Worldly Topics

The vice I am talking of is Pride or Self-Conceit: and the virtue opposite to it, in Christian morals, is called Humility...According to Christian teachers, the essential vice, the utmost evil, is Pride. Unchastity, anger, greed, drunkenness, and all that, are mere fleabites in comparison: it was through Pride that the devil became the devil: Pride leads to every other vice: it is the complete anti-God state of mind. CS Lewis

Quite often as men we allow pride to enter our daily lives. I am not talking about being proud of our children or grandchildren for their accomplishments. I am talking about the pride that lets us think we can accomplish things without God. This is usually where we, as men, get ourselves in trouble. We can become so consumed with ourselves and our thoughts that we only have room for "us". We tend to exalt ourselves and think that the life we have is because of our own doing. The result is that we have no room or need for God in our lives. This is a fatal flaw in our thinking, as we can accomplish nothing without god, and eventually our life begins to crumble.

"Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall." Proverbs 16:18

The stumbling block for most men is admitting we are wrong. We are all guilty of doing some stupid things in our life, but when we resist the humility aspect of admitting we are wrong, we allow pride to take over. God calls on us to be humble in our daily lives but pride can show up in many forms. Most of these forms have the same backbone, we think we are in charge. We think that we can handle anything and we don't need any help in any season or challenge in our life. The same theme forms in any situation we allow our pride to be in charge, we do not need God in our lives.

"In his pride the wicked man does not seek him; in all his thoughts there is no room for God." Psalms 10:4

Pride can destroy everything. It is like a rock tumbling down a mountainside, destroying everything it comes in contact with. Just take a look at our country today. Pride causes heartache and resentment in marriages causing the divorce rate to climb. Pride keeps politicians from working together to solve our nations problems. Pride keeps us as human beings from understanding each other, causing great separation among people. Pride has us put up walls of arrogance as we start thinking highly of ourselves. The worst outcome of pride is eventually, it manifests itself in hate, which never results in a good outcome. We need to remain humble in Christ and move toward showing respect and love for one another, admitting when we are wrong in our words or actions.

"Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted." Matthew 23:12

We must always resist our actions and words when they tend to elevate ourselves to a position where we have no room for God in our lives. Our job is to remain humble and know that God is in charge, always! Every day we need to focus on our spiritual journey because pride comes from the enemy, and the enemy is nothing but a big liar. As we go through each day, we as Christian men should:

1) Read the bible, understand the word of God, and apply it to our everyday lives

2) Pray for humility in our lives and that only with God, we can accomplish more

3) Repent. When we make mistakes, we need to repent of our sins, apologize, and face the consequences

"For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgement, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you." Romans 12:3

Heresy - in Christianity, denotes the formal denial or doubt of a core doctrine of the Christian faith.

“But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them—bringing swift destruction on themselves. Many will follow their depraved conduct and will bring the way of truth into disrepute. In their greed these teachers will exploit you with fabricated stories. Their condemnation has long been hanging over them, and their destruction has not been sleeping.” 2 Peter 2:1-3 NIV

We are living in unprecedented times as we watch our world rapidly change in many ways. The dramatic shift to a selfish and unaccountable method of living has become the norm, where people only ask, “What is in it for me or, how will this affect me”?  Countless people want the world to change to accommodate them. We are starting to see factions of people who are now saying that the Bible (as well as the constitution) is a living document and should change with the times. Those groups call for Christianity to change and adopt the agendas the world is pushing for. Pressure continues to be put on Christians to formally accept lifestyles which are not suitable as Christian ways to live. Governments, educators, entertainers, world leaders, social media, and other groups portray the Christian faith as unloving and heartless toward people because the church pushes back against this change. To make matters worse, there are some who have adopted the Christian faith, but change or interpret the words of the bible to allow themselves the luxury to do things contradictory to scripture. A good title for this is “Designer Faith”.

