2024 Archives

  Years ago, I was pier fishing on the coast and reeled in a fish that I did not recognize.  I was out of bait and had to walk down to the pier house to get more.  While I was there, someone asked, “How’s the fishing?”  I told him that I had just caught a really strange looking fish and I had never seen one like it.  He asked me to describe it, and as I did one of the men who was listening to our conversation looked at the others and said, “That sounds like an Angel Fish and there is an award for the first Angel Fish caught on the pier.”  Excitedly I ran down the pier and returned with my fish to claim the award.  When everyone started to laugh, I must have looked confused, so one of them explained that my “prize fish” was actually only a Pig Fish.  I guess I had not done a very good job of describing it.

  Today I am called upon to describe the Creator of fish, and birds, and man, and everything else, and for this description I am more studied.  Our Creator God is: Holy and cannot tolerate sin (1Peter 1:15-16).  He is just and cannot overlook sin (Psalms 89:14).  He is loving, even of the unlovely (1John 4:8).  He is gracious, giving us that which we don’t deserve (1Peter 2:3).  He is merciful, not giving us what we do deserve (Hebrews 2:17).  He is eternal (Deuteronomy 33:27).  He is unchanging (James 1:17).  He is compassionate and patient (Psalms 86:15).  He is omnipotent or all powerful (Jeremiah 32:17).  He is omniscient or all knowing (1John 3:20).  He is omnipresent or everywhere at once (Psalms 139:7-12).  He is the only true and living God; there is none like Him (Jeremiah 10:10).

  As you can see, one can know about God through His Word.  The Bible is filled with God’s inspired revelation of Himself.  There are also the visible works of God in creation that serve as irrefutable evidences for a Great Designer and Sustainer.  And then there is the innumerable host of men and women down through the ages who have known God and whose lives were redeemed from the curse of sin (i.e. spiritual death—eternal separation from God).  For them, to know Him is to love Him, and He alone is worth living for, or if need be, worth dying for.

  Everywhere you go on earth, you will find the innate desire among the people there to worship a god.  There may be those who for selfish reasons deny the existence of deity, but their facade is always exposed when tragedy strikes and their god consciousness starts to show.  The Bible alludes to the logical, universal acceptance of a Sovereign Divine when it says, “The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good. (Psalms 14:1)”

  As you know, there are many perceptions of who or what god is, but in most cases, the beliefs are self-defeating, as their gods are inanimate, dead, or just figments of the imaginations of mere men in desperation.  The Psalmist explains that, by comparison, the God of the Bible is different: “Wherefore should the heathen say, Where is now their God? But our God is in the heavens: he hath done whatsoever he hath pleased. Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men’s hands. They have mouths, but they speak not: eyes have they, but they see not: They have ears, but they hear not: noses have they, but they smell not: They have hands, but they handle not: feet have they, but they walk not: neither speak they through their throat. They that make them are like unto them; so is every one that trusteth in them. (Psalm 115:2-8)”  To be sure, there is only one true and living God—the God of the Bible (God’s revelation of Himself to man).  The Apostle Paul said that the worshippers of other gods are those, “Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen. (Romans 1:25)”

  Consider the great things God has done for them that trust Him:  Ye that fear the LORD, trust in the LORD: he is their help and their shield.  The LORD hath been mindful of us: he will bless us; . . . He will bless them that fear the LORD, both small and great. The LORD shall increase you more and more, you and your children. Ye are blessed of the LORD which made heaven and earth. The heaven, even the heavens, are the LORD’S: but the earth hath he given to the children of men. (Psalms 115: 11-16)”

  Perhaps you have no thought of God from day to day, and are not sure that you really believe in Him.  You have determined that, if there is a God, and if He is as the Bible describes, a relationship with Him would only cramp your style.  You have determined to take your chances on the “eternal life” hype, and for now, you will keep calling the shots, after all, it is your life.

