NOPE, NOT TODAY SATAN!

Posted on April 26, 2022 by randscallawayffm

It was the day before the celebration of greatest importance in a pastor’s family and church.  While Randy was at church putting final touches on his sermons and on other preparations, I was home preparing for the grand meal I wanted to serve our family.  Everything was going wrong.  “The devil is in the details” is a saying that is true at times.  When we are anxious, overthinking, and overwhelmed by the details we created; that is when we are most venerable to the attacks of evil who is jealous of what we are doing in Jesus Name. 

Even the mixer stopped that Saturday morning while stirring up batter for a cake!  So, what do I do?  Without thinking it through, or unplugging the failing mixer, I hurriedly stuck my fingers into the top of the beaters to see if I could “fix it”.  Well, I did—fingers and all.  Fortunately, I pulled back before much damage.  Anger at myself and the situation caused me to stop all preparation, walk around the kitchen and call out to God while defying the evil one who was trying to frustrate me more.  My battle cry of prayer went something like this, “NOT TODAY, SATAN!  You will not rob me of the joy of this occasion, the joy of preparing for my family or the joy of presenting your truth to those who will come tomorrow.  So, Lord, in your name, the Name of Jesus, rid my mind, heart and soul of this distraction and meddling, rid my home of this spirit, defeat the foe and deliver us from evil and evil’s schemes to bring us down!  In Jesus Name, Amen!

I will never forget what happened next.  Extreme calm overwhelmed my anxiousness and anxieties with the peace of Jesus Christ.  I felt evil immediately clear the room.  It was as if Satan said, “I’m not messing with her, she’s a freak for Him.”  Truthfully, it was the power of Jesus who cleared the room and cleared my mind with His peace.

Friends, this is serious stuff that James clarifies for us.  We are either for Christ or for Satan.  When under pressure, who do we choose?  Who do you choose when things are going well?  Who drives our behaviors?  Who are we thinking about most and who do we follow?  Whose voice do we hear above all other voices with hearts ready and willing to obey?  We only have two choices. 

Choose wisely.  Seriously choose Jesus.  You will not regret this choice. 

This is a matter of life or death.

“Get serious, really serious. Get down on your knees before the Master; it’s the only way you’ll get on your feet.”

JAMES—ACTIVE FAITH

James 4, The Message

Get Serious

1-2 Where do you think all these appalling wars and quarrels come from? Do you think they just happen? Think again. They come about because you want your own way, and fight for it deep inside yourselves. You lust for what you don’t have and are willing to kill to get it. You want what isn’t yours and will risk violence to get your hands on it.

2-3 You wouldn’t think of just asking God for it, would you? And why not? Because you know you’d be asking for what you have no right to. You’re spoiled children, each wanting your own way.

4-6 You’re cheating on God. If all you want is your own way, flirting with the world every chance you get, you end up enemies of God and his way. And do you suppose God doesn’t care? The proverb has it that “he’s a fiercely jealous lover.” And what he gives in love is far better than anything else you’ll find. It’s common knowledge that “God goes against the willful proud; God gives grace to the willing humble.”

7-10 So let God work his will in you. Yell a loud no to the Devil and watch him make himself scarce. Say a quiet yes to God and he’ll be there in no time. Quit dabbling in sin. Purify your inner life. Quit playing the field. Hit bottom, and cry your eyes out. The fun and games are over. Get serious, really serious. Get down on your knees before the Master; it’s the only way you’ll get on your feet.

11-12 Don’t bad-mouth each other, friends. It’s God’s Word, his Message, his Royal Rule, that takes a beating in that kind of talk. You’re supposed to be honoring the Message, not writing graffiti all over it. God is in charge of deciding human destiny. Who do you think you are to meddle in the destiny of others?

Nothing but a Wisp of Fog

13-15 And now I have a word for you who brashly announce, “Today—at the latest, tomorrow—we’re off to such and such a city for the year. We’re going to start a business and make a lot of money.” You don’t know the first thing about tomorrow. You’re nothing but a wisp of fog, catching a brief bit of sun before disappearing. Instead, make it a habit to say, “If the Master wills it and we’re still alive, we’ll do this or that.”

16-17 As it is, you are full of your grandiose selves. All such vaunting self-importance is evil. In fact, if you know the right thing to do and don’t do it, that, for you, is evil.

Lord,

I seriously pray all these words of James over me, my family and friends who love you.  Continue to transform my mind, fill my soul and tenderize my heart for you.

In Jesus Name, For Your Glory, Amen

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AND WHEN WE OPEN OUR MOUTHS—BE WISE

Posted on April 25, 2022 by randscallawayffm

James gets right to the point of true wisdom that encourages, so will I.  He writes about the tongue, that sometimes ugly but necessary part of our anatomy.  Our tongue helps us to chew on our food so digestion is accomplished in a healthy manner.  Our tongue can also help us form and chew on words that help or hurt.  There doesn’t seem to be an in-between.  Help or hurt.  Here is the larger thought:  Our tongue is not on its own, it is controlled by what is in our minds.  So, who controls our minds?  What are we feeding our minds?  Our mouths spew words that come from our hearts and from the depth of our souls.  So, what are we feeding our hearts?  Who fills our souls?

It seems then, that when we are tempted to open our mouths—don’t.  Ask God for wisdom first. Friends, how many problems in our relationships could be deescalated if we thought first, with God’s help and wisdom, before opening our mouths!

What if we THINK before we form mindless words that will slide over our tongues to set an already fiery situation to a roaring blaze?  Can we THINK before words flow from our broken hearts that will break the hearts of those who broke ours?  How about we stop and THINK before words spring up from the depths of souls fed by polluted wells of limited knowledge. When prompted by emotion, assumptions and presumptions to open our mouths—don’t.

THINK—the great filter for our words to pass through with prayer to God

Ask these questions before words are formed:

T—Is what I am about to say my personal opinion or the TRUTH of God?

H—Is what I am about to say going to be HELPFUL to the person and the circumstance?

I—Is what I am about to say going to INSPIRATIONAL, building up the person to whom the words are spoken?

N—Is what I am about to say even NECESSARY?  Is a silent hug the best for this moment?  Personal opinions are rarely necessary.

K—Is what I am about to say going to be KIND, graciously said from God’s Spirit of love within us?

When we open our mouths—don’t.  THINK first.  This is the James way to “Live well, live wisely, live humbly.”

JAMES—ACTIVE FAITH

James 3, The Message

When You Open Your Mouth

3 1-2 Don’t be in any rush to become a teacher, my friends. Teaching is highly responsible work. Teachers are held to the strictest standards. And none of us is perfectly qualified. We get it wrong nearly every time we open our mouths. If you could find someone whose speech was perfectly true, you’d have a perfect person, in perfect control of life.

3-5 A bit in the mouth of a horse controls the whole horse. A small rudder on a huge ship in the hands of a skilled captain sets a course in the face of the strongest winds. A word out of your mouth may seem of no account, but it can accomplish nearly anything—or destroy it!

5-6 It only takes a spark, remember, to set off a forest fire. A careless or wrongly placed word out of your mouth can do that. By our speech we can ruin the world, turn harmony to chaos, throw mud on a reputation, send the whole world up in smoke and go up in smoke with it, smoke right from the pit of hell.

7-10 This is scary: You can tame a tiger, but you can’t tame a tongue—it’s never been done. The tongue runs wild, a wanton killer. With our tongues we bless God our Father; with the same tongues we curse the very men and women he made in his image. Curses and blessings out of the same mouth!

10-12 My friends, this can’t go on. A spring doesn’t gush fresh water one day and brackish the next, does it? Apple trees don’t bear strawberries, do they? Raspberry bushes don’t bear apples, do they? You’re not going to dip into a polluted mud hole and get a cup of clear, cool water, are you?

