Christianity – Page 53 – Ryan Callahan's Blog

The Criminals Who Died With Jesus

Luke 23 v 42 43

There are many aspects of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ that the church talks about. The most important thing to remember is that Jesus died to forgive all of your sins and reconcile you to God (John 3:16, 1 John 3:16, Ephesians 2:8-9). That is why Jesus is called the Lamb of God. He was sacrificed for the sins of the whole world! Salvation is a free gift from God and the only way to Heaven is through Jesus Christ (John 14:6). Remember the Apostle Paul’s words in Romans 10:9, “That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” Today, I want to focus on the criminals that were crucified next to Jesus–one on His right, the other on His left.

These men both spoke to Jesus, but each man made very different comments to Jesus and very different decisions about Jesus. One man rejected Jesus and the other man received Jesus as Lord. Let’s travel back in time to around 33 A.D. when Jesus was crucified by the Romans, and listen in on the conversation.

The Crucifixion of Jesus Christ

“Two other men, both criminals, were also led out with him to be executed. When they came to the place called the Skull, there they crucified him, along with the criminals–one on his right, the other on his left. Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” And they divided up his clothes by casting lots.

The people stood watching, and the rulers even sneered at him. They said, “He saved others; let him save himself if he is the Christ of God, the Chosen One.”

The soldiers also came up and mocked him. They offered him wine vinegar and said, “If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself.”

There was a written notice above him, which read: THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS.

One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: “Aren’t you the Christ? Save yourself and us!”

But the other criminal rebuked him. “Don’t you fear God,” he said, “since you are under the same sentence? We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.”

Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”

Jesus answered him, “I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.”

Luke 23:32-43

I want to stop right there. That is incredible! What a conversation that Luke records! First, Jesus forgives those crucifying Him as the soldiers and rulers are mocking Him, which is amazing and beautiful. Then, as one criminal is mocking Jesus the other criminal rebukes the mocker! These men had nails driven through their hands and feet and were hanging on crosses, but they were chatting away!

The criminal who repented did so by accepting his punishment as just and realizing that Jesus was innocent. He gave glory to Jesus as his King, and he was saved right there on his cross! He didn’t have time to live a righteous life, and he was being punished for a crime he committed, but he put his faith in Jesus, and that very day he was with Jesus in Heaven! We are saved by faith in Jesus, not by works (Ephesians 2:8-9).

He repented of his sin and put his faith in Jesus as he was dying on a cross and Jesus saved his soul that very day! He was a criminal at the end of the line–time’s up! But Jesus saved him because he put his faith in Him! That is the power of God’s love and forgiveness!

Another important fact to mention is that he also did not have time to get baptized and that is very important because there are people out there who preach baptism for salvation. Listen to me please, we are not saved by just getting dunked in water. We are saved by putting our faith in Jesus Christ. We get baptized as an act of obedience to the Lord’s command (Matthew 28:18-20) to show the world that we believe in Jesus Christ. Baptism is a witness to unbelievers. The repentant man next to Jesus did not have time to get baptized, but as Jesus said, he was with Him that day in paradise after they both died on their crosses. The man was saved by grace through faith in Jesus. Read the “My Beliefs” page on my blog to learn more about baptism into the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

I once heard our Pastor preach about the Roman method of crucifixion. As you can imagine, it was the most brutal form of execution around and it was primarily reserved for criminals like murderers, and people who were enemies or traitors of Rome. It is possible that the men hanging next to Jesus had killed someone. Whatever it was, the repentant man believed he deserved to be there and Jesus did not. That soft heart towards Jesus led him to a faith that saved him at the very last moments of his life!

The other man who hurled insults at Jesus and mocked him decided to take the full punishment for his own sins upon himself. He could have cried out to Jesus too, and his sins would have been forgiven and he would have been in paradise that day as well. Instead, he chose to reject Jesus and he died in his sins that day.

The stark contrast of that scene from the Bible blows me away! Is that not like all of us today in our time? Are we not all heading towards our end just like the men on the cross that day next to Jesus? We all have a choice to make. Time is running out. We can accept God’s plan of salvation or we can reject it. We can mock Jesus or we can receive Jesus and be saved! It truly is up to us. I made the choice to receive Jesus as my Lord and Savior back in October of 1996, and I highly recommend it! Don’t be the unrepentant guy on the cross mocking Jesus until your last breath. Jesus loves you and He died for you too!

“Later, knowing that all was now completed, and so that the Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, “I am thirsty.” A jar of wine vinegar was there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stalk of the hyssop plant, and lifted it to Jesus’ lips. When he had received the drink, Jesus said, “It is finished.” With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.”

