Thank you Thank you

Believe it or not Ephesians 3: 1-8 could be one of the more controversial sets of scripture among those who call themselves Christians. If you believe in God at all, you have to believe that He is all mighty and powerful correct? However as humans we continually try and take power from Him and these verses show us one of the greatest powers he has that humans are always trying to steal from Him and that is the power of salvation. The controversial parts of these verses are even before he made the world God loved us and chose us and God decided in advance to adopt us. What this is saying that God Himself and no one else decides who He chooses for salvation. The before and in advance emphasis makes it clear that there is nothing we can do as humans to earn His favor and this is what we are constantly trying to do.  For the saved and the lost both, trying to earn salvation is nothing more than trying to take God’s power and use it yourself (good luck with that) If you think God needs help or by what you do will overrule His decision you have just broken the first of the Ten Commandment and created your own God.

God has the right to choose who he wants and it is a wonder as corrupt as we are that He chooses any of us. I guess that’s why they call it grace. The other parts of these words I love are when it says this is what he wanted to do and it gave him great pleasure, he purchased our freedom, and he has showered us in kindness, wisdom, and understanding and all I can say to that is thank you thank you.  

Ephesians 1:3-8
³ All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ. ⁴ Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. ⁵ God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure. ⁶ So we praise God for the glorious grace he has poured out on us who belong to his dear Son.^{[b] 7} He is so rich in kindness and grace that he purchased our freedom with the blood of his Son and forgave our sins. ⁸ He has showered his kindness on us, along with all wisdom and understanding.

Your card has been declined

How many times have you left someone hanging? I’ll bet it’s more than you think. When you read Galatians 6:1-3 you will see that many who think that they are being “good” by not judging are actually sinning. If you hear someone say who am I to judge? In reality they are just turning a blind eye, being lazy in other words leaving them hanging. When in the end they are really hurting the person they think they are giving a free pass. A word of caution however you have to read these verses very carefully. Don’t miss these parts: another believer, gently and humbly, be careful, and share, these parts are cruital and difficult.   I just love verse 3 when it says if you think you’re too important, you are only fooling yourself. You are not that important. Your VIP card has just been declined.

 Galatians 6

¹ Dear brothers and sisters, if another believer^[a] is overcome by some sin, you who are godly^[b] should gently and humbly help that person back onto the right path. And be careful not to fall into the same temptation yourself. ² Share each other’s burdens, and in this way obey the law of Christ. ³ If you think you are too important to help someone, you are only fooling yourself. You are not that important.

Who are you wearing?

Watching the red carpet at the Oscars I was really annoyed when over and over again the stars were asked who you are wearing. Yes I know what the purpose of the question to plug the designer. But I still find it strange when they say who are you wearing instead of what are you wearing? However it was not to long that I thought of Galatians 3:27 and should  I not be telling anyone who will listen that I am in fact wearing Christ.    

Galatians 3:26-28

²⁶ For you are all children of God through faith in Christ Jesus. ²⁷ And all who have been united with Christ in baptism have put on Christ, like putting on new clothes.^{[b] 28} There is no longer Jew or Gentile,^[c] slave or free, male and female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus.

Not what we once were

Today’s blog is part of a series I’m going to call Despicable me. It will be about possibly one of the most important yet most misunderstood subjects in the Bible. A subject has to be properly understood for a person even being to understand the grace of God and that subject is Sin.

Despicable me 4: Not what we once were

We were made in the image of God but since Adam and Eve took that fatal bite we have fallen and mankind is not as we once were.  JC Ryle said this.

                “We are like smashed up temples. There is still a trace of original splendor as creatures made in the image of God, but the temple that was once glorious now has broken windows and columns crumbling, and doorways smashed in. We are not what we once were.

There is still a glimpse and once we go to be with the LORD we will be restored to the image we were intended.

Can you spot the giraffe?

Today’s blog is part of a series I’m going to call Despicable me. It will be about possibly one of the most important yet most misunderstood subjects in the Bible. A subject has to be properly understood for a person even being to understand the grace of God and that subject is Sin.

Despicable me 3: Can you spot the giraffe?

