What Does Not Take A Vacation

In my local congregation, attendance drops and people go out of town and on vacations. Even my daughter had opportunities to go on two trips with her youth group, one to a state that is not close to our own.

Last week, a substitute legal analyst, who was filling in for the well-known talk show host, said of her, "She is on a well-deserved vacation." And this talk show host had taken a week off her show only a week prior!

For weeks, people in my Facebook network had been posting vacation photos from their trips, some during their trips even out of their own countries.

Commercials from other states in the United States or from other countries, complete with exotic and enticing scenery, call out for tourists.

In my congregation, we receive many visitors who are traveling from other states.

No, there is nothing morally wrong with followers of Jesus going on vacations, even outside their countries. That is, it is allowable as long as you are living within your means and are using the time to get in closer touch with God and with family. Also, if you travel to nations where people are unreached or underreached, it could present a great chance for you to leave a positive witness, through your life and words, with the people. I know that people save and plan, well in advance, for many vacations. Meanwhile, I was asked by someone whom I write to, how my fund-raising campaign for Gospel for Asia is going. I had to admit that it has been stagnating. I looked at my homepage and I saw that contributions had stopped since June of this year, co-inciding with the time that people typically go on vacations or engage in other summer events. I know that summer is the time of the year that children are off school and that, often, money must be spent to keep them from becoming bored and frustrated (if one has the money). Myself, I remember many summers when I was lonely and bored because of lack of opportunities for the young. To refresh you as to what this campaign is all about, it is an effort to raise funds to get Bibles onto the continent of Asia, where most of the people are too poor to afford one Bible or have no access to Bibles even if they can afford them. If you are in the United States or other parts of the West, you have plenty of access to the Bible and to other Christian resources. In fact, we in the United States have so much access that we must be discerning and avoid materials by those whose teachings are less than sound and biblical. We have Bibles for women, Bibles for men, Bibles for children, Bibles for teens, multiple translations, and Bibles for many seasons of life. I have even seen a Bible in Wal Mart for breast cancer awareness. On the continent of Asia, Bibles are scarce.

I know that, in appeals for help, you have probably heard phrases like, "Need never takes a holiday." I have to add, "Need does not take a vacation." The need of people in developing and closed countries, worldwide, does not take a holiday or a vacation. I know that giving, to most local churches and to nonprofits, drops during the summer and that probably explains the stagnation of my campaign. Even if your funds are depleted and you have nothing left to give in money, you can donate time to share this post and this campaign.

Please kindly visit here, and donate some of you time to look at and share this campaign on the webpage and, if you have money, kindly consider sharing. Thank you!

A Prayer for Nepal

Those Disturbing Bible Verses

"Not everyone who says to me 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?' Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers! ' " (Matthew 7: 21-23, NIV). Jesus, in this verse, is obviously putting us on notice that MANY (not few!) people who genuinely believe they are saved will be cast out of His presence, forever! We need to get this right! But I find myself wondering, "Am I doing His will?" For doing God's will covers quite a lot of ground!

"But the cowardly...----their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death." (Rev. 21: 8, NIV). Other translations have used the word "fearful" in place of "cowardly." As a person for whom fear has always been a major problem, this verse convicts me as fear (or cowardice) is, according to this verse, ranked right along with murder, lying, sorcery, and sexual immorality and puts a person at-risk of suffering a horrific eternity.

"The wicked borrow and do not repay,...(Psalm 37: 21, NIV). Ouch! As a person who knows something about debt, this verse lets me know that God may not view debtors as victims as our culture does, but rather as wrongdoers.

"If anyone turns a deaf ear to the law, even his prayers are detestable." (Proverbs 28: 9, NIV). Clearly, God is declaring that we can not use prayer to compensate for lack in our holiness nor can it be used to substitute for other things He may want us to do. He certainly will frown on our prayers if we refuse to live His way. And, as we who follow Jesus know, sin covers A LOT of ground. No loopholes allowed. Often, even as I pray, I find myself wondering, "Am I using this to make up for the fact that I'm letting social anxiety keep me from face-to-face witnessing?" or "Instead of talking to God about it, should I be talking to this person about God?"

