January 1 happy new year

 Happy New Year.  A new chapter begins in your life today.  This year will hold good days and bad days.  Good things and bad things.  Good people and bad people.  Health and sickness.  Births and deaths.  Joy and sorrow.  Perhaps prosperity and perhaps poverty.  The pendulum swings back and forth. Prayerfully and hopefully the wrath of God will not fall on our nation this year.  Many ungodly people hate us and our way of life.  They seek to destroy us. Others would give all they have to come to our country to have a new start.  Now is a good time to reflect. To evaluate where we have been and where we are headed.  From time to time all of us need to make course corrections.     Please take time to take inventory.  Are you pleased with your life?  More importantly is our Lord pleased with your life?  Everyday Jesus offers us new mercy.   Lamentations 3:22-25  It is of the LORD'S mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. 23  They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness. 24  The LORD is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him. 25  The LORD is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him. Is your hope in Jesus?  He promises to be good to those who wait for Him and seek Him.  Psalm 30:5 For his anger endureth but a moment; in his favour is life: weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning. Begin this year with a new commitment to follow Jesus.  Let Him wash away the sins and failures of yesterday and let His joy fill you with this new beginning.  Psalm 59:16  But I will sing of thy power; yea, I will sing aloud of thy mercy in the morning: for thou hast been my defence and refuge in the day of my trouble.   Reflect on the difficult times in the past.  Remember the Lord’s mercy and comfort and deliverance.  He is still here.  He is still God.  He still has a plan for your life. Jeremiah 29:13  And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart. Where do we search to find the Lord?  The Bible.  John 5:39  Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.  As we search for God, God searches us.  Psalm 139:23 Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts:  Ask the Lord for forgiveness for your sins in the past.  Make up your mind to seek His face.  Read His Word daily.  Attend a Bible teaching church faithfully.  Then perhaps this coming year will be the best year ever.  Blessings to you. 

 Don't be lukewarm.  I enjoy doing the speed limit.  Actually sometimes I enjoy exceeding the speed limit. (true confessions) One time coming from a town about 8 miles down the interstate I opened my motorcycle up just for the fun of it.  The speedometer was broken so I had no idea how fast I was going.  My friend and his wife on a bike behind me kept up for a while and then dropped back.  His wife had tapped him on his shoulder and said "Slow down" when he hit 100.  I went off and left them.  I had no idea I was going that fast.  I do not share this to my glory...I share it to my shame.  We should obey the speed limit.  Do as I say...not as I do.  Or have done.  If I had gotten a ticket, I would have no one to blame but myself and my stay in jail and fine would have been deserved. If I had caused a wreck, I would have to live with that for the rest of my life.  If I lived through it.  Seldom but occasionally, I have been on a two-lane road and because I was thinking about other things I slowed down until I was doing about 10 miles per hour below the speed limit.  At which time I would look behind me to see if I was slowing anyone else down.  These moments of going under the speed limit embarrass me if I have caused a line of cars to have to follow me.  Now in my Christian life I want to go full speed.  I want to wear out rather than rust out.  I want to enjoy the Christian adventure. This is a fault I have.  Sometimes I find myself not pulling the weight I should be pulling.  I am not doing all that I should be doing.  I have become lukewarm without realizing it.  I have drifted from maximum performance into just so so performance without realizing it.  Jesus does not want us to be just so so.  He wants us to be on fire for Him.  As a matter of fact He says He would rather us be cold rather than lukewarm.  Revelation 3:15-16 I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. 16  So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth. Jesus is talking to His church. Have you slowed down in your Christian service?  Don't be lukewarm.  Come back to your first love and get on fire for Jesus again. (And don't speed.) 

 Face down in the dirt.  The Radical Moslems made him lay on his stomach.  Then they slowly sawed off his head.  They turned his body over and placed his head on his chest.  They ordered his co-laborer to get on the motorcycle, return to headquarters and never come back.  This happened a few years ago in a Moslem country.  The team rode on a motorcycle donated by Missionary Ventures International. They showed The Jesus Film to village after village even where there is no electricity. There have been over 166 million people who have viewed the film and 17 million have made a decision to follow Christ as a result of the Christian Motorcyclists Association donating to the project.  You can watch the Jesus film free if you will Google  “The Jesus Film Project.”   This co-laborer returned to headquarters and told the story.  The next morning he was ready to go back to the same village.  His superiors refused to let him.  As a result about 50 more men stepped up volunteering to take the Jesus Film to the surrounding villages.  In America we do not suffer for our faith.  Persecution would weed out the players from the pray-ers.  Do you play church?  Or do you live a prayerful life? A powerful life?  God has a plan for you.  Do you care?  Are you willing to get serious for God?  He got serious for you.  If you are redeemed you have been purchased by the blood of Jesus.  1 Peter 1:18-19 Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; 19 But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot:        If you are redeemed you are expected to present your body to Christ to let Him use you as He pleases.  Romans 12:1  I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. If you want to have a life worth living, ask Jesus to save you.  Then you can live the Christian adventure.  It may kill you.  But your life will not have been lived in vain.  Please stop playing church. That is if you attend church at all. A terrible falling away had already occurred before Covid 19 hit.  Now the churches suffer even more. Make your life count.  Seek His face. Turn from your wicked ways.  Ask Jesus to save you.  Become part of a Bible based church where you feel the Holy Spirit of God touching your heart and hear the Word taught so you can become a mature Christian. Read your Bible daily.  Life can be worth the living if you will make Jesus your Lord.  Will you? 