Live Well, Live Wisely

13-16 Do you want to be counted wise, to build a reputation for wisdom? Here’s what you do: Live well, live wisely, live humbly. It’s the way you live, not the way you talk, that counts. Mean-spirited ambition isn’t wisdom. Boasting that you are wise isn’t wisdom. Twisting the truth to make yourselves sound wise isn’t wisdom. It’s the furthest thing from wisdom—it’s animal cunning, devilish plotting. Whenever you’re trying to look better than others or get the better of others, things fall apart and everyone ends up at the others’ throats.

17-18 Real wisdom, God’s wisdom, begins with a holy life and is characterized by getting along with others. It is gentle and reasonable, overflowing with mercy and blessings, not hot one day and cold the next, not two-faced. You can develop a healthy, robust community that lives right with God and enjoy its results only if you do the hard work of getting along with each other, treating each other with dignity and honor.

Lord,

May my heart, mind and soul which spills out of my mouth, over my tongue come from your Spirit living in me—not from imperfect me.  Help me to think before I speak.  Help me to Live well, live wisely, live humbly led by You.  Transform my thinking until my behavior is pleasing to you.

In Jesus Name, For Your Glory, Amen

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RELENTLESS LOVE OF GOD DRIVES AN ACTIVE FAITH

Posted on April 23, 2022 by randscallawayffm

I have always been amazed from childhood through adulthood with the Solar System designed by our Creator.  No matter what I think, say or do, have an opinion about or feel in my heart, the earth will continue to travel around the sun while I sleep.  This will happen without my control, while I am asleep during the night.  In the darkness, my part of the earth is turned from the sun in its orbit around the sun.  The sun is at the center. In a matter of hours, my part of the earth will face the sun once more and light will cover my part of the earth.  God created the heavens to work in this way, perfectly and systematically.  Don’t you love a good plan that works?

Weather is created by this perfectly designed system, too.  All weather, which is reported on hourly, whether we understand it or not, is designed by God who created all things to accomplish His good and perfect will.  Everything was created for us to enjoy and manage without the responsibilities of being the Creator.  But sometimes we are tempted to think we are as good as our Creator and can do what He can do so we try to take control.  How foolish is this?  Maybe we need to revisit the basics.

We humans were created to worship our Creator.  We were created to love Him back AND to love each other with the kind of love He had for us—faithful, unconditional and relentless—by choice.  We are not puppets.  God created us with unforced, free will to love Him back because that is the best way to love someone.  But, being God, our Father and the Origin of our being, He also knew the choices we would make. 

God knew we would be easily distracted when tempted with shiny, choice objects of pride, importance, arrogance with thinking more highly of ourselves.  His first humans fell for it.  Admit it, at times we, the created, think our ideas and ways of managing life are much better than The Creator.  We are ludicrous to think that we know more that the One who brough all into existence with mere words spoken!  But we are that foolish at times.  The Creator of humans also knew that we would be ashamed by our human condition of self and sin, when life as we controlled it, would all fall apart, and we would need a Way, a bailout, to find our way back to Him. 

Because His thinking is beyond all He created; He also designed The Perfect Plan for all humans to solve our own created problems of sin and resulting death from a place of Love that the world had never known and didn’t expect.  “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.”  (John 3:16)  Jesus, God Son, was the Word of God who came from God to earth and moved into the neighborhood of humans.  (See John 1).  

However, there was one created and who formed an army of demons who directly opposed God and His Plan.  The Tempter is the enemy of God, a fallen angel of self-importance who thinks the opposite of all that is God.  This self-proclaimed enemy of God was thrown out of the heavens before we were created as humans. He was and is revengeful, full of hate, and ready to do battle with all that is connected and consumed by God.  His goal of revenge against God is to consume us with hate, pride, self, envy—all that is not God—that will lead to our separation from God resulting in death forever.

The Enemy works harder than we do to tear down the faith we say we have by tempting us to do nothing about our faith!  “Be complacent, have it your way, you need to rest, you deserve it all, they don’t need you to tell of Jesus, let people find out on their own like you did.  The sick, jobless, hopeless and jailed can find their own way out of their predicaments—that’s not your problem.”  These thoughts are sponsored and planted in our minds compliments of our enemy to deactivate our faith. 

We’re in good company, though.  The enemy of God tried to tempt Jesus, God’s Son!  The enemy followed God’s Son into the dessert to harass and tempt him while He got alone with God to prepare for his mission to save the world from sin!  The enemy failed and did not win with the One and Only who knew no sin.  So, the enemy worked double time with all God’s people in charge at the time who had no relationship with God. 

The enemy, who has limited power with the same deceitful tools used over and over again, must have had great fun when Jesus was mocked, spit on and harasses by God’s created humans who knew Him not and who nailed him to a cross.  The tempter jeered at Jesus, as God’s Son hung there in excruciating pain. using people he had captured and convinced saying, “Come down, enough with this, you have the power to avoid this”—all words from the enemy. 

But Jesus, the Perfect Plan created by God, who loved by God in obedience with action, did not budge.  Jesus, His Son with “whom His Father was well pleased” stayed and endured it all because of His great love for us, his created.  Our sins, created by us, applauded by the enemy, were nailed to the cross that day.  All the sins of the world.  Once and for all.  Paid in full—His life for ours.

Friends, this Love of God to us and in us drives us to love Him back and to love each other like He loves us. This holy relationship with God is what drives our faith in Him to obey Him, to do what HE wants, in Jesus Name, led by His Holy Spirit, all for His glory.  When we feel we are better than our Creator—that comes from the Enemy who was kicked out of heaven for wanting to be God himself.   Avoid the enemy at all costs for that is the best way to love and please God.  “Without faith it is impossible to please God” the writer of Hebrews reminds us.  Without an active, alive in Christ, obedience to God; our faith we say we have is dead, like a corpse, James teaches.  Yikes.

We must gratefully remember, at the beginning of the light of day, when our part of the earth greets the sun, what it cost Jesus to take our place on the cross, so that our faith, our believing, that He paid our debt of sin in full is cemented into our being.  This foundation of faith, this loving God back, because of the work of Jesus, is so we can also be called “friends with God” as Abraham was—all because he believed and then ACTED on his faith in God.  THIS is what spurs us to act in faith to God. 

JAMES—ACTIVE FAITH

James 2, The Message

The Royal Rule of Love

1-4 My dear friends, don’t let public opinion influence how you live out our glorious, Christ-originated faith. If a man enters your church wearing an expensive suit, and a street person wearing rags comes in right after him, and you say to the man in the suit, “Sit here, sir; this is the best seat in the house!” and either ignore the street person or say, “Better sit here in the back row,” haven’t you segregated God’s children and proved that you are judges who can’t be trusted?

5-7 Listen, dear friends. Isn’t it clear by now that God operates quite differently? He chose the world’s down-and-out as the kingdom’s first citizens, with full rights and privileges. This kingdom is promised to anyone who loves God. And here you are abusing these same citizens! Isn’t it the high and mighty who exploit you, who use the courts to rob you blind? Aren’t they the ones who scorn the new name—“Christian”—used in your baptisms?

8-11 You do well when you complete the Royal Rule of the Scriptures: “Love others as you love yourself.” But if you play up to these so-called important people, you go against the Rule and stand convicted by it. You can’t pick and choose in these things, specializing in keeping one or two things in God’s law and ignoring others. The same God who said, “Don’t commit adultery,” also said, “Don’t murder.” If you don’t commit adultery but go ahead and murder, do you think your non-adultery will cancel out your murder? No, you’re a murderer, period.

12-13 Talk and act like a person expecting to be judged by the Rule that sets us free. For if you refuse to act kindly, you can hardly expect to be treated kindly. Kind mercy wins over harsh judgment every time.

