Where’s Your Heart?

by Janet Davidson

I just finished reading Dave Ramsey’s book, “The Total Money Makeover”.  In it, he explains how to get your finances in order – a particularly good read for those who struggle in this area.  The book is peppered with shocking statistics.  One such stat is: “88% of college seniors have credit card debt—before they even have a job!”  Imagine that, aside from student loans, leaving college with debt already in the bag.  It reminded me of my college days.  I remember having $20 to live on during a quarter (we were on the quarter system, not semesters).  I didn’t have a credit card – just a $20 bill.  Since this was all I had, I had to be very judicious about how I spent it.  I used it primarily for laundry and for personal care items such as toothpaste, shampoo, etc.  There were many weekends where my friends would do a “Young’s Run” (take a trip to the nearby Young’s dairy farm—popular among students) to get ice cream and hang out.  I often wanted to go, but I simply couldn’t afford it.  For several years, this was my experience—it was harsh. It made me very conscious of my needs vs. my wants.  But, in the end, it disciplined me because I didn’t get into debt and learned to live below my means.  I did eventually get credit cards but was careful about how I used them.  Despite being careful about credit, bad things can happen to us financially.

This past October, I returned from a business trip in Denver only to discover that my wallet was missing.  I got several calls from credit card companies alerting me to fraudulent charges.  It was true, someone had stolen my wallet and compromised all my credit cards – more than $7000 worth of wrongful charges incurred in less than 2 hours.  I was upset.  I knew I could work with each of the credit card companies and get affairs back in order but I really didn’t want to deal with the aggravation.  I also had to replace everything else in my wallet: driver’s license, insurance cards, store membership cards and more.  Plus, I felt insecure that someone had my identity.  I prayed that they’d find no joy in the things that were purchased but that those things would only bring “leanness” to their souls.  Thieves today can steal anything—your things, your identity, your credit, maybe even your life.  Nothing wrong with any of these…just don’t put your trust in them.

Jesus said it best in Matthew 6:19-21, “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” The question is: where’s your heart?

 

You Have a Gift

by Donna Baranowski

“In his grace, God has given different gifts for doing certain things well. So if God has given you the ability to prophesy, speak with as much faith as God has given you. If your gift is serving others, serve them well. If you are a teacher, teach well. If your gift is to encourage others, be encouraging. If it is giving, give generously. If God has given you leadership responsibility, take the responsibility seriously. And if you have a gift for showing kindness to others, do it gladly” (Rom. 12:6-8, NLT).

Paul makes his point very clear, and that is, we all have been given at least one gift to build up His church. The question we need to ask ourselves is, “What spiritual gift has God given me and am I using this gift for God’s glory and purpose?” This is really not something to sit back and wonder about because the reality is that YOU do have at least one gift and God made us to serve each other. So there is no argument that you don’t have a gift and for those of you who are using your gift: “Great! DO IT WELL.”

The importance of using our gifts is so vital that Paul uses the concept of the body to teach how we should live and work together. Sometimes I think we can get so comfortable with the current status quo, one might be tempted to think, “New Hope has all these programs and talented people making things run so smoothly, I will not be missed if I’m not part of anything.” Wrong attitude.

But let’s take that reasoning and look at it from  Paul’s perspective. If, as Paul states in Romans 12:5, “We are many parts of one body, and we all belong to each other”, then who are we to say that we are unnecessary? It’s something like this:  You start an exercise regimen focusing on the upper portion of your body. You do all these strengthening exercises to improve your arms, back, shoulders and chest. You also do a daily routine of sit-ups. But when it comes to the lower portion of your body, you neglect it. You don’t take time to walk daily, do leg stretches and subject it to strength training. After three months of vigorous training do you imagine that this person will be fit? You may have the “appearance” of being healthy and fit. But the reality is that you are weak and unfit because one part of your body has been neglected.

In the same way our churches are not as strong as they could be if even one of us is neglecting his/her part. So my challenge today is to take a step of faith and reach out by getting plugged in! Let’s all take Paul’s words to heart “…and let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds” (Heb. 10:24, NIV).

 

 

The Gift of Time

by John Serritos

We can use the time God has given us to glorify Him.

