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Luke 15:7, 10 In Luke 15 Jesus tells us a parable about a lost sheep and one about a lost coin. The lesson to be learned from each one of these parables is about the joy in heaven over “one sinner who repents.” What do you make of that? Isn’t there enough rejoicing in heaven already with everyone being in the presence of God and away from all the evil and trouble? What could be better than that? These two parables teach us an even deeper truth: heaven is vitally interested in what happens on the earth. Heaven is vitally interested in what happens on the earth in this warfare between good and evil. Heaven is vitally interested in what happens on the earth with the salvation of one individual human being! What do you make of that? This should give us pause to consider the importance of every person who is alive on this planet. To reflect on the commandment of our Lord to go make disciples of all the nations. To take more seriously the teachings of eternal life and eternal destruction. To refocus on our major task as the people of God to proclaim the gospel to all creation. Perhaps we have lost sight of or never even really carefully inspected and reflected upon the salvation which is being offered to us by the grace of God through His Son Christ Jesus. Peter tells us (1 Peter 1:10-12) that angels long to look into the glories of this gospel which is proclaimed to humanity. Have you ever wondered why angels who live in the presence of God and serve the Almighty would take an interest in the salvation which is being made available to human beings, creatures of dust who live “down there”? The earth, my brother and sister, is where the action is, and you are right in the middle of it! People are dying without Christ, without life. People are listening to the lies of the world and choosing paths of destruction. We have the gospel, the message of life. Angels are watching. Heaven waits. What will we do?

Titus 3:1 Most of us use “to do” lists for the things which we want to get done. We use them on the job and also at home. We have “to do” lists for buying groceries, for shopping at Big Mart, for getting things done around the house, for planning a dinner or party, for packing for vacation, etc. Sometimes we have more “to do” lists than we know what to do with! “To do” lists are very helpful, and to use them just makes good sense. If you’re like me, once I get started on my list, I don’t like to be interrupted. I like to get everything done which I want to get done. But here is a thought worth considering and considering very carefully. Since the Lord is my Master, and I serve Him, does He have a “to do” list for me to accomplish on certain days? I am not talking about reading your Bible and praying, etc. (These should be on your “to do” list.) Here’s the kind of think of which I’m thinking. Suppose you are busy working away at something and get a phone call from someone who says to you that they heard that your church helps out people who are in need of food. What do you do? Do you tell them you are busy right now and put them off, or do you take the time to see that they are taken care of? Suppose you are busy working away at something and your friend calls who says they have begun reading their Bible. They are confused and want to know what you believe about how a person is saved? What do you do? Do you tell them you are busy at the moment and put them off, or do you take some time with them right then and arrange for further study later? Suppose you are busy working away at something and you get a knock at the door - salesman! What do you do? I know, I know, I’ve told many that I’m too busy or just not interested, etc. But what if this salesman was on God’s “to do” list for you that day? I don’t mean for you to buy something, but for you to look past the product at the person and his/her real need. Hmmm? What do you think?

Matthew 19: 27-30 The kingdom which Jesus came to build was not to be like any political, economic or religious system on earth. It was to be different from top to bottom. Even a casual reading of His words reveals that the usual markers of importance such as wealth, power, heritage and position which formed the foundation of worldly systems were to be replaced with sacrifice, love, humility and service. Jesus came to make the last first, and the first, last. Jesus came to ... ...give peace to the troubled, but to trouble those at peace ...raise up the fallen, but to bring down those lifted up ...comfort the grief stricken, but to give grief to those at ease ...yoke together with the weak, but to break the yoke of the oppressor ...give sight to the blind, but cause those who see to become sightless ...provide great riches to the poor, but show the rich to be penniless ...empower the powerless, but to bring down those in power ...give wisdom to the uneducated, but to show the wisdom of the wise to be foolish ...give righteousness to the sinner, but to reveal the vileness of the righteous ...give honor to the humble, but to shame the proud ...bring joy to the sorrowful, but sorrow to the reveler ...provide clarity to the confused, but confusion to those who have it all together ...preach good news to the downtrodden, but ruin to those who walk on others ...give life to the dead, but death to those who are living it up It would do the church of today well to examine herself in light of Jesus’ words. How does He find us?