“For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.” 2 Timothy 4:3-4 NIV 

So, let’s be perfectly clear here. The Christian faith does not change with time. You don’t get to pick and choose which of the words of Jesus you want to live by. Most of the time, there is only one pure interpretation of the words of the bible. You don’t get to design your own faith if you live as a Christian. Yes, maybe the church appearance, dress code or music have changed, maybe the pastors preach differently, maybe the community outreach needed to be tailored, or maybe church operations look different. The words of the bible remain the same. The gospel of Jesus is the same. He died on the cross so that we could be forgiven of our sins, and if we believe in Him, we will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Jesus commands us repeatedly in the bible how we are to live our lives according to His words. No matter what changes are going on in the world, we are assured that God will never leave us (Hebrews 13:5). That should be a comfortable feeling for all of us. We won’t be perfect, we will all mess up at times, but our God has more grace than we can possibly imagine, and he will always provide us with forgiveness. We only need to live as Jesus commands us to.

“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” Hebrews 13:8 NIV

As the world gets a little wackier each day, know that we can see the truth if we get closer to God. A personal relationship with God provides us with the strongest feeling of comfort we will ever know. God wants us to get close to Him and we can do that by knowing and understanding the word. Just knowing about God is not enough. We must seek Him daily and pray in the word as often as we can. Most of the time, as we get closer to God, we start to feel His presence. He is our creator and our protector, match your heart to his will, and you will live in knowing the peace and love of Jesus.

"Come close to God, and God will come close to you. Wash your hands, you sinners; purify your hearts, for your loyalty is divided between God and the world." James 4:8 NLT

“Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore, put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.” Ephesians 6:10-13

One of our rewards for accepting Jesus Christ into our lives is that we will be attacked. Yes, I said that correctly. When we become followers, the devil does not enjoy it. The result, the enemy will target us, and it will be relentless. This is spiritual warfare!

“In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted,” 2 Timothy 3:12

It is important to understand that these attacks are coming from the enemy. The wicked one will constantly look for cracks in our character where he can penetrate our thoughts, our words, and our actions.  The enemy does not care whether we are having a good season or bad, in his pure wicked ways, he just wants to bring us down. It is important that we recognize these attacks our spiritual enemy brings against us, and more importantly, also recognize that through Christ, we will always win the battle.  The closer we get to Jesus, the harder the evil one must fight to trip us up.

“Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.” 1 Peter 5:8

Remember, the devil is a liar. No matter what it looks or feels like, spiritual warfare is a lie of the enemy.

“… When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.” John 8:44

Fortunately, God has provided a set of armor to us so that we may come to the battle prepared for the fight. The Apostle Paul describes the armor of God in Ephesians, referencing a belt, a breastplate, and protection for the feet. In ancient war times, these items were very important for proper protection when going into battle. In Ephesians, Paul is addressing a different kind of warfare, spiritual warfare, and uses these objects as metaphors to provide protection against the enemy.

“Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace.” Ephesians 6:14-15

The belt of truth is a metaphor for having integrity and a strong belief in God. God is truth and acknowledging God as truth means we have the belief that only the word of God reveals the truth. The enemy always tries to confuse us into doubting God, however arming ourselves with the belt of truth gives us protection to always understand what is right.

The breastplate of righteousness represents our spiritual walk with God and the protection God will give us when we walk in his word and a righteous path. A breastplate would physically protect the heart and organs from piercing spears. Just as a breastplate protects the physical body, being righteous in our ways will always result in protection of our hearts from the enemy’s spiritual warfare spears he will try and pierce us with.

Having readiness refers to having read the gospel, and applying it to our lives. When we understand the gospel, we are more apt to be aware when the enemy is attacking us and trying to confuse us about God’s commands. Comprehending the gospel will give us knowledge and allow us to laugh at the enemy and know that it is nothing more than one of his ways he unleashes combat on us.

Putting on the full armor of God is how we ensure we always win the battle against the enemy. We cannot do it alone and God must be on our side. In fact, God has already defeated Satan and when we have him on our side and believe in him, we will always win. Period! The devil is tricky and crafts all kinds of schemes that are meant to confuse us. Stay strong, keep on the full armor of God, and you will win the battle, guaranteed!

“Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” James 4:7

"In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.” Ephesians 6:16-18

Having faith should be a top priority in every Christian’s life. In times of war, Roman soldiers used to dip animal skins, which they had covering their shields, in water so that when a flaming arrow hit them, the water would extinguish the flame. It was a mechanism they used to fight off their enemies’ weapons. In the context of our times, our greatest enemy will always be plotting schemes against us and try to confuse us about the word of God. Reading and understanding the word of God equips us with a shield of protection, the shield of faith, and we remain well protected from the enemy and his flaming arrows.

“Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be courageous; be strong.” 1 Corinthians 16:13

The enemy will continually try to trick us and hope that one of his many flaming arrows he shoots at us penetrates a crack in our armor. If he can penetrate the slightest crack in our armor, the enemy has succeeded in confusing us about God’s word and has convinced us to believe something that is not true. The enemy is a liar and merciless in his quest to convert souls to the unrighteous paths that he lays. Lying is his only tool in the toolbox and he is crafty at using falsehoods to confuse us. Only God’s word is the truth, and we must continually study the word and fully understand it. By reading and understanding the word, we continue to strengthen our faith in God and ensure the enemy cannot confuse us and trip us up.

“Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” James 4:7

Usually, the last item that was donned by soldiers back in ancient war was the helmet. It completed the armor worn on the body for protection. The armor of God includes the helmet of salvation. Salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ is the main message of the gospel. If we believe in Jesus Christ and that we were saved by his death and resurrection, we carry that protection with us. 

“Surely God is my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid. The Lord, the Lord himself, is my strength and my defense; he has become my salvation.” Isaiah 12:2

The Apostle Paul’s description of the armor of God portrays mostly items used to defend ourselves against the enemies spiritual warfare, however in his finale, he says to grab the sword of the Spirit and describes this as the word of God. In contrast to the previous items discussed, the sword of the spirit is our weapon to use against the enemy. We can go on the offensive against the enemy by spreading the word of God. Being disciples of Christ is a great method to fight the enemy. The sword was perhaps the most important instrument to have in a battle, and in the case of the armor of God, the sword of the Spirit, the word of God, is the most important tool to have in spiritual warfare.

“For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.”  Hebrews 4:12

The Apostle Paul tells us to put on the Armor of God to fight against the enemy in the spiritual battles we will endure. The Armor of God is knowing and understanding the Bible so that we know the truth and the enemy cannot confuse us with his lies about anything the Bible says. We will know the truth, we will know right from wrong, and the evil paths the enemy lays down for us to follow will not entice us. Remain strong in the word, and we will be armed for the spiritual battles that will come.

“No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. 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 endure it.” 1 Corinthians 10:13

"The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” Jeremiah 17:9 ESV

How is your heart these days? I don’t mean the physical condition of your heart! I am speaking of your heart with respect to its closeness with God. Our heart is an accurate reflection of everything that we think, every word that we speak, and every action that we take. You probably have heard it said, God knows our heart. That could be a little scary for some of us men. God wants our hearts to be full of love, peace, joy, freedom, compassion, empathy, and other good things. Often, we allow our hearts to be filled with worldly things that take up space and push the good things God wants our hearts to be filled with to the side. How we conduct ourselves daily is a reflection of our hearts and what is inside of it.

“As water reflects the face, so one’s life reflects the heart.” Proverbs 27:19

Our world today is filled with darkness and if we are not careful, some of that darkness can creep into our hearts.  We have to continually prepare and fill our hearts with righteousness so that darkness is displaced from our hearts.  The way that we are able to start removing questionable things from our heart and replace them with what God wants is to read and absorb God’s word daily. Once we get into the word, most of us start to see some of the ugliness that our heart has in it. In other words, reading the word of God will convict us!

“For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul  and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.” Hebrews 4:12

Reading the word will give us insight into some of the things that we are not doing as God intends us to do. On the positive side, God will also start to let us see a different vision of the world and our hearts will start to fill up with new things, and the old, ugly darkness starts to disappear.

“You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its  deceitful desires; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.” Ephesians  4:22-24

We often hear people say, “The heart wants what the heart wants”! Most times this is spoken, a person is simply justifying some immoral behavior or some action that might not necessarily be the most prudent action. In Matthew 6:21 the bible tells us, “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also”. It is normal human nature for our hearts to be selfish and seek what we see or touch in the physical world. The downfall is these things we think about and the things we desire are what is filling our heart. These are our treasures and they temporarily make us feel good. These treasures can take over our lives and we compromise what we know is right when the takeover occurs. Justification and feeling great deceive us into thinking that these things are ok. But these worldly things are only temporary and quickly we are deceived by our hearts.