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 He had to go off and leave her.  I met a retired Baptist minister.  After visiting for a while he told me a sad story.  Years previous he had taken his family to Galveston, Texas.  Fun in the sun.  Jumping waves.  Making memories.  Until his twelve year old granddaughter was missing.  911 was called.  The beach was filled with emergency respo nders.  Rescue boats searched the Gulf. Finally they had to accept reality that she was gone.  Her body was never found.  How long do you agonize and pray and weep before you accept the fact she is gone?  Eventually they had to return home.  He had to go off and leave her.  I can’t imagine the agony.  If they had never gone to Galveston she would still be with them. Perhaps. We never know what will happen next.  A wonderful vacation turned into one of the most devastating events in their lives.  Instead of good memories this horrible memory would never be forgotten. Why do bad things happen to good people?  Life is filled with random  occurrences.  Some good.  Some bad.  “Ecclesiastes 9:11  I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all.” Time and chance happen to us all.  Like a pendulum on a clock swinging back and forth fortune and misfortune are all around us.  We are not hit with every misfortune.  We are not blessed with every fortune.  In life we will be visited by some of both.  In the beginning it was not so.  God created a perfect world.  He created a perfect man and a perfect woman. God needed to give man the choice as to whether he wanted to be obedient or disobedient.  “Genesis 2:16-17 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: 17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” Eve and then Adam decided to disobey their Creator.  The world was cursed. Eventually they both died.   There are consequences to rebellion against God.  I cannot understand the love of God that sent His Son to die for our sins.  The darkness of sin.  But praise God Jesus arose.  We can repent and turn to Him if we so desire.  But even then bad things can and will happen.  We cling to the verse: “Revelation 21:4 And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.” We may have to go off and leave our loved ones now but someday there will be no more death. 

 “He thought I was mad at him.”  I was standing at the casket of his son getting ready to preach his funeral.  This father was distraught.  Deeply hurt with himself because his son was dead and died thinking his father was mad at him.  In previous years his son had gotten into trouble with the law.  He served his time.  His father forgave him but gave him the warning that, “If you ever get in trouble with the law again don’t come around because I will be through with you.”  The son had gotten into trouble again.  He paid his time and was free but he stayed away from his father.  Time passed.  No contact.  Then the son flipped his truck and was ejected and died.  Now in grief his father told me that his son thought he was mad at him.  Sometimes we cannot undo that which we have done.  His father had supposed that his stern warning would make his son think twice before breaking the law again.  But warnings often don’t produce the desired effect.  Now this father regretted his words. I am not saying the father was wrong in warning his son.  Who am I to fault this father?  I can only say that I am thankful that my Heavenly Father is stern but also merciful.  He chastens me when I do wrong.  Fathers are expected to correct their children.   Hebrews 12:7  If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?  There are many spoiled adult brats in our society who are rebellious and unhappy because they were not corrected by their father.  Our children need love.  Our children need discipline.  Our children need mercy. We must be careful what words we speak because our well intended words may result in heart break.  How I as a Christian break my Heavenly Father’s heart.  When I sin His Holy Spirit living within me is grieved.  I can feel that He is  grieved.  Like the Prodigal Son I desire to come back into the sweet fellowship and I repent and ask Him to forgive me.  He faithfully does so.  1 John 1:9  If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. I cannot even begin to count the times my Lord has given me a second chance.  And third.  And on to infinity.  Am I worthy of His mercy?  Most certainty not.  Yet His mercy is great.  No matter how bad we have been God wants to reason with us. Isaiah 1:18 Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. We are stern.  We are stubborn.  Perhaps we need to evaluate our relationship with others and get things right before the opportunity has passed. 