John 19:28-30

When He died, Jesus was actually separated from God and He paid the full penalty of our sin for our salvation. That is why He said, “It is finished.” Did you know that after He died and before the resurrection Jesus actually went down into hell and preached to the disobedient people who had died back in Noah’s time? Yeah, the Noah who built the ark! Check it out:

“For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive by the Spirit, through whom also he went and preached to the spirits in prison who disobeyed long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built…”

1 Peter 3:18-20

The “spirits in prison” is hell folks! You see, He most definitely experienced death, but death had no hold on Him! He paid the full penalty for our sin, which is death (separation from God), and He conquered it! Satan could not touch him, the demons could not touch him, and death could not hold him down! None of those things can hold you down either if you know Jesus!

“Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”

John 11:25-26

That, my friends, is the question of our lifetime! Grace and peace to you!

Acts 4 verse 12

The Rapture

Rapture verse

“For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage each other with these words.”

1 Thessalonians 4:16-18

Okay folks, this is a big subject where there is a lot of heated debate within the church. I am going to get to the point because there are a lot of weeds to get into with this topic. I talked with a strong brother in Christ today about the Rapture, and it got me thinking. I posted such a long reply to him that I figured I better just do a post about the Rapture on my blog too. So, without further delay, may I introduce you to The Rapture.

One thing I want you to remember is that it has to get really, really bad on earth before the Rapture takes place! We will all be here for all of it leading right up to that point if it happens in our time. How bad it is going to get before we are “caught up” only God knows. The verse that gets me is the one in Revelation 14:12 about the mark of the beast where it says, “This calls for patient endurance on the part of the saints who obey God’s commandments and remain faithful to Jesus.” The mark of the beast takes place during the Tribulation, so that is talking about the people who accept Christ during the Tribulation, but I take it to heart nonetheless.

Based off of 22 years of studying the Bible, I believe the time table of future events is World War 3 (WW3), the Rapture, the Tribulation, the 2nd Coming where Jesus defeats Satan at Armageddon, and the Millennial Kingdom. Believers in Jesus will be Raptured before the Tribulation. However, it is going to have to get very bad for WW3 to pop off and we will all be here for that if it happens in our time.

We will have to hold on and endure because it will get so bad that God comes to get us. WW3 will be so bad that a third of mankind dies (Revelation 9:18)! That is 2 billion people based off today’s world population! It will be so bad that the anti-Christ comes at the end of it and the Tribulation starts! That is why the Bible says the world will love the anti-Christ because he brings peace (which is a fake peace) to WW3 and stops the war. The world will think he is the greatest world ruler ever!

People forget how bad it has to get before the Tribulation can start, and that is where a lot of the disagreement is. We will not be Raptured out of WW3. We will have to endure. We are Raptured right before the Tribulation at the end of WW3 because the Tribulation is about God’s wrath and that is not for the redeemed in Jesus. Imagine how bad it will be on the earth in order for the Rapture to happen and the Tribulation to start! We have to live through everything leading right up to the moment of the Rapture (again, if it happens in our time).

The original language the Bible was written in almost 2,000 years ago makes it much easier to understand. The New Testament was written in Greek, so let’s look at the Greek root of the phrase “caught up” about the Rapture in 1 Thessalonians 4:17.

I learned from Pastor Mark Hitchcock that “caught up” is the word harpazo in Greek, which means “to snatch, to seize, or to take suddenly.” The same Greek word harpazo is used in the story about Philip and the Ethiopian when Philip is snatched up and transported by the Spirit to Azotus in Acts 8:26-40. We will most definitely be “caught up, snatched, and taken suddenly” just like the Greek word harpazo means. If it happened to Philip, then it can happen to us, and it is the same exact Greek wording as the Rapture in 1 Thessalonians 4:17. Believers in Jesus will be snatched and caught up (harpazo) in the Spirit just like that! Praise God!

Pastor Mark Hitchcock in his book “The End: A Complete Overview of Bible Prophecy and the End of Days” teaches us about the word harpazo and where our English word “Rapture” comes from:

“Harpazo appears thirteen times in the New Testament: Matthew 11:12; 13:19; John 6:15; 10:12, 28, 29; Acts 8:39; 23:10; 2 Corinthians 12:2, 4; 1 Thessalonians 4:17; Jude 1:23; Revelation 12:5. In those passages, harpazo is variously translated as “take by force,” “snatch,” or “caught up” (NASB). In Acts 8, the Spirit “snatches,” or transports, Philip from one place to another that was twenty miles away. In 2 Corinthians 12, Paul describes being “caught up” to heaven in the presence of the Lord. This was a thrilling experience he wanted others to share. In Revelation 12:5, harpazo refers back to the Ascension of Jesus to heaven (Acts 1:9-11).

