All posts by marlyspopma
The Devil’s Greatest Tool – Distraction
Some time ago our pastor preached a sermon that really struck home. His sermon was from Luke 10:38-42, the visit of Jesus to the home of Mary and Martha. Only too often it feels like a sermon is being delivered straight at me. This was one of those sermons, so I thought that some of the points he made might be important to some of our readers as well.
The devil’s primary goal is to distract us from Jesus. To keep us so busy, so worried, so preoccupied that we forget about our walk with the Lord. This happens to me only too often. I don’t often get too worried, but I do get WAY too busy. Most of the times I am busy with good things but they are things that often keep me from the Word or from my quiet time with Him.
I have been the President of Iowa Right to Life Committee and the co-chair of my local county Republican Party. Both I am sure were good things, but both had the tendency to make me so busy, so preoccupied.
When Jesus told Martha that He was coming to their home for dinner, Martha must have been thrilled. She planned, she baked and she cooked. No doubt, she spent the day cleaning the house so that everything would be just right when the Master arrived. After he arrived, He began talking and Martha’s sister Mary was so taken by His words that she sat at his feet and listened.
This was not typical for a woman of her time. Women were not to be scholarly, this was the thing of manhood. But that didn’t distract Mary, she wanted to learn and there was no better place to do this than at the feet of Jesus. Well this really irritated Martha. She thought that her sister should be helping her prepare the food. So Martha went to her friend Jesus and said, “Lord, doesn’t it seem unfair to you that my sister just sits here while I do all the work? Tell her to come and help me.”
Jesus didn’t tell Martha that what she was doing was wrong, because it wasn’t. Someone needed to prepare the meal, but what He did tell her was that, “There is really only one thing worth being concerned about. Mary has discovered it – and I won’t take it away from her.”
Martha had become distracted by the things that she needed to “do.” Mary decided on the other hand to sit back and listen to her Lord.
The devil is the master of distractions. The devil wants to distract us for he knows that if we become closer to our Lord, he loses. He loses his grip on our lives. As the grip of Christ gets stronger, the grip of the devil gets weaker.
I Peter 5:8 says, “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour.” James 4:7 tells us, “Submit yourselves therefor to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.”
Our pastor said that distractions lead to drifting away from Christ and drifting leads to agitation in our daily lives. The more distracted we become, the less time we spend with God, the less our bond is with God. When we drift from Him our day to day lives show it. We become less patient. We are more irritable, our language may revert to the days before we knew the Lord, and worry and despair can set it.
So tonight, think of the things that distract you from spending time with your Lord. Are you the woman who insists that EVERYTHING in your house needs to be just perfect so you don’t have enough time to spend in your nightly devotions? Are you the guy who needs to have the yard perfectly manicured so you work until dark and by the time you come in you are just too tired to spend time with the Master? Are you the person who works so hard all day at work that you just need your time to decompress? Do you just have to watch that favorite show on television or get into that new book you just picked up?
None of those things are innately wrong, but each can be a distraction. Figure out what is distracting you from your time with God and then resist the devil and he will flee from you. The closer you become to God, the fewer distraction you allow to interrupt your spiritual walk, the more joy you will feel and the more joy you will impart.
Remember – God knows you, He made you, and He loves you. Now love Him back!!
Don’t Be Deceived Part 2
…Before your head hits the pillow…
Don’t Be Deceived Part 2
Last night I wrote about not being deceived about where our salvation comes from. There is NO salvation apart from believing faith in Jesus Christ. NONE! We cannot be deceived by the world who wants to say that as long as we live a “good” life we will go to heaven.
Our salvation does not come from anything we do, it only comes from the grace of God. But let’s not be deceived about this either. Once we come to the Lord, we do not have credence to live in any way we wish. We cannot merely say, “I am saved and nothing can separate me from God so I can live any way that I wish.” When we come to know Christ our lives and our actions must show that transformation.
The book of James is very convicting. It says in James 2:14-17 that our faith cannot be divorced from good works, “What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.”
If your life is not showing good works then is your faith real? That is a question each person must ask.
James 1:26 says, “If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person’s religion is worthless.” A person who professes belief in Christ but continues in his ungodly ways deceives his heart about his true conversion.
In Matthew 12:33-37 Jesus warns with these words, “Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad, for the tree is known by its fruit. You brood of vipers! How can you speak good, when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. The good person out of his good treasure brings forth good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure brings forth evil. I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak, for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.”