In the Book of Numbers we see that Joshua and Caleb’s use of their time, dedication and faith were honored by God and brought glory to Himself. Joshua and Caleb trusted in God and put Him first even when the popular consensus of the Israelites was that Canaan was unconquerable. And to think that God had just shown His power as He miraculously freed them from slavery in Egypt. Out of the twelve spies, Joshua and Caleb were the only two who believed that following God was the best option even when an easier choice was presented to them. They were later (40 years later) rewarded by being allowed to enter the Promised Land. Both Caleb and Joshua also brought God glory in the military conquests that followed their exodus from Egypt.

God uses the situations in our lives for his glory too. Something as simple as skipping a friend’s party for the purpose of attending a church function such as Awana or a Bible study can have a ripple affect. Skipping the party at your friend’s house and coming to Awana instead, for example, can put you in a position to be a servant and teach God’s Word to children that may never hear the Gospel message anywhere else. By prioritizing an opportunity to serve God through Awana, one can potentially lead a child to Christ, resulting in his salvation.

Putting God’s work first before “fun” activities can also be a great witnessing tool to unsaved friends. Your friend may see the model you are setting of turning away from secular activities and putting the things of God first on your list of priorities. The example you show them through your actions and godly time management may be what they need to turn away from their sin and trust in Jesus Christ. God will honor your commitment to Him. In addition, God may also be testing you and the reward may be seeing the salvation of your loved one because of your example. When faced with these choices, what do you think will yield eternal rewards?

Choosing to Forgive

by Joe Baranowski

What led me to experiencing God’s love was learning forgiveness. A guy I worked with insulted my nationality and I retaliated by threatening him with physical harm. He had a lot of friends and instantly I had many enemies. There was no place to hide; I would have to work with him again. My counselor suggested I ask him to forgive me. You can imagine my reaction, “Me?  It was he who called me a name!” The next day we did work together and I asked him to forgive me for threatening him. He suggested that he should be asking me for forgiveness. From that day forward there was peace between us.

There are three types of offenses, intentional, unintentional, and perceived. All of these hurt and must be appropriately dealt with in love for our relationships to heal and flourish. The intentional offense is something said or done with deliberation to cause us pain. With the unintentional offense, the person didn’t say or do it on purpose, but we were still affected. The perceived offense is something we took the wrong way or an old wound from our past was reopened.  Either way these offenses are real to us and have to be dealt with in a loving way that will lead to forgiveness. Too often people give in to their pain and find comfort there. They avoid the one who hurt them and talk to everyone else about how they have been wronged by their offender. Every time the story is told and retold the hurt is renewed as if it just happened. Resentment, bitterness, and revenge rule the day, sometimes for decades. There are people who go to their graves holding grudges and resentments. Sadly, it is families, friendships, churches and workplaces that pay the price. A scenario might look like this. This person can’t go to this one’s event because this other one might be there and so neither one shows up.

Most times before we forgive we need to confront the person who offended us and speak the truth in love. “When you said this or did this, I felt this way.” Instead of attacking, we would do well to open up to reveal the hurt that is there. This will lead us to the path of forgiveness and the way that God has forgiven us.

When we do forgive it is not forgetting but choosing not to remember. It means you don’t bring it up anymore. You don’t gossip about it to others. You have forgiven. You can give as before to the relationship. There are some situations where we can’t have the confrontation, but we can still forgive. We can still let go of the bitter resentful feelings that keep us in bondage.

“If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone” (Romans 12:18).

 

Thanksgiving Poem

by Samantha Verdaguer

I wake up in the morning,

thanking God for giving life.

I pray to be God’s obedient daughter

and Joe’s submissive wife.

Thank you, Lord, for always answering my pleas.

You always give me strength

to  accept your will for me.

Thank you, Lord, for supplying every need;

I trust in you and follow wherever You may lead.

Thank you, Lord, for caring abundantly for me.

Who am I that God Almighty

would grant me life eternally?

Thank you, Jesus, for dying at Calvary

so I would live  forever.

I praise you, my Savior,

for nothing did you spare!

