Doing the Religious Mix - Martin Wiles

Then our ancestors joined in the worship of Baal at Peor; they even ate sacrifices offered to the dead! Psalm 106:28 NLT

I suppose Timmy thought no one would notice—and they didn’t. A church I once pastored decided to host a wild game supper since no church in our immediate area did. Timmy hunted anything—and cooked everything. What better person to head this up, I thought.

Among the many interesting dishes Timmy concocted was a wild game-bird perlo. The name of the particular bird that was supposed to inhabit this perlo escapes me, but I haven’t forgotten what Timmy whispered in my ear before the supper began: “I wasn’t able to kill enough _____ to put in the perlo, so I had to add some ____.” Then he listed a few non-game birds—killdeer, robin, mockingbird. My stomach churned. I knew this man and what he was capable of cooking. Could I try this? For fun, I walked over to the pot labeled “Wild Game Surprise” and dished out a large spoonful. Tasty.

The nation of Israel wasn’t as successful as Timmy at mixing things. The nation began with Abraham and God’s call for him to leave his pagan homeland and travel to a new place. Abraham’s descendants had a checkered history of trying to mix religions. Baal was the primary god of the land—a fertility god. Worshiping him and his female counterpart would ensure their crops, livestock, and families produced—or so they thought. They tried numerous times to get this religious mix mixed correctly but never succeeded. That’s because we can’t mix religion.

I have also discovered what they discovered: God doesn’t share His affection with anyone or anything. He is jealous—or zealous—not in a sinful way, but in a way that is for my good. He knows my pandering after other things at his expense will lead to ultimate disappointment and spiritual failure. I can’t mix loving and serving him with anything else.

The good news is that we don’t have to. God’s love for us is unconditional, immeasurable, and sufficient. What He gives us—love and possessions—is all we’ll ever need. We don’t need compromise; we simply need to trust Him . . . period. Jesus said we couldn’t serve him and mammon—money, possessions, or anything else.

Jesus is all you need. Don’t look for anything or anyone else. Doing the religious mix won't work. 

Father, when I think I need just one more thing to satisfy me, remind me you are all I need. 

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Deciphering Jesus - Martin Wiles

He faced all of the same temptations we do, yet he did not sin. Hebrews 4:15 NLT

Whether Jesus could have sinned and, if so, how he could identify with us were theological discussions we preacher boys in training tossed around while in college as we tried to anticipate and formulate a good answer for similar questions others might ask. These two questions are still on the minds of many—particularly those in the teenage to young adult ages.

Millennials, born between 1981 and 1996, hold rather untraditional beliefs about Jesus. According to the Barna Group, while most Americans believe Jesus was God, 56% of Millennials are more likely to view him as a religious leader who committed sins just like everyone else. In fact, fewer than half of them admit they believe Jesus was God.

Millennials also struggle with believing Jesus is the only way to heaven. Fifty-six percent believe they will go to heaven because they committed to follow Jesus, but the group, as a whole, is less likely to believe that than their elders. In fact, twelve percent say they'll make heaven because they are basically good people.

Millennials aren't the first group in history to wonder about Jesus. His historicity isn't in question, but his divinity and what he accomplished are. First-century Christians had to explain this to those who didn't believe, to those who doubted, and to those who held mixed views.

When deciphering Jesus, believing he was born to a virgin is essential. The procreation process passes along our sinful nature. Had Jesus had an earthly father, he, too, would have inherited a sinful nature.

Further, Jesus was born, lived, and died sinless. This doesn't mean he can't identify with humans. He was tempted in the same areas we are and could have sinned, but didn't. Through God's power in him, he overcame.

Jesus was wholly human but also completely divine. He said whoever had seen him had seen the Father.

Jesus is also the only way to heaven. When we believe in him, we can be confident he forgives our sins and provides us with an eternity in heaven.

What we believe about Jesus is critical. He is God's sinless Son sent to pay our sin debt. Only by faith in him alone can we enter a relationship with God the Father.

