Category: Blog

Thanksgiving remains one of my favorite American holidays.

The reasons are simple: first, there’s great food and lots of it; second, there’s often travel to visit family; and third, it’s usually less commercialized than Christmas.

The reason for the existence of Thanksgiving as an American tradition is about giving thanks to God.

Sadly, giving thanks to God for everything in our lives is not a tradition in many if not most American family gatherings. For so many people, thanksgiving as an American tradition has been divorced from its roots and God is not mentioned. In short, it’s just like every other day.

For many Americans, this holiday is about turkey and football. Some have even called it “Turkey Day,” which leaves giving thanks to God completely out of the dialogue.

But alas, I’m preaching to the choir. After all, the people who read blogs like this are most inclined to be very mindful of God and His blessings, especially at Thanksgiving.

I’m certainly not opposed to good feasting, watching football, or shopping for bargains after Thanksgiving.

To be honest, my family enjoys visiting the larger metropolitan areas during this time of year. And yes, we also enjoy shopping and looking for bargains. We think it’s fun to see all the stores decked out for Christmas even in late October!

As strange as it may sound, even this aspect has always been part of our family traditions from generations past preparing us for the season to come.

Yet in its purest form Thanksgiving has always seemed less prone to commercial exploitation than other holidays. We are essentially pausing to give thanks to God for all of His blessings.

We are extraordinarily blessed by God. We have much for which to give God thanks.

For those of us in Christ, even our trials and difficulties are really blessings in disguise. For believers we know that God causes all things to work together for good. So even “bad” things have a redemptive purpose in our lives as Christians. It all has meaning and a design.

The Puritans might have called these difficulties “frowning providences.” And we have been taught to see these hardships as loving messengers of God’s uncomfortable grace in our lives.

So the most important part of our traditions during this season of Thanksgiving and Christmas is giving thanks to God and delighting in the fact that He is in control of all things.

With gratitude to Him,
Pastor Kevin

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Over the years, many people in society as well as within the church have repeated the sentiment that “we are all children of God” or that “everyone is a child of God.”

But is this true?

According to Scripture, everyone is not a child of God.

In fact, Jesus called some of the most religious and self-righteous people in Israel “children of the devil” (John 8:44) because their desires were to do the devil’s will, not God’s.

In Acts 17:28, the Apostle Paul quotes a Greek poet as saying, “For we are indeed his offspring.” He made that statement to pagans. However, Paul was not saying that the unsaved pagans before him were children of God.

Paul was linking “offspring of God” with being created by God. We all came from God because He created every person. But to be His child through faith is very different.

While every person is a creation of God, and every human being bears the image of God, to be a child of God is distinct from this.

When Scripture speaks of the children of God, it always refers to those who have become God’s children through saving faith in Jesus Christ.

In fact, John 1:12 says, “to all who did receive [Jesus], who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.”

In this passage of Scripture, it is clear that “children of God” only refers to people who receive Jesus and believe in Him unto salvation. They alone are “born of God.”

Throughout most of the twentieth century and up to this very day, theological liberalism has peddled the idea of “the universal fatherhood of God and the universal brotherhood of man.”

 Most of the people who repeat this statement don’t realize it’s a foundational thought within theological liberalism… but it is.

Its purpose is, no doubt, to bring everyone together with a common sense of unity and equality. But a true child of God will recognize the difference between those who are in Christ and those who are not in Christ.

The gospel is an invitation to all people that they may become children of God through faith in Jesus Christ. He alone can grant people this right. He alone can cause someone to be born of God. That’s why Jesus came to earth.

If anyone wants to become a child of God, they are invited to come to Jesus today.

Forsake your sins through repentance, and trust His atoning work on your behalf.  Follow Him, submit to Him, and obey Him from this day forward.

Receive His forgiveness and delight in His gift of salvation. To receive Jesus by believing His gospel is to become what Scripture calls a true child of God.

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In Luke 22, verse 3, we read: “Then Satan entered Judas called Iscariot, who was of the number of the twelve.”

And then just a few days later, Luke records in 22:47,

“While Jesus was still speaking, there came a crowd, and the man called Judas, one of the twelve, was leading them. He drew near to Jesus to kiss Him.”

This was an astonishing act of betrayal. Jesus knew full-well that Satan had entered Judas Iscariot. Jesus knew this was a satanic kiss of treachery, and not of love.

We should observe that the only time Satan ever used the gestures of love toward the Savior was to deceive the friends of Jesus and to cause harm and injury to the Savior.

Even the false displays of love for Jesus promoted by false teachers and false religions today is a form of the original satanic kiss of betrayal. When Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses, et al, give lip service to Jesus while denying the truth of His very nature, it is only the cold kiss of Satan.

Likewise, when false teachers like Joel Osteen or Benny Hinn and others in their association make flattering statements about Jesus to win a broader hearing and perchance to make more money, these too are the kisses of Satan and are intended to deceive the masses.

So let the lesson from Judas Iscariot inform your observations of the false kisses being blown toward Jesus in our society by those who walk in darkness and deceive like their father.

Love in the truth,
Pastor Kevin

 

 

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In our study of Mark’s Gospel on Sunday mornings, we have already seen our Lord’s power on display in graphic ways.

One of the most gripping and emotional displays of His power is in His ability to heal anyone of anything.

The reason Jesus healed anyone in the New Testament had very little to do with the person being healed, but it had everything to do with the purpose of Jesus Himself.