Mark 12:28-34 On occasion, Jesus met someone whose head and heart were in the right place in regard to serving God. In our scripture, a scribe is one such person, and he has a question for Jesus about commandments. It is a question from his heart for which he truly wants an answer: “What commandment is the foremost of all?” Jesus obliges him with the answer from Deuteronomy 6:4-5. We dare not overlook the first part of Jesus’ answer as it helps us understand the whole: “Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is one Lord.” Some versions have simply “...the Lord is one.” Although this could be a reference to the unity or oneness within the godhead, it is more likely speaking to the fact there is only one God. The scribe quotes in response: “...there is no one else besides Him.” In the days when Israel came out of Egypt and trekked to the promised land, gods proliferated everywhere. Every nation had its gods; some represented various aspects of the natural world while others were contrived in the image of man. Throughout the Old Testament, the Lord warns through the prophets that He is God, and there is no other. To spend time and treasure serving these false gods was a complete waste of time! It still is. We see, then, the wisdom and direction of the foremost commandment: “...you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.” To do this is to be devoted to the one true God, the only living God. When the Lord God becomes our deepest and most profound love, everything else falls into place. Our devotion and sacrifice are all worthwhile as God is the very ground of existence and the source of love itself. From Him flows every good thing. Certainly God merits our devotion, but this commandment is not just about God’s wanting man’s love. It is about God wanting what’s best for man. To serve other gods, be they human or human contrived, is a waste. After all, “there is no one else besides Him.”

Genesis 1:27-28 People have debated for years what it means to be made in “the image of God.” All of the following have been put forward as explaining this idea: can reason; can use language; can choose; can imagine; can design and build; can think in the abstract; has em otions - there are others. All of these are most likely part of what it means to be made in God’s image. But we want to consider this from a somewhat different perspective. Since we are made “in the image of God,” should we not reflect that image in our lives? Here we are not talking about any kind of mental capabilities but about our conduct and values. Since God is righteous, we should be righteous. Since God gives life, we should value life. Since God is merciful, we should show mercy. Since God is slow to anger, we should have the same self-control. Since God gives freely, we should be eager to give when there is a need. Since God is one, we should strive for unity in our marriages, families and churches. Since God is love, we should love not only Him but those around us. These aspects of the image of God are those which were blurred and warped in the garden when the first pair listened to the devil. So now, having the knowledge of good and evil, we too often choose to do and to value that which does not reflect the image of God in which we are made. We choose: to be unforgiving and hold grudges; to be selfish and greedy; to hurt, even kill others; to abort babies; to turn our back on the needy; to throw temper tantrums and speak vicious words to others. We could go on. You get the idea. This image of God was recovered in Christ Jesus the Son of Man. He perfectly reflected the image of God - “He who has seen Me has seen the Father;” (John 14:9). This is why the scripture teaches that God has predestined those whom He would call to be “conformed to the image of His Son” (Romans 8:29). In and through Jesus you and I can again give a much clearer image of our God.

Matthew 22:23-33 They just would not let Him rest. After all the attempts to trap Him and trip Him up in His teaching and knowledge of the scriptures, the religious “authorities” would not leave Jesus alone. He had bested them at every turn, clearly and beautifully laying out the truths of scripture in answer to their every question. But they could not accept that His knowledge and wisdom were far higher than theirs lest they be forced to acknowledge (as many of the people were coming to do) that this Jesus of Nazareth was indeed the Christ. So the attacks continued. Now it’s the Sadducees with their cute little “what if” question about marriage in the next life (in which they did not believe) designed to support their doctrinal position. Jesus responds with a crushing blow to their meager view of God and a powerful thrust to their poor understanding of holy writ. Don’t you know that in the resurrection people will be like angels and not be married? And regarding that resurrection, haven’t you read God’s words to you: ‘I AM the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not the God of the dead but of the living. The Sadducees were silenced by this penetrating response. And so, we chuckle to ourselves seeing them with “egg on their faces.” But are we any better off than they when it comes to knowing the word of God? Let’s suppose we could ask our Lord some of the most serious and perplexing questions in our hearts, not to trap Him but just to get answers. For how many of those do you suppose He would say: “Have you not read...?” Are we not very much like these Sadducees who failed to thoroughly investigate the holy writings to find the truths of God and just relied on our memories of what we heard long ago? How often are our Bibles opened? Read for meaning? Studied? Pored over in depth? Do we hunger and thirst for righteousness and the knowledge of God and His Son? Or is something like this our usual response: “I really do want to study God’s word, but...”?