Father, I believe in your Son as the sinless sacrifice sent to die for my sins. 

Tweetable: Who is Jesus to you? 

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Extravagant Love - Karen Huffaker

For God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son so that anyone who believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16 TLB

I do love cheesecake.

My favorite flavor is just plain basic cheesecake (the kind with graham cracker crust), yet it’s extravagant. Oh my. There are no surprises when I bite into it—no overpowering or competing flavors. Instead, I can count on every spoonful to be equally delicious and as rich and creamy as the previous one. Its deliciousness fulfills all my expectations. Simply divine.

As much as I may bask in the delights of cheesecake, I am more overwhelmed with God’s extravagant love. He delights in me and showers me with His blessings, goodness, compassion, and grace. His mercies never cease. I bask in His love. I feel like the cherished daughter I am—a child of the King, the most-high God. He grants favor and honor in unexpected ways, and I count it all joy.

We don’t have to settle for less than the greatest love. God’s love is accepting, forgiving, generous, and fulfilling. We don’t have to seek love and acceptance in the wrong places. We only need to receive God’s kind of love.

God paid the highest price imaginable for us when He sacrificed His one and only Son for our sins. He welcomes us into His family. We need only bow before our heavenly Father, who bestows His extravagant love. He wants to shower His extravagant love on us. All we must do is receive it.

How can you delight in God’s extravagant love for you?

Tweetable: Are you delighting in God's extravagant love? 

Karen Huffaker is a freelance Christian writer. She has taught children’s Sunday school and single mom’s Bible studies and written poetry. She is from the Deep South and loves reading Christian books, devotionals, genealogy adventures, fishing, and all things family. She is also passionate about her grandchildren’s sporting events. 

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No-Good Credit - Martin Wiles

God saved you by his special favor when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this. Ephesians 2:8 NLT

No-good credit. No one wants that.

Credit. The amount of money a particular lending institution is willing to loan me because they believe I’ll pay it back. Perhaps I’ve borrowed from them before, or they have checked my borrowing record. Credit cards have a credit limit. If my charges exceed that, they may honor my purchase, but I will pay a penalty. And everyone has a credit rating—a calculated number based on someone’s borrowing and repaying history. A low rating means I can’t borrow money, or if I can, I’ll pay an exorbitant interest rate. Credit is something we build based on past borrowing behavior.

If I’m timely with repaying my loans, my credit line increases, and my credibility with lenders rises. Not so with God. He issues no credit limit based on our current or past behavior. Our sinful nature kills our credit line, and good works can’t resurrect it. We can’t pay our sin debt, and because of that, our spiritual credit rating is the pits. We may repair our credit rating so lenders will risk lending us money again, but we can’t restore credit with God.

Fortunately, the credit picture with God isn’t all bad. What we can’t do for ourselves, God did for us. He won’t issue us credit personally, but he will give us Jesus’ credit rating.

Jesus has an excellent credit rating. Perfect. Sinless. Pure. Righteous. Spotless. He completely obeyed his Father’s plan. All we must do is ask, and God will credit his Son’s righteousness to our account. This allows him to forgive our sins, see us with his Son’s righteousness, involve himself in our lives, and grant us eternal life with him. 

Are you trying to get credit from God through some other means than Christ? God has only one way of approving our credit: our faith in Jesus.

Father, thank You for Your wonderful grace that allows us to be forgiven and cleansed.

Tweetable: How's your credit with God? 

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Mistaken Identity - Martin Wiles

She thought he was the gardener. “Sir,” she said, “if you have taken him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will go and get him.” John 20:15 NLT

Mistaken identity can pose problems.

On December 16, 1895, Adolf Beck left his London home and was immediately falsely accused. Ottilie Meissonier met him on the street, accused him of stealing her jewelry, and contacted the police, who questioned him. Though he refuted her accusations, ten other women claimed he had swindled them also.