God expects transformation when He gives grace. He expects action. He expects compassion for those in need and He expects us to alter our sinful ways. James 3:11 tells us, “Does a spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh and salt water?”
If you are truly saved you will WANT to do good works. You will want to bridle your tongue! Your life must be a testament of your redemption. Your life must become each day more and more like Christ.
If you believe you are saved but continue in unrepentant sin, you are deceiving yourself. How can you be thankful for the sacrifice of Christ and continue using profane language? How can you be overjoyed about your redemption and continue doing things that you know are wrong?
Let’s not be deceived. Good works will not save us, but a lack of good works testifies to our salvation or our attitude about our salvation. This does not mean that we will not slip, because we will. This does not mean that sin might creep into a corner of our life, because it could. But this does mean that every day we must work to become more and more like Jesus.
We must desire to care for those who are less fortunate than ourselves. We must look for opportunities to put our faith into action.
“And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.” Colossians 3:17
“Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.” James 1:27.
So don’t be deceived in this either. A true believing faith will be followed by good works. A true believing faith will be followed by a transformed life. Don’t be deceived.
Don’t Be Deceived
…Before your head hits the pillow…
Don’t Be Deceived
We live in a world th
at is controlled by emotion. We have talk show hosts who talk about feeling good about ourselves. We buy things to make us feel good. We hang out with people who make us feel like we are good people. Many attend what I would call feel good churches.
I cannot tell you how many times I have had a “Christian” tell me that a loving God would not allow someone to go to hell. They want to believe that Jesus died for everyone no matter what decisions people have made about following Him. Their emotions tell them that God is good, so therefore He would not punish a person who denies Him, He would just forgive and accept.
Jesus Christ said this in John 14:6, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” What He didn’t say is I am A way. He said I am THE way. Jesus is the ONLY way to the Father. Jesus is the ONLY way to redemption. Jesus is the ONLY way to be saved from our sins. Jesus is the ONLY way to redemption.
Jesus was and IS God and the only way to be confident that you will live an eternity with Him is by acknowledging you are a sinner worthy of death and condemnation, accepting His sacrifice on the cross, and knowing that He was raised from the dead and now sits at the right hand of God the Father.
C.S. Lewis once wrote this about Jesus, “”A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher; he’d either be a lunatic — on a level with a man who says he’s a poached egg — or else he’d be the devil of hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God; or else a madman or something worse.”
“You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come up with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”
Yes, Jesus was and IS God. He is the ONLY way! Ephesians 2:8-9 tells us this about salvation. “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.” And who is our faith to be in? Acts 16:31 says, Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved–you and your household.”
Jesus again says in John 11:25 he says, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live,”
Acts 4:12 instructs us with these words, “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.”
So don’t be deceived by the emotions and things of this world. No one is good enough to gain their own salvation. That can only be accomplished through belief in the redemptive power of Christ. If a person does not believe in Jesus, they cannot spend eternity in heaven no matter how much our emotions want to think otherwise.
Just as we believe that Jesus was and IS God, we must also believe His words and the inspired words of the Bible. There is only ONE way to the Father. There is only ONE way to live eternally with God in heaven, and that is by proclaiming the name of Jesus as our Savior. Don’t be deceived.
I Wonder
…Before your head hits the pillow…
I Wonder
I wonder what it w
ould have been like to hear Jesus preaching in the temple. I wonder what it would have been like to hear him deliver the Sermon on the Mount.
I wonder what it would have been like being a part of that massive crowd who followed Jesus to the Sea of Galilee in hopes of witnessing one of His great miracles. As this throng of people approached Jesus, He said to His disciples, “Where are we to buy bread, so that these people may eat?” He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he would do. Philip answered him, “Two hundred denarii worth of bread would not be enough for each of them to get a little.” One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to him, “There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are they for so many?” John 6:5-9
Two hundred denarii was about a half year’s wage and that would only give the people each just a little bit of food. But Jesus knew what He was going to do. That little boy came over and gave Jesus his five barley loaves and his two fish and Jesus gave thanks for the food. Then the disciples began their distribution. How they must have wondered what it was all worth, distributing such a little bit of food to such a big crowd, but they did as Jesus told them.
It must have amazed them as they fed more and more and then even more people until all 5000 men were fed. Not only were they all well fed but the disciples collected twelve baskets of uneaten bread. Oh how I wonder what that must have been like to witness.
