Category Archives: TRUST JESUS

REAL FAITH.060515

In Mark 7:26-30: it says,  “The woman was a Greek, [a non-Jew from Phoenicia in Syria] and she kept asking Him to cast the demon out of her daughter. But Jesus said to her, “Let the children be filled first, for it is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the little dogs.” Christ preaching on shores of Lake Galilee. Stained glass. And she answered and said to Him, “Yes, Lord, yet even the little dogs under the table eat from the children’s crumbs.”  Then He said to her, “For this saying go your way; the demon has gone out of your daughter.”  And when she had come to her house, she found the demon gone out, and her daughter lying on the bed.”

So Jesus says, “It’s just not right to take the blessings that belong to the Jews and indiscriminately throw them to the outsiders.”  And the woman, being a non-Jew, is referred to as a dog, to her face.  It’s almost as if Jesus is trying to rile her; to see if she’s serious about getting the blessing she seeks.  She must be serious; ‘cause she completely ignores the personal attack and says, in effect, “I don’t care what you say about me; I just want you to help my daughter.”  (She knows that her pride and her ego don’t matter, when her daughter’s life is at stake.)

To me that’s the message of this story: When we have enough faith in Jesus, we too will let nothing (even our selfish pride) stand in the way of our trusting Him.  When we do that, He will help us; and He will get a kick out of our faith and our spunk, just as He did with this woman.

DON’T BE AFRAID, JUST TRUST ME.052515

There Are Miracles All Around You card with sky backgroundMark 5:22-24 says, “And behold, one of the rulers of the synagogue came, Jairus by name. And when he saw Him, he fell at His feet and begged Him earnestly, saying, “My little daughter lies at the point of death. Come and lay Your hands on her, that she may be healed, and she will live.” So Jesus went with him, and a great multitude followed Him and thronged Him.  .  . some came from the ruler of the synagogue’s house who said, “Your daughter is dead. Why trouble the Teacher any further?” Continue reading

GOD IS MOVIN’. 052215:

Tre muliTwo brothers and I had a discussion in our office building this morning.  We do this once a week usually; to talk about what God is doing in our lives.  This time we were talking about the standard we use to decide what is right and wrong in making decisions in our lives.  We were talking about whether it’s right (OK) to use torture to get our enemies to tell us what they know about their plans and operations.  One brother said it is definitely OK to sacrifice one guy’s comfort (or even his life) to save the lives of a bunch of others, especially if those people are ‘our’ people.  He said it was reasonable, even admirable to act in that fashion. Continue reading

WHAT HAPPENS NOW? 052115

[This is an excerpt from a Kairos Talk: Tomorrow]

Bible Group Praying TogetherCan we be changed?   Yes, but not by ourselves. Ephesians 2:8-9 says, “For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves.  It is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast.”  To be changed, we must accept the gift of God.  We must realize how badly we need Him, and then give our whole selves to Him, and trust Him to take care of us, because we finally figured out we can’t take care of ourselves.

The guys at your family table are your brothers.  Christ’s challenge to you is to take care of them.  To stick up for them.  To meet regularly with them for prayer and share group. Continue reading

ALL ABOUT ATTITUDE.051815

Group of people sitting in a circle. Hugging each otherYesterday we had Sunday School for youth at our church.  The discussion was loosely based on the Lectionary.  We discussed two passages in particular, one was Jesus’ prayer in John 17, where He says, “I pray that they (the disciples) may all be one.  As I am one with You Father, and You are one with Me, they may be one with Us, that the world may know that You sent me.” The other passage was Psalm 1, verses 1-3, where David says, “Blessed is the one who does not walk in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stand in the way of sinners, nor sit in the seat of the scornful; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His Law does he meditate both day and night.  He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither; and whatever he does shall prosper.”

We talked a little about what it means to “be one” with God.  About how if we trust God, His own Spirit comes to live in our own hearts, and in a real sense, we are all one with Jesus and God because we all share the same Spirit.  We even talked a little about how when Jesus’ Spirit comes to live in our hearts, we have a change of the way we look at things, the way we feel about things, so that we are better able to DO what we’re supposed to in a spiritual sense and in a natural sense as well, because God is supernaturally moving in our hearts and our lives. Continue reading

OUT OF THE DARK, INTO HIS MARVELOUS LIGHT.051615

[Excerpts from the Kairos Talk, ‘A Christian’]

DIverse People Holding Text Church

After I came to Houston, I spent 10 years living in the dark.  The dark of running away, trying to hide from God.  The dark of being a criminal defense lawyer.  The dark of trying desperately to figure out what to do about my estranged wife.  The dark of finally getting a divorce.  I still wasn’t really looking for God, but I was getting real beat up, and desperately seeking help.  And crazy as it seems, Jesus was still there.

