Our theme for this month: “Overcoming”

Our Bible verse for today: “Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.” Romans 8:37 (NIV)

Our thought for today: “You can be an overcomer.”

I have long admired and been inspired by the ministry of Dr. David Jeremiah. I first became aware of his work in the early 1990s when I was living in San Diego, CA. At that time I was retiring from the U.S. Navy and entering my second career as a pastor. David was already well-established as the Pastor of Shadow Mountain Community Church, which was also in San Diego, and which was located directly across the street from the seminary I attended (Southern California Bible College and Seminary).

David is also a popular Christian author and conference speaker. He has now written over fifty books, he is the host of the popular radio and television show “Turning Point”, and he continues to speak at Christian conferences around the country and around the world.

Another thing about David Jeremiah that I find inspiring is the fact that he is an overcomer. Over more than fifty years in ministry David has had to deal with more than his share of professional and personal challenges (including stage four cancer – which almost killed him more than twenty years ago but which he fought through and survived).

Today David is seventy-seven years old. He still serves as the full-time Pastor of one of the largest churches in the Southern Baptist Convention (Shadow Mountain); he continues to travel the world speaking at Christian conferences; he still broadcasts his daily radio program and his weekly television program; and he continues to write books.

He was one of the speakers at a conference I attended recently and he explained his longevity (and continuing effectiveness) with the statement “I just get up each day and I do whatever the next thing is, and I do it to the best of my ability. Then tomorrow I get up and do it again.”

That’s it. He just does whatever the next thing is, he does it to the best of his ability, and then he turns his attention to whatever the next thing is after that, and he just keeps doing it. He doesn’t allow obstacles or discouragement or sickness or even failure to stop him. He just keeps getting up each day and does whatever the next thing is for him to do. David Jeremiah is an overcomer, and he has a lot to teach the rest of us about being overcomers too.

All this month we will explore the theme of being an overcomer. As one of my sources I’m going to draw on some themes and lessons David teaches about overcoming in his new book “Overcomer”. It’s a good book with some important and powerful lessons that will be helpful to us all. I look forward to sharing them with you.

God Bless,

Pastor Jim

Our mailing address is:

Our theme for this month: “Telling the truth”

Our Bible verse for today: “So then, have I become your enemy because I have told you the truth?” Galatians 4:16 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “Speak the truth, but do it in love.”

A couple of weeks ago, during a time of discussion in a Bible study group, somebody asked the question if a lie is always wrong, and if the truth must always be told. The answer isn’t as obvious or as easy as you might at first think.

First of all, a lie is always a lie. Either something is true or it isn’t and if you say something that isn’t true, then you have told a lie. But is a lie always wrong? And does the truth always need to be told?

The ninth commandment clearly instructs us not to lie. But in the Bible we do find examples of a lie being told and evidently it was not a bad thing. In Exodus 1:15-22 the Pharaoh ordering the Hebrew midwives to kill all the Hebrew infants at birth. The midwives didn’t do it and when Pharaoh demanded to know why, they lied to him. They told him that the Hebrew mothers kept giving birth before the midwives could arrive and kill the baby. From the context of the passage it’s clear that the midwives were deceiving and misleading Pharaoh. And yet in the passage we also find that God honored and blessed the midwives for their actions.

Likewise, in Joshua chapter two we find the harlot Rahab hiding the Jewish spies in Jericho and then lying to government officials about it. And in this case too, she was honored and blessed by God for doing so.

Those are examples of what is sometimes called a “righteous lie”. It is lying for a righteous purpose. A more modern example would be if you lived in Europe during the Nazi holocaust and you were hiding Jews from the Nazis. If a Nazi officer shows up at your door demanding to know if you know where the Jews are hiding and you say “no”, but you really do know, you have told a righteous lie, and it was a good thing rather than a bad thing. However those are rare cases. The overwhelming evidence of Scripture is that lying is wrong and there is almost never a justification for it.

The other question is whether or not the truth has to be told if you could instead simply remain silent. For instance, if your very overweight spouse has lost ten pounds and is convinced she looks better already, but you know there really is no noticeable difference yet, do you have to tell her there is no noticeable difference or can you simply compliment her on the fact that she has lost ten pounds and let it go at that? I would say that sometimes remaining silent is the better part of wisdom, and just because something is true you don’t necessarily need to volunteer that information in every case.

Perhaps sometimes a “righteous” lie is in order. At other times it might be better to simply remain silent rather than saying something that does not necessarily need to be said. But most of the time, speak the truth when the truth needs to be spoken but be sure to do it in love.