The police mistook Beck for John Smith, who had already served time in prison. Beck was sentenced to seven years and served time in the same jail John Smith had. History repeated itself three years after Beck was paroled. Another woman confronted him and accused him of swindling her out of jewelry. He returned to prison. During this same time, however, the real John Smith was arrested and confessed to all the crimes Beck had ever been charged with.

Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early Sunday morning, hoping to find the body of Jesus. What she found was empty space. As Mary sat by the tomb weeping, two angels confronted her and told her Jesus had risen. Turning to leave, Mary encountered the gardner—or so she thought. She questioned him about Jesus’ whereabouts, but hers was a case of mistaken identity. She talked to Jesus.

Mary hasn’t been the only one to mistake Jesus for someone else. Some have said he was only human while others have claimed he was solely divine. Still others have thought he was a lunatic who claimed to be God when he wasn’t. And the cases of his mistaken identity continue.

Mistaking Jesus for anyone other than who he claims has devastating consequences. He claims to be the Son of God who paid for humanity’s sins. He offers the empty tomb as proof God the Father accepted the payment. He presents himself as the forgiver of all sins and the giver of abundant life in the present and eternal life in the future.

Jesus is who he claimed to be, but reaping the results requires a decision. Don’t let a case of mistaken identity about Jesus ruin your present and future.

Prayer: Lord Jesus, we proclaim you to be who you are: the Savior of humanity.

Tweetable: Are you sure about who Jesus is? 

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Flashback Friday - Why Did Jesus Die? - Martin Wiles

Why Did Jesus Die?

Series: Hey God…I Have a Question

For it is not possible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. Hebrews 10:4

As a grammar instructor, I teach my students four types of sentences: imperative, exclamatory, declarative, and interrogative. Imperative sentences give a command or directions. Exclamatory sentences express excitement. Declarative sentences are normal sentences, and interrogative sentences ask a question. Imperative and exclamatory can occasionally be confused because both can end with an exclamation mark. Interrogative sentences are perhaps the easiest to identify because the ending punctuation is always a question mark and because they begin with the infamous “w” words: why, what, where, when. Read more...

Tweetable: Do you wonder why Jesus had to die? 

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Throwback Tuesday - Was Jesus God or Just a Man? - Martin Wiles

Was Jesus God or Just a Man?

Series: Hey God…I Have a Question

When I glance at my dog and cat, I can easily distinguish the difference. How can I do this so easily? After all, they both have ears, mouths, tongues, eyes, tails, legs and feet, teeth, and fur. I suppose the obvious giveaway is that one meows while the other barks. 

But suppose I was deaf. Then how would I know? Somewhere in my distant past, my parents, grandparents, nursery workers, and other significant people taught me the difference. They either showed me a picture or the real thing and said “Dog” or “Cat.” Why even my fifteen-month-old grandson knows the difference. If I ask him where the kitty is, he looks at the cat and points. When he sees the dog, he says “Dog.” How does he know? Because I’ve done the same with him as others did with me. I show him the real thing as well as point them out in books we read. I know…he knows, because someone told us so and because I see others naming them the same thing. Read more...

Tweetable: Who is Jesus to you? 

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Accused - Martin Wiles

You gave me victory over my accusers. Psalm 18:43 NLT

I walked into his territory and was immediately accused.

My high school parking lot was sectioned off into unmarked regions: those for the popular kids and those for the nerds. I parked in the unpopular section. But I had made a new friend who was popular. He took me where all the cool guys and pretty girls hung out. I was excited, until one of the popular guys walked up to me and said, “You’re going to wash my car.”

When I asked why, he proceeded with his accusations. Supposedly, I had been driving in front of him and had thrown out an open container that decorated his fancy car. I denied the charges, but he maintained his accusation and threatened to “put out my lights.” I wasn’t up for a fight I’d surely lose—and I wasn’t a great fan of pain either, but neither was I going to clean his car for something I didn’t do.

I could almost feel the pain of the first punch when my friend stepped in between us. He was short but stocky and tough as nails. “You gonna have to go through me to get to him,” he said with a grin on his face. And he meant it. And the bully knew he meant it. He didn’t mind taking down someone he was sure to beat up, but he wasn’t up for a fight he might lose. He walked away—and so did I, with my friend.

Why the psalmist was falsely accused, we’re not told. He wasn’t worried though. God would give him victory over his accusers as He did me.

According to the apostle John, there is someone who stands before God day and night and falsely accuses Christians (Revelation 12:10). His name is Satan. His list of accusations is surely lengthy, but all the accusations are false. Can’t you hear him say, “God, he doesn’t really love you. If You weren’t so good to him, he’d turn his back on You?”

The good news is that Satan’s accusations—and the accusations of other humans who serve as his agents, fall on deaf ears. Christ is our defense attorney who turns every accusation around. In Christ, we are safe, our sins are forgiven, and our eternity is secure. No accusation will ever stand.

When others falsely accuse you, remember God will give you victory.

Prayer: Father, thank You for keeping us safe from all false accusations others and our enemy may make against us. 

Tweetable: God wipes away all the accusations. 

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Sit In - Martin Wiles

But our High Priest offered himself to God as a single sacrifice for sins, good for all time. Then he sat down in the place of honor at God’s right hand. Hebrews 10:12 NLT

He pulled up a chair, sat beside me, and raised his left arm in the air.

Our church hosted its first Craft Fair. A fair number of vendors signed up, set up, and enjoyed interacting with customers—along with selling them products. I sat at a table near the entrance hosting my first book signing. As my wife talked with the various vendors, a gentleman from our church took her seat beside me, raised his left arm, and smiled.

“What are you doing,” I—along with others who stopped by, asked.

“Sitting in for your wife,” he responded.

My wife had had carpal tunnel surgery the day before and was supposed to be sitting with her arm elevated. She wasn’t being a good patient, so our friend decided he’d show her how a sit-in was supposed to be done.

Though no more than a child and middle-school-aged lad in the 1960’s, I remember another type of sit-in. The kind where minority groups—whose rights were being violated by governmental laws and societal traditions, sat in various stores and other locations. Had I chose to sit with them—or sit in their place, I would have faced the same retaliation they did.

The writer introduces another type of sit-in—one that also had consequences but wonderful results. This sit-in occurred after Jesus died on the cross, was resurrected from the grave, and then ascended back into heaven.

Jesus sat in my place as my friend did for my wife—but with a big difference. His sitting in her for her had no effect on the swelling in her arm. She was still walking around with it dangling in the wrong direction. Jesus’ sitting in my place has the potential to alter my life’s current situation and eternal state. His sit-in was substitutionary—which means He took my place.

If I choose, I can avoid having to pay for my sins and being eternally separated from God. I can be released from condemnation and live with confidence, peace, and joy. But I must accept the effects of His sit-in by confessing my sins, putting my trust in Him, and claiming Him as my Savior.

Don’t try to sit in for yourself. Accept the sit-in Christ made for you.

Prayer: Father, thank You for allowing Your Son to sit in on our behalf. 

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Flashback Friday - A Different Kind of Jesus - Martin Wiles

A Different Kind of Jesus

He was pastor of the First Baptist Church in my college town, but he wasn’t typical.

When you entered First Baptist Church, Graceville, Florida, and saw Dr. Jerry Spivey* sitting on the platform chair or standing behind the massive podium, it was immediately clear he didn’t fit a First Baptist mold.

Dr. Spivey wore a plain suit, not the three piece variety with a cuff linked shirt underneath. He didn’t carry an entire Bible to the pulpit but sported a small New Testament. His sermons weren’t Greek and Hebrew laden orations. Just simple stories and applications even small children could understand. And if he came to visit you, he might be wearing shorts. Read more...

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