Kitten Love

I've never considered myself a cat person. In fact, I'm allergic. But this past week I came across an abandoned kitten. She was cute, desperate for help and meowing like crazy. I couldn't bring myself to walk away and leave her knowing that she would likely die. So, I picked her up and made some inquiries at the nearby houses. No one claimed her. I didn't know what to do, so I put her in my car to take her back to the church to our resident ministry assistant cat-lady. On the way to the church this little kitten crawled up my arm onto my shoulder and started nuzzling my beard. That pretty much sealed my fate. Fast forward a few hours and my wife and I were introducing our kids to their new pet and trying to think of names.

Later, as I thought about my cat, I realized that we come to God in much the same way that this little cat came to me. She was needy and desperate for help. She couldn't claim that she deserved my love or that I owed her anything. Yet, she came to me in her desperation hoping I would love her and help her anyway. This is exactly how we come to God. 

Luke 19:10 says that Jesus "came to seek and to save the lost.” And that is what we are without Him...lost. We desperately need Jesus. 2 Timothy 1:9 tells us that Jesus saves us "not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace." We don't deserve Jesus' love. He doesn't owe us His love, but He chooses to love us anyway. Just because He is loving.  

This drives home two basic starting points of the Christian faith that you must never forget. 

1) You stand before God needy and desperate for help.

2) You do not deserve His love but He loves you anyway.

Favorites in the Family

Jacob made love to Rachel also, and his love for Rachel was greater than his love for Leah.

Genesis 29:30

Now Israel loved Joseph more than any of his other sons, because he had been born to him in his old age; and he made an ornate robe for him. When his brothers saw that their father loved him more than any of them, they hated him and could not speak a kind word to him.

Genesis 37:3-4

Jacob had been his mother's favorite son. His brother, Esau, had been his dad's. Favoritism in the home was what he knew. It was what he was used to. And as we read the last half of Genesis, it becomes clearer and clearer that it is a toxic trait that Jacob's home life will be dominated by. 

Through a series of circumstances that weren't entirely Jacob's fault, he was tricked into marrying a pair of sisters. This is a bad idea which is why Scripture expressly forbids it in Leviticus 18:18. But Jacob made this bad idea worse by playing favorites. Scripture tells us right away that he loved one of his wives better than the other. Unsurprisingly, this created a rivalry between the two women. And for years they competed for their husband's affection by trying to outdo the other by having more children.

Sadly, this only made the situation worse because Jacob treated the children the same as he treated their mothers. He played favorites among his own kids. Showing preference to the one who was born of his favorite wife. Predictably, this led to rivalry among the kids. It got so bad that the brothers sold their rival into slavery and told their father he was dead. Deep down in their hearts, I believe they wished he really were dead. 

There are so many lessons we can learn from Jacob's life but one of them is undoubtedly the danger of playing favorites with our families. I know that most of us think we would never do that, but how many adults do you know who believe they weren't their parent's favorite child? Obviously, some parents still make this mistake. Be very careful that you aren't among them. Favoritism is toxic, and it will ruin your family.

Focused on Jesus

For no matter how many promises God has made, they are “Yes” in Christ. And so through him the “Amen” is spoken by us to the glory of God.

2 Corinthians 1:20

Does it ever seem like Christians make a HUGE deal out of Jesus? I mean He is only one of the three persons of the godhead, right? So, why are we always talking about Jesus? It's like the church is fixated!

In fact, this has much more to do with God's plan for redemptive history than it does some fixation on the part of the church. 2 Corinthians 1:20 tells us that ALL of God's promises are fulfilled in Jesus. Think for just a moment of how incredible that statement is. EVERY promise God ever made, even promises made thousands of years before Jesus was born, God was pleased to fulfil in Christ. 