  But God wants you to know that in spite of your feelings, He believes in you!  He gave you life and sustains you through the perils of this age.  He has unmistakably declared His love for you by providing access to Himself through the sacrifice of His Son, Jesus, who paid the penalty for your sin, with His own blood.  He is grieved by your continual rejection because He knows that your sin will result in eternal separation from Him, and loss of all of the joys He intended for you before the dawn of creation.

  You were created by God, and you are His creature; you need Him, like you need the air that you breathe.  To reject Him, is to forfeit your only hope.  To bite His hand, is to bite the hand that feeds you.  To deny Him, is to deprive yourself of life in His presence forever, “The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good. (Psalm 14:1)” and “…the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 6:23)”

  Perhaps you are not moved by His supernatural love.  Perhaps you are determined to be the captain of your own fate in spite of His claims.  Perhaps you are ready to take your place among “…the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, (who) shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death. (Revelation 21:8)”

 Hell will be filled with those who spurn the mercy, grace and supernatural love of God.  Every one of them will be there by choice.  They will have chosen to fend for themselves in that godless realm of the eternally damned.  I pray that you will change your mind.

  Some of us, who are older, probably remember when the news broadcast actually reported the news.  It was before the days of giving the stories a “spin.”  Today, on your network of choice, you can hear about the current events spun in the direction of your philosophical or political leanings, making you feel like one of the enlightened.  So, most of “the news” these days, is not really news at all.  Rather than hearing an investigative reporter give us the cold hard facts, we are confronted with a panel of commentators — “news people” who preface all of their remarks with, “I think…”

  Please don’t take this wrongly, but I don’t care what the panel thinks; I for one would like to hear just the facts, and be allowed to formulate my own opinion.  Why?  Because most of the commentators call the things of God foolish or outdated, and have not considered: “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. (Isaiah 55:8-9)” and “…God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are: That no flesh should glory in his presence. (1Corinthians 1:27-29)”  So, take a look around and tell me, Who’s the fool?  What God has called truth and man calls foolishness, are actually the facts upon which creation was formed, is maintained, and will be judged.

  For example, God says: It is wrong to kill any unborn babies or old people.   Homosexuality is an abomination before God.  There are only two genders (male and female).  Sex outside of the bounds of marriage is fornication. Governments will answer to God.  Political platitudes will not deliver our country from its present corruption.  There is only one God, and only one Mediator between God and man—Jesus Christ.  Those who don’t make their peace with God through Jesus will be eternally lost.  Judgement is coming.

  Years ago, I was introduced to a song called O Glorious Love that quickly became one of my favorites.  It is about the amazing love of God that caused Him to send His Son, Jesus, across the great chasm between Him and humanity that was formed when sin entered His creation.  Jesus’ mission was to bridge the gap, by paying the penalty for man’s sin and providing a way for sinful man to return to Holy God.  The song goes like this:

In my darkness Jesus found me, touched my eyes and made me see.
Broke sins chains that long had bound me, gave me life and liberty.

O amazing truth to ponder, He whom angel hosts attend.
Lord of heav’n, God’s Son, what wonder, He became the sinners friend!

Chorus:

O glorious love of Christ my Lord divine,
That made Him stoop to save a soul like mine!
Through all my days and then in heav’n above.
My song will silence never,
I’ll worship Him forever,
and praise Him for His glorious love.

  There is change in the air, and an increasing number of those who are studied in the social sciences are starting to see an ominous cloud on the horizon, a cloud of social revolution engineered by purveyors of evil.  It involves our open borders, our confusion of sexual orientation, our redefining marriage and family, our amoral lifestyles, our disregard for the sanctity of life, our insistence on the idea that man is sovereign rather than God, etc.

  But God is not caught off guard, and has even stated in His Word that days like these would come, and why.  If things continue as they are, we may soon see the darkest days yet known to man.  Are you ready?  “Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God? (1John 5:5)”  “…as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: (John 1:12)”