Faith in Action

14-17 Dear friends, do you think you’ll get anywhere in this if you learn all the right words but never do anything? Does merely talking about faith indicate that a person really has it? For instance, you come upon an old friend dressed in rags and half-starved and say, “Good morning, friend! Be clothed in Christ! Be filled with the Holy Spirit!” and walk off without providing so much as a coat or a cup of soup—where does that get you? Isn’t it obvious that God-talk without God-acts is outrageous nonsense?

18 I can already hear one of you agreeing by saying, “Sounds good. You take care of the faith department, I’ll handle the works department.”

Not so fast. You can no more show me your works apart from your faith than I can show you my faith apart from my works. Faith and works, works and faith, fit together hand in glove.

19-20 Do I hear you professing to believe in the one and only God, but then observe you complacently sitting back as if you had done something wonderful? That’s just great. Demons do that, but what good does it do them? Use your heads! Do you suppose for a minute that you can cut faith and works in two and not end up with a corpse on your hands?

21-24 Wasn’t our ancestor Abraham “made right with God by works” when he placed his son Isaac on the sacrificial altar? Isn’t it obvious that faith and works are yoked partners, that faith expresses itself in works? That the works are “works of faith”? The full meaning of “believe” in the Scripture sentence, “Abraham believed God and was set right with God,” includes his action. It’s that weave of believing and acting that got Abraham named “God’s friend.” Is it not evident that a person is made right with God not by a barren faith but by faith fruitful in works?

25-26 The same with Rahab, the Jericho harlot. Wasn’t her action in hiding God’s spies and helping them escape—that seamless unity of believing and doing—what counted with God? The very moment you separate body and spirit, you end up with a corpse. Separate faith and works and you get the same thing: a corpse.

THE BOTTOMLINE—

Faith without doing something about it, is not faith at all—a corpse.  It begins and ends with the Love of God, done in the Name of Jesus, all for His glory.

Lord,

You have taught me again the depth of your love with reminding me of the foundation upon which my faith is built.  I repent.  Forgive me of avoiding the work that comes with my faith.  Show me your ways and I will walk in them.  I’m listening.  I want to please you.

In Jesus Name, Amen.

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ACTIVE FAITH

Posted on April 22, 2022 by randscallawayffm

“Look in the mirror!” 

As a child, I was an outdoor kid.  I rode my bike from sunrise to sunset, coming inside for meals alone.  My bike became a horse with ropes tied to the handle bars or a motorcycle with playing cards attached to the spokes to make that motorcycle-like noise as I rode.  I also parked the bike to play with the kids in the neighborhood, mostly boys, who ran hard, got sweaty and dirty in the Oklahoma sun.  I had fun and didn’t care what I looked like—until mom would see me and say, “Go look in the mirror and clean that face and comb that hair!”

These days, as soon as I get up in the morning and come to my senses after coffee, I look in the mirror and think of those “don’t care” days and smile.  As an adult, I do care enough not to be offensive to someone else.  So, I look in the mirror each morning, with a frown and a bit of disgust, until I can clean that face and comb that hair!

An introduction to James—Eugene Peterson, The Message

“When Christians believers gather in churches, everything that can go wrong sooner or later does.  Outsiders, on observing this, conclude that there is nothing to the religion business except, perhaps, business—and dishonest business at that.  Insiders see it differently.  Just as a hospital collects the sick under one roof and labels them as such, the church collects sinners.”

“Many of the people outside the hospital are every bit as sick as the ones inside, but their illnesses are either undiagnosed or disguised.  It’s similar with sinners outside the church.”

“So Christian churches are not, as a rule, model communities of good behavior.  They are, rather, places where human misbehavior is brought out in the open, faced, and dealt with in the community of believers.”

“The letter of James shows one of the church’s early pastors skillfully going about his work of confronting, diagnosing, and dealing with areas of misbelief and misbehavior that had turned up in congregations committed to his care.  Deep and living wisdom is on display here, wisdom both rare and essential.  Wisdom is not primarily knowing the truth, although it certainly includes that, it is skill in living.  For, what good is truth if we don’t know how to live it?  What good is an intention if we can’t sustain it?”

“According to church traditions, James carried the nickname “Old Camel Knees” because of thick calluses built up on his knees from many years of determined prayer.  The prayer is foundation to the wisdom.  Prayer is ALWAYS foundational to wisdom.”

As we read the book of James together, may we first fall to our knees and ask God for wisdom.  Wisdom is “skills for living” as defined by the world.  God’s wisdom goes much deeper, higher and wider; for His knowledge and thinking is far above what anyone on earth can think or imagine.  Ask God for wisdom.  We will begin to see more clearly what He sees from His perspective as we daily seek Him.

JAMES—ACTIVE FAITH!

James 1, The Message

I, James, am a slave of God and the Master Jesus, writing to the twelve tribes scattered to Kingdom Come: Hello!

Faith Under Pressure

2-4 Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides. You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colors. So don’t try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way.

5-8 If you don’t know what you’re doing, pray to the Father. He loves to help. You’ll get his help, and won’t be condescended to when you ask for it. Ask boldly, believingly, without a second thought. People who “worry their prayers” are like wind-whipped waves. Don’t think you’re going to get anything from the Master that way, adrift at sea, keeping all your options open.

9-11 When down-and-outers get a break, cheer! And when the arrogant rich are brought down to size, cheer! Prosperity is as short-lived as a wildflower, so don’t ever count on it. You know that as soon as the sun rises, pouring down its scorching heat, the flower withers. Its petals wilt and, before you know it, that beautiful face is a barren stem. Well, that’s a picture of the “prosperous life.” At the very moment everyone is looking on in admiration, it fades away to nothing.

12 Anyone who meets a testing challenge head-on and manages to stick it out is mighty fortunate. For such persons loyally in love with God, the reward is life and more life.

13-15 Don’t let anyone under pressure to give in to evil say, “God is trying to trip me up.” God is impervious to evil, and puts evil in no one’s way. The temptation to give in to evil comes from us and only us. We have no one to blame but the leering, seducing flare-up of our own lust. Lust gets pregnant, and has a baby: sin! Sin grows up to adulthood, and becomes a real killer.

16-18 So, my very dear friends, don’t get thrown off course. Every desirable and beneficial gift comes out of heaven. The gifts are rivers of light cascading down from the Father of Light. There is nothing deceitful in God, nothing two-faced, nothing fickle. He brought us to life using the true Word, showing us off as the crown of all his creatures.

Act on What You Hear

19-21 Post this at all the intersections, dear friends: Lead with your ears, follow up with your tongue, and let anger straggle along in the rear. God’s righteousness doesn’t grow from human anger. So throw all spoiled virtue and cancerous evil in the garbage. In simple humility, let our gardener, God, landscape you with the Word, making a salvation-garden of your life.

22-24 Don’t fool yourself into thinking that you are a listener when you are anything but, letting the Word go in one ear and out the other. Act on what you hear! Those who hear and don’t act are like those who glance in the mirror, walk away, and two minutes later have no idea who they are, what they look like.

25 But whoever catches a glimpse of the revealed counsel of God—the free life!—even out of the corner of his eye, and sticks with it, is no distracted scatterbrain but a man or woman of action. That person will find delight and affirmation in the action.

26-27 Anyone who sets himself up as “religious” by talking a good game is self-deceived. This kind of religion is hot air and only hot air. Real religion, the kind that passes muster before God the Father, is this: Reach out to the homeless and loveless in their plight, and guard against corruption from the godless world.

WHAT DO WE LEARN?

We are all sinners in need of a Savior.  We are also in need of the Lord Jesus and His Holy Spirit to help us look in the mirror of our hearts, minds and souls to see what needs to be cleaned up and made holy before God before we begin each day.

Active faith means determined obedience to what God wants accomplished each day.  (See also Romans 12:1-2).

