Oprah Winfrey is a very powerful woman with a large following.  However she too has fallen into the trap that so many fall into.  She believes that if someone has a path to God that makes them pure and it works for them, no matter how they get there, it is right.  They may call it something other than through Jesus Christ but as long as we worship the same god, it is right.  This is a very common mistake that takes away the fundamental reason that Jesus spoke the words He spoke in John 14:6 when He said “I am the way, the truth and the life.  No one comes to the Father but through me.” 

Jesus is the only way because Jesus, unlike us, was and is God in the flesh.  Jesus is as much God as God is God.  There is no separation, Jesus and the Father are one and it was for this reason alone that we can be saved.  No human being is rigtheous enough to be in God’s presence.  We needed Christ to be our sacrifice for our sinful life.  We need it because we can’t satisfy God’s requirements on our own and this is by design.  It puts God as the only means of Salvation.

With man alone, there is no way to God.  All of man’s ways lead to man’s sinful desires.  God eliminates the sin with Christ and Christ alone.  This may be hard for someone to believe if they want believe the Oprah way, but if you seek God, He will assure you and convince you if you truly seek Him.  Why not seek Him today.

Many who don’t believe that Jesus is the only path to God’s salvation feel that Christianity is not only implausible, but arrogant or exclusive.  This is the very thing that will keep many from fully accepting Christ as the only path to eternal life.  I am also a person that wants to fight for those that don’t seem to stand a chance in this world, but that is exactly why I want to always share the truth of the gospel.  We don’t stand a chance without our faith in Christ.

Some argue that there are people in the remotest parts of the earth that never have heard the gospel message and because of their traditions and upbringing that they simply don’t have a chance to ever hear the gospel let alone believe in it.  One answer:  I AM NOT GOD AND NEITHER ARE YOU!  It is now, always has been and will be in the future always be God’s decision as to who gets into heaven and who doesn’t.  Psalm 145:17-20 however indicates that God will always help those that seek Him and destroy those that reject Him.  He gives us a chance to hear, believe and accept.  All of creation speaks of His existance and none have an excuse for denying Him (Romans 1).

By saying it is God’s decison, I am not trying to deny the Gospel message, I am saying that only God knows what we as human beings can never know and that is what is truly within a person’s heart.  We can’t be the judge, God is the judge.  We just don’t know.  What may seem implausible is actually quite incredible. Jesus paved the way with His sacrifice and God never turns away from someone that comes to Him through His son.  Because someone believes they are good, doesn’t make them good.  In reality, it is the cleansing power of God’s spirit that makes us “good” people.

He is the only way.  Believe it or not, He’s the only way.

It can be confusing.  Is today the last day of the feast of unleavened bread or was it yesterday?  Was Passover to be celebrated Saturday evening or Sunday?  If you have ever studied the feasts of the Lord as expressed in Leviticus 23, you may agree, that they can be confusing.  Even the Jews of today argue about the timing of the seder meal and the days of the High Sabbaths that are contained within the Passover week.  Is it any wonder the church decided back in the 4th century to stop following this aspect of the Law? 

The problem however is that I feel sometimes we have lost out on the most important part of this aspect of the Law because someone somewhere decided it was just for the Jews.  Did God really intend for us to not eat bread made with leaven for one week?  I am not sure, but what I do know is that in 1 Corinthians 5, Paul makes an analogy about the feast of unleavened bread and it is something every Christian should take into consideration and thus see the spiritual aspect of this part of the Law. 

When speaking about a very immoral act, Paul reminds the Corinthians to not boast about the act.  He says that a little leaven works throughout the entire dough.  Here’s what he says in verses 6-8

6Your boasting is not good. Don’t you know that a little yeast works through the whole batch of dough? 7Get rid of the old yeast that you may be a new batch without yeast—as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. 8Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with bread without yeast, the bread of sincerity and truth.

Paul is in a way explaining to us, people that may not really know what the feast of unleavened bread is all about, what it is all about.  Is Passover really about killing a lamb without blemish and feasting on it? Phsyically, no.  It is about Christ in spiritual fulfillment.  Wouldn’t it stand to reason then that the purpose of the feast of unleavned bread which requires that we remove all leaven (sin) from our homes (bodies) was presented physically as a spiritual act?