I wonder what it would have been like to see the woman crawling through the crowd convinced that if she just touched the hem of Jesus garment she would be healed. Oh how I would have loved to see her joy. She had been ill for twelve years and now she was healed. Luke 8:43-45
I wonder what it would have been like to have been with Jesus when the centurion pleaded for the life of his dear servant. And what faith was seen when he told Jesus that He need not come to his home to heal the servant but just say the word and the servant would be healed. Even Jesus remarked on this man’s great faith! Luke 7:1-10.
But this is what I really wonder. I wonder what God could do with us if we freely gave to him all that we had, just as the young boy willfully gave Jesus his five loaves and two fish. We know nothing about this boy, but what we do know is that he gave his fish and bread to the Master. I wonder how God could multiply our gifts if we freely gave.
I wonder what it would be like if we had faith like the centurion or the woman fighting through the crowd to touch the hem of Jesus. I wonder what it would be like if we shared their faith in the power of Jesus.
Jesus acknowledged the faith of the centurion and He felt the touch of this helpless woman. Jesus wants us to come to Him with our problems. He wants us to bring Him our burdens. Just as He felt the single touch of the woman as dozens of others pressed up against Him, He feels our touch as well. When we reach out our hands to Jesus, He feels the touch of each of us. No matter how many people are reaching out to Jesus at the same time as we are, He feels OUR touch!
So I wonder how much better our lives could be if we just trusted Him. I wonder.
Aborted Prayers
…Before your head hits the pillow…
Aborted Prayers
The other day I read an interesting online article at tscpulpitseries.org by David Wilkerson. It caught my eye because I remembered a book he wrote that was later made into a movie, The Cross and the Switchblade. His topic was interesting so I thought I would share some of his points with you.
He said, “The devil’s final strategy in deceiving believers is to make them doubt the faithfulness of God in answering prayer. Satan would have us believe God has shut His ears to our cry and left us to work things out for ourselves.” He continued, “It’s time we Christians took an honest look at the reasons why our prayers are aborted. We can be guilty of charging God with neglect, when all along our own behavior is responsible.”
Wilkerson gave six, of many reasons, that our prayers are not answered.
- Our prayers are aborted when they are not according to God’s will. He says, “We are not at liberty to pray at random for whatever our selfish minds conceive.” I John 5:14 says, “If we ask anything according to His will, He heareth us.” We need to constantly look to God when we pray. We must seek His face first and allow His will to be done in our lives.
- Our prayers can be aborted when they are designed to fulfill and inner lust, dreams, or illusions. James 4:3 says, “When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.” Psalm 66:18 says, “If I had cherished sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened.”
- Our prayers can be denied when we show no diligence to assist God in the answer. Wilkerson says, “We expect our prayers to get God to working for us, while we sit idly by, thinking to ourselves, ‘He has all the power; I have none, so I will simply stand still and let Him do the work.’” God told Joshua in Joshua 7:10-13 – “Stand up! What are you doing on your face?” God commanded Joshua to consecrate the people for their sins. We must not try to “make” things happen, but God may ask us to act in order to fulfill His will. We can’t just sit back and expect Him to do everything while we are laying on our backs.
- Our prayers can be aborted by a secret grudge lodged in the heart against another. He continues by saying, “Christ will not deal with anyone with a wrathful and unforgiving spirit. We are commanded to ‘lay aside all malice, envy, and evil speaking, and as newborn babes, desire the sincere mild of the Word.’” I Peter 2:1-2
- Our prayers can be aborted by not expecting much to come of them. Matthew17:20 says, “Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.” We must have faith that God can do what we are asking when we pray. We serve an amazingly powerful God. NOTHING is too big or too small for Him!
- Our prayers may be aborted when we ourselves attempt to prescribe how God should answer. Wilkerson says, “The only person we lay down terms to is the one we don’t trust. Those we trust we leave to themselves to do what is right. It all boils down to a lack of trust. The burdened soul, after he has unburdened his heart in prayer to the Lord, resigns himself to the faithfulness, goodness, and wisdom of God. The true believer will leave the shaping of the answer to God’s mercy. Whatever way God chooses to answer, the believer will welcome.”
Now, all that being said, it is God who determines how to deal with the request placed in prayer. God may choose to fulfill the request of a person who is selfish. He may determine to grant the request of the person who has little faith, because the full power in prayer is not in the one who prays but in the One to whom we pray.
But as we go into prayer it is important that we go to God with righteous motives, we must make sure that we have forgiven as Christ as forgiven us, we must have faith that God is capable to fulfill our petition, and we must be willing to participate in the fulfillment of our request if that is the way God is leading us.