Faith under pressure shows us how real and active our faith in God really is.  We learn who we really are with lessons for growth with every trial and circumstance beyond our control.

We must always pray to the Father, “He loves to help”, and stands ready to come to our aid when we ask.  Want wisdom, skills for living and managing what God has given to us?  Ask Him.  He will give more than we could think or imagine!

Look in the mirror—get cleaned up—ready to serve our Master at the mere nod of His head, wave of His arm or whisper of His voice to our souls.

“…whoever catches a glimpse of the revealed counsel of God—the free life!—even out of the corner of his eye, and sticks with it, is no distracted scatterbrain but a man or woman of action. That person will find delight and affirmation in the action.

Lord,

Continue to grow an active faith in me, from the inside out, that does what you want when you want it.  Help me to look in the mirror and see what you see that needs cleansing—all that is offensive to you as well as a hindrance to others seeking you.  Give me your wisdom, insight and understanding through the trials of this life.  Renew a right Spirit in me.  Restore the joy of your salvation working in and through me.  Thank you, Lord.  I need your counsel every hour.  Give me more that a glimpse of you today.

In Jesus Name, Amen

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ONE IS THE SAME

Posted on April 21, 2022 by randscallawayffm

I will not change!  This is the heart cry of many who think they control the world, themselves and those around them.  The world is constantly changing.  WE are constantly changing!  Our bodies change each day.  A few more hairs let go of being attached to our heads.  Extra pounds come from simply walking through the kitchen and seeing food available.  Our children grow up and change right before our eyes in nano seconds.  Our work situations can change in a heartbeat with change of leadership or lack of leadership.  If we have learned anything from this pandemic, we have learned that change is inevitable.  We can stop it or control it.  Change just is what it is.  Whew!

So, believing friends, isn’t it settling to know that Jesus NEVER changes?  Jesus is the same yesterday, today and always!  Jesus will never let us down, shut us out, take His help from us, ignore us or remove His love from us.  He paid our debt and He is not taking it back or sending us a delayed bill like the medical community likes to do. He sacrificed His life for our lives so we can be free from our repented sins forever.  Done.

The writer of Hebrews, probably Paul, teaches us how to live in gratitude for our never changing Jesus by consistently behaving in ways that match His Truth. 

  • Love each other like Jesus loves us.
  • Extend hospitality to those who need it.
  • Show compassion as if you were in the same situation with them.
  • Honor your marriage in all ways.
  • Obsess over Christ and His people, not things.
  • Be consistent as leaders, led by God’s Holy Spirit.
  • Appreciate leaders of God’s church for the work God invited them to be and do.
  • Go outside the church building and hit the streets—like Jesus.
  • Share what you have; take nothing for granted.
  • The sacrificial work of Jesus has been accomplished. We pray and obey.
  • Worship with all that is in us, hearts, minds and souls.  “God takes particular pleasure in acts of worship—a different kind of “sacrifice”—that take place in kitchen and workplace and on the streets.”  Worship is 24/7 seeking God’s will daily, asking for His help in growing and changing so that our beliefs more consistently match our behaviors, our demeanor to match our doctrine, as we walk with Jesus in the Light of His love, mercy and grace.

HEBREWS—OBVIOUS FAITH

Hebrews 12, The Message

Jesus Doesn’t Change

1-4 Stay on good terms with each other, held together by love. Be ready with a meal or a bed when it’s needed. Why, some have extended hospitality to angels without ever knowing it! Regard prisoners as if you were in prison with them. Look on victims of abuse as if what happened to them had happened to you. Honor marriage, and guard the sacredness of sexual intimacy between wife and husband. God draws a firm line against casual and illicit sex.

5-6 Don’t be obsessed with getting more material things. Be relaxed with what you have. Since God assured us, “I’ll never let you down, never walk off and leave you,” we can boldly quote,

God is there, ready to help;
I’m fearless no matter what.
Who or what can get to me?

7-8 Appreciate your pastoral leaders who gave you the Word of God. Take a good look at the way they live, and let their faithfulness instruct you, as well as their truthfulness. There should be a consistency that runs through us all. For Jesus doesn’t change—yesterday, today, tomorrow, he’s always totally himself.

9 Don’t be lured away from him by the latest speculations about him. The grace of Christ is the only good ground for life. Products named after Christ don’t seem to do much for those who buy them.

10-12 The altar from which God gives us the gift of himself is not for exploitation by insiders who grab and loot. In the old system, the animals are killed and the bodies disposed of outside the camp. The blood is then brought inside to the altar as a sacrifice for sin. It’s the same with Jesus. He was crucified outside the city gates—that is where he poured out the sacrificial blood that was brought to God’s altar to cleanse his people.

13-15 So let’s go outside, where Jesus is, where the action is—not trying to be privileged insiders, but taking our share in the abuse of Jesus. This “insider world” is not our home. We have our eyes peeled for the City about to come. Let’s take our place outside with Jesus, no longer pouring out the sacrificial blood of animals but pouring out sacrificial praises from our lips to God in Jesus’ name.

* * *

16 Make sure you don’t take things for granted and go slack in working for the common good; share what you have with others. God takes particular pleasure in acts of worship—a different kind of “sacrifice”—that take place in kitchen and workplace and on the streets.

17 Be responsive to your pastoral leaders. Listen to their counsel. They are alert to the condition of your lives and work under the strict supervision of God. Contribute to the joy of their leadership, not its drudgery. Why would you want to make things harder for them?

18-21 Pray for us. We have no doubts about what we’re doing or why, but it’s hard going and we need your prayers. All we care about is living well before God. Pray that we may be together soon.

May God, who puts all things together,
    makes all things whole,
Who made a lasting mark through the sacrifice of Jesus,
    the sacrifice of blood that sealed the eternal covenant,
Who led Jesus, our Great Shepherd,
    up and alive from the dead,
Now put you together, provide you
    with everything you need to please him,
Make us into what gives him most pleasure,
    by means of the sacrifice of Jesus, the Messiah.
All glory to Jesus forever and always!
    Oh, yes, yes, yes.

22-23 Friends, please take what I’ve written most seriously. I’ve kept this as brief as possible; I haven’t piled on a lot of extras. You’ll be glad to know that Timothy has been let out of prison. If he leaves soon, I’ll come with him and get to see you myself.

24 Say hello to your pastoral leaders and all the congregations. Everyone here in Italy wants to be remembered to you.

25 Grace be with you, everyone.

Lord,

I am constantly growing and changing because of you, my never changing Lord and Savior. Jesus, you are consistently transforming me to be all He created me to be, then do.  Thank you, Lord.  Show me your ways and I will walk in them.  I’m yours.  I’m listening.  You’re not finished with me yet.

In Jesus Name, For Your Glory, Amen

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FAITH ON FIRE!

Posted on April 20, 2022 by randscallawayffm

It is when tragedy happens that our faith, trust and love are tested.  It is when our “normal” is completely challenged, in a sudden change with an abrupt shift in direction and circumstance, when all is stripped to the bones of our existence to reveal the measure of our faith.  What is revealed is weakness that comes from a faith built on people and things or a fiery, unshakeable faith in God—no matter what is happening around us.  I am evaluating my own life as I ponder the measure of my faith this morning as I read this “Faith on Fire” chapter of Hebrews.

The writer of Hebrews tells us what faith is, what faith in God reveals to us and does for us, along with the loving discipline of a faith that grows and matures in us.  Ah, but we do not like the word discipline in our culture, do we? Our first thought when we hear the word is negative.  We only think of the punishment and not the growth we receive from someone who cares enough to correct and confront our behavior that is leading us down wrong paths. 

What we think is not totally accurate.  Defined by the world, discipline is: “the practice of training people to obey rules or a code of behavior, using punishment to correct disobedience.”  Used as a noun, discipline is a branch of knowledge, typically one studied in higher education.  (Running is a disciplined sport!)  So, discipline is learning process!

