The Ultimate Selfie

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Headline #1 – The Ultimate Selfie is Dangerous

The big buzz at Disneyland this past June was the ban placed on selfie sticks.  Apparently someone got hurt using their selfie stick going down Splash Mountain.  But that is not the ultimate selfie.

The ultimate selfie is selfishness.  It is there because God’s divine love isn’t.   The infection of sin in us has made our love selfish.  Against it a Christian fights everyday.

Selfishness is not a word that we hear too often in our culture.  We hear narcissism, which means nothing to people.  We hear self-absorbed, which also means about the same – nothing.

Self-centered implies a personal accountability for what we think, say and do.  That is why we don’t hear that word too often anymore.

But selfish, well, that nails it – what is going on inside.  Selfish is all about me.  I am the epicenter of the universe.  I am most important.  If it feels good, I will do it.  If I hurt someone, so what.

The Epistles couple selfishness with ambition.  Everywhere we see this happening, even in us, for we are weak and sinful creatures.

Selfishness keeps us stuck on a favorite, pet sin, justifies our bigotry or racism, finds a perverted satisfaction in abuse of another, or ourselves, and leads to all sorts of sinful behavior.

Headline #2 – God’s Love Destroys Selfishness

In our Christian walk, we try hard to fight against our selfishness.  God is gracious to forgive us our sin through our Lord Jesus Christ.  A blessing of forgiveness is that He builds us up so that we can say no to selfishness.

The Holy Spirit through His Word is daily transforming our mind so that we can see the blind spots of our selfishness.  He fills us our hearts with God’s holy, divine, agape so that with changed hearts we decide to not be selfish.

The power of the Spirit in our mind and the love of God in our heart is a formidable force that destroys selfishness.  Ask the Spirit to transform your mind.  Open your heart to God’s love.  Enjoy the freedom from your sinful flesh.

Something to think about.

In Him Who so loved us,

Pastor Augie

 

 

Why This World is in Such a Mess

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This Year was the Worst That I Can Remember

It seems like the year 2015 will go down in history as one of the worst.  I mean, how many innocent people were killed by terrorists?  How many were shot in our streets.  How many suffered persecution, even martyrdom for their religion?

As a Christian, I feel the increasing pressure of people who hate Jesus attempt to curtail my constitutional freedom of speech and expressing my opinion.  What I said in the past about what is sin, evil, immoral or wrong can get me jailed and made to look like a hate monger.  2015 was the worst year I can remember.

The world is in a mess.  Some blame it on people who were oppressed.  Some say it is all because of philosophical differences.  The most blame is upon a religion.  That belief which widely spread, is a ruse of the devil.  The devil knows that easiest way to breed and all the evil that comes from it is religion.

For centuries, this has been true in Christian history.  The early years were bloody.  The Inquisition.  The Thirty Years War.  The turmoil in England in the 17th and 18th centuries.  Christian intolerance to another that was (and is) so prevalent in America.

Islam is not much different.  Read their history.  What you will discover is that their radical Islamist hatred today is about the same as it has been through all their history.  Death to the infidel (non Moslem).

The devil has done a great job.  The world is in a terrible mess.  Worse than ever, I would say.

Let Me Tell You Why.

Let me talk to you in a biblical way, for a moment.  Not far from and long after the Garden of Eden, where life changed for ever for Adam, Eve and all their descendants was the first murder – of brother to brother.   In perhaps a thousand years later, God flooded the earth to get rid of all but eight people.  His reason is very clear, “The imagination of a man’s (person’s) heart is evil from its youth.  and that in God’s sight the earth was corrupt and full of violence.  The world was a mess then.  The world is today.

Every evil that we do or hear about being done boils down to just one reason.  Our selfishness which is self centered, self righteous and self serving.  This happened because we lost the kind of agape love that God gave us – which is unconditional, holy, and pure.

Think of what might be the ultimate act of selfishness.  A number of them are in the running.  Of all the acts of selfishness, I think the worst is murder.  Think about that for a moment.

How You Can Clean Up the Mess

God cleaned up my personal mess when I understood the meaning of pouring out His love into my heart.  My spirituality, my emotions, my behavior, and most of all my love were made new – into the likeness of my Lord Jesus Christ who showed His love when He died on the cross.

My selfishness is still there.  I do daily battle with it.  But God, who is transforming my mind is also renewing my heart so that I determine to live not as a selfish, self centered, self righteous person, but one who wants to show everyone Jesus in my heart.

That is how you can clean up the mess around you and in the world,

In Him Who so loved us,

Pastor Augie

The 21st Century Church

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We Can’t Go on This Way

We are now almost sixteen years into the 21st century.  We continue to make advances in technology such as smart phones.  There have been some remarkable strides in medicine.  And yet, much has been the same.   Daily shootings.  Disease spreading.  Decline in earning power.  Housing out of sight.  Wars with new enemies.  Soldiers dying, spouses and children grieving.  And the beat goes on.

