Making It Plain

I have been thinking about this blog and if there is anything, any topic, or subject matter that has not been at least touched upon. I know something will eventually come to me, but in that moment my thoughts were circling around those that aren't willing to finish the process by which we are all called to do - administer the good news. Now it is a topic that I think has been completely exhausted but when I am aware of believers venturing forth to do whatever, I can almost hear the complaints years down the road even before they get there. I am beginning to understand why ministers go all the way around the mulberry bush just to say the simplest message. They are trying to keep the listener interested in order for them to heed the warning which has been preached over and over again. I understand it, but that doesn't make me like it. Have you ever seen a baby being fed strained food and the baby refuses to eat the vegetables? A mother knows what the baby needs in order t...

Announcements are usually made when something good is about to happen. When someone says, "I have an announcement to make", we look towards that person in expectation. When the announcement is, I have good and bad news, I ask for the bad news first so that the good can over shadow the bad and not make it seem so. Announcing that there is a new baby about to enter into this world is supposed to be a good thing ( Psalm 127:3 AMP ). Who would cringe at hearing this wonderful news, this blessing from God, the bundle of joy developing even as you read this? The answer to this question is obvious to those that have been through it. But not so much to the young girl that wondered why she was feeling ill all day long and has had stomach cramps for weeks waiting for the doctor to speak in front of her parents. Its not too obvious for the young man that was having a little fun one evening after a party. Its definitely not the thing a single Christian is wishing to hear or say to ...

Apologies are necessary here. In writing this blog with the understanding of everyone starting from a clean slate with Jesus at the helm - no matter how you got there, we are there on the same path. The apology comes in with these entries being for those that continued to stay on the path of righteousness and the ones that went back and forth to resume the old life style that should have passed away and forgotten about ( 2 Corinthians 5:17 AMP ). There is no condemnation here for the choice that you made - we have all been there in one form or another. If its not contemplating whether to stay with the one we chose (without marriage), its hoping that what is obviously horrific to most, isn't as bad as it seems. So here we are with the bucket full of cleaning products. We (you, me, and Jesus) might not get all of those cobwebs and skeletons out of that closet to resume your prayer life - but its going to be a good start if you stick with it. By that I mean getting that slate clean...

Many, many times I listen to ministers begin each and every sermon with,"I would like to thank this or that...blah-blah... and I count this being here as an honor and a privilege to minster to you this morning..." And indeed, as I thought about it, it is an honor to be chosen to preach to God's people. God in as much trusts that speaker to say what He has given the speaker to say. This person has studied, prayed and is well equip to say and pray the way God has instructed him/her to do. The speaker has taken his position seriously and is not just saying what he thinks sounds good just to increase CD sales and to get a hefty love offering in the end. He/she is not just pulling at the heart strings of emotion for the majority of the congregation to run around the church and be all out of breath to trick them in believing that the church service was really good only to try to make account of the words spoken and it was all fluff and nothing to sustain them for the week....

The Word says about a clean heart as in a request for God to create it in him. Would that mean that he, she or you and I don't have one to begin with? Would that our hearts be clean, what would be different in our lives? Would it be better or would it give other people the opportunity to take advantage of us? However in that passage, the speaker asks for the clean heart with a condition. He would like to teach transgressors the ways of God and convert sinners over to Him ( Psalm 51:10-13 KJV ). Could he not have done this with the heart that he has seeing that it is a will of his to teach the ways of God? Doesn't he already have a clean heart by faith or has he discovered something within himself that would not be pleasing to God ( Romans 12:1 KJV )? Have you ever seen beautiful people but when you get the chance to know them that the inside doesn't match the outward appearance? Have you seen the not so appealing people and then find that those people have a heart of gold...