I was sitting at Burger King this morning, enjoying a very unhealthy breakfast of sausage biscuit and coffee and reading and taking some notes at the same time. In one moment of a slight hand movement, my notes, Kindle and remains of biscuit were saturated in spilled coffee.

You always have that initial response of embarrassment when you dump a cup of coffee in your lap, right? Not me! All I could think about was my journal that I had kept this year being covered in coffee in that unwelcome moment. I used the TWO napkins that they give you at the counter to dry off my Kindle and Journal as best I could, and then went to the counter to retrieve more napkins that they apparently have hidden behind the counters now (guess too many Fannin county residents were snatching them for their glove boxes).  In a few minutes, the mess was cleaned up, and I was prepared to go, now that my nice quiet breakfast had been so rudely interrupted by myself.

As I thought about the morning spill, I thought, “I have felt the same feeling about life before that I felt about my coffee mishap. At first, the damage looked so bad that I thought, “I can never clean all of this up.” I wanted to panic. I wanted to throw my journal in the trash, grab my Kindle and walk out leaving coffee on the table and floor. But all it took was some patience and cleaning, and all that was left of the mess, were some coffee stains in the journal. Have you been there with me, when you felt like you had messed up your life so seriously that you wanted to panic, and you felt like your life could never be clean again. It’s wrecked – ruined!

Good news – no spill too great, no fall so shattering, that God with patience and the blood of Jesus Christ cannot cleanse our lives and return them to a state of usefulness.  Sure, there may be some stains left from the sin, but they do not negate usefulness; they only serve as reminders of the past mistakes so that we do not repeat them again, and reminders of the great cleaning job that God has performed in our lives that we so often term “Amazing Grace.”

The steps of a good man are ordered by the LORD: and he delighteth in his way. Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down: for the LORD upholdeth him with his hand.                  Psalm 37:23-24

I sat outside today enjoying the wonderful sunshine and upper-seventies temperatures that we are having in North Georgia. I read up on some facebook friends, and realized that there were a number of other places having a beautiful day today as well. What is it about these early spring days that makes us breath a little easier (with the obvious exception of sinus and allergy sufferers), opens our eyes a little more to the world around us, and puts the “spring” back into our step?

It’s the presence and atmosphere of life. In the summer, beauty is taken for granted. In the fall, nature begins her course to the grave. And in the winter, everything is brown, grey, and white as nature sleeps in death for the cold season. But in the spring, life shouts the joyful news, the Gospel of resurrection, with every bud that I see on the tip of those dead limbs. Where once was  dead, grey limb, now comes green or red life. Where recently our lungs were frozen and oppressed in the winter’s chilly air, now our lungs breath freely as the air cools and warms our lungs at the same time.

I cannot help but think of the beautiful passage of Scripture in the love song of Solomon, chapter 2:

For, lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone; The flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land; The fig tree putteth forth her green figs, and the vines with the tender grape give a good smell. Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away.

This is like a movie scene with perfect scenery, perfect environment, and perfect plot; it’s almost too good to be true right? Hardly. As I sit outside and contemplate the perfect scenery and the perfect environment, I remember that I am a part of the perfect plot – Jesus has loved and saved His Church, and He will soon come to take us home to be with Him.

In spite of the winter times of darkness, when the world and the god of this world, rage against the love of Jesus Christ, His Church, the spring of life and resurrection will come and we will live forevermore with Him. Nothing can take away this hope of spring, any more than one could take away my hope through this past winter that this day would come. One day in the future, I will sit in the face of the Son once again, and the cold days of earthly sorrow will be fleeting memories never to chill my soul again.

I was probably around ten years old; it was Saturday, a bright, sunny, warm Saturday, and my heart was longing for backyard baseball.  Just one problem: Saturday was chores day around the Thomas household, and Dad had picked this day for me to do the most dubious task of throwing away all of the old newspapers that we had kept for fire-starter through the winter.  I looked at that looming pile of black and white and knew that this was going to be at least a whole day’s task (it really should have taken about ten minutes).