“For although they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their  thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.” Romans 1:21

We must constantly seek the word of God, for it is truth. Our treasures must be found in what Jesus did for us and not on earthly things such as money, power, fortunes or fame. Jesus tells us that we should focus on life beyond the world, on eternity. Whatever we treasure, it tends to be the most important thing we focus on and drives our actions in life. Focusing on worldly possessions will only result in a heart that has no room for God, and that is a heart which does not seek the Kingdom of Heaven. We must spend time and intentionally focus on God’s word. This will change our hearts to be focused on Jesus, and not on the world.

“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

"Likewise, the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one’s life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell. All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles, and sea creatures are being tamed and have been tamed by mankind, but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.”  James 3:5-8 NIV

How many times have we said something that we have regretted? It might have been a lie, or gossip, something prideful, or even something in anger. Any words that we speak we can never get back. People around us will hear our words, people of all ages. Those words are out there, and they can be dangerous. They are dangerous because they can inflict hurt, damage, or pain on others, both in the short and long term. It may be easy for us to apologize for what we said, but in most cases, the damage has been done. Our tongue is described as “full of deadly poison” because of the destruction it can do. It is important that we learn to control our tongues and use it to uplift and encourage others. We must develop the tools required to control our tongue to the best of our ability. Just as the tongue can be detrimental to others with words we express, the tongue can also be a powerful, enlightening tool, encouraging, and uplifting to those we communicate with.

“Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.” Ephesians 4:29 ESV

How do we control our tongue? Just about everybody loses control of their tongue at one point or another but it is important that we utilize our biblical tools to tame this part of the body. The key to controlling our tongue is through our heart! Yes, our heart. Proverbs tells us that the way we act, think, and speak reflects what is in our heart. If our words are harsh, malicious, or cruel, this is what is in our heart. Our tool for controlling what is in our heart is the bible. The bible contains the roadmap to how we should act as men. As we read the words of scripture, these words start to penetrate our hearts and begin to fill up the gaps and openings in our heart. Eventually, as we continue to read, the words begin to push other stuff out of our hearts, namely, the mean and evil things we do not want in there. As the heart fills up with only goodness, it starts to reflect in our outer words and actions, and our lives begin to change to show what is now concreted inside of our hearts. We must continually reinforce our hearts with the goodness of scripture to ensure any vile material remains out. Daily reading of the word provides our hearts with the nourishment it needs to remain pure and then, there is less likely a chance that our tongues will fail us.

“Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.” Matthew 7:17-20 NIV

The bible provides each and every one of us with the tools of discernment. Remaining in the word allows us to react to situations with righteousness and goodness. We are meant to be loving toward each other, acting with kindness and compassion toward each other. This happens when we cleanse our hearts of wickedness and fill it with the words of truth. With our hearts full of honesty, virtue, and decency, we can improve our chances of taming our dangerous tongues.

“Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger;” James 1:19 ESV

"But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people.” 2 Timothy 3:1-5

Most of us have heard the expression, “It can’t get any worse.” Another form of this expression is when we hear or say, “What is this world coming to?” Usually, this is our reaction when we are witness to things in the world causing great moral decay in society. Human kindness and decency continue to slip away from peoples moral fiber and are being replaced with selfishness and rudeness. The desires of the world are taking center stage and appealing to people young and old. The population is slowly adopting the mantra that surely God would want them to be happy and so they should do whatever pleases them. Politics, social media, race, money, wars and other things continue to feed hate in our society. In our own churches, we are seeing falling attendance as well as a smaller number of people who think God is irrelevant in the world. Evil factions of people are starting to appear around the world and wreak havoc on mankind. To make matters worse, the world tells us we must accept or tolerate others immoral behavior, or we are part of the problem. It is enough to sadden even the strongest of hearts. The decline of the world is unmistakable, and it can be frightening for anybody to witness.

“Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.” 1 John 2:15-17

Is the world really getting worse? The answer to that is yes! The bible describes what will happen to the world as time goes by. The world will continually become more and more filled with evil as it grows older, and this dark behavior will result in the persecution of Christianity around the globe. So, how do we handle this as Christian men? We have never seen some of this new evil that is taking place in the world so how do we react? The answer: we do exactly what we should be doing all the time! We remain strong in our faith, we remain strong in our walk with God, and we go out and be the greatest disciples of the word we can be. No matter what is going on, God truly loves all people, and it is our job to try and bring others to Christ so they may have salvation. In John 9:4, Jesus reminds us that by day we must continue our work (discipleship), because at some point, there will be no more day, and those who are not saved will be lost forever. The world may be getting worse, possibly even be coming to end times, but that is good news for all who are saved. Let not your hearts be troubled (John 14:1).

“You, however, know all about my teaching, my way of life, my purpose, faith, patience, love, endurance, persecutions, sufferings—what kinds of things happened to me in Antioch, Iconium and Lystra, the persecutions I endured. Yet the Lord rescued me from all of them. In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evildoers and impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, and how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” 2 Timothy 3:10-17

"I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” John 15:5

If you have watched any TV recently, you often hear or see the mantra of “You do You”. If you look into the suggestion of this, it infers that a person should do what they think is best, what they enjoy the most, or do whatever fits your type of personality. This type of behavior generally involves doing whatever you want with blatant disregard for your surroundings or others. It is a ‘feel good’ type of behavior with the driver of ‘whatever will make me happy’. This is largely representative of what is happening in the world today. Many people could care less how they are affecting others and only think of themselves. The attitude of ‘it’s all about me’ is very prevalent out there now. As Christian men, we must understand that this type of lifestyle is not conducive to how we should behave. What we project when we lead this type of life is that we are in control. We don’t need anybody to tell us what to do, we have our life handled. Probably the worst thing about this lifestyle is that we are also saying, we do not have room for God in our lives.

“He must become greater; I must become less. The one who comes from above is above all; the one who is from the earth belongs to the earth, and speaks as one from the earth. The one who comes from heaven is above all. He testifies to what he has seen and heard, but no one accepts his testimony. Whoever has accepted it has certified that God is truthful. For the one whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for God gives the Spirit without limit. The Father loves the Son and has placed everything in his hands. Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on them.” John 3:30-36

‘You do You’ really means ‘it’s all about me’. When we live a lifestyle consumed with ‘me, me, me’ we leave God out of our lives. Our hearts become filled with the things that make us feel good and we become people of the world. We become devoured by the quick fix of the feel-good now culture and make no mistake, this is exactly the big lie of our enemy. The devil wants to confuse us and lead us to believe that the worlds pleasures are what we need, thus distracting us from our God and the truth. We must remember; everything comes from God, and we won’t have a complete life without Him. John 5:15 above tells us that we are the branches, Jesus is the vine. We can’t survive without Him. 

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.” Proverbs 3:5-6

We must guard our hearts in this worldly culture we live in. The enemy is looking for cracks in our armor to allow darkness to penetrate. The nemesis’s only goal is to distract us with lies. Our relationship with God only happens when we seek Him. Filling our hearts with the world’s desires closes off our heart from God and our faith is diminished. Diminished faith can eventually lead to becoming a non-believer, a place where the risk of eternal separation from God becomes a reality. The good news is that we can choose to seek God and have a relationship with Him. Reading the word and praying are the main things that we can do each day to fill our hearts with the truth and lead us to our relationship with God.

“You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.” Jeremiah 29:13

This world is challenging and relying on ourselves to get through is not a good approach for Christians. Everything we receive comes from God and our strength to accomplish our life’s mission is reliant on Him.  We need a relationship with God in order to be fruitful in life. Self-reliance, or ‘You do You’, eventually results in loneliness, unfaithfulness, and separation from what we need most, God. 

“I can do all this through him who gives me strength.” Philippians 4:13

"Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.” Isaiah 5:20 NIV

“Love is Blind”. In short, this is saying that when we love someone, or something, we tend to overlook any faults. Love tends to “blind” us from seeing the flaws of another person. Many relationships start out this way mostly because we have not been around a person long enough to really know them and their perceived shortcomings. What about “hate”. Is that blind also? If we take a deep look at the world today, it seems like everybody hates everybody. I know that’s a strong statement and a bit of overkill, but hate is unquestionably more prevalent in society today. The definition of hate is to feel intense or passionate dislike for. Most would say these days, the news, politicians, lawyers, and others sometimes fall into this category. But unlike love, when we as humans hate something or someone, we see every fault possible. The numerous faults we see feed that passion for the strong dislike we feel. In most cases, “hate is not blind”.