Our English word Rapture is derived from Latin. In the fourth century AD, the great scholar Jerome translated the Greek New Testament into Latin. In 1 Thessalonians 4:17, Jerome translated the Greek word harpazo into the Latin word raeptius. The Latin word rapio means “to seize, snatch, or seize away.” This word was eventually brought into English as Rapture.

So, while it is true that the word Rapture does not occur in most English translations, 1 Corinthians 15:51-55 and 1 Thessalonians 4:17 clearly contain the concept of a catching away of living believers to meet the Lord. The Rapture could just as well be called the “catching away of the church,” “the snatching away of the church,” the “translation of the church,” or the “harpazo of the church.” But “Rapture of the church” is an excellent description and has become the most common title for this event.”

Mark Hitchcock, The End, pages 124-125

It is clear the Lord will come to get us and I believe in the Rapture. However, it will get extremely bad on earth before that happens and we will have to endure and hang on to Jesus. The Tribulation is not for believers in Jesus. He rescues us out of His coming wrath! In the same Book of 1 Thessalonians, Paul writes:

“and to wait for his Son from Heaven, whom he raised from the dead–Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath.”

1 Thessalonians 1:10

Paul is encouraging the Thessalonian believers that we will be rescued from the coming wrath and Jesus will snatch us up suddenly (harpazo) into the air with Him, and we will be with the Lord forever!

Just like Paul says in 1 Thessalonians 4:18,

“Therefore encourage each other with these words.”

Take heart believers! You are safe in Jesus! The Greek root meaning of the word “faith” means to “trust in, cling to, and rely on.” That is exactly what we need to be doing with Jesus. Trust Jesus, cling to Jesus, and rely on Jesus! He will come to get us just like He said he would.

“Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going.”

Jesus speaking in John 14:1-4

That is not figurative language folks! That is literal and He means it! He will be coming back to get us, and every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father! Amen!

Grace and peace to you all!

Never forsake verse

Friday Field Trip!

Start of trip

In celebration of Friday, I thought I would take everybody on a little field trip to our local neighborhood Lookout Tower. It’s just up the street–take a drive with me!

This post will be all pictures and captions–I hope you all enjoy it! God bless!

Trip 1 — We’ve arrived! Here is the Lookout Tower. There are thick woods just over that hill. Remember, mountain lion country out here–watch your back!

Trip 4 — View at the top of the trail. See why lions like it out here? I snowboard out here in the winter if we get enough snow. We call this place “Broskee Village!”

Trip 6 — This part of the trail goes down through the woods a bit and back around to the tower.

Trip 5 — Let’s head up to the tower, shall we? See the High School off to the upper right? That is where the mountain lion was last spotted chasing a herd of deer!

Trip 8 — It’s kind of hazy today. We’ve had a lot of fires this summer.

Trip 10 — You can barely see the bottom of the foothills today. I will be sure to get a clear shot of the mountains soon.

Back home — Welcome to my home, or, my garage that is!

Back home 2 — Welcome, c’mon in! This is our kitchen. I love the Spanish style cross above the sink!

My father in law and I built this basement together. We did all of it, framing, drywall, electric–all of it! Can you tell we have kids? Those bins are for all the Legos. Time to clean up!

basement 3 — The walk out door is to the left and there is a back bedroom/office to the right. I just can’t bring myself to take a picture of the bedroom–too messy!

basement hallway — This hallway leads left off the stairs away from the main area. The disease took a toll and stuff piled up. The bathroom is first and the back room is my cozy den where I write to you all.

basement bathroom — Installing tubs and toilets is not fun by the way!

Spider in light — Dead spider in the light–cool! He has been there for a few weeks. I’ll mess with it later.

Ryan den — Welcome my friends to my cozy den of joy! This is where I serve the Lord and build my blog! Yep, I built this room too. I remember sitting on buckets wiring the outlets at 2 a.m. with my father in law.

Den calendar — Yeah, Bob Ross! I grew up with him and his happy little trees!

Bison art — Cool bison art titled “Chief” by Robert Bateman. Due to Celiac, our family eats free range bison from South Dakota. Check out Wild Idea Buffalo Company at wildideabuffalo.com. The meat is delicious and it helped save my life! I’m like Dances With Wolves up in here!

911 picture — I got that picture from a friend when she lived in New York. She was there when 9/11 happened. That is the famous cross they found formed from the wreckage.

