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all nations
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Matt 28:19
19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations , baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
NIV

Mark 13:7
7 When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come.
NIV


Mark 13:9-10
10 And the gospel must first be preached to all nations .
NIV



the least of
Matt 25:31-46

31 "When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. 32 All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33 He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.

34 "Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.'

37 "Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?'

40 "The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'

41 "Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42 For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.'

44 "They also will answer, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?'

45 "He will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these , you did not do for me.'

46 "Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life."
NIV







This morning is good like any other morning. I got out of my bed and went into the kitchen to eat breakfast, thinking about the Lord and what I might do today and this came to my mind:

On Jesus’ last day here on this Earth He told His disciples the following:

Matt 24:14
14 And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations , and then the end will come.
NIV

Matt 28:18-19
19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations , baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
NIV

Mark 13:10
10 And the gospel must first be preached to all nations .
NIV

Repeatedly you find the words all nations…hum…what does that mean? All nations who worship at my Church? No. well it MUST mean those who do proper things. No. OK, it must be those who are members of my (or this or that) religion. No. Then it has to refer to those in other countries. No.

All nations simply refers to everyone. And everyone is everyone. Handicapped and not. Other countries or not. Whether they go to my Church or not. Whether they do proper things or not (especially if not) they still need salvation. If they are in your Church or religion, Church or other countries it doesn’t matter they still need Jesus.

So what if it seems they are uncommon? It does not matter to Jesus.

Please the following words from Jesus own mouth:
Matt 25:31-46

31 "When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. 32 All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33 He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.

34 "Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.'

37 "Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?'

40 "The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'

41 "Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42 For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.'

44 "They also will answer, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?'

45 "He will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these , you did not do for me.'

46 "Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life."
NIV

So, I think we have a lot to do, even right where we are because I want to be with the sheep on the right!

I've been listening to some very good music. My wife has been copying some of our CDs so that we can both listen to them and this one song by Steven Curtis Chapman keeps coming to my mind "I'm gunna love you with my life" and although I can remember hearing it and really liking it in the past, being who I am now and having gone through so much as I have now, that song has a totally new meaning! It is now extremely important to me. So important that it is my song now between me and Jesus. I do want to love Him with my life! It's one thing to say it and a totally different thing to do it.

At the beginning of the song it says:

There is a pressing question
My heart's been asking me
When I say I love you Lord
What does it mean?
It's one thing to say it
And another thing to do
How can I show you it's true?
I'm gonna love you with my life

The mere words say it all!
I'm gonna love you with my life

Not with my words or behavior, none of those alone (as many religions say) but with my life. Think about that for a moment. If God is omni everything and scripture clearly states that He is, then He really does know if you act one way at Church and another when you're elsewhere.

Ok then what does love you with my life mean then? Great question! We are to be like Christ, hence the name Christian. So what was Christ like? You asked another great question! People would probably say many things but patient, forgiving, always willing to go the extra mile…,you could go on and on, but the ones we named are often the hardest ones for us, as humans, to gain.

So what's different for us verses Jesus. I could be wrong, but He NEVER EVER QUETIOND HIS HOME. NEVER. But we do. We have been told many times in scripture that it is evolving, who is building it, but we want the details! Who? What? When? Why? Where? We think that we have to know! Why? Because we're humans? I don't think so, because as I have read that we're living eternally and as humans we can't do that, but human nature just drives us on and on so all we can do is trust God and go where ever He leads us.

That's what I do. I never would have thought that what has happened would have happened and that I would be alive today, but it did happen and I am alive. Why? Because He controls life and death and there's, obviously, still work to be done for Him by me.

Do I know what work I'm here for? Nope but I'm going to love him with my life! When people speak of me, I hope that they will think of Jesus!

When I was going to bed last night (yes, I'm always thinking) the main reason that I had written to you finally came to me! It's as simple as the words I'm gonna love you with my life. That's what Jesus did. At the cost of His own life He loved us, and now as Christians we're able to do the same thing: Are you willing not to be caught up in the "you display" to be caught up in the "Jesus Display"? I AM!

I am with you always

A woman in my Sunday school class gave me a poster that was all about Matthew 28:18-20 and this part of the verse was highlighted. I have always thought That’s nice but it wasn’t until recently that I saw the realism and importance of those words of Jesus.

He is OMNI everything and that alone is difficult for me as a human to understand. I simply cannot! And to realize that He would be with just me was impossible.

But He has shown me time and time again that He is with me. To the point that I just have to believe it. No, it doesn’t make sense to me and no I don’t understand it, but it’s true and it does happen.

So, when things come up or things just don’t make sense it helps me to know that He knows it too. And even if I think that I might die, I stop and realize like the Apostle Paul said: to die is gain, so really there is no worry for me when I realize this!

I’m baack…

Not to simply assume that you did notice or that you were wondering, but just in case you did: on Tuesday I simply (no it was not simple) could not breathe (and that wasn’t simple) so I called my monitoring system and they quickly called the Paramedics,

The Paramedics couldn’t help me either and so they took to me hospital. And they admitted me and began a series of tests. When they looked at everything and compared it to the last time that I was in they immediately saw resemblances .

Then, what I was told just shocked me. At first they asked : “What do you do when something that you are eating or drinking gets stuck back into throat. Do you spit it out?” I immediately replied “No, I cannot spit now, it just doesn’t work.” And they said “Well THAT’S your problem.”

And to be honest with you, at first I thought “Is this what it what it means to do your best (and screw up) up to things as a human Christian? And I truly thought about this for a long. long time.

Then I realized that Jesus didn’t come and live the life He lived and die the death He did and arise on the third day and then ascend into the heavens for Perfect People! No, He came to make a difference for everyone and He did! That’s why his final wosds were it is finished.

And I felt a lot better.

This is the life we live in the world in which we live. Is it going to be pretty? No. Was is for Jesus? No. Did Jesus go to Heaven? Yes. Will we go to Heaven? Jesus said we woud. And I trust Him.

Holy

Webster’s dictionary says this:

Holy: 1. Worthy of absolute devotion
2. sacred
3. having a divine quality

Now I don’t know about you but I am definitely NOT holy. I couldn’t be but I know who is: God!

I am not worthy of absolute devotion, I am not sacred and I have no divine qualities. But God is all of those things and more.

In the scriptures and in my translation the word “holy” is used 584 times. In the Old Testament it referred to an action or thing that was to be considered to be “holy”. But, when it came to people, they were made “holy”. It wasn’t something about them or what they did that made them “holy” no, it was God that made them “holy”:

Lev 20:8
8 Keep my decrees and follow them. I am the LORD, who makes you holy .
NIV

And in the New Testament it is clear that we are “holy” by God’s choice before the creation of the world, before we were even born:

Eph 1:4
4 For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight.
NIV

So we are not holy by our choice or our behavior, we are holy only by His choice. It’s not US, it’s Him. And we can be thankful for that..

I’m a die hard Christian

Every moment of every day I think about Christ. Nothing, absolutely nothing that I do is because “I can”, no it’s because He allows me to do it.

And I don’t think that it’s just me or people who are just like me! No, He is just that way. He made each of us and He loves us. That much! Yes it is hard to believe, but it’s true.

I am quite fortunate because He took the time and effort to teach me! As a human I have a difficult time understanding that because 1+1 does NOT = 2. And as humans that’s our rule of thumb. 1+1 must equal 2 so that we can figure everything out.

But with Jesus things just aren’t that way at all. No, He’s not human He’s a Spiritual Being with totally different thoughts, intentions & actions. That alone makes Him worthy of praise but there’s more!

Remember creation? He is capable of that! He was involved in that and He is our God. We are extremely fortunate. Beyond what we even know.

So YES I’m a die hard Christian.

Priorities


Everyone has priorities. But what are priorities? Miriam Webster defines priority in the dictionary as a noun that means: the fact of coming earlier. Synonyms are: precedence and priority.

So it’s pretty clear that a priority or several priorities are things or a thing that comes earlier or first. That is pretty simple isn’t it? Yes it is, but not so fast…

Who decides that something is a priority? Now you can begin to see the complexity. It would be much more simple if we always decided on own but we do not. Others define them like bosses and friends or even a spouse or our children.

The bottom line is: it must be done FIRST and BEFORE ANYTHING ELSE. First and before anything else. If you do this then that will happen. So priorities take front seat in our lives. Because if you do this then you will get or have that and if that is a priority to you then you WILL DO THIS!

It is much more complex when you think of it this way.

And if you’re a Christian it becomes even more complex. And you wonder why? Well, think about it. Priorities are often defined by the world. Money and time are usually what we want, but the only way to get them is if we meet the priorities which have been set for us by the powers that be. If you don’t do it, then you won’t get what you want.

And what you want becomes the definition of what you do. If THIS doesn’t happen then you won’t get THAT! Not because you want it or need it. It’s because you made sure that THIS happened.

Now, think about that. The reason that you do everything that you do is based on priorities, some of which you have set and some that were set by someone or something else, not you. But they must be done because you want or need something.

Now you get the picture.

Priorities are why you do what you do. So at times you cannot meet some ones needs because quite frankly their needs are NOT on your list of priorities.

If is difficult to understand AND accept but it is true.

Case in point, I am your brother in Christ but no one ever comes to see me. I live my life all alone because you all have other more important priorities.

That’s hard to realize and very hard to accept, but I have to do it 365 days a year and yes it is hard. But I have no choice. It’s not my choice but yours. Are you happy? I hope so because I’m not.