By Faith, Looking to Jesus

Note: I have not accomplished my goal of doing a blog every day, so I will take this last day of 2022 to finish Hebrews in One post.  Chapters 11-13 are rich with familiar scripture and passages., so I will take those that are familiar and give exhortation.  I pray this post, the last of the Hebrew series, is a blessing to you

Hebrews 11:1  Now faith is the substance of things hoped for; the evidence of things not seen

How powerful is my faith?  Is it really more powerful than the reality this world seems to give us?  I believe it is!  There are so many great verses on faith in the Bible that we must take this thing called faith very seriously.  Proverbs 3:5-6, Ephesians 2:8-9, Matthew 21:22, Romans 10:17, Luke 1:37, Isaiah 40:31, Jeremiah 3329:11 all are verses that can boost our faith and they all teach us that God is with us, by faith.  It is one of the most significant traits we can have as Christians.  Faith can help us endure any battle we are facing.

When I was facing cancer, Proverbs 3:5-6 kept me through the whole trial.  “Trust in the Lord with all your heart.”  I could choose to either trust God that He would see me through this battle, or I could wallow on dismay.  I chose to trust Him.  “Lean not to your own understanding.” I did not even attempt to understand why God would allow this into my life – I simply trusted it was for a reason, and it would be for my good. “In all your ways acknowledge Him.”  So I acknowledged that God had a plan in the middle of this trial and knew He would work that plan to my benefit.  “and he will direct your path.” He did direct me in so many ways.  This blog became more intense, I heard Him daily in the words of my poetry, a book was written, a testimony for the glory of God was brought forth, and all things came out wonderful!  What a mighty God we serve.  If you would like to view this testimony, click HERE.

Faith is the cornerstone of our salvation.  Deliverance, healing, guidance, peace, joy, hope, answers to prayer – they are all the products of faith.  If we pray without faith, what good is our prayer?  Everyone has the same amount of faith!  Romans 12:3 says we are all given “the measure of faith,” not a measure of faith.  Here I one measure of faith for all.   The difference between a Christian and any other person (even the atheist) is where we place that measure of faith. The Muslim places it in Mohammed, the Buddhist in Buddha, the Mormon in Joseph Smith and so on.  Even the atheist places their faith somewhere, whether it is in climatology, or astronomy, or astrology, or science.  Everyone ha that measure of faith that God gives.  Where does your faith lie? Our goal is to have our faith 100% in Him and His word.  And that faith comes by hearing the word of God.

Hebrews 11:6  Without faith it is impossible to please Him: for he that cometh to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those that diligently seek Him.

Don’t you just love the fact that God will reward us just for believing in Him and seeking Him?  Nothing more than that.  What are the rewards he is talking about.  In Psalm 103 you can find a list of benefits. He forgives our sins, He heals all my diseases, He redeems our lives, He crowns me with loving-kindness (grace) and mercy, He satisfies my mouth with good things, He executes righteousness and judgment in our favor.  Diligently seeking God has a better benefit package than any employer I know!  Add to this the fruit of the spirit (Galatians 5:22-23) and the gifts of the Spirit (1 Cpr 12:8-10), and you have life that is truly blessed!  Without that faith, none of these things will be yours.

Hebrews 12:1-2 has so much to say to us that I wish I had 10 posts to extrapolate it all.  But I do not and I must be brief.  So, I will paraphrase the verse in my own guided words. The bible is full of testimonies about people who trusted God and were victorious in their lives. Noah, Abraham, Moses, Joshua, Gideon, Ruth, Ezra, David, Hezekiah; the list goes on and on.  But the greatest witness to our lives is Jesus.  We must lay aside everything that hinders us from following and seeking Him, and repenting of our sin, we must run this race of our human existence.  We must run that race with patience, because he has patience with us we must have that same patience with ourselves.

Then we must look to Jesus – set our eyes upon Him and wait for Him.  We must seek Him with everything we have. Matthew 6:33, Luke 7:7, Jeremiah 29:13 all speak of the necessity of seeking the Lord.  He gave us this faith, and he will bring that faith to a conclusion.   He paid the price for us, He is always going to be with us, and He will make sure our faith is rewarded.  There is no greater joy or peace than what we find when we seek Jesus!

