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There is an appointed time (The barren fig tree Luke 13:6-9) I am someone who has always been mindful of the time, I have always worn a watch and have always keep track of the time of day. When I have an appointment, you better believe that I am going to be there on time, no wait a minute, I am going to be there early. When I was college our business professors always told us that 5 minutes early was 10 minutes late as they wanted to instill in us a mindset of always being early so you are never late. Even for the most prepared and equipped individuals there will come a time when something out of your hands occurs, and you are late or miss an appointment. With that being said, did you know that there is an appointment that we all have and there is no way to miss it, move it, or be early or late for it? There in an appointed day and time when all of us will stand before our Creator and answer for the life we lived on this earth. In our parable when the owner of the vineyard comes to inspect what he had planted for fruit we must know that one day God examine our lives as well. At that moment in time, there will be nothing we can do to change what we have done in the past as the record has already been written and we must answer for our actions. The great news is that while we are still here on earth, we have time make things right and ensure that we are headed in the proper spiritual direction. There is nothing more frustrating than to have someone show up for an appointment and not be prepared or have what they need for the appointment. Show up at the DMV without you proof of residency and see if you do not leave frustrated or to a Dr Appointment with out a test result or x-ray you was supposed to bring with you. No imagine showing up to the most important appointment that any of us will every have and God himself says where is your fruit? You stumble around and try to make excuses. I just did not have time to focus on my relationship with you, I did not think it was that important, my friends said it was a waist of my time, I did not even think you existed, and so on and so on. You are not going to leave this appointment frustrated, you are going to leave this appointment devastated and distraught as God Himself says, “depart from me your worker of iniquity, I never knew you.” (Matthew 7:23) Daily each and everyone of us should examine our hearts to see that we are walking in accordance with God’s will for our life (2 Corinthians 13:5) because none of us want to show up for that eternal appointment fruitless and empty handed.

Intercession works (The barren fig tree Luke 13:6-9) Everyone loves a good heroic story where someone steps in out of nowhere to intercede on someone’s behalf when they needed it the most. Someone pulling an individual from a burning car, a hero that stops a burglary, or even a bystander who jumps into the water to save a child from drowning. All instances where individuals could have done nothing and let the person involved deal with the issue themselves but by choosing to intercede, they possibly saved a life. In our parable we see where the owner of the vineyard wanted to cut down and unproductive tree but the manager of the vineyard steps in and intercedes on behalf of the tree and says, give the tree more time to be productive and I will do everything in my power to ensure that it does produce. If I look at this parable from the viewpoint of the church, I cannot help but ask, are we willing to do the same thing for those we deem unproductive in our society? Are we willing to go to God and intercede on behalf of the drug addict down the street? Are we willing to do it for the prostitute on the street corning? Are we willing to do it for the individuals on death row at the state penitentiary? Those are tough ones but let’s make it easier, are we willing to do it for our friends, neighbors, and family members? Will we intercede on their behalf to God? Instead of throwing fertilizer on an unfruitful tree are we willing to heap prayers upon those around us who do not know Jesus as their Lord and Savior? Are we willing to pray intently for our brothers and sisters in Christ who are struggling with life and need help? Are we willing to cry out in prayer for those halfway around the world that just suffered devastation from a natural disaster? Intercession works in the world of gardening and in works in the spiritual realm as well, God hears the cries of His people and those prayer move Him. We mentioned in the beginning of this blog acts of heroism where those physically interceding saved a life, but did you know that spiritual intersession may save something more valuable, a soul. Your prayers may be the driving force to someone accepting Jesus as their Lord and Savior, they may be what gives them more time on this earth to make things right with God, and they may just be the eye opener they need to kick a sinful habit in their life. Intercession is not for the weak of heart, it is for those who believe in the power of prayer and believe that God honors the prayers of those who humbly seek Him.

We are expected to bear fruit (The barren fig tree Luke 13:6-9) I work in the purchasing world of the mining industry and if there is one thing we can not stand is for a part or piece of equipment to show up and not do what we expect it to do. I mean if anyone spends their money on an item, they expect it to work as advertised or they want their money back. You would not be happy to go out and buy a fifty-thousand-dollar vehicle only to get it home and it never work again. I mean you did not invest this much money to have a beautiful lawn ornament setting in front of your house, you want it to do what you intended for it to do when you purchased it. In this parable, Jesus gives us some powerful insight as to what is expected of us as a part of His Kingdom when he says that the vineyard owner showed up expecting his fig trees to be producing fruit. I mean he had given them three years to mature to the point that productivity was expected and now he wanted to begin harvesting what was produced. When we give our heart to Jesus, we must realize that He gives us plenty of opportunity to mature but then comes a point when we are expected to begin producing fruit for His kingdom. There are to be no barren trees in the kingdom of God we are all called to bear fruit for His Kingdom. Spiritual maturity is something that we should all strive for as believers but sadly many choose to walk in spiritual infancy never growing in their relationship with God. The Apostle Paul dealt with this in his letter to the Hebrews when in chapter 5 he told them that by this point in their relationship with Christ they should be teaching others but instead they keep having to be taught fundamentals over and over. This should be an insult to us all that we are stuck in perpetual spiritual childhood but instead of motivating us to grow and mature many have simply chosen to embrace it as who they are. They do not desire to go any deeper with God, they are ok with the basics over and over, they have no personal study plan for the Word of God, and they are not willing to inconvenience themselves to go deeper. They do not want the meat and they are perfectly happy sucking on a bottle because the more you know the more you are accountable for. They live there lives oblivious to the fact that one day God is going to come and inspect their life for the fruit that is supposed to be there and when it is not present, He will remove them from His garden. Examine your heart today are you producing fruit for the Kingdom of God or are you a dormant tree that is just taking up space and void of any spiritual production that benefits God’s Kingdom.