I started going to church; and praying; and reading and studying the Bible.  I got involved in a Sunday School class and met some guys that were involved in Kairos, and after that I just sorta took off.  I got closer and closer to God. I began to realize what it meant to experience the mercy of Jesus. I started to realize what God really wanted me to do with my life.  You want to hear what it is?  He wants me to seek His Face every day; to talk to Jesus; to commune with the Holy Spirit; to listen to what He says and try to do it, on a moment by moment basis. Continue reading

THE BIG ‘S’ and the little ‘s’. 051505

[This is an excerpt from the Kairos talk ‘A Christian’]

Off-road on difficult road after rain

I want to tell you a little something about sin.  There’s two kinds of sin; there’s the Big ‘S’, and the little ‘s’.  The little ‘s’ is all the things we usually think of as sins, like lying, cheating and stealing, and sleeping with your neighbor’s wife; even murder, falls under this category.  While murder is a big sin, it’s on a completely different level from the Big “S”.  The Big S is Sin with a capital “S”.

The Big S is the letter that begins the word Self.  Seems like Self is the biggest obstacle standing between us and God.  The Big S is also the first letter of Satan.  I hate to capitalize Satan’s name, but it’s his name.  Let me tell you what happened to Satan.  He was one of God’s favorite angels, he was called Lucifer, the angel of light.  Our Hispanic brothers know La Luz is the light, and that was Satan’s name.  Continue reading

Kairos-A Christian.051415

[This is an excerpt from the Kairos talk “A Christian”]

the Good SamaritanLOVE is about mercy and forgiveness; Mercy is being nice to someone (cuttin’ them a little slack) even when they deserve to be punished.  That’s what God does for us.

Forgiveness is what love is in practice.  It’s what happens when we love people enough to forgive them, even when they are wrong and we’re right; even when no one is looking and it won’t help us a bit.  Forgiveness is the evidence of mercy in our individual personal relationships.

In 1 Corinthians 13:4, it says ‘Love is patient.’  In the King James version of the Bible, and in the original Greek the verse says, “Love suffers long.”  That means if you really love someone, you put up with them.  I’m thinking about my kids when they were teenagers.  It means that you put up with them, even though you’ve told them 15 times what you expect, and they’re still doing it wrong, very likely on purpose and not accidentally.  That’s what it means when it says love suffers long. Continue reading

WHAT? A CHRISTIAN? WHO IS THAT? 051315

[The following is an excerpt from the Kairos Talk: A Christian]

Silhouette illustration of a man praying under the lightWhen we follow Jesus, we learn to love, because Jesus is in our hearts. We begin to see with Jesus’ eyes, and hear with Jesus’ ears, and feel with Jesus’ heart.  We’re not struggling to love others, to love ourselves and to love God, because Jesus’ Spirit is inside our hearts loving others through us.

So how in the world do we reach the point of having Jesus live His eternal life in us?  We have to give up.  We have to quit trying to do good and do right and never make mistakes.  If you finally get that message, that you can’t do it on your own, you can’t do it in your own power, you cannot possibly be good enough to satisfy God, and you accept the gift of Jesus’ death on the cross, and surrender yourself to Him, THEN you can start the journey of following Jesus.

Here’s the central message of this talk.   We’re all a bunch of pieces of manure.  We stink.  And what’s worse, we’re not getting any better.  It’s not hard to see that without God we’re not going to make it out of here alive.  And I don’t mean this prison.  I mean this life, my life, your life, in this world.  The only way we’re going to make it is if we humble ourselves and accept Jesus as our Savior, and start letting Jesus live His life in us.

A CHRISTIAN: 051215

concepts of the fruits of the Spirit as from Galatians 5:22

This is the first part of the Kairos talk, A CHRISTIAN: I call it “How to Quit Struggling and Start Walking the Walk and Talking the Talk.” Luke 9:23-24, says, “If anyone would be My disciple, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.”  Just so you’ll know; the word disciple means follower.  So if you want to be a follower of Jesus, what do you have to do?  Three things: 1] Deny yourself, 2] Take up your cross daily, and 3] Follow Jesus. Continue reading