 How God got right with me.   Pretend I am on an island by myself.  My appendix ruptures.  Sick and barely able to think or move I give myself an appendectomy.  I cut open my stomach and surgically remove the ruptured appendix.  Then I clean out the wound and sew myself up and hope for the best.   You say..."Absurd. Impossible."  Yep.  You would be right.  Now let’s examine another impossibility.  I have a hard heart.  Sins I have committed have turned it as hard as stone spiritually. Far from God.  I get fed up with my condition.  So I decide I want a healthy heart of flesh.  What can I do?  Go to church.  Give money to the poor.  Do good deeds every day.  Visit the orphans, widows and elderly.  Be kind to those who are unkind to me. Read my Bible every day.  Turn over a new leaf.  Clean up my tongue.  Clean up my thoughts.  What else would you add to my To Do list to get right with God?  The list could go on and on for pages.  In reality as I could never give myself an appendectomy neither can I gain forgiveness by my good works.  How then can I get right with God?  Simply put... Acts 2:38 Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. Repent.  In your heart you know you have done things that you should not have done.  Are you sorry that you are sorry?  You must be sorry before you can repent.  When you repent you pray to Jesus and ask Him to save you. and be baptized  When you believe that Jesus can save you...when you repent from your sins and pray asking for forgiveness...you will be baptized with the gift of the Holy Ghost.  John the Baptist said Mark 1:8 I indeed have baptized you with water: but he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost. And believe me...when you get baptized with the Holy Ghost, you know you have been baptized with the Holy Ghost.  If you have been baptized in water you know it.  If you have been baptized with the Holy Ghost you know it. A right relationship with Jesus is a know so relationship.  Not a hope so relationship.  Do you know your heart is right with God?  Ezekiel 36:26 A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. How is your heart condition? 

 How Long O Lord?   Revelation 6:9 And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held:  10  And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth? 11  And white robes were given unto every one of them; and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellowservants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled. Jesus will separate His children from nonbelievers on this earth. (1 Thess 4:16)  Terrible tribulation will terrify those left behind.  In this passage we see people who had been left behind...who heard, believed, repented and put their faith in Jesus as their Saviour.  Then they were killed because of their faith in Jesus.  In Heaven under the altar they ask the Lord how long it will be before He avenges their blood.  Note several things. 1. They have been killed yet they still exist.  (2 Cor 5:8)  2. There is a place for those who believe and repent we call Heaven. 3. They remembered their life on earth. 4. They were conscious of what was happening on the earth. 4. They wanted to know how many more Christians had to die before the Lord would finish His judgment.  5. It was made clear that more of their brethren must be killed before the Lord avenged their death. 6. There will be rest in Heaven. 7. We will communicate in Heaven.  8. There will be white robes given to the redeemed.     9. We see the Lord controlling and monitoring the judgment on the earth. 10. We can still talk with Jesus in Heaven.  Do you talk to Him now?  11.  Other Christians on earth were in line for a premature death.  Jesus could stop the slaying but in His purpose it was His will for these destined to martyrdom to show the deceived world there is peace in knowing personally, the King of Kings.  He allows bad things to happen in our lives so that others may see Jesus in us.  We ask, How long O Lord?"  We long to be absent from this body and present with the Lord. We need to understand that Jesus is in control.  In the meantime our purpose in life is to keep our eyes on Jesus, be faithful to His will, roll with the punches and know that someday when we see Jesus it will be worth it all. Be faithful weary pilgrim.  You are almost home. 

 
I am consistently inconsistent.  Nothing to brag about.  Frustrating. True confession. There are things I want to do but don’t.  There are things I don’t want to do that I do. I look at the One I pattern my life after.  The One who saved me.  The One I have sworn my allegiance to.  The One I have served many years.  How perfect He is.  How imperfect I am.  The closer I walk to my Lord the more I realize just how unholy I am.  Lord please have mercy.  Paul knew this frustration.  Romans 7:15 For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I. Christians still have our old nature living within us.  It constantly wars against God’s Holy Spirit who also lives within us.  The struggle is relentless.  The frustration is endless.  Paul reached a level of Christian maturity I have not reached. Romans 7:24-25 O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? 25 I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Paul asks who shall deliver me and then answers his question saying thank God Jesus has delivered me. Does that mean Paul was perfect?  Is any Christian perfect?  1 John 3:9 Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. Even more frustration.  The Bible says I cannot sin yet reality tells me that I do sin.  His seed is the Holy Spirit living within the believer.  He will not let the Christian sin successfully.  Misery follows disobedience.  Chastening gets our attention.  We must repent or be miserable.  I understand that the Greek for “doth not commit sin” means we cannot habitually bounce from sin to sin.  Christians do sin. 1 John 1:8  If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. So we continue to struggle with sin but we must repent and try to be like Jesus or we are miserable.  Or die. So how can I change my inconsistency to consistency?  As I grow in grace He strengthens me to be more like Him.  Daily reading His Word.  Using the gifts He has given me to edify His church.  Faithful attendance in a Bible teaching church. Yielding my will to His will.  Helping others.  I am thankful I am not the man I used to be, however I still long to be more like Jesus.  I am so thankful we have His Word. Deuteronomy 7:9 Know therefore that the LORD thy God, he is God, the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations; May we make it our priority to love Him and keep His commandments. I can do better if I try.  Can you? 

