The Life Preserver

What does love look like to you? Most of us tend to picture a young couple, walking along the beach at sunset, holding hands. Or perhaps a young mother, holding her newborn child to her breast.

"See how much they love each other," we say. "Look how much she loves her child!"

God commands us to love one another. And we DO have that ability within us. But we tend not to love those who are against us or who are not interested in hearing the Gospel message.

How can we NOT share the Gospel? Considering what awaits those who have not come to a saving faith in Jesus, it is the ONLY loving thing we can do.

"So he began saying to the crowds who were going out to be baptized by him, “You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?" - John The Baptist, Luke 3:7

The example I always use is someone drowning at the beach. They need help. If they don't get that help, they will soon be dead. Are we just going to stand there and watch them die? Or, do we throw then a life preserver?

"As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead." - James 2:26

Every human needs a life preserver, and His name is Jesus. Without Him, we will be eternally dead, spending our forever life after this one in hell. But, in Jesus, we can have eternal life, free from pain and suffering, surrounded by love.

"Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another." - Jesus, John 13:34

It seems so simple. So, why do people not want to hear our message? Why do they choose to spend eternity in anguish? They don't believe our message.

We can do nothing to change their hearts. But we CAN love them, and pray for them, and share  the message of hope with them.

We are ALL sinners. But, if we repent of our sins and trust in Jesus, we WILL be saved.

“The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the Gospel!” - Jesus, Mark 1:15

So then, this is love . . .

"This is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. ¹¹Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another." - 1 John 4:10-11

Our departure for our new home is approaching. We best be found busy when He comes.

This Is Home - Switchfoot

A Titanic Task

It's hard to believe that the mightiest ship ever constructed could have sunk on its maiden voyage, yet it did. The Titanic was designed and built by expert ship builders of its day. Experts. Yet it couldn't handle a random piece of ice floating in the ocean.

My friend Chuck told me a "Titanic" story in church yesterday. It was about our hunger to know the exact day of the rapture of the church.

“But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father." - Matthew 24:36

No one can know the day or the hour of Jesus' return, or so He tells us. Yet we seem to spend a lot of time trying to figure out exactly when that day will be anyway.

Chuck posed this question. If you knew that you were on a ship that was going to sink "someday," what would be the first thing that you would do? Right now.

Well, perhaps making sure you had a lifejacket might be a good idea. Knowing where the lifeboats would be a good second choice. Got any friends or family members onboard with you? Warning them might be something else you could do.

Sadly, trying to tell the ship's captain and crew would only be met with laughter. The same goes for the rest of the passengers. even family members might get annoyed with your constant warning of impending doom.

The main lesson we need to learn from the Titanic is that we need to be prepared. The second is like it. Warn others that preparation is essential. And that means having Jesus in your life and in your heart.

The iceberg is sin. Jesus is the lifeboat. Get on board.

“Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned." - Mark 16:15-16

The Parable of The Life Preserver

"We have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world." - 1 John 4:14

Here's a picture I hope you never get to see in real life. It's a life preserver - mid-flight. If this is your viewpoint of a life preserver in action, you are in some serious trouble, my friend.

There are three aspects of a life preserver's use that are critical to its successful operation.

First is the thrower. Without a strong and accurate throw by the thrower nobody is going to have a good day.

Second, the recipient has to be capable of reaching out to the preserver. Without the desire and ability to be saved, everybody's efforts will be useless.

And lastly, there's the life preserver itself. Unless it is in good shape and ready to be used it could sink or come apart at the seams. It will be useless unless the life preserver is properly taken care of and maintained.

The parable part of this story comes by examining this entire scenario through God's eyes. In life's struggles, God is the always the thrower. Some might say He is also the life preserver and that's true sometimes, but not always. Quite often God uses other people as His life preservers. God uses us to speak to people, to walk along with people who are struggling in life.

The recipient of any life saving effort is usually someone that God has placed in our lives - for a moment, for a season, but always for a reason. When this scenario works perfectly it is a beautiful thing to behold.

Oh, I forgot one aspect to this parable - the rope itself. The rope is love. God's love is always there to save us from ANY situation. And God has promised to never let go of His life-saving love. It is always there.

Notice that the thrower is directly connected to the life preserver. God's love, through His Holy Spirit, makes everything work. Our Christian brothers and sister are the earthly connection to the struggling soul.

Is there someone in your life who is in danger of drowning right now? Tell them about God's life-saving love. All they have to do is to reach out their hand and receive Him into their hearts.

Remember, even after the struggling person reaches out, God is the one that pulls them to Himself. It's a beautiful thing.

Keep a lookout on the horizon in YOUR life. Is someone struggling? Is someone sinking? God has a hold of you. Are you willing to be used to save a life?