Den couch — It’s tight in here, but it fits! Nice place to rest, think, and pray! Yeah, I play a little guitar. Gotta bust out that praise and worship! Those are my sons laser tag toy guns. He loves playing that with me.

The Never Summer Legacy 159″. Yeah baby, 12,000 feet straight down, droppin’ in!

Bible pic — “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16

I hope you enjoyed my little Friday Field Trip!

Grace and peace to you all!

Jesus fish

Completed Faith

Ephesians 2 v 10

There is another section of Scripture that is widely misunderstood and misused to instill fear in people. It is found in the Book of James regarding Faith and Deeds. Before I get to that, please read the above verse. You can see that any good works we do are done through Jesus, and God prepared them in advance for us to do them.

It is clear in Ephesians 2:8-10 that we are saved by grace through faith in Jesus, and that any good works we do are done through Him:

“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith–and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God–not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”

There is no boasting about good works. The work we do for Jesus is done for His glory and it was prepared for us by God to complete. We are not working for our salvation. That was paid for in full by Jesus when He died on the cross for our sins. If we could earn salvation, then He died for nothing. He said, “It is finished,” for a reason!

With all of that in mind, let’s turn to the misunderstood and misused Scripture in James:

“What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, “Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.”

James 2:14-17

That sounds odd doesn’t it? I thought Ephesians says salvation is by grace through faith and not by works. Yes, that’s right, James is not talking about salvation. He is talking about putting your faith into action, and explaining to the new believers scattered everywhere that there is work to be done.

The New Testament was written in Greek, so let’s look at that word “dead.” The Greek root of that word is nekrós. In this context it means “unable, ineffective, powerless, or corpse-like.” James is telling them to not be ineffective in their faith. He is asking what good is your faith if you don’t act on it?

If you see a homeless man in need, but do nothing about it, what good is your faith? That is what he is saying. He is really saying, get up off the bench and get in the game! He is not talking about working for your salvation! Any good works we do are done through Jesus in the power of the Holy Spirit and all the glory goes to God for preparing it!

Yes, of course we are saved by grace through faith in Jesus, but don’t just sit there. Our faith is like a muscle that needs to be worked. James is telling us to not let that muscle wear out! God gave you gifts in the Spirit–go use them!

I pray we all complete the work the Lord has for us to do! If God is for us, who can be against us?! In Jesus’ Name, Amen!

Grace and peace to you all!

Remember:

Saved by grace through faith

My Truck Thunder

Psalm 36 v 5

I’d like you to meet Thunder. No, he is not a person. He’s my truck! My kids called him Thunder when they were little because it has a 5.3L V8 and he has a warm roar and rumble as we drive down the street. It’s not loud like some of the big F250s. It’s a Chevy Silverado 1500 Z85 Heavy Duty, and it’s just right. They love sitting in the truck bed, especially on 4th of July!

This post is just for fun this Friday! I love seeing pictures on all the blogs of where people are from. It makes me feel closer to them, so I would like to do the same for you! Happy Friday to all!

It seems silly and materialistic that what you drive can say anything about you at all, but we all love our rides don’t we?! Well, sometimes. My Dad let me drive his old Ford Tempo my Senior year in High School. It didn’t have a radio and we tied the bumper on with rope! I loved that little blue Tempo though! Classic!

I drive a truck because I need 4×4 in the winter, it is safe in the mountains, and I want to be able to help people. It is always useful having a truck in the family. I once pulled a Christian couple’s car out of a ditch with a Nissan truck I had years ago. We had a Dodge truck in the family growing up too. I have gear inside my truck for towing and a military shovel (along with an assortment of other tools and goodies) for digging tires out of mud or snow or what not. If you are in Colorado, and I see you stuck, I will be the guy in the big black truck that gets you out.

I was also very glad to have a vehicle that could tow a trailer all the way to Seattle when we moved to Alaska for a short time. I was so sick! That was back in 2012. We moved because of the disease. We closed our daycare business and had to move. We lived with her Dad for a couple months, but decided Alaska was not for us. My wife grew up there, and she just couldn’t do it again. Thankfully, our house never sold here in Colorado, and we ended up coming back home. Praise God! I can’t live in Alaska–beautiful in the summer, but way too dark in the winter!

This truck means a lot to me because it reminds me of God’s faithfulness. I bought it when I was so sick I was having trouble standing up for long periods of time due to the pain in my small intestine. I traded in a Mazda 3 and the deal God gave me was incredible! I sold cars right out of college, so I know a bit about car sales, but the deal I got I could have never orchestrated!

