I’m knocking, will you let me in?

Behold, I stand at the door and knock.  If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me. – Revalations 3:20

What  a great invitation!

Jesus is at your door and wants to dine with you!  Are you willing to let Him in?

I love this picture, Jesus is at the door knocking, but if you notice, there is no knob on His side of the door!  He can only come in if you are willing to let Him in!

He won’t barge into your life, He won’t rush in the door and yell “I’m here!”  He won’t come in uninvited.  He just knocks softly and patiently waits.  And He is always waiting.  He won’t knock and run away, He just waits.

How often do we become impatient with each other, we try to plan events or we expect others to be there and accept us no matter where or when, but then we become angry or bitter when they don’t open the door for us.

Haven’t you had occations where you’ve tried to do something with others and you call or visit them on several occations but they either aren’t there or don’t have the time for you?  How do we feel?  Usually upset to say the least and at worst angry! Sometimes even to the point where it threatens the relationship.

Shouldn’t we be more like Jesus?  How many times have we shut Him out of our lives?  How many times have we said, “Sorry Lord, but I have other plans for tonight and You aren’t really part of them?  How many times have we hurt Him with these actions?  I know that He is a forgiving God, but when I think of this I can’t help but feel bad.  The one who can help us the most, the one who love us the most and at times I just leave Him out in the cold.  Makes me ashamed……..

Then I look at the time when I do open the door to Him…WOW… what took me so long?  He fills my life!  He makes me feel truly alive!  When I open the door and let His Spirit in, I feel like I can take on anything.  There is nothing that the evil one can throw at me that can hurt me or cause me to stumble because the Lord is with me.

I can do all this through Him who gives me strength. – Philippians 4:13

Great verse to amplify this – If I open up and let Christ into my life, I truly can do all things thru Him who give me strenght!

My prayer for you this week is that you truly open the “door” to your heart to the Lord Jesus.  May you open to Him, freely invite Him into your heart and into your life.  May He fill you with His spirit so that His love flows into you and through you as you encounter others.  May the world see that you have opened the door to Jesus and that they see Him in all you do!

Friends, God bless you all!

Praise You With A Song

Songs and singing in worship, another area that I’ve been watching.  Why is it that we have no problem singing with the radio or out having a good time with friends, but we don’t open our mouths and sing in church?  Sorry, I love to sing in church!  I don’t think I’m very good but when I’m in church I’m singing the Lords praises with all my power!  For those around me this could be a challenge, but sorry you’re going to hear me anyway.

I feel that song and praise are an escential part of the worship service.  My take is that if you don’t participate in the singing, you’re missing a very important part of the service.  Song and praise has been an very important part of worship going back to the Old Testament, and to top it off you see written that it was the men  who did most of the singing and made most of the worship songs!  Men where are you now?

We don’t need to look far to find examples of this.  Just go to the Psalms – the songs of David!  When you open your bible to the Psalms, often there are notes explaining how the instruments are to be played and how each is sung and lead.

Look at 1 Chronicles 6:31-32 These are the men David put in charge of the music in the house of the LORD after the ark came to rest there. They ministered with music before the tabernacle, the Tent of Meeting, until Solomon built the temple of the LORD in Jerusalem. They performed their duties according to the regulations laid down for them.

And, 1 Chronicles 15:16-24  David told the leaders of the Levites to appoint their brothers as singers to sing joyful songs, accompanied by musical instruments: lyres, harps and cymbals. So the Levites appointed Heman son of Joel; from his brothers, Asaph son of Berekiah; and from their brothers the Merarites, Ethan son of Kushaiah;  and with them their brothers next in rank: Zechariah, Jaaziel, Shemiramoth, Jehiel, Unni, Eliab, Benaiah, Maaseiah, Mattithiah, Eliphelehu, Mikneiah, Obed-Edom and Jeiel, the gatekeepers.  The musicians Heman, Asaph and Ethan were to sound the bronze cymbals;  Zechariah, Aziel, Shemiramoth, Jehiel, Unni, Eliab, Maaseiah and Benaiah were to play the lyres according to “alamoth,” and Mattithiah, Eliphelehu, Mikneiah, Obed-Edom, Jeiel and Azaziah were to play the harps, directing according to “sheminith.” Kenaniah the head Levite was in charge of the singing; that was his responsibility because he was skillful at it.  Berekiah and Elkanah were to be doorkeepers for the ark.  Shebaniah, Joshaphat, Nethanel, Amasai, Zechariah, Benaiah and Eliezer the priests were to blow trumpets before the ark of God. Obed-Edom and Jehiah were also to be doorkeepers for the ark.