God Bless,

Pastor Jim

Our mailing address is:

Our theme for this month: “Telling the truth”

Our Bible verse for today: “Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; rebuke, correct, and encourage with great patience and teaching. For the time will come when people will not tolerate sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, will multiply teachers for themselves because they have an itch to hear what they want to hear. They will turn away from hearing the truth and will turn aside to myths.” 2 Timothy 4:2-4 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “Just tell them the truth.”

The other day I came across a passage in a book I’m reading which I think provides a startling snapshot of the condition of our culture. The book is “Strength for the Weary” by Derek Thomas. In one chapter he makes reference to Neil Postman’s important book “Amusing Ourselves to Death.” In that book Postman contrasts two other important and classic books, George Orwell’s “1984” and Aldous Huxley’s “Brave New World.”

In “1984” Orwell describes a futuristic society in which the daily lives of the people are controlled by a heavy-handed authoritarian nanny-state. Every aspect of their lives are dictated and controlled by “Big Brother”. In “Brave New World” Huxley’s futuristic society needs no governmental “Big Brother” to take away their autonomy because the people have no desire for it. In Huxley’s world the people are easily amused by trivialities and silly little nothings. They have no serious interests, no initiative, no hopes, no dreams – and it doesn’t bother them.

In Orwell’s world all books are banned. In Huxley’s world there’s no need to ban books because nobody wants to read one anyway. In Orwell’s world the flow of information is limited and tightly controlled, with only officially approved thinking being tolerated. In Huxley’s world the people are absolutely overwhelmed with so much information and choices that they can’t process it all. Therefore it all becomes trivial and meaningless to them, to the point that they no longer even try to think deeply.

In “Amusing Ourselves to Death” Postman argues that it is Huxley’s vision that has come true in our society today. He writes that we have allowed ourselves to become so focused on our comforts and entertainments, and we are so inundated with noise and distractions and overwhelming volumes of information, that we have become silly and trivial people who have difficulty thinking serious thoughts and who don’t live meaningful lives.

I think Postman is only half right. Personally I believe we are living in the worlds of both Orwell’s “1984” and Huxley’s “Brave New World”. We have allowed our country to become a nanny-state that is intrusive and controlling, and at the same time we are amusing ourselves to death as our society becomes increasingly silly and superficial.

For Christians the answer is for us to stay focused on the truth of God’s Word. We must have and maintain a Biblical worldview for ourselves, and we must speak Biblical truth into an increasingly oppressed and superficial culture.

We, the people of God, have the truth of God that others need to hear. People in our culture today need clarity of thought and they need hope. The only truths and perspectives that truly matter are that which God gave to us in the Bible. We need to preach it in season and out of season, whether they want to hear it or not.

God Bless,
Pastor Jim

Our mailing address is:

Our theme for this month: “Telling the truth”

Our Bible verse for today: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.” Galatians 5:22-23 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “Don’t live a lie.”

Not everyone who professes to be a Christian really is one. Hitler professed to be a Christian but he obviously was not. Likewise, in the movie “The Godfather – Part III” Michael Corleone is a ruthless crime boss who oversees a mafia operation of gambling, prostitution, loan sharking, extortion, and murder. In one scene we see him in church lighting candles, kneeling in prayer, and receiving a blessing from his priest. While he is doing that his henchmen are out in town beating, torturing, and murdering people on his instructions.

Not everyone who professes to be a Christian is a Christian.

Also, there are many people who have made a genuine profession of faith in Christ at one time, but who are now out wandering in the spiritual wilderness. They have drifted far from the practice of the faith and are now instead involved in adultery, drugs, alcohol, petty crimes, and more.

Not everyone who professes to be a Christian is a Christian, and not everyone who professes to be a Christian is a faithful Christian. All of those people are living a lie.

In Matthew 7:13-23, in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus taught a lesson about those who are faking the faith. In that passage He used as His examples false prophets who claim to have a word from God but don’t, and regular people who claim to follow Jesus but who are not living according to Biblical principles. In His lesson He told His listeners that you will know such people by their fruit. In other words, you will see the evidence of what is real by how they live their lives.

In Galatians 5:22-23 Paul described for us what it looks like when a follower of Christ is living in the fullness of the Spirit. That person’s life will be characterized by love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. That’s the fruit we need to see in the lives of other people, and in our own lives. If that fruit is not there, there is something wrong with the faith we profess to be ours.

Don’t live a lie. If you profess to be a follower of Christ then it’s essential to live in a way that honors Him.

God Bless,
Pastor Jim

Our mailing address is:

Our theme for this month: “Telling the truth”

Our Bible verse for today: “Don’t be deceived: God is not mocked. For whatever a person sows he will also reap.” Galatians 6:7 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “Sooner or later the truth will come out.”