So I got started. I put in a pile of papers and carried the first load out in my garbage sack, emptied it in the trash can outside, all the while looking around to see if my best friend Ryan Davis was outside next door. Back for a second load, and a third load; but, on that third trip, I saw him – there was Ryan baseball bat and glove in hand, and here I was carrying old newspapers. To a ten year old boy, as I am learning now with my own son, Jackson, sometimes a mind of your own can carry you right off to follow it, not even thinking a moment about what you are really supposed to be doing. Yep, you guessed it; down went my garbage bag, and since I was going in and out of the house, Mom and Dad didn’t even realize that I was gone when I ran back out the door with glove, bat, and ball in hand, donning my baseball cap and relishing the sunshine.

It probably only took about thirty minutes until I heard Dad calling. All at once, reality interrupted my sublime dream-world, and I remembered that scattered pile of remaining papers left by our fireplace. I ran home to see Dad; he didn’t look nearly as happy as I thought he should on this sunny Saturday. “Why didn’t you finish?” he asked. “Well I saw Ryan outside, and I thought I would just finish later after we played for a while”, I answered. “You should have finished, Rus.”

My dad taught me the most invaluable lesson that day of finishing what you start. I wish I could say that this has become second nature for me today, but you are probably just like me – like a ten year old and an adult – sometimes, our mind carries us away from the duty of finishing well.

Jesus said in Luke 14:26-30:

If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple. For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it? Lest haply, after he hath laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it, all that behold it begin to mock him,  Saying, This man began to build, and was not able to finish.

As I read that last, mocking sentence, “This man began to build, and was not able to finish,” I thought about many that have started down the Christian path of life, preaching, singing, witnessing, and living for  Christ, but they have not finished well. I think this is my worst fear. I failure is your greatest fear, then failing God should be the greatest part of that fear.I can hear the mockery of that statement for my own life, “He was not able to finish.”

What should I do? Jesus said to count the cost to finish well. What are the costs?  “Whosoever does not hate father, mother, husband, wife, brother, sister, cannot be my disciple, ” says Christ. “Whosoever would follow me must take up his own cross to follow me.”  So the costs that Jesus says we must pay are to love Him more than anyone else in this world, first of all, and then to love Him more than ourselves. “Hate” in this passage is a priority word; it does not mean that I literally hate my father and mother, for that would be against the fifth commandment to honor them; it means that I love Christ more than them, more than my wife, more than my children, more than anyone, and more than self.  If this is my heart, then I can finish well this Christian walk that I have started.

Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 9:27,

But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.

This is a fight for survival. We have to bring our body under subjection to love Christ more than all others, more than self.  “But I can’t do it!” your screaming. Neither could Paul. Take some time and read Romans 7:14-25.  The Apostle Paul, in his struggle to follow Christ realized that the only true victory in this would come by the power of God working through Him.  This means time on our knees in prayer: prayers of repentance, prayers of asking for help. It means that we read the Scriptures to hear the Words of God. It means we follow the Holy Spirit’s conviction. It is a fight, but God will empower victory to finish what we’ve started if we will ask Him and follow Him.

O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?  I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Romans7:24-25a

Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ…. Philippians 1:6

Prayer – so many books, sermons, talks, and lessons have been published on this topic, that the amount of teaching is staggering. And then look at all of the teaching in Scripture; it can even become a tangled mesh in our minds at times. Like when Jesus says, “Ask what you will, in my name, and it shall be done unto you.” Is this really true? Haven’t we ask God for things before, closed our prayers in the habitual “in Jesus name I pray, AMEN.” only to find no clear answer, and definitely not receive the one we prayed for. This makes me scratch my head at times, But as they say in teaching, an illustration (picture) is worth a thousand words, so let me give you a short “1,000 word” blog.

Abraham, in Genesis 18, is talking to the Lord about the future fate of Sodom. The conversation really turns into a bargaining match, or what I think of as a wrestling match between Abraham and the Lord. Abraham wrestles with the Lord for his own interest in Sodom, mainly his nephew Lot, but he also wrestles for the glory of God (“will you slay the righteous with the wicked? far be it from You!”). This is a perfect mixture of the Compound of Christian prayer – “ask what you will, but ask it for God’s glory.”"Delight thyself also in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart (Ps.37:4).”

