Fault Is Best Viewed In A Mirror - Psalm 66:18

If I had cherished iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not have listened. - Psalm 66:18

    There is a constant hum among unbelievers, near-believers, and weak believers about the efficacy of prayer. We hear how these people have prayed and yet God has ignored their desires. In their minds, it is always God that has somehow failed to come through. Seldom do they ever consider that it might be their fault that God has seen fit to ignore their prayers. “Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, or his ear dull, that it cannot hear; but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear.” - Isaiah 59:1-2.
    How often have we heard the pangs of abandonment when tragedy takes place? “God doesn’t listen. God doesn’t care. Where is God when we need Him?” Assume the human-fold for a moment. Which of you would be quick to present someone with a gift who paid you no deference or ignored you? Who berated you and disparaged you? Someone who disrespected you and cast aspersions your way? Consider now the definition of a gift. A gift is something that has not been earned by the prospective receiver. Something that wasn’t due him or her. A gift is something that you bestow upon someone out of the goodness of your heart, not because they had it coming to them. Trust my words when I say that the last thing any of us wants from God is what is coming to us. Never has the adage, ‘Be careful what you wish for,’ been so apropos.
    “You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.” - James 4:3. These are the prayers of the unrighteous. It should come as no surprise that God ignores such plights. The prayers of the unrighteous are astounding in their audacity and presumptuousness. Yet when they go unanswered, the sinner shrugs his shoulders and points at God and swears, “He is the reason my prayers have not been answered!” Beside being absolutely absurd, only the cries from hell are more thunderous.
    So whose prayers will God hear and answer? The Bible is very clear about answered prayer. First, we must ask in faith. “And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith.” - Matthew 21:22. Then we must ask according to God’s will, not ours. “And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us.” - 1 John 5:14. We must obey His commandments. “and whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him.” - 1 John 3:22. Finally, we must ask everything in Christ’s name. “Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.”- John 14:13-14.    All the above mentioned prerequisites have one thing in common: they are the traits common to all true believers in our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. So it is of the utmost importance that before we assign fault or blame for failing to receive gifts and blessings from God, that we look deeply into the mirror before we point the finger at God.
    God’s mercy is not due us otherwise it wouldn’t be mercy. It is God’s decision to show mercy to whom he will show mercy. “For he says to Moses, ‘I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.’” - Romans 9:15. We cannot demand mercy. The very thought of doing so is ludicrous. Nor we cannot expect it if we are determined to live our lives according to our own worldly wills and desires. God has no obligation to bless us. That is the Biblical truth. So if we are intent on having things our own way, then we should not find fault in God, but in ourselves.

Reservations Only - Matthew 25:34

Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. - Matthew 25:34

    There are only two ways one can obtain an inheritance: by birth or by adoption. No one else is entitled to my inheritance, as it has been reserved for me through one or the other of these ways. The neighbor’s kids can’t receive it. A distant cousin cannot receive it. A perfect stranger cannot receive it. It is reserved for me and legally bequeathed to me by the grace of the testator. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you ...”- 1 Peter 1:3-4.
    Our inheritance awaits us upon our passing from the flesh into the spirit. Upon our deaths, we who have been chosen by God will receive the eternal life as promised to us by God Himself! “In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.” - Ephesians 1:13-14.
This is the Promise handed down to those who are faithful to God through faith in Jesus Christ. There is no other way to obtain the inheritance. We cannot work our way into it, nor can we cajole our way into it. God is not deceived. God cannot be pandered to by our base and fleshly desires for eternity in heaven. Our heavenly Father is above reproach and will not succumb to our devilish machinations, regardless of our ostentatious behavior. It is only through genuine faith in the Lord Jesus Christ that our inheritance awaits us. “For the promise to Abraham and his offspring that he would be heir of the world did not come through the law but through the righteousness of faith.” Romans 4:13.
    The manner in which we become heirs of the promise is evident on every page of Holy Scripture. One cannot reasonably hope for salvation and the promise of salvation by thinking, speaking, and behaving like one who is ‘of the world.’ We must live in such a way that is exemplary of our place in the Book of Life. “But nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb's book of life.” - Revelation 21:27.
    We must understand that we are forever at the mercy of our Almighty God and that a life lived in complete and utter disregard for His will can only lead to perdition, endlessly and eternally, without relief.    
    The scriptures are replete with warnings and cautions against walking in the ways of the world. “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” - 1 John 2:15. This inheritance was reserved for us before time began and is guaranteed to all who love and have faith in His only begotten Son. It’s not a winning lottery or scratch-off ticket we can buy at our own expense. It is the gift of God that we obtain by His grace alone. “ ... he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.” - Titus 3:5-7. This is the promise and the glory reserved for us if we but persevere in the faith.

