Christians are supposed to be the salt of the Earth.  We’re supposed to add flavor and and have the curing properties of salt and act as spiritual disinfectants in the world.  If you’re not doing that kind of stuff, you’re like salt that has lost its flavor.  And what good is salt without flavor?

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There’s a song that goes:

My hope is built on nothing less
than Jesus’ blood and righteousness.
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
but wholly leaned on Jesus’ name.

Refrain
On Christ the solid rock I stand;
all other ground is sinking sand,
all other ground is sinking sand.

I think some people live that out.  Their hope is truly in Jesus and not in the world.  And because of that they take the mission Jesus gave us, of making disciples, seriously.  But there are plenty of others who might say they stand on Jesus when they really just stand on their own opinion of Jesus.  And many of the people like to keep their religion indoors and just have a country club kind of church where only people who fit in already are welcomed.  And there are tons of individual churches who keep themselves safely hidden behind their closed doors and cut off from everybody else and there isn’t even a chance for unity in our mission to save the world.

Any church that is an island to itself is missing the point:

Ephesians 4:11-16 [Jesus] is the one who gave these gifts to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers.  Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ, until we come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature and full grown in the Lord, measuring up to the full stature of Christ.

Then we will no longer be like children, forever changing our minds about what we believe because someone has told us something different or because someone has cleverly lied to us and made the lie sound like the truth.  Instead, we will hold to the truth in love, becoming more and more in every way like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church.  Under his direction, the whole body is fitted together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love.

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John 15:18-21 “When the world hates you, remember it hated me before it hated you.  The world would love you if you belonged to it, but you don’t. I chose you to come out of the world, and so it hates you.  Do you remember what I told you? ‘A servant is not greater than the master.’ Since they persecuted me, naturally they will persecute you. And if they had listened to me, they would listen to you!  The people of the world will hate you because you belong to me, for they don’t know God who sent me.

Are you living any differently than the rest of the world?  Could an unbeliever look at your life and recognize that you belong to Jesus?  I’m not talking about having a Christian T-shirt or a Jesus fish on your car?  I’m talking about living a life that the world recognizes as standing up for and speaking out for God.  Jesus preached to everybody.  Do you preach to anybody?  Does the world even care about the kind of life you’re living?  Or are you living a life of exclaiming Christ to the world so that they have no choice but to respond to you?

THIS MESSAGE IS CUT OFF.  I don’t know what happened, but it leaves you hanging a bit.  So go listen to it and then come back and read the following, and it should all make sense together:

It says they brought the blood of animals into the temple, but dumped their carcasses outside the gate.  And that’s just how they treated Jesus…like a piece of garbage.  “Let’s take him outside the gates where we throw the trash.”  So this verse is saying, if that’s the way they’re going to treat Jesus, we’re not going to stick around either.  We’re not going to be friends with the people who hate and reject our Lord.  We’re going to go out where he was crucified to stand with Jesus.  If you’re going to consider him scum you can consider me just like him.  I’ll go with him and face the same rejection.  I don’t need to be popular with the world.  I don’t need to be friends with the world.  I need one thing, and he’s the one hanging on that cross outside the gates.  That’s where you’ll find me too.

James 5:10-11 For examples of patience in suffering, dear brothers and sisters, look at the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord.  We give great honor to those who endure under suffering. Job is an example of a man who endured patiently. From his experience we see how the Lord’s plan finally ended in good, for he is full of tenderness and mercy.

Remember how they treated Ezekiel and Daniel and Jeremiah—any of those prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord?  Life wasn’t fun for them.  But we consider them blessed.  Why?  Because who had the last laugh?  How do you think Jeremiah is doing right about now?  How does Ezekiel feel now?  I think those guys are doing pretty good.  Right about now they are more than fine about what they had to endure.  Check out Job.  Do you think he is still upset about what he had to go through?  Or do you think he understands, even more now, about how compassionate and merciful God really is.  I think all these guys would tell you right now, that the suffering is worth it.

1 Peter 2:19-21 For God is pleased with you when, for the sake of your conscience, you patiently endure unfair treatment.  Of course, you get no credit for being patient if you are beaten for doing wrong. But if you suffer for doing right and are patient beneath the blows, God is pleased with you.