"If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children---yes, even his own life---he cannot be my disciple. Anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple." (Luke 14: 26-27, NIV). Now I know that Jesus did not mean that we are literally to "hate" our loved ones or to "hate" our lives. Clearly, though, He demands, desires, and deserves devotion from us that that is extreme, so extreme that we are willing to risk rejection from our families and even to be willing to die for Him. Followers of Jesus all over the world experience these things as reality. As I look at their lives, I ask myself: Would I be willing to endure family rejection, torture or death for Jesus? I pray so! This reminds us that if we ever want to be equipped for severe persecution, we need to successfully face insults, ridicule, and so-called "minor persecution," for Jesus' sake.

"Why do you call me, 'Lord, Lord,' and do not do what I say?" (Luke 6:46, NIV). The commands of Jesus and His Apostles (who wrote the Epistles in the rest of the New Testament) cover much ground. Jesus' probing question is an ongoing question that keeps me on the spot as Lordship cover everything, including those areas that are, frankly, uncomfortable, terrifying or plain inconvenient to place under His absolute Lordship.

"I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm--neither hot nor cold--I am about to spit you out of my mouth." (Rev. 3: 15-16). Jesus is clearly not impressed by "good Christians" who are nice, sweet, mind their own business, may even attend worship services every Sunday and may even fill church leadership positions, but who are unwilling to pay the price of giving up all they have and are to Him. Make us willing to be made willing to pay the price!

"If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the the truth, no sacrifice of sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God....How much more severely do you think a man deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God under foot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified him, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace? For we know him who said, 'It is mine to avenge; I will repay,' and again, 'The lord will judge his people.' It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God." (Hebrews 10:26-31, NIV). If you read this verse, and the surrounding verses, you will know that it is believers that this severe warning is addressed to! Sometimes I wonder just what "deliberately keep on sinning" means. Sharp warnings like these certainly tear to shreds the notion that when we become followers of Jesus, that we can keep on sinning with the assurance that God will keep forgiving us because "that is His job"! Many Bible teachers interpret these verses as being addressed to people among these readers who may not have been "saved in the first place," but it seems to me that these verses are meant for believers. If anything, warnings like this mean that we should take sin seriously!

I understand that the late preacher, Charles Spurgeon, was said something like, "If there is any verse in the Bible that you want to see removed from the Bible, that is the verse that you should attend to. It should stick with you like a blister." Mark Twain is quoted as saying, "The Bible verses that I have the most trouble with are not the ones I don't understand, but the ones I do understand!" It is tempting for me to ignore these verses as they apply to my life, and to hide them from others lest I offend them, but God has included verses like these, hoping we will be motivated to live holy lives. Remember, as I need to keep reminding myself, He wants us to be holy even more than He wants us to be happy; He wants us to be conformed to His Son's image more than He wants us to be wealthy, healthy or successful.

What Is The Christian Response To the Iran Nuclear Deal?

Hello, Brothers and Sisters in Jesus,

I'm sure that if you have been following the news at all, that you are aware that a nuclear deal has been reached with Iran. When I got up this morning and checked emails, I heard the morning news, "A nuclear deal has been reached with Iran." For many months, we have watched as these talks kept getting extended. I'm sure we all know that Iran is considered our enemy and the enemy of Israel, our ally and God's historical people.

Now I must offer a disclaimer before I start this post. I know next to nothing about foreign policy or about the implications of this deal for us or for the world. I know that people are either swearing by or swearing at this nuclear deal. I know that the deal is conditional upon Iran holding up their end of the bargain. Like everyone else, I certainly do not want Iran to be empowered to build weapons against us or anyone else. It remains to be seen if this deal will help or backfire. I do not take a position on the deal itself.

But whenever the media talks about deals with Iran and when I heard the news this morning about the deal that America struck with Iran, I do not think so much about the deal itself.

I was thinking about Pastor Saeed Abedini and his family. I was thinking about three other Americans and their families. I was thinking about these four Americans and their families because these four Americans have been in Iranian prisons for years. And it looks like they have been abandoned, at least by our American government. I am very sure that four families are experiencing incredible personal pain because the State Department has provided no word that their loved ones will be freed from incarceration in Iran. Yet the media, in all their coverage about this deal, are saying nothing about these four Americans or their families. Nothing that I can discern.

When you think of Iran, what do you think of? Nuclear weapons?