 

The S.A.G. Card

by Nico Magundayao

One of the highlights of a working actor’s life is the day that his Screen Actors’ Guild (S.A.G) card gets mailed to him. A S.A.G. card is issued by the actors’ guild signifying an actor’s entry into the union. It entitles the actor to use the benefits afforded by the union and is a ticket for work in more professional productions. The application for a S.A.G card is somewhat difficult because one of the requirements is for him to have acted in a S.A.G.-sanctioned production. The catch is no one who is a non-union member can act in S.A.G.-sanctioned productions unless a rare waiver has been issued for his/her behalf. Once an actor is issued the card, there are things that he can and cannot do anymore as an actor. The main restriction is he cannot act in productions that are not sanctioned by S.A.G. The main plus though is that a S.A.G actor is more apt to be hired for more prestigious projects in the future.

Baptism also works the same way. This rite is a voluntary act on the part of a Christian to signify his intention to follow Jesus Christ after he receives God’s free gift of salvation. It is NOT a requirement for salvation but a public manifestation that one is seeking to be an imitator of Him. Deciding on baptism is not an easy decision because it is an act of surrendering oneself to His will and entering into a covenant with Him. By electing to be baptized, one is entering into a public confession of faith.

That is where the decision becomes the hardest. What, if in following God, you are asked to leave behind things and people that you have grown attached to? What if God wants you to leave the dreams you have for a dream you are not as enthusiastic about? By becoming baptized, you are essentially, giving a “Yes, I will” answer to these questions. You are leaving the possibilities of these things happening in your life for His glory and edification. You are, in short, giving Your life up for His service by signifying to be baptized. There are things that you cannot choose for yourself anymore, but there are also things prepared by God that will give Him glory through Your life.

I prayerfully ask you, if you or someone you know has just decided to be baptized or is thinking about it, to ask this question: “If I am going to be baptized, am I open for God to do things to my life, both comfortable and uncomfortable for me?” If you are, then please set up your appointment to be baptized. If you cannot answer that question wholeheartedly, then it is time for you to pray God for strength to step out in faith, and for willingness on your part to forsake all to follow Him. It is your entry into a blessed life, for there is nothing more satisfying than living according to His design and purpose.

Agape Discipleship

by Laura Vana-Husband

Go to the world

Every person without judgment

And make disciples

Teach the message of truth

Shared through action and not by word alone

For people will know by their love

I have known by this demonstration

While observing love in motion

In the form of selfless service

Caring for needs without request

Sacrificing home and freedom and privacy

To care completely for another

Guarding safety and constantly comforting

Enduring endless complaint

To teach and relearn basics of living

Sharing this life with another

Not from mutual benefit

But solely sacrificial love

Demonstrating truth of discipleship

Challenging the half hearted

Identifying and modeling

This discipleship of agape.

Objections to Hell

by Pastor Gerry Miller

As part of this View from the Pew, I thought it valuable to briefly address some of the objections people raise because of biblical teaching on Hell as a place of eternal punishment for those who reject Christ. Some questions are as follows:

How can a loving God even conceive of a place like Hell much less send people there after death for all of eternity? God could have made us moral robots, forcing us all to follow Him, but this would not have fostered the meaningful voluntary love interactions that He desires with His human creatures. God will not force a human to unwillingly relate to Himself. Far more loving is God’s giving us a choice to either freely accept or reject his loving overtures with the knowledge that rejecting these overtures will have dire eternal consequences. Furthermore, the existence of a Hell has forced humans who otherwise would have been indifferent, to take seriously God’s desire of a loving, authentic relationship.

How can God unfairly punish a human for all of eternity in Hell for sins committed during a short period of a human lifespan?  The fairness of punishment for a crime is never determined by how long it took to commit the crime but rather on the enormity of the consequences of a crime. For example, a split second burst of gunfire that results in the death of a victim can deprive a victim of life for (possibly) many years. In the case of Hell, we are talking about a sin which rejects the infinite goodness of an all-powerful, all-loving God for all of eternity that is appropriately punished with eternal consequences.

Why does punishment in Hell have to be so extreme? Couldn’t God lighten up a bit? Even a “nice” place that a conscious, thinking human would spend in eternity without God would become (eventually) so boring because of lack of infinite intellectual stimulation that even that would become tortuous and unbearable. Given this, it may even be that Hell as described in the Bible may be the most merciful place a person without God could spend for all of eternity.