The Biblical principle of sowing and reaping teaches that sooner or later your actions will produce consequences in your life. Good or bad, it all comes back on you sooner or later. The Hindus call it “karma”, but it is an observable and provable truth that sooner or later you reap what you sow.

This pertains especially to honesty and truthfulness. If you’ve paid attention to the news in recent months then you know that the former Trump campaign manager, Paul Manafort, is about to be sentenced to what will probably be a long prison term. He has been convicted of money laundering and tax evasion. Over several decades hundreds of millions of dollars have passed through Manafort’s hands.

Much of what Manafort earned was through legitimate business enterprises. However he lived such an extravagant and excessively luxurious lifestyle that his legal income wasn’t enough to cover his personal expenses. So he engaged in illegal activity too. He accepted money from corrupt government officials and seedy international businessmen. Then he funneled it through an intricate web of offshore shell companies, and eventually into his private bank accounts – thereby evading millions of dollars in taxes that he was legally required to pay. As a result, the American taxpayers were essentially underwriting his decades of luxurious living and conspicuous consumption.

The interesting thing is that many of those crimes were years, even decades old, and had nothing to do with his more recent work for the President. But an investigation into questionable campaign activities uncovered those crimes committed years ago – and it is for those crimes that he will be going to prison, proving once again that you reap what you sow and sooner or later the truth is revealed.

This is an age-old story. One man, in the process of convincing his wife that he had not cheated on her recently, accidently revealed that he had cheated on her multiple times in the past. Another man, applying for a security clearance for a government job, was discovered to have had an outstanding twenty year old arrest warrant for sexual assault. Examples of this are endless.

The answer is to live Biblically now, and tomorrow, and on into the future. Live in such a way now that there won’t be anything to worry about twenty years from now, because sooner or later, the truth will come out.

God Bless,

Pastor Jim

Our mailing address is:

Our theme for this month: “Telling the truth”

Our Bible verse for today: “Isn’t this the fast I choose: To break the chains of wickedness, to untie the ropes of the yoke, to set the oppressed free, and to tear off every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, to bring the poor and homeless into your house, to clothe the naked when you see him, and not to ignore your own flesh and blood? Isaiah 58:6-7 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “Actions speak louder than words.”

Mahatma Gandhi was an activist, a political leader, and a Hindu mystic in India in the early to mid 1900s. He was instrumental in helping India gain independence from Great Britain. Gandhi was a Hindu, but at one point early in his life he was fascinated with the teachings of Jesus. Unfortunately, he never became a Christian. When asked why he didn’t he said, “I love your Christ but I don’t like your Christians.”

While studying the teachings of Jesus, Gandhi was struck by the obvious and blatant hypocrisy of the British Christians all around him. They loudly and piously proclaimed Biblical principles, but their actions stood in stark contrast to their words. To Gandhi, in British controlled India of that day, it seemed that there was little correlation between the teachings of Christ and the conduct of Christians.

This is the point God was making through the words of Isaiah in Isaiah 58:6-7. God expects our actions to match our words. Christian faith should manifest itself in acts of goodness, mercy, love, generosity, compassion, and grace. Regardless of what you profess to believe, it’s what you actually do that tells the real story.

Isaiah went on in verse 8: “Then your light will appear like the dawn, and your recovery will come quickly. You righteousness will go before you, and the Lord’s glory will be your rear guard.” In other words, when your actions match your words, then your light will shine and God will be glorified.

The truth of your faith is revealed not so much in what you say, but in what you do. Actions speak louder than words.

God Bless,

Pastor Jim

Our mailing address is:

Our theme for this month: “Telling the truth”

Our Bible verse for today: “Therefore, putting away lying, speak the truth, each one to his neighbor, because we are members of one another.” Ephesians 4:25 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “Be open, honest, and transparent with each other.”

Some years ago I worked in an organization where it was not uncommon for co-workers to deceive and mislead one another. Members of the organization often engaged in mild forms of deception by withholding key pieces of important information, or by presenting things in a way that was not entirely true and accurate. Sometimes things were described in such a way that would lead a person to go along with a decision or plan, without the person fully understanding what it was they were going along with.

Needless to say, all of that resulted in an unhealthy organizational climate. There was doubt and mistrust among co-workers, and as a staff member you could seldom be sure if you had the full story in any given situation. That’s bad in any setting, whether we’re talking about a workplace, a home, or a church.

Personally I value transparency. I think Christians should be completely open and honest with each other. We need to speak the truth to each other in love. We should not lie to each other or deceive one another. There shouldn’t be shades of meaning, twisted truth, or mild deceptions. Let your “yes” be “yes” and your “no” be “no”. Say what you mean and mean what you say.

