Ever been posed with the question, What if this Jesus stuff isn’t real? Or maybe you have thought about that yourself. For me this is a question that plagued me for many years. What if? I would pretend to be a follower of Jesus with my Sunday mornings or even some of my money. But as soon as I got out of there it was back to life as normal. I would ask myself the question what if it isn’t real? Why would I want to devote myself to something that may or may not be real? I had seen the power of God in other people’s lives, but never in my own. After all why would God allow my grandpa and dad to die within a year? Why would He allow my mom to get messed up and lose her children into foster care? Why would we be bounced around from here to there without the slightest show of affection? If God were real why would all of this happen to me? I have to say that based upon my past, my future didn’t look too bright. I had to make it on my own, because nobody was going to hand me anything. I kept pushing on, even after what seemed like mistake after mistake. All the while believing that I was doing it on my own. After all in my mind why would I devote myself to a God who didn’t care about me? Well then it happened! The answer to my question was given to me. I was able to discover that this Jesus thing was real. I understood why people devoted their lives to Him. You might be saying right now, how? Well, in christianese I got saved. In plain man’s talk, I began a one on one relationship with Jesus the Son of God. I finally realized that everything that had happened in my life and been carefully planned out by the very Creator of the Universe. You see as a 6-year-old kid when life falls apart you don’t understand anything. God spoke to me through His Word and explained that everything that had happened in my life had to happen to make me who He wanted me to be. So have I ever asked the question What If? Yes. Now I know that the answer is yes Jesus is real and I want to devote my entire life to Him, because He gave His life for me. You know He will do it for you also. All you have to do is Admit that you are a sinner (that means you have broken the ten commandments), Believe Jesus really paid the price for your sins (Hung on a cross and died not because He deserved to but for you), and Confess that you want to be saved (start a one on one relationship with Jesus). See it really is that easy. So why ask what if? Why not ask Why not?
Month: June 2014
Are you a Negative Nancy?
Ever feel like the world is winning this race? Like everything that you try to do for the Lord is beat by the world. I sometimes feel like when I try to do something that is Kingdom focused, that I get smacked in the face by the world. People question me about my motives or even the purpose. We do a food give away in our town. It isn’t much but the people in our town are grateful. There are people in our community that think this is crazy. They make statements like let them get out and work for their food. I agree, people should be willing to work to provide for themselves and families. The Bible tells us that we as Christians should be willing to do whatever we can for the poor and needy. I am not talking about giving them money. I am talking about some of the basics to life. You can find people all over that are takers and not givers. The sad thing is that most of our churches today are made up of takers. They want to know what the church can do for them. When you begin to do things for the community they get upset because you are taking things away from them. We are told many times to focus on Kingdom things and to lay up treasures in Heaven. I have come to the point that people are going to talk and that is fine. I don’t have to worry about the negative stuff. God has already won the war. Battles may be fought daily here on earth, but rest assured we are more than victors when Jesus is in charge. So are you one of those people that complain or always try to hinder something God is doing? I know you say how do I know God is doing it? Well if it lines up with the Word, then it is God. Do you feel that the world or people are always smacking you? Just remember that we work for the Master and His approval. People will always be upset about things that may not be their idea, or is taking something they feel away from them. So don’t be a taker, but be a giver. Don’t be the negative Nancy about things, but jump in and work for the Kingdom.
Show them or Tell Him
Did you do anything today for Jesus? You said that you are a follower of Jesus, right. Don’t you want to go to Heaven? Don’t you have any faith? Why aren’t you working for the King? You see in these questions lie some of the problems in the modern day follower of Christ. Jesus said if you love Him that you would obey His commands. That means at the very least you will at least tell somebody about Him. Then you begin to run into the problem where people think you have to work your way to Heaven. You see Jesus’ brother James talks about this for us. He tells us that if we aren’t working that we must not have very much faith. Let me ask you why in the world would we work? Well Jesus died for us so why wouldn’t we work for Him? We don’t work for His benefit. We are working as a witness to other people that we really believe in Jesus. Nothing gripes me more than when I hear people tell me how much they love Jesus and do nothing to show Him. Or when they say that they would die for Jesus, but can’t even get them to live for Him. Don’t you think that we are just talkers? You see we can show the world that we really do believe in Jesus by doing what He tells us. We can also show Jesus that we love Him by doing what Jesus said. So allow me to say this, why don’t you get up and do something for Jesus? James says show me your faith without works and I will show you my faith through works. Your call. It is show and tell time.