That is why Jesus is always the center of attention is because God made Him central to His entire plan for the world. That is why the church MUST always focus on Jesus! Because all the theological roads of God's promises lead to the same destination: Jesus! That is why we speak the "Amen" through Jesus. The word 'Amen' means "that's right," "that's the truth," or "I agree." Everything about the Christian faith that we place our faith in, everything we proclaim to be the truth finds its conclusion in Jesus. This was God's plan. 

And the verse says that as we speak the "amen" through Him it is to the glory of God! God the Father doesn't feel left out or overshadowed by Jesus. This was His plan. It is His will. And it all works out to His glory. So, study Jesus. Exalt Jesus. Worship Jesus. And do it all to God's glory.

21 Ways to Share Your Faith

Now the Lord provided a huge fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.

Jonah 1:17

If I were to summarize the book of Jonah with a single sentence, I might put it this way. "If God tells you to go, then you better go." And this is important for us as New Testament believers because God has commanded us to go. Before His ascension to Heaven, Jesus commanded us to “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you" (Matthew 28:19-20). You are commanded to go and share the gospel with the lost. But sometimes it feels like it is difficult to find opportunities to share either the gospel or your testimony with lost people. So, I recently came up with 21 ways to help create opportunities to be a witness. Here they are:

1. Share a meal. Eating a meal with someone gives you the opportunity to pray over the food or engage in deeper conversation that you can steer towards spiritual things. 

2. Invite them to your home. They may see scripture or crosses on the walls. They will certainly get a closer look at how you live and how you treat your family. And this is a great way to share a meal with them.

3. Give them a Bible or a Christian book. Tell them how much it meant to you and that you wanted them to have it on their shelf in case they ever felt the need to explore it.  

4. Give them a gospel tract. A lot of people use these to share the gospel when they don't have the time to explain the gospel fully but want the person to have a full explanation they can read later.  I have used the "Four Spiritual Laws" tract quite a bit.

5. Just ask, “Can I share a little of my story with you?” Or "Can I tell you a little about my faith?"

6. Recommend they see a Christian movie. Yeah, some of them are cheesy, but some of them are pretty good. 

7. Write an “evange-letter.” I once worked my way through part of a condo complex this way. I started with unit A-1 and wrote a gospel letter to its unknown resident and mailed it. Each week I would write a letter to a new unit and pray for the people who lived there. 

8. Give them a notecard with a Scripture written on it. I used to write the text of Romans 5:8 on 3X5 notecards and give one to the cashier every time I checked out.  

9. Invite them to something. Invite them to church, a Bible study, a Christian concert or even to see a Christian comedian with you.

10. Listen to their needs and then offer to pray for them. Most of us hate it when someone drones on about their problems. But what if you actually listened and offered to pray for them?

11. When your server brings your food at a restaurant say, “We are about to pray over our meal. Is there anything we can for you about?”

12. Post Scripture or your testimony on social media.

13. Ask spiritual questions like “What do you believe about that?”

14. Give them a ride. While they are in your car you can listen to Christian music or engage them in a conversation about spiritual things.

15. Tag along with a friend. It always helps to see someone else do it, so when you get the chance to watch someone else share their faith...take it!

16. Go on a mission trip!

17. Get involved with a Christian group like FCA. As people become aware of the groups you volunteer with and participate in they will know what you believe. 

 

18. Introduce them to a Christian friend. “This is my friend, John, from church. You know you should really come to our church sometime. I really think you would like it.”

19. Decide to share the gospel with everyone who comes into your home. You can say something like, “I like to make sure that everyone who comes into my home knows about Jesus.” Then you can give them a tract or a short explanation of the gospel.

20. Pray for specific lost people and for opportunities to share Jesus with them. 

21. Be an obvious Christian everywhere you go. Your shirts, hats, bumper stickers, home décor, and life style can all be a witness. If you avoid cussing and gossiping, if you submit to authority and show true grace and forgiveness to people at work, they’ll notice. Live such an obviously Christian lifestyle that people can't know you without knowing you're a Christian.