In Ephesians 4:17-32 Paul was giving some instructions about how to live the Christian life well. In that passage he covered a variety of different behaviors. He wrote that we are not to conduct ourselves as unsaved people do, and we are not to be hard, cold, calloused, or promiscuous. He said we are not to be corrupt or angry or bitter; we are not to slander other people; and, we are not to be deceitful or untruthful. Instead we are to tell each other the truth in love.

Be real with people. Don’t make them try to guess what you’re up to and don’t give them reason to doubt your honesty. You shouldn’t have anything you need to hide anyway, and if you’re engaged in something that leads you to believe you have to mislead people about it, then it’s something you shouldn’t be involved with in the first place.

Be honest, be open, and be transparent.

God Bless,

Pastor Jim

Our mailing address is:

Our theme for this month: “Telling the truth”

Our Bible verse for today: “If we say, ‘We have no sin,’ we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” 1 John 1:8 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “Be truthful with yourself.”

I’m always amazed at our capacity for self-deception. We lie to ourselves much more than we lie to other people. We convince ourselves of all sorts of things that simply are not true. We tell ourselves we are better than we really are, or worse than we really are. We believe things about other people that aren’t true. We also explain-away and rationalize all sorts of bad behavior that we shouldn’t engage in but which we convince ourselves is really okay or isn’t a big deal.

We justify, rationalize, diminish, obscure, and go to great lengths to make things appear different to ourselves than they really are. Yes, we lie to ourselves much more than we lie to other people.

One of the greatest and most memorable lines about self-deception that has ever been written came from the pen of play writer and poet William Shakespeare. In his play “Hamlet” one of the characters famously counseled another, “This above all: to thine own self be true.” He meant that there is nothing more important than being honest and truthful with yourself, because if you aren’t, you have then deceived yourself. You have lied to yourself and you are now living a lie. Your decisions, your actions, and your dealings with other people will be based upon false assumptions about them and about yourself.

In 1 John 1:8 the Apostle addressed one of the most common forms of self-deception people tend to engage in – we sin but we either convince ourselves that our actions aren’t really wrong, or we shrug it off and minimize it. Doing that is self-destructive. It will always lead to bad results, and it might be the beginning of an extended pattern of sin that becomes habitual.

John’s words are intended to convict us about our thinking, speaking, and conduct. We are not to deceive ourselves. We are not to excuse wrong actions. We must be brutally honest with ourselves and we are to hold ourselves to the highest possible standards.

As Shakespeare urged in his play, be true to yourself. Don’t lie to yourself and don’t deceive yourself. Tell yourself the truth.

God Bless,
Pastor Jim

Our mailing address is:

Our theme for this month: “Telling the truth”

Our Bible verse for today: “The grass withers, the flowers fade, but the word of God remains forever.” Isaiah 40:8 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “The truth of the Bible is for everyone, in all places, at all times.”

I know a Christian man whose marriage is struggling and appears to be headed for a divorce. He explained to me that he and his wife have “irreconcilable differences” and after twenty years it seems to them that they would be better off separate rather than together. This is the second marriage for both of them. Both of their first marriages ended in divorce too.

I explained to the man that in a Christian marriage there is no such thing as “irreconcilable differences”. There are no problems that the Holy Spirit cannot lead them to resolve. Reconciliation is always possible. Besides that, their marriage problems don’t rise to the Biblical standard for divorce. Biblically they have no grounds for getting a divorce.

He responded that although standards for divorce may have been different in previous generations, in our culture today it is perfectly acceptable for couples to divorce for virtually any reason. “No-fault” divorce is quick and easy, common and acceptable.

That may be true, but cultural norms are not the standard by which faithful Christians govern their conduct. Christians are people of the Book. We live according to Biblical principles. And that’s true regardless of the culture we live in. God’s Word, and the principles He has established for His people to live by, apply to all people in all places at all times, regardless of culture, traditions, customs, geography, generations, or any other factor. The Bible is true all the time, for everyone.

This is what Isaiah meant when he wrote in Isaiah 40:8, “The grass withers, the flowers fade, but the word of God remains forever.” The Apostle Peter repeated almost those exact words in the New Testament, in 1 Peter 1:25, “The grass withers, the flower falls, but the word of the Lord endures forever.”

Christian, don’t look to the culture for guidance about what’s right or wrong. Base your conduct and live your life according to God’s standards as given to us in the Bible. Make your decisions, especially the hard ones, on Biblical principles not cultural norms. For the people of God, God’s Word is the only truth that matters.

God Bless,
Pastor Jim

Our mailing address is: