Your Faith: Dead or Alive? Prove it.

What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him?

If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, "Go in peace, be warmed and filled," without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that?

So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. -James 2:14-17

It’s been all over the news. ISIS. Terrorist attacks. People beheaded. Christians driven from their homes simply because they believe in Jesus.

It’s hard to believe it is happening in 2014. We are so advanced, so civilized, so tolerant… but it is happening.

Right now. 

Just a plane ride away. You have brothers and sisters in Christ who are suffering the persecution Jesus promised believers would endure.

The only question for you is: what are you going to do about it? Can we simply dismiss it, pretend it’s not happening? Can we be content to say, “That’s too bad…” and go about our business? What are you going to do about it?

By the way, James tells us that if we are able to hear the need and quickly move on, without helping, our faith is dead. Not real, not even just “weak” - dead.

So what are you going to do about it?

What can you do about it? The answer is you can do a lot - if you are willing!

Pray. Pray passionately, persistently, specifically, like Jesus taught us.

And help meet the needs. Dan and Alicia Thompson are two incredible people from our church who are unwilling to sit back and watch. Right now they are spearheading an effort to get supplies to these persecuted Christians. And they need your help. Yes, you! You can partner in this effort and show the love of Christ!

Click on this link for the details. And I thank you in advance for demonstrating a faith that is not only alive but compassionate and active!

p.s. - thankful to be surrounded by people who have a heart of compassion and a faith that steps out

Lifting the Gay Marriage Ban is Just Part of the Story

Pay attention. You are watching the Bible’s message happen right in front of you, and you may not even realize it.

We heard one more line in the story of the Bible proclaimed this week in the lifting of the ban on same-sex marriage in Pennsylvania.

If you can put any strong opinions about this hotly debated topic on the shelf for 2 minutes, you can see it.

Can we take a look back at recent history? Even just looking at how things have accelerated in these last 2 generations. What have we seen?

Instead of embracing the truth that we were created by God and for God, evolutionists have, in the name of science, embraced and promoted a “God-less origin-of-man story” to completely crowd out even the option of a “God-driven origin story” in public schools. Remember when that was the hot topic? Seems like it was just yesterday it was all over the news. In short, we can say, REJECTING GOD.

Creation isn’t science. Evolution is science. We don’t need a story about God to explain how we got here. The Bible’s story is foolishness, the intelligent people understand that there is no God behind this all. In short, we can say: PROCLAIMING MAN’S WISDOM.

Evicting God resulted in a worship void. We were made to worship, and we will worship something. It can be man (athletes, musicians, politicians, myself) or even animals. There is little regard for saving a human baby (just abort the blob of tissue, after all, you have the right to do whatever you want with your body), but mention some endangered species or malnourished cat and everyone is ready to write a sad song and run a 5K for them. In short we can say: EXALTING MAN AND ANIMAL.

And as I said earlier, there has been much rejoicing this week over lifting the ban on same-sex marriage in Pennsylvania. It’s Marriage Equality. No one should tell anyone who they can love and marry. If two women want to marry, or two men want to marry, I have no business objecting to that. In short: HOMOSEXUAL ACTIVITY.

And we have not only accepted homosexuality as an “alternative lifestyle”, we have evolved into such forward-thinking people that we applaud the courage of those who have stepped out to declare their same-sex love. People like Ellen Degeneres, Ellen Page, Jason Collins, and Michael Sam are the real heroes. Let’s give them a standing ovation for their incredible courage, so long as it doesn’t interrupt any congratulatory calls from the man holding the highest office of our nation. In short, let’s say: HEARTY APPROVAL.

So, at the risk of oversimplifying things, we see a story of REJECTING GOD, PROCLAIMING MAN’S WISDOM, EXALTING MAN AND ANIMAL, HOMOSEXUAL UNION, and HEARTY APPROVAL.

And God told this story almost 2000 years ago in Romans 1:18-32:

Rom 1:18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.

Rom 1:19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them.

Rom 1:20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.

Rom 1:21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.

REJECTING GOD.

Rom 1:22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools,

PROCLAIMING MAN’S WISDOM.

Rom 1:23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.

Rom 1:24 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves,

Rom 1:25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.

EXALTING MAN AND ANIMAL.

