Three Martyred in the Philippines in January 2010!

When thinking about my Christian faith I am often faced with the fact that faith in Jesus Christ is not a popular thing in the world. Hostility is increasing daily over Christianity by many different groups, but the largest group is Muslims.

In January 2010, a group of an estimated 15 or more heavily armed Muslim men attacked a couple of farmhouses while the families slept. In one house at around 9:40 pm in the evening these hardcore haters of Christianity opened fire and three of the four people were killed and one wounded.

Hector, Norberto, and Lyneth lost their lives in the name of Christ. These Muslim extremist who do not fit the profile which many world leaders would like for us to believe about the Muslim faith as being peaceful are just the opposite. Their desire is for all Christians to perish off the face of the earth. They want the livestock and property of Christians around them and will kill to get it.

This is only one of hundreds of incidents like this which cost a fellow believer their life. Here in the land of the free and home of the brave are we willing to share the gospel of Christ with those around us even if it places our lives under the threat of torture, imprisonment or even death? Think about this as you ponder your faith today. How far are you willing to go? Many of us may not really know how we would react in a similar situation, but we do need to count the cost of being a follower of Jesus Christ.

No matter what transpires in our lives here in the United States of America, we can rest on the true words of Hebrews 13:5 "I will never leave you nor forsake you."

To see the full story at VOM and videos, go to the Persecuted

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Salvation found in Christ!

"Jesus Christ is our Lord and Savior. Unless one places their loyal trust in Jesus Christ that He in fact did die for our sins, was buried and did come back to life eternal three days later…unless one believes Jesus was and is who He said He was and is, you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven. Jesus told about the narrow path leading to the small gate. The small gate is Him and the narrow path leading to Him is the only way to heaven. Reference in Matthew.

The full and complete gospel is this:

-Starting with Adam, we have been a depraved people separated from God in need of salvation otherwise we all have been doomed from that time until today as a ruthlessly sinful people. As Scriptures tell us, we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Furthermore, it is appointed that each person die once. After this is the judgement of God.

-God made a way though for our sins to be atoned for and forgiven through His Son Jesus Christ by voluntarily going to the cross for us and dying. This was determined by the grace of God. Grace is simply this…unmerited favor of God.

-However, the good news does not end there. Jesus did not stay dead. God brought Him back to perfect life in three days. He conquered death for us by rising from the grave. We celebrate this each year called Easter.

-The best news is that Jesus Christ sets at the right hand of the Father reigning as our Lord and King. He is there as the filter by which God the Father sees us. He cannot look upon sin, but Jesus made it possible for God to look at each of those He elected to be saved.

What does this mean for you? If you place your undivided loyal trust in Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior today, your eternity with God starts at that moment. We are immediately justified by Christ actions on the cross. The rest of our earthly life is our sanctification. But God will make sure His people endure to the end.

Realize this, not one of us will ever be good enough to enter the kingdom of heaven apart from Jesus Christ as our mediator between the Father and us. So, if you want help with this you can stop right where you are and place your trust in Christ today.

You must first admit before God you have been a sinner, that you cannot on your own merits gain salvation. Tell God with His intervention in your life you will forever change the sinful direction you are going now called repenting of our sins. Then tell Jesus you are trusting in Him today to save you and your are making Him the Lord of your life forever more. Thank Him for the salvation you just received. This must be done from a heart that is serious. It is not mouthing a prayer, it is not walking an isle to the front of a church, and it is not living a good life. Salvation is placing your true authentic trust in Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior. From this authentic life, you will ultimately desire to be holy and bring God glory with your life. Yes, we will make mistakes along the way, but our underlying desire is to please and obey God.

I would encourage you if you have trusted in Christ, to seek out a good Bible teaching and preaching church, read your Bible daily, and pray often.

Amen and congratulations to those who have given their life to God."

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Grace out of nowhere!

"The grace of God is His unmerited love for His people proven through the death, burial, and resurrection of His Son Jesus Christ."

Ever thought much about the grace that brought you to the cross and delivered you into eternal salvation through Jesus Christ? I never thought much about the details, just always understood it was God's grace which is simply God's unmerited favor towards those who will Believe in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. Well, this brings me to a little story I wanted to share.

