Eternity is a Long Time

This life gives us many trials and sufferings. Through it all, we need to remain faithful to Him who is always faithful with us. He will see us through the good times and the bad times. This is what Ecclesiastes 3:1-4 says:  1 For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: 2 a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; 3 a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; 4 a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; The first Thanksgiving came only after a series of trials and favors which would make any modern day Christian shudder – both from the enormity of God’s blessings and the suffering God allowed them to endure. Here’s a short list of what the Pilgrims went through – there is so much more, particularly before the Pilgrims ever set sail from Europe.  Survived 3 month Atlantic Ocean crossing with almost constant storms Kept in “twe...

  I just learned my internet friend Jackie , who I first knew on Gather back in 2006, passed away in July. She told me she had 3 near death experiences. It was not too long after the third one that she wrote what you see pictured here. I can't say with certainty, but it sure looks like the Lord kept Jackie here on earth so she could finally come to the realization of what He did for all of us on the cross and, most importantly, for Jackie to invite Him into her heart. You see, just knowing about God is NOT enough. Even acknowledging God as Creator is NOT enough. We must humble ourselves and give our hearts to Him. We must love Him to be saved from the justice we all deserve. If we love Him, then He will forgive our sins and we will be with Him for eternity. For Jesus loved all of us first - even when we did not love Him - and He showed that by dying on the cross for us. This is what Jackie ultimately did, but it took a while and she had the time. You may not. We do not know what to...

  People usually respond first to another person's appearance since we generally see people before we hear them speak. What we see bounces off our prejudices and experiences. If we have a predisposition against someone who is a very large and round person because of some experience in our past, any person who has that physical characteristic will be judged more critically than someone who does not. If we have been brought up to believe left-handed people are that way because of evil influences (as was believed by many for centuries), then any left-handed person is not easily given the benefit of the doubt. These are just two of an innumerable list of reasons why people react to trivial differences in other people and judge them based on those trivial differences. It could be what a person wears, how the person wears what they wear, the color of their hair, the way they keep their hair, the way they walk, the way they gesture, the color of their skin or a zillion other things. This ...

  When you feel a firm lump on your body, you know it’s not a good thing. That’s what I found Sunday night while I was getting ready for bed when I was washing my groin area. I won’t keep you in suspense, I am going to have surgery in three weeks to remove the lump and the doctor will have it biopsied. What I really want to tell you is the awesome way God showered grace and favor on me when I went to the doctor’s office on Wednesday. Since the lump was not hurting me on Sunday night, there was no need to go to the emergency room. I told my wife on Monday morning and started making calls to urologists. My insurance (Tricare Select) allows me to go straight to a specialist without getting a referral. There was no doubt as to which type of specialist I was going to see; I did not have to waste my time with going to a general doctor. The first urology office I called said they could see me in six weeks. Since I was in charge of my care, I decided to keep trying for a better deal. The s...

  Mankind, just by itself, debunks Darwin’s Theory of Evolution and shows there is a designer, but not the God of the Bible. The need for justice and the fact we are still alive shows us the Bible is true. That will be the subject of another essay. Debunking Darwin’s theory is a very bold statement, but one that is easy to demonstrate. The difficulty most people have is in allowing themselves to admit the truth they are being shown and to deal with it honestly. It is fear that keeps us from God’s love, not rational thought. In its simplest form, Darwin’s theory states organisms evolved from the simple to the complex over billions of years. For the sake of this essay, we will not go into the arguments against Darwin’s theory for animals – especially single celled organisms – and skip right to human beings. Let us compare mankind with any animal species. First, while some animals can build things for themselves, they do not build things specifically for other animals or even for othe...

  If you want to talk about the depravity of man (and woman) we can go on for hours, days, weeks. "All have sinned and fallen short of God." “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.” "We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way." It is amazing how terrible we can be to our fellow human beings. Just when you come across what you think is something unbelievably horrible, you learn of something even worse. If Jesus hadn't died on the cross and rose that third day, we would have no hope at all since humanity cannot save itself.