They gave me top value for my car, a bunch of cash off because it was “Chevy Truck Month”, and I drove off the lot only owing $14K on a $40K truck! It was amazing and I drove home in shock praising God! I was hurting so bad, but the Lord just hooked it up! I quite literally felt like I was being handed a gift from God!

My father in law and I drove all the way from Denver to Seattle a week before Christmas in 2012. We even went over Snoqualmie Pass through the Cascade Range in Washington in a snow storm and made it through safely! People die there all the time in avalanches. The truck was pulling an 18 foot trailer weighing just under 9,000 pounds the whole way there, and it did great!

The stickers on a guy’s truck say a lot too. I want to show you my truck stickers. The Never Summer stickers are from the snowboard company I bought my board from. I ride an old school Never Summer Legacy. You have to represent and let people know whether you ski or snowboard in Colorado baby!

Truck back window — That is our bedroom above the garage. See the bathroom to the left with the shampoo bottles in the window–real classy! Hee hee!

Truck snowboarder sticker — That is my little snowboarder dude from Never Summer! That is exactly what it’s like too! Just flowin’ and vibin’ with the mountain! Praise the Lord!

Truck NS sticker — Never Summer Logo! They get the name from the Never Summer Mountain Range, which is right next to Rocky Mountain National Park.

Truck inside — Don’t worry, if you are stuck, I’m comin’ to help!

Give thanks to God for everything He has done for you and all He has given you! He is so faithful to us!

Grace and peace to you all!

Here are a few pictures of our Rose bush out back that I took this morning:

Rose bush

Roses

Rose

“Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever.”

Psalm 107:1

God is faithful

Seeing and Believing

John 20 v 29 with sunflowers

That verse is always a little hard for me. Why? Because I believe because I saw. I came to Jesus because of a terrifying supernatural experience. I know it is real! Yes, I still had to take that leap of faith to trust that Jesus would be the One to deliver me, but after living with a demon for four years it was a much easier choice for me.

I know many of you have never had supernatural experiences with demons and angels. Many of you have walked with Jesus longer than I have, and you might not have experienced anything like that. I commend you for your faith, and you are blessed! Listen to what Jesus says to you:

“Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

John 20:29

Granted, none of us have seen Jesus and there is blessing that we believe without seeing Him, but I experienced the spiritual realm and that is why I believe. I didn’t even see Jesus when I stopped breathing. I felt Him and heard Him. He walked over to me and simply said, “It’s okay.” I knew it was Him because I know His voice. Just like I know it is my Dad when he calls me on the phone. Those experiences have given me great strength throughout my walk with Jesus! During my time of suffering, the memories of the angels comforted and strengthened me. The memory I have of the incredible peace and painlessness when I stopped breathing is something I will never forget! I was with Jesus, He kept me safe, and He let me live! Glory to the Lord!

I don’t know why these things happened to me and not to you. I bet you are glad you didn’t live with a demon through your High School years though! Breathing shallow with the sheets pulled up over your face every night listening for any strange sound, any out of place movement, or any flicker of the lights! Sleeping with your light on the entire four years. Walking through your house not knowing if it is around the corner or right next to you about to do something terrifying! Those fallen angels are horrific and it was terrifying, but Jesus delivered our family from it! Testify, all of Heaven is watching!

Psalm 91 v 11

I am responsible for the knowledge I have been given and I feel the weight. Yes, His yoke is easy and His burden is light, but what I mean is that I feel very responsible for telling people the truth because of what I lived through. No matter how nuts it makes me sound. I have to tell people. I don’t want to get to Heaven and have God ask me, “so what did you do with the knowledge I gave you?”, and not have a good answer.

He already knows of course, but I will tell Him, “I love Jesus and I preached the Gospel and warned the world with what I knew Lord, I hope you are pleased with me.” I am going to do down preaching to my last breath folks! Heaven is most definitely real and I am so looking forward to experiencing that peace and painlessness for eternity!

Yes, angels are big! Yes, they have wings! Yes, they are beautiful in sparkling snowing light! I pray you get to see one someday! If you believe in Jesus, then God gives His angels charge over you every day! Don’t ever forget that, it is no joke! They are here and they fight demons on our behalf! You just can’t see them most of the time, that’s all.

If you are a believer in Jesus, then you also have His power to drive out demons. I will never forget the fervor I felt inside my soul when I went back to my parent’s house and cast that filthy creature out of our house! That is the Holy Spirit power and if you know Jesus, believe me, you have it too!

Jesus is alive! Rejoice in the Lord today! Rejoice! He has saved your soul, given you His Spirit, and He protects you with His angel armies! Be encouraged and take heart!