Hebrews 12:15b “lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and therby many be defiled.”

How does bitterness spring up in a persons’ heart?  Here are many ways, but the most common is unforgiveness.  When we refuse to forgive someone, that hurt or wrong just festers in us like a canker sore, and the longer we go with it, the more bitter we become towards them.  It gets harder and harder to forgive the person and therefore our heart gets more and more bitter.  His is simply the enemy of our souls taking a stronghold in our hearts.  Why would Jesus put such strong emphasis on forgiveness, and on making things right with our brother?  Matthew 6:14-15 tells us that if we do not forgive our brother. God will not forgive us!  Matthew 5:23-24 says forgiving someone who has hurt us is more important than bringing our gift to the altar!  Matthew 5:25 says we should agree with our adversary quickly.  Why such emphasis and importance on forgiveness?  It’s really simple.  God forgave you – you should forgive others.  If you don’t, bitterness will coke in and can destroy your walk with God.  Is there someone you need to forgive?  Do it today!

Hebrews 13:8 “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today and forever.”

Aren’t you thrilled to hear this verse.  He; the same now as He has always been!  He same God who delivered and blessed Job.  The same God who blessed Abraham with an unexpected child.  He same God who parted the Red Sea, who dropped manna from heaven, who brought quail in the desert, the same God who led by a cloud during the day and a fire by night.  He is the same God who brought down the walls of Jericho, who equipped David to defeat Goliath, who gave Solomon wisdom and who helped Gideon defeat the Philistines with only 300 men.  Jesus is the same now as when He rose Lazarus from the dead, and when He fed the 5,000 and when He healed the leper and brought sight to the blind.  He never changes.  He will still do these things today and tomorrow!

Hebrews 13:15 “By Him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to His name”

His is a kind of conclusion to the letter.  Offer the sacrifice of praise.  So many times, in Psalm, David says “I will praise the Lord.”  In the middle of a lament over His troubles, we see David say this often.  He makes up his mind to praise the Lord, no matter what the circumstances are.  We should do the same.  His is the fruit of our lips, not just in our heart.  IU heard someone say recently that our verbal praise is just giving back to God the breath that He gives to us.  I love that analogy!  We hold always have that attitude of gratitude, and should continually give praise to God, with thanksgiving in our hearts.  It is the very least we should do.

I wrote a song that was of great comfort to me when I was lying in that hospital bed during my cancer treatments.  I would sing it in the middle of the night when I could not sleep and was weary from the Chemo treatments.  I had written it several years earlier and always wondered why God would give m such a simple and powerful tune.  A friend of mine once said that perhaps God gave me this song so that it would comfort me at some future point.  He was right!  The words are:

I want to thank you, Lord, for your mercies in my life

I want to thank you, Lord, for your great sacrifice

You have given me your all

Help me give my all to you

I want to thank you Lord.

You deserve the highest praise

You deserve the highest praise

You deserve the highest praise I can give (REPEAT)

HERE is a link to my very simple rendition, I close with this, and pray you will learn to have faith, seek Christ, forgive all, and remember He is still working in your life, and in this world Happy New Year!

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Hold Fast

Note: I am going to try and finish Hebrews before the end of the year so this post will be a little different than previous ones, covering a whole chapter rather than a few verses. Starting January 1, I will be following Alistair Beggs Bible Reding Calendar to read through the Bible in one year.  It has been several years since I read the Bible completely through, and I think this is a must every once in a while, for every Christian.  Hi blog will follow my progress when I have time to post.  Thank you for reading!

Hebrews 10:14 For by one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified.

WOW!  Can I say that again backward? WOW!  Perfected forever!  That is what Jesus did for us.  No more offering for our sin, no more looking for a deliverer, no more needing a healer.  He has perfected us forever!  We talked in my last post about being sanctified, and now we see this beautiful verse that gives us all the assurance we need to go forth and tell the good news.  We are perfect in God’s sight when we walk in the sanctification He has provided for us.  Why?  Because He paid the price on the cross (Hebrews 10:10) and then sat down on the right hand of God (Hebrews 10:12).