This suffering is all part of what God has called you to. Christ, who suffered for you, is your example. Follow in his steps.

Do you want to follow Christ?  Here’s the example he left for you: he was beaten and killed.  Still feel like following in his footsteps?  This is what God has called you to.

4:12 Dear friends, don’t be surprised at the fiery trials you are going through, as if something strange were happening to you.

This isn’t strange, it’s what you were called for.  Why are you surprised?  This isn’t odd.  You know what’s strange is when no one is persecuting you for your faith.  That’s strange.  We’ve twisted things all around to where we think someone is strange when people hate him.  We see the guy on the corner preaching the gospel and people are yelling at him, and we think ‘That’s weird!’  No, what’s weird is when we set our lives up to avoid persecution, so much so that you can’t name a single person who hates you because you love Jesus Christ.

2 Peter 2:2 Many will follow their evil teaching and shameful immorality. And because of them, Christ and his true way will be slandered.

Are you slandered for teaching the truth?

How’s this for a bumper sticker:

1 John 3:13 So don’t be surprised, dear brothers and sisters, if the world hates you.

1 John 3:16-18 We know what real love is because Christ gave up his life for us. And so we also ought to give up our lives for our Christian brothers and sisters.  But if anyone has enough money to live well and sees a brother or sister in need and refuses to help—how can God’s love be in that person?

Dear children, let us stop just saying we love each other; let us really show it by our actions.

What are you doing for the church?  We have brothers and sisters in need all over the place.  Are you doing anything for them?  What good are you if all you do is talk?  What good am I if just stand up here and preach?  I want to be with the people who are doing something to advance the Kingdom.  Who are you giving up your life for?

Rev. 2:10 Don’t be afraid of what you are about to suffer. The Devil will throw some of you into prison and put you to the test. You will be persecuted for ‘ten days.’ Remain faithful even when facing death, and I will give you the crown of life.

Jesus says life is going to be pretty bad for awhile.  Some of you will go to prison and be tortured.  It’s ok.  Hang in there.  Be faithful, endure the suffering.  That crown of life is worth it in the end.  But you’re going to have to be tough to get to it.

You know why we don’t see this around here—why we don’t have martyr stories?  Because we avoid persecution in America.  If Jesus lived here, you can bet he’d be persecuted.  You know why?  Because he didn’t know how to keep his mouth shut.  He spoke up.  He would’ve been beaten down in Rockford for the things he said.

The disciples too—they could have escaped persecution.  Remember the leaders said, “Just stop preaching about Jesus.” and Peter said (Acts 4:19) “Who should I obey, you or God?  Sorry, but we can’t stop.”  Paul could’ve lived a lot longer, if he didn’t go against the flow so much.  He could’ve taught, ‘Just stay safe in your homes and have fellowship with your Christian friends.  Let a few Christians in, lock the door, go to church on Sunday mornings, and then right back home.’

Paul could’ve lived a long time.  But he said “I know it’s dangerous there, but God’s telling me to go, so I’m going to go.  As part of it, I’m just going to suffer for the sake of Christ.”

The reason we don’t get persecuted is because we avoid it.  We’ve grown up with a gospel that doesn’t have any suffering.  We’ve just skipped over those parts and try not to stir up any trouble.

And this isn’t about suffering for being a jerk.  There are some people that say “Everyone hates me because I’m a Christian.”  No they just hate you because you’re annoying.  I’m talking about when you tell people they are dying because you love them.  When you tell people what the word of God says for their benefit.

So am I wrong about all this?  Do I have a different Bible than you?  Or are we doing our best to avoid pain and suffering?  Are you fighting for Jesus or just for what you want?  Are you fighting for anything?  Are you only paying attention to the verses that justify the way you’re living?  Being a follower of Jesus Christ, taking up your cross and following him, means this life is going to be hard.  Jesus doesn’t say “Just do whatever you feel like doing.”  His message is, come die with me.  It’s going to be painful, but it’s worth it.

Are you willing to suffer with him…to die with him?  I don’t like pain.  But if that’s what it takes to be with Jesus, I’m willing.  I want to be faithful even to death…even if everyone hates me.  Whatever it takes.