Okay, we now have a defined notion of discipline.  But when God, whose love tops even the most loving parent who wants the best for their children, disciplines us; He does it because we are going in the wrong direction that will lead to death!  Because He loves us so deeply, intimately, unconditionally, relentlessly and mercifully, He corrects us in ways that are best for us.  God is FOR us, not against us.  There is no one we can trust more with disciplinary actions than God, Himself.  He truly wants His best for us.  So, when God says, “no, go this way, stop that, or wait the time is not right for you”, listen!

A faith that is on fire for God, nothing held back, focused on God alone, is a life that is going the distance, no matter what is happening around us, until we meet Jesus’ face to face in all His glory.  Discipline, like God’s Word describes, is like a long-distance race.  We run to reach the goal in the distance.  We run until we reach the finish line on earth with the best Coach in heaven and earth correcting, confronting and cheering us on—all because of His Love for us!  When God disciplines, listen! He loves us more than anyone else on earth has the capacity to love.

“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.”  John 3:16

That same great Love of God that sent His Son to take all the punishment for our sin is the one who is cheering us on!  Listen to Him with blazing eyes fixed on Jesus!  Obey with unshakable, fiery faith!

HEBREWS—OBVIOUS FAITH

Hebrews 12, The Message

Discipline in a Long-Distance Race

1-3 Do you see what this means—all these pioneers who blazed the way, all these veterans cheering us on? It means we’d better get on with it. Strip down, start running—and never quit! No extra spiritual fat, no parasitic sins. Keep your eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished this race we’re in. Study how he did it. Because he never lost sight of where he was headed—that exhilarating finish in and with God—he could put up with anything along the way: Cross, shame, whatever. And now he’s there, in the place of honor, right alongside God. When you find yourselves flagging in your faith, go over that story again, item by item, that long litany of hostility he plowed through. That will shoot adrenaline into your souls!

4-11 In this all-out match against sin, others have suffered far worse than you, to say nothing of what Jesus went through—all that bloodshed! So don’t feel sorry for yourselves. Or have you forgotten how good parents treat children, and that God regards you as his children?

My dear child, don’t shrug off God’s discipline,
    but don’t be crushed by it either.
It’s the child he loves that he disciplines;
    the child he embraces, he also corrects.

God is educating you; that’s why you must never drop out. He’s treating you as dear children. This trouble you’re in isn’t punishment; it’s training, the normal experience of children. Only irresponsible parents leave children to fend for themselves. Would you prefer an irresponsible God? We respect our own parents for training and not spoiling us, so why not embrace God’s training so we can truly live? While we were children, our parents did what seemed best to them. But God is doing what is best for us, training us to live God’s holy best. At the time, discipline isn’t much fun. It always feels like it’s going against the grain. Later, of course, it pays off big-time, for it’s the well-trained who find themselves mature in their relationship with God.

12-13 So don’t sit around on your hands! No more dragging your feet! Clear the path for long-distance runners so no one will trip and fall, so no one will step in a hole and sprain an ankle. Help each other out. And run for it!

14-17 Work at getting along with each other and with God. Otherwise you’ll never get so much as a glimpse of God. Make sure no one gets left out of God’s generosity. Keep a sharp eye out for weeds of bitter discontent. A thistle or two gone to seed can ruin a whole garden in no time. Watch out for the Esau syndrome: trading away God’s lifelong gift in order to satisfy a short-term appetite. You well know how Esau later regretted that impulsive act and wanted God’s blessing—but by then it was too late, tears or no tears.

An Unshakable Kingdom

18-21 Unlike your ancestors, you didn’t come to Mount Sinai—all that volcanic blaze and earthshaking rumble—to hear God speak. The earsplitting words and soul-shaking message terrified them and they begged him to stop. When they heard the words—“If an animal touches the Mountain, it’s as good as dead”—they were afraid to move. Even Moses was terrified.

22-24 No, that’s not your experience at all. You’ve come to Mount Zion, the city where the living God resides. The invisible Jerusalem is populated by throngs of festive angels and Christian citizens. It is the city where God is Judge, with judgments that make us just. You’ve come to Jesus, who presents us with a new covenant, a fresh charter from God. He is the Mediator of this covenant. The murder of Jesus, unlike Abel’s—a homicide that cried out for vengeance—became a proclamation of grace.

25-27 So don’t turn a deaf ear to these gracious words. If those who ignored earthly warnings didn’t get away with it, what will happen to us if we turn our backs on heavenly warnings? His voice that time shook the earth to its foundations; this time—he’s told us this quite plainly—he’ll also rock the heavens: “One last shaking, from top to bottom, stem to stern.” The phrase “one last shaking” means a thorough housecleaning, getting rid of all the historical and religious junk so that the unshakable essentials stand clear and uncluttered.

28-29 Do you see what we’ve got? An unshakable kingdom! And do you see how thankful we must be? Not only thankful, but brimming with worship, deeply reverent before God. For God is not an indifferent bystander. He’s actively cleaning house, torching all that needs to burn, and he won’t quit until it’s all cleansed. God himself is Fire!

Lord,

I am, indeed, brimming with worship in gratitude for the discipline you have given me for my best so I will grow in our relationship.  You are God, Savior, and Lord.  Why would I quit now?  There is not one reason.  You are everything I want and everything I need.  There is no one like You.  Continue to teach me your ways and I will walk, no, run in them, going the distance.

In Jesus Name, For Your Glory, Amen

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WHEN FAITH IS REAL IT’S ACTIVE!

Posted on April 19, 2022 by randscallawayffm

When I get up in the middle of the dark night to use the restroom, I grope around like an unsighted person, reaching out to touch the walls and pieces of furniture, making my way to the bathroom I assume by faith is still there.  I then close the door, which makes it darker still, to avoid waking my sleeping husband.  Sleepily, I swipe the wall until the light switch, I depend on to work, can be found. Once flipped, the blinding light appears so the pressing business can be accomplished.  A couple of hours later, I go through this process all over again.  I could blame this on age, but this has been going on since I was a kid.  Even in sleep, I’m an active participant in life.  I must keep moving.  By faith in knowing where I’m going, I get to where I need to be. 

Do you know where you are going? 

Do you know the means to get there? 

Who or what gives you the faith to continue the journey?

The following essay defines our faith in God through the active faith examples of others.  It outlines the stories of trust in the journey with Him, along with their active participation of real, obvious, doing it without thinking, faith each day in God who they cannot see but believe.  We learn that our faith defines our intimate, growing relationship with God.  So, friends, let’s get a “handle” on the kind of faith in God shown here that grows so strong we don’t need to see Him to believe Him.  We are exponentially blessed if we do.  How do I know?  God’s Word tells me so.  While still on earth, Jesus told Thomas and the other disciples, “Blessed are those who believe without seeing me.” 

Friends, that’s us!

HEBREWS—OBVIOUS FAITH

Hebrews 11, The Message

Faith in What We Don’t See

1-2 The fundamental fact of existence is that this trust in God, this faith, is the firm foundation under everything that makes life worth living. It’s our handle on what we can’t see. The act of faith is what distinguished our ancestors, set them above the crowd.

3 By faith, we see the world called into existence by God’s word, what we see created by what we don’t see.

4 By an act of faith, Abel brought a better sacrifice to God than Cain. It was what he believed, not what he brought, that made the difference. That’s what God noticed and approved as righteous. After all these centuries, that belief continues to catch our notice.

5-6 By an act of faith, Enoch skipped death completely. “They looked all over and couldn’t find him because God had taken him.” We know on the basis of reliable testimony that before he was taken “he pleased God.” It’s impossible to please God apart from faith. And why? Because anyone who wants to approach God must believe both that he exists and that he cares enough to respond to those who seek him.