  My response to a conversation on another thread regarding teaching sex to kids in school. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- To fully answer your charge of citing a specific example of the undermining of the nuclear family is far more than just using one example. There are many strands to this tragedy, but rather than write a dissertation, I will attempt a few examples to make my point. - We celebrate all sorts of things but show me where we celebrate the nuclear family. We have Mother’s Day and Father’s Day, which are nice, yet there is no celebrated Mom and Dad Day. - Dad, who should be the Servant-Leader of his family, is dumbed down and his masculinity is termed toxic and abhorrent. You can see the progression of this in pop culture by the depiction of dads on TV. You go from Archie Bunker to Al Bundy to Homer Simpson (and many others) – not a noble one in the bunch. Where, today in pop culture, is the positive...

  Below is my response to a post stating: "Looking at church behavior over the centuries, it's rather clear that if saving anyone was really the goal, Jesus and Christianity were a complete failure. Which makes sense, as Jesus was really only trying to reform Judaism, not create a whole new religion; that would be Paul's doing." ------------------------------------------------- My response: When you look at "church" behavior you are looking at fallible, imperfect, illogical, irrational, impetuous and often misguided human behavior - just like everyone else in the world. I'm sure you have a litany of examples of "bad" Christians. Yep, so do I. However, what your seemingly myopic view does not take into account is the fact that our Western Civilization would not have come about except for Jesus and His followers. The ending of slavery would not have happened except for Christians. The tremendous generosity the world has seen over centuries from i...

  In the old Billy Joel song "Vienna Waits for You" there's a line which states that "only fools are satisfied." My initial reaction was that this is incorrect - what's wrong with being satisfied? Then I realized that a Christian should never be satisfied with his life or life on this earth. To be satisfied is to say that we get all we need from our life and do not need God. To be satisfied with what we have is almost saying that Heaven is not needed since we are made whole here. We should be content with what we have but not satisfied. Paul, the most driven of all the Apostles, said he had learned to be content no matter what circumstance he was in. The distinction for Paul was being content never kept him from pressing on for Jesus. " I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances.   I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being conte...

 

  One of the guys I mentor who is in prison is trying to reconcile to the memory of his Dad who did not treat him well. When I responded to him, I felt some others needed to read what I wrote so I am sharing the basic parts of my note with you. ----------------------------------------------------- I wanted to respond to your last note where you talked about reconciliation so eloquently. I'm sure you can appreciate why God takes on the persona of a father throughout the Bible as a way to relate to us. Just look at what you said the similarities are between you and God and you and your earthly Dad. Reconciliation is the key. God reconciled to us by Jesus's death on the cross. We reconcile to Him by dying to ourselves and receiving the free gift of salvation by faith. That's not as easy as it sounds, of course, but it's the essential truth. But what about your earthly Dad? Of course, God is perfect and your earthly Dad, like every earthly Dad, is far from perfect. Often, e...

  The Book of Zechariah, in the Old Testament, beautifully shows the First and Second Coming of Jesus. In a passage many will remember from the Triumphal Entry of Jesus into Jerusalem it states: “ Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout in triumph, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; He is just and endowed with salvation, Humble, and mounted on a donkey, Even on a colt, the foal of a donkey. ” Zechariah 9:9 (NASB) Jesus, the Lamb of God, meekly entering Jerusalem. Jesus, our salvation, comes humbly to do His Father’s will. The next verse is also striking: “ As for you also, because of the blood of My covenant with you, I have set your prisoners free from the waterless pit. ” Zechariah 9:10 (NASB) It is only through the blood of Jesus that we are cleansed for our sins and have the promise of everlasting life with Him forever. We who believe, are indeed prisoners set free from a waterless ...

  What about women who have had abortions? How does God deal with them and how do we deal with them? Every mother who is self-aware knows that something very traumatic has just occurred when she has an abortion. The procedure is very invasive and, sometimes, very dangerous. Additionally, there is an emotional-biological connection between mother and baby which is profound. Some women try to minimize this, but the amount of post-partum depression clearly shows how deep the connection is. There is also the sha m e and remorse associated with mothers who have had abortions. Given the deep connection between mother and baby, you can see how this would affect many women tremendously. This is not to say that some mothers seem to be unaffected by their actions of ending their baby’s life. Perhaps a few are not. Most of these mothers, however, are putting a big mask over their emotions. The good news, the great news, is that Jesus loves every woman who has had an abortion just like He love...