Need To Breathe

Why do we have a tough time returning back to work after a particularly enjoyable weekend? That's kind of a useless question. The answer is obvious. Work is tedious & boring. Weekends are fun and exciting! We'd much rather be on vacation than chained to our desks doing pointless, boring things. Feeling depressed Monday morning makes perfect sense. Then why do we keep doing it again and again?

Our faith can be the same way. When we first come to believe in God we get SO excited. We're on fire for Jesus. We can't get enough of Him. We read. We worship. We praise. But then . . . we all tend to return to our old way of living. We all tend to slide back into the person we used to be. Why? We're humans, we're flawed and we all tend to ignore our Creator.

Our faith lives shouldn't be that way. We are told in the Bible that we are to "love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength." We fail at that. Why? There are several reasons.

Persecution. When we come home from church or a Bible study we can be met by an unbelieving spouse who wonders why we waste so much time at church.

Propaganda. We watch television and get seduced into thinking that sin isn't so bad. We see violent television shows that thrive on sex and murder and "self." It is all too easy to absorb their thinking into our minds and hearts.

Procrastination. There are times when we don't feel like reading the Bible. Those are precisely the times we SHOULD be reading it. We become accustomed to a way of life and we feel comfortable just wallowing in it.

People. We all have friends who are non-believers. We want to be friends with them yet they always tend to suck us back into doing sinful things. We tend to go along with them because we like having friends.

So, what can we do about it?

When a person is drowning they crave one thing. Air. We need it to survive. Without it we die. Shouldn't our faith be like that? Shouldn't we crave God's word? Shouldn't we NEED to be in it?

When someone is drowning and has no way to save themselves, what do they need? The need someone to save them. They need someone who can throw them a life preserver. Don't we have that in our faith lives? His name is Jesus. He saved us on the cross.

We live in a fallen world. We are in danger of drowning each and every day. When a friend is having a bad day we need to be ready to throw them a life line. Who knows . . . tomorrow the roles might be reversed and WE will be the ones in need.

We all can learn how to swim my immersing ourselves in God's Word, thereby keeping ourselves afloat with every word we breathe in. Spend time serving others, spend time in worship and praise, spend time doing those things we need to do in order to remain afloat in a world that keeps pulling us under.

We need to breathe. God is our oxygen.

"16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the man of God[b] may be complete, equipped for every good work." - 2 Timothy 3:16-17

Washed By The Water - Needtobreathe

Save The Nipples!!

Do you have nipples? Just about everybody does. Do you like your nipples? Would you like to keep them? Then this story is for you! Read on!

A few nights ago I took a refresher course in CPR (Cardio Pulmonary Resuscitation) and AED use (Automated Exterior Defibrillator) from the American Heart Association. Guess what. I passed! Now, if anyone has a heart malfunction in my vicinity I can help them out. Yay!

However, there were some "interesting" things I learned in my training that surprised me and everyone else in the room as well. One of them might be very important to you if you have any body piercings. Keep reading. Here are some of the things I learned.

• There is a difference between a "heart attack" and "cardiac arrest." A heart attack is a blockage problem. Cardiac Arrest is an "electrical " problem. Read more about it here.
• Use of an AED in cardiac arrest cases increases your chances of survival from 10% to over 30%.
• If you are wearing a bra, whether ye be man or woman . . . it is coming off! The wire inside can short circuit the AED's effectiveness.
• If you have a hairy chest, man or woman, it won't be hairy for long. We have been instructed to dry-shave it where the AED pads go.
• If you have any body piercings that are within 2" of the AED pads (like nipple rings or studs), we have been instructed to remove them . . . by grabbing them . . . and ripping them off. That's right. Ripping them off!

That last little bit of information might sound somewhat extreme but, when the alternative is death, would most people really mind?

Sin in our lives is a lot like having a nipple ring. We might like it. We might think it makes us look cool. But unless it is removed we have no chance of survival. We're going to die and that's that.

The thing that sucks is, no matter how hard we try to be good or to keep our nipples in one piece, we can never stay clean enough by ourselves to have any hope of life after death.

There is some good news though. It is possible to be saved, body piercings and all, by placing your faith and hope in Jesus. He knows exactly how to save a heart that has gone bad. And He won't rip your nipples off!

I have nothing against piercings I guess. But then again, I kind of do. Piercings and tattoos are an outward expression of the inner self. They cry out "Look at me!" Shouldn't we really be saying "Look at Jesus?"

"7 “Woe to the world for temptations to sin! For it is necessary that temptations come, but woe to the one by whom the temptation comes! 8 And if your hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life crippled or lame than with two hands or two feet to be thrown into the eternal fire. 9 And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into the hell of fire." - Matthew 8:7-9

Nothing But The Blood - Matt Redman