Faith of a Child

(A short observation from a few years back. :-)) The sermon at church yesterday was about Jesus welcoming and blessing the children. :-) (Matthew 19:13-15, Mark 10:13-16, Luke 18:15-17) It was a good message but also one of those that seems hard to apply for a single dude. As a librarian who works with children though, I really appreciated it. The pastor talked about how kids grow up so fast. One of his comments gave me a great one-liner- It's like one day you're changing their diapers and the next day they're changing yours! ;-) Seriously though, this is one of my favorite Jesus encounters in The Bible because Jesus makes time for children, values and loves them and tells us to become like them if we want to enter the kingdom of God. (Jesus also has very harsh words for those who would lead children astray from faith in Christ- Matthew 18:1-14. It'd be better to have a millstone around your neck and get thrown into the sea than to do that.) And you have to receive Jesus' love with the faith of a little child. We must jump into Jesus' arms with no hesitation trusting that when He says He'll catch and save us- He'll do it. And so we hurtle down the slide of life that leads to physical death knowing that Jesus has saved us from spiritual death and when we get off the slide, our Father will be there to catch us and carry us Home. :-)

Prayer Power

(A short observation from a few years ago :-)) I just read 2 Kings 19 today and had a great lesson about prayer. See, Sennacherib was all talking smack about Israel and The LORD. He boasted about how he'd beaten all these other places and their gods didn't save them. (Of course, as Hezekiah pointed out, that's 'cause those gods are wood and stone and not real.) And in 2 Kings 19:1 and 19:15- what was Hezekiah's first response? P..p...p...Prayer Power! Let God at 'em! He'll splat them! :-) So I was thinking (as guided by my devotional book and of course, God's Book and Spirit), why is prayer our last resort and not our first? I mean, if I'm going to a resort, I'd want that to be the first thing I'm doing! :-) It's like on Power Rangers when they fight against all those enemies just with their individual powers when they've got a Megazord they can bust out on the side of evil. Why don't they just pull out that giant robot first and the battle would be done in like two seconds? (I guess then the show would be really short-lol. Not that I really watch it.) Why don't we bust out The MegaLord first? He's got all the power! So let's pray and let Him work- because we're nothing without Him!

Immaterial War (song)

 Maybe Madonna or maybe The Beatles...

(I'm pulling an old favourite out of the archives here. Included here is the original introduction I wrote for it about 18 years back. :-)) Hey there- this is just something quick that I wanted Kevin to see and anyone else that cares to check it out. I just now finished yet another song parody I've been working on- and despite this note's title - it's not a Beatles song (though I've done some of their songs before)- but instead, it's kind of a first for me- doing a parody of a Madonna song. (And believe, there's pretty much only 2 songs by Madonna I really know fairly well- and I've got parodies in the works for both. ;-))
But I just finished with one, so I thought I'd share it here for those interested.
This one deals with the invisible battle that we all fight between the angel on your right shoulder and the devil on your left shoulder. (as seen so many times in the cartoons- and believe it or not, that really is a pretty Biblical scene.) The Bible tells us that for Christians there's always a war going on between the new nature and the old nature and we have to decide who's going to win out.
God tells us that in those times of temptations He won't let us have more than we can handle and He'll provide us the way out so we can stand up under it. So we have to keep fighting that battle every day- and keep looking to Jesus for the victory that He's already won over sin, the devil and Hell. When we accept Jesus as Savior, He makes us into new creatures and the old has gone and the new has come. Behold, He makes all things new! :-)

"Immaterial War"
(parody of "Material Girl" by Madonna
parody by Nathan Ludwick 1/23/2008)
2 Corinthians 5:17, Ephesians 6:10-20, Romans 7:15-25, John 17:14-17, 1 John 4:4, James 4:7-8, 1 Corinthians 10:12-13

Verse 1
Some ploys miss me, some ploys tug me
'Til I give my OK
But they don't get the proper credit
I just want to say

Satan's brigands, plots and schemes
Put latently in flight (that's right)
Cause us to toy with our own hard conscience
It's always just a fight ('cause we are)

Chorus:
Living in a material world
And fighting an immaterial war
You know that we are living in the material world
But fighting an immaterial war!

Verse 2
Homeboys entrance as envoys of Satan
Resist him- (and) he will flee!
If they can't raise my interest then they
Have to let me be

Some coy tries and some voice lies but
I don't let them stay (No way!)
I need The Lord to save me from temptings
Make my way of escape ('cause we are)

(Repeat Chorus twice)

Living in a material world (corporeal)
Fighting an immaterial war
Fighting an immaterial war (ethereal)
Living in a material world

Verse 3
Ploys may come- in The Lord I'll hold
And stand and fight, you see
Ephesians has chapter six
And now God's armored me ('cause everybody's)

(Repeat chorus twice)

Immaterial (Repeat 3 times)
- Immaterial war

Living in a material world (material)
Fighting an immaterial war
Fighting an immaterial war (ethereal)
Living in a material world
Living in a material world (corporeal)
Fighting an immaterial war
Living in a material world (material)
Fighting an immaterial war!
(Fade and close)
..........................................................