The owner of the garden (The barren fig tree Luke 13:6-9) No one likes it when someone tries to tell them what to do with their property, it is mine and you have no business telling me how to manage what is mine. You can make suggestions, give me some ideas, or even volunteer to help me but how dare you demand I do something I do not what to do with what is mine. In this parable put forth by Jesus there is an owner of a vineyard who has someone who is running his property for him. When he comes and checks on the property, he notices that there is a certain tree that has never produced any fruit so he suggests that it be cut down so it does not just rob nutrients from the ground that the other trees could use. The manager of the field suggests that he give it a little more time and he will show it some TLC and see if he can get it to produce and if not, they will get rid of it. Jesus was dealing with some individuals who refused to admit their faults and told them this parable to reveal to them that they were unfruitful and on the verge of being removed from the place in which God had planted them. Psalm 24:1 tells us that the earth is the Lord’s and everything in it, so who are we to tell Him what to do with what belongs to him. God has placed each of us exactly where he wanted us to be placed (time/place/etc) in His garden and expects us to produce fruit in due season. Jeremiah 1:5 and Psalm 139:13-16 tells us that God intricately designed all of us in our mother’s wombs for His purpose. We all have a designated purpose in God’s eternal plan, and we are all His creation, so shouldn’t we expect Him to want a return on His investment. Jesus told many parables about the fact that we are all given stewardship over the talents that God formed us with and that when He returns to collect on His investment, He is expecting a return. We like to think that we have power and authority to do what we want with our life but, we only have life because the Creator gave it to us, and He has the ultimate authority to do with His creation as He pleases. He specifically designed a redemption plan to redeem mankind and give them an opportunity to restore what our rebellious behavior destroyed, all we must do is accept and be committed to His Son Jesus

Riches not of this world (The rich fool, Luke 12:13-21) According to a google search, the Kuwait Dinar is the most valuable currency in the world. At the time of writing this blog it was valued at 3.26 US dollars meaning that it would take $326,000 to buy 100,000 Kuwaiti Dinar. It is worth more than three times our US dollar, but it still pales in comparison to the currency of Heaven which cannot be valued by earthly means. Currency is what makes our world go around whether it is the dollar, dinar, euro, yen, or whatever other currency you can think of, money moves people and makes things happen. You can fix almost any problem if you have the finances available to move the mountains that stand in your way of success. This is the way our world works but this is the exact opposite of how the Kingdom of God works. When Jesus says in verse 21 of our parable, that this individual was not rich toward God, He was letting us know that building a bank account does not impress the Creator of the Heavens and the Earth. The currency of Heaven is Faith based, the more Faith in God they have, the fuller our eternal bank account becomes. Our faith drives us to give our time, choices, words, and earthly possessions up so the Kingdom of God can grow and expand as we seek His Kingdom to Come and His will to be done on this earth. (Matthew 6:10) The currency of Faith leads us to not trust in treasures that we can see or touch but instead to trust that our reward will come after we leave this life and step into eternity. We build the currency of Faith by continually renewing our minds by exposing ourselves to the Word of God like it says in Romans 10:17, Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God. The deeper we dive into the Word of God and the more we surround ourselves with it, the more our faith grows and the closer we become to God. We begin to take the limits off God as our faith grows and we simply believe Him to do what His word says he will do for us. Do not get caught up in the rat race of life where the person with the biggest and best toys are winners and those without are losers. Instead of falling into this trap, build an eternal portfolio where your faith in God is continually making deposits that will never fail or fade. The god of this world, Satan, wants us to fall in love with the pursuit of riches that will bring happiness but all they really bring is unsatisfaction and the desire for more. Seek the riches not of this world, seek a relationship with the One who can provide them, and seek the truth of God above all things.

We never know when our number is up (The rich fool, Luke 12:13-21) Too many times in our lives we have had to deal with the unexpected loss of someone whom we thought left this world way too early. There is a statistic that seem to never let us down as it is correct one hundred percent of the time all the time, 10 out of 10 people are going to die. No one escapes this statistic; we all leave this earth via the grave but sadly some leave earlier than others and no one knows when it will be their time to go. In our parable, the man lived his life building up a retirement fund so that he could enjoy the rest of his life but if he knew the hour and day of his death would he have lived his life differently? Would he have placed more emphasis on different areas of his life he known when his life would end? Would he have worked less towards filling his barns and more towards his relationship with God if he had known when his end was near? I think we can all say that if we had insight to when we would leave this life and step into eternity, we would live our lives a little different than we do now. Most of us live our lives as if we are going to live forever instead of living our lives as if we can leave this world at any time. We live our lives as if we are certain that tomorrow will come and that we will be there to enjoy the plans that we have made for it, but the truth is, none of us know. Hebrews 9:27 tells us that it is appointed once for a man to die and then we must face the judgment of God. We do not want to stand before God on the day of judgment and find out that our spiritual bank account is empty, but our earthly bank account is overflowing with wealth. We should all be seeking to lay up our treasures in heaven where they don’t rust, corrode, or waste away and the only way to do this is by placing Jesus Christ first in our lives. This means our agenda takes a back seat to the agenda of God and His Kingdom purpose for our life, we lay down our pride and serve the one who gave up everything for us to have eternal life. Jesus refers to the man in the parable as a fool because he spent his time and effort working towards something that was temporary while ignore the things that were eternal. When we stand before God on judgment day, He is not going to be impressed by how much money in in our 401k or bank account, how big our house is, or even our job title or social status. He is going to be impressed by those who lived their lives as good and faithful servants (Matthew 25:21), those who have been good stewards of what He placed in their hands. God does not value the things we value; He values a sincere repentant heart that is set on loving and serving others just like His, Jesus.

