Forgiveness – Page 50 – Ryan Callahan's Blog

Know Your Authority in Christ

Matthew 28 with map

If you believe in Jesus Christ and He is your Lord and Savior, then it is crucial that you understand the authority that has been given to you by Jesus. This authority is transferred to us by the power of the Holy Spirit, which was given to us when we repented of our sinful nature and received Jesus as Lord!

In Matthew chapter ten, Jesus gathers His twelve disciples together and He gives them His authority over evil, death, and disease. He also gives them instructions on how to preach and minister to people.

“He called his twelve disciples to him and gave them authority to drive out evil spirits and to heal every disease and sickness.”

Matthew 10:1

“As you go, preach this message: ‘The kingdom of heaven is near.’ Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received, freely give.”

Jesus speaking in Matthew 10:7-8

Brother and Sisters in the Lord, we still have that same power inside of us today! I have only had to do it once, but in the power of the Holy Spirit I cast out a demon that had been living in our house for four years! I was only 18 and had only been a Christian for a couple months! It was incredible! I also stopped breathing in 2012, my wife prayed over my lifeless body, and I came back in the power of the Holy Spirit! No, I’m not nuts, I am testifying! It was not my time to go yet. Jesus is The Resurrection and The Life, and He says when I go!

We have power over disease too. Sometimes, like with the Apostle Paul, the Lord keeps the thorn in for His Own purposes. However, God still used Paul to heal people through the laying on of hands in the power of the Holy Spirit! The brothers in my Bible study in college and I once laid hands on our brother who had a damaged knee. He was due to have surgery the next day. There were over twenty guys in my study at one point. We all prayed for his healing. The next day when he went in for surgery, the surgeon said the new x-ray showed it was healed and he didn’t need surgery anymore! We were all pumped when he came back to campus to tell everybody! He ended up becoming a Pastor in Boulder. I know God can heal me from Celiac Disease and restore me completely, but I also know I have to trust God with this thorn and rely fully on His grace. It is sufficient, believe me!

Jesus left His disciples with one more very important command before He ascended into Heaven. This is so crucial for Christians to understand! You must understand the authority that has been given to you and accept it with an open heart. It is called the Great Commission and it is the foundation of why we preach worldwide!

At the end of the Book of Matthew, Jesus gathers the remaining eleven disciples to a mountain in Galilee and He speaks three of the most famous lines in the entire Bible.

“Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

Matthew 28:18-20

That is the power and authority of God that has been given to you my brothers and sisters! I will never forget the first time I baptized someone! I was in college and a friend of ours had accepted Christ and she wanted to be baptized. She asked me to baptize her because I was well known on campus from preaching almost every Friday night at Campus Crusade for Christ. Those four years at the University of Northern Colorado were incredible! What a time of growth in the Lord! We witnessed so many of our fellow classmates come to Jesus!

I was honored that she would ask me to baptize her, and of course I accepted the offer with joy! We set it up to do it that night at a pool. Several of our friends came and it was so joyful and cool! We bought her red roses and placed some of the pedals in the water. It was beautiful!

Right as I was getting in the water, one of our friends who had grown up in a very legalistic fundamental church spoke up and said, “What are you doing?! You can’t baptize her! You are not a pastor!”

Now folks, I was trained in the Bible and evangelism by one of the best evangelists I have ever known. He was the Director of Campus Crusade at UNC when I attended from 1996 to 2000, and he taught me the authority I had in Christ very well and I was in the game preaching the Gospel on campus every day. Keep in mind, I had already cast out the demon in my parent’s house by the power of the Holy Spirit inside me!

I was angry at my friend for saying such an ignorant, sinful, and blasphemous statement against God’s Word and His command to us! However, I stayed calm, looked right at her, and I rebuked her in the Name of Jesus for her lies and told her Jesus gave me the authority to do this, and I am going to baptize her. She didn’t say another word after that, and our group of friends looked away from her and back at me.

My newly saved friend who I was gently holding in the water looked up at me and smiled. I asked her to confirm her faith in Jesus, which she did, upon which confession I said, “I now baptize you in the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit,” as I gently dunked her under the water and brought her back up!

All of the people gathered around the pool cheered and some were crying. It was so beautiful I will never forget it! That girl is still following Jesus to this day! I have since baptized many people and I will continue to do so by the Lord’s command, and so should you.

I don’t know what kind of church you grew up in. I did not grow up in church. I came to Christ through supernatural experiences and He showed me just how powerful He is! I came to know Jesus through straight up Holy Spirit power! If you believe in Jesus, don’t you ever let anybody tell you that you can’t baptize or preach or heal or drive out demons because you are not a pastor or some other ordained title of human ego! I rebuke those lies of legalism in the Name of Jesus! Jesus never said you have to be an ordained pastor to have this authority. Those are sinful human regulations put on God! You have the authority to do it in Jesus, so obey your King and do it! “Freely you have received, freely give,” as Jesus said.