What Kind Of Love - Matthew 27:22

Pilate said to them, “Then what shall I do with Jesus who is called Christ?” They all said, “Let him be crucified!” - Matthew 27:22

    The question is simple enough. I don’t mean bleeding in the sense of injuring oneself on the job we do to feed our families, nor do I mean sacrificing oneself for a nation during times of war or in law enforcement. Bleeding and dying in those instances isn’t the goal. It is incidental to the goal. No, I mean for whom have we deliberately bled our own precious blood. “For this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.” - Matthew 26:28. This is the love of Christ beginning on the night of the Last Supper.
    What kind of love would be required for Jesus to die deliberately for someone else? I believe I would die for my wife or my children, a sibling, or a dear close friend. But what special set of circumstances would have to be present for me to bleed wilfully and die for a perfect stranger? For people who are estranged from me? For people who hate everything I stand for? For people who hate everything I am willing to die for? Could anyone of sound mind, knowing what awaited Christ, doubt the veracity of His Gethsemane prayer? “And he withdrew from them about a stone's throw, and knelt down and prayed, saying, ‘Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.’”- Luke 22:41-42.
    His love must be beyond reproach if He was willing to sacrifice His own life for the lives of those who would blaspheme His holy name just days after they proclaimed Him their King.“And the crowds that went before him and that followed him were shouting, ‘Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!’” - Matthew 21:9. For those Jews who celebrated the coming of the Messiah, ‘hosanna’ meant, ‘pray for us, save us.’ And what of people today who will pray for financial gain, a new home, or any other worldly treasure then arrogantly deny the very divinity of Christ? Who were they praying to? The fickleness of man is absurd!
    On this Good Friday, let us never forget the love that has forgiven us; the love that has saved us; the love that comes only from God Himself. Let us raise our own voices as those in the past and sing, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!”
   

Where Christ Is Lord His Word Is Truth - 1 John 4:6

We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error. - 1 John 4:6

    I drive an hour plus each way to the church service I attend on Sunday and any other event that may be featured during the year. That’s better than a two-hour drive to attend church. Many people ask me why I don’t elect to attend a church closer to me. I’m not sure they understand why I do so, even after I’ve tried to explain.
    In my lifetime, I have attended so many different churches that I cannot recall the exact number. I’ve sat through the services of every denomination, from Roman Catholic to some of the most ambiguous ‘non-denominational’ churches you could imagine. But every one of them failed to deliver the infallible and inerrant Word of God! They threw a Bible verse or two around when it suited them or they failed to apply proper hermeneutics to their exegesis. Some even dispensed with the entirety of the Holy Bible, claiming its strict adhesion to faithful doctrine divides people rather than bringing them together. And some even liked to make God up as they go along, being very careful to avoid offending anyone with the truth! “For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.” - 2 Timothy 4:3-4. Make no mistake about it: truth must never be compromised for the sake of peace.
    So you can probably imagine how grateful I was when I found a church that was a bastion of truth through Jesus Christ. And all I had to do was drive a couple of hours to fellowship as the Holy Bible recommended. “If you walk in my statutes and observe my commandments and do them... I will make my dwelling among you, and my soul shall not abhor you. And I will walk among you and will be your God, and you shall be my people... For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.”- Leviticus 26:3,11-12 and Matthew 18:20.
    The key to my satisfaction with my church rests entirely on the fact that I have long admitted that I am a sinner and that Jesus made propitiation for my sins to redeem me from an eternity in hell. And that is what my church professes.
    That may be a lot to digest, especially when most people aren’t even willing to admit they are sinners! Most folks say, “well, nobody’s perfect.” But that’s as far as they’re willing to go. The reason they take such a dim view of sin and its consequences can be narrowed down to two rationalizations: it is what they are being taught in their churches, or it is a self-contrived view of their state of depravity. But that is not what the Bible teaches. “God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” - John 4:24. The acolytes of false teaching worship neither in the Holy Spirit nor do they worship in the truth!
    As true Bible-believing Christians, it is our duty to understand Christ as our Lord and by doing so we understand His word is truth. “Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’” - John 14:6. This is the Christ of the Bible. This is the Christ of truth. This is Jesus Christ, in His own words! It is only when we see Him in this context that we can worship Him and fellowship according to the will of God. This is the church where we can feel at one with our brethren, our pastors, and the true Word of God. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error.
    Yes, I continue my weekly two-hour drive to church service each Sunday and will continue to do so as there is no substitute for the inerrant and infallible word of God delivered in both truth and spirit..

