you to the extent you are able?

How about the ministries, pastors, evangelist and even politicians you support, do they truly serve others?

One of the many ways a person shows they are a true believer in Christ Jesus is by being a servant. 

There are many in our world today who believe the greatest person is the wealthiest, or most successful in business or in politics. In Christianity that is not so. Jesus himself flips that idea around, saying.

“If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last, and servant of all”

Is this you?

Please think about it.

The rights of the poor

 The rights of the poor

"A righteous man knows the rights of the poor; a wicked man does not understand such knowledge."Proverbs 29:7.

Here’s something those calling themselves Christians should think about. In Jewish law there is a thing called Tzedakah.

Here’s a definition I got from a Jewish website.

"The word "tzedakah" is derived form the Hebrew root Tzadei-dalet-Qof, meaning righteousness, justice or fairness. 

In Judaism giving to the poor is not viewed as a generous, magnanimous act, it is simply and act of righteousness, performance of a duty giving the poor their due....

Giving to the poor is an obligation in Judaism, a duty that cannot be forsaken even by those who are themselves in need. 

Some sages have said that tzedakah is the highest of all commandments, equal to all of them combined, and that a person who does not perform tzedaka is equivalent to an idol worshipper..."

I believe this is what James meant when he wrote,

"What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him?  

Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food.  

If one of you says to him, "Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed," but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it?  

In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. 

But someone will say, "You have faith; I have deeds." Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do.  

You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder. 

You foolish man, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless?" James 2:14-20

I believe Christians from every walk of life, especially if they are materially blessed, a politician, or a pastor or an evangelist has a duty to help the poor.

Are you doing what you can to help the poor?

Please think about it.