Abraham’s attitude in prayer shines in 18:27,

“Indeed now, I, who am but dust and ashes, have taken it upon myself to speak to the Lord.”

Abraham does not wrestle with God in the WWF style of the modern charismatic movement. His wrestlings do not bind God, bind Satan, bind wickedness, bind fire from heaven, nor in essence bind his prayers. He remembers that he is but dust, but he also remembers the grace of God that he might approach God. We may have this same confidence and boldness, the writer of Hebrews 4:16 tells us, since God’s grace is to us, as well, today. But mark this, that we must come before God humbly, not viciously arrogant.

And lastly in this wrestling lesson, Abraham lost. He was wrestling for the salvation of Sodom, and he lost! Imagine what went through his mind when he walked out that fateful morning of judgment and saw the smoke rising from the Jordan valley. Was all of that talk in vain? In reality, Abraham didn’t lose, because God gave him the desires of his heart, only in a different way than he prayed. God did manifest His own glory and righteousness in the judgment of Sodom, but He also graciously spared Lot for Abraham’s sake. Remember that many times, when you wrestle with God, it will seem like you have lost, but God always answers in ways that are best for His glory and our good. He knows our hearts and he tells us to pray without ceasing (wrestle). We cannot simply disregard our own interests (our Lot’s), but we ought to wrestle for our interests, for God’s glory, in humility, realizing in the end that God’s ways are always best.

“We are surrounded!”  These have to be the worst words that can be heard by soldiers.   Christians are, in a sense, soldiers, since we are commanded to fight the good fight of faith (1 Tim.6:12); and, we are surrounded. We are surrounded by a world that is falling apart financially, physically, and morally. We are surrounded by politicians that are going to fix it. We are surrounded by our own failing circumstances at times – failing health, failing finances, failing families, failing relationships, failing endeavors, failing righteousness. There are people that like us (when we are likeable, which isn’t all the time), there are people that hate us, and there are people that wish we would just shut up about our faith, our hope, our eternal life, and our Master, King Jesus.  Are there not more of those days lately, when you just want to slap the alarm clock off, roll over, pull the warm blanket over your head, and sleep? Should we run from all of these things?

Nehemiah, an Old Testament leader of the Jews found himself surrounded by threats one day, as we do today. Following the exile of the Jews in Babylon, many returned to Israel and Jerusalem to rebuild, and the Persian King Artaxerxes, gave Nehemiah, his personal attendant, the privilege of being the governor of Jerusalem. Upon arrival, Nehemiah found that this blessing was a “mixed bag,” because there were great obstacles to overcome in order to rebuild the walls of the city, there were enemies everywhere that did not want the Jews to rebuild the walls of the city, and there was corruption already in Jerusalem among the returned exiles. The enemies of the Jews tried to discourage the rebuilding of the walls by force, but it did not work; Nehemiah prepared his workers to fight, and the enemies backed down. Then in Nehemiah 6, the enemies once again tried to destroy Nehemiah, this time in peaceful manipulation, but Nehemiah would not go to the “peace talks”, but instead continued working. The final try to destroy Nehemiah’s credibility as a leader came in the same chapter.

He was in the home of Shemaiah, who we assume was a priest, and Shemaiah tried to convince Nehemiah that the enemies were going to assassinate him and that he should hide in the temple. Not only was it unlawful for Nehemiah to enter the temple, since he was not a priest, but a fearful retreat into the temple would have completely discredited him as a leader to the people of the city. Instead of succumbing to this temptation to run, Nehemiah responded to Shemaiah,

“Should such a man as I flee?”

What type of man was Nehemiah, and are there any similarities in his life and the lives of  Christians today?

