Truth Teacher

Broken promises, they sit and fester in your gully like cheap Chinese take-out with a “C” restaurant rating.  It doesn’t matter if you stand up, lay down, go for a walk, your churning stomach stands as a reminder of the broken promises. I have to work tonight, New Year’s Eve, because “people changed their mind”.  Not that I had big plans, it was more the thought of working on New Year’s Eve.  A night when most of the civilized world takes a break from their job to celebrate the year past and embraces the hopes for the year to come.  Working tonight has been a bit of a sore spot because of a broken promise.  I was reminded of a few great verses in a sermon,  “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside ever weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endur...

(Part of the Faith to Move Mountain series, examples.  Taken from Luke 1:5-25) There was a priest named Zechariah...he had a wife named Elizabeth.  "They were both righteous before God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and statutes of the Lord." Luke 1:6 Zechariah and Elizabeth walked blamelessly before God.  And then the Scripture says, "But they had no child, because Elizabeth was barren." (1:7)  They served God faithfully but the one thing a Jewish man wanted was a son.  The one thing a Jewish woman needed to remove the reproach of her people was a son.  Zechariah and Elizabeth were "advanced in years", in other words, they were way past the age at which women give birth. Zechariah, while performing his duties, is visited by an angel that tells him he and Elizabeth will have a son.  The crux of the whole story and the "faith learning moment" is this, Zechariah had not ceased to pray for a son for him and Elizabeth, though it ...

Have you moved your mountain yet?  You are not alone if you said "no".  God was gracious to us to give us examples of imperfect people, who rose above the lure of the culture, to please God.  They (as we do now) lived in rebellious times when every intention of the thoughts of mankind’s heart was continually evil.  Righteous men and women found a way to live by faith.  Consider these truths: By faith, Noah... Heb 11:7 Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord Gen 6:8 Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation Gen 6:9 Noah walked with God Ge 6:9 Noah worshiped the Lord Ge 8:20 Noah was obedient Ge 6:22 Noah was reverent Ge 8:20; Heb 11:7 Noah was an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith Heb 11:7 Noah was a herald of righteousness 2 Peter 2:5 Noah, like Enoch, walked with God.  They walked by faith and they lived their lives to please God.  Noah found a way to live a righteous life in the midst of a generation who’s...

Have you noticed the “great ones” were all about pleasing God?  Noah walked with God.  David had a heart for God.  Moses was already pleasing to God and his desire was to know God more so that he could please God more.  Abraham blindly obeyed God which gave him a unique relationship with the Creator, one that pleased God.  “Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him.” Gen. 5:24 Enoch is a man that we don’t know much about, but what we do know exudes a walk and relationship with God that was greatly pleasing to God.  So pleasing in fact that God took him home early.  Why?  Did God need the company?  Was he sparing him from some evil turn later in life?  God took him off this earth and into the presence of God to experience the greatest joy that any child of God will experience, an eternity with God. How can I live like Enoch?  What lifestyle should I imitate to be found pleasing to God?      ...