When reading Hebrews, we always must keep in mind who this letter was written to and why Paul wrote it.  It is written to the Jewish people, who were still following the Old Testament sacrificial law.  Paul, in a brilliant way, is showing the people how Jesus fulfilled all the requirements of the law for the forgiveness of sin, so they no longer need to sacrifice bulls, lambs and goats. Jesus did it once and for all (Hebrews 10:10).  By doing this, he ushered in the New Covenant which was prophesied in Jeremiah 31:31. The Jewish people were very familiar with this passage of scripture, and they knew that this prophesy could only be fulfilled by their Messiah.  Paul has painted a beautiful picture in the first 10 chapters of how this can be.  I don’t know about you., but I would say his argument is quite convincing!

Paul now turns his attention to our walk with Christ.  Now that He has provided this sanctification, and we can walk with the law of God in our hearts, we must walk in full assurance of faith because He has touched our evil conscience and washed us with His word. (Hebrews 10:22).  We will see in the next chapter how important this faith is!  It is vital that we hold fast to professing this faith that He has given us. What does that mean?  It means that we unswervingly declare the Good News to others.  It means that we share our faith with everyone around us.  It may be with a friendly smile or with a brief prayer, or with a congratulations on a good job. We must share our faith.  This is especially true when we are with other believers.

Hebrews 10:25 says we should not stop getting together with fellow believers.  Why is this so important?  So many people stay home for church services on the television or radio, or listen to podcasts and worship music instead of getting together with other believers.  We all have heard that churches are losing people in almost all denominations.  WHY?  I believe it is because preachers have veered away from Professing their faith and have turned to a social gospel that leaves the message of the cross out!  Our sanctification is nothing without the cross?  Staying away from church and assembling with other Christians robs us of the accountable and fellowship we need to hold fast to this faith.  All of us, no matter how strong, need other people.  We need to be encouraged, uplifted, and yes, rebuked and exhorted.  We need each other.

In Romans 12, Paul talks about how the church body functions similar to the human body in that there are many parts but all are one body.  During my battle with cancer, I lost the use of my right shoulder due to some weird neurological thing.  Doctors could not explain it and physical therapy did not help it. They called it Parsonage-Turner Syndrome, which is typically very painful, but I had no pain.  I just could not use my right shoulder. Being right-handed, this made everything more difficult.  I had to learn to use my left hand for eating, bathing, support, writing – everything!  It was a great lesson for me in how important every part of my body is.  We take our shoulder for granted! I also had drop-foot In both of my feet.  If you don’t know what that I, I suggest you look it up.  His made it very difficult to walk without extreme caution.  We need every part of our body to function properly!

He church is no different. The local church needs you there You may bot know what part of the body you ae, but you are vital to the church being strong, and your profession of faith might just help someone else along the way.  Our presence in the service might be a blessing to someone you never met before.  Maybe you can’t carry a tune, but you sing anyway, making a joyful noise to the Lord.  His can encourage someone else to sing even though they can’t carry a tune.  Everyone can make a joyful noise!  I think all of us feel that Jesus is coming soon, and Paul says we should especially get together as the time approaches (10:25).  Oh, how we need each other!

Have you ever sinned willfully?  I must admit that I have.  I am not proud of this fact, but it is true.  I have fallen flat on my face before His cross and asked forgiveness for my willful disobedience, and He has forgiven me over and over.  He is a loving God, and I need to pay closer attention to the decisions that I make.  I do not want to be in a position to fall into God’s hands, and should have that fear always before me.  Sin will not be found in heaven, and neither will the Christian whose sin is not covered by the blood of Jesus.  We must never loose the confidence we have in His salvation (10:35).

We live by faith (10:36), and all that we do is derived out of this faith that he has instilled in us. I think of Ephesians 2:8-9 which says “By grace ye are saved through faith, and that not of yourself.  It is the gift of God.”  Even the faith that we sue to ask for salvation comes from God., He has given all of us a measure of faith (Romans 12:3).  This faith is what allows us access to the Holy Spirit with boldness (10:19).  This verse is taken so out of proportion. People use this verse to think they can demand things of God.  That is not what Paul is saying at all.  He is telling us that we no longer have to fear asking the Holy Spirit to help and guide us.  In the Old Testament, the priest alone could enter the Holy Place, and only once a year. He entered with great reverence and awe before God, making sure that everything was done just right.  We fumble around and make all kinds of mistakes, yet we can still come boldly before God.  All of this because we live by faith (10:38).