First, Nehemiah was a Representative of the King. The King of the Persian empire, which ruled the known world, had sent him to govern over Jerusalem, and Nehemiah was essentially saying, “Should a King’s man run for fear? I have the authority and support of the King!” Christians, you, too, are representatives of the King of kings and Lord of lords; you have His authority, command, and support to carry on with the mission. Should such representatives run for fear of the surrounding enemies? Paul asked, “If God be for us, who can be against us?” Our King’s authority is greater than any potentate, our King’s command is more far-reaching than any leader’s, and our King’s power is greater than any power in existence.

Secondly, Nehemiah was a Leader of a good work. Christian leaders, please don’t back down now. We are servants in the greatest army in all of creation, the army of God. Godly parents and grandparents, godly school teachers, godly politicians, godly athletic coaches, and godly pastors and church workers, yes, we are surrounded, but we are leaders in a good work – a work that will change the world and a work that cannot fail. We are leaders in the work of telling the world that Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God, can save them from their sins and save them from the punishment for those sins if they will trust Jesus to do this and ask Him to do it. This is the Gospel work – keep fighting the good fight of faith!

And lastly, he was an Encourager to the people that saw him. If he had run in fear, the Jews that were building would have also feared the enemies, but because Nehemiah stood firm in faith, the people stood firm in faith. You may not be a visible Christian leader, but if you run in fear, my Christian brother or sister, then those around you will be negatively impacted by your fear. They will see your lack of faith, and lose or decline faith themselves. But when they see your faith, they will “glorify your Father in heaven;” they, perhaps, will believe also.

Stonewall Jackson once said to Captain John Imboden, “Captain, my religious belief teaches me to feel as safe in battle as in bed. God has fixed the time for my death. I do not concern myself about that, but to be always ready, no matter when it may overtake me. Captain, that is the way all men should live, and then all would be equally brave.” (Stonewall Jackson As Military Commander (2000) by John Selby, p. 25)

I have had vision problems since I was young, and have been wearing glasses since about the fourth grade. I have made many visits to the eye doctor, and have seen many people in those offices that were in need of vision help, but one thing that I usually do not see in an optometrist’s office is a blind person. Most of the people that are in the offices, can still see, but they need medical attention to help them to see better.

As I read the book of Jude, God brought to my attention a fault on my part. Lately,  I have really enjoyed getting into some great discussions online with some acclaimed atheists and agnostics. All of these discussions have been very cordial and respectful, and I love the challenge of talking with these folks. In the back of my mind, I think about the possibility that perhaps God would use something that I might say to shed light into that person’s heart. As Jude writes, however, you find that he is not writing to persuade the lost, unbelieving man to trust in Christ, but that he is encouraging the Christians to contend for the faith within the church.

There were attacks on the received Gospel going on inside of the church coming from people that were claiming to be Christians. This challenged me to concern myself more with the assaults to the Word of God that are going on in Christendom today, rather than getting into arguments with atheists and agnostics.  It’s better to help those that already seeing to continue to see clearly, rather than trying to give sight to the blind; the former is a command (the great commission to make disciples) and the latter is a miracle only possible by the enlightenment of the Holy Spirit. I believe that God could use something that I might say to aid in giving light to a spiritually blind individual, but how much more important it is to work to keep light resilient for those already seeing.

There are plenty of issues in which the light of the Gospel is being blurred today. Perhaps, as the New Testament writers suggest, we as preachers (vision doctors by the power of Christ) should focus on those diseases.

Do you fear death? When you ask many Christians this question, their response is no way! Jesus has defeated death when He rose from the grave, and death has no sting for me. However, when we are all honest, we know that we still fear the valley of death, regardless of  sting or not. Death is the wrath of God on man for sin – who in their right mind would say that they do not fear the wrath of God? Why would it be so significant for the Lord, our Shepherd, to be with us as we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, if it is a walk in the park for Christians? No death is a fearful thing for all of us. Perhaps, this is why in John 12:18-19, the Apostle can record this:

“The reason why the crowd went to meet Him (Jesus) was that they had heard he had done this sign (raising Lazarus from the dead). So the Pharisees said to one another, ‘You see that you are gaining nothing. Look, the world has gone after Him.’”