Paul continues his exhortation of Christian living in Ephesians 4 as he tells us to put off our old lives and live our new lives.  It’s about getting rid of sin in our lives.  Jesus, when He was baptized, went to John not because He was in need of repentance, but to show us the way to salvation begins with repentance.  It doesn’t mean you must be baptized to be saved as some would have you believe.  Jesus healed people on the Sabbath, I believe, because it is on a future Sabbath that we will be healed of our broken bodies on the day of the gathering in His presence.   The physical was a means of showing the spiritual.  Paul tells us in Colossians 2:16-17 that all of these things were a shadow of what was to come and the reality is in Christ. 

There are some that would have you keep every physical aspect of the Law, not as a means of salvation necessarily, but as a means of being in God’s favor.  I don’t have a problem with keeping the Law phsically and literally if that is what you wish to do, but please do not tell someone they are not in God’s favor if they don’t.  What does God require?  The blood of bulls or mercy and sacrifice?  I feel the spiritual aspects are more important than any phsyical aspect.  The shadow of a person doesn’t give you the real person, it only shows the outline.  The essence of the Law has been fulfilled in Christ and that is what we should know because as we know it, we know Him.

So if last week, you didn’t clean your house of leaven, there’s always this week.  It doesn’t have to be a once a year event, make it a daily event.  Flee from your sins and run to God.

 In Mark 13, Jesus gives a simple command to His disciples.  “What I say to you, I say to everyone: Watch”  This term watch can be associated also with praying as well as being prepared.  The problem however is that we so often don’t pray until something is upon us.  We don’t visit the mechanic until our car breaks down, many people don’t visit the doctor until they are sick.  No one calls a plumber to fix a leaky pipe if there is no leak.  We often don’t pray unless it is too late.  So I wanted to ask you a few ‘What If?’ questions to get you watching and praying.

What if today was September 10, 2001?  Would you think to pray for the protection of our nation? 

What if today a nuclear weapon were launched at Israel?  Would you be ready for world war 3?

What if today the stock market crashed to a level even lower than the October 1929 level, would you be ready for the next “Great Depression”?

What if the price of a barrel of oil tripled overnight?  Would you be ready to walk or ride a bike to your destination? 

What if today were the day and hour that no one knows about?  What if tonight, Jesus were to return?  Would you be caught off guard like a thief in the night catches the unsuspecting homeowner?

Part of the reason we never think to pray until something is upon us is because we can’t possibly think of all of the unthinkables in life, but part of it too may be spiritual laziness on our part.   Spend each day, even if for a minute or two, in prayer with God.  It’s good exercise for your spirit and will keep you awake when the time of prayer is really needed.  It may even prevent one of the unthinkables from becoming reality. 

The US Census bureau has a world population clock and I bleieve it is on May 8, 2008 that the population of the world will be 6,666,666 for a small slice of time.  Of course this will have many saying that the rapture will take place at this time or that the antichrist will be revealed or maybe if we are really lucky, all of the soap operas on television will have a day when no one commits adultery, murders, steals, slanders, or does something devious.  I guess it wouldn’t be a soap opera then.

It’s just an interesting figure, that’s for sure, I wouldn’t put too much more into it other than that.

Recently while clearing some dead trees on my property, my chainsaw quit working.  I had just filled it up with gas and it had been working fine prior to refilling the tank.    It didn’t take long for me to realize it had to be the gas/oil mixture that I recently had mixed.  I wasn’t sure how much oil to put in my new gallon of gas and didn’t bother to read the instruction manual and I apparently had too much oil. I was choking the engine; I didn’t have the right mixture.

The same can be true in our spiritual lives.  Too often people try to add something extra to their spirituality and end up with the wrong mixture.  The Bible contains all we need to answer all of our questions.  We don’t need the book of Mormon, the book of Health and Science, the Watchtower series or other publications put out by well intended groups.  Yes, Christian literature can be a wonderful resource to contact but if you feel these books listed above and others like them are necessary and equal to the Bile itself, you are going to choke your spirituality.  God never inspired anyone to write the book of Mormon, the Koran, the Watchtower or book of Scientology to be used as scriptural material.  The people that offered these books as divine inspiration were looking for their own glory and not God’s glory.  God has given us all we need, the Bible and nothing else is to be considered scripture or equal with it. 

Only God knows for sure how costly consulting these books will matter for our eternal lives because He is the final judge.  But I can tell you this, getting the wrong mixture with gas and oil can be quite costly these days.  It’s always best to consult only the instruction manual.  The Bible.

I am continaully amazed at the faith of athiests.  Yes, I believe athiests have a great deal of faith.  Faith is believing in something you can’t see and having the conviction that it is real.  To believe that God doesn’t exist is first of all quite mind-boggling to someone that has experienced God in many ways in life.  But then to have the conviction that He really doesn’t exist is beyond comprehension.  Did DNA just happen?  Did it happen by evolution alone that we have two eyes, two ears, two hands and only one mouth with two lips?  Wow, chance should play the lottery then. 

God has told us that all will acknowledge Him someday.  Paul then reiterated it in Romans 14:11 when telling us to not judge one another.  Everyone, believe it or not, will confess to God someday.  What an awesome day that will be.  I feel bad for people that twist the word of God to fit their athiestic philosphy.  Some day they will realize just how wrong they were.  I hate to admit I am wrong, but I am glad that I can always be set straight.  Those who hold onto their doubts about the existance of God will miss out completely. 

Do you have doubts or fears?  You are not alone.  It’s a fact of life but don’t let those doubts detract you from keeping your focus on Jesus Christ.  For He alone is the way the truth and the life.  He is the only path to God, the only one that brings salvation.  I can’t answer all of lifes questions but God can.  Seek Him out.  Have a question?  Ask God today.  Stop doubting, trust God and ask Him.  He will answer.  Just trust Him.

I installed the new Ubuntu on Thursday shortly after it became available.  I tried at 8AM and it was not available. I tried again at 8:30, not available. I tried one more time at about 9:30 and it was available.  I started the process and answered few questions. I checked again at 10:45 and it was waiting on me.  So I answerd the question and let it go.  Finally at about 6:30 PM it was installed. 

Considering that in all liklihood that the server I was downloading the upgrade from was an Ubuntu server, it sure says a lot about the product that so many people can be downloading the application all at once and not one time out error or lost packet. 

I haven’t really taken time to find out about all of the new features but I am sure they will be good.  If you are a windows user, give Ubuntu a try.  I am quite pleased with it and if I remember correctly, when Vista came out, it was not offerred for free. 

I am sure you have heard the saying “Get your feet wet” which typically comes with getting a little bit of experience with something that you may not have ever done before.  Quite often when in this situation, people get cold feet rather than getting their feet wet. 

The expression to get your feet wet comes from Joshua 3:14-17 Joshua is leading the Israelites into the promised land and they are about to cross the Jordan.  Joshua orders the priests carrying the ark of the covenant to cross first and as their feet touch the edge of the water, the Jordan, which is at flood stage, suddenly stops flowing and all of Israel is permitted to cross on dry ground.  It was one of God’s many miracles the He performed in thier midst.  But for those priests, they had to have faith that by stepping in the water, God would get them across.  Their ancestors had passed through the red sea forty years earlier and they now were crossing into the promised land but first had to take a step of faith. 

We too need to take that step of faith at times.  We need to get our feet wet and then allow God to work His miracles in our lives.  Today, expect a miracle.  Seek a miracle that will bless you and bring God glory, honor and praise!  Then thank Him for his mighty deeds and draw nearer to Him.

In the book of 1 Kings, Elijah is able to hold back the rain by prayer.  In Revelation 11, the two witnesses are prophesied to have control over the rain.  But now scientists want to control it too.   Chinese scientists are working to keep August dry for the Olympic games.  Indians are legened to have had rain dances that brought rain and I am sure many people think they can control the rain through ritualistic practices but the weather still belongs to God.

Yes, God will often answer prayers of farmers who need rain and I have seen Him hold off rain after prayer so baseball games could be played, but can scientists really control the weather?  As far as I know no one has truly successfully cloned a human being and I doubt it will ever happen. I also doubt the rain will ever be controlled by means other than prayer. 

In the Millennial Kingdom, those that refuse to worship Jesus and celebrate the feast of tabernancles will not receive rain (Zechariah 14)

God controls the rain. We should leave it that way and do what He has asked us to do.  Seek Him with all of our needs and desires.  Perhaps He won’t rain on your parade, or maybe He will bring a Hurricane.