Treasure In Clay Jars

The lottery fever comes around a few times a year when the nation’s Powerball lottery swells into the hundreds of millions of dollars. This was the case previously when a group of eight ‘ordinary’ people who worked for the same company in Nebraska won $365 million dollars by selecting the winning lottery numbers. Each person in the group ended up with approximately $15 million dollars each. This is generally the dream of the millions of people who buy lottery tickets each week. The chance to instantly become millionaires with all the ‘benefits’ that it supposedly brings. To be certain, there are many who don’t play the lottery “religiously” (a curiously common term used here purposefully), but who can’t resist the lure of the big jackpot. Most of these probably invest a relatively small sum, proportion to their income (say less than $20), for the chance at millions. Others however are probably a lot more liberal in their pursuit investing hundreds or thousands of dollars each year. ...

All living people likely fall into one of the three groups listed below:           People who are hostile to God           People who are ambivalent to God           People who love God All three know God exists but express that knowledge in profoundly different ways: People who are hostile to God This first group typically display hostility to God because they don't like what He represents - an all powerful force who will not allow them to live as they please - therefore the hostility. Their lie is public expression of a lack of belief in Him or His sovereign nature. Otherwise their hostility to God is paradoxical. Why be hostile to something that does not exist? If you sit next to one during extreme turbulence on an airplane, you'll understand why I call their lack of belief a lie. They fear dying and in most cases refuse to deal with this subject unless it cannot be avoided i.e. t...

For those of us Christians who are bewildered at the result of the US elections, keep in mind the following scripture which I believe is very applicable to the United States at this time: "...mene, mene, tekel, parsin..."  which is translated by the prophet Daniel as "weighed, weighed, wanting, divided" (Daniel 5:25-26) This was a warning to the nation of Babylon on the eve of their destruction. As for us Christians, here has always been God's warning to all of us: "...if my people , who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways then I will hear from heaven, and forgive their sin and heal their land." (2 Chronicles 7:14)

Psalm 14:1 - The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, their deeds are vile...

"The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field. (Matthew 13:44 NIV) In reflecting on my experience when I do door to door evangelism, it’s one thing when someone answers the door and listens to you even so briefly and then declines. However, I sometimes think about those who answer the door and who immediately decline when I identify myself as an evangelist. To put it in very secular terms: there I am standing at the door ready to offer them something that is worth far more than the richest winning lottery ticket in history, and when I identify myself with the ticket visually in hand (the Bible), they respond, “I’m not interested”. I always say “…no problem” and “thank you very much” and then I move on. The words spoken in red above was by Jesus Christ. The Lord Himself. Can you imagine the reaction of those who reject the message of Christ or the opportunity to h...

It was with sadness that I read about the death of famed atheist Christopher Hitchens who died after a battle with cancer on Thursday December 15 th . As a Christian and a very flawed one at that, my “natural” instinct was to muse about how Mr. Hitchens is now face to face with the test of his theory of atheism. However I find myself praying for him and what he actually did with his waning days than anything else. Not many people are given an opportunity by God to basically know for some time that they are about to die before the actual moment of death. For most, death comes unexpectedly i.e. accidents, violence etc. rather than via protracted illness the latter stages of which are spent in Hospice care. According to the Bible, for those who die with minimal or little warning, a life lived apart from accepting salvation through Christ is followed in rapid fashion by death and then judgment from God on that life: …as man is destined to die once, and after that to face...

The Lord says: “These people come near to me with their mouth 
and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. 
Their worship of me is based on merely human rules they have been taught. (Isaiah 29:13 NIV) This scripture from the "ancient" book of Isaiah was written at that time about "God's people" - the Jews. Though they professed love and obedience to God, this scripture clearly says otherwise! Oh they obviously went through with the outward appearance of religion. "…honor me with their lips", but the Lord knows who are his (2 Timothy 2:19 NIV). Before us religious people of today read this and shake our heads at those hypocritical Jews of yesteryear, we should pause and examine our own behavior. It is not uncommon for Protestants (a label that likely would be applied to me) to turn up our noses at say the Catholics or other religions whose expression of worship appear to be built largely on "merely human rules they have be...