The Petrine Fear Factor - Matthew 10:32-33

   
So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven, but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven. - Matthew 10:32-33.

    There are many people who have a difficult time sharing the Gospel with family members and friends. It’s easy from a worldly point of view to understand this hesitancy by some brethren. It’s not a matter of avoiding religion or politics among polite company. Often, it comes down to the fear that sharing the word of God forthrightly will offend the friend or family member. And not without reason. Some of the best loved people in our lives are not just silent about God; they aggressively insult our beliefs and God Himself. “Don’t come in here, preaching to me” The comment, if not verbalized that way, often takes the place of the elephant in the room when the subject is broached. But Jesus Himself has warned us against such faintheartedness in the face of trenchant opposition and they are words we would be wise to heed. “For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.” - Mark 8:38. This sobering advice to any Christian.
    We shouldn’t forget the lesson of Peter in the courtyard when he denied Christ, not once or twice but three times; this even after Jesus had warned him of his cowering denials. “Jesus said to him, ‘Truly, I tell you, this very night, before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times.’ Peter said to him, ‘Even if I must die with you, I will not deny you!’ And all the disciples said the same.” - Matthew 26:34-35. We all know what happened to Peter’s bravado in the face of his own fears.
    Fortunately for Peter. His story didn’t end with his fall from grace in the courtyard. Eventually, he was raised from the ashes of his spiritual failure to become Christ’s ‘rock.’ Everywhere he went, he boldly proclaimed the name of Jesus.  “...let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead—by him this man is standing before you well. This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone. And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”- Acts 4:10-12. This was preaching in boldness; not something couched in hesitancy or fear of angering others.
    Peter’s restoration brought him to the pinnacle of spiritual faith, even unto death upon the cross under the order of Emperor Nero in approximately 64 AD. And we’re too reluctant to proclaim Christ as King to our own family and friends?
    Paul the Apostle issues the proclamation that we should go forth fervently with God’s word. “I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.” - 2 Timothy 4:1-2.
    These words aren’t simply advice on how we are to share God’s word if we feel no resistance from those around us. This is what we must do as Christians wherever we are and whenever we feel compelled by the Holy Spirit to do as Christ commands us. “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” - Matthew 28:19-20. This is the command of Jesus Christ, no matter who the audience is. Our job as Christians is not to succumb to the fear of Peter, but to aspire to his boldness.
 

Madness! - Romans 9:20

But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me like this?” - Romans 9:20

    It is incumbent upon all true Christians to speak out boldly against the madness that now permeates both our culture, our society, and even many churches. From media pundits to celebrities to athletes to government lawmakers, this festering insanity runs amuck in our towns and cities, in our books, television programing, movies, in our sports complexes, schools and libraries. Even the halls of our government and law drip with this pathological madness. This is nothing new in the history of mankind; it has been with us from the dawn of time and will continue with us to the end times. “But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God ...” - 2 Timothy 3:1-4. I am speaking about the modern madness of transgenderism, which is the condition of the mind wherein a person (or persons) believe oneself to be of a gender different from that which they were biologically born. Madness!
    There are only two possibilities within the realm of reality: either they are psychologically delusional and require therapy, or they are being deliberately deceitful with the twisted intention of re-identifying themselves as victims of normal society. As we have seen in recent years, victimology has become a sacred status among the absolute fringes of moral and sane society. It is neither sacred, in the generally accepted understanding of the term, nor a true status except as defined within the parameters of psychopathology.
    God designed human beings His way, not in a state of constant flux, becoming and unbecoming whatever we choose. We are what we are by God’s design and any divergence from that is a direct violation of God’s will.
    Going back to our titular passage, we cannot use a clay jar as a hammer because it wasn’t designed to be a hammer but to be a jar. One cannot properly imagine a glass jar as a framing hammer no matter how hard one tries. To do so is an illustration of delusional imaginings. Such thinking is demented and destructive as well. Remember well the demoniac of Mark 5: “Night and day among the tombs and on the mountains he was always crying out and cutting himself with stones.” - Mark 5:5.
    To put it tersely - a refrigerator is not an alligator; a bowlful of broken glass is not cereal; and a boy is not a girl nor vise versa... ever! Now this position does not sit well with those promoting, encouraging, or making a living peddling such madness. We see from Mark’s Gospel that even after Jesus had cured the man of his demons, the crowd was not happy: “And they came to Jesus and saw the demon-possessed man, the one who had had the legion, sitting there, clothed and in his right mind, and they were afraid.” - Mark 5:15. Many apologists for madness say that the crowd was fearful because Jesus had sent the demons into the herd of swine, which then drowned itself in the sea. They argue, “Well, of course the men were angry, the swine was how they made their living!” To which I answer, ‘precisely’. Think about it.
    When we look at the continuing disorder in our world, we have to wonder why the authorities simply don’t put an end to it. We can come to a reasonably sound conclusion when we seek the wisdom of the old adage - “Follow the money.” From the monstrous fatality rates of opioid addiction to the ridiculous cost of life-saving drugs to the sickness of body mutilation to abortion, it’s easy to see that most insane self-expression related issues could be quickly solved by simply following the designs of our Creator: “But now, O Lord, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand.” - Isaiah 64:8. Let us all regain our sanity in this mad world of changing morals, changing ethics, changing desires, and changing sexes. If we return to God, He will return to us.

Give Us A King - 1 Samuel 8:6

But when they said, “Give us a king to lead us,” this displeased Samuel; so he prayed to the Lord. - 1 Samuel 8:6

    There is an old saying that warns, “Be careful what you wish for...you just might get it.” This adage applies appropriately to the Israelites at the end of the period of Judges. Dissatisfied with the way things had been going, they demanded the prophet Samuel appoint them a king “such as all the other nations have.” (1 Sam. 8:4) Upon this demand, Samuel approached God in prayer. God responded to Samuel in no uncertain terms: “And the Lord said to Samuel, ‘Obey the voice of the people in all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them...Now then, obey their voice; only you shall solemnly warn them and show them the ways of the king who shall reign over them.’”     - 1 Samuel 8:7,9.
    Since God is truly sovereign, we must remember that every ruler, from royalty to head of state to presidents to heads-of-household, has been ordained by God Himself. And the track-record has not been illustrious. Out of the 43 kings of the kingdom of Israel and the Divided Kingdom, starting with Saul (586 BC) and ending with Zedekiah (1025 BC), only 6 ‘did right in the eyes of God.’ Is it any wonder that since that time eons ago and right until today, that we have such a difficult time finding righteous leaders to rule over us? Samuel did as the Lord told him, and he warned the people of the dangers of having an earthly king over them. But the people were persistent. “But the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel. And they said, ‘No! But there shall be a king over us, that we also may be like all the nations, and that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles.’” - 1 Samuel 8:19-20.
    What we seek in a leader today has sinfully drifted away from our primary purpose in life - “Man's chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever.” (W. C. Answer #1) which we may follow as we are intended to by adhering to what we are taught in Scripture - “The scriptures principally teach what man is to believe concerning God, and what duty God requires of man.” - (W. C. Answer #3).
    The human leadership (and the electorate) in our own country is so inherently evil that we cannot elect God-fearing leaders who abide by God’s mandates for us. They perpetrate every conceivable evil in our nation from abortion to sexual immorality to the denial of God and transgressions against His holy laws. We are no different than those sinful Israelites who wantonly abandoned the God of their fathers and turned to open idolatry. The law of man supersedes the Law of God in every public forum and leaves morality to the whims of the current culture. But this should not be. We have a duty to God, whether or not we believe we do. “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” - Romans 12:2.
    It is a basic desire among men to have a guiding light to show them the way. No rational human being wants to ‘do things the wrong way.’ To deliberately do so is evidence of our depraved nature. A nature passed down to us through the transgression of Adam. And that warped sinful nature guides us in darkness to follow the ‘ruler of this world,’ Satan. So now I ask, is it truly any wonder that our nation and our world are in their current state of wickedness?
    We have only one recourse and that is to repent and return to God as our spiritual and moral King. In the same Book of 1 Samuel, we are given the only means to return to the favorable sight of our Lord. “And Samuel said to all the house of Israel, ‘If you are returning to the Lord with all your heart, then put away the foreign gods and the Ashtaroth from among you and direct your heart to the Lord and serve him only, and he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines.’ So the people of Israel put away the Baals and the Ashtaroth, and they served the Lord only.” - 1 Samuel 7: 3-4. The foreign gods and Ashtaroth represent the idols we have chosen to serve rather than the one true Lord. Unless we return to God and put away all our idols, our worldly kings will never save us from our own darkened hearts. Let us worship and obey the one true King, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Give us Our King!