Nick’s Walk

These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold–though your faith is far more precious than mere gold. So when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world. 1 Peter 1:7 Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone.  James 1:13 Today we continue or KISS (Keep it simple, stupid) series. Every Christian has been confronted with “Why does God allow bad things to happen to good folks?” or by the person who has abandoned the Christian walk because of some perceived wrong God has committed. Here’s the simple point:Trials are sent by God to cause us to stand. Temptation to sin is sent by the devil to cause us to stumble. Put another way: God wants to strengthen us. Satan wants to weaken us. One is meant for our maturity. The other is meant for our misery. For this stand point it’s a question of intention. God intends things […]

What then shall we say that Abraham our father has found according to the flesh?

But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicitythat is in Christ. 2 Corinthians 11:3 I like to think I’m a pretty smart guy. However, there is mounting evidence to the contrary. Last night, before I finally fell asleep, I was having great difficulty following the British mystery Rose and I were watching. This is the second time I fell asleep on the movie. I’ll have to ask my wife, “Who done it?”  I have a game on my i-phone which I have never been able to beat, but my granddaughter, who is in 2nd grade, has beaten it seven times. The evidence continues to mount.  Lucky for me, the things I really need to know are very simple. I heard a great quote yesterday. A sermon was described as “mustard gas to faith.” The author was dealing with a situation in which the preacher had so complicated the message that the congregation was wallowing in confusion and simple faith died. In my brief stint as a pastor I was very concerned that I didn’t know enough to lead a congregation and there is evidence that […]

if we are faithless,    he remains faithful,    for he cannot disown himself. 2 Timothy 2:13 Iphones, Ipads, Facebook, Twitter, How things are changing. But it’s not just cool technology. We are changing the way we live. Most of us live in urban rather than rural environments. In my area, Broussard and Youngsville there seem to be no more intersections, just traffic circles. More don’t work for a living. More live together and don’t get married. Even our churches are changing. They are often bigger and flashier.  The message is often designed to be friendly and “practical” instead of spiritual and challenging.  All this change can be exciting, but it can also be confusing. The older I get the less exciting and more confusing it gets. We need to make sure that just because we change and our lives “evolve” our God doesn’t change. He’s the same God who created man, the same God who led His people out of bondage, the same God who sent a Savior.  Spend some time in God’s word, especially the Old Testament. God didn’t change when Jesus was born. There is much to be learned from those sections of scripture that come before Matthew.  […]

Last week we consider the “parable” of the Sheep and the Goats. Today, some more thoughts.  First, it isn’t really a parable. A parable is normally a simple story used to illustrate a moral or spiritual lesson, as told by Jesus in the Gospels. This discourse is more an explanation of the Judgment of the Nations. Jesus only mentions sheep and goats as he points out that the people will be separated like a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.  When we think of sheep and goats we think of two very different creatures. But in much of the world certain species of these animals really look pretty much alike. It might well take a shepherd to separate them. It is often pointed out that the sheep are rewarded because they treated the least like Jesus, feeding them, visiting them, and so on. But consider, the animals are separated not because of what they do, but because of who they are. Jesus calls the ones standing on the right, “blessed.” They are blessed because they are born again children of God. Yes, they cared for the least; but they aren’t blessed because they cared. They cared because they […]

Pride is the problem. Pride has always been the problem. It was pride that caused some of the angels to think that they could be God. It was pride that caused Adam and Eve to think that they could be as wise as God. It was pride that caused the Jewish leaders to believe that no good thing could come out of Nazareth. It is pride that makes men believe that they are better at running their lives than the God that created them. It is pride that makes men reject God’s plan of salvation. It is pride that leads men to conclude that God’s gift of salvation is too good to be true and that it requires more from them. It is pride that causes some to conclude that men who don’t worship as they do can not be Christians. It is pride that causes some Christians to conclude that they can become better men through their own effort. It is pride that causes some to believe that Christ’s death was just not enough and that their own effort is required for heaven. It is pride that causes men to say that faith in Christ is not enough, […]

At 33, Jesus had become man, died for the sins of men, arisen from the dead and ascended back to his Father. These days at 33 many folks haven’t left home yet. Consider this one statistic: In 1960, 77 percent of women and 65 percent of men completed all the major transitions into adulthood by age thirty. These transitions include leaving home, finishing school, becoming financially independent, getting married, and having a child. By 2000, only 46 percent of woman completed these transitions by age thirty, and only 31 percent of men. In short, among thirty-somethings less than one-third are done with school, out of the house, married with kids, and have a job that pays the bills. “Adultolescence” is the new normal. These statistics come from  Just Do Something: A Liberating Approach to Finding God’s Will, by Kevin DeYoung (Moody Press).  Consider  that these statistics are ten years old. I bet things have only gotten worse since them. Now I realize these statistics may be skewed because today many are not getting married at all, or ever finishing school, or, for that matter, having a child. But really, isn’t it true that this generation doesn’t feel called to […]

. Far from chastising me, He embraces me with love. He makes me eat at His table. He serves me with His own hands and gives me the key to His treasures. He converses and delights Himself with me incessantly, in a thousand and a thousand ways. And He treats me in all respects as His favorite. In this way I consider myself continually in His holy presence.  This is Brother Lawrence’s description of how  he is treated by His Lord. Compare your circumstances with those of Brother Lawrence:  Brother Lawrence was born Nicholas Herman around 1610 in Herimenil, Lorraine, a Duchy of France. His birth records were destroyed in a fire at his parish church during the Thirty Years War, a war in which he fought as a young soldier. It was also the war in which he sustained a near fatal injury to his sciatic nerve. The injury left him quite crippled and in chronic pain for the rest of his life. He devoted most of his life to his monastery where he worked as a cook and in the sandal shop. Still He considered God “full of mercy and goodness.” He felt embraced with the love […]