Jesus the ultimate protection

Friends,

For the past couple of weeks I have been plagued with one of the nastiest computer viruses I have ever come across. This virus started out as a pop up and turned into a monster which eventually took over my pc and shut it down. For those of you that consider a pc a life line understand the turmoil I was going through not being able to access my favorite sites, play games, and listen to music..ect..ect. Of course I had a laptop as a back-up but I had to share that with my wife and was not comfortable using the smaller screen and keyboard. Anyway a good friend of mine told me of a great anti-virus program that would get rid of this hostile take over and restore my pc to its previous glory. So after many attempts I got my 5 year old Dell back in tip top shape and ready to ride the waves of the high speed internet.

After experiencing the joy of having my friend back I started thinking of how my experience could relate in a Biblical way. That’s when it hit me, Jesus kind of works in the same way as an anti-virus program. Just bear with me for a minute while I try to put it together. You see Sin is like a computer virus. It starts out like a small flashy pop up. It’s attractive, appealing and makes you think you have to click on it, and that’s when it happens, it’s in and you feel helpless. A lot of times when Sin enters our lives it acts like a virus and quickly spreads through every aspect of our life, its ultimate goal is to shut us down.

That’s where Jesus comes in. If we accept him as our Savior he will run a scan on our operating systems (life), recognize all viruses (Sin) and remove them from our hard drives. He will also keep watch and help keep Sin out of our lives. But an important thing to always remember is to keep your software (relationship with Jesus) updated and to use it (pray) on a regular (daily) basis.

1 John 1:9 (ESV) says “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness”


Father God,

Thank you for sending your Son to intercede in our lives and pay the price for our Sins. Father we know we are not worthy of your love and Grace but you give freely anyway. Father God help us to recognize our short comings and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
It is in your name we pray..Amen

Lost Generation

Friends,

Here is a video that my Brother Tony posted on his site at
http://kingdombard.wordpress.com/

The video says it all...Enjoy...Chris

The Jesus I never knew

Friends,

My Sunday school teacher Joseph came up with a great ideal for his class. Instead of the normal lessons, that on occasion can be a little dry and un-engaging he suggested that we as a class do a book study and have a discussion once a week. Well the book he picked out is called "The Jesus I never knew" by Philip Yancey. I have read the first chapter and answered some of the discussion questions that were given. Then while talking with my brother Tony this morning I thought it would be a good Blog topic and a good ideal to have folks answer some discussion questions. So if there are some questions that you all can answer with out having read the book I will try to post them in the weeks to come. Here were the questions for the first chapter.

The first question is "what was your first image or memory of Jesus and what place is most associated with that image?"


Question number two is "Do you still see Jesus the same way and if not what brought about this change?"



The last question was "What has most shaped your image of jesus as it is today?"

Again friends this is just an ideal for my blog, I'm not sure how it will turn out but these are some pretty good questions. Let me know what you think. Take care..Chris

AC/DC

Friends while making my daily trek to Wal-Mart the other day I noticed something very interesting, over by the clothing section there was a big display of Ac/Dc merchandise. As you all know Ac/Dc is a famous rock band that started out in the 70’s and sold millions of records through out the 80's and 90's but the thing that blew my mind was that Wal-Mart had a big promotional deal with them and even had some items only available at their store. Now I have to admit I had been a fan of Ac/Dc and have even been to some of their concerts back in the day but now that I am a lot older and walking with the Lord I have to wonder if Wal-Mart is the proper place to promote this band. I would expect this at a record store but Wal-Mart? Is this the kind of stuff we should be exposing our young children to? I know some people will say if you don’t want your kids to listen to a certain group or watch a movie or T.V show that we as parents should just turn it off. But the question now is do we keep our kids out of Wal-Mart? I don’t know. I just think it’s kind of tacky.

Anyway seeing the acronym ac/dc made me think of some other ways it has been used. Of course the real meaning of Ac/Dc is alternating current / direct current or in today’s (anything goes) culture, going both ways with your sexual orientation, but how about this one, Accepting Christ / Denying Christ. I think when we use it this way there can only be one path to travel on. You can’t have it both ways. Although many have tried (Peter even denied Christ three times and later became a Saint) you will always end up on one side or the other. I know in my own personal walk with the Lord I have tried to straddle the fence and serve two masters but it has never worked.

Mathew 6:24 tells us “No one can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other”

I once saw a church sign that read “You can’t walk with the Lord while you are holding hands with the Devil”. How true that is. Seeing that sign made me question myself and wonder if I am really walking with the Lord or walking with the flesh and the world. I also realize that I like to try to get as close as I can to the edge of that line without crossing it so I will definitely have to work on that. Now friends I know we will all veer off the path at one time or another. But being a Child of God we can take comfort in knowing that he will put us back on track and get us going in the right direction. So the question for me is what do we do when we are getting ready to cross that line? I say in this case we jerk the steering wheel and get back on the road unlike when you’re driving and you make the gradual adjustment. What do you think? Take care my friends and keep both hands on the wheel!…Chris

Saying Goodbye

Friends during this past week I have had the pleasure of spending Christmas with my mother and other family members. But I was really touched when my mother and her sister said goodbye to each other. My Aunt began to cry as she was leaving and gave my mother one last hug. Then after she left my mother said that they were getting old and that this could be the last time the saw each other. I could tell my Mom was putting on a brave front but I had to wonder. Do they really think this is it? I often wonder if the disciples thought the same thing when Jesus had foretold his death. Surly if they did they wouldn’t have fallen asleep while Jesus was praying in the Garden of Gethsemane. How do we say goodbye to a loved one. Or better yet how do we say goodbye to a loved one on a regular basis that would say everything we feel about them. I am not sure where I am going with this one but I would love to be able to feel good about the way I last said goodbye to someone.

So many times I hear of people saying “I didn’t even have a chance to say goodbye, or to say I loved them”. I guess the point I am trying to make is that maybe every time we say goodbye to a loved one we should say it in a way that lets them know we really care and love them. I know I need to work on this one. When I left my Mom at a gas station in Virginia, I wondered if she knew how much I loved her and how much I was going to miss her or did I give the impression that I was in a hurry to get out of the cold and rain and get on my way. I think she knows how I feel but I often second guess myself and always think I should have said more or gave her another hug. What do you guys think? Like I said, I was just thinking about this while driving back from visiting my family for Christmas. I hope you and your family have a great New Year..Grace be with you…Chris