“I will never …” Hebrews 13:5. Deut 31: 6

How would you like to be the first person in something? Adam was the first man on the face of the earth. He was created, September 21, 4,000 BC. ^{(Traditional)} Ferdinand Magellan and his crew were the first to sail around the world from 1519-1522.  John Hancock was the first person to sign the Declaration of Independence.  The first person who set foot on the continent of Antarctica is said to be the American John Davis, a sealer, who landed there on 7 February 1821.  The first man to reach the North Pole was an engineer in the American Navy called Robert Edwin Peary, who reached the pole on April 6, 1909 along with his employee Matthew Henson.  29^th May, 1953 the first
persons to climb Mount Everest to the summit were Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay (who reached the top together) is recognized as the first time the peak was conquered. 

Chuck Yeager was the first man to break the sound barrier on 14 October 1947 in the Bell X-1.  February 20, 1962, John Glenn was the first American to orbit the earth. Do you remember Neal Armstrong? He exited the space craft, sitting on the moon’s surface and climbed down the ladder, then turned and set his left boot on the surface of the moon at 2:56 UTC July 21, 1969, the first man to set foot on the moon.  What an accomplishment!

Each of these were accomplished and verified by others and cannot change.

The first to love you was God the Father.  “God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” ^{John 3:16} 

“But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” ^{Rom 5:8 NIV}  

Whatever crisis you are facing just now or will face shortly, remember that God has never failed ANYONE.  If he failed you, you would be the first!  Strengthen your faith because he “will never leave us nor forsake us!” And besides, He loves you too much to let you be the first!  And that cannot change!!

Just a Thought

John 14:6 Jesus said, “I am the truth. . .”NIV

One of the most amazing scriptures I could ever read is the one where Jesus says, “I am the truth.”  He does not say, “I tell the truth,” which He does, but he says, “He IS the Truth!”  The very whole of Himself, body, mind, soul, and strength is TRUTH!  No term is more familiar and none more difficult of definition.  Truth stands alone.  There is no shade in truth.  There is no qualifying in Truth.  There is no hinting in Truth.  There is no such thing as “nearly” truth.  It is absolute, irrevocable, and as sure as inertia and chemical valences. 

He can be said to be accurate.  He is absolutely correct.  He is absolutely faithful. He is absolutely honest.  He is absolute justice.  He is upright.  He is absolutely factual.  He is absolutely righteous. He is veracious.  He is to be credited on His own word, because He is the Truth, and therefore can neither lie nor deceive.

I believe that our own “reasoning” gets us in a lot of trouble.  We sometimes reason that Jesus’ teachings are, pick and choose.  We can pick and choose which of the scriptures is aimed at us, for us to obey.  When in fact all of His teachings are TRUTH and one time or another in our lives we must use His teachings to give equilibrium to our own spiritual lives.  There are many things that are “legal,” but they are not right, in TRUTH’S sight, such as abortion.  It is legal, but it is wrong.  Remember you may have “legal” grounds to do what you want, but you must always ask if it is “right” and consistent with TRUTH.

When we read, (Phil 4:19) “And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus,” ^NIV what goes through your mind.  If we are praying about a specific need or crisis, don’t we rationalize that He may be too busy to answer our prayer?  Do we think that He has not heard our prayer?  Do you say, “I am really nobody that God should answer?”  All of these are a slap in the face of Jesus.  HE IS TRUTH!!  He cannot lie and He will meet all the needs we have. Jesus sometimes meets our need in other ways than we expect.          I think he does this to keep us from thinking that He is working for us, rather than the other way around.  When we rely on “TRUTH,” we are never disappointed. Do you realize that God can’t learn?  He already knows everything.  Our prayer should be prayed with that in mind so that we don’t try to educate God on the issue at hand.  We should make our petition known to Him and leave it with Him, knowing that He will meet that need.  Didn’t He say He would? Why would we doubt?  Didn’t He tell us the TRUTH about the cross and resurrection, before it happened?  

Just a thought.

Mark 10:17-23

How does money rate in your life?  Is it very important, (thinking constantly of money or how to get money, or money problems, or how much we don’t have)? In our greedy society, we have game shows that give hundreds of dollars to millions of dollars to contestants that answer a puzzle or answer some trivial question.  We are sold the idea that having money will solve all our problems and it should be easy to get.  Then the question is how much will it take?

Some time ago a company that I worked for sent me on a business trip.  I was to keep receipts and then turn them in for reimbursement. This particular trip there was $1,000 in receipts turned in.  I handed them to the manager and left the office. The manager declared that he never received them.  At that time in my life we were not making even minimum wage.  $1,000 is a lot of money, not only then but now also.

I requested the payment several times before they told me that they couldn’t pay without the receipts.  They asked me if I had a duplicate copy of each receipt.  Of course, I didn’t and so therein lies the dilemma.

For several days that turned into weeks and then into a couple of months, I would wake in the night and the first thing that came to mind was that $1,000!  Throughout each day I would have that money on my mind.  I regret that I had the usual thoughts that anyone else would have, such as, a stick in their eye, go in and stomp on their foot, burn the building down, etc.  Of course I was not going to do that, but it seemed to take over my thought at any time.

Solution: After a couple of months of this torturing myself with these thoughts, I came to realize that my new Christian life was going nowhere.  No peace, no joy, just the constant thought of that $1,000.

One night I woke and prayed from the deep of my heart, “Lord, I give that $1,000 dollars to you.  You collect it if you want to.  As a matter of fact if they decide to send it to me I promise that I will send it back!  I don’t want it, it belongs to you to either forget it or collect it.  But, as for my part I don’t want anything to do with it. IT IS YOURS!!!!

I never missed another night’s sleep over it and it faded ever so peacefully out of my mind.

Several times in my life since, I have had to do the same thing in order to keep peace in my soul.  When my money was stolen, three other times, I gave it to God to collect so I could forget it and not have the storms in my heart.  I thank God for the lesson learned and applied.  A right relationship and peace with my Lord is all I need.

I’m so sorry that rich young man didn’t learn the lesson, I learned, that day with Jesus.  Instead he went away sorrowful.

Just a thought