Hold Fast to that faith.  Profess it for all to hear.  Why did healing come your way? Jesus!  Why did trouble get resolved? Jesus!  Why did you get a financial blessing? Jesus!  Whenever someone asks, Jesus is the answer we should give.  He is our source and our strength.  Make sure everyone knows that He is the provider of your life!

Sound Doctrine for Men (Part 2)

Titus 2:1-2

But speak thou the things which become sound doctrine:

² That the aged men be sober, grave, temperate, sound in faith, in charity, in patience

We are in the middle of a discussion on sound doctrine and the first three pieces of advice were covered in my last post.  Being sober, grave and temperate means that we are serious about bringing mercy and grace into another person’s life.  It does not mean we can’t ever be light-hearted or make a well-placed joke or two that adds to our point.  In fact, laughter is a help in getting a point across.  But we must not get out of control with jokes, or anecdotes, or conspiracy theories, or anything that takes away from the gospel.  Unfortunately, the church is going in all different directions, and not just toward the cross any more.  These are serious times that demand serious answers.  Being sober, grave and temperate are ways to talk with sound doctrine that will help us get through these difficult times, I have heard some call for insurrection of our government for what they are doing now.  I think the Romans ere much worse in Jesus’ day, yet He never called for insurrection, but prayer and loyalty.  Walk 2 miles, give him your cloak also, pray for your enemies.  These are His commands.  We must take on the humble attitude of sobriety, be grave in our conversation and temperate in our attitude.

Sound in Faith.  What exactly does that mean?  Isn’t faith, faith?  Isn’t it the substance of things hooped for and the evidence of things not seen?  What does Paul mean when he says sound doctrine is sound in faith?  I am not sure of the exact answer, but I know what it means to me.  It means that we take the whole body of scripture as it applies to faith.  I hear these name-it, claim-it preachers all the time.  Claim it – it’s yours.  Claim your healing!  Claim your prosperity! Claim your deliverance!  Never mind that I have asthma that is acting up, that my finances are shot and that I am steeped in debt.  Claim it now!  God owes it to you because His word says if you ask you shall receive, and when two or three agree He will do it, or if you have faith as a mustard seed, you can ask anything.  He owes it to you now.

I think not.  God does not owe me anything.  Nothing.  He has given me air in my lungs, hands to type this message, eyes to see the keyboard, ears to hear the phone ring if it does, and so much more day after day after day.  He doesn’t owe me anything at all.  If I ask, He will bring it about, but in His time, and that might not be the same as my time.  And He might answer differently than what we think He will.  The answer is not always what we think it is.  Do you think Gideon wanted to fight the Midianites with only 300 men?  Do you think Samson wanted to wait until he was blind to defeat the Philistines?  Do you think Jonah wanted to be eaten by a big fish?  God answers in mysterious ways, but His answer is always the right one, and His timing is always perfect.  Be sound in your faith by trusting God to complete the work he started in you with each situation that comes into your life.  Everything has a purpose if we let Him work it out.

Sound In Charity.  We all know this word charity speaks of love. How to be sound in the doctrine of love is really simple.  Just read 1 Corinthians 13:4-8a.  This little portion of pure gold by Paul tells us more about the kind of love we should have than anything else in the whole Bible.  The sound doctrine of love suffers long, is kind, does not envy, is not prideful, does not act unethically or immorally, doesn’t look out for itself before looking out for others, is not made angry easily, thinks no evil of anyone else, does not rejoice in wrong doing, but rejoices in the truth.  If that is not enough It bears all things that people may say or do because it believes all things will work out for the best and it has high hopes that all will come out well so that it endures any hardship that might come.  It never fails.  Never fails.  Never fails.

I asked someone once how I could possibly fulfill this definition of life, and he said that I could not in myself.  It is only through Christ that I can come close to fulfilling this doctrine of love.  This definition is the supreme height of love, and anything lower or lesser than this is not sound doctrine.  Every day, I must weigh my decisions out based on these principles, because I am supposed to love my neighbor as myself, and this is the kind of love I should have toward my neighbor and toward myself!  This is being sound in love.