 Can you spot the giraffe in the picture? Easy isn’t it? It’s obvious which one is the giraffe because it sticks out like a sore thumb. However when it comes to sin it should be that easy but it’s not. Because to us sin looks attractive and to be honest who could argue if it didn’t we would never be tempted. The reason sin looks so attractive is because it brings us pleasure, at least for a little bit. Again if it didn’t we would never choose it. The difference is that though it may bring pleasure, sin NEVER EVER brings happiness or joy to a Christian. But that is the lie Satan tells us. “If you do this you will be happy.” It worked on Adam and Eve and it has worked ever since. So be ready when the temptation comes, ask yourself will this bring me joy? Or will this just bring me temporary pleasure? Because if you stop and think about it, what sin have you ever held on to that’s done you one ounce of good. You can spot the giraffe but can you identify the sin in your life? It’s there, find it and repent of it.

He knows

Today’s blog is part of a series I’m going to call Despicable me. It will be about possibly one of the most important yet most misunderstood subjects in the Bible. A subject has to be properly understood for a person even being to understand the grace of God and that subject is Sin.

 

Despicable me 2: He knows

One of the most quoted verses in the Bible in regards to sin is Romans 3:23 “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” easy enough to understand but Jesus makes it simpler yet in John 2: 23-25

²³ Because of the miraculous signs Jesus did in Jerusalem at the Passover celebration, many began to trust in him. ²⁴ But Jesus didn’t trust them, because he knew human nature. ²⁵ No one needed to tell him what mankind is really like.

He knows what we are like when it comes to sin. There is no fooling Him. We just need to see our short comings too, when we do this we will see our need for Him.

Hitler and Mother Theresa are closer than you think

Today’s blog is part of a series I’m going to call Despicable me. It will be about possibly one of the most important yet most misunderstood subjects in the Bible. A subject has to be properly understood for a person even being to understand the grace of God and that subject is Sin.

 Disclaimer: Yes today's picture is photo shopped

I’ve had a great deal of fun over that last few weeks asking people outside of the Bible in their opinion is the best and worst person in the history of the world. Some of the responses were quite interesting. One of the first things I noticed was that everyone went worst first. Out of every single person I asked only one even tried to indentify the best first, and they never did come up with an answer. There were others as well that could not come up with who they thought the best person in the history of the world was. However, most if not everyone was pretty quick on the worst. With the people I asked Hitler was by far the number one answer for the worst. When it came to the best I had fewer responses however Mother Theresa and Abe Lincoln were the most common answers. The results were not much different when I went to the internet. The evil lists were easy to find and there were many of them and the good lists were much harder and less prevalent. A couple of interesting notes, on the good list (people from the Bible were included) Buda was number one on both lists and the best that Jesus came in on either was third. One one of the evil list the first female to show up was believe it or not Paris Hilton. On that note

Here is what I want you to think about take let’s say Hitler put him on one end of  a line and put Abe Lincoln and Mother Theresa on the other and ask yourself where do you fall? Somewhere in the middle? Somewhat closer to the good side where is it that you fall? I don’t care if you put yourself right in the middle of Abe and Mother Theresa because not like the list found on the internet if you were to add Jesus to this list He would be so far from the good side of your list it would not even be funny. Jesus created the world, He controls it, He, He, He, the list could go on and on and the main thing is that even when He came to the earth as a man He never sinned. And you think Abe Lincoln and Mother Theresa were good, if you were to put them on a line with Jesus they are both much closer to Hitler than you may think. But again so are you, think about that when it comes to sin.

You will die

Today I wanted to share a section from a book that I recently read. It goes like this:

 You will die. (what an interesting opening sentence)

Too many people naively try to convince themselves that if they simply don’t think about death things will be fine. They are living both foolishly and dangerously.

Our world does not know what to do about death. When people begin to die we put them in retirement hones, care centers, and hospitals. We tuck them away out of sight, fill them with medications, and try to make death seem not so deadly. When someone does die, we put them in a box so that we do not have to stare death in the face, and if the box is open, we see the deceased with makeup and nice clothes so they appear not so dead. When the deceased is finally buried, it is usually in a memorial garden replete with flowers and fountains to maintain that death is not really an enemy. Not knowing what to say, the living who remain assert things they really don’t have any evidence for such as “they are in a better place now,” which may or may not be true, or “I’m just glad their suffering has ended,” as if they may not be suffering at that very moment for a life of unrepentant sin. You will die.

Are you ready for the day of your death and the days that follow it?

(From Doctrine by Mark Driscoll and Gerry Breshears)

Believe it or not you will die and for some and dare I say most who die are not in a better place and their suffering may have only just begun. It all hinges on rather or not they trusted in Jesus.

How about you?

Caught, with your hand in the cookie jar?