7 By faith, Noah built a ship in the middle of dry land. He was warned about something he couldn’t see, and acted on what he was told. The result? His family was saved. His act of faith drew a sharp line between the evil of the unbelieving world and the rightness of the believing world. As a result, Noah became intimate with God.

8-10 By an act of faith, Abraham said yes to God’s call to travel to an unknown place that would become his home. When he left he had no idea where he was going. By an act of faith he lived in the country promised him, lived as a stranger camping in tents. Isaac and Jacob did the same, living under the same promise. Abraham did it by keeping his eye on an unseen city with real, eternal foundations—the City designed and built by God.

11-12 By faith, barren Sarah was able to become pregnant, old woman as she was at the time, because she believed the One who made a promise would do what he said. That’s how it happened that from one man’s dead and shriveled loins there are now people numbering into the millions.

* * *

13-16 Each one of these people of faith died not yet having in hand what was promised, but still believing. How did they do it? They saw it way off in the distance, waved their greeting, and accepted the fact that they were transients in this world. People who live this way make it plain that they are looking for their true home. If they were homesick for the old country, they could have gone back any time they wanted. But they were after a far better country than that—heaven country. You can see why God is so proud of them, and has a City waiting for them.

17-19 By faith, Abraham, at the time of testing, offered Isaac back to God. Acting in faith, he was as ready to return the promised son, his only son, as he had been to receive him—and this after he had already been told, “Your descendants shall come from Isaac.” Abraham figured that if God wanted to, he could raise the dead. In a sense, that’s what happened when he received Isaac back, alive from off the altar.

20 By an act of faith, Isaac reached into the future as he blessed Jacob and Esau.

21 By an act of faith, Jacob on his deathbed blessed each of Joseph’s sons in turn, blessing them with God’s blessing, not his own—as he bowed worshipfully upon his staff.

22 By an act of faith, Joseph, while dying, prophesied the exodus of Israel, and made arrangements for his own burial.

23 By an act of faith, Moses’ parents hid him away for three months after his birth. They saw the child’s beauty, and they braved the king’s decree.

24-28 By faith, Moses, when grown, refused the privileges of the Egyptian royal house. He chose a hard life with God’s people rather than an opportunistic soft life of sin with the oppressors. He valued suffering in the Messiah’s camp far greater than Egyptian wealth because he was looking ahead, anticipating the payoff. By an act of faith, he turned his heel on Egypt, indifferent to the king’s blind rage. He had his eye on the One no eye can see, and kept right on going. By an act of faith, he kept the Passover Feast and sprinkled Passover blood on each house so that the destroyer of the firstborn wouldn’t touch them.

29 By an act of faith, Israel walked through the Red Sea on dry ground. The Egyptians tried it and drowned.

30 By faith, the Israelites marched around the walls of Jericho for seven days, and the walls fell flat.

31 By an act of faith, Rahab, the Jericho harlot, welcomed the spies and escaped the destruction that came on those who refused to trust God.

* * *

32-38 I could go on and on, but I’ve run out of time. There are so many more—Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, the prophets. . . . Through acts of faith, they toppled kingdoms, made justice work, took the promises for themselves. They were protected from lions, fires, and sword thrusts, turned disadvantage to advantage, won battles, routed alien armies. Women received their loved ones back from the dead. There were those who, under torture, refused to give in and go free, preferring something better: resurrection. Others braved abuse and whips, and, yes, chains and dungeons. We have stories of those who were stoned, sawed in two, murdered in cold blood; stories of vagrants wandering the earth in animal skins, homeless, friendless, powerless—the world didn’t deserve them!—making their way as best they could on the cruel edges of the world.

39-40 Not one of these people, even though their lives of faith were exemplary, got their hands on what was promised. God had a better plan for us: that their faith and our faith would come together to make one completed whole, their lives of faith not complete apart from ours.

Lord,

I can only sing praises to you for leading me through good times and bad with a faith that continues to grow from the inside out and outside in.  And when I falter in my faith YOU are faithful to pick me up and set me right again!  Thank you for trials that tested my faith with a “knowing” that you were there.  Thank you for parting the red seas of my life as I stepped into the waters that overwhelmed at first.  Thank you for hope, eternal joy, love, mercy and grace that are essential to a strong, forever, active, growing faith in You.  You are God.  I am not.  I will follow You.  Only You.

Active Faith truly is our victory!  The battle for our faith is real, but greater are You in me than he that is in this world!  Evil may try, but he cannot win.  I know where I’m going!  I’m going with You, always and forever.

In Jesus Name, For Your Glory, Amen!

Waymaker

You are here, moving in our midst
I worship You, I worship You
You are here, working in this place
I worship You, I worship You
You are here, moving in our midst
I worship You, I worship You
You are here, working in this place
I worship You, I worship You

And we say waymaker, miracle worker
Promise keeper, light in the darkness
My God, that is who You are
Waymaker, miracle worker
Promise keeper, light in the darkness
My God, that is who You are, oh

You are here, touching every heart
I worship You, I worship You, I lift my hands
You are here, healing every heart (and we workship You)
I worship You, I worship You
You are here, mending every heart
I worship You, I worship You (I love to worship You)
You are here Lord, turning lives around
I worship You, I worship You

Waymaker, miracle worker
Promise keeper, light in the darkness
My God, that is who You are
Waymaker, miracle worker, promise keeper
Light in the darkness
My God, that is who You are (I said)

Even when I don’t see it, You’re working
Even when I can’t feel it, You’re working
You never stop, You never stop working
You never stop, You never stop working
Even when I can’t see it, You’re working
Even when I can’t feel it, You’re working
You never stop, You never stop working
You never stop, You never stop working

He never stops working, no
Our God is at work with us here
Our God is a healer, He’s a comforter

Waymaker, miracle-worker
Promise keeper, light in the darkness
My God, that is who You are (we know, we know)
Waymaker, miracle worker
Promise keeper, light in the darkness
My God, that is who You are (ooh)

Promise keeper, light in the darkness
My God, that is who You are…

Source: Musixmatch

Songwriters: Osinachi Kalu Okoro

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PERFECT FOR IMPERFECT

Posted on April 18, 2022 by randscallawayffm

Monday thoughts after Easter…

Yesterday was Resurrection Sunday, or Easter as the world calls this “holiday”.  This brings many different kinds of people from many walks of life, ways of thinking with a variety of expectations into places of worship.  Our place of worship welcomed well over 1500 people and their children yesterday over six service times.  Some parents with kids came for the first time with Easter baskets ready to go on a hunt for eggs and prizes (which we did not have).  What we did have was holy, powerful worship for the One and Only who sacrificed Himself for all sins followed by an equally powerful God led message of hope in knowing Jesus.  So, some were surprised but found more than candy and eggs, they found Jesus, our Hope forever!

Jesus, is the complete solution to life forever.  Jesus “was a perfect sacrifice by a perfect person to perfect some very imperfect people”. 

And not just on Easter or Christmas but for every day of our lives, Jesus is still the perfect sacrifice for our sins, our brokenness, our hopelessness and our imperfections.  We cannot be good enough or strong enough to save ourselves from sin and self.  It is so arrogant to think we could.  Only Jesus, the One and Only, can save us and He did it once (paid the debt of sin on the cross) for all people who come to Him.

When we say “Yes Jesus, I believe in what You did for me and I now believe you can erase all my sins”,  He does exactly that, wipes the slate of sin clean—to be remembered no more—so far removed from us that if we repent the same sin, Jesus won’t know what you are talking about!  Yes!  Our sins, not in part, but the whole, are forgiven completely.  Jesus, the perfect sacrifice has perfected us, made us holy before God!

This commitment of YES to Jesus was made tearfully and joyfully by over a hundred people yesterday over six Easter worship services for our city!  Jesus is the reason we came together!  Jesus is the reason we meet together every week with His love in our hearts, helping people find and follow Jesus.  We pour out our hearts to God boldly because of the Perfect Christ who saved us. 