Maybe you’ve never really decided to follow Jesus.  I’m not going to tell you that Jesus just wants to be your friend and that you can say a prayer and everything will be fine.  But I will tell you that you need Jesus.  Your sin dooms you to Hell.  And you cannot save yourself.  You will suffer for all eternity for the crimes you have committed against God.  And if you want out of that, it’s going to mean giving up your old way of life.  Jesus said deny yourself.  Die to the old you, give up your wants, be united in death with Christ for the sake of saving people from Hell, and one day you will rise just like him, and live forever and ever with your Savior.

Is Jesus worth that to you?  Or is he just a name you throw around to impress your church friends?  Maybe it’s time to count the cost and make plans to actually build your faith or stop pretending—to put up or shut up.

I don’t want to drive anybody away from the church or from Christianity, but I would much rather convince 5 people to commit their lives 100% to living for God than to convince 5000 to pray some meaningless prayer, but never change anything about their lives.  How about you?

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You are what you eat.  I think it’s crazy how many different kinds of diet plans there are.  People will do some crazy things and spend some crazy money to lose weight and get in shape, when all they really have to do is eat less and be active more.  Every ounce of fat on your body, got there through your mouth.  But so many of us don’t want our stomachs and tongues to go without.  We keep hoping the diet pills and foods that replace fat with corn syrup will somehow magically turn us into the people we see in the magazines who starve themselves and take steroids.   And we do that in spite of the glaring common sense that simply cutting back on portions and going for a walk instead of watching TV will make more real impact than all the fads put together.

There’s another common sense thing lots of people ignore and that’s the requirement of God that we live holy lives by his power.  We are called by God to turn away from selfish desires and not be controlled by a hunger for immorality.  We are to be controlled by God’s Spirit and live the way he commands.  Jesus Christ gave his life on the cross as an atonement for our old, rotten, sinful choices.  But his grace is not just a technicality.  His gruesome death ought to be a terrible reminder of how painful and destructive your sin was so that you stop doing it and walk away from your old life and live as a new creation.  Christians aren’t called saints in the Bible just for fun.  We get that title for living righteous lives by the power of God’s Spirit.

So…whichever way you are living reveals what you truly believe.  You can make any claim you want about what you believe or don’t believe, but your real life choices you make (including the choices you make behind closed doors and in your own mind) expose the truth of what you have faith in.  If your faith is in the world, you will live life the way the world tells you to.  But if your faith is in God, you will actually do what he tells you and live life his way.  And if you say one thing and do another, you’re simply a hypocrite.

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There are people who think they can talk to the dead.  There are people who think they can leave their bodies and enter the spirit world on demand.  There are people who think they can access spirits of various kinds.  Some people even think they can control these spirits.  Just about everybody I can think of—even some atheists—want to know more about the spiritual side of life.  So what does it mean to have a spirit, to live by the spirit, to be spiritual?

It’s probably smart for all Christians to understand, because it’s how we are called to live.  After all, God himself is spirit…

John 4:24 For God is Spirit, so those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth.”

And you and I, underneath this coating of skin and bones, we are spirit.

Romans 8:16 For his Holy Spirit speaks to our spirit and tells us that we are God’s children.

What a wild thought!  Have you ever really stopped to consider what that means?  That you have a spirit—that you ultimately are spirit.

I know it’s much easier to think of things in their physical sense.  That’s what we’re used to.  We breathe and walk and bleed when we are cut.  Our life is sustained by food and drink.  We exercise for better health.  We wear coats when we’re cold and shorts when it’s hot out.  We can get sick and worn out.  Understanding things as physical is second nature to us…or maybe it feels more like first nature to you.

But the truth is that the spiritual part of us is in a sense far more real than the physical.  Our physical bodies wear out over time.  They can develop sicknesses and sore spots.  They get old and eventually die.  After that they go right back to dust.  In fact, the bodies that we’re used to have to die for us to continue.  Like a seed that goes into the ground, we have to shed our outer shell in order to continue as spirit.

Now the average person might last a good 70 or 80 years these days.  And to you and I that can seem like a good long time.