We never know when our number is up (The rich fool, Luke 12:13-21) Too many times in our lives we have had to deal with the unexpected loss of someone whom we thought left this world way too early. There is a statistic that seem to never let us down as it is correct one hundred percent of the time all the time, 10 out of 10 people are going to die. No one escapes this statistic; we all leave this earth via the grave but sadly some leave earlier than others and no one knows when it will be their time to go. In our parable, the man lived his life building up a retirement fund so that he could enjoy the rest of his life but if he knew the hour and day of his death would he have lived his life differently? Would he have placed more emphasis on different areas of his life he known when his life would end? Would he have worked less towards filling his barns and more towards his relationship with God if he had known when his end was near? I think we can all say that if we had insight to when we would leave this life and step into eternity, we would live our lives a little different than we do now. Most of us live our lives as if we are going to live forever instead of living our lives as if we can leave this world at any time. We live our lives as if we are certain that tomorrow will come and that we will be there to enjoy the plans that we have made for it, but the truth is, none of us know. Hebrews 9:27 tells us that it is appointed once for a man to die and then we must face the judgment of God. We do not want to stand before God on the day of judgment and find out that our spiritual bank account is empty, but our earthly bank account is overflowing with wealth. We should all be seeking to lay up our treasures in heaven where they don’t rust, corrode, or waste away and the only way to do this is by placing Jesus Christ first in our lives. This means our agenda takes a back seat to the agenda of God and His Kingdom purpose for our life, we lay down our pride and serve the one who gave up everything for us to have eternal life. Jesus refers to the man in the parable as a fool because he spent his time and effort working towards something that was temporary while ignore the things that were eternal. When we stand before God on judgment day, He is not going to be impressed by how much money in in our 401k or bank account, how big our house is, or even our job title or social status. He is going to be impressed by those who lived their lives as good and faithful servants (Matthew 25:21), those who have been good stewards of what He placed in their hands. God does not value the things we value; He values a sincere repentant heart that is set on loving and serving others just like His, Jesus.

We work hard to retire (The rich fool, Luke 12:13-21) A recent study by the AARP says that only 42% of Americans do not feel as if they are prepared enough for retirement despite 87% believing that retirement planning is of high importance. (Article from https://www.plansponsor.com/americans-value-retirement.../) We are all taught at the beginning of our working careers to plan for the future and to begin immediately saving and investing for our retirement so we do not have to caught off guard when we reach that moment in life. 401K’s, stock investments, IRAs, and company retirement plans are all important ways that we can supplement our expected social security income. Essentially, we are programmed to work hard so we can enjoy life later when we retire but is this the mentality that we should have. In this parable, Jesus tells us of a man who just wants to gather up enough so that he can just set back and enjoy life and not have to worry about the day to day grind any more. He is willing to work hard to set himself up for a laid-back life of rest and relaxation, the only problem is that once he hits the magic number and everything is covered, He dies that very night. It is not fair, he worked hard his whole life to set up a peaceful retirement and then he does not get to enjoy it. We see it time and time again in our world around us as so many work their whole lives only to stop working and shortly thereafter they leave this earth. Maybe we have our priorities wrong, maybe we should not be working towards a comfortable retirement, maybe we should instead be working towards a comfortable eternity. Jesus said that this man had many earthly treasures but was not rich when it came to the things of God. Wouldn’t it be a shame to live your whole life working towards setting yourself up for a life of leisure only to stand before God on the day of judgment to find out that all your labor was in vain, and your eternity has been squandered away. Instead of seeking the Kingdom of God (Matthew 6:33), you sought to build your own kingdom and now your soul is required of you. We get our priorities so messed up in life because we live our lives like this is it and we only have one life to live, when we should begin to live our lives from an eternal perspective. This life is temporary and short, but our spirits will live for eternity in one of two places, in the presence of God or eternal separated from God in Hell. This is what we should be working towards, where we will spend eternity, not whether we will be able to travel wherever we want when we retire. When our hearts are right with God, we are not concerned with what tomorrow holds instead we are infatuated with what God has instore for us in eternity. We do not want to meet the same fate as the man in the parable, we must get our priorities right and put the things of God’s Kingdom first in all things all day every day.

Happy Valentine's Day from Gollihue Family Discipleship! Remember that God is love! To know Love is to know God! 1 John 4:8 And that the greatest act of love is God giving his son and his Son giving his life for us. John 3:16. SHARE THE LOVE TODAY!

Our barns must be bigger (The rich fool, Luke 12:13-21) Our society tells us that there is something wrong with someone who is content with what they have and is not trying to get more. You should want a bigger house, nicer car, better vacations, and a padded retirement fund and if you do not have them then there is no way you can be happy. Everything in our modern society points to us having bigger, better, and more to be satisfied or you cannot have pleasure in this life. The American dream tells us that by hard work and the sweat of the brow we can achieve anything and own anything we want. This is the trap that the man Jesus describes in our parable fell into, verse 19 says that he looked at his life and said you have worked hard to earn what you have and now it is time to set back and enjoy it. The only problem with this is that the very night he thought he had final obtained enough, he died. Jesus said he was a fool, he worked and labored for earthly treasures that he left behind when he entered eternity. Society tells us we need bigger barns to hold more treasure, but Jesus tells us in Matthew 6:19-21 that earthly treasure will fade and really, we should be laying up eternal heavenly treasure that will never fade, corrupt, or disappear. Because where your treasure is, that is where your heart will be also. The Kingdom of God is so different from our earthly kingdoms, it does not function around money, time, political power, and status. The currencies that drive the Kingdom of God is love, faith, service, and obedience. Matthew 23:11-12 says that the greatest in His Kingdom will be the ones with a servant’s heart, those who have humbled themselves to love those around them. Hebrews 13:5 says that our satisfaction does come from money or treasure but instead in knowing we already have the greatest treasure of all, A God who will never leave nor forsake us. Perhaps the wisest man ever to live, King Solomon, said that we should be satisfied with what we have instead of always wanting what we do not have. He said it was like chasing the wind, in which you can never catch it. (Ecclesiastes 6:9) Is there anything wrong with desiring nice things for your family? The answer is no, God wants nice things for you and your family. The problem happens when the pursuit of these supersede our pursuit of God and the things of His Kingdom. When we spend more time working towards them than we do working on our relationship with God then there is a problem in our heart. When we are unsatisfied with what we have and unwilling to part with temporary things then we no longer have possessions, we have idols that we are pursuing over the One True God.

