Nick’s Walk

You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight (Acts 1:8 – 9). Unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you (John 16:7). The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you. (Romans 8:11 NLT). Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort? (Gal. 3:3). I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses … For when I am weak, then I am strong (2 Cor. 12:9 – 10). Perhaps the most prevalent symptom of the Fan Christian is the determination to “do it on our own.” Even if we can accept that salvation is a gift from God, we can’t accept that the follow up is not up to us. […]

Matthew 23 English Standard Version (ESV) Seven Woes to the Scribes and Pharisees 23 Then Jesus “The scribes and the Pharisees but not the works they do. They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger. 5  to be seen by others. For they make their fringes long, 6 and they the best seats in the synagogues 7 and the marketplaces and being called But you are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are And call no man your father on earth, for the Christ. 11  Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted. 13 “But woe shut the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. For you proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a hell as yourselves.16 “Woe to blind guides, who say, the temple that has made the gold sacred? 18 And you say, ‘If anyone swears by the altar, it is nothing, but if anyone swears by the altar that makes the gift sacred? 20 So whoever swears by the altar swears by it and by everything on it. 21 And whoever swears by the temple swears by it and by heaven swears by him who sits upon it.23  you tithe mint and dill and justice and mercy and faithfulness. a […]

John 14:6 English Standard Version (ESV) 6 Jesus said to him, “I am the truth, and 

“If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters—yes, even his own life—he cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:25–26). There is no question that this is strong language. You can bet it cut down on the large crowd that had gathered to see Jesus perform miracles and teach. At a minimum, Jesus calls us to an exclusive relationship with Him. He wants us to the exclusion of all others.  That’s a pretty high standard. How can we measure up to that? Here are some test questions that might help. 1. For whom do you sacrifice? Our most “valuable” possessions are our time and our money. Look at where you place yours and you will have an idea if your relationship with Jesus is exclusive. “Where your treasure is, your heart will be also.” In Matthew 6:24 Jesus said, “No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.” You can’t follow money and Jesus. Those paths go in different directions and you have […]

Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain… Genesis 4:1 Adam didn’t read about Eve or hear all about her from someone else. He knew her in the intimate way that God has gifted to those of us who marry. One of the amazing things about some of the guys at Angola is their knowledge of scripture. They can quote scripture Chapter and Verse. Yet until they spend a weekend being listened to and loved they really don’t know Jesus, they’ve never met Him.  A fan may be able to quote thousands of facts about his hero: how many touchdowns he has scored or yards he has gained. Yet he has probably never even met the man. Many of us who claim to be Christians are the same. We have spent hours in Sunday School or have memorized scripture verses, yet the important thing is to have met Jesus.  The kind of knowledge we are talking about is possible only between beings who have dropped all pretense and have made themselves completely vulnerable one to the other. God has made such knowledge of Him possible to those who commit to Him and, of course, as […]

Have You Made a Decision for Jesus or Have You Committed to Jesus? Idleman, Kyle (2011-05-24). Not a Fan: Becoming a Completely Committed Follower of Jesus (p. 32). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.  For the next several days I will be looking at the differences between Jesus’ fans and His followers. Please accept for the moment that He calls us to be His followers and that just being a fan isn’t good enough. With me, please consider if you are a fan or a follower and what that means. It is common in church to ask folks to “make a decision” for Jesus or to “accept” Him. This is usually interpreted to mean to “believe” in Jesus. It’s not enough to believe in Him. The demons believe. Jesus asks for a commitment to follow Him, to forsake all others. It is usually possible to distinguish between the believers and the followers. The lives of the followers show real change. They produce fruit.  In our zeal to get people to make a “decision” we sometimes fail to explain what is really involved. Consider this: There is no forgiveness without repentance. There is no salvation without surrender. There is no life without death. There is […]

Our church is in the process of selecting a new pastor. Since we are an independent, non-denominational body, the process is not cut in stone and the congregation plays a significant part. No outside authority will pick someone and send him to us. We are already in receipt of some resumes and, I guess, will be having some guest sermons soon. It seems to me, however, that there are some preliminary matters that need to be considered before we start parsing resumes and evaluating sermons. There are some questions that need to be asked. Before we can know what we should look for in a pastor, we need to know: 1. What kind of church do we want to be? There are, no doubt, some simple and some simplistic answers to this question. We can pull out verses from the Book of Acts. We can embroider the “Great Commission”  on banners and hang them about. But it is a question that requires some thought. There are many different kinds of churches these days. There are thousands of denominations. Many of those are doing a great job. Many are not.  What kind of church do we want to be? It […]

John 13:35 English Standard Version (ESV) 35  tossed back and forth by the waves, 15 Instead, speaking the truth in love, that is, Christ. Yesterday was a great day. I always seem to enjoy the days I spend with my Kairos brothers and sisters. I wish I could say it’s because they are all perfect Christians; but they are not. They do seem to have the basics down. They are the most loving group I know. It’s awful that Our Lord told us that others would know us by the way we love each other; yet, the world’s  opinion of Christians is that they are “unloving.” I understand that part of the reason is that the world can’t handle the “truth” that Christ has given us. But I believe we need to accept some responsibility for this negative view of our kind. Notice how unloving speech is a product of immaturity. It’s something that infants do. So do those who are not grounded in the truths of the faith. Speaking the truth in love is a sign of maturity. Kids may say the darnedest things, but loving Christians shouldn’t.   I believe the root of the problem is our failure to understand “speaking the truth […]