All Of Us Belong To The Same Race

All of us belong to the same race, but we all come from different nationalities.

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.
Genesis 1:27, 28

"And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him."
Acts 17:26, 27 ESV


We are all in this together. Let's get along and stop fighting. The Bible tells us that we are to love one another.
In the Bible, there is only one race, the human race. Different shades of skin doesn't mean we aren't related to each other.
We are all very much related to each other, and for those who know the Lord, we are all together in the family of God as well as in the human race. 

It's time to stop fighting and separating ourselves from each other. In places where someone is hating another because of skin color, that is never justified. It is wrong to do that and if someone has done a crime, that person doesn't represent everyone in that group. We need to be careful to penalize the bad guys and not everyone who is associated with the bad guy because of job description or skin color. 

Our common enemy is the devil and he wants us to be divided with each other. He is setting us against each other. We need to stop listening to his voice and in unison, we need to work together using the spiritual weapons against him, not people.

Salvation Is The Free Gift Of God That Will Cost You Everything

Do we really believe in Jesus, and if so, are we willing to pay the price for our belief?

In years past, it was *easy* to believe in Jesus. There was no cost involved. In our country, we were free to believe in whoever or whatever we wanted to. No one challenged what we professed to believe in.

But today it is different. For if one really believes in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, that belief system entails more than mental assent and agreement.

For example, a woman in the state of Washington, believes that the Bible is true, and that God means what He says. She believes marriage is made up of one man and one woman. When a customer who was gay, asked if she would provide the flowers for his wedding, she said that she could not do that in good conscience. The ACLU came after her and the state of Washington is suing her because of her conviction. She will likely lose her business that she had built for many years. But she is remaining faithful to her convictions, even though it is costing her dearly.

Another example is Chick-Fil-A. The head guy of Chick-Fil-A wrote a statement saying that he believes marriage is made up of one man and one woman. The Gay community went nuts and now this man is accused of hate crimes. As far as I know, he stayed true to his belief system in spite of all the opposition.

But what about the rest of us? Will we stay true to our convictions? Do we even have convictions, or do we just kind of go with the flow?

If we call ourselves Christians, then that should mean that we not only believe in Jesus, but that we believe in everything Jesus said and stood for.

Are we trying to change the word of God to accommodate our desires? Do we even know what the Bible says, and if we find out, will we still be true to Jesus?

“No one can be a slave of two masters, since either he will hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot be slaves of God and of money." Matthew 6:24 HCSB

Encouragement, Edification, Or, Flattery?

Do you think that sometimes, when we encourage others, that we might be using flattery? I have wondered what the difference is between flattery and encouragement.

Flattery is sometimes referred to as 'buttering up' someone. The motive is to get the recipient to respond in such a way as to get what you want from them. It's kind of like bribery.

The reason why I am thinking about this so much now, is due to the fact that I have received criticism from some of my Facebook friends concerning my posts.

I posted my complaint about this to my friends, and one of them had a great point. He recommended that we encourage one another. 1 Thessalonians 5:11 says "Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing."(ESV).

Encouragement and edification go hand in hand. We encourage one another and build one another up to help the body of Christ. The goal is for the church to be healthy. There must be spiritually healthy people to make up a healthy church.

The world uses flattery to gain friends. The world uses money to win people to themselves. The motive isn't based on love and wanting the best for others.

But flattery looks a lot like encouragement. That is why I am concerned. I want to be an encourager to people, but I don't want to be flattering them. How can I know the difference?

First of all, I will pray that God makes me an encourager. I want to think of others and encourage them to grow and develop in the areas where God has given them strengths.

Encourage means to give support, confidence, and hope to someone. Edify means to build up morally or spiritually. Note: Sometimes, people take a word out of context and use it in a wrong way, that ends up with a wrong meaning. An example of this is the word 'edify'. Some would erroneously teach that this is associated with building up someone's ego. That is definitely not what the Bible is talking about when it talks about edifying or building up. 

For the church to be 'edified', those who are in the body of Christ need to be edified. Encouragement helps people to be edified. Discouragement keeps people from growing spiritually and will keep the church from being spiritually healthy. Discouragement is a tool of the devil. We need to be aware of his tactics.

So they went out of the prison and visited Lydia. And when they had seen the brothers, they encouraged them and departed.
Acts 16:40 ESV

God's Boundaries Do Not Indicate Hate

Any good parent knows that when their children are born and as they start to grow up and develop, boundaries have to be formed to protect the child.

Sometimes, children hate the fact that parents put boundaries around their children. Think of this scenario: a child sees some candy that he wants. He lets his parents know that he wants the candy. They tell him he is not allowed to have that candy. At least at that moment, the candy is not permitted. So, the child throws a temper tantrum and tells the parents that they 'hate' him. They hate him because they have placed a boundary around him and he wants to go beyond that boundary, but because of his age and lack of power, he concludes that his parents 'hate' him.

Now, maybe it is simply because he is using manipulation. He is immature and doesn't understand the reasons why a parent would say 'no' to candy, especially since it is a strong desire for him to have that candy right now.

People are very much like that. We intuitively know that there is a God who is bigger than us. Normal people have a conscience that tells what is right and wrong. Even very young children have some idea of what is right and wrong.

Whether we like it or not, God has placed boundaries around us. When we go outside those boundaries, we become trespassers. Problem is, by our own sinful nature, we are always going outside of God's boundaries. When we do that, it is called, 'sin'.

Many do not like to be inside God's boundaries. Some of these people try to deny God's existence. Others put down the word of God, as if it were a fairy tale. God says that His word will stand forever. His boundaries will never change.

In our culture today, we have many who think they are free from God's laws (boundaries). They want everyone to think that people who still believe in God's boundaries are people of hate. Now, this is a stretch. Believing God is true and His word is still effective does not mean a person hates. But people are insistent that those who hold God's word in high honor, and believe what He says is true, are people of hate.

How are we supposed to look at that? For one, it is a form of manipulation. We can't manipulate God. We can't twist God's arm to make Him change His standards. God will always be God. He is on the throne and what He says is still effective today, and will always be true.

Does God hate? God hates sin. Does God hate us? The Bible says that God loved us so much, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him will not perish, but will have everlasting life. In fact, God loved us even when we are sinners (see Romans 5:8).

God loves us enough to give us a way out of hell. God's love does not change His boundaries. He does not make exceptions for anyone who breaks them. But the remedy to resolve this problem is found in the Cross of Jesus Christ.

People want to believe that God is all-loving and all-forgiving, meaning that we can still continue to live in sin without being penalized. That won't work though. God gives us a way out. We must choose to get out of our sins. We must respond to God. We come to God on His terms, not ours.