We want what we don’t have (The rich fool, Luke 12:13-21) When did it stop being ok to be happy for someone when they receive a blessing or promotion in their life? At some point in time our society developed the mentality that if someone else is receiving something nice then we must be missing out. They are getting the promotion we deserve; they are moving into the home we should have, that new car is the one we should be driving, and that vacation is the one we have dreamed of. Why can’t we simply just be happy that someone else is being blessed? Our parable (Luke 12:13-21) begins with an individual coming to Jesus because he wanted Jesus to convince is brother the right thing to do was to split the family inheritance with him. In that culture, the first born would receive a double portion of inheritance AND scholars believe this did not set well with the younger brother who did not like the fact his brother was going to get more than him. Jesus simply refuses to get involved in a civil dispute among brothers and gets to the heart of the issue, the man asking the question, heart was full of greed. The remainder of the parable deals with a man who worked hard to grow wealth only to fill his barns the very night he achieved what he wanted he died, so he labored in vain and missed out on the treasures of heaven trying to enjoy the treasures of earth. 1 Timothy 6:10 let us know that the love of earthly treasures is the basis of evil desires, the pursuit of earthly riches will lead our heart away from God. Jesus let us know that the Kingdom of God works on a different currency than the currency of this world when in verse 21 He says that the man seeking riches was rich in this world but no rich toward God. The children of the Kingdom of God happily rejoice with those who rejoice and broken heartedly weep with those weeping. (Romans 12:15) We can do this because our hearts desires are not tied up in our monetary value but instead in the reconciliation work of the Father. Our hearts are now full of sacrificial love towards our fellow man as Jesus commanded us to do in John 13:34; love one another as I have loved you. We realize life is not a competition to compete for the biggest house, prettiest car, high paying job, or fame; life is about finding the will of the Father for your life and leading others in that same direction. It is so easy to fall into the trap of thinking you are working hard towards what your family wants and needs but, you are really working hard separating your heart from God. Do not make this mistake.

Religious people are offended by the truth 2 of 2 (The heart of a man Matthew 15:10-20) I once knew a very religious woman. She went to church, bought the best clothes to show off there, paid her tithes (made correct change in the offering plate), read her Bible daily (for the most part), and from the outside she looked like she had it together. But I knew she was a mess. She struggled with the fact that God had allowed her to be disabled, divorced then widowed, and alone. She held onto offenses and did not forgive many until she was close to death a few short years ago. I loved her but she once told me she did not know what real love was. If you don’t know it then how do you give it? If you don’t know love, then how do you claim Jesus Christ as your savior. She was offended by those that challenged her thought process when it came to the gospel. In a heated discussion with a family member over scripture she said once, “I don’t care what the Bible says I know what I am talking about!” I imagine that she felt just like the Pharisees in Matthew 15:12. 12 Then the disciples came to him and asked, “Do you realize you offended the Pharisees by what you just said?” Jesus had been teaching about inner purity. The teachers of the law could not let go of the traditions of the elders. They were confident that cleaning the outside had to be a part of a spiritual cleaning. The traditions that they had followed were more important than what the Son of God was revealing to them in so many great and remarkable ways. You too may be struggling with offense because things that you are seeing or hearing just don’t line up with what you have been doing for years in your church, home, or community. You just don’t how God is in something “new” or just traditionally different. I assure you that if you seek after the kingdom of God and his righteousness you will not only have provision but peace and wisdom. Not just earthly wisdom but wisdom from another world. One that could not compare and will not ever compare to religion and it’s mindset to keep you bound. My friend was not an evil woman. She was doing what she thought that she should. Religion makes your bondage ambiguous. It is not easy to see. Everyone around her acted the same way, most of the time. Religious people have a way of manipulating the situation, unless Jesus shows up. I am sure that the Pharisees thought that they were doing “the work of the Lord”. They were zealous for the life that they lived. But Jesus showed up! What they did not see was Jesus had come to set them free by fulfilling the law and teaching them the Kingdom of God and the better way. My friend was sick for many years before her heart gave out. She confessed to me that she had let those offenses and bitterness go because if she could not, God would not forgive her. We talked about the Bible often. Me being in my 30’s and her in her 80’s there were a few things I could teach her because she was seeing Jesus work through me. She was questioning what religion had taught her. I know that there were Pharisees that laid down offenses and put on the Lord Jesus Christ. We all need to lay down the offenses, forget about the dogma that religion has bound us in and put on the Lord Jesus Christ. We need to follow the lead of the Word and the Holy Spirit and take the limits off God. May His kingdom come and will be done in your life.