Why aren’t you dressed like I said?
Have you ever felt that you have to change to meet the expectations others have for you? People have set the rules for us, instead of God. Shouldn’t we be more concerned about what God says we should be, instead of what so and so says? When we get saved we tend to get put into the Christian mold. People tell us what should be in our lives or what shouldn’t be in them. Why do we try to impose our will upon new converts? Don’t we tell people how to dress and what they should do? We even expect people to quit everything that they were doing right away. I would submit that we have missed the boat. Our churches should be filled with people that look just like the world. I am not saying that they should continue to be like the world. They should give up sin lifestyles. But, who are we to tell people how they should look or what they should wear. Yeah I am one of those preachers that wear jeans and a button up shirt. I used to wear a suit and tie. I realize that God saved Toney, because He wanted Toney. I have tried to impose what I thought a Christian was supposed to look like. I realized that God wanted me to be me. That is why He saved me. Are you following? God new that who He made me to be was what He wanted to use. We all can’t be the hands; some of us have to be the feet. The Bible says we are all different parts of the same body. You see we aren’t supposed to look the same. So if that is really true, why do we have a dress code for the people joining our churches? God understands that we are all different, why can’t we? So if you have a three-piece suit or a pair of blue jeans it doesn’t really matter. God doesn’t look at the outside, but looks directly to the heart. So what is your heart dressed in? Quit imposing your standards on people and let God do what God can only do.
Keep your nose in my buisness!!!!
Have you ever said I will pray for you? Or maybe you have thought well that is your problem, take care of it yourself. Hey I think that we are all guilty of that. We live in a society where we are trained to mind your own business. Maybe you have heard it said this way, Mind your own business or don’t put your nose where it doesn’t belong. After all we don’t want to offend anyone by putting our nose where it doesn’t belong. The Bible says something different from what the world says. The Bible actually tells us to bare each other’s burdens. If we see a fellow believer in trouble to step in and help them out. So, if we believe the Bible is God’s Word and is the mandate for the way we are to live our life. Why don’t we do what it says? Instead of just saying oh I will pray for you. See I think that all to often we try to get off the hook by offering a small prayer for the person in need. After all we don’t want to put our noses where they don’t belong. Most of the time we pray for people we are asking God to help them. We don’t even realize that God has already sent the help in the form of the people in His church. I am not saying that we shouldn’t pray to God on the behalf of others. What we need to realize is God is not a genie in bottle. He choses to work through us to help His people. God has instructed us to bare each other’s burdens. To help each other out. So next time don’t just say I will pray for you, but offer to be the helping hand of God to that person.
What have you sown?
Have you ever heard, what you sow you will reap? Do we really understand what that means? I mean we understand that it has a physical meaning right. After all if you spend your life drinking and drugging, we all know how that ends up. Or say we over eat, and then we know what happens after that. Well you know this has a spiritual meaning to it also. God says to us what we sow we will reap because He is not mocked. What does all that really mean? Well let’s start at the end. God is not mocked. You can’t expect to live a life wide open doing what you want and never have to answer for it to God. He sees all and knows all, so it isn’t like you are doing anything in the dark. Did you realize that even though you go into your house and close the door, God could still see you? So you will have to pay the piper so to speak at some point. So let’s look at the first part, what you sow you will reap. I always think of this as a big savings account. If I sow or do good things I will have good things come my way down the road. If I sow or do bad things, I can expect to have bad things come my way down the road. This doesn’t have anything to do with going to Heaven, as Heaven is the gift of God and we do nothing to earn it. When we do things not expecting to gain anything here on earth, we will reap the benefits later in heaven. That is a lot of what making the decision to trust Jesus is. We chose to sow that decision into our life and then we reap the benefits of it. Have you sown Jesus into your life?
Me against the World?
Ever feel like you are all by yourself? Everyone in the world has turned against you. Or maybe no one is willing to step up and help you. When everything is going good everybody wants to be on your team. But let things turn and no one wants to be with you. Maybe everyone has turned on you. You have been doing exactly what God has called you to do and now even those who said they would always be there have turned aside. You begin to feel like what is the use? Why continue to be the odd man out? So how do you deal with that? Do you really just give up and do things the way the world wants? What about as we witness and receive negative feedback? We don’t feel like we can do it, do we? You see we all worry about this person or that person being against us. God has said that He is in our corner. That doesn’t mean that bad things don’t still happen. Remember the disciples? All of them lost their lives at some point. Does that mean that God wasn’t for them? You see God’s ways are above our ways. He doesn’t just see what is in front of us. God sees the big picture. He knows what is best for us and how to protect us. The Bible says If God is for us, who can be against us. Don’t worry about man, but trust in the One who created you. It may seem like you against the world, but remember God is on your side. So it is two against the world and your on the winning side.
