In our last installment we learned that even the very fact that God created us is evidence of His grace. I am not trying to be too philosophical here, but you have to admit, it is better to exist than not-to-exist! How could anyone conceive of not existing, and then, think that that would be better than existing? Impossible! Well, now that I have completely ruined your day let’s move on to the work of grace in the lives of men.

St. Paul tells Timothy, in his second letter to him, that it was God who saved us and called us to a holy life –not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. “This grace was given to us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time, but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus, who has destroyed death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.” 2Tim.1:9,10

What Paul is telling Timothy and all of us is that God, before He even said, “Let there be light…” had determined that Christ Jesus would redeem a people unto Himself. John tells us that Christ was slain before the creation of the world. Rev.13:8

This was all promised by God, who does not lie, before the beginning of time. Titus 1:2 So, what we have here is God promising (to Himself) that He would redeem mankind (through Christ) and this would be by a work of grace. Or said another way; It is by grace that we are saved, not from ourselves, it is a gift of God. For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works that God had before ordained that we should walk therein. Eph.2:8-10.

Again, Paul tells the Ephesians that we were chosen in Christ before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. Eph.1:4

My dear Brothers and Sisters, do you see that God has you blameless in Christ; and that even before a day had been recorded! What I am saying is that you and I get to experience all that life gives us plus we have the hope of eternal life with all that we may experience with it; all because God, through Christ, loved us and gave Himself for us.

God knew you before the foundation of the world. In God you are already sitting in heavenly realms with Christ, because you were created (before the foundation of the world) in Christ. Stop thinking like mere men! God is not accountable to time. He wasn’t accountable to time before He created it and He is not accountable to time now that it exists.

The grace that you and I experience in our lives today is the grace given to us in Christ before time began. So it stands to reason that any grace that we may receive today is for the set purpose that God determined before hand. This purpose was accomplished in Jesus Christ. “We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son.” Rom.8:28,29

In light of God’s word and in keeping in context of this subject, these two Scriptures speak volumes of the work of grace in our lives today. In the next installment we will discuss just what and how these two Scriptures should be interpreted. And by the grace of God –we will.

The Lord bless you this week!
Pastor Jim

“When God created man, he made him in the likeness of God. He created them male and female and blessed them. And when they were created, he called them ‘man.’” Gen.5:1,2

The New International Version uses the word ‘man’ while the King James Version uses the word, ‘Adam.’ The word in the Hebrew means: ruddy, flush in the face; to show blood. The word can be transliterated to mean an individual or the species as a whole; as in, human beings or the human race.

Despite the fact that the NIV uses one word and the KJV another, there is no problem seeing that God made all men out of the one man, Adam. Paul told the Athenians this very truth, “From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth.” Acts 17:26

This is why each of us has that intrinsic judgment that all men are equal in the sense that every life is of the same value.

When we hear of someone ranting that a certain group of people are inferior to another group because of the color of their skin, we cringe at the thought. “We all bleed red,” so goes the saying, and that should be evidence enough to crush racism under the foot of justice.

Even when we come across a person debilitated by disease, there is something in us that says we must do all that we can to help.

The life of every man, woman and child is a created work of the grace of God. God told Jeremiah that He knew him even before He formed him in his mother’s womb –go figure! What this tells me is that in the heart of God, he has each of us known, formed, birthed and living. This is amazing to me.

The Psalmist cries out that all the days that were ordained for him were recorded before one of them came into being. Shouldn’t this knowledge give us great hope in the love that God has for us?

I can freely confess that while I was growing up, in my teen years, I made choices that were not beneficial to my well-being. For instance, I decided not to attend college. Now, supposing a job for an accountant came open and I was being considered along with a man who received a bachelor’s degree in accounting. Do you think that I would have had any argument against the employer if he chose the other man rather than me? No, the other man was qualified for the job and I was not. The other man was a better man than I (categorically) yet, no better than me (in essence).

(We, in the United States, are having trouble discerning this difference more and more. This is why I believe some of our politicians run their campaigns and make their decisions more on polling measures than the voice of conscience.)

Now what does all of this have to do with the work of grace? In the next few installments of this Pastor’s Desk I will show that work of grace in an individual life. For the moment though I hope that we all come to the understanding that (if we are able to think at all) we all have been given existence by the grace of God.

The Lord bless you this week!
Pastor Jim

I wonder… Did Adam, or for that matter, did Eve have a belly button? What did Adam think the moment he opened his eyes and God opened his consciousness? I wonder if at that very moment he said, “Well, I know who I am, but who are You?” Could you imagine seeing God the moment you recognized self?

What I mean is - most of us see God for who He is and then know who we are in relation to Him. For instance, I thought I was an all right guy; average “Joe” making his way through life. I was holding down a good paying job, married with one child. Okay, maybe I could have been better, but I was just as good as anyone else. But when Jesus Christ revealed Himself and the Father to me, I realized who I really was; I was a lost sinner that needed to be saved!

You see, my perspective of myself was erroneous and it took God to let me know who and what I really was. Isn’t it amazing how we try so hard to conceal our true feelings? Jeremiah said it best, “The heart is desperately wicked, who can know it?” One of the works of grace is being able to receive God’s true assessment of us. We may think that we deserve this or that, because after all, we’re pretty good fellows. But the Word of God tells us different, and if we would receive all of it’s revelation of us, we would tend to be more victorious in our daily lives.
The truly blessed thing about God is; He knows all about me and yet, He loves me!
Back to Adam and Eve. They were both created by God and at the moment of consciousness - they knew God. They knew Him as Creator and Father. He walked with them and enjoyed their fellowship. I believe it delighted the heart of God to watch Adam name every animal that He brought before him. It was kind of like the joy I felt when I watched Danny open the Christmas presents that his mom and I got for him.