Religious people are offended by the truth (The heart of a man Matthew 15:10-20) I have heard our pastor, Mitchell Bias, say on many occasions that the Holy Spirit will not rest upon those who are easily offended. He does not say this to put anyone down or disqualify anyone from the Holy Spirit working in their life, He says it to bring about some self-evaluation in the heart of the congregation. If we are always offended by what is going on around them more than likely we are a little self-absorbed, egotistical, and walking in religion and not fellowship with God the Father. In verse 12 when the disciples make sure that Jesus knows that what He said offended the Pharisees, Jesus made know that truth would only be received by those planted of His Father. The Pharisees had gotten to a place where they knew everything about their religion, they were sure of themselves, and they could not stand to hear someone tell them something differently even if it was the truth. Their love for God had been replaced with religious arrogance because they were certain that if someone disagreed with their man-made doctrine that that person was not only their enemy but the enemy of God as well. This type of religious pride has been in the hearts of men since the beginning of time as satan has used the spirit of offence to draw individuals’ hearts away from God and towards selfish agendas. In Acts 23 a group of religious men made a pact that they would do God a favor and not eat or drink until they killed the apostle Paul who was obviously their enemy because he had offended them by preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. We can look at this a say, that was then, and this is now but the sad reality is that the spirit of offense still rests heavily upon many individuals, churches, and denominations in our modern society as well. When someone disagrees with their religious dogma, they automatically go into attack mode because “how dare someone have an opinion different than their own.” As children of God, we should be slow to anger (Proverb 19:11), loving, joyous, peaceful, forbearing, kind, good, faithful, gentle, and full of self-control (Galatians 5:22-23). When these attributes are ever present in our lives, the spirit of offence has no power over us because the Holy Spirit has set up home in your heart.

Evil comes from within (The heart of a man Matthew 15:10-20) You know what I have grown to hate from our so-called modern society? No one wants to place the blame on who it is due, and they are always wanting to place it on someone or something other than it should be. Take guns for instant, it is not the person fault who decided to grab an inanimate object and use it to harm or kill others, it is the guns’ fault. Our society does everything in its power to blame the firearm and those who make it for an atrocious act against humanity instead of blaming the evil individual who carried out the act. Something is not right with this picture; the gun was just a tool that an evil individual used to carry out what was born inside of their evil heart. This is what Jesus expresses to His disciples in verses 18-20 of our parable, He tells them that evil comes from within a man’s heart. “For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. (v. 19) If you are the source of the evil act should you not be the one blamed and held accountable for your actions. The Pharisees thought that what was on the outside was what defiled a man, but Jesus wanted everyone to know that what comes from within is what defiles a man. It is not always your kid’s teachers’ fault that they are mean at school it could be that there are issues in their heart that need to be dealt with to fix the problem. They may just need a spiritual heart transplant where the great surgeon Jesus comes in and gives them a new heart, with new desires. It seems everyone is always looking for someone else to blame for their problems when almost one hundred percent of the time our problem is that our heart is not right with God. We allow our emotions, thoughts, and desires to take control of our actions instead of allowing the Holy Spirit of God to be our guide in this world. God has a plan for all our lives, but it requires all of us to humble ourselves and realize that we have problems, short comings, and sin in our lives that keep us from being who He wants us to be. The only way we can fix these issues is to let God fix them for us and this can only be done through a relationship with Jesus Christ.

The blind leading the blind (The heart of a man Matthew 15:10-20) Have you ever tried to follow someone who has no idea where they are going? It is not that common now, but I remember as a child a road trip meant that you jerked out an atlas and who ever was in the lead car would have a navigator or map reader. We did not have GPS or cell phones to give us step by step directions, we had to count on the person with the map in their hand to lead the way and if they were not good with a map you end up in some out of the way places or stopping to ask for directions. In our parable, Jesus let His disciples know that the Pharisees was like a bad navigator leading a convoy on a road trip, no one is going to end where they are supposed to be, and everyone is going to be in a ditch. He said it was like the blind leading the blind, no one knew where they were going. Jesus simply gave the harsh reality of what the church was like in His time, religion had taken over for relationship with God and the church leaders was leading everyone further from God instead of closer. Everyone was aimlessly wandering around blind to the fact that God was not pleased with the actions or their hearts. This parable is the poster child for why each and everyone of us should take time to read and study the word of God daily. In that time, people did not have individual copies of the Bible in their home but in modern times we have unprecedented access to the Bible via hard copies, our phones, and the internet. There is no excuse for us to be deceived or mislead by individuals who are pushing their own agendas instead of the Word of God. We do not have to blindly follow the words of someone else, we all have access to the Word of God to make sure we are heading in the right direction. The sad reality is that we have instant access to the Word of God and there are still those who do not take advantage of it, and they would rather hear what someone else has to say about God instead of hearing what God has to say about Himself. God has given us access to His word so that we do not fall into the same trap of religion that plagued the Pharisees and we should take full advantage of it by committing ourselves to be students of the Word. Everyday we encourage you do Encounter God, Exalt God, edify yourself by reading the Word of God, and Engage this world for Jesus Christ. These are not just a clever list; these are things that will keep you out of the ditch and heading in the right spiritual direction.

Doctrines of Men (The heart of a man Matthew 15:10-20) In our home we like to play board games and card games as a family, but one family member cannot stand to lose so he always is trying to manipulate the rules to insure he wins. Jeremiah can not stand to not win and to say that he is a sore loser is un understatement. Every game we play comes with a set of rules on how to play and we make sure that we read them before we get started so everyone knows how to play and how to win. Jeremiah is notorious for trying to flip the rules around to give him self an advantage, so he forgets the rules of the game and just goes with his own rules. In our parable from Matthew 15:10-20 we see where the Pharisees did the same thing with their religion. The God given rules that they had was not enough, so they had to add their own rules that made it a sin to eat food with unwashed hands. It appalled them to see Jesus disciples not washing their hands before they ate because their rules said this was a no, no. Jesus immediately let them know that it was not what went into a man that defiled him but instead the things that came out such as angry, hatred, lust, adultery, etc. is what defiled them. If you read the account of this same parable in Mark 7:5-9 we see that Jesus lets them know just how hypocritical they all where, by esteeming the traditions of men over the commandments of God. He said that Isaiah spoke of them when he said, “this people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.” I am not sure why the Pharisees thought they could improve upon the commandments of God, but the same thing is still be done today in the modern church. Individuals, denominations, and churches want to add their doctrine to the Bible and hold everyone around them accountable for what they have deemed as sound doctrine. If you do not worship like them, you are a sinner; you do not read their translation of the Bible you are a sinner; you do not dress like them you are a sinner, and you can go on and on. There is absolutely nothing wrong setting standards or separating your self from this world but there is something wrong when you try to judge the world around you by your man-made doctrine instead of the commandments of God. The Pharisees found them self in a place where they felt like they were honoring God with their lives when they were dishonoring God by esteeming man-made traditions over the Word of God. When Jesus pointed this out to them, instead of being convicted and repenting, they were angry that someone would have the audacity to challenge what they knew to be true.