James 1:27 Okay, okay, I’ll admit it. I’m going to twist your arm in this piece (more like your heart), but I’m sure the Lord is with me in this. It’s time for the annual commodities outreach at Potter Children’s Home. Now, first off, I want to commend everyone because in the past we have had a good response for this effort. Even the brothers who’ve come to pick up our gift have been surprised at how much we have given. This is all to the glory of Christ. We usually talk about this by saying that the Potter’s truck will be in our area during a certain week. And the van or box truck with trailer rolls up in front of the building, our gift is loaded on and whisked off to the Home in Kentucky. Mike follows soon after with our check for perishable items. This year, let’s view this differently. Let’s picture a tour bus pulling up in front of the building and all those children pouring out of the bus and lining up to come into the building and carry out our gift. Let’s see each one of them heading out the door loaded down. Some of them have to come back to get the rest of our gift. It’s so easy in interacting with these distant works and ministries to be impersonal. “It’s a children’s home in Kentucky. I’ll get a couple of boxes of cereal and a bag of chocolate chips. That ought to do.” Jesus associated with the lowly, the outcasts and the marginalized. He had no where to lay His head (Matthew 8:19-20). There was reason for this: because the corrupted world had created the greedy and the power-brokers who not only failed to have compassion on the poor but oppressed them even more! No wonder scripture is filled with the Lord’s disgust with and rebuke of those who did such things. We, again, have opportunity to help some kids who’ve been abused, lost their parents; who’ve felt the sting of being unwanted. Single moms trying to get their lives back together. These are close to God’s heart. Will you let them into yours?

Proverbs 14:12 Life - it’s what happens every day! Life forces choices upon us. Choices of all kinds from such things as jobs, careers, schools and marriage to these types of things: morality, purpose of life, faith and world view. Some of these choices we make with thoughtful effort, but others we just kind of grow into. We might say our environment chooses for us. That can be good, or it can be bad. The Bible speaks repeatedly of a way of life. Jesus spoke of the straight and narrow way which leads to life and a broad way leading to destruction (Matthew 7:13-14). Our text has the same idea in mind where a way which seems right to a person leads to death (eternal death is in view). This being the case, how vital it is to examine the way we live for the warning is chilling - you may be on a path which looks good to you, but its end is destruction! What would make a way of life seem good to us when it really wasn’t good at all? First, we tend to like to go with the crowd. If others are living a certain way, and that way of living is being validated by certain people “in the know,” then we will often follow it. If others are living in such a way, it must be all right for me. Another way in which we choose the wrong path is that we often choose the one which requires the least effort. We don’t like hard work. We don’t like change. We don’t like to sacrifice. So unless we see really good reason to choose a way of living which requires any of these, we’ll balk at it and choose an easier road. Lastly, some ways just seem good to us as our text says. It fits with our current view of things. It “strokes my ego” and “inflates my pride.” Every thing about that way of life just lines up with my way of thinking and seeing life. So, if it seems good to me, what can be the harm in it? How crucial it is that each one of us evaluate (and regularly do so) the way of life which we are taking for death could well be its destination! Only the Word of God can keep us on the path of life.

Hebrews 11:23-29 Few people will argue that sin is not harmful to a person, a family, a church or a nation. Individuals destroy themselves through abuse of drugs and alcohol, greed, sexual lust, pride and a host of other evils. All of these affect the relationships of the person caught up in them. Marriages, friendships and fellowship in Christ are strained and often broken because of the sin of just one person. When an entire people is led astray from God and His way of righteousness, moral chaos soon follows. Added to all of these sufferings and heartaches is the final destruction of those who do not repent and turn to the Savior. Sin destroys in a multitude of ways. One of the most dangerous aspects of sin is that it usually comes wrapped in a lovely, pleasure-packed bundle...