If your answer is that when you think of Iran, you think of nuclear weapons, that is totally understandable. The media give us the impression that Iran's nuclear threat to us all is all we need to know about this country. But the media often withhold valuable, needed information from us. We dare not depend on the media alone to get our information. If you will do your research, you will discover that Iran is an oppressive Muslim stronghold country and Iran's leaders oppress their own people even as they indeed pose a threat to the world. You may be aware that four Americans have been in Iran's prisons for years. Pastor Saeed Abedini, has been imprisoned for his faith for over three years. His wife has done all she could to persuade Congress and the American government to release her husband. She has traveled overseas to the United Kingdom to advocate for her husband. I'm sure the families of the other three Americans have put forth similar heroic efforts to secure their loved one's releases. Nonprofits have created petitions that millions of Western Christians have signed, demanding that President Obama release Pastor Saeed and the other three Americans. One petition called on the President not make no deal with Iran without securing the releases of the four Americans. President Obama has opposed this measure and, today, it sadly seems like all the families' pleas and our pleases have gone unheard by the American government. Yes, to be fair, Congress has voted to release the four Americans but without Presidential co-operation.

So where do we go from here?

You will never hear about it from the media, but the people of Iran are reportedly incredibly open to God. In fact, the Church in Iran is reportedly the fastest-growing Church in the whole world! The Iranian people are so disenchanted by their oppression that they have become open to the true God and are reported to be responding to Jesus in record numbers! What will a nuclear deal mean to the Iranian people? The media, of course, are not going to ask such a question. What do our brothers and sisters in Christ think of this nuclear deal?

This post is not being written to take a position on the nuclear agreement with Iran. This deal is already dividing people along political lines. I encourage you to respond to this by looking at Iran from Heaven's point of view, and to maybe join God in what He is doing in Iran by praying, giving, and advocacy.

Blessings in Christ,

Lisa DeSherlia

Visit This Website and Consider Joining God in His Activity in Iran

My Response To the Post "Is Nana Burning In Hell?" By John Pavlovitz

The other night, I read a thought-provoking article and I posted it on several social networks.

I woke up the morning after and I saw the response to it. The Facebook user, who presents herself as solidly committed to the Bible as the inspired, inerrant Word of God, had problems with this article I posted called "Is Nana Burning in Hell?"

The problem that she had was that the author seemed to be questioning the authority of the Word of God in many ways. Why did I share it anyway? Not wanting anyone to be mislead or confused by this author, I deleted the offensive article. The Nana being discussed in this article is a hypothetical character who is a lovable, generous, friendly, caring person who has little use for the organized Church and was never known to get baptized, confirmed or to say a sinner's prayer. The author did make reference to following Jesus, implying that maybe we define what it means to be saved too narrowly.

The Issue: Would God Send Nice People To Hell?

This article, "Is Nana Burning In Hell?" was written by a layperson who seems to lean toward what is known as "the Christian left." I read the article here and while it answered no questions, I could fully sympathize with his sentiment. The very topic of Hell makes all of us highly uncomfortable and we do not want to think about it, much less talk about it. On the face of it, it seems unjust for God to sentence people, forever and ever, to an eternity of conscious torment for up to 70 years of sin and rebellion against Him. It does indeed, from the viewpoint of our human logic, seem absolutely unreasonable to sentence people to such an eternity. It seems even more unjust to sentence nice, sweet, generous, even religious and noble people to eternal fates in a horrible place known as Hell. Where is justice in that? Where is the justice in sending people who have done good deeds, given to the poor, helped and loved their own families, lived moral and upstanding lives or minded their own business? I think the author was not only asking this question by the tone of his article, which offered no answers, but seems to want us to question God's justice. Myself, I have struggled mightily with the very idea of a Hell where many people will spend forever and ever in conscious torment. This is the one teaching that I would gladly edit out of the Bible if I could do so with a clear conscience! I can understand why false teachings have sprung up to refute this most disturbing teaching of a place of eternal, conscious torment, including teachings like Universalism (the idea that, ultimately, everyone will go to Heaven), Purgatory (the idea that some people will go to a place to be purified to be fit for Heaven), and Annihilationism (the idea that Hell is not a place of eternal conscious torment and that people cease to exist). How comfortable and comforting these teachings are! Unfortunately, all of these teachings are Biblically false. I had posted the article to maybe get someone to think through this issue and hopefully ponder the implications for themselves and where they would spend eternity. But a Facebook user did not think it belonged on a profile set up to exalt Christ, so I took it down. What I could not do by sharing that article, I hope to do with this post.