And that’s not all!  As believers, young and old, we live for Him through out the week because of His Holy Spirit living in us, guiding us to better thoughts, more holy behaviors, transforming our attitudes and turning our words to encouragement for each other.  Our Yes to Jesus changes everything about us and how we perceive the world.

HEBREWS—OBVIOUS FAITH

Hebrews 10, The Message

The Sacrifice of Jesus

1-10 The old plan was only a hint of the good things in the new plan. Since that old “law plan” wasn’t complete in itself, it couldn’t complete those who followed it. No matter how many sacrifices were offered year after year, they never added up to a complete solution. If they had, the worshipers would have gone blissfully on their way, no longer dragged down by their sins. But instead of removing awareness of sin, when those animal sacrifices were repeated over and over they actually heightened awareness and guilt. The plain fact is that bull and goat blood can’t get rid of sin. That is what is meant by this prophecy, put in the mouth of Christ:

You don’t want sacrifices and offerings year after year;
    you’ve prepared a body for me for a sacrifice.
It’s not fragrance and smoke from the altar
    that whet your appetite.
So I said, “I’m here to do it your way, O God,
    the way it’s described in your Book.”

When he said, “You don’t want sacrifices and offerings,” he was referring to practices according to the old plan. When he added, “I’m here to do it your way,” he set aside the first in order to enact the new plan—God’s way—by which we are made fit for God by the once-for-all sacrifice of Jesus.

11-18 Every priest goes to work at the altar each day, offers the same old sacrifices year in, year out, and never makes a dent in the sin problem. As a priest, Christ made a single sacrifice for sins, and that was it! Then he sat down right beside God and waited for his enemies to cave in. It was a perfect sacrifice by a perfect person to perfect some very imperfect people. By that single offering, he did everything that needed to be done for everyone who takes part in the purifying process. The Holy Spirit confirms this:

This new plan I’m making with Israel
    isn’t going to be written on paper,
    isn’t going to be chiseled in stone;
This time “I’m writing out the plan in them,
    carving it on the lining of their hearts.”

He concludes,

I’ll forever wipe the slate clean of their sins.

Once sins are taken care of for good, there’s no longer any need to offer sacrifices for them.

Don’t Throw It All Away

19-21 So, friends, we can now—without hesitation—walk right up to God, into “the Holy Place.” Jesus has cleared the way by the blood of his sacrifice, acting as our priest before God. The “curtain” into God’s presence is his body.

22-25 So let’s do it—full of belief, confident that we’re presentable inside and out. Let’s keep a firm grip on the promises that keep us going. He always keeps his word. Let’s see how inventive we can be in encouraging love and helping out, not avoiding worshiping together as some do but spurring each other on, especially as we see the big Day approaching.

26-31 If we give up and turn our backs on all we’ve learned, all we’ve been given, all the truth we now know, we repudiate Christ’s sacrifice and are left on our own to face the Judgment—and a mighty fierce judgment it will be! If the penalty for breaking the law of Moses is physical death, what do you think will happen if you turn on God’s Son, spit on the sacrifice that made you whole, and insult this most gracious Spirit? This is no light matter. God has warned us that he’ll hold us to account and make us pay. He was quite explicit: “Vengeance is mine, and I won’t overlook a thing” and “God will judge his people.” Nobody’s getting by with anything, believe me.

32-39 Remember those early days after you first saw the light? Those were the hard times! Kicked around in public, targets of every kind of abuse—some days it was you, other days your friends. If some friends went to prison, you stuck by them. If some enemies broke in and seized your goods, you let them go with a smile, knowing they couldn’t touch your real treasure. Nothing they did bothered you, nothing set you back. So don’t throw it all away now. You were sure of yourselves then. It’s still a sure thing! But you need to stick it out, staying with God’s plan so you’ll be there for the promised completion.

It won’t be long now, he’s on the way;
    he’ll show up most any minute.
But anyone who is right with me thrives on loyal trust;
    if he cuts and runs, I won’t be very happy.

But we’re not quitters who lose out. Oh, no! We’ll stay with it and survive, trusting all the way.

SO, FRIENDS—KEEP A FIRM GRIP ON THE PROMISES!

  • Believers can walk boldly into the throne room of God and ask for anything because Jesus cleared the way to God by paying for our sin debts. 
  • Jesus got rid of all the barriers that separated us from God by forgiving us of all our sin!
  • Jesus transforms all the ugly brokenness into beautiful wholeness.
  • Jesus was a perfect sacrifice by a perfect person to perfect some very imperfect people.
  • “By that single offering, he did everything that needed to be done for everyone who takes part in the purifying process.”
  • Jesus keeps His Word.  “I’ll forever wipe the slate clean of their sins.”

So, dear friends, believers in Jesus, “Let’s see how inventive we can be in encouraging love and helping out, not avoiding worshiping together as some do but spurring each other on, especially as we see the big Day approaching.”

Jesus is coming back, you know…

Lord,

I trust in you.  I love you with all my heart, mind and soul.  You have proved your faithfulness to me over and over again.  You have saved me from myself and all my sins.  I’m not perfect but I know I am perfectly forgiven by you!  Continue to transform my thinking and my behavior to be more and more like you. Make me holy as only you can do.  I know you will complete what you started in me—your good and holy work!

In Jesus Name, For Your Glory, Amen!

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COMPLICATED BECOMES SIMPLE

Posted on April 16, 2022 by randscallawayffm

I asked a friend about a new relationship that was beginning to blossom in her life. Her response was, “it’s complicated.”  This a popular way these days to say that the relationship is not fully developed or trusted to be “the one” in which a life can be built upon.  It’s also a way to say that there are some things that need to be worked out before the relationship can grow.  How sad, in a way, that is it so complicated.

God’s Old Covenant traditions and practices with His people was a bit cumbersome to say the least.  This passage in Hebrews touches on the some of the complicated directives from God in building a tent with a place for His people to come, a section for priests to offer animal blood sacrifices in atonement for sins of people and priests, and then a curtained off place for one priest to enter, once a year, chosen to enter to present all requests for atonement to God called “the Holy of Holies”.  Whew, it was really complicated!

Then Jesus.  The One and Only, sinless, became the once and for all sacrifice for all sin.  God sent His Son to simply save us.  God simplified the Way to a relationship with Him by sacrificing a part of Himself, Jesus, His Son for us.  No curtains, barriers or animal sacrifices with a million rules of tradition.  Only Jesus.  Believe in Jesus and you will be saved from your sin was God’s simplistic New Covenant.  Believe and you will be saved—forever! 

AND “I will be with you always!”—Jesus’ promise.

There are not enough words I can write at this moment to express the gratitude I have for Jesus.  Read for yourself, while tears of gratitude fall from my eyes and pure joy springs up from my heart and soul.  Obvious faith in Jesus motivates this response when we think about the simplicity of repenting of our sins to Jesus, in His Name, which immediately brings us to the throne room in an intimate growing, simplistic, pure and holy relationship with God!  Wow.

HEBREWS—OBVIOUS FAITH

Hebrews 9, The Message

A Visible Parable

1-5 That first plan contained directions for worship, and a specially designed place of worship. A large outer tent was set up. The lampstand, the table, and “the bread of presence” were placed in it. This was called “the Holy Place.” Then a curtain was stretched, and behind it a smaller, inside tent set up. This was called “the Holy of Holies.” In it were placed the gold incense altar and the gold-covered ark of the covenant containing the gold urn of manna, Aaron’s rod that budded, the covenant tablets, and the angel-wing-shadowed mercy seat. But we don’t have time to comment on these now.