In the story of the denial of Peter, Peter in a sense gets caught with his hand in the cookie jar. He said that he would never deny Jesus, Jesus said he would and I’d go with Jesus. When in fact it did happen and Peter denied Jesus not once, not twice but three times. The important part of this is not the fact the Peter was wrong and Jesus was right the thing we need to notice is in verse 75 and that was Peter’s response. He went away weeping bitterly, this is a sign of repentance. The word bitterly means to me that he wasn’t just sorry he did this but he was truly upset, shaken, mortified by what he had done. This is repentance. Now the question becomes what happens when you get caught with your hand in the cookie jar? (Which of course I mean sin) Do you deny it? Are you sorry that you got caught? Or once you realize that you have sinned does it bother you? Do you hate what you have done? If not then be careful because many people ask for forgiveness of their sins but much fewer repent of them and Jesus requires both.

Matthew 26

⁷³ A little later some of the other bystanders came over to Peter and said, “You must be one of them; we can tell by your Galilean accent.”

⁷⁴ Peter swore, “A curse on me if I’m lying—I don’t know the man!” And immediately the rooster crowed.

⁷⁵ Suddenly, Jesus’ words flashed through Peter’s mind: “Before the rooster crows, you will deny three times that you even know me.” And he went away, weeping bitterly.

What have you buried?

What are you doing with what God has given you? In the story of the three servants the master gave them talents which we would call money and went on a trip. The purpose was to see what the servants did with that money while he was away. Some would say why did one servant get 5 bags another 2 and what about the poor guy who just got one? That’s not fair. The point of the story is not the amount you are given but what you do with what you have. I am convinced that it is no accident that the money back then was called talents because today you need to ask yourself what are you doing with not necessarily the money you have but the talents God has given you? Are you being faithful in using them, or are you like the last guy and burying them. Are you burying them by not using them because you are afraid? Again God is not interested  about how much you have He is interested in what you do with what you have. If you use what you have you will be given even more, but if you don’t use it you will more than lose it. If you are curious to what that means read on down to verse 30 of the parable, it’s not pretty.  Ask yourself again what talent has God given you that you have buried? Go dig it up and put it to work.  

Matthew 25

¹⁴ “Again, the Kingdom of Heaven can be illustrated by the story of a man going on a long trip. He called together his servants and entrusted his money to them while he was gone. ¹⁵ He gave five bags of silver^[b] to one, two bags of silver to another, and one bag of silver to the last—dividing it in proportion to their abilities. He then left on his trip.

¹⁶ “The servant who received the five bags of silver began to invest the money and earned five more. ¹⁷ The servant with two bags of silver also went to work and earned two more. ¹⁸ But the servant who received the one bag of silver dug a hole in the ground and hid the master’s money.

¹⁹ “After a long time their master returned from his trip and called them to give an account of how they had used his money. ²⁰ The servant to whom he had entrusted the five bags of silver came forward with five more and said, ‘Master, you gave me five bags of silver to invest, and I have earned five more.’

²¹ “The master was full of praise. ‘Well done, my good and faithful servant. You have been faithful in handling this small amount, so now I will give you many more responsibilities. Let’s celebrate together!^[c]’

²² “The servant who had received the two bags of silver came forward and said, ‘Master, you gave me two bags of silver to invest, and I have earned two more.’

²³ “The master said, ‘Well done, my good and faithful servant. You have been faithful in handling this small amount, so now I will give you many more responsibilities. Let’s celebrate together!’

²⁴ “Then the servant with the one bag of silver came and said, ‘Master, I knew you were a harsh man, harvesting crops you didn’t plant and gathering crops you didn’t cultivate. ²⁵ I was afraid I would lose your money, so I hid it in the earth. Look, here is your money back.’

²⁶ “But the master replied, ‘You wicked and lazy servant! If you knew I harvested crops I didn’t plant and gathered crops I didn’t cultivate, ²⁷ why didn’t you deposit my money in the bank? At least I could have gotten some interest on it.’

²⁸ “Then he ordered, ‘Take the money from this servant, and give it to the one with the ten bags of silver. ²⁹ To those who use well what they are given, even more will be given, and they will have an abundance. But from those who do nothing, even what little they have will be taken away. ³⁰ Now throw this useless servant into outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

A quick Valentine's Day thought

I was reminded today about all of the gifts that are bought for today, the cards, the candy, the flowers and such for the people we love, and even for others not so much. Some of it’s done out of obligation like the grade school party and some of it’s done just because. However the greatest gift of love came from above when Jesus came to this earth to pay the price for what His earth had become.

If Jesus is asking you to be mine, say yes and trust in Him.

John 3:16

¹⁶ “For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.