 
I can see clearly now the cataracts are gone. Gonna be a bright, bright SON shinny day.  For many our vision grows cloudy as the years pass.  For some the surgical removal of the cloudy lens replaced with a new lens restores much of our vision.  The cloudiness usually builds up gradually with just a little loss of clarity as time goes by. I realized my vision was dim but I didn’t realize how much until I had the surgery.  Now it makes sense why I couldn’t read fine print or see as well at night. Dimness crept up on me.  This made me think about my spiritual life.  I started out living for Jesus young and excited. I was ready to go anywhere and do anything for my Lord. Now the strength of my youth is gone and my body is weaker.  In my walk with Jesus I have this tendency to slow down.  Become indifferent.  Revelation 3:16 So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.  This is usually a gradual process.  I don’t realize how lukewarm I am.  When I repent and get back in sweet fellowship with Jesus I regain the joy of my salvation and the peace that passes all understanding. Psalm 51:12 Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation...  Philippians 4:7 And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. When I, and you, come back into sweet fellowship with Jesus we call that revival.  But even in revival we still see dimly spiritually.  1 Corinthians 13:12 For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face... There are many things us Christians can’t understand.  Hard questions we can’t answer.  We have to live by faith and believe God knows best.  I don’t see Heaven. I see by faith.  Someday the faith will become reality.  Likewise the unredeemed cannot understand spiritual things. Matthew 7:6 Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet... You can argue the Bible all day but unless the Holy Spirit touches their heart it is foolishness to them.  1 Corinthians 1:18 For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness...  Be thankful for the vision you have.  Thankful for the vision of God’s plan for your life.  The vision of our Heavenly home. Since the surgery I enjoy how wonderful I can see. I have worn glasses since I was 6.  On occasion my glasses would be misplaced and my wife had to find them for me. Now I can clearly see when I wake up. I eagerly anticipate how wonderful Heaven will be. I can only imagine.   Do you see clearly Spiritually now? 

 
I can’t get no satisfaction.  The Christian Motorcyclists Association was begun in 1975 to minister to the biker world.  Since then we have partnered with other ministries to go into the rest of the world sharing the Good News that Jesus saves.  We go to motorcycle rallies to show bikers the love of Jesus.  Some chapters serve free pancakes.  Some give free water or coffee and donuts.  Some serve as assistant chaplains at the local hospital during a large biker event such as the Lone Star Rally in Galveston.  We want to show Christian love to the bikers and witness to those who need Jesus.  Our slogan is “Changing the world one heart at a time”.  Once the King’s Kids chapter of CMA in Livingston, Texas was invited to minister to the Gypsy Motorcycle Club, International at George Jones Country in Colmesneil, Texas.  One ministry we offer is “bike blessings.”  We pray for the biker as he sits on his bike asking the Lord to bless him, send his angels to protect him, guide him to know Jesus personally and know God’s will for his life and to keep the motorcycle mechanically safe and visible to others.  Then we give him a sticker that says “Blessed by CMA 2023”. At the rally in Colmesneil as we were getting ready to bless a bike the motorcycle club main tent, about 150 feet away, began playing the Rolling Stones 1965 hit “(I can’t get no) satisfaction.”  That was not intentional.  It just happened.  As we prayed I thought about how ironic it is that we have found satisfaction in Jesus while the song blaring in our ears talks about not finding satisfaction.  That song was released in June, 1965.  I thought it fit my life well.  The next month, July 1965 I repented of my sins and asked Jesus to save me.  He did.  I found the satisfaction I longed for.  After 58 years I am still satisfied in Jesus.  Psalm 90:14 O satisfy us early with thy mercy; that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. The natural man is groping in darkness trying to find something worth living for.  Isaiah 59:10 We grope for the wall like the blind, and we grope as if we had no eyes: we stumble at noonday as in the night; we are in desolate places as dead men. The lost person is a “dead man walking.”  You too can come alive and live the Christian adventure if you will repent and put your trust in Jesus.  He loves you.  Even with your sinful past He loves you.  Please quit stumbling in the darkness and come into the glorious light of knowing Jesus personally.