Why does God send sincere practitioners of non-Christian religions to Hell? Why would God send those who never heard about Jesus Christ to Hell when they never had a chance to become believers? The Bible teaches that no one goes to Hell in ignorance. Scripture teaches that all have some knowledge of truth (Romans 1:18-21) and the Holy Spirit will convict the world of their sin, righteousness and eternal judgment (John 16:7-11). The issue is not that humans don’t have the truth but rather what they do with the truth they have. As we have seen in Muslim countries, lack of Bibles or missionaries does not keep God from supernaturally revealing Himself to those who are open to accepting the truth.

The real question that must be answered is this: Why do humans ignore the offer of eternal fellowship with God by rejecting the pardon for sin that Jesus Christ freely offers all of humanity? I challenge you to think about THIS question!

Hypocrisy

by Kate Miller

Christians rarely if ever grasp the attention of national media for a good reason, and recently I heard a story about one of the supposed “leaders” in the Evangelical Christian faith that was, in my opinion, appalling. This man is the host of a program that offers advice to those who have moral dilemmas. A viewer wrote in to the show asking what to do about his wife that was deteriorating as a result of Alzheimer’s disease. The wife no longer recognized her husband and was becoming increasingly difficult to care for. The man confessed that he was having an active affair with another woman and wanted to know what he should do. The host of the program did not offer what I would consider to be “Christianly advice.” Instead, he told the man that he should divorce his wife and marry his mistress. He justified this statement by saying that because of her condition she was already dead, and as long as he made sure she was well cared for, he could live guilt free. He threw the vows of marriage out the window and encouraged a man to indulge in his selfish desires. When you consider what the Christian religion teaches, any person, believer or not, should be able to see how his advice was laden with hypocrisy.

Now I could sit here and get into all of the things that are wrong with the bit of advice that this man gave, but instead I would like to take a look at the bigger picture.

Why do Christians feel that we can pick and choose which parts of God’s teachings we will practice? Christians can actively condemn those that practice homosexuality or have abortions, but when it comes down to the more socially acceptable sins like selfishness and greed, the laws suddenly no longer apply.

I have witnessed firsthand how this type of hypocrisy can turn off a non-believer to the saving power of Jesus Christ. We are so busy pointing out the faults of others that we forget to look at our own lives. We must realize that it is not our place to cast the stones of judgment upon those who do not believe because when it comes down to it, we are no more perfect than those we condemn. Christians may not be able to see how imperfect they truly are, but if we take a moment to look at our lives, I am sure that we could all find an area where we do not practice what we preach. A Christian who does not live by the laws that God has created for us can become a stumbling block to those who observe our faith from the outside. As Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, “You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye” (Matt. 7:5). We must first correct our own faults before we point out those of another, and when we do rebuke those around us for their  sin, we must do so with love and understanding.

Morality

by Rick Rice

Ah, morality, the glue of civilization, the discernment of what is right and what is wrong. We have volumes of laws that tell us what not to do, and the earthly consequences that go with breaking these laws. We have armies of people in positions of authority who go around 24/7 “correcting” the masses who break these laws, yet this does not stem the tide. What happened to society’s moral compass? Why is it so hard for so many to simply do the right thing? I am not going to attempt to answer these questions here; I will simply refer you to Genesis 3 and tell you it has been downhill from there. That said however, we have been sent help. We do have an instruction manual to help those of us who will take the time to read it.

I would have to say, when I find myself doubting my ability to make a moral decision, I first think of the long journey we are all on to become imitators of Christ. I find that the more you imitate Christ, the more moral decisions you will make. When Christ himself was asked what the most important commandment was, he said, “’Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these” (Mark 12:30-31, NIV).

When I need step-by-step instructions, I turn to my favorite list-maker Paul.  He says, live by the Spirit (moral) and stay away from your sinful nature (not moral). Hmmm, how do I know where the sinful nature lurks? Well, “The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God” (Gal. 5:19-21, NIV). If you find yourself stumbling down this path, turn around.

Ok, so now that I’ve turned away from the debauchery, how do I know I am living by the Spirit? By the fruit of course. “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law… Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.” (Gal. 5:22-23, 25, NIV). When the sinful nature really puts the pressure on, I turn to this piece of spiritual rebar from Paul: “No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it” (1 Cor. 10:13, NIV).

As you go through the rest of your day, week, life, out in this world, I recommend keeping this piece of advice in an easy to reach place: “Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be courageous; be strong. Do everything in love”(1 Cor. 16:13-14).