A little over one hundred and fifty years ago in a rather large community of England a huge prospering church had started three smaller mission churches on the outskirts of town. These churches happened to be in the slums and more poor areas of the community. However, often they would gather at the mother church for one large communion service. People from every church would gather at one location to observe the sacraments of communion.

At the alter area where a communion rail was set up you would have former thieves, burglars, rapist, murderers, bankers, lawyers, doctors, housewives, etc all lined up observing communion together. On one particular special service event a young pastor observed two people taking communion side by side at the rail.

He knew the background behind both men. Neither of these men seemed to realize they were even next to each other at the communion rail. However, the pastor certainly did. You see the one on the left was a Supreme Court Judge out of England. Next to him was a former hardened criminal described further as a thief. This judge had sentenced this thief to several years in prison years before. Now, they are both at the same table, kneeling before the same God in communion.

The story goes on to tell us the burglar or thief once out of prison was converted to Christianity shortly after that. His life change was proven in the years of Christian work and the fact he had left the old life of being a thief behind.

After this particular service, the judge and the pastor were walking home together when the judge ask the pastor if he knew who was kneeling at the communion rail beside him on his right.

The pastor was stunned at the question, because he had assumed the judge hadn't noticed. "Yes I did", said the pastor, "but I didn't think you had noticed."

The two walked along in silence for several more minutes when the judge spoke, "What a miracle grace is."

The pastor replied with a simple, "Yes, what a wonderful grace."

The judge assuming the pastor did not understand his meaning asked, "But to whom do you refer?"

"Well, of course to the conversion of the thief!", the pastor confidently replied.

The judge quickly came back with, "I am not referring to the thief, I am speaking of myself."

The pastor stopped walking and with squinted eyes said, "You're thinking of yourself? I certainly don't understand what you are talking about."

The judge gently begin to explain, "Yes, I am referring to myself in this matter of grace. You see, it didn't cost the thief very much to get converted when he was released from prison. I am not downplaying his conversion, I am speaking of the amount of grace upon the thief. I mean, the thief had nothing but a history of burglary, stealing, thieving, and so on. He could only respond to Christ with a big YES when Jesus came calling him. He had nothing within himself to fall back on to keep him from it. But look at me and my life on the other hand. I was born into a family who were Believers, they brought me up in the church, they taught me from early on in my childhood to be truthful, not steal, to be an upstanding person in the community. I mean I went to Oxford University and received all these wonderful degrees eventually becoming a judge. So, pastor, I want you to understand that nothing but grace could save a person like me. Only the grace of God could make me admit I needed a Savior. Only grace could penetrate such a snobby heart to see that I was just as bad a sinner as any person I had put behind bars. Pastor, it took more grace to bring me to salvation than the thief I was kneeling beside at the communion service today."

Ephesians 2:8-9 says, "For it is by grace you have been saved through faith and this not from yourselves, it is a gift of God - not by works, so that no one can boast."

Interesting view of the grace of God isn't it. Do you understand what it took to bring you to salvation? I feel much like the judge. To bring an upstanding person to the throne of grace is such an odd thing, but yet it is still unmerited favor with God. I don't deserve His grace or His salvation anymore than anyone else does. Praise God from whom all blessings flow.

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It's Who You Know!

I ran across a great little story I wanted to share today.

"During the Civil War, a young soldier walking over a battle field came across a dear friend who had been shot. His life was rapidly draining from him. The concerned soldier straightened his shatted limb, washed the blood from his fallen comrade's face, and made him as comfortable as possible under the most difficult of circumstances. He then said he would stay by his friends side as long as life was still in him. At this moment he asked his fallen friend is there was anything he could do for him.

"Yes," replied the dying soldier, "if you have a piece of paper, I will dictate a note to my father and I think I can still sign it. My father is a prominent judge in the North and if you take this note message to him at any time he will help you."

The note simply read, "Dear Father, I am dying on the battlefield; one of my best friends is helping me and has done his best for me. If he ever comes to you, be kind to him for your son Charlie's sake." With rapidly stiffening fingers, Charlie signed his name.

After the war, the young soldier in a worn out uniform sought out the prominent judge. The servants at the house first refused to admit him because he looked like many of the other war veteran tramps coming by the judge's home for free handouts.

He made a ruckus and insisted he see the judge at once. Finally, the judge hearing the commotion out front of the house, came out and read the note. At first, he was convinced it was another beggar's trickery and appeal. But the judge studied the signature and even in its scribbled state he was still able to recognize it as his own son's signature.