There’s just something about a man that can raise the dead, right?  This is the key to accepting Jesus as Christ and Lord of all things – “…if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved (Rom.10:9).  This was the very point the Pharisees attacked when he was on the cross, with reason I think, because they knew that if the people continued to believe that Jesus could save from death, then the “world would go after Him,” so they said, “He saved others, Himself He cannot save.” But He did save Himself; God raised Him from the dead. “No man takes my life,” said Jesus, “I have the power to lay it down and the power to take it up again.” And therefore, if He has the power to raise Lazarus, and He has the power, most significantly, to raise Himself from the dead, then He most certainly can show me the way through the valley of the shadow of death, and bring me through safely to the other side.

Job speaks in Job 17:13-14, “If I hope for Sheol (death because of his adversity) as my house, if I make my bed in darkness…where then is my hope?” He answers his own question in chapter 19, “For I know that my Redeemer (significant title – Redeemer from adversity, sin and death) lives, and at the last He will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh, I shall see God….”  This is Job’s hope in death, that the Redeemer is living. This is our hope in the fearful valley of the shadow of death – that our Redeemer is, in fact, living and is holding our hand as we walk it. It is not that we do not fear death, it is that Jesus will overcome our fear of death by His life and presence when we experience it. Therefore, take hope, Christian brother or sister, if you still fear death and you feel guilty about it; in that day, when you walk the valley of death, Christ will be there to remove the fear and sting Himself, and replace it with hope and singing. In our days of life, we give Him all the praise and glory for this!

“…and God help us to have a safe trip to the ‘cookie jar house’ and to our neighbors’ house.” For some reason, this is the prayer of my son, Jude, every time he prays now. The “cookie jar house” is his MeMaw and PaPaw’s house in Huntersville, NC which we have not been to in well over a month, and before the last visit, it had been even longer. We have never been to our neighbors’ house to actually visit the house, and I’m not exactly sure what Jude thinks is going to get us in the few hundred yards that separate the homes, but these two trips are his fervent prayers. Isn’t it wonderful to hear children pray!

My other  son, Jackson, our big boy now, prays with conviction in his tone and He is beginning to understand the basic doctrines of the Bible. Now his prayers, at times, put Daddy to shame, but he still prays them in a simple trust in God. Maybe it is because the children do not have all of the knowledge that garbles up in adult minds, but they make praying seem simple.

Andrew Murray, the former South African pastor, wrote the prayer in Lord, Teach Us To Pray:

“Teach me to draw near to God in prayer under the deep impression of my ignorance and my having nothing in myself to offer Him, and at the same time of the provision Thou, my Savior, makest for the Spirit’s breathing in my childlike stammerings. I do bless Thee that in Thee I am a child, and have a child’s liberty of access; that in Thee I have the spirit of Sonship and of worship of truth. Teach me, above all, Blessed Son and the Father, how it is the revelation of the Father that gives confidence in prayer; and let the infinite Fatherliness of God’s heart be my joy and strength for a life of prayer and of worship. Amen.”

“I do bless Thee that I am a child,” wrote Murray, reminding us all that our prayers, to the Father, sound just as much like trips to cookie jar houses and neighbors as my son’s prayers do to me.  However, just as I rejoice in the fact that my son is praying, even so, the Father rejoices when His children pray, regardless of the feebleness of the prayers. We can come boldly before the throne of God, not because of our powerful prayers, but because of our powerful Advocate.  “And who is our Advocate?” you may ask.  We have God as our Advocate. The Father pities us as fathers on earth pity their children (Psalm 103:13) when we come to Him in feebleness and frailty. The Son sits at the Father’s right hand interceding for His “friends,” His brothers or sisters, fellow-heirs with Himself (Heb.7:25), us; and the Spirit also makes intercession for us, as we come to the Father (Rom.8:26). All of a sudden, our cookie jar prayers are turned to the great, glorious anthems of praise heard throughout the halls of heaven, and we magnify God in our prayers, not because we are capable, but because we have an Advocate.