Out is more important than in (The heart of a man Matthew 15:10-20) One time we were eating at a restaurant and the kids wanted dessert, so we ordered a giant chocolate chip cookie for them. The cookie came with an ice-cold jug of milk like you would buy at a convenience store. Mikey started eating the cookie and took a drink of the milk and said that it tasted funny so instead of looking at the milk or smelling of it I grab it and take a swig. The milk was spoiled; the date was good, it was ice cold, and it looked so good next to that cookie, but it was spoiled. The milk looked good on the surface but what came out of it was anything but good, it was nasty. In the parable that we begin to discuss today, the Pharisees was angry that Jesus’ disciples ate bread before washing their hands which was a no, no in their sect of Judaism because they believe that eating with dirty hands defiled a man. Jesus let them know quickly that it was not what you put in your body that defiles man but instead the actions and words that comes out of man is what defiles him because, they come from heart. In Matthew 23:27 Jesus said that the Pharisees was like beautiful tombs in a graveyard, all white and pristine, but inside they were full of dead and rotting bones. We can look pretty and clean on the outside but if inside we are rotten or spoiled that is what is going to come out. Jesus said that evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornication, thefts, false witness, and blasphemies all come from the heart within. Therefore, we need a heart transplant (Jeremiah 31:33, Hebrews 8:10), our sinful heart of stone must be replaced with a heart of flesh. Only when God changes our heart can we begin to bring forth fruit of righteousness as the love of God begins to flow from us. So, what is coming out of you? Do you allow your emotions to control your words and actions or is the Holy Spirit of God in control? We do not ask these questions to condemn anyone but instead we ask in the hope that you will realize the true condition of your heart and if you are in good fellowship with God or not. Jesus is the only hope any of have of cleansing our heart and obtain eternal life, so we encourage you to examine your heart and seek the Truth that will set you free.

Jehovah Jireh (Luke 11:5-13 Parable of the friend at midnight) We have an old saying in the Appalachian Mountains, “You do not bite the hand that feeds you.” It stems from one caring for a pet or livestock and the fact that they will not be likely to continue to feed an animal that tries to attack them when they are trying to care of it. This then translates over to relationships we have in our lives; it would be silly for us to treat the ones who are trying to care for us harshly because when we do we become our own worst enemy. One of the names given to God in our Holy Bible is Jehovah Jireh (Genesis 22:14) which literally means The Lord will provide. I am not saying that the church is like a dog biting its master’s hand as it places the food bowl in front of it, but I do think that we need to become more aware of who our provider is. In this parable, Jesus wants to relay to those in whom He is speaking that God is more than willing and able to meet the needs of His followers if they are willing to bring them before Him. Once we begin to realize that God is the provider of everything and the One who meets every need, we will no longer seek assistance from any other source. When we understand where your fountain of life comes from, there is no reason to look anywhere else for a solution to anything we encounter. You may have a job that provides you money, but you are not the provider for your family, God is. James 1:17 says that every good and perfect gift is from above, it comes down from the father of lights. Once we truly grasp that God almighty is our provider then we simply just set up camp at His feet and never stray from that spot. There is no need to wander or seek assistance from anyone or other source because the Giver of Life and provider of All becomes our life source. We will stay in continuous contact with our life source not because we are a parasite trying to get everything we can out of our host, but because our hearts are knitted together as one knowing the sacrifice that He made on our behalf. We need to wake up and realize that life is not a contest on who can have the most, be the most popular, or who can obtain the most knowledge. Life is about reconnecting with the Creator and continually working on our relationship with Him, never letting anything separate us again.

God gives His Spirit freely (Luke 11:5-13 Parable of the friend at midnight) Post covid life has made it hard to find certain items, many things are still difficult to get and if you do find them vendors may limit how many they allow you buy. For some reason .410 shot gun shells have been hard to come by here in West Virginia, Shawnna ran across a store that had some in stock, but they limit only two case per customer. The same is true for boots in the mining industry, since covid makers have not been able to keep up with the demand and miners are turning over rocks trying to find a good boot in their size because of the shortage. You can say the same about your favorite items at the local grocery/convenience store you cannot always find what you need due to supply issues and lack of inventory. Knowing that the demand for certain products reduces it availability wouldn’t you think the same would be true for the most sought-after things in this world, eternal life. In verse 13 of our parable, Jesus says that the heavenly Father gives the Holy Spirit to all who ask. There is no supply limitation, back orders, or wait time. You ask of God, and you will receive the life-giving gift of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit of God allows God Himself to dwell within His creation. The Holy Spirit is the life-giving power that comes into a believer when they accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, and He is the driving force that allows them to overcome this world. Is it not amazing that the scripture says such a gift is available to all whom ask God for it? This gift of God allows us to produce love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control in a body that wants to do the exact opposite. (Galatians 5:22-23) All we must do is ask? All we must do is diligently seek the Giver of Life for this gift as James 4:8 says that if we draw closer to God, He will draw closer to us. We do not have to go from store to store searching for it, we do not have to search online to find someone with it in stock, and we do not have to know someone on the inside to get what we need. We simply must humble ourselves and approach God with a sincere and repentant heart to obtain the most awesome prize of them all. The Holy Spirit, bringer of eternal life and power.

Heavenly love surpasses earthly love (Luke 11:5-13 Parable of the friend at midnight) We spend a lot of time trying to prove our love to those around us; we shower them with gifts, let them know how much we appreciate them, and give our time to those we love most. I remember when Shawnna and I was dating, and things started to get more serious it seems like we would spend an hour trying to hang up with each battling over who loved the other one more. “I love you more, no I love you more, etc.” We eventually had to get a system in place where we did a countdown, 3-2-1, and said at the same time, “good night, I love you, bye” to get off the phone with each other because we both wanted to one up each other. In the parable of the friend at midnight, Jesus let us know that if we being corrupted by sin chose to show love and compassion to those we love, how much more will the Heavenly Father who is righteous show us His love. We may try to prove our love to those around us but when it comes to God, He does not have to prove anything, He has already demonstrated His love towards us all. None of us deserve the love shown to us by God, because at one point we were all God’s enemies living in rebellion to Him, yet He still gave the life of His son to redeem us all. (Romans 5:8) We may be willing to lay down our life for our wife or kids, but would we lay down our life for someone who is our enemy, Jesus did. (Romans 5:7) Heavenly love does not know the boundaries that our earthly love does. He doesn’t walk away from us because we hurt His feelings, He does not divorce us because we cheated on Him, and He does not abandon us because we turn our backs on Him. Heavenly love is perfect love that knows no boundaries or limitations. “For God so loved the world, that he gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16) Perfect love makes a way to reconcile what is broken, it provides an escape from the judgement, and it is extended towards everyone. All we must do to have perfect love in our life is accept it, and the one who made it possible, Jesus Christ.

Ask, Knock, Seek!!!! (Luke 11:5-13 Parable of the friend at midnight) At the beginning of each year something strange happens, and people decide that it is time for things to change in their lives. Some make resolutions, others start exercise and diet regimes, and then there are some who simply choose a moto to live by and guide them for that year. As I read verses 9 and 10, I could not help but think that the world of Christians would be so much better if we adopted the motto of Ask, Knock, and Seek for our prayer life. As we are at the beginning of 2023, what if we decided that we were not going to go another day failing to ask God for what we need, failing to walk past closed doors in our life without knocking on heaven’s door first, and failing to seek the truth from the truth giver, God. This parable of Jesus is an open request for us to never deal with anything on our own anymore and to make God a regular part of our life. He is inviting us to fellowship with heaven whenever we want or need to. 1 Thessalonian 5:17 tells us that the norm for a Christian should always be in conversation with God, “Pray without ceasing?” Why then has the prayer life of so many become needs based driven instead of a form of continual fellowship with God. We pray when we fill like we have no other option, or we give God the first and last ten minutes of our day because that is what we were taught by our parents. The life of a believer should be one of continually asking God what His plan for our life is, continually knocking on closed doors to see if God wants us to walk through them, and continually seeking the truth of God as we live in a world of lies. God loves His creation and wants to walk side by side with us in life everywhere we go, God does not want to be a 911 dispatch operator that only hears from you when everything in life is falling apart. Will he answer the 911 calls? Yes, he has many times in my life, but the fact remains many 911 calls to God would not need to be made if we were Asking, Knocking, and Seeking in our prayer life continually. He wants a relationship with us were we are in continual conversation with each other and communication is flowing in both direction, from earth to heaven and from heaven to earth.

If you knock on my door at midnight…. (Luke 11:5-13 Parable of the friend at midnight) I do not know if you have ever had it happen, but it is an unsettling event to have someone knock on your door in the middle of the night expectantly. It catches you off guard, it startles you, and it makes you think the worst of what their intentions may be. As we begin to look at the parable of the friend at midnight, we must have some perspective and understand that our culture is way different than the culture that Jesus spoke this parable in. In that culture friends and family did not have GPS systems and cell phones to tell them their exact arrive time and could not accurately predict when they would show up to a destination. In addition, the hot dry climate of the region would mean that traveling at night was much more comfortable since horse and buggy or foot travel was how everyone had to travel in those days. It was probably a lot more common to have someone show up unexpectant at night knowing this context so when the neighbor comes over and knocks on the door to say they had some guests show up that they need to care for, the crowd Jesus was speaking to would understand. It was also part of that culture to minister to someone after a journey by offering them a meal and helping them feel comfortable. Now that we have some context what is Jesus trying to tell us with this parable of a midnight visitor? If you knock on our door in the middle of the night our hospitality may be replaced with skepticism, defensiveness, and cautiousness. Because we are caught off guard, we are likely to answer like the individual first does in the parable, “everyone is in bed, what you are doing here now, and can you just not come back in the day light, and we take care of this.” This parable is set up to show us that God’s Kingdom works differently than this world. We are caught off guard by midnight visitors that inconvenience us, but God expects us to come knocking at His door when the chips are down, and we are in our darkest moments. He is not caught off guard by our knocking (prayers) at midnight, in fact He wants us to come to Him has already prepared exactly what we need to recover from our journey. The parable continues by comparing the love of the Heavenly Father to that of an earthly farther. The earthly father wants to provide for their children with what they ask for and need, the Heavenly Father is no different. If our evil hearts wish to show love and compassion on those, we love how much more will the righteous Heavenly Father be willing to allow His Holy Spirit to minister to His creations that humbles themselves before Him in prayer.