6-10 After this was set up, the priests went about their duties in the large tent. Only the high priest entered the smaller, inside tent, and then only once a year, offering a blood sacrifice for his own sins and the people’s accumulated sins. This was the Holy Spirit’s way of showing with a visible parable that as long as the large tent stands, people can’t just walk in on God. Under this system, the gifts and sacrifices can’t really get to the heart of the matter, can’t assuage the conscience of the people, but are limited to matters of ritual and behavior. It’s essentially a temporary arrangement until a complete overhaul could be made.

Pointing to the Realities of Heaven

11-15 But when the Messiah arrived, high priest of the superior things of this new covenant, he bypassed the old tent and its trappings in this created world and went straight into heaven’s “tent”—the true Holy Place—once and for all. He also bypassed the sacrifices consisting of goat and calf blood, instead using his own blood as the price to set us free once and for all. If that animal blood and the other rituals of purification were effective in cleaning up certain matters of our religion and behavior, think how much more the blood of Christ cleans up our whole lives, inside and out. Through the Spirit, Christ offered himself as an unblemished sacrifice, freeing us from all those dead-end efforts to make ourselves respectable, so that we can live all out for God.

16-17 Like a will that takes effect when someone dies, the new covenant was put into action at Jesus’ death. His death marked the transition from the old plan to the new one, canceling the old obligations and accompanying sins, and summoning the heirs to receive the eternal inheritance that was promised them. He brought together God and his people in this new way.

18-22 Even the first plan required a death to set it in motion. After Moses had read out all the terms of the plan of the law—God’s “will”—he took the blood of sacrificed animals and, in a solemn ritual, sprinkled the document and the people who were its beneficiaries. And then he attested its validity with the words, “This is the blood of the covenant commanded by God.” He did the same thing with the place of worship and its furniture. Moses said to the people, “This is the blood of the covenant God has established with you.” Practically everything in a will hinges on a death. That’s why blood, the evidence of death, is used so much in our tradition, especially regarding forgiveness of sins.

23-26 That accounts for the prominence of blood and death in all these secondary practices that point to the realities of heaven. It also accounts for why, when the real thing takes place, these animal sacrifices aren’t needed anymore, having served their purpose. For Christ didn’t enter the earthly version of the Holy Place; he entered the Place Itself, and offered himself to God as the sacrifice for our sins. He doesn’t do this every year as the high priests did under the old plan with blood that was not their own; if that had been the case, he would have to sacrifice himself repeatedly throughout the course of history. But instead he sacrificed himself once and for all, summing up all the other sacrifices in this sacrifice of himself, the final solution of sin.

27-28 Everyone has to die once, then face the consequences. Christ’s death was also a one-time event, but it was a sacrifice that took care of sins forever. And so, when he next appears, the outcome for those eager to greet him is, precisely, salvation.

Lord,

YOU are Savior once and for all.  Jesus, YOU are the reason we can come boldly to God in holy relationship with Him .  There are no curtains, no barriers, nothing standing between us because of the once and for all time sacrifice of yourself on the cross in full payment of our sins.  There are not enough words to speak of the gratitude that is in my heart.  Tears come as I think about all you did for all of us who believe and follow you.  You are indeed, precisely salvation.  You are the reason for my obvious faith in You.  I love you, Lord, heart, mind and soul.  There is no one like You.  You are my everything.  You are Life forever!

In Jesus Name, For Your Glory, Amen!  I believe.

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GOOD REPLACED WITH BETTER

Posted on April 15, 2022 by randscallawayffm

My first car was a 1966 Corvair, a stick shift, sporty coupe.  I loved that car.  I paid for it with my earning from work.  I was pretty proud of the fact that I could pay $700 cash for this fine vehicle.  My new-to-me Corvair not only got me from home to work to college to church, I had great fun driving this cool car in between.  And it was red! (I like red!)

After a few years and quite a few breakdowns because of an oil problem with the engine construction, the collapse of an axle causing a wheel to fall off, with a variety of other problems we had to stop driving it, park it and figure out what to do next.  But it was red and still looked really cool!  But it no longer worked for us.

By this time married with two kids, we had to change from this sporty, broken-down old coupe that no longer got us from point A to point B successfully, to a newer, more modern version of getting around town.  The old model gathered rust from lack of care.  The new model did exactly what we needed most.  We went from good to better.  We were careful to take good care of what God provided for us.

So, God made a covenant with His people.  What God wanted from the covenant was a relationship with His people.  “I will be your God; you will be My people” was and is said many times throughout God’s Word.  Their part was obedience to God.  But because His people didn’t obey, the covenant didn’t fulfill what God desired most from His people—a relationship.  Our Hebrews passage reiterates this fact.  God said, “the old plan I set up with their ancestors when I led them by the hand out of Egypt. They didn’t keep their part of the bargain, so I looked away and let it go.”  Because of God’s love, mercy and grace, however, God had a New Plan in place, ready to go, that would be exactly what was needed to save all people from themselves and their sins.  This New Plan put the Old Plan on the shelf.  The New Plan was Jesus.

“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.”  John 3:16

The New Plan was simple and uncomplicated.  This Plan, designed from the beginning of Creation, with His Son, Jesus was set in motion at just the right time and place.  This plan was driven by God’s love for us and His longing to be in relationship with us.  God began with a good plan for his people that became a better plan in Jesus.  It is still up to us to believe, accept, repent, follow and obey—that is our part of the Promise of eternal relationship with God through His Son.  Isn’t it obvious what God wants?  Don’t complicate the Perfect Plan!  Keep it simple—“believe and be saved”.

“This time I’m writing out the plan in them, carving it on the lining of their hearts.”

“They’ll get to know me by being kindly forgiven, with the slate of their sins forever wiped clean.” –God

HEBREWS—OBVIOUS FAITH

Hebrews 8, The Message

A New Plan with Israel

1-2 In essence, we have just such a high priest: authoritative right alongside God, conducting worship in the one true sanctuary built by God.

3-5 The assigned task of a high priest is to offer both gifts and sacrifices, and it’s no different with the priesthood of Jesus. If he were limited to earth, he wouldn’t even be a priest. We wouldn’t need him since there are plenty of priests who offer the gifts designated in the law. These priests provide only a hint of what goes on in the true sanctuary of heaven, which Moses caught a glimpse of as he was about to set up the tent-shrine. It was then that God said, “Be careful to do it exactly as you saw it on the Mountain.”

6-13 But Jesus’ priestly work far surpasses what these other priests do, since he’s working from a far better plan. If the first plan—the old covenant—had worked out, a second wouldn’t have been needed. But we know the first was found wanting, because God said,

Heads up! The days are coming
    when I’ll set up a new plan
    for dealing with Israel and Judah.
I’ll throw out the old plan
    I set up with their ancestors
    when I led them by the hand out of Egypt.
They didn’t keep their part of the bargain,
    so I looked away and let it go.
This new plan I’m making with Israel
    isn’t going to be written on paper,
    isn’t going to be chiseled in stone;
This time I’m writing out the plan in them,
    carving it on the lining of their hearts.
I’ll be their God,
    they’ll be my people.
They won’t go to school to learn about me,
    or buy a book called God in Five Easy Lessons.
They’ll all get to know me firsthand,
    the little and the big, the small and the great.
They’ll get to know me by being kindly forgiven,
    with the slate of their sins forever wiped clean.

By coming up with a new plan, a new covenant between God and his people, God put the old plan on the shelf. And there it stays, gathering dust.

Oh Lord,

Thank you for the new Plan that sets us free to have a pure, holy relationship with You that grows sweeter each day.  Your love is amazing, so deep and wide, so unlimited and relentless, so gentle and kind, all because of you wanting to be with us!  How can we refuse someone who loves us this much?  I do not know!  I do know Whom I have believed and will continue to believe.  Continue to transform me to be more and more in every way like you, dear Jesus.  Thank you, thank you, thank you.

In Jesus Name, For Your Glory, Amen!

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