Grace and peace to you all!

Ephesians 6 v 12

Angel

Speak Truth to the Youth!

Psalm 78 v 4 with bear

“We will not hide them from their children; we will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord, his power, and the wonders he has done.”

Psalm 78:4

As a father, I take that verse very deep to heart. It is my responsibility to make sure my children know the truth. Believers are called to not hide the power and wonders that God has revealed to them. We are called to share it to the next generation!

My kids know all about my strange supernatural life. They know angels and demons exist, they know Heaven and hell are real, and they definitely know who Jesus is and they know their Bible. They grew up with the knowledge of God’s power and wonders that I lived through and was blessed to experience. I don’t hide all the strange events from them. They love it!

“Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”

Matthew 19:14

Yes, the events in my book are very weird and some of it is scary, but I am not going to hide the truth from them. It is all true, and I will not hide the truth or lie to my kids. My kids know about the life I lived before I knew Jesus and what He did for me after I accepted him. They know about the angels. They know about the demon too and how I cast it out of my parent’s home by the power of the Holy Spirit after I got saved. They know about what happened when I stopped breathing. They know Jesus is alive, and they know He loves them. I know my life has been weird, but it’s true, it’s my life, and I have to testify to what God has done for me. Our kids are always watching and learning, that is for sure. Good or bad, they are learning it.

I want to make sure I leave a legacy of truth for my children to learn from. My kids know that miracles still happen. They know how powerful God is because they have grown up hearing me talk about it. They have seen it with how God has cared for me with Celiac too! They also see it in their own lives now. As they have gotten older it has been great to see their faith grow. So cool!

What praiseworthy deeds has the Lord done in your life that you can testify too? What power and wonders has He revealed to you? I know I am not the only one out here with spiritual experiences from the Lord! Pass the torch and testify!

“Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it.”

Proverbs 22:6

Grace and peace to you! Jesus is Lord!

1 John 3 verse 1

Be Slow To Anger

James 1 v 19

Okay, if you have been reading my blog, then you know I like to confess things and get it off my chest. I told you I would be real. It is good for the soul and it brings us closer to God too. I have been chatting with a real cool brother here on the WordPress blogs (what’s up Divine Masculine), and he got me thinking today. We were chatting about trouble with our ladies and keeping a level head when the past is brought up and things get heated. I was telling him about an argument I had last night with my wife.

Yes, news flash world, Christian couples have arguments too. Sometimes they are even bad arguments that hurt the heart. So that’s one confession I guess, but my main point was going to be about my hot temper that sometimes returns from a distant past and flares up burning down everything in sight.

Now, I don’t want you to get the wrong idea. I am a very chill guy, like really chill. It takes a lot to get me agitated. I hate anger and I hate fighting and violence. I was never that kind of guy. I don’t even like watching boxing. There is nothing cool about brain damage.

Sometimes though, given just the right spark, that sinful anger will be right back in my lap burning me and others around me. When I was in the beginning of my suffering with Celiac and my brain was still on fire from the damaging gliadin protein, it felt like I was angry all the time in peak fight or flight mode. It was awful. Thankfully, that nightmare part of the disease is over and healed now!

I have learned to control anger through years of training and discipline in God’s Word, but I am not perfect. I have made my mistakes. Now at 40, I am feeling the strongest I have felt spiritually in my entire life. This is after six and a half years of suffering Celiac! He makes beauty out of ashes, I’m tellin’ ya! I don’t feel angry about the disease anymore and I am finally coming to terms with it. I still have rough days, but I am at peace and it feels great!

The other night I had an argument with my wife about our son. Things from the past were brought up, and that is where I want to stop. You see, that is one of the sparks for me. People talking about past mistakes. I hate it! I hate it when its done to me and I hate it when I do it. I hate it because in 1 Corinthians 13 Paul writes, “love keeps no record of wrongs.” We are to forgive as Christ forgave us, and let it go.

I could feel that angry little guy rising up inside me wanting to go all buck wild and free! But this is a story of victory! You know what I did instead of freaking out? I hugged that little angry buddy and he wasn’t angry anymore. I prayed, calmed down, and gave it to God. I have learned from my training in the Bible.

Now, my wife and I still had some “strong fellowship” regarding our disagreement, but we worked it out in love and peace. We never go to bed angry. Don’t do that. Squash it before bedtime.

“”In your anger do not sin”: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold.”