“Here are six things God hates, and one more that he loathes with a passion: eyes that are arrogant, a tongue that lies, hands that murder the innocent, a heart that hatches evil plots, feet that race down a wicked track, a mouth that lies under oath, a troublemaker in the family.” Proverbs 6:16-19 MSG

What about Christian men? Should we be haters like everybody else? Nowadays it is sure not easy to feel hate. In the passage above God hates things so why shouldn’t we hate? If you read the passage closely though, the things that God hates are things which are evil and can lead to our demise. He doesn’t hate people, just any evil faults that may lead them astray. The kneejerk reaction of most people in the world today is to hate a person because of their faults, not just hate the fault. It is an instant judgement of a person based upon only a few traits perceived as flaws. We judge not knowing the rest of the story behind the person. God’s message to Christians is to love all people, not just the ones we find favor in. In Matthew 5, He tells us to “love our enemies” and to “bless those who curse us”. There is no place in our hearts for hating people. The only thing we should hate is evil. For Christians, our calling is to love all people and so for us, “Hate is Blind”.

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. Matthew 5:43-45 NIV

Loving all people will never be easy! That would be the understatement of the year. The world is being turned upside down with what people view as good and evil. There are many people now who view Christianity as evil and worldly attacks on what used to be considered “good” are on the rise. Every day the battle against Christianity gets ratcheted up a notch as the relentless pursuit of removal of Christianity continues. Things that used to be considered wrong or abhorrent are now considered normal behavior. The world pushes the envelope for all things to be accepted and acts cruel toward Christians. We must remain strong and faithful to Jesus’ calling. We must love all our brothers and sisters as human beings. Do not mistake our love for another human as acceptance of their ways, it is the love that Jesus calls us to have for others. It is not in our purview to judge, only to love. Therefore, we should take up our Christian faith at all times as we live amongst the battle against Christianity. Act in love, uplift others, be giving, and always pray for the souls of others. 

“Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good.” Romans 12:9 NIV

"Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment." 1 Timothy 6:17

The term ‘Bang for Your Buck’ has commonly been used to refer to the value or return that one gets in exchange for the money, time, or effort invested in something. Almost everyone wants to get the most out of the dollars they spend. We spend a lot of time looking for the best deals that allow us to stretch our money as far as it can go. Today’s world provides us with even a greater challenge, inflation. Inflation has been picking away at most Americans pocketbook and many find it hard to do the simple things such as keep food on the table, make house or car payments, keep money in savings, or just afford normal everyday items. Our country has recently passed one trillion in consumer debt and retirement savings have been dipped into to combat this challenge. Inflation and the cost of living has been a plague on Americans, and it has raised our stress levels to a whole new level.

"Give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure, you use it will be measured back to you.” Luke 6:38

As Christians, it is important to remember where our money comes from. God owns it all and everything that we have is a gift from Him. We are called to be good stewards of the money that we are given and our responsibility is to act faithfully with God’s mission in mind. The first thing we are required to do is give 10% of any money we receive back to God. This is not because God needs our money or the church needs our money, this is to test our faith in God and have belief in the provision He will provide us. In fact, God specifically calls us to do this in Malachi, however he also tells us if we are obedient to Him, He will bless us beyond our wildest beliefs. Perhaps in our worlds difficult time we are experiencing, this is a better way to get a bigger ‘Bang For Your Buck’. It is difficult to do, it will cause heartache on the budget at first, but if we give generously, and have a true heart for God, just watch what can happen. Relying on God instead of relying on the world is powerful!

"Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the Lord Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it." Malachi 3:10

As Christians, we are also called to be responsible with our resources. If you were to ever look back at your checkbook or your past credit card statements, what would you see? Generally, this can be an indictor of what is important to us and where are heart lies. Every decision we make can be looked at as a spiritual decision. Are we being good stewards of our money? Are we spending according to His will? Are we being generous in our giving to others? We must exercise self-control with our finances and ensure that we are giving generously according to the level of resources we have. Giving does not have to always be just money either. Giving our time can also be important. Many people in our society need help and we should seek out opportunities to help others around us. We should show that we care about others. No matter what our giving looks like, financial or our time, our giving of resources should be done freely, because we have read scripture, absorbed it into our hearts, and now look for opportunities to be good stewards. This is the type of Christian God wants us to be.

"One gives freely, yet grows all the richer; another withholds what he should give, and only suffers want. Whoever brings blessing will be enriched, and one who waters will himself be watered." Proverbs 11:24-25

"Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver." 2 Corinthians 9:7