Not very flattering

Sin when first looked at is so very sweet. However sin will enslave you quicker than you can say slave to sin. A great point was brought up in the sermon yesterday. One that I had never really thought about before and that is what good "long term" have you ever gained from sin? Stop and think about it, if you are bitter against someone or unforgiving towards someone for long periods of time what good has it done you? Or any other form of sin such as envy, dishonesty, immorality, what good does it do you to hold on to it? Good luck coming up with an answer to that. Kind of gives new meaning to let go and let God because in the end sin is not very flattering in fact it's deadly.

Romans 6

¹⁸ Now you are free from your slavery to sin, and you have become slaves to righteous living. ¹⁹ Because of the weakness of your human nature, I am using the illustration of slavery to help you understand all this. Previously, you let yourselves be slaves to impurity and lawlessness, which led ever deeper into sin. Now you must give yourselves to be slaves to righteous living so that you will become holy. ²⁰ When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the obligation to do right. ²¹ And what was the result? You are now ashamed of the things you used to do, things that end in eternal doom. ²² But now you are free from the power of sin and have become slaves of God. Now you do those things that lead to holiness and result in eternal life. ²³ For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.

The fastest social media ever is on the horizon

The death of Whitney Huston yesterday reminded me of a couple of things one is that a celebrity dying is much like going to Heaven for the Christian, all of the bad stuff you’ve done is forgotten. The other is the speed that news travels these days especially with all of the social media. However we haven’t seen anything yet in regards to how fast news can travel. The fastest form of social media ever is on the way. I don’t care how fast you can tweet ,facebook or  even if you're linked in, because when Jesus returns (I don’t know how Hes going to do it) call it Messiah Media I guess, but when he returns every single person on the earth will look up and see Him coming at the same time , he's just that good. Oh what a glorious day.

By the way if you want to be take advantage of Messiah media you have to get signed up before it is announced. On that day, if your not already a member it will be too late and you have NO idea how bad it will be for you. Accept Jesus as your LORD and savior now, don't wait until it's too late.

Matthew 24

³⁰ And then at last, the sign that the Son of Man is coming will appear in the heavens, and there will be deep mourning among all the peoples of the earth. And they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.^{[h] 31} And he will send out his angels with the mighty blast of a trumpet, and they will gather his chosen ones from all over the world^[i]—from the farthest ends of the earth and heaven.

Don't get wet

There is nothing better than watching some loud mouth sitting in a dunk tank go for a swim. Sooner or later the odds are going to catch up with him and they’re going to get wet. When it comes to saying dry one of the memories I have as a child was when I first heard of Jesus walking on the water. I thought it was so cool that someone could do that. However I was only a child and I don’t remember or was not told the rest of the story until much later in life. I’ll bet that if you asked 100 people if anyone else walked on water besides Jesus, the biggest percentage would say no. I could be wrong but when you think of this story do you think of Peter walking on the water? In Matthew 14 it tells us that he did indeed walk on water as well until he saw trouble coming and became terrified and he sank and Jesus tells us why? Because in the midst of the troubles, Peter doubted Jesus. The point we want to focus on here is not the fact the Peter got wet we want to focus on the fact that Peter did indeed walk on water because he trusted in Jesus. So don’t get wet and trust in Jesus.

 

Matthew 14

²⁹ “Yes, come,” Jesus said. So Peter went over the side of the boat and walked on the water toward Jesus. ³⁰ But when he saw the strong^[d] wind and the waves, he was terrified and began to sink. “Save me, Lord!” he shouted. ³¹ Jesus immediately reached out and grabbed him. “You have so little faith,” Jesus said. “Why did you doubt me?”

Time for plan B

Sometimes a person has to rethink their plans and this is one of those times for me. God is continually working on me and my job is to try and figure out what he wants me to do. Right now I think that the daily blog is not on that list. Right now I think I am to focus on doing a better job of leading my small group and teaching a Sunday school class. I have two other projects that are simmering in the back of my mind as well, one of which includes a funnel and the other John 2: 23-25

²³ Because of the miraculous signs Jesus did in Jerusalem at the Passover celebration, many began to trust in him. ²⁴ But Jesus didn’t trust them, because he knew human nature. ²⁵ No one needed to tell him what mankind is really like.

Thanks to all of you who have read Simple Light over the last year. I will still blog from time to time I do enjoy it. However you don’t need me to read God’s word every day. So please pick up your Bible and see what God has to say to you. He is speaking the question is, are you listening?

