Defining Love

The love of God expresses itself through sacrifice and opens the door to redemption.  The love Hollywood portrays expresses itself in selfishness and ends in pain and separation.  God’s love is always compatible with His Holiness. Jfs

(1 John 4:7-8) Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.  (NKJV)

A Page of Life

Our lives are like books, some are short and some are long.  Each day is a page in the book.  Our story is written one day at a time.  The book tells our life’s story and we write it with our choices and the consequences of those choices.  When we give our lives to Christ it becomes His story.  Our lives become light and salt influencing the world for our King and His kingdom.  A page can be a short story written in one day, a story of His Grace and mercy protecting us from the evil one.  A page can be a definition of Love, defined by the way we treat each other.  Everyday our lives write one page at a time, the big question is, will it be about His Story or our story.  For me today is page 26,856.  I pray it is a page worth reading. Jfs

Ps 90:12 ¶ So teach us to number our days, That we may gain a heart of wisdom.

Two Views

Yesterday I stood with Mary by the bedside of her dying sister.  The scene was not easy, the struggle for breath, the distorted face and the helpless feelings of the moment leaves an ugly memory.  This was the earthly view, the human view, the what you see, and hear view.  It is the earthly view that we are all too familiar with and it is not pretty.  There is another view seen only by faith and assured by His Word.  It is the spiritual view, the view God sees and it is as real as the one we see.  In the story of Steven, the first Christian martyr, there are two views. One as ugly as it gets, an innocent man being stoned to death, not something you could forget.  Read the story for yourself and you will see that there are two views, the earthly view and the Kingdom view, both real, one temporary the other eternal.  In the ugly situation of Steven he saw the other view.  He saw Jesus and Jesus saw him and for Steven the earthly view was nothing more than a “momentary trouble.”   We earthlings must always remember there are two scenes.  As Christians we are assured of life after death, guaranteed by the resurrection of Jesus.  The death scene does not have the final say.  Jesus said, “Because I live you shall live also.”  It is the resurrection scene that has the final word. 

As I write this, word has come that Rhoda has left us.  Life has pulled the curtain on the earthly scene but Heaven has opened the curtain on the eternal one.  Let us, “look to Jesus the author and finisher of our faith.” jfs

Light of the world

A Lesson From The Garden

Plants need sunlight. Fruit does not grow in the dark. The night does not produce grapes. Little trees in the deep forest reach for the sunlight. The truth is, our lives depend upon sunlight and our spiritual lives depend upon SON light. John 8:12 ¶ Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, "I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life." Darkness hides the truth and some choose to live in the darkness rather than face the truth. His light exposes us and reveals the ugly stuff which holds us captive. The scripture says, "And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." John 8:32 Never forget this truth; the pain of facing the truth is better than the bondage of lies. jfs

A Father's Message

To Mark, Megan and John, 
I am thinking about what it means to be a father and hoping that my failures will never plot the course of your journey.  I am your father but I am also a child who had a father.  I was thinking about the lessons I learned from my father and how they have impacted my life.  I learned to never give up and that anything can be fixed.  He taught me to live life looking forward to the future.  He always had plans--he built his last house at seventy. He was generous and quick to forgive.  Oh, I remember some of his weaknesses, but his strengths still encourages me today.  We are all flawed but life is not about our flaws, it is about our hearts, our willingness to keep going when others drop out, about knowing when to rest or as my dad said, “put your oars in the boat and drift awhile.”  In so many ways he lives on in me and you.  He was a man worth following.  He never asked anyone to follow him but he could have said with Paul, “Follow me as I follow Christ.”  I am very proud of all three of you.  You have honored me in so many ways and for that I am thankful.  I pray that when I go home you will know that every day of your life your dad is looking for you and that the good memories blur the bad ones.  I love you.  dad

A Reason for Hope

“Well I sure hope so” is an expression of uncertainty.  We have all spoken these words when we were unsure of an outcome.  Our world is full of uncertainty. The politics of our world has us living on the edge.  Is there hope and if there is where can we find it?  The word translated hope in the Bible is not an expression of uncertainty but of expectation.  “But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear;” 1 Peter 3:15   Read this verse again and put expectation where hope is and you will have it right.  The Word of God gives us reason to live in expectation.  Hope is about the future but the history of God’s faithfulness to His Church gives us reason to live in expectation of our future.  The Word of God is full of promises to the faithful.  These promises are seeds to be planted in our hearts and nurtured in expectation until the day they become a reality. Jfs

1Pe 1:13 ¶ Therefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; 

Book Review

I am just finishing a book by Ravi Zacharias. The title is “WHY JESUS?” The sub title is, “Rediscovering His Truth In An Age of Mass Marketed Spirituality.”   If you are like me, very concerned about the Church today and what many consider the departure from the faith, you will enjoy this book.  It is my observation that long before we rewrite our theology we depart from it in our hearts.  Ravi Zacharias is a thinker and he brings keen insight into the subtle mixture of Eastern religions into the Christian Faith.  Below is an example of his observations:

“The Church has forgotten the teachings of quietness, solitude, and meditation that are part of our Judeo-Christian heritage and provide great strength to the soul.  We have moved from silence to noise.  We have moved from reflection to fast-moving programs.  We have moved from quietness to the inability to remain focused on a thought for even a moment, so that the next item on the program has to begin as soon as the previous one has finished.  There is no time in our services anymore for quietness and contemplation.  We have moved from the progression of thought to a repetition of sounds.  We have stolen the bridge between the head and the heart and gone to one of two extremes: either unable to engage the culture or reflecting the culture.  Every need of the soul is met in the gospel, but like an intoxicated person, we swing between two walls without finding balance.”

To understand how the above statement fits into the message of the book you will have to read it.
I hope you will put this book on your reading list.  jfs