May we come before the throne today, and cry out in prayers to God. Do not fear that your prayer will be mocked or shunned, for if “God be for you” in this prayer endeavor, “who can be against you.”

Most of you have probably seen the old Rocky films and enjoyed watching Sylvester Stalone have his whole body pounded for a grueling 10 minutes only to come back in the end and knock his opponent out with one powerful (feeble-looking) punch. It is such a thrill to meet or see someone that endures through long pain and turmoil in order to triumph in the end.

The Apostle Peter wrote two letters to the Jews that had trusted in Jesus as the Messiah, their Savior, and he wrote to them in a time when Christians were enduring great persecution from not just the Roman government, but from officials, employers, and people in all walks of life. He writes to these suffering Christians in 1 Peter 2:18,

“Servants, be subject to your masters with all respect, not only to the good and gentle, but also to the unjust. For this is a gracious thing, when, mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly.”

Peter goes on to talk about how it would be reasonable to think that a criminal should be punished, but these Christians were being treated as criminals. They were being arrested; they were being thrown into jails; they were being tortured and executed! Why? Only because they were Christians – because they trusted in and served Jesus Christ.  “So Peter, I am supposed to take this abuse and rejoice? I am supposed to lovingly submit to that low-down dog of a master that beat me tirelessly today in the back field because he said that I was a plotting, scandalous dog meeting with all of my Christian friends at nights? How can I do that?”

Peter makes it clear that the way we suffer and love and rejoice in return to those that cause our suffering, is to be mindful of God. We are to be mindful of our Father in heaven’s grace to us in that while we were yet sinners, He sent down His only Son, Jesus, to die in our place so that we might have eternal life. We should be mindful, Peter reminds the believers, that Jesus was also rejected of men, tortured of men, and murdered on a cross by men, all unjustly so, and yet He prayed for them to be forgiven. When we are mindful of God’s grace to us, and think about the way that Jesus handled suffering at the hands of others, we can suffer, all the while loving and serving those that are causing us to suffer. Jesus, our Lord said, “I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; that ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven…(Matthew 5:44-45).

You may be saying, “This is impossible for me to do!” Peter did say that this was a “gracious” thing, and that we should be mindful of God. I think that it is not only grace given by us to our persecutors, but it will be grace given by God to us to be able to do this. “I can do all things through Christ that strengthens me (Phil. 4:13).”

When we have suffered for a while here below, we shall triumph when we stand before our God and Savior, knowing that we lived as He told us to live – we lived to show the glory of the grace of our Father in heaven.

When a detective or police agent investigates a crime, he is expected to examine the incident, as we would say inside and out. He will take evidence from many things that are visible, and then he will also collect evidence from some that are invisible and that must be sent to a lab to find internal evidence. When the internal and external come together to form a whole, then the investigator has a solid case for his findings.

James, the half-brother of our Lord Jesus, does the same thing in the second chapter of his letter to the Jewish believers.

“So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. But someone will say, ‘You have faith, and I have works.’ Show me your faith apart from works, and I will show you my faith by my works…For as the body apart from the spirit is dead; so also faith apart from works is dead.”  James 2:18 ff.

It is very key, in understanding this passage, to note that James never says to eliminate faith from works; they are always together. He concludes the chapter by giving us a wonderful illustration using the two parts of man: the body (external) and the spirit (internal). If a man is without a spirit, then he is dead. If a spirit is without a body, then he also is dead. The two cannot be separate and be considered to be alive. Now James tells us that neither is it possible for faith and works to be separated. If you have faith internally, then you will have works externally – this is a living Christian.

Paul reinforces this in Ephesians 2:8-10 saying, “”For by grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not of works lest any man should boast. (this is the internal faith) For we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works. which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. (this is the external work). This is the design of God for the spiritual man, that he lives by faith inside and works on the outside – this is the body and spirit of the spiritual man.

The challenge to each of us would be to ask God to strengthen us to live every day this dichotomous (two-part) design. If the “investigators” of the world were to examine our spiritual man, would they classify us dead for lack of faith or lack of works, or would the internal and external evidence combine solidly to prove that we are living children of God.