Hope everyone has a great week and may God bless us all richly!
Don't give up in the fight! Like a prayer, it's something we have to keep doing daily! And always remember, Jesus is crazy for you and can make you feel- and be- all shiny and new! :-)
(and that's about all the Madonna references that'll fit that I can think of, so I'm stopping there....)
:-)

Rose Above Suffering

 For those struggling in suffering and hard times now, I just wanted to offer this reminder for you to encourage you to hold on. Remember that negative things and hard times and challenges are not indicators of God's love or lack thereof. Ultimately, the cross of Christ and the empty tomb are the indicators of God's love for us all.

(And sometimes, even hard circumstances can be indicators of God's love for us because God uses such things to grow us to who we need to be.)

There's a song that has a line that says, "I beg your pardon- I never promised you a rose garden." God hasn't promised that everything is always going to be rosy for us. He has promised us that the Rose of Sharon will always be with us though. He has suffered too and He knows what it's like. And He holds the future (and the present and past) all in His hands. He has a good plan in mind for us that the suffering will bring in the end- and as Romans 8 tells us, though we may have some scratches from the thorn in the side- in the end as we hold to Him everything will be coming up roses.

Psalms 138:7-8

-I love what Jesus said about how He didn't come to destroy men's lives but to save them. Luke 9:55-56

Also see Lamentations 3:19-41 - especially v. 33 He doesn't afflict from the heart. He will have compassion- He is good to those who wait for Him. It is good that we wait silently for the salvation of The Lord. And we can wait knowing that The Lord's salvation will come in His time and He will never let us go. (Hebrew 13:6-8)

Name It, Claim It - Tame It

 The "Name it and claim it" theology is the hallmark of the prosperity Gospel, which is of course erroneous and heretical. However, the true spiritual prosperity God desires to give us (2 Corinthians 8:9) is the only real "Name it and claim it" promise in the Gospel. He wants us restored in relationship to Him- that's why Christ came, died and rose- to pay for our sins and give us the Way to be reconciled to God. (2 Corinthians 5:16-21) As Joel 2:32, Acts 2:21, Romans 10:13 all say, name it ("Anyone who calls upon the Name of The Lord will be saved.") and claim it- 1 John 2:4-6 (The Message). ("If someone claims, 'I know Him well!' but doesn't keep His commandments, he's obviously a liar. His life doesn't match his words. But the one who keeps God's word is the person in whom we see God's mature love. This is the only way to be sure we're in God. Anyone who claims to be intimate with God ought to live the same kind of life Jesus lived.")

You Do Truth

 You do Truth. When you do you, you forget that you are the owner of an unholy heart and thus you naturally do evil. All of us have an inherent sin nature; thus, we can't trust our own understanding. There is a way that seems right to us but in the end, it leads to destruction. We need to put our faith in The Way, The Truth and The Life- Lord Jesus Christ. Trust His death and Resurrection to pay for all our sins and confess Him as Lord. And then walk in Truth. Jesus is full of Grace and Truth and the cross is where both qualities meet perfectly like a kiss. Following Jesus means living not by lies but by Truth. Even if the world tells us that you can have your own truth and that you should do whatever makes you happy, we need to remember that there is one Truth and He wants us to be holy like Him. (Leviticus 11:45, Matthew 5:48) We must deny ourselves of all this sinful world tries to sell us on- the sinful lifestyles that lead to death- eternally. Instead, let us take up our cross daily and follow Jesus. (See John 14:6, Proverbs 3:5-6, Jeremiah 17:9, Proverbs 16:25, John 1:14-17, Ephesians 4:15, and 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 [particularly v. 6], 1 Corinthians 6:12-20 [especially v. 12 and v. 19-20], 1 Corinthians 10:31, Colossians 3:1-7 and 3:23-24 [just read the whole chapter, really] and Luke 9:23-25)

"And you will know The Truth and The Truth will set you free." (John 8:32) "I was very glad to find some of your children walking in Truth, just as we have received commandment to do from The Father." (2 John 1:4) "I have no greater joy than this, to hear of my children walking in The Truth." (3 John 1:4)

To Everything There Is a Season

 A few observations from my daily Bible readings in 2023. They seemed fitting for the start of a new year.

Ecclesiastes 1

One of my favourite Bible books that reminds so often that everything is meaningless without God. Verse 8 hit home today- "All things are wearisome; man is not able to tell it. The eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor is the ear filled with hearing." Whatever pleasure we may get apart from The Lord is fleeting- it never fully satisfies and it all gets so tiring.... Key verses in chapter 2 here for me- Ecclesiastes 2:11 - After stating that he refused himself nothing that his eyes desired or any pleasure his heart wanted- Solomon looked at all he had done and worked for- and he saw it was all vanity and striving after the wind. As I like to say- you can complete every bucket list in the world and it's still just a drop in the bucket before you kick the bucket. As Ecc. 2:24-25 say- there's nothing better than to eat, drink and be merry- and those pleasures are from God- for who can eat and who can have enjoyment without Him? Ecclesiastes 3

....To everything there is a season and a time to every purpose under Heaven....

And God has placed eternity in our hearts so that we all long for something more than the temporary pleasures of sin, which is only satisfied in Christ, provided through faith in His death and Resurrection that pays for all sins and gives us escape from the Hell we deserve and entry into the Heaven we don't deserve. What must we do? Turn, turn, turn...