It Has Gotten Worse for Christians

But for the Christian, much has changed – for the worse.  Our freedom to speak our faith are being curtailed by the cry of political correctness.  Atheists are organizing to attack our faith.  The newest wrinkle on morality is not much different than that practiced in early Rome or Greece a couple of millenniums ago. Around the world, the church and Christians are being persecuted.

The 21st Century Church Has a Higher Mission

The 21st century church needs to provide to Christians what Jesus and the early Christians offered.

For the good of every Christian it needs to be a family, a safe place, a hiding place and a place of love built at the foot of the cross of our Savior Jesus Christ.

Family – because people need a place to belong that is meaningful and real.

Safe place – away from the maddening messages of the media, the criminality of this world, and the threats of extermination given by atheists, pagans and idol worshipers alike.

Hiding place – where Christ Jesus and His love is preached.  Think of Corrie Ten Boom

Place of love – being God filled loved and living Christ like love that cares about all, even our enemies.

In Him Who so loved us,

Pastor Augie

Healed Love – Holy Love

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For many years I carried a lot of spiritual baggage

But that all changed when I discovered the forgotten teaching of Jesus.  It was as if the Holy Spirit unfroze my hand which held so tightly to my spiritual baggage.  I call this wonderful experience healed love – holy love.

Two Bible passages are so important for healing our hearts which hold our spirituality, emotions, behaviors and love.  They are Romans 5:5 and 1 Corinthians 14:1.  The first teaches us that the Holy Spirit pours God’s Agape love into our hearts.  The second teaches us to pursue God’s divine Agape love.

His Love Healed My Heart

We know that our hearts are also infected by sin.  This infection makes our love selfish, self-centered, and self-absorbed.

The moment I accepted the Agape pouring of the Holy Spirit was the moment my heart healed from its wounds of sin, bad behavior, evil thoughts, and self hate.  I felt filled with God’s love.  It was as if my heart was completely enwrapped with Agape and I now stood in Agape love instead of my own sinful self.

I felt a newness to my love.  The power of my selfish, self-centered, and self-absorbed love was overcome by God’s Agape.  Much as my Savior who surrendered His life for my sin, I surrendered my love to the power of God’s love.

Closer to the Heart of God

My life changed.  I found my spiritual baggage to be excuses I used to empower my selfishness, my self-centeredness and my self-absorption.  While I still struggle with my flesh and Satan, my spirituality has deepened and my behavior has changed for the good.

Most importantly, I place all in God’s hands and let Jesus be my Good Shepherd who leads me.  I kneel before my Lord Jesus asking for His mercy and my forgiveness.  He is more than merciful.  He sends the Holy Spirit to continue the transformation of my mind.

Almost forgot.  1 Corinthians 14:1 teaches us to pursue agape.  You see, just like we pursue faith and hope through God’s Word and many prayers so as to stay close to God, to purse God’s Agape in the same way draws us deeper into the heart of God.

In Him Who so loved us,

Augie

Thanksgiving

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What does the story of Thanksgiving mean to me?

I was asked that question not so long ago.  I didn’t have a catchy response, so I replied that I am thankful for everything, which includes (as my dad used to say), “the good, bad and the indifferent.”

For me the story of Thanksgiving is the good that God brought into my life.  My Savior Jesus is the greatest Good.  He loved me with an everlasting love.  He gave His life for me as an act of His love.  He sent the Holy Spirit to draw me to Him in love.  I am extremely grateful and thankful.  This is the best good of my life.  There is mercy from Him every day.  I find comfort in my forgiveness.  I find joy in the daily hope of my everlasting life.  I am so very thankful for that good.

There are so many other “goods” in my story of Thanksgiving.  My wife, Victoria, is at the top of those “goods.”  She is so full of love and support.  Then there is the love and support of  my children, and those whom God puts into my life.  I am thankful for where I live, what I am called by God to do as an intentional interim pastor.  For all the daily blessings of God like a car, a place to live, food and “toys,” I am daily thankful.

King David also gave thanks for the bad and the indifferent.  Check out Psalm 57.  It is a good one.  I am thankful for all the bad or indifferent that has happened in my life.  They are ways that God blessed me to deepen my faith, strengthen my courage and draw me closer and closer to Him

I think my story is much like yours, along with every Christian who takes a moment on our national holiday to give thanks to our glorious Lord God almighty!  I think that is the real story of Thanksgiving.

Until next week.

In Him Who so loved us,

Augie

Agape

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Dedicated to a clear understanding of the word Agape

There is much that has been written on the subject of Agape.  Agape means unconditional love to which we human beings aspire.

This blog is dedicated to help everyone understand the word Agape.  See you next Wednesday!