God has revealed Himself as our Father in Heaven. He delights to see His children walk in love and enjoy the gifts that He freely gives. He loves to bless, His heart is moved with compassion and He shows unlimited patience.

Just think; in Jonah’s day, the Ninevehites were a fierce people who violently oppressed the Israelites for years. They were pagans and did not acknowledge the one true God. Yet, God sent them His word through Jonah, because He was concerned about them. How much more He is concerned about you, you who have been given the spirit of sonship and so we cry, “Abba Father!”

Brother and Sister, fear not, for it has pleased the Father to give you the Kingdom and He is never sorry that He has! I think as far as God is concerned, when He thinks about His people, I think that He is truly blessed to be our Father! Happy Father’s Day.

The Lord bless you this week!
Pastor Jim

An icon is a statue or an image that represents something sacred, something that people revere as holy, or regard with very high esteem, to the point of worship. In this day and age we even hold Hollywood stars up as icons. An iconoclast is one who attacks this sort of worship. Given the second commandment; “You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God.” Deut.5:8

One would think that being an iconoclast would be pleasing to God. And in light of the Word of God anyone who would turn someone to the living God and away from useless idols surely would be considered a champion of the faith. Yet, there is another aspect to the iconoclast; he also attacks traditional and cherished beliefs and institutions. And again, in this day and age, there are many iconoclasts who have continually been disrespecting the traditional orthodoxy of Christianity. From the universities right down to the elementary schools our children are being bombarded with ideas and concepts that continually trash the ideals of the Bible.

For instance; the traditional concept of marriage and family is now considered by the elite influencers of society as just another preference. They have redefined by setting new parameters and the family will soon include anyone or anything one desires to have in their family –dogs, cats, or garden vegetables!

The traditional standard of the Church and her leaders have been attacked as well. Anyone with a microphone and platform can lead and shepherd these days. Have we forgotten Paul’s exhortation to Timothy concerning overseers and deacons? But by today’s standards, (and this is because of the continual onslaught of the iconoclasts) anyone who says he or she is a minister of the Lord must be accepted by the flock. After all, “You’re not supposed to judge.”

Ministers of the Gospel should be above reproach. And I’ll go so far as to say… By golly, if some of these ministers were to go speak for me or on by behalf, dressed like they are now preaching in front of millions, I would be setting them down for a little talk. For crying out loud, even fast-food restaurants make their employees cover their tattoos and remove body piercings!

But our traditional values have been so beaten down that nobody dare speak a word against –anything! What? Are people in the Church afraid to be called judgmental, holier-than-thou, self-righteous, different?

Do not be afraid little flock, you are what you are and you are what God says you are. We need to test the spirit of this day and age and every time it tries to knock down one of our held beliefs or traditional doctrines –we ought to come against it with the full force of prayer and the Spirit of the one true God.

Let us be warned once again: “The Spirit clearly says that in the later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron.” 1Tim.4:1,2

The Lord bless you this week!
Pastor Jim

I was talking to someone recently on the fact that no matter how things seem to change –things are still the same. Solomon was right when he said, “Meaningless, meaningless, utterly meaningless –there is nothing new under the sun.” Throughout the generations of man, we have developed and progressed in many areas of our lives. Technology has thrust us to the moon and back. Computers have changed paradigms and text messaging has reduced vocabularies to mere letters. The fast pace of societal conglomeration is sending national autonomy into a tailspin and soon there will be -one world.

But no matter how things have changed, they still remain the same. I am speaking of the time nearly 3,200 years ago. The Israelites had received the Promise Land and had lived there long enough to get comfortable and… forget God. It’s sad, but that is what happened. It happened throughout the years and it is happening today. Oh, it may not be happening in your life, or in this particular church, but I guarantee it is happening. What is it that causes one to forget God?
It comes through the neglect of the Word of God.

Samuel was the last judge of Israel and when he was just a boy Eli was a priest in the house of the Lord. Now, it says that while Samuel ministered before the Lord under Eli –In those days the word of the Lord was rare- there were not many visions. Israel had fallen away from the true worship and servitude to God. It began shortly after they entered the Promise Land. The parents failed to teach their children the things of God and a whole generation grew up not knowing the Lord (Judges 2:10)

It is imperative that children be taught the things of God. It is of the utmost importance that they know the Scriptures. It is our obligation to God that we train up our children in the way of the Lord. Consequences of failing to do this bring heartbreak and sorrow, and ultimately, nothing short of death. When the Word of God is held in high regard by the parents the children will grow up knowing what it means to fear the Lord.

But, even in the midst of the 19th century, the people of the United States began to neglect their Bibles and place importance more on transient things. Secular education began to germinate and journalism prodigally left the home of faith. Children grew up in the 20th century with a “take it or leave it” attitude about religion. Now, in the birth of the 21st century we have a society that tramples truth in its streets and the Word of God is rare. How can we remedy this dangerous course of action?

It is my opinion that each of us must take a serious look, in self-examination, to see what sort of priority we hold concerning the Word of God. If it is something that we truly desire in our lives then we cannot tarry any longer. All the sentimentality we muster up will not suffice. We must act. We must read. We must believe. We must act on what we believe. I am not a pessimist –I am a realist, and it is a real danger that faith in our society, and in particular, in our own lives, will vanish if we do not regard the Bible as the Word of God.