Prayer is a powerful Christian asset. Let’s make sure that we come before our Lord humbly and full of faith!
You and the Devil
I have a website!!
I just wanted to let you all know that The Christian Conservative now has a website. It will take some time to get all of the older posts transferred over to the website. It may look a bit different as well as my son-in-law and I get things to look just the way we want. So please take a moment to check us out at: www.thechristianconservative.com
Are You Heaven Bound?
Early this morning I posted a meme that made comments about what would NOT get you into heaven and what WOULD get you into heaven. The comments that ensued were interesting. Very rarely have I posted anything that caused this much conversation.
First let me say that no meme or no single post that I place on this page will contain in it all of Biblical doctrine. I post memes and writings that I hope will challenge you, encourage you, teach you, bring your joy, or make you think. This one certainly did many of those things.
But since this little meme caused such a stir, I thought that I should write about this topic tonight. So here goes.
Good works will NOT get you into heaven. You can be the best philanthropist who ever lived and it will not help you walk through the gates of heaven. Only trust in Jesus as your Savior will do that. But we must know that good works are a requirement in the life of a Christian. Ephesians 2:10 tells us, “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” And James 2:14-17 says, “What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.”
Faith and trust in Jesus DEMANDS good works, for to this we were created.
Merely being baptized will not get you into heaven. Many are baptized as children. Just because your parents baptized you does not mean you gain automatic entrance into heaven. Others were baptized as adults and I would say it is fair to assume that even some who are baptized as adults do not really know Jesus as their Savior. So baptism in and of itself will NOT get you into heaven. But that does not mean that baptism is unimportant. Mark 16:16 says,”Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.” Baptism or profession of one’s faith is an outward expression of an inward commitment to the Lord. This passage however, should not be construed to say that if a person is not physically baptized that they cannot be saved. The second part of Mark 16:16 says that whoever does not BELIEVE will be condemned. If you are a true believe then you have received the baptism of the Holy Spirit and it is this baptism that is necessary for salvation. No one can believe without the Holy Spirit working in their lives.
Attending church, mass, or Sunday school will not get us into heaven. For many people sit in church pews or at mass every week who have not met and believed in their hearts in the risen Savior. But does that mean that worshiping together is not important? Quite the contrary. Hebrew 10:24-25 speaks of this when it tells us this, “and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near.” So, although going to church will not save us, we are instructed to assemble together to stimulate one another to love each other and to reach out to those in need.
Giving money and doing charity work will not get us into heaven. No matter how much you do or how much you give you will never be able to give enough to gain entrance into heaven. Only trust in Jesus as your Savior will do that. But does that mean tithing and charity work are unimportant. No, not at all! 2 Corinthians 9:7 instructs us, “Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.” That is giving of our time, our treasure, and our talents.
Will taking communion get you to heaven? NO! Only believing in Jesus as your Savior can do that! But I Corinthians 11:26 says, “For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.” So although taking communion will not save us it does play a vital part in reminding us of the immense sacrifice that was given to pay the debt for our sins.
Will belonging to a particular denomination or political party get you into heaven? Absolutely NOT!! No denomination, political party, or friendship is without stain, without sin. Each party has its flaws and each denomination has its flaws. Let’s not get so high and mighty about our affiliations that we start feeling better of ourselves just because of who we associate with. Only faith and trust in Jesus Christ can bring about salvation which gives us the reward of eternity in heaven.
And positive thinking will not get us into heaven. Many of today’s modern churches will teach and preach the power of positive thinking. This positive thinking can NEVER get us into heaven. But God loves us and God created us in His image so we should not fail to see ourselves in that way. If we have accepted Jesus as our Savior, we are not only created in the image of the Almighty God, but we are also now called children of God! What a blessing that is.
So nothing listed in the grouping of what will get you into heaven is bad, but rather most are good, and even commanded. But none of them alone with get you into heaven.
There is ONLY ONE WAY to heaven. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. Acts 16:31. John 14:6 further states, “Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”
And Acts 4:12 says this about Jesus, “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.”
So what will get you into heaven? Only faith and trust that Jesus Christ, God Himself, came to earth, lived among men, never sinned, was tortured and sent to the cross to pay the penalty for our sins, for the sins of all who believe in Him. And that three days later, He rose from the grave and smashed death to smithereens. He now reigns at the right hand of God the Father and will one day return to earth to bring about a new heaven and a new earth where we will live eternally with Him in Glory! WOW!! What a Savior!!
The Christian Conservative 