Sound in Patience.  As I said in my last post, I love that Paul put this last, like it is the closing on a speech that wraps up the thought.  Sound doctrine must be drowned in patience.  James tells us that when patience has its prefect work in us, we will be perfect and entire, wanting nothing!  Patience perfects us through our trials, whether they be with other people with ourselves, with our government or our job or our children.  But patience is one of our biggest stumbling-locks because we don’t want to wait on God.  We want it when we think we need it.  We want that person to change their ways to suit our timetable.  We are an imperfect people, that’s for sure. Much of it is due to the fact that we lack patience.

In the list of the fruit of the Spirit, we out a lot of stock in the first three things listed – love, joy and peace.  But have you noticed that patience (long-suffering) is fourth on the list and is probably one of the ones we least want to possess?  That’s because we equate learning patience with trials, and we don’t want to go through trials.  We don’t want to see others go through trials.  We want them to find answers now.  So we will pray that a miracle will happen, or we will help them through a trial without seeking God about it.  Sometimes those trials have to be gone through to build the faith and to perfect that person.  Sound doctrine in patience helps us to see when we should help and when we should not.  It helps us to wait on God to renew our strength so we can mount up with wings like eagles.  This is being sound in patience.

This list of ways that we can speak sound doctrine is – well – sound doctrine.  These are traits all of us should strive to maintain in our own lies while speaking them into others.  Don’t get carried away by the waves of deceit and lies that are swirling around you.  Don’t take part in the dazzling array of end-time projections and doomsday reports for our country.  Simply turn to God and he will make all things right.  He will make all things new.  He will guide us through these rough and stormy times to a  much brighter day ahead.  Be sound in your doctrine, men!

Free Youthful Lusts

2 Timothy 2:22-23 King James Version (KJV)

 ²² Flee also youthful lusts: but follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart.²³ But foolish and unlearned questions avoid, knowing that they do gender strifes

One of my youthful ways was to start something and never finish.  It has dragged into my older years as well.  I apologize for the long delay in getting started again with this blog.  There is no excuse to keeping you hanging for the next lesson.  It is time to get the ball rolling again and I pray you will enjoy what God has for us today

There are things in my life that I just have to run away from. I want to think I can stand up and fight those things by the power of Jesus Christ.  I want to believe that I can declare I am free of them and have the weight of those lusts drop from my shoulders.  I want to think I am strong enough in the Lord to stay away from them.  But the truth is that I must flee from them.  Run as fast as I can when they rise up to once again torment me.  These things have been with me since my youth.  They have attacked me for a long time and I cannot stand against them.  If I try to confront the, I will fall.  I must run and run swiftly.  That is the only way to overcome them.

Instead of following them, Paul gives us a few things we must follow after, or run toward as we are fleeing those youthful lusts.  The word Paul uses for follow means to pursue with all haste, or to earnestly desire to overtake.  It is a strong word that indicates we must go all out in this endeavor.  The half hearted one will not be able to continue this pursuit.  He will be turned back to his youthful lusts and feal that devastating blow of defeat.  We must pursue these things with all that is within us.. There are few things more important than a pursuit of righteousness, faith, charity and peace.  Let’s look at these attributes and see why it is so important to pursue them, besides the fact that pursuing these will keep us from our sins.

Righteousness leads the list.  Following things that are good and right in the Lords eye will distance us from the things that are bad.  Remember the admonishments in Deuteronomy 27 and 28?  Those that follow after God are blessed.  Those who follow His righteous ways have so many blessings they cannot contain them.  They are surrounded by them and flooded with them.  It is unavoidable as we look through the Bible to see that the ones who follow after doing good are blessed beyond measure.  From Noah to Moses to David to Peter, all go from obscurity to powerful men who bring down strongholds in other peoples lives.  They have a witness that transcends time.  What can God do through you if you just follow after righteousness?  How will you be blessed by this kind of walk?  On the other hand, look at the curses that come upon those that do not follow His ways, listed in Deuteronomy 28.  It is not because God curses them, but because they follow after the wrong things, their youthful lusts, and this is the inevitable outcome.  Doing good and right things can only lead to blessings in your life.