What If God's Idea of Fairness Is Unlike Ours?

Just a casual reading of the Bible will let us know that God's idea of fairness is wholly unlike ours. His thoughts are not our thoughts and His ways are not our ways. It may be hard for us to grasp that God simply does not see us or others the way we view ourselves or others. I struggle with that myself! I have to pray that God will give me grace and faith to see things as He does. But it seems that most of the teachings in the Bible have to be accepted by faith, even though they may make no sense to human logic or experience. In the case of the teaching of Hell, we see God's wrath and justice as cruel because we do not see sin, our sin and others,' as He does. To us, sin may seem a minor thing but to God, it is a horrific and tragic thing. He cannot tolerate a speck of sin. He hates it! Yes, to make application to our lives, this means the smallest moral infraction is offensive to Him so that, if we do not have Christ, it separates us from Him. According to Him, if we break the Law in just one area, will are guilty of breaking the entire Law. So nice, moral, upstanding, caring and even religious people are hopelessly lost apart from the Person of Christ. This is what would cause the author to pose the question about whether Nana is in Hell or not. I'm sure many, many other people, given the chance to reflect on this uncomfortable matter, would be asking this very same question. What if Nana was doing the very best she could do? Why can't God accept that?

A New Look At Why Jesus Died: What Were We Saved From?

The truth is, God is infinitely holy and we have lost sight of this in an age where the stress is on His love, His forgiveness and His grace. The Bible declares that His lovingkindness is so good that it is better than life itself! As followers of Jesus, we ought to appreciate and rejoice in His loving forgiveness, for without it we have no hope! But in this age, we have lost sight of His holiness and forget that it is His holiness that is the quality that defines Him, as in "Holy Holy Holy Lord God Almighty." Read the Bible, even in the New Testament, and you can read many, many verses about the things we leave out in modern Bible teaching in so many of our local churches--God's holiness, justice, judgment, wrath, and Hell and our call to live holy lives and to deny ourselves, take up our crosses, and to follow Jesus. Yes, we may not be offended by what we hear, but despite all the talk of "transformation," we are unlikely to be transformed when God is not allowed to move in power in our local churches and we hear only the things we want to hear. Who wants to hear about sin and Hell? The fact is, it is because our sin (the sin of each and every one of us!) that God came to this Earth in the Person of His Son, suffering the physical, emotional and spiritual torments of Hell so that by embracing Him by faith as our Savior and Lord, we can be redeemed from the curse of sin. Jesus Himself warned His hearers about Hell more than any Old Testament prophet or any of the New Testament Apostles. This is because He had come to save us from that place; without Him, forgiveness would not be possible for any of us, no matter how nice we are. With Jesus, however, even the worst of us can be accepted by God, even the worst of the worst--murderers, rapists, pedophiles, crooks, frauds, prostitutes, pimps, and liars. With Jesus, Nana can be redeemed so that she has so much more than "her best" to commend her to God; she has Christ's righteousness, just as any murderer can have by faith in Christ!

What This Means To Us

If we posed this question to Jesus, I am sure that as His usual way is, He would not answer this question. Instead, He would ask His own question. If you are reading this and have not said "Yes" to Him as your Savior and Lord, I think He would pose to you this question: "Now that you know about Hell, are you willing to look to Me to take away your sins so that you never need end up there? Are you ready to let Me take from you the enslaving power of your every sin, including those sins you enjoy?" And, if we are His, I think He would pose these questions to us (and they would be searching and disturbing, also for me!): "With Your knowledge of Me, what I have saved you from and yearn to save others from, what are you doing to reduce the number of Hell's inhabitants? What are you doing to fulfill My Great Commission to make disciples? What are you doing to see that people, worldwide, who have never heard, will hear and believe My Gospel? Will you deny yourself daily, take up your cross, and follow Me?"

Original Article

This photo is provided courtesy of a Facebook friend and can be found here.