The judge embraced the veteran soldier, led him into his home and said, with tears coursing down his cheeks, "You can have anything that my money can buy and everything my influence can secure."

What brought about the sudden change in the judge's attitude? It was the signature of his son, Charlie, affixed to the bottom of that note. It was the father-son relationship that made all the difference.

There is an old saying in our world, "It's not what you know, but who you know that counts!"

This same principle holds true in the spiritual world as well. All the knowledge in the world will not help you as you approach your heavenly Father, but your personal relationship with Jesus Christ, His Son, will open to you all kinds of possibilities! It's not too late to make right the relationship with the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who will in turn provide you an access to the throne room of heaven before His Father!

J. Hudson Taylor once said, "All God's giants have been weak men who did great things for Him, because they reckoned on His being with them!"

At the moment we know the Son, we instantly are known by the Father too. In John 16:23 Jesus says, "In that day you will no longer ask me anything. I tell you the truth, my Father will give you whatever you ask in my name."

It is who you know that counts eternally.

*Story adapted from the book "Moments for Fathers" by Robert Strand

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Lost in the Woods!

An adventure of two old cowboys on a search for lost stock!

It was the spring time of the year when Harold and I were working cattle for days without much sleep. Our job was to move over four hundred head of cows, calves, and bulls from one section of pasture to another which happened to be on the other side of the canyon. The distance between these two pastures was over thirty miles. Harold and I along with about fifteen other hired hands could move these “beeves” about 15 miles a day. It could be dusty, wet, and sometimes sleepless, most of the time a thankless job. This particular morning it was briskly cold. A sharp chill would cut right through my jacket which seemed to pierce my skin going directly into my bones. At times the chill seemed to get into my blood stream and would make me shiver from my head to my toes. I shouted to Harold, “I can’t get warmed up this morning. I wish that north wind would calm down.” I spotted in the camp hot tar black coffee on the fire and I thought to myself, “That will warm me up for the long day ahead”. You see, a cowboy almost has coffee running through his veins rather than blood. We live off of coffee in order to stay awake, alert, and when it is cold, it provides warmth for our soul.

The pastures we were working were in the valley down below the Sunhill Mountain range in southwestern Colorado. You could travel through hot ninety degree days in the valleys and enter thirty degree nights in the mountain area. Great area to run cattle, but the weather could change on you within minutes it seemed. Mr. Garret owned this cattle ranch called “Running Bar Ranch” and the ranch has been in his family for three generations. So, we all took great pride in tending to Mr. Garret’s cattle.

It was Harold and I’s job to see to it that every single cow, calf, and bull made it safely to the next pasture. We did not leave one calf behind if it was at all possible. Leaving a calf behind to die was like losing money and Mr. Garret frowned on that, plus he would dock our pay one days wages if he found out we had not tried to retrieve a lost calf. From time to time a calf would stray off into the woods at the foot of the mountain range. When that happened we would go into the woods after them. However, the calves would do this when no one was watching and we would find a cow not wanting to go with the herd. She would stand at the edge of the herd bawling towards the woods. That was our indicator a calf was in the thickets of the woods. Sometimes the momma cows would bed them down in the woods and other times the calves would simply wonder off in curiosity. Either way, our job was to go in after them.

I remember one balmy late spring afternoon just after the morning chill had finally given into the sunny warmth. We were driving our beeves north to far end of the pasture. We noticed about five momma cows refusing to follow in with the rest of the herd. They kept running towards the thickets to our west bawling loudly, but no calves could be seen or heard. I looked at Harold and motioned for him head towards the thicket after the calves and I would be there shortly.

I road my big fifteen hand brown horse on up towards the front to let one of the hired hands know where Harold and I would be and to keep moving the herd forward and we would catch up with them later that evening. So, I caught up with Harold and we moved slowly and methodically into the thicket. The trees and vines were so thick at times we had to get off our horses and go further on foot. Harold hollered out to me, “Where in the world could those five calves be?” I looked at him and just shrugged my shoulders in bewilderment myself. I had no clue. What some of these momma cows will do is take their babies off into the woods and bed them down together. But usually one momma cow would stay with them like a baby-sitter. However, this time it seemed all the calves were alone.
My thoughts immediately started thinking about how wolves or mountain lions possibly could have gotten some or all of the calves. No matter though, Harold and I would not stop until we had found all of the calves safe and sound or what was left of them as proof of their whereabouts.

It started getting late as the sun was just barely peeking over the mountain peak and we had been hunting for these calves for hours. It was starting to get cold again and a small thunder shower had formed just above us over the mountain range. Fortunately, we had packed our rain slicks for such an occasion. As the rain pelted our heads and soaked our boots, Harold heard a faint bawl of a young calf. We hurried in the direction of the cry over large rocks and around enormous boulders. There just on the other side of a jagged boulder he found two of the calves hung up in some of the thickest vines and trees we had encountered. Since we found them, what would we do with them? It was no easy trip up into the mountain range to start with. Harold or I could take these two calves back, but what about the other three. About that time two of our riders from the herd came clapity-clopping up next to us. “Do you guys need any help finding the calves?” one of the hands yelled. “Yes, you can take these two calves back to their mommas with the herd while Harold and I look for the other three calves.” One of the hands yelled back, “We figured with it getting so late and we had not seen you guys yet, you probably needed help.” So, they put the calves across their saddles right in front of them and off on their horses they went.

As Harold and I climbed higher and higher into the mountain area the thicket was extremely dense. The darkness seemed to fall like dark chocolate running down the sides of an ice cream cone. It was thick and heavy darkness. I pulled out an old flashlight I had stuck in my saddle bag hoping it would still work. It has been at least 6 months since I last used it. Sure enough, the flashlight worked, when all of the sudden, Harold let out an “eek” loudly. I yelled over to him to find out what was the matter. When from high above us on rock cliff was the biggest mountain lion I had seen in decades. The sound from this mountain lion would make your skin crawl. The big cat was positioned to jump on top of Harold. I grabbed the 30-30 Winchester from my saddle holster took aim and fired. I nicked the cat right on his behind. The cat took off up the trail above the rock cliff out of sight. I hurried over to Harold to make sure he was alright and of course he was.

About the time we were starting to head up and around the rock cliff, I heard something off in the distance. A faint but steady bawl from a young calf. Apparently, Harold and I had gone too far up in the mountains not realizing where the calves might be. So, back down the trail we went and found the other three calves safe and sound. Harold grabbed one calf and stretched it across his lap while I took the other two smaller calves and stretched them across my lap on the saddle. Off towards the herd we went.

As we traveled down the mountain side we came across a good trail that lead us right out of the thicket in the valley below. The herd was bedded down for the night about twenty minutes ahead, so we should be able to get back in time for supper. I looked over to Harold and said, “You know Harold, you and I out searching for these five calves tonight through the thicket, the vines, the boulders, the jagged rocks, and all reminds me of how Jesus seeks us out to save us for eternity”. I quoted Jesus from Luke 19:10 “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.” Jesus’ mission all summed up in a few words. We came out into the mountain range to seek and to save that which was lost. The result was we found those calves and saved them from danger. Jesus does the same for his own people. “You see Harold; these calves were not looking for us. They may have known they were not in the right place, but did not know who to be looking for”, I spoke plainly to Harold. “People are the same way you know”. People don’t seek after to God. In their lost sinful state of being, they have not a clue they need Jesus”, I confidently exclaimed.

I pondered further about the subject for the next fifteen to twenty minutes until we got back to camp. Finally, arriving at the camp we put the calves back with their momma’s. All the bawling stopped as the calves and momma cows we joined together again. Thinking back over a Sunday-School lesson I heard about a son running off on his own lost to the world. The father speaking to the son’s brother quoting from Luke 15:32 says, “It was fitting to celebrate and be glad, for your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost and is found.” About that time one of the other hired hands came wondering up to me and asked what I was thinking about. So, I simply told about how Christ had come to seek and to save the lost of this world. How Jesus talked about in Luke 15:4 “What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it?” I told the hand Jesus would come after the one lost no matter what. I then turned to him and asked him simply, “Have you put your complete trust in Jesus Christ as your only Lord and Savior?” He just wrinkled his face in an expression of “I don’t know”. We left it at that. But the day’s affairs had made me think more about Jesus seeking out His lost people and how He would go through the thicket, across the rocks and boulders engaging Mountain Lions and all in order to save His own.

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