Who is your dad?
Did you have a great Father’s Day? I enjoyed the day with my wife and six children. Here is a thought for the day after. Did you tell God Happy Father’s Day? I know we think of this day, as one for our earthly dads. There are many men out there who are dads to more than just the children they help to produce. I have had many dads in my lifetime. There have been guys who have come along side of me to help steer me in the right direction. Some to offer advice in matters of life, others to help out in physical needs. There have been those who love me for just who I am. Then there have been those who love my children like they were their own. Isn’t that everything a dad is supposed to do? Well I would submit that God fits all of those qualifications, doesn’t He? You see, God had to pay a price to become our Father. Many people fail to realize that being a Father will cost you something. There will be the times when your children don’t listen and break your heart. I should know, I did this a lot. Then there might be time that it will cost you financially. You see God was willing to bounce back from all of those times for us. He was even willing to give up His biological son, so that we might have the ability to be adopted by Him. I have had the chance to be adopted by the very creator of the universe. Why? Because He paid a price so that He could become my Father. So I would challenge all of you to stop and tell your Heavenly Father you love Him. After all He didn’t have to be your dad but He chose to anyways.
Why Me???????
Ever ask your self the question Why Me? Your life takes some unexpected turns and you don’t understand what is happening or even why. Don’t we all get that self-pity mentality? We never really understand any of it until after it is all said and done. You know as we read the Bible we will finds lots of stories about people who no doubt asked the same questions that we asked. The first one that comes to mind is a young man named Joseph. His dad and mom raised him with a host of other brothers. Joseph’s parents favored him over the other children, there by creating some tension. Well we all know the story of what happened. His brothers sold him into slavery; he was cast into jail because of lies. Then God uses him to save all of his family down the road from starving to death. We can fast forward in time and look at everything that David went through, as he had to duck and dodge for his life from Saul. God worked that situation out also. Well we can move further into the Bible and see everything that happens to the disciples. These guys and gals were serving Jesus with everything they had and yet still had to experience some bad stuff and even death for most. So we ask the question Why Me? Why not? We think in the modern day state of the church that we are better than these men and women of the Bible. If God allowed things to happen in their lives, why won’t He allow it in yours? Yes God does love us. He loves us so much that He allows things to come in and out of lives. So Why? Well Paul writes in Romans that everything that happens is for the good of those who Love God and called according to His purpose. So you see when stuff happens in our lives, we get beat down because we can’t see how it will impact us in the long run. So the next time something shows up and you don’t understand it, instead of saying Why Me? Ask God what are you teaching me through this? It won’t make things better right away, but it will remind us that God loves us and has everything under control. Remember, God doesn’t get caught by surprise, He doesn’t have to switch to plan b, because plan a always works.
I have a cure for cancer, you want to know????
Have you ever gone to a movie that was just awesome? Didn’t you want to tell someone? What about a restaurant that had really good food and service? Didn’t you share that information with someone? Have you gotten a nice haircut? When someone asks about it don’t you tell him or her? What if you were diagnosed with a terminal cancer and you went to the one doctor who had a cure? But what if the cure cost a million dollars and he told you not to worry about it that he would pay for it. What if he told you everyone that you send to him, he will do the same thing for him or her. I bet that you would want to tell everyone that you could. Well let me take the next view moments of your time and tell you that I have met a man who can cure cancer. Want to know who it is? His name is Jesus Christ and He has the cure for the cancer called sin. This cancer is so bad that it has infected every person who has ever been born into this world. There is no one that is immune to the disease or the impact it has upon your life. Sin will kill you sure enough. But I know a Great Physician that has a cure for it and has paid the price for you to have the cure. The Bible says that if you will call upon the name of the Lord that you will be saved. What that means is that if you will call out to Jesus, that He will heal you of your sin cancer. It is only Jesus that holds the cure. Have you made the call? I would challenge all to make this call. There is not one person that will be able to beat this cancer without Jesus.
Thoughts from Pastor Toney 