Nehemiah 12:45-47 They performed the service of their God and the service of purification, as did also the singers and gatekeepers, according to the commands of David and his son Solomon. For long ago, in the days of David and Asaph, there had been directors for the singers and for the songs of praise and thanksgiving to God.  So in the days of Zerubbabel and of Nehemiah, all Israel contributed the daily portions for the singers and gatekeepers.

These were important duties!  Why do we shirk on them now!

And don’t think these were only “ancient” teachings of the Old Testament!

Let’s go forward to Ephesians 5:19 singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among yourselves, and making music to the Lord in your hearts.

I want you to think about this the next time you’re in church.  Since we believe the Bible is divinely inspired, infallible, and all-sufficient, it is our sole authority for all that we do.  We believe we cannot add to or take away from the Scriptures, nor can we preach another gospel than that contained in the New Testament. We are to be singing and praising the Lord with all our might!  We shouldn’t feel ashamed, or self conscious about how we sing or how loud we sing.  We are to sing out with joy and thanksgiving, raising our hands in praise to the Lord.

So, here’s my warning! If you sit near me or stand near me when I am at a worship service, you are going to hear me!  And don’t be surprised to see my hands go up in praise either because I do love the Lord and I love Jesus Christ and I want Him to know how much I do love Him and thank Him for all He has done for me.

I pray that you think about this and that more so you pray about this, that the Lord will open your heart and fill you with so much joy that you cannot help but sing out His praises!

Sing to the Lord a new song!  Sing it from your heart!

God Bless you all!

I’m so glad Jesus likes golf!

There is a term used in golf called a mulligan.  The best way I can describe this is a “do over”!  That’s why I believe Jesus likes the game of golf!  You see when you’re playing golf with your friends, there are times when you have a terrible shot and they either tell you to take a “Mulligan” or you ask them to allow you to take a “Mulligan”.

In our human walk, isn’t it nice to know that Jesus grants us many, many “Mulligans”?  And to top it off, many of the times he grants us one, we REALLY, REALLY don’t deserve a do over!

It is such a comfort and relief to know that my belief that Jesus died for all of my sins and all of my mess ups, that I am forgiven if I believe in him through the power of his blood sacrifice for me!

“Brothers, listen! We are here to proclaim that through this man Jesus there is forgiveness for your sins. Everyone who believes in him is declared right with God—something the law of Moses could never do. Acts 13:38-39

Also, lets look at John 8:1-11,

Jesus returned to the Mount of Olives, but early the next morning he was back again at the Temple. A crowd soon gathered, and he sat down and taught them.

As he was speaking, the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in the act of adultery. They put her in front of the crowd.

“Teacher,” they said to Jesus, “this woman was caught in the act of adultery.The law of Moses says to stone her. What do you say?”

They were trying to trap him into saying something they could use against him, but Jesus stooped down and wrote in the dust with his finger.

They kept demanding an answer, so he stood up again and said, “All right, but let the one who has never sinned throw the first stone!”  Then he stooped down again and wrote in the dust.

When the accusers heard this, they slipped away one by one, beginning with the oldest, until only Jesus was left in the middle of the crowd with the woman.

Then Jesus stood up again and said to the woman, “Where are your accusers? Didn’t even one of them condemn you?”

“No, Lord,” she said. And Jesus said, “Neither do I. Go and sin no more.”

Here we find Jesus with a woman who had sinned terribly, but yet Jesus in his great mercy has forgiven her.  He gave her a do over – “Neither do I (condemn her) go and sin no more”

That is truly amazing and truly inspiring.  I am so undeserving of His grace but He loves me that much, that I too, can have a “Mulligan” to try again tomorrow

Friends, we all try hard to do what is right and good, but as humans we all mess up, we all make mistakes and we all fall short before God.  The great thing is that thru Jesus Christ, and what he did for us on that day, we are forgiven, if we believe.  We are forgiven by Gods grace and mercy and given the chance to have a Mulligan, a “do over”.