We are Ambassadors for Jesus Christ on this earth. All authority in heaven and on earth was given to Jesus, and He told us to go and make disciples of all nations and baptize them in the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. He will be with us to the very end of the age just as He said He would be, and His authority is all the authority you need!

Know your authority in the Lord brothers and sisters, be strong in it, and don’t ever let anybody tell you otherwise!

Grace and peace to you!

Matthew 28 with sunset

Fruit of the Spirit

Fruit of the Spirit 2

I like fruit, don’t you? It is sweet and refreshing, and it is a blessing from God! God gives us another kind of fruit when we receive His Holy Spirit after receiving Jesus! It is not fruit that you eat. These are fruits of the Spirit I am talking about!

If you want to have true power for living and overcome sin in your life, then you need the Holy Spirit. It is through Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit that we overcome sin and death. Listen to how Paul explains it to the believers in Galatia:

“So I say live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law.”

Galatians 5:16-18

So, the flesh and the Spirit are at war with each other. They want different things. The sinful nature wants sin. The Spirit wants holiness. They are in conflict, so that we don’t do what we want, which means sin. That is so true too! If we do exactly what we want all the time, we will most definitely end up sinning. Let’s take a look at the fruit of the sinful nature and then I will show you the fruit that comes from the Holy Spirit.

The rotten fruit of the sinful nature

“The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.”

Galatians 5:19-21

Man, that’s like a rotten brown banana in a pile of rotten bananas! If we are honest with ourselves, and I hope you are, then many of those acts of the sinful nature are not foreign to any of us. Those are all disgusting realities of the sinful nature found everywhere in the world. That nasty fruit comes with a warning too: notice, you won’t go to Heaven if you live like this! That rotted fruit needs to be thrown out! How do we do that? Only by the power of the Holy Spirit, that’s how!

The Beautiful Fruit of the Spirit!

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.”

Galatians 5:22-23

Man, that is beautiful! That is like a succulent perfectly ripe strawberry in the soft summer breeze! That is the kind of fruit I want inside my soul! How about you? That is what God promises you when you accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. He will fill you with His Holy Spirit and produce that exact fruit of the Spirit in you. The perfect fruit of the Spirit will show up in your life and vanquish the old rotten fruit of the sinful nature! You will be set free from sin, and death will no longer have any hold over you!

“Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.”

Galatians 5:24-25

Paul leaves us with one more crucial warning about the sinful nature and the Spirit at the end of his letter to the Galatians:

“Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.”

Galatians 5:7-8

Choose wisely.

Grace and peace to you all!

Acts 1 verse 8

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

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

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

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

Called Out of Darkness

1 Peter 2 v 9 best

“But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.”

1 Peter 2:9

Good morning or evening friends around the world! I want to tell you a ministry story this morning. I have been thinking about it since breakfast. It was even busier this morning because my wife and kids had to leave at 6:30 a.m. My wife teaches at the same school our kids attend, and that is a huge blessing. I am usually up by 4 or 5 a.m., so I was ready to rock. In any case, I am finally in my cozy den in the basement and I am excited to tell you this story!

I will never forget the night that God showed me that verse in action, particularly the part about calling people out of darkness. I had only believed in Jesus for about a year, and that Spring Break in 1997 I signed up for a mission trip to minister in the inner city of Denver.

I grew up in Littleton, Colorado just down the street from the Capitol in Denver. We lived in a little brick house real close to Santa Fe and Littleton Blvd and on the other side was Federal Blvd. It was a great place to grow up in the 80s! It was a mix of safe and tough, kind of like a city suburb. I lived there from 1981 to 1991.

Growing up we always heard about the violent crimes happening up and down Colfax Avenue in Denver. Colfax Avenue is Colorado’s Main street. It runs all the way from Golden out West in the foothills all the way east to Aurora. It has a long history and I recommend looking it up someday. Colorado history is pretty cool!

Colfax Ave 2 — That’s my city! I love D-Town! Pour out your Holy Spirit here Lord Jesus!

Colfax Ave at night — Now you can really see how long it is!

Our parents would always tell us to stay away from Colfax. They knew we rode our bikes everywhere and they knew we went all the way to the Capitol sometimes. Well, the Capitol is right on Colfax. We would go to 7-11 in Littleton to get snacks, then we would ride up to Denver. We saw a lot of crazy things. There are homeless people everywhere in City Park and drug users openly sticking needles in their arms in broad daylight. I once saw a man passed out (or dead) in City Park with a needle hanging out of his arm. The other homeless guys were laughing and mocking him as the ambulance came to get him. He was only about a hundred yards from the Capitol. Yes, very rough and dangerous area.

We did most of our ministry in City Park right across the street from the Capitol and the surrounding neighborhoods around Colfax. The old five points neighborhood is right next to the Capitol. Up and down Colfax in that whole area people can find just about any vice they want. There are gang members fighting for territory, prostitutes walking the block, and homeless people and drug addicts wandering around. It is a horrible sight, and there are plenty of opportunities to help people and share the Gospel.

Capitol view — This picture was taken across the street in City Park. That is our State Capitol in Denver. My friends and I would ride our bikes all over this area!

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA — View of the Capitol from Colfax Ave.

Capitol dome — The dome is covered in gold mined from the Colorado gold mines in the 1800s !

Capitol — Cool statues of the Colorado prospectors and Christian missionaries.

Denver State Capitol Rotunda Stairs. Welcome inside!

Capitol stairs ornate — Heading up–simply beautiful!

Capitol inside — Looking up inside the gold covered dome! I took school field trips here when I was a kid and I loved it!

I hope you enjoyed that little tour! I love my State, my City, and my Country! Colorado is one of the best places to live in the United States. Every city has crime and problems. That is a product of the fall. Colorado is a beautiful state though, and our ski resorts are top notch! Denver is a cool city with a good laid back vibe, and there are plenty of great things to do. You just have to be careful like in any city. When we are down there for ministry, we go into the darkness looking for the lost on purpose. Don’t do that if you are just a tourist. You could get hurt. Most of the homeless people carry knives down in D-Town. Be aware, be smart, and do not ever be naive, ever. That’s what I learned growing up around these streets!

So, now you have an idea of what the area is like that my ministry story took place in. The Spring Break trip was part of the Campus Crusade for Christ ministry I was involved with at the University of Northern Colorado. It was the first time I had ever done any Christian ministry work, let alone street ministry. We worked with Crusade’s inner city outreach called “Here’s Life Inner City” in conjunction with the local church off Colfax called “Church in the City.” There were students from all over the country and we all met at the church. We stayed there for a week doing some of the most incredible street ministry I have ever been honored to be a part of! We also worked with another inner city ministry called “Christ’s Body Ministries” that we still support today! They are awesome. Check out my “Great Ministries” page for details!

Church in the City moved locations, but this was the old location we stayed at:

Church in the City

Every night we would go out around midnight to minister on the streets of Colfax. I was loving it! Here I was out in the middle of the night on the street my parents and the news had warned me about my whole life. It was pitch black, very late, and very gritty.

One night we split into teams. There were about four or five people in each team. The girls in the group were never alone and we always made sure we were together. Don’t be naive as you minister to people. Watch out for each other. Some people do like to attack Christians–we know this.

I was with four other guys and we decided after praying that we would head over to the road bridges over by Speer Blvd. That is just down the street from the Capitol over by the Pepsi Center where the Denver Nuggets and Colorado Avalanche play. There are always homeless over there. It is real close to the Denver Rescue Mission.

Speer Blvd sign

Denver Rescue Mission

We walked down the embankment and up the other side to talk to the guys under the bridge. There were several men all stuffed tight under this one section right by the road. It smelled awful, like urine and liquor, and it was dark. It didn’t matter, Jesus says to love them anyway. We introduced ourselves, told them we were serving Jesus, and asked them if they wanted some food and clothes.

They were very happy to see us and received us well. We fed them and gave them warm clothes (Spring Break in Denver is usually freezing), and began sharing the Gospel. As we finished, a Native American man in the back got very angry and started trying to crawl towards us. He was deep at the back under the bridge stuffed in the corner. He started cussing and telling us to leave, but his homeless buddies started laughing at him and told him to pipe down as they held him back.

He finally calmed down, and we continued to minister. We prayed for them and talked with them, and it was awesome! I was in the city at night serving the Lord and I felt alive! It was the city I grew up loving, and now I was deep in it!

Before we left, we asked if anybody would like to go home and told them we could help get them back home. Everyone was quiet, then a voice that had been quiet the whole time spoke up and said softly, “I do.”

He crawled out from under the bridge and walked over to us. He was a tall white guy about mid 30s and he looked like he had been through it all. He told us he was from Ohio and he wanted to go back home to his family. We took him back to the church, gave him more fresh clothing, money, and packed him food, then we drove straight to the bus station. We bought him a one way ticket back home to Ohio, and that night that man was not homeless anymore!

God called him right out of that darkness and it was a great honor to be a part of it! He took us straight into the heart of darkness that night, and He cut through it with His Glorious Light! He pulled that man out from under that dark nasty bridge, and I will never ever forget that! Glory to Jesus!

I still pray for that man, and I often wonder what he is doing today. I hope and pray he is doing great and living victoriously in Christ now! That is the kind of redemption Jesus is all about!

What darkness would you like Jesus to pull you out of today? Whatever it is, I guarantee you, He can and will rescue you from it! I have witnessed it and experienced it myself! Even on the streets of Denver in the pitch black Colfax night!

Grace and Peace to you all!

Romans 116