Rom 1:26 For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature;

Rom 1:27 and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.

Rom 1:28 And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done.

HOMOSEXUAL ACTIVITY.

Rom 1:29 They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips,

Rom 1:30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents,

Rom 1:31 foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless.

Rom 1:32 Though they know God's decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.

          HEARTY APPROVAL.

(Emphasis added on Scriptural references.)

Keep your eye on the news. And your other eye on the Bible. It’s almost as if God saw this coming.

p.s. - as always, comments welcome below, whether you agree or disagree...

Well, I Just Learned a New Word…

Affluenza.

Did you hear about this?

So a couple of weeks ago, a Texas teenager kills four people in a drunk driving accident. And his defense attorney lays the blame on a condition the 16 year-old has been afflicted with: Affluenza. What is that?

It is the inability to tell right from wrong because your parents make too much money.

Yes, I’m serious. See?

http://kfor.com/2013/12/16/victims-families-file-multimillion-dollar-lawsuits-against-affluenza-teen/

Has anyone else heard of this “disease”? I have to tell you, I never heard of this one. Can it be caught? Should I carry hand sanitizer with me? Is it still safe to use public restrooms? What if someone coughs on me? What if I get coughed on while inthe public restroom? Can I get vaccinated for it?

Sorry for the sarcasm. I just get worn out with people treating sin like a disease akin to the flu or diabetes. Showing my age here, but I remember when being a “spoiled brat” was a description, not an excuse. It is a disease all right - sin is a disease on your soul.

As the calendar turns to 2014, in order to avoid affluenza, greed, covetousness, envy, or any of the other afflictions that come with money this year, adopt the attitude of Agur from Proverbs 30:

Two things I ask of you; deny them not to me before I die: Remove far from me falsehood and lying; give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the food that is needful for me, lest I be full and deny you and say, "Who is the LORD?" or lest I be poor and steal and profane the name of my God. (v7-9)

God, don’t let me be poor - I would hate to dishonor you. But don’t let me be rich, I would hate to start to think I don’t need you.

Here’s a good plan: let’s ask God for enough. And let’s be satisfied with whatever He provides that He determined is enough.

p.s. - doing his part to stop the spread of affluenza

Marriage and Sexuality: Is there such a thing as "right" and "wrong"?

Grieved. I can’t get it out of my mind. I read an article Monday morning, and I can’t stop thinking about it.

If you want to read the rest of this blog, you may want to pause and read this article so you know what I am talking about.

http://www.greeleygazette.com/press/?p=11517

At this point, the accusations are loaded, ready to fire. “Jeff is condemning homosexuality." I hear that type of language a lot. I don’t even know what that means. I have not the power condemn anybody. God is the judge. All I can do is relay the message of the Bible. I don’t make it up, I just broadcast it.

I have friends that are homosexual, just as I have friends that are liars, thieves, gluttons, self-centered, gossips… name something the Bible says is sin, and I am sure I have a friend who fits that category. And so do you. In fact, the worst sinner I have ever met is Jeff Miller, and if not for the grace of God, I would still be on a crash-and-burn path of destruction. Far from perfect, I am not yet the person I want to be, but I thank God I am not who I was ($1 to Pat Kelly).

My concern is where the line is being redrawn. God, who created marriage and sexuality, has established the lines long ago. One man, one woman, one lifetime. (See Matthew 19:4-6 for Jesus‘ commentary on marriage, which should not be regarded lightly.)

And in the midst of the homosexual marriage legal battle (with passionate advocates on both side), underneath the clamor of redefining marriage, the line is being redrawn again. Where is the line? God says, “One man, one woman, one lifetime. Anything beyond My drawn line is not in my plan.” And America says, “Let’s move the line to include homosexual marriage as part of the plan.” And the APA perks up with, “Before that line is drawn, let’s move it to include pedophilia as a valid sexual orientation.”

So what is right? What is wrong? Who has the authority to draw/move the line between right and wrong? Is there even a line anymore?

I think the line America has drawn echoes the line drawn in the days of Israel in the book of Judges, the very last verse of the book: In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.

In other words, “There is no authority. I am the authority.”

Post your comments below.

p.s. - Disagreeing with someone’s beliefs does not mean you hate them. That goes both ways, for the record.