I have one more request, if you are a reader of this blog and have not given yourself to Christ, I encourage you to really pray on this and take that step.  It will profoundly change your life, that I promise you, because I can tell you He has changed mine and it is fantastic!

If you ever need someone to talk to about your faith or have any questions, please feel free to contact me, my email for this site is thecatholicdropout@comcast.net

May His grace and mercy be over you in this next week and always.

Who is your God?

Hopefully giving you something more to think about.

We all want to believe that our God is the Father in Heaven, Jesus, the Holy Spirit.  We want to honestly say and believe that the Trinity represents our true God.  But, do we really act and pattern our lives that way?  I know I try, I really do, but I also know that I still fall down more than I should.

You see, we can and often do follow similar paths to the early Israelites and the pagans of the old Testament!  They often would drift from God and start worshiping other idols!  They made golden statues of these other “Gods”, they offered sacrifices to these other Gods, and they turned their focus from the one true God!

I’m drawn to the book of Exodus 32 while Moses was on the mountain.
When the people saw how long it was taking Moses to come back down the mountain, they gathered around Aaron. “Come on,” they said, “make us some gods who can lead us. We don’t know what happened to this fellow Moses, who brought us here from the land of Egypt.”
So Aaron said, “Take the gold rings from the ears of your wives and sons and daughters, and bring them to me.”
All the people took the gold rings from their ears and brought them to Aaron.
Then Aaron took the gold, melted it down, and molded it into the shape of a calf. When the people saw it, they exclaimed, “O Israel, these are the gods who brought you out of the land of Egypt!”
Aaron saw how excited the people were, so he built an altar in front of the calf. Then he announced, “Tomorrow will be a festival to the LORD!”
The people got up early the next morning to sacrifice burnt offerings and peace offerings. After this, they celebrated with feasting and drinking, and they indulged in pagan revelry.The LORD told Moses, “Quick! Go down the mountain! Your people whom you brought from the land of Egypt have corrupted themselves.
How quickly they have turned away from the way I commanded them to live! They have melted down gold and made a calf, and they have bowed down and sacrificed to it. They are saying, ‘These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you out of the land of Egypt.’”
Then the LORD said, “I have seen how stubborn and rebellious these people are.
Now leave me alone so my fierce anger can blaze against them, and I will destroy them. Then I will make you, Moses, into a great nation.”
But Moses tried to pacify the LORD his God. “O LORD!” he said. “Why are you so angry with your own people whom you brought from the land of Egypt with such great power and such a strong hand? Why let the Egyptians say, ‘Their God rescued them with the evil intention of slaughtering them in the mountains and wiping them from the face of the earth’? Turn away from your fierce anger. Change your mind about this terrible disaster you have threatened against your people!
Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.t You bound yourself with an oath to them, saying, ‘I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars of heaven. And I will give them all of this land that I have promised to your descendants, and they will possess it forever.’”
So the LORD changed his mind about the terrible disaster he had threatened to bring on his people.
Then Moses turned and went down the mountain. He held in his hands the two stone tablets inscribed with the terms of the covenant.t They were inscribed on both sides, front and back.
These tablets were God’s work; the words on them were written by God himself.
When Joshua heard the boisterous noise of the people shouting below them, he exclaimed to Moses, “It sounds like war in the camp!”
But Moses replied, “No, it’s not a shout of victory nor the wailing of defeat. I hear the sound of a celebration.”
When they came near the camp, Moses saw the calf and the dancing, and he burned with anger. He threw the stone tablets to the ground, smashing them at the foot of the mountain.
He took the calf they had made and burned it. Then he ground it into powder, threw it into the water, and forced the people to drink it.
Finally, he turned to Aaron and demanded, “What did these people do to you to make you bring such terrible sin upon them?”
“Don’t get so upset, my lord,” Aaron replied. “You yourself know how evil these people are. They said to me, ‘Make us gods who will lead us. We don’t know what happened to this fellow Moses, who brought us here from the land of Egypt.’
So I told them, ‘Whoever has gold jewelry, take it off.’ When they brought it to me, I simply threw it into the fire—and out came this calf!”
Moses saw that Aaron had let the people get completely out of control, much to the amusement of their enemies.t
So he stood at the entrance to the camp and shouted, “All of you who are on the LORD’s side, come here and join me.” And all the Levites gathered around him.
Moses told them, “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: Each of you, take your swords and go back and forth from one end of the camp to the other. Kill everyone—even your brothers, friends, and neighbors.”
The Levites obeyed Moses’ command, and about 3,000 people died that day.
Then Moses told the Levites, “Today you have ordained yourselvest for the service of the LORD, for you obeyed him even though it meant killing your own sons and brothers. Today you have earned a blessing.”

There are some strong teachings in this chapter.

Don’t we sometimes fall into a similar trap.

Sometimes it’s money that becomes our God, we want to posess more and more, never being satisfied with what we have and sometimes even more reluctant to share it with those truly in need around us.

How about time?  We can be very stingy with our time and with the quality of time we spend with the Lord or doing His works.  We tend to short change Him so that we can do what we want to do, not necessarily what He wants us to do.  I find myself guilty of this one more frequently than I really like to admit.  I let the “rush” of the day interfere with the time I should spend with Him.

Posessions can also be another of our false Idols.  Seems the American way has always been bigger, better, more, more, more.  Look out for #1 first.  This one I think we are all guilty of at times.  We get caught up in all the hype and advertising telling us how good this is or how we really need this or that to show how successful we are.  All of this then becomes another idol that we worship.

I’ve been reading more and more quotes from John Wesley.  I’m trying to get a better understanding of this great man and how he saw things.  A quote he used that helps drive some of this home a good view on our want/need for possessions is this:

“Having, First, gained all you can, and, Secondly saved all you can, Then give all you can.” —from a sermon in the Works of John Wesley

I hope and pray that we all can learn from this, we are all guilty of putting other “Gods” before our one true God, I pray that we can find a way to return to Him before we get to the point illustrated by Moses in Exodus and also in Judges 2:19-23 – 19 But when the judge died, the people returned to ways even more corrupt than those of their fathers, following other gods and serving and worshiping them. They refused to give up their evil practices and stubborn ways.
20 Therefore the LORD was very angry with Israel and said, “Because this nation has violated the covenant that I laid down for their forefathers and has not listened to me, 21 I will no longer drive out before them any of the nations Joshua left when he died. 22 I will use them to test Israel and see whether they will keep the way of the LORD and walk in it as their forefathers did.” 23 The LORD had allowed those nations to remain; he did not drive them out at once by giving them into the hands of Joshua.

And also the lesson from Jerimiah 44:1-22
1This word came to Jeremiah concerning all the Jews living in Lower Egypt–in Migdol, Tahpanhes and Memphis–and in Upper Egypt:2″This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: You saw the great disaster I brought on Jerusalem and on all the towns of Judah. Today they lie deserted and in ruins3 because of the evil they have done. They provoked me to anger by burning incense and by worshiping other gods that neither they nor you nor your fathers ever knew.4Again and again I sent my servants the prophets, who said, ‘Do not do this detestable thing that I hate!’ 5 But they did not listen or pay attention; they did not turn from their wickedness or stop burning incense to other gods.6 Therefore, my fierce anger was poured out; it raged against the towns of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem and made them the desolate ruins they are today.7″Now this is what the LORD God Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Why bring such great disaster on yourselves by cutting off from Judah the men and women, the children and infants, and so leave yourselves without a remnant? 8 Why provoke me to anger with what your hands have made, burning incense to other gods in Egypt, where you have come to live? You will destroy yourselves and make yourselves an object of cursing and reproach among all the nations on earth. 9Have you forgotten the wickedness committed by your fathers and by the kings and queens of Judah and the wickedness committed by you and your wives in the land of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem?10To this day they have not humbled themselves or shown reverence, nor have they followed my law and the decrees I set before you and your fathers.11″Therefore, this is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: I am determined to bring disaster on you and to destroy all Judah.

The Lord is slow to anger, but we need to be careful not to provoke Him to the point illustrated above.

Friends, let us be careful of our “idols” and I wish you the peace and joy that comes from a life truly focused on the Lord.

Until next time, God Bless!