Following faith is next.  Why would we turn from this after we got saved?  After all, the greatest gift God gives is salvation, and that is taken into our life by faith!  Why would we turn our backs on a lie of faith once we got saved?  It is the allure of those youthful lusts that turns us around.  It takes no faith whatsoever to follow our youthful lusts.  They promise fleshly pleasure and they usually deliver.  But our soul is left damaged, and we once again turn to faith that God will deliver us from our sins.  Faith is always standing at the door and knocking to open up and let us come out of that bondage and into the blessing of the Lord.  Faith can move those mountains, part those waters, wake up those dead bones,  and set the captive free. Faith can open your blinded sprit and deaf ears to the things of God.  Faith can deliver those around you fro sickness, pain, suffering, financial woes, depression and all sorts of things that plague our flesh.  Hebrews 11:6 tells us that “Without faith it is impossible to please God, but those who come to Him must believe that he is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.”  Living a life of faith is one of the most powerful things we can do.

Following charity is third on the list.  This is the same word that Paul uses in 1 Corinthians 13.  We will often transpose the word love in here, and that is OK as long as we remember what kind of love we are talking about.  It is not the wishy-washy love of the world that is here today and gone tomorrow.  It is not the kind of love that just gets a girl to say yes and is then gone.  It is not the kind of love that gets an ”I do” from someone only to turn it into an “I don’t anymore” a few years later.  The world is unfamiliar with this kind of love, or charity.  This is the kind that says I will give my only Son so you can go free.  This kind of love never dies, but instead it is there for us when all others turn away.  This post could really get long if I dive into 1 Corinthians 13, which is the chapter that defines the kind of charity we are supposed to have.  Just verse 7 is enough, which says that this kind of ,love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things and endures all things.  Without diving into all 4 of these attributes I ask you to go to God and have Him reveal what these 4 things mean to your life and your relationships.  Take up the challenge of following this pattern and you will not have time to return to those ways of the past.

The fourth thing we must follow after is peace.  Those of us who are plagued with youthful lusts are also plagued with the sense that, even if I do flee them, eventually I will return to them so what is the point.  The inner struggle within is rages daily and we want so badly to go back to those things for the short, pleasurable gratification they give.  It is not a peaceful place to be.  And then the moment we act out again, the moment we tur around from our flight, peace leaves us because sin has entered in and the enemy of our souls comes to condemn us once again..  This is when we need peace more than any other time.  The enemy cannot bring chaos where God has brought calm.  Be at peace.  Follow after peace.  Do not let condemnation come upon you, for once you do that lust, that sin, will only draw you in deeper and hold onto you tighter.  But if you rest in the Salvation of the Lord and turn back to Him, peace will once again enter in, knowing that the Lord has already forgiven you. He did that on the cross, remember?  “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”  He has forgiven you already.  Receive that forgiveness and walk in peace.

The last admonishment in  verse 22 is to follow men who call on God with a  pure heart.  There are good men of God in this world, and there are bad.  There are true teachers of the word and false prophets.  Make sure you are following those who serve God with a pure heart.  Those that are rightly dividing the word of God.  There are those who retranslate the Bible to fit their philosophy, or religion, e judged in the last days and exposed for their deceit.  I know I can follow my Pastor.  I have never met a man with such a pure heart for the things of God.  He shows love at every turn and will do anything he can to be a blessing to others.  He follows those things that are listed above at all times.  Paul tells us to follow him as he follows Christ.  Can you make that statement.  Do you follow Christ with a  pure heart?

Verse 23 tells us to stay away from foolish and unlearned questions.  Keep the main thing the main thing!  We are to spread the Gospel, the good news of Jesus life, death and resurrection.  We are to take the message of salvation to everyone we meet.  Don’t let them drag you into a dogfight over eschatology, or the evils in this world, or why so and so had to die.  Keep the main thing the main thing.  Jesus Christ came to earth as a baby in a manger, taught us the truths of God, suffered an agonizing death on a cross and then rose again to heaven to bring us salvation and eternal life.  All who call upon His name shall be saved.  Tell them that!

Worse Than and Infidel

1 Timothy 5:8

8 But if any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel.

Before we look at what this all means, we must first look at the word “infidel”. According to Webster an infidel is “someone who does not believe in religion of adheres to a religion other than their own”. This is commonly what we think about this word when we come across this verse. We think Paul is saying this person is worse than an unbeliever, and in many ways that is true. But it is not necessarily someone who does not have any religion, or even who adheres to another religion. This same Greek word, apistos, is used when talking about Thomas doubting that Jesus was alive. It is used by Jesus when talking about Christians who reject the true faith. In other words, we are looking at a person who doubts the Gospel and the precepts outlined therein. He does not place his faith in the truth and therefore is labeled an unbeliever.

Are there things in the word that you doubt? Or do you adhere that everything in the Bible is completely accurate, without flaw. How about the creation account? Do you doubt that God created the world, the universe, and all that is therein in 6 days and then took a day off? Do you adhere to some of the different explanations of the “6 days”, like each day is a thousand years, or even a million or billion? Or is there a huge gap between Genesis 1:1-2 and verse 3? Or does the use of the word day constitute the limited understanding of Moses so he just made it up? Do you doubt creation?

Do you doubt Genesis Chapter 3 and original sin? Do you doubt that because Adam sinned, his seed was passed down to all men, and that seed was the seed of sin? Do you adhere to the wisdom of man that says everyone is born good and right with God? Do you think sin comes from each of us doing the wrong things, or saying the wrong things? Do you think some people can go through life without sin and therefor not need a Savior? Do you doubt original sin?

Do you doubt the 1o plagues that hit Egypt and the resulting Exodus? Do you doubt that manna came from heaven, or that God write on tables of stone, or that millions of quails came from nowhere to feed the children of Egypt? Do you doubt that God parted the Red Sea, thinking instead that it was some strong wind or an earthquake which is the wisdom of man? Do you doubt Abraham would have sacrificed his son, or that the walls of Jericho fell with a shout, or that Daniel escaped from the lion’s den unharmed?

What part of the Bible do you doubt? There Are So many outrageous stories in there it would be easy to doubt a few of them, wouldn’t it? I mean, after all, what fish could swallow a man? What man could aim a stone that good with a slingshot? What kind of person could kill a thousand others with the jawbone of an ass? There is so much we could doubt.

But when we start to doubt just one little thing, it is easy to doubt a second thing, and a third. It is easy to start questioning the Bible and its precepts and commands, instead deciding to just believe the promises and ignore the laws. I will take all the blessings of Deuteronomy 28 and just ignore the curses because a loving God certainly would not allow any of that to fall on me. A loving God would just take everyone to heaven, wouldn’t He? Who cares if the Bible says many will call Him Lord, Lord, but he will say depart from me. Jesus died so we would all go to heaven, right? I don’t have to do anything or say anything.

Just because God says that a man lying with a man is an abomination doesn’t make it true. God is love. He loves everyone, and we should not be against two people who love each other. Who cares that God says marriage is between a man and a woman? If two people love each other that’s all that counts. Who cares that God says he formed us in our mother’s womb and that he has known us since the day we were conceived? That fetus is not living so a woman should be able to destroy it anytime she wants. Right?

Do you start to see how much doubt there is in the world today, and even in the church? Do you start to see how we have justified holding onto man’s wisdom and putting aside God’s wisdom through His word? After all, if the Bible is not true, I don’t have to be responsible to an almighty God. Even if one part is not true, I can easily start justifying that other parts might be untrue as well. The church is starting to latch onto things that we are told are wrong by the Word of God. We have lost our fear of the truth and replaced it with our own version of truth and out own wisdom.

If Thomas was an infidel (the same word was used here), then are we not the same if we do not believe God’s word is truth? If we don’t believe, are we not unbelievers as well? I challenge you today to examine yourself. Examine your thoughts. Examine what you truly believe? I pray you find yourself believing the truth of God’s Word and not the lies of the enemy, or even of your fellow man. As Paul so wonderfully pout it in Romans 3:4 “Let God be true and every man a liar”

This verse tells us that we are to provide for our families or we are worse than someone who does not believe. Men have become so lax in our society. They produce babies and then just walk away. They are irresponsible and self-centered, having only their own interests in mind. It is a scourge on our society and is at the heart of all the violence we see in our country. It is not just about money and provision in a material way. It is about providing spiritual, emotional and mental guidance as well. If you are lacking in any of these areas, ask God to help you. Be the best father you can be. Lord knows we need good, strong men in our world, and we need Godly fathers even more!