  [Some years ago, I heard a sermon with this story in it. This is my best recollection of the telling of that story. Dale Coparanis] Just outside the fence which enclosed some of the best apple trees in the county, grew a crabapple tree. This crabapple tree was a very prolific tree and produced much fruit. When some local kids came by they tried the crabapples and spit them out of their mouths. One of the kids said: “How can such a big tree with so much fruit have apples that taste so bitter?” So one day soon after, when the farmer was tending the irrigation around some of the apple trees, the crabapple tree started to cry. The farmer went over and said to the tree, “Are you crying?” “Yes,” said the crabapple tree. “I just want to have nice apples like your other trees. Perhaps if you were to let me share in some of the irrigated water then I could produce nice apples for the kids to eat.” “If that’s what you want,” the farmer replied. So the farmer dug a ditch to bring some o...

  Today is the 19th anniversary of the day I finally gave up depending on me and listened to Jesus to follow Him. In the show #TheChosen , there is a beautiful scene depicting the encounter between Nicodemus and Jesus (Season 1, Episode 7) which is similar in some ways to how I was before this day almost two decades ago. I thought I knew things but I really didn’t. I believed I was a Christian (all you had to do was ask me), but I was a Christian only in my own mind based on very faulty reasoning. If July 22, 2002 had not occurred, I would be one of those Jesus will tell at His second coming ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’ (Matthew 7:23) I had many opportunities prior to 2002 to give my heart to Jesus, but I did not listen. It took the woman who was to become my wife actually talking to me about our Lord (or “dripping Jesus” as Diane says) to get me heading in the right direction. She was not there when I finally made my commitment to God, but she was essential...

  I know that some people make a big deal about Jesus never saying something to the effect of "I am God" and, therefore, try to argue that Jesus was just some guy who said interesting stuff. There are many examples in the Gospels of Jesus claiming to be God and acting like God when one has even the smallest amount of understanding of the Old Testament and Jewish culture. However, I came across a passage I haven't seen in a long time which show's the divinity of Jesus. In John 12:32, Jesus says: "And when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw everyone to myself." The being lifted up is when Jesus is crucified, that part is straightforward. It's the second phrase where you have to think - but just for a little bit. If you or I were to declare that something we would do would draw all people to us - how would that come across today? We'd be considered a kook unless we were trying for hyperbole. Even so, the very idea that we would try to do someth...

  I just “happened” to come across a couple of very enlightening passages in the Book of Job yesterday during my quiet time a while ago. The first is Job bemoaning his situation before a just God: Job 9:29-35 New King James Version (NKJV) 29 If I am condemned, Why then do I labor in vain? 30 If I wash myself with snow water, And cleanse my hands with soap, 31 Yet You will plunge me into the pit, And my own clothes will abhor me. 32 “For He is not a man, as I am, That I may answer Him, And that we should go to court together. 33 Nor is there any mediator between us, Who may lay his hand on us both. 34 Let Him take His rod away from me, And do not let dread of Him terrify me. 35 Then I would speak and not fear Him, But it is not so with me. He speaks for every single person (except Jesus, of course) who has or ever will live. The wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23) and we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23)! But even in this book of the Old Testament...

  One of the guys I'm mentoring who is in jail, wrote to tell me he is having some interesting issues regarding reading the Bible. First, he's being led to read the Book of Revelations which is a great book but not the easiest to deal with, especially for a fairly new believer like Clyde. What he says is interesting: "I've been in revelations for a week now I don't know what I'm getting out of it but I've went to other stuff like job and paul and James but something keeps telling me to get back to revelations.... sometimes I feel like I know what it means and sometimes I feel like I'm not getting anything at all ....I'm not going to lie I feel like I'll never learn anything from it" In the next email I received from him he said this: "hey dale sorry to bombard u with all of this but I find myself in the book of Matthew chapter 7 I think that I've been judging god on how I see things and not trusting gods judgment..... I don't k...