James 5:19-20 Every once in a while we see on the news about a toddler who got out of the house undetected and was found wandering around in the nearby locale. Usually it comes to light that one of the parents was only distracted for a few minutes when the child wandered off. Sometimes the outcome in such situations is tragic, so we all breathe a sign of relief when the child is found unharmed. Those of us who have kids and grandkids truly appreciate such situations. James writes about church wanderers. These wanderers stray away from the truth. James does not indicate whether this is a departure from sound doctrine or a drifting away in obedience to the word. He could have both under consideration. Note carefully that these Christians stray from the truth. In so writing James is arguing that there is objective truth, and it is possible to wander from it. That truth is, of course, the word of God (John 17:17). There is no truth given to the human race other than the Holy Scriptures for teaching us God’s ways. These wanderers at one time embraced the truth but have now strayed from it. This is another argument against the erroneous doctrine of “once saved always saved.” This wandering is also fatal. Just as sometimes the toddler who wanders off comes to a terrible end, so the person who wanders from the truth faces death, but of a different kind. Observe that those who turn them back will save a “soul from death.” The consequences are eternal. Peter says their situation is worse than before they knew the Lord (2 Peter 2:20-22). However, we praise our God because these wanderers can be rescued by turning them from the error of their way and bringing them back to the truth of God. And note this: any Christian can do this! Certainly it is the responsibility of the shepherds of a congregation, but rescuing wanderers is for anyone who has the whole-hearted love of God for his/her wandering brother or sister. Are you aware of someone who has wandered from the truth?

Genesis 3:1-7 Last Fall, we changed banks. One might think that banks are pretty much the same, and in many ways they are. But banks have some differences about check cashing, types of accounts, interest rates and such. We had a lot of questions to ask when we changed over. Even after we had set things up, we realized that we still had some questions to be answered. We needed more information. We just hadn’t asked all the right questions. Sometimes in our moral and spiritual dealings we have the same problem. We don’t ask all the right questions, or we ask the wrong questions. It was that way back in Eden, too. When the serpent came slithering into the garden, he knew what buttons to push to get Eve to ask the wrong questions. (He’s really good at that.) One of the subtleties of the devil’s temptation was to shift the focus of the situation from God to Eve. (He still does this today.) He began by asking about what God had said concerning eating the fruit of the trees of the garden., but then he brought the discussion around to Eve. He said that she would not die if she ate of the forbidden tree, but that she would become “like God, knowing good and evil.” You can almost hear the “wheels turning” in Eve’s head as you read v 6. She is looking at and considering the forbidden fruit. “Well, it looks good for food. And it is lovely to look at. And if it will make me wise...Hmmm?” In a very short time, Eve had gone from believing what Gad had said regarding the tree to what she thought about the tree. And then it was that she transgressed. Let’s learn from Eve. Consult the word of God and don’t simply rely on what we think or have heard somewhere. Often we ask the wrong questions because we’re already looking for a certain answer. The right questions center on God and His truth. The wrong ones almost always focus on our own desires, expectations and preconceived ideas. Learn to ask the right questions.

1 Chronicles 29:10-19 David is called by God “a man after My heart” (Acts 13:22). We wonder at times about this when we read of the egregious acts which David committed. However, our text today gives great insight into the heart of David, and helps to explain God’s assessment of him. It is an oft neglected piece of scripture which contains David’s prayer before assembled Israel as he commissions Solomon to build the temple. (Please read 1 Chronicles 28 and 29 for the full picture.) David’s prayer is not one in which he is asking the Lord of anything, but is a prayer with primarily two elements: acknowledging God as sovereign over all the earth and recognizing man’s dependence upon Him for all things. David has been deeply moved by the generous outpouring of gifts for the construction of the temple, but He knows that this has all happened because of the Lord. “Yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power...Yours is the dominion...” If only the world would see and accept this, so many things would be so much better. If only the church would see and accept this..! I know, we say we believe it, but do we live like we believe it? Hmmm? When some ruling by a court goes against our religious liberty, to whom do we look for relief? The courts? Lawyers? Politicians? Or to the Lord God? “Both riches and honor come from you...in Your hand is power and might...” Is it true or not? Yes, we say it’s true. The question is: Is it true for you? David continues “...it lies in Your hand to make great and to strengthen everyone...For all things come from You...” He sees God as the source of all blessings and the One who is able to reverse the fortunes of any person. Perhaps this is one reason why so many struggle even with the basics in life - they really don’t believe that the Lord is able help them out. “For we are sojourners...tenants; ...all this abundance...to build You a house...is from Your hand...” A man after God’s own heart. No wonder David was so richly blessed by the Lord.