Resturant Review: Simons

Simons (formerly J Benjamin’s)

Des Moines Iowa

How can a person not love Simons? Upon arrival there was a 20 minute wait for a table that is usually, but not always a good thing, take the Olive Garden for example.  We were greeted at the door by the owner who took our drink order and went and got them. This is where the review gets difficult to explain. Simon (the owner, chef, bartender, host, busboy, waiter) is the most impressive part of the Simon’s dining experience. The guy is everywhere, one minute he is in the kitchen, then at the bar, next you will see him at the door but most of the time he is visiting with his customers. At one point in the evening he literally pulled up a chair and sat at our table. We asked him about one of the employees he had he told us that this kid started hanging out around the place after school since about the age of 9 and when the kid turned 14 he wanted to give him a chance and he gave him a job bussing tables and filling water glasses. This goes back to my original statement, how can you not love Simons?

As you may be aware I grade on certain criteria two of which are atmosphere and service the scores for Simons were difficult to give. The place was dark and somewhat loud, our waitress was average at best but because of Simon I had to give each a 4.5.

The wait for our food was longer than one would like, however it’s hard to explain but there it doesn’t matter. Now finally for the food, as in most Italian places they start you out with some bread and Simons' parents have a bakery and they supply the bread for their son’s restaurant. I had the beef stroganoff; it was very good the beef was very tender which is hard to find in similar dishes. I had hoped for a bigger serving but left full so go figure. Teresa had the baked pasta with pepperoni, again very good and a nice portion. Jared had the Chicken Florentine a nice twist on chicken. But probably the highlight of the evening was Stacy’s mac and cheese, one of the best I’ve had.  To top off the evening Simons dad makes chocolate and carrot cakes for the place and they are complementary while supplies last. We had the carrot and it was also good. As you can tell Simons is in fact about Simon and as we were leaving he must have been busy because he literally ran outside to catch us and tell us thanks for coming and goodbye. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again “how can you not love Simons?”

   

Price range: (everyday, a night out, a special occasion only) a night out

Overall rankings all based 1 to 5

Atmosphere: 4.5

Service:        4.5

Food:           3.5

Value:           3

Overall          4

Simons

5800 Franklin Ave., Des Moines, IA, 50322

It's the Law

Matthew 5: 18 is an interesting verse it says:

 ¹⁸ I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not even the smallest detail of God’s law will disappear until its purpose is achieved.

 Not even the smallest detail of God’s law will disappear until its purpose is achieved. What then is the purpose of God’s law? The purpose is simple to get you to realize that you are a sinner and guilty before God and that you need a Savior. It’s that simple.

Be careful where you build

Be careful what you build on. There are those who build where it's easy and their foundations are not secure. However when troubles come it takes a strong foundation to withstand those troubles. Like a building that does not have a strong foundation when things shift the building will fall. The trick is to get the foundation strong before the troubles come, the sooner the better. Unfortunately like a building our foundation cannot be poured before we are built. But like a building foundations can be secured and strengthened after the building is up. However it takes longer and is more expensive. Jesus tells us in Matthew 7 exactly how to build our foundation. He says to listen to His teachings but not only that, He also says to follow His teachings. There are few who listen to his teachings and even fewer who follow them. Be one who does both so when the rains, floods, and winds come you won’t collapse.

Matthew 7

²⁴ “Anyone who listens to my teaching and follows it is wise, like a person who builds a house on solid rock. ²⁵ Though the rain comes in torrents and the floodwaters rise and the winds beat against that house, it won’t collapse because it is built on bedrock. ²⁶ But anyone who hears my teaching and doesn’t obey it is foolish, like a person who builds a house on sand. ²⁷ When the rains and floods come and the winds beat against that house, it will collapse with a mighty crash.”

Something to ponder

A Theologian was once asked at a seminar what is the most profound thing you have ever learned in your study of Theology? He thought for a moment and then replied “Jesus loves me this I know for the Bible tells me so.” Such a simple but yet such a deep answer if you stop and think about it. His answer came from probably the first song any child learns in Sunday school, yet the complexity of his answer can make the most seasoned believer stop and think about things like when Jesus said “I tell you the truth, unless you turn from your sins and become like little children, you will never get into the Kingdom of Heaven. That is what I love about the Bible so simple yet so complex, that’s why I never get tired of reading, studying, pondering, and talking about it. How about you? 

Matthew 18:2-4

² Jesus called a little child to him and put the child among them. ³ Then he said, “I tell you the truth, unless you turn from your sins and become like little children, you will never get into the Kingdom of Heaven. ⁴ So anyone who becomes as humble as this little child is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven.