Don't Leave Home Without Him

I published this in one of my books. I thought it good to post it again:

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I never knew I had an anterior cruciate ligament. But I received my lesson in human anatomy as I rounded third and sprinted toward the plate. A few yards down the third base line my right knee popped. It felt like an unseen hand ripped my leg in two. I toppled to the dirt, in too much pain to move.    

The surgeon said we should wait a few days for the swelling to subside before repairing my injury. He sent me home with crutches. 

The anterior cruciate ligament -- also known as the ACL -- is a band of tissue located behind the knee. Its chief purpose is to stabilize the leg by fastening the top and bottom together. If the ACL tears, the knee easily shifts out of position during normal activities like walking or running. 

I didn’t like using crutches. I felt uncoordinated as I hobbled down the sidewalk. Maneuvering from the living room to the kitchen was more trouble than I wanted to endure. Climbing stairs was out of the question. Within two hours of returning home, I put the crutches aside. 

“I don’t need these things,” I groused before going to bed. “I can get by just fine without ‘em.” 

The next morning, I crawled out from under the covers and stood carefully at the bedside, testing my knee. It felt sore, but nothing I couldn’t handle.  I showered, dressed and wolfed down my breakfast. I ignored the crutches as I walked out the door.

When I stepped off the sidewalk, my knee buckled. If the car hadn’t broken my fall, I’d have fallen to the ground. A few minutes later, I hobbled back into the house to retrieve my crutches. 

Over the last forty-seven years, as I’ve shared my faith in Christ with others, I’ve heard the refrain so often, “Religion is a crutch,” I wonder if it isn’t subliminally scripted into our subconscious.  What people most often mean is, “Believing in Almighty God is no different than being weak and dependent on something.”  

Coming from the lips of men and women whose spiritual injuries sometimes defy description, I shake my head in bewilderment.  In the face of overwhelming troubles and heartache, of illnesses, and loneliness, or the death of loved ones, and on and on it goes, some people still stubbornly cling to their pride and walk out the door without support. Others, hobbled by crippling disabilities like drunkenness, drug addiction, uncontrollable sexual lusts, and any number of spiritual injuries, still crow, “I don’t need crutches. I can get by fine without ‘em.”

I’ve learned (and still need a reminder now and then) it’s good to have Someone to lean on. The game changes too quickly. One moment I’m sprinting toward home, the next, I’m writhing in the dirt, eating my pride.

I am not ashamed to admit it. I need a crutch. I need Christ’s strong hand of support and soft words of comfort. I need a rock upon which to stand and a Savior to hold me fast. 

I learned the truth a long time ago: Don’t leave home without Him. Or, more to the point: Don’t live your life without Him.

Search and Rescue - Psalm 139 part one

My full and unedited message is posted on YouTube at this link:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uX_NXYx-F6A

At the outset of my message today I want to make a very important point. If you take nothing else away from what I say today, I hope every child of God, every son and daughter of God who were born again through obedient faith in Jesus the Messiah, I hope you will hear this point:

You are not alone. God is with you at this very moment. Wherever you are – at home, or away from home. Sick in bed or up and around healthy. Struggling after losing someone you deeply loved or comforted in their arms at night.

Listen, child of God, He is with you. For some of us that phrase is so familiar, we’ve heard it so many times, it has for us become almost trite. Like a throw-away phrase people say when they don’t know what else to say.

But this is not a trite throw-away phrase. It is Almighty God who says it to you through His holy and inerrant and infallible Scriptures.

Which leads me to my text for today:

O Lord, You have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I rise up; You understand my thought from afar. You scrutinize my path and my lying down, and are intimately acquainted with all my ways. Even before there is a word on my tongue, behold, O Lord, You know it all. You have enclosed me behind and before, and laid Your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; It is too high, I cannot attain to it. Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? (Psalm 139:1-7, NASB)

God knows all about us. Not only has He accurate count of the hairs on our head, but He knows everything we think, everything we do, and every motive behind it all. So, at the beginning of what I want to say to you today: Child of God, born again into His kingdom by your faith in Jesus Christ, do not fear. Do not worry. Do not doubt this. He is there with you. At this moment. Embracing you. Even if you cannot see Him, feel Him, touch Him – we walk by faith and not by sight – or by feeling.

So that’s point number one: God is with you. Always. He never leaves you. Whether you sense Him or not is NOT the issue. We live by faith in His unfailing promises made to us through His inerrant word, we call the Bible.

Let’s now return a moment to the psalm and to the second point of this message: O Lord, You have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I rise up.”

As I said a moment ago, God the Holy Spirit searches us, our hearts, our souls, our very being itself. Nothing is hidden from Him, not even the smallest wisp of a word in our mind. He knows the length and breadth and depth and height of our anger, and pride, and lusts, and envy – and yes, also, our loneliness, our sadness, our doubts, our fears, our confusions.

Think for a moment, in the quietness of your own thoughts, how absolutely naked and vulnerable your soul always stands before your Creator – and then think further of this incredible truth:

Despite who you are in the depths of your heart, despite what you have done and continue to do, and what you haven’t done and still refuse to do – God LOVES you. Please hear this. You must believe that if you can ever hope to know the peace of God in your life.

God the Holy Spirit tells us through the apostle Paul’s pen: “God demonstrates His love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8)

Listen, if He didn’t love you, He would not have sent His beloved Son to die in your place, to take the punishment your sins and my sins so justly deserve from a Holy, Holy God.

God sent Jesus to be our substitutionary sacrifice so that you and I – and anyone else who wants His forgiveness – we can enter into eternal communion with Almighty God. In a sense, Jesus still hangs on that cross – looking at you with tear-filled eyes, waiting for you to repent of your sins and fall in confession and subsequent obedience at His feet.

When David realized the Lord knows him inside and out, from the number of hairs on his head to the sickness of his soul, he wrote what anyone might expect him to write: “Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; It is too high, I cannot attain to it.” In other words, how can the finite hope to grasp the infinite? It would be less logical than an amoeba trying to fathom the mind of an Albert Einstein.

So, given this utter impossibility to understand God and His love, His holiness, His mercy, His grace, and His judgment and justice, we are faced with only two choices: We can either accept what He says about Himself and about us as entirely true – and strive to live according to His commandments. Or, we can bring God down to our level. We can recreate Him in our own concept of what we want God to be like.

That, of course, would be an eternally deadly choice.

Let’s go back again to the psalm and to my third and final point of today’s message: O Lord, You have searched me and known me.”

Although this psalm doesn’t say it specifically, we know from the length and breadth of Scripture that God not only searches us, but that He also actively searches FOR us.  

Why is He searching for us? Because He knows we are lost – lost in the sin of Adam and lost in our own sins we so easily commit.

And because sin is so much a part of the warp and woof of our nature, most of us don’t even know we’re lost. That’s why God searches for us – and He has been doing that from the moment of our conception.

You may remember the parables Jesus told of the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son. One sheep out of his hundred sheep wandered away from the fold. Lost. Cold. Frightened. And what did the shepherd do? He left the 99 safely in the corral and went out in search for the one lost lamb.

Then He told of the lost coin. Of course, the coin didn’t know it was lost, but the woman who lost is was frantic to find it. She turned her house upside down and swept it from front to back until she recovered it. 

Then Jesus told the story of lost young man. He was tired of living down on the farm. He was probably frustrated with his father’s seemingly endless rules and chores. I imagine he was angry that he was unable to come and go as he pleased. So, at the end of his patience, he asked his father for his share of his inheritance and took off on his own. The lure of city lights, and the proverbial wine, women, and song enticed him. And for a time, he drifted from one wave of excitement to another.

Then disaster struck. A famine. Economic collapse. With his money gone, he was suddenly homeless and hungry. That might be similar to the story of some of you watching this message. But Jesus then tells us, “when the young man came to his senses” he decided to return to his father.

What was the father doing at the time? Here is how the Lord tells it in verses 20-24: “But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion for him, and ran and embraced him and kissed him. And . . . the father said to his slaves, ‘Quickly bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet; and bring the fattened calf, kill it, and let us eat and celebrate; for this son of mine was dead and has come to life again; he was lost and has been found.’ (Luke 15:20-24)

Let me say it again for emphasis: Not only does God search us, but God also searches for us as a loving shepherd. You probably know what David wrote in his 23rd psalm: “The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside quiet waters. He restores my soul.

Listen. It is the shepherd’s JOY to search for and find His lost sheep. And Jesus, of course, tells us HE is the good shepherd:

“I am the good shepherd, and I know My own and My own know Me, even as the Father knows Me and I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep. (John 10)

Some of you might be tempted to think the Good Shepherd is no longer interested in searching for you. You might think your sins are so grievous and you have lived so long in your sin that He has given you up for lost.

Please don’t believe everything you think! Instead, choose to believe what GOD says about you – that He loves you so much He left His very throne in glory to search high and low, broad and wide just to find you and carry you on His shoulders safely back to the fold. Remember that text I quoted earlier from Paul’s letter to the Christians at Rome: “God demonstrates His own love toward us in that while we were yet sinner, Christ died for us.”

Whoever you are, whatever you’ve done, and no matter how often you’ve done it – the Good Shepherd is searching for you. And if you’ve listened this far, it’s because something inside of you is stirring you to believe that.

The stirring you feel is the Holy Spirit’s gentle voice. And you can believe Him when He says to you: “I’ve found you. Let’s go home.”

Please. Be confident today – and all your tomorrows – be confident in that unalterable, unchangeable promise of God. God never leaves you. God is actively searching you – and God is actively searching FOR you.

The psalmist next writes: “Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence?”

Of course, he asks here a rhetorical question – one to which he already knows the answer. There is no place on earth, under the earth, or anywhere in the universe where we can flee from God. That’s what Jonah thought he could do, and we know how that turned out.

But though David knows the answer to what he just asked, it does raise a question we can ask of ourselves, because people many of us know seem to always be trying to flee from God’s presence.  Why would anyone do that?

We look at that question next week.

To All Christian Parents

I heard it again the other day. The mother was grieving over the spiritual loss of her children. She told me she and her husband raised them in church. They enrolled them in Sunday school or Faith Formation classes. They prayed and read the Bible together at home. They tried their best to live faithful lives before their children. They did all they knew to do to lead them to Jesus.

But now, none of it seems to have taken root, and mom and dad mourn their children who are lost in a world of godlessness. They fear for their eternal souls – and they wonder what they did wrong.

I cannot tell you how often I have heard that lament from godly parents. And I always tell them, yes, they surely did things wrong in raising their children. But there is not a perfect parent on this planet. We all make mistakes raising our children because we are all human. That is not simply a platitude – we are all human. Our humanity is the very reason we are not perfect, and we make mistakes. Sometimes very bad mistakes.

But – and this is the key to my counsel with parents such as the mom I just mentioned – if the children are now adults, our mistakes in parenting are NOT the reason they are not walking with Christ.

Adult children make their own choices about God.

Please listen. God is perfect. And our perfect God did everything perfectly for Adam and Eve. And we know how that turned out.

God did everything perfectly for the nation of Israel. He says to them in Isaiah 5:3-4, “And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge between Me and My vineyard. What more was there to do for My vineyard that I have not done in it?” God was the perfect parent to His chosen people – and the Scriptures are uncompromisingly clear how that also turned out.

Scripture provides no justification for godly – and imperfect – parents to blame themselves for the spiritual deadness of their adult children.

It is not only counterproductive to your own spiritual growth and relationship with Christ, but it is unhealthy to continue blaming yourself when no blame should be placed on your shoulders.

That is why I counsel such parents to lay their grieving aside as much as possible, and continue praying for their children. It is for good reason the Lord Jesus reminds us in Luke 18:1 to continue in prayer and not lose heart.

And then leave them with God who loves them and wants them reconciled with Himself infinitely more than any parent wants that for their children.

Have You Ever Wondered . . . ?

Have you ever wondered what your life would be like today if you said, “Yes” to Jesus when He called you?  Or if you said, "No" when He called? 

If you’re past the age of 50, you have enough information to extrapolate where the many crossroads of your life would have likely taken you if you’d answered one way or the other Christ’s call on your life.

I met Jesus in 1972 while on the Yokosuka Naval Base. If I’d turned Him away, I’d have never met the many sailors and marines and their families I was so privileged to meet while stationed there for three years. I would likely have chosen to make a career out of the navy  . . . but knowing the wanderlust I struggle with even to this day, I doubt I would have stuck it out for the 20 years.

If I had rejected Jesus in 1972 I never would have met the best friend and lover I could ever have hoped to know and love in return. Nancy and I would never have had our three children – who have blessed our lives immeasurably. I’d have never gone to Bible College, or seminary. Never taught a Sunday school class or led others to a saving faith in Christ.

I never would have ended up a registered nurse, never returned to the navy and then retire as naval officer. I never would have had the unspeakable privilege to train new generations of nurses in the art and science and service of nursing.

If I’d turned Jesus away in 1972 I’d likely have gone though two or more wives, had children with each of them, and probably not on speaking terms with any of them because the only role models I had of husbands and fathers were the two terrible examples I grew up with during childhood.

If I’d turned Jesus away in 1972 when I was 22, I’d be 69 today, probably sitting in an apartment somewhere by myself with a ton of of regrets about my life -- and wishing in vain it had been different.

But – and this really is the central point of my speculative reminiscing – knowing God as I know Him today, if I had turned Jesus down in 1972 and now sat at my keyboard wishing my life had been different – it would not be too late for my life to change.

The very fact that I’d be wishing it’d been different would be enough evidence that God was still offering me a new beginning, beginning today.

I like to speculate what life would have been like if my life had taken a wrong turn 47 years ago because those speculative trails lead me to the glorious truth of how much I needed Jesus in 1972, and how much I still need Him today.

So, go ahead. Speculate for yourself.  And oh, by the way, if you did choose the wrong paths when you should have chosen better . . . here again is that critical point:

You can still have a new life -- starting today.

Ready or Not, Jesus is Coming Again

I prerecorded my Sunday April 19 message. You can watch it here: https://tinyurl.com/y9begj7h or you can read the edited text below.

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Ready or Not, He’s Coming Again

By Rich Maffeo

Jesus is going to return to earth. We know He will because He SAID He will. And no one should forget that unchangeable promise lest we become inattentive to that truth and slowly drift from it. 

Forty days after Jesus’ resurrection, He ascended back to His Father. Before He left, He left instructions for His disciples, specifically to be His witnesses, His ambassadors to the entire world, telling them of the gospel message – the good news message – of repentance and the forgiveness of sins; and to also warn men and women of judgment and of Christ’s eventual return to earth. We call it His ‘second coming.’ 

Luke records it this way: (Acts 1:6-11) “So when [the disciples] had come together, they were asking Him, saying, “Lord, is it at this time You are restoring the kingdom to Israel?” He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority; but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.” 

Jesus told them – and us by extension – “You shall be my witnesses, to proclaim the message of the gospel, the good news of repentance, of forgiveness, of the final judgment – and His return to earth. Luke continues his record in verse nine of Acts chapter one: 

“And after [Jesus] said these things, He was lifted up while they were looking on, and a cloud received Him out of their sight. And as they were gazing intently into the sky while He was going, behold, two men in white clothing stood beside them. They also said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into the sky? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in just the same way as you have watched Him go into heaven.” 

The gospel message is a most important message you and I can ever hear and tell others about because there are people who believe their sins are not so bad as to deserve judgement and damnation in the Lake of Fire. Oh! Someone needs to warn them to ask God to show them the depth of their sins. They’ll fall on their faces in dreadful horror and shame. 

And there is a group of people who do not believe God would ever forgive their sins. They think of them as too grievous, too sinister, to terrible to forgive. Oh! Someone needs to tell them of the immeasurable love and mercy of God.

Listen! God does not make us jump through fiery hoops to be forgiven. He doesn’t want us to flagellate ourselves or climb stone steps on our knees to be forgiven. No, no, no. God only seeks a broken heart, a contrite heart, a penitent heart – and He draws that person to Himself with abundant forgiveness through the blood of Jesus. 

Some will tell you you’re okay and I’m okay. But that’s not what God tells us – and who are we going to believe? God tells us without Christ you are not okay, and neither am I. God tells us without Christ we are dead in our sins. 

The apostle Paul used the word from which we get ‘Necrotic’ to describe our condition when he wrote: “And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience.” (Ephesians 2:1) 

The length and breadth of Scripture pronounce it again and again, we are not diamonds covered with mud. We are not tarnished gold. God calls us necrotic. Dead in our sins. And our slowly putrefying souls are made alive only through God’s grace and the sacrificial atoning blood of Jesus. 

Now, directly related to the gospel of forgiveness, is the good news of Jesus’ return. When you have time, turn to the first few verses of John 14. And look again at what the angels said to the disciples as they watched Jesus ascend to heaven: “This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in just the same way as you have watched Him go into heaven.” 

But some will say that happened 2,000 years ago and He still has not returned. Did Jesus mean what He said? 

The apostle Peter has something worthwhile to say about that: “Know this first of all, that in the last days mockers will come with their mocking, following after their own lusts, and saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation.” (2 Peter 3:3-10) 

Now drop down to verse eight: “But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day. The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up.” 

We’ll return to this text shortly, but first, in any discussion of the second coming of Christ, the subject of the Rapture of the church often comes up. For those who are unfamiliar with the term, let me quickly explain. 

Simply defined, the doctrine of the rapture states that at some time before Jesus returns to earth, He will suddenly snatch all of His followers out of this world – shielding them, if you will, from the world-wide devastation that will accompany the final seven years of world-wide tribulation – especially the last 3.5 years of that period. It’s widely taught by those who believe in the Rapture, that multiple millions of Christians – not those who call themselves Christians – but true and obedient followers of Christ – multiple millions of Christians will suddenly vanish off the face of the earth. 

‘Suddenly’ – as in the ‘twinkling of an eye.’ St. Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 15: “Behold, I tell you a mystery; we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.” (1 Corinthians 15:51-52) 

So, whatever they are doing, wherever they are, when Jesus sounds that trumpet, they will just vanish. The apostle talks about the ‘snatching away’ in his first letter to the church at Thessalonica 4:16-17  “For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up (the Greek word here is: harpazo, to snatch away, be caught up) . . . [we] will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord.” 

Not every Christian or theologian believes in the rapture. Many say the doctrine is false, that its origins only date back to the 19th century. But, others say the doctrine is clearly taught not only in Scripture, but even in early church history. They cite texts written by Church Fathers such as Irenaeus (d. 202), St. Ephraim the Syrian (d. 373), St. Cyprian (d. 258), and early church commentator Victorinus (d. 310). If you have access to the internet, I encourage you to search for the phrase, “What the early church believed about the rapture.” 

Some correctly argue the word ‘rapture’ doesn’t appear in our English Bibles. But the apostles didn’t write in English. They wrote in Greek. 

As I mentioned a moment ago, the Greek word harpazo means to suddenly snatch or catch something away. For example, Philip is suddenly harpazo’d from the Ethiopian eunuch in Acts 8:39; The apostle Paul tells us he was harpazo’d to the Third Heaven in 2 Corinthians 12:2; Paul also tells us the Bride of Christ will be harpazo’d from the Earth to meet Jesus in the clouds (see 1 Thessalonians 4:17); And we read in Revelation 12:5, Jesus is harpazo’d to His throne in heaven. 

For more than 1000 years, the Latin Vulgate was the official version of the Bible for much of Christendom until 1611 when King James I commissioned the English translation. When St. Jerome translated the Greek scriptures into Latin and he came to a verse such as 1 Thessalonians 4:17, which reads: “Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord,” he translated the Greek word harpazo (har pah zo) into the Latin rapiemur (ray pee mah). 

The verb rapiemur is from the root verb rapio (ray pee oh). We get English words such as rapt  – as in someone pays rapt attention to something – and we get the word ‘rapture.’ 

So, while the word ‘rapture’ does not appear in English translations, it DOES appear in the Latin New Testament – which of course predate the King James Bible by at least a full millennium. 

Whether Christians will be suddenly be snatched away before the Great Tribulation might make for a fascinating discussion over coffee – that is not the crux of my message. What IS the crux is this: The timing of the second coming of Jesus is unknown. But it WILL happen. We know that because He promised it. 

Likewise, the timing of our death – yours and mine – is unknown. But it will happen. God tells us, for example, in Hebrews 9:27-28 – “And just as each person is destined to die once and after that comes judgment, so also Christ was offered once for all time as a sacrifice to take away the sins of many people. He will come again, not to deal with our sins, but to bring salvation to all who are eagerly waiting for him.” 

Rapture or not, any of us can die before the sun rises tomorrow morning. And then what? 

On the Day of Pentecost, when the crowd of religious priests and laity asked Peter what they needed to do to be saved, Peter proclaimed to them what I am now proclaiming to everyone who hears my voice: “Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God will call to Himself . . ..” (Acts 2:36-39) 

Remember what Peter wrote: “The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.” (2 Peter 3:9) 

Please, if you have never come to Jesus for salvation, please, won't you come now. Repent of your sins. Turn your life and your lifestyle over to Jesus. And if you have come to Him in the past, won't you come again, now? Keep your relationship with Him vibrant and active and growing ever closer to our infinite God and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Solomon wrote words that ought to remain in the hearts of everyone throughout our lives: “The conclusion, when all has been heard, is [this]: fear God and keep His commandments, because this applies to every person. For God will bring every act to judgment, everything which is hidden, whether it is good or evil.”  (Ecclesiastes 12:13-14)

Rich Man and Lazarus

You’ll find the story of the Rich Man and Lazarus in Luke 16. In summary, the rich guy lived sumptuously. Meanwhile, Lazarus sat daily at the man’s gate covered in weeping sores and vainly begging for scraps. When they both eventually died, Lazarus went to Abraham’s bosom (e.g. heaven). The rich man went to hell. 

We’re nearly one week from the celebration of Jesus’ physical resurrection. I suppose that’s why the last few verses of this story caught my attention this morning as they did. The rich man said to Abraham: 

"Then I beg you, father, that you send him to my father’s house— for I have five brothers—in order that he may warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.

“But Abraham said, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.’ But he said, ‘No, Father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent!’ 

“But he said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be persuaded even if someone rises from the dead.’” 

Heaven is real. So is hell. God wants everyone reading this to be with Him in heaven. That’s why He gave us the Scriptures – Moses, the prophets, and the apostles. Their writings are our flawless roadmap to eternal life. But if we scoff at their words, we will scoff at the risen Jesus, even if He were to come and stand in our living room. 

For good reason John wrote near the end of his gospel: “These [words] have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name.” 

But who will believe his report?

He Never Tires of It

Have you ever been discouraged with yourself, angry with yourself, frustrated with yourself because you keep needing to repent of the same thing again and again?

I have. Just this morning while in prayer, I had to repent AGAIN for the same sin. “Lord,” I sighed, “I get so tired with myself having to say I’m sorry for the same thing to You.”

And then I heard Him in my thoughts as clearly as I have ever heard Him: “But I never tire of hearing you say it.”

That stopped me. He said, “I never tire of hearing you say it.”

Christian, listen. You also tire of having to repent of the same sin again and again. And you wonder sometimes if God hears you anymore.

Yes. Yes. Yes. He hears you.

Every time you come in humility, grieving over your sin, He hears you. He never tires of hearing you say, “Father! Oh, Father, forgive me! Save me! Change me!"

And He never tires of washing your sins spotless in the blood of His Son.