The main reason Jesus healed people during His ministry was to validate or prove that He was God in the flesh and that His gospel was God’s message for all people.

God is still the only source of healing… and only God can heal someone.

We mentioned in our discussion on Sunday night that God still heals today, but He doesn’t give the power of healing to so-called “faith-healers.” Their claims to heal are false and deceptive.

But then we may reason, “If God hasn’t given the power of healing to ‘faith-healers,’ then He has certainly given that power to doctors who make people better all the time.”

Yet even that isn’t the case.

Even doctors and nurses and all the medical sciences can’t actually heal anyone of anything. We often associate them with healing and recovery because God allows so many people to get better under their care.

This is His blessing of mercy to undeserving people. But in reality, only God can heal someone or cause them to get better after they go to the doctor, or take the medicine, or get the treatment.

Doctors and hospitals are evidence of God’s common grace in our world and we are very thankful for them and for their work in the medical field.

Yet doctors themselves don’t have the power or ability to heal a person any more than a farmer has the ability to cause his crop to grow in the ground. There are many farmers who were unable to produce a crop this year because of the terrible drought.

Those farmers did everything they could do. They prepared the soil and tilled it. They sowed good seed. They tended the soil. They fertilized it. And they did whatever else they could to get scarce water to their seedlings by means of irrigation.

But alas, at the end of the season, farmers are at the mercy of the God who causes seeds to sprout and grow into food through the common grace of sunshine and seasonal rains.

Unless God causes a crop to grow in the ground, the farmer labors in vain.

In like manner, doctors can only promote healing and limit disease by preventing the spread of infections. They can do everything in their power to promote healing, but doctors themselves can’t actually heal anyone.

After doctors have done all that they’ve been trained and gifted to do, they must still wait for God to bring healing to their patients in recovery.

And if God doesn’t heal a person after all the treatments, then all the work and labor of the doctor is in vain.

This is another reason we pray for people when they go to the doctor. We pray because we know that the doctor isn’t an independent agent of healing. He is dependent on God for the healing of his patients, whether he acknowledges God or not. And therefore, we must pray.

We must also acknowledge that it isn’t God’s purpose for everyone to be healed.

If that was His purpose, then everyone would be healed. But sickness and affliction is a major part of God’s plan for most of us in this life.

In fact, God has an unfolding plan for the good of His people and the glory of His name that requires that a good many of us remain in unhealed bodies for the time being. Sometimes, it means living in a body that is totally disabled in every way.

While it’s easier for us to delight in God’s reasons for healing us instantly, it’s no less important for us to delight in His wisdom and goodness when He sovereignly chooses to favor us in a way that doesn’t result in physical healing in this life.

Right now, we look at all these trials through a mirror darkly; but one day we will see our Lord face to face. In that coming day, our unhealed infirmities will not only make perfect sense, but will become the subjects of our loudest songs of praise.

In spiritual salvation through faith in Christ, our physical restoration is assured in the life to come. Then it will be true of all disabilities, as Charles Wesley wrote…

Hear Him ye deaf, His praise ye dumb
Your loosened tongues employ;
Ye blind behold your Savior come,
And leap, ye lame, for joy!

In heaven, there will be nothing but health and restoration in glorified bodies forever. No pain, no tears, and best of all – no sin.

We will one day be grateful for the trials (physical and otherwise) God permitted in this life. Through these trials our faith is strengthened and proven to be genuine.

The same is true of all losses to the redeemed and of all tragedies and reversals that God’s blessed sheep must suffer in this brief pilgrimage called life.

In this life, all healings are temporary; but in the life to come those who are saved and forgiven through faith in Christ will have bodies that are completely free from sin, free from sickness, and all the other ill effects of our fallenness in Adam… and this will be forever!

Until that day, will you trust the God who alone can heal even when the healing doesn’t come in this brief time called life? Will you trust His purpose? Will you believe the message of Scripture which His healing ministry validated in the New Testament?

When we do this, great is our reward and greater still is our joy in His unfolding plan.

Until that day,
Pastor Kevin

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To be mortal means to be subject to death.

All the descendents of Adam and Eve are subject to death because of sin. Death entered the world because of one man’s sin; and apart from divine intervention, all mortals will one day surely die.

However, in the history of our human race, there were two mortals whom God spared from natural death. They were Enoch and Elijah.

God took both of these men to be with Himself before they died.

Both Enoch and Elijah were mortal in that they were subject to death their entire lives… and yet God intervened and permitted these two men to bypass physical death at the end of their pilgrimage.

In a similar way, Christ will also spare from physical death all believers who are alive when He snatches His church away to be with Himself before the Great Tribulation.

Like Enoch and Elijah, these believers are all mortal and therefore subject to death and yet like their prototypes in the Old Testament, they will not physically die.

Because of these special exceptions, we must note that not all mortals must die.

There is a special category of mortals who will not experience natural death before going to be with the Lord. We don’t know who will be in this group, but we do know they are all redeemed followers of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Therefore, all mortals should take note. Don’t wait! Run to Christ while it is still called today! Cling to Him and obey Him while you still have life and breath in this moment.

The time comes when mortals must die and the only mortals who won’t face death are those in union with Christ through saving trust in His finished work.

So whether we live or die, may we live in fellowship with Christ as mortals who await His sudden appearing in the sky or His taking us away through natural death.

Waiting with you,
Pastor Kevin

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