But our spirits last a whole lot longer than that.  It might be difficult to comprehend, but even if we live well over 100 years, the time that our spirit goes on and on makes this physical life seem like the tiniest speck of insignificance.

1 Cor. 15:45-54 The Scriptures tell us, “The first man, Adam, became a living person.” But the last Adam—that is, Christ—is a life-giving Spirit.  What came first was the natural body, then the spiritual body comes later.  Adam, the first man, was made from the dust of the earth, while Christ, the second man, came from heaven.  Every human being has an earthly body just like Adam’s, but our heavenly bodies will be just like Christ’s.  Just as we are now like Adam, the man of the earth, so we will someday be like Christ, the man from heaven.

What I am saying, dear brothers and sisters, is that flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God. These perishable bodies of ours are not able to live forever.

But let me tell you a wonderful secret God has revealed to us. Not all of us will die, but we will all be transformed. It will happen in a moment, in the blinking of an eye, when the last trumpet is blown. For when the trumpet sounds, the Christians who have died will be raised with transformed bodies. And then we who are living will be transformed so that we will never die.  For our perishable earthly bodies must be transformed into heavenly bodies that will never die.

When this happens—when our perishable earthly bodies have been transformed into heavenly bodies that will never die—then at last the Scriptures will come true: “Death is swallowed up in victory.

So we can grasp the basics of this concept.  It’s easy to say sure I’m a spirit.  But how do you really relate to that idea—that you exist in a realm of nonphysical.  Because when it comes down to it, it can be an amazing thing to really try to grasp.

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Sometimes people talk about God’s grace as if it’s something they can manipulate.  They think saying a prayer will force God to forgive them for whatever they do.  But no words can convince God to forgive an unrepentant person.  We don’t choose God and close a deal on a ticket to Heaven.  God also has to choose us.  If it weren’t for God’s grace we wouldn’t even be given the opportunity to seek his face.  And only those who truly repent  will be accepted by God.  It’s not about just being sorry or feeling bad or having an emotional experience.  It’s a practical change of mind that results in a practical change of behavior through the power and grace of God.  We aren’t forgiven of our past to get us a free trip to Heaven.  God grants forgiveness so that we can live new and holy lives that please God.  We are saved so that we can do good works and be righteous people.  It’s not some ethereal spiritual condition.  It’s a real way of life.

But some people think they can earn God’s grace, and that once they do they are better than everybody else.  In fact, some people think once they pray a particular prayer that they can use God’s grace like it’s a limitless get-out-of-Hell-free card and go on living a life full of sin and get away with it.  But the true Christian, who actually loves God, is not only changed by God’s grace, but in God’s grace they also choose to live a life of obedience to God.  We don’t change into different people when we die.  We simply change forms.  And if your heart is still enslaved by sin on Judgment Day you will be cast out.  But if your heart is pure, you will continue on the path you have already found in Christ.

Whadaya think of that?

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Remember that big government stimulus package that was supposed to save the economy last year?  And more people are losing their jobs (or still looking for jobs).  The stock market is at a 10 year low.  The economy still seems to be pretty unstimulated.  How are you dealing with that?  Has it affected your livelihood, your mood, your outlook on life?  It can be a pretty grim picture if you’re counting on government bureaucracy to fix things.  So what can you do?  Put your hope in something other than bad economics and leaders who don’t seem to be able to do basic arithmetic.  Trust in the Owner of the universe for the life-saving stimulus you need.

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The things you own can end up owning you.  And he who dies with the most toys is dead.

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Who doesn’t love free stuff?  God has a pretty cool free gift he’d like to give you.  Wanna hear about it?

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I shared this talk at my old church a few years ago.  It was at 6:00 in the morning–YIKES that’s early!  But it was a good time.  My dad recorded a video of it and gave me a copy.  So I just thought it would be fun to share.  It’s split up into 4 parts.  Enjoy…

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PART 1 of 4

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Part 2 of 4

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Part 3 of 4

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Part 4 of 4

Jesus said “Those who obey me are the ones who love me.”  So, may your life start showing Jesus some real love that’s more than just flowery words and emotional drama.  For the love of God obey him. 🙂