We can’t turn a blind eye (The Good Samaritan Luke 10:29-37) Our modern and technologically advanced society has made a generation who has instant video access to events around the world and this has made them numb to what we are seeing. It is not as much that we turn a blind eye to what is going on around us as we have seen so much of it that it no longer affects us or moves us. We entertain ourselves with movies and shows full of violence, explosions, and wars so it does not move us when we see it on the national news. Our favorite shows are full of adultery, sexual immorality, divorce, drug abuse and murder so when it shows up on the local news it is nothing we have not already seen. We are not moved by those suffering around us because we have become desensitized by purposely overloading our lives with drama for entertainment purposes. In the parable of the Good Samaritan there are two men who see an individual in a dire situation, and they choose to simply keep walking and not stop to help. These individuals were both religious men, as one was a priest and the other a Levite, but neither had the love and compassion of God within their heart. I am afraid a major portion of the modern church has become religious like these individuals as our willingness to blend into the world and its entertainment system has caused us to turn a blind eye to those in need. Going to church, being involved in church, or even having a role in your church doesn’t make you a Christian, a transformational relationship with Jesus makes you a Christian. When Jesus comes in, things change and His love and compassion not only fills your life, but it also overflows from your life. We can no longer turn a blind eye to those suffering around us because we know that we were once in that situation until Jesus stopped by and lifted us up. Jesus did not have to stop, He could have left us where we laid in our sin, but instead, He wanted to help us, He wanted a relationship with us, and He wanted us in His life. It was not an inconvenience that He had to stop, it was His purposeful planning to show His love to everyone He encountered. The Good Samaritan understood this kind of love and transformational power, so should everyone who calls them self and child of God and wants to be a part of His Eternal Kingdom. Purge your life of the entertainment garbage provided by this world and replace it with the Truth of God’s word and see how fast your heart begins to ache for those around you in need. Watch your spiritual awareness of heartache and suffering grow as the Spirit of God fills your life and cleanses you of the mess, we have welcomed in.

Who is your neighbor? (The Good Samaritan Luke 10:29-37) Who is your neighbor? How you answer this question will give everyone around you great insight into your world view and the condition of your heart before God. If you limit your neighbors to those who look like you, act like you, and live along side you in your culture then your mercy and compassion does not extend far beyond those boundaries. On the other hand, if you view everyone as your neighbor and you have the same love and compassion for them regardless of their demographics then you have shrunken the world into a small community of compassion. The person who asked this of Jesus in Luke 10:29 was trying to justify who should be loved and who it was ok to exclude from loving in their life. He was willing to fulfill his commitment of God but did not want to go to far or do anything that would inconvenience himself any more than he had to. By asking this question of Jesus, he had already shown his heart to be corrupt and void of true love and compassion for those around him. We can point the finger at this individual or we can look our selves in the mirror and realize that it is a trap that is all too easy to fall into because we love to segregate ourselves into groups and clicks. When we do this, we tend to shrink our circle of compassion to only those closest to us but as children of God we must extend the love of Christ to everyone we encounter. As members of the Kingdom of God our neighborhood is a global one, where we treat everyone as our neighbor, and we show everyone the love and compassion of Jesus Christ. In John 15:12-13, Jesus commanded us to love one another as He has loved us and that no greater love could be shown than to lay down your life for a friend. Jesus was our role model for how we should love those around us, He did not die just for those closest to Him, He died for those who hated and despised Him. He died so everyone would have hope of redemption and eternal life, He laid His life down so that everyone could experience His Kingdom. We can not narrow our neighbors and try to justify those we should love and those who we can exclude, we simply must show the love of Jesus Christ to everyone that we encounter regardless of who they are. There is no one that it is ok to see in a place of need and for us to just turn a blind eye to and keep walking, everyone is our neighbor, and everyone deserves the love of Jesus Christ. That is why He suffered and died upon a cross over 2000 years ago to allow everyone to have access to His Eternal Kingdom and to experience the unconditional love of God. We simply extend the same love to others that God extended to us through the sacrifice of His Son, Jesus.

None of us are justified (The Good Samaritan Luke 10:29-37) We live in a time where entertainment has become religion to some, people have become obsessed with their favorite shows, live streams, artist, and influencers. They keep up with them, they never miss an opportunity to see them, and they are literally addicted to what is coming next, the next big thing. Some of these shows revolve around ordinary people who compete for an opportunity to be come a star. A celebrity panel of judges spends months coaching, analyzing, and judging the performance of these individuals who just want to do is just prove they are the best and worthy of the top prize. In the parable on the Good Samaritan, it begins with someone who wanted to prove they was as worthy as any individual wanted to justify just how good he was before Jesus when he asked, “and Who is my neighbor?” (v.29) This expert in the law had just answered a question from Jesus on what he should do to inherit eternal life and he said, the greatest commandment from God was and Jesus said to love the Lord with all your heart first and foremost and to love your neighbors as your self secondly. (Luke 10:27-29) The lawyer felt as if he loved God with all his heart but did not realize that he couldn’t love God with everything if he was not willing to love those around him. The Jewish people of this time did not like the Samaritans because they were a people of split race or biracial. They looked down upon them as almost less than human and unworthy to even acknowledge or communicate with. When Jesus gave a parable of a Samaritan as the hero, doing the right thing and the Jewish people in the story turning a blind eye to the pain and suffering of someone who had been abused, beaten and robbed the self-justification had to stop for the lawyer. He had been exposed as a hypocrite by his own words as he was unwilling to love his neighbor because of their ethnicity. This should be eye opening to all believers as it comes to the Kingdom of God, none of us are justified before God by our actions. We can not do enough good to earn justification, we can only obtain justification through our relationship with Jesus Christ. If salvation and eternal life was dependent upon what we can do for God, all of us would be doomed to eternal separation from God. Religion may justify us in our own eyes but only a relationship with Jesus Christ can justify us in the eyes of God.