Ephesians 4:26-27

That is very wise advice! Forgive before bed, so that in the morning the devil does not have a foothold as you wake up angry. My good friend Roberto who I have known since college told me once, “every time you get angry, you lose.” Those words have echoed in my mind ever since. Anger=lose. Remember that. I’m not talking about righteous anger where you save somebody who is being beat up or something like that. I’m talking about sinful anger. I think we all know the difference.

Here are the verses that have trained me to be more victorious over sinful anger:

“Do not be quickly provoked in your spirit, for anger resides in the lap of fools.”

Ecclesiastes 7:9

“My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, for man’s anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires. Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you.”

James 1:19-21

Humbly accept the word planted in you is right! I have read those verses and prayed those verses for years. That I would be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry. I pray it all the time still to this day. I don’t want to be a fool and get burned or burn others with sinful anger. I want to be righteous! Is that not what we all really want? To be clean and whole and at peace? Well, that is what Jesus does for us. Amen!

My wife and I are doing great by the way! I love her and she is my lady and my best friend! We have been through more than you can imagine together. She cared for me during my suffering so deeply with love, and I am so thankful to be with her! I just wanted to give you an inside look at a real Christian marriage of 17 years, and how I deal with anger. Yeah, sometimes we get on each other’s nerves, and sometimes arguments can be hurtful, but forgive, let it go, and keep marching forward together!

“Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them together in perfect unity.”

Colossians 3:13-14

Thanks again Divine Masculine my brother for the great conversation today! Always real brother!

Grace and peace to you all!

Love verse best

Overflowing Hope

Romans 15 v 13 with mountains

Hope. That is something that is always in short supply all around the world. No matter what country you live in, there is not enough hope. The above verse in Romans tells us that we can not only have hope, but have it to overflowing when we trust in God in the power of the Holy Spirit! That is not something the world can offer anybody. That kind of hope is only found through Jesus!

I would like you to think about the context of the time in which this verse was written by Paul. It is his letter to the church at Rome, hence the Book of Romans. Christians were being persecuted in Rome. They were being killed in the coliseums as an entertaining spectacle for the violent crowd that watched. No, they didn’t make them fight like gladiators. They tied them to poles and let lions attack and eat them.

The persecution was so bad that they hid in the catacombs under the city. They had to create secret signs, so they would know who they could trust. That is where you get this image from:

Jesus fish

The Christians would use the symbol to tell each other they were Christian and it was safe. Here is a great explanation from Author Matt Slick of Christian Apologetics & Research Ministry (carm.org):

“The word “ixoye” is an acronym comprised of the first letter of five Greek words: Iesous Xristos Theou Yios Sotare which means Jesus, Christ, Son of, God, Savior.

Iesous (Iasoos) is Jesus. The first letter is ‘iota’, Ιησους.

Xristos (Christos) is Christ. The first letter is ‘chi’, Χριστóς.

Theou (Theou) is God. The first letter is ‘theta’, Θεοῦ.

Yios (Huios) is Son. The first letter is ‘upsilon’, Υἱός.

Sotare (Sotare) is Savior. The first letter is sigma’, Σωτήρ.

The word is also the Greek word for “fish,” icthus, ἰχθύς which when spelled in capital letters in Greek is ΙΧΘΥΣ. Remember, Jesus called the fishermen to be fishers of men (Matthew 4:19). Jesus used the metaphor to represent evangelism in the proclamation of the gospel by which people are saved from their sins. Christians began using the fish as a symbol of Christianity in the first century.”

Thank you Matt for that excellent history lesson! I recommend checking out carm.org!

It was violent in Rome. We all know this from history. The Romans were brutal to the Christians. So, for Paul to be writing about overflowing hope seems a bit odd because in their physical circumstances they were suffering terribly.

Why could Paul write that? Because he was very familiar with the power of God through suffering. He knew that God would fill them with all joy and peace as they trusted God through their violent circumstances. Paul had been living through it too! Many times the Jews and Romans tried to kill Paul. Many times they tortured and imprisoned him, and he ultimately died for his faith.

He knew that the Holy Spirit would be the only strength that could get them through it with all joy and peace. He also knew that would lead to an overflowing of hope in the Holy Spirit. He knew the believers in Rome would need to dig deep into the hope that salvation brings!

Our hope is not in this world. This world cannot offer us hope. Only God can do that, and He did! He died for you, so you can be free from sin and death! Now that, my friends, is real hope indeed!

Remember the Christians who were tortured and murdered in the coliseums next time you see the “Jesus fish” symbol on somebody’s car. Using that symbol was the difference between life and death for them. Someday we will meet all of those who were killed for their faith in Heaven. May we be as strong in Christ, and may we overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit!

“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil, or fade–kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.”

1 Peter 1:3-5

Boom! That is real hope–a living hope that never perishes, spoils, or fades!

Grace and peace to you all! May your hope in Jesus be alive and well always!

Romans 15 v 13 with sunflowers

Outsiders

Outsider Lecrae

“Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God–this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is–his good, pleasing and perfect will.”

Romans 12:1-2

It is hard being an outsider, isn’t it? Nobody wants to be the outcast. Just about every human being on earth enjoys being liked. We all like are likes don’t we? As Christians, we are not called to be liked by the world. In fact, the world will hate us because we preach about Jesus Christ. The world hates us because we have an enemy who “prowls around like a roaring lion” (1 Peter 5:8), and he causes that hatred to well up in the hearts of those in the world.

There are many nations in the world where preaching the Gospel can not only get you hurt, but it can get you killed. Check out this list of restricted and hostile nations to the Gospel:

Hostile nations to the Gospel

That is a long list! If you live in those countries, then it is very dangerous to be a Christian. It is actually just like the constant danger the Apostles, Disciples, and followers of Jesus lived through.

Listen to how the Apostle Paul explains it to the believers in Corinth:

“For it seems to me that God has put us apostles on display at the end of the procession, like men condemned to die in the arena. We have been made a spectacle to the whole universe, to angels as well as to men. We are fools for Christ, but you are so wise in Christ! We are weak, but you are strong! You are honored, we are dishonored! To this very hour we go hungry and thirsty, we are in rags, we are brutally treated, we are homeless. We work hard with our own hands. When we are cursed, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure it; when we are slandered, we answer kindly. Up to this moment we have become the scum of the earth, the refuse of the world.”

1 Corinthians 4:9-13

Interesting imagery from Paul’s time speaking about how the Romans killed people in their coliseums. The men at the end of the procession were the gladiators that fought to the death. Paul endured many torturous beatings and imprisonment for the Gospel. He was also killed for it. He was a faithful soldier for Christ all the way to the end. There are still Christians today going through the same things.

Christians here in America do not have to worry about any of that usually. People might get mad or think we are nuts, but generally people just ignore us if they don’t like what we have to say. We don’t hear about too many people getting hurt or killed because they are Christians. We have had violence against us in recent years along with all the other madness in the world though. My prayers are still with all the families of the horrible church shooting in Texas.

The Lord told us to expect all of this. In John 15 Jesus is speaking with His disciples and He explains the hatred the world has toward Him and those who follow Him.

“If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you.”

John 15:18-19

The world hates us because we are not of this world anymore and people can see that. We act and live differently because of the Holy Spirit inside of us. We say things that sound crazy to the world, and they think we are foolish.

“For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”

1 Corinthians 1:18

It is foolishness to them because they don’t believe in the One who sent Jesus. It makes people mad because they know they have no excuse for their sin now that Jesus has come. People do not like being told they need to repent, and they hate us for it.

In verses 20-23, Jesus says:

“Remember the words I spoke to you: ‘No servant is greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also. They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the One who sent me. If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin. Now, however, they have no excuse for their sin. He who hates me hates my Father as well.

That is why the world hates Christians. That is why I used to hate Christians before I accepted Jesus in 1996. That hate comes from the evil one who is in the world.

“As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.”

Ephesians 2:1-2

That is a perfect description of who I was and how I used to live! Satan is the ruler that Paul is talking about in his letter to the believers in Ephesus. He is the ruler of the kingdom of the air and the spirit of disobedience! That is why people hate Jesus and hate us without cause.

“If I had not done among them what no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin. But now they have seen these miracles, and yet they have hated both me and my Father. But this is to fulfill what is written in their Law: ‘They hated me without reason.'”

Jesus speaking in John 15:24-25

Yes, it is hard and sometimes deadly being an outsider to this world, but at the end of it all I would rather be an outsider in Jesus Christ than an insider in eternity without Him! Amen! There is nothing this world has to offer me that I miss. Money, liquor, girls, popularity, parties–forget about it! I lived that life and I danced with Satan, and all he ever tried to do was kill me!

“But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ–the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith.”

Philippians 3:7-9

If you are a believer in Jesus that is feeling the pressure of being an outsider to this world, just remember, you might be an outsider here, but you are an insider of Heaven! We are called to be outsiders while we serve Him here, but we have a home waiting for us that is beyond all we could ever ask or imagine!

Grace and peace to you all! Stand up and stand strong in Jesus and don’t back down!

P.S.

Shout out to Lecrae for the “I’d Rather Be An Outsider” logo!

2 Corinthians 5 verse 17

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