Jesus Christ is Lord

One of the phrasings of the gospel that I have heard throughout my life is that of "making Jesus Christ the Lord and Savior of your life."

Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified."
(Acts 2:36 ESV)

God has made Jesus both Lord and Savior. For me to make Him Lord and Savior is like me making the sun shine. He is Who He is. The question before me is, "What do I do now?"

The Idolater Repents: A Parable in Miniature

Surely he cuts cedars for himself, and takes a cypress or an oak and raises it for himself among the trees of the forest. He plants a fir, and the rain makes it grow. Then it becomes something for a man to burn, so he takes one of them and warms himself; he also makes a fire to bake bread. He also makes a god and worships it; he makes it a graven image and falls down before it. Half of it he burns in the fire; over this half he eats meat as he roasts a roast and is satisfied. He also warms himself and says, "Aha! I am warm, I have seen the fire." But the rest of it he makes into a god, his graven image. He falls down before it and worships; he also prays to it and says, "Deliver me, for you are my god." They do not know, nor do they understand, for He has smeared over their eyes so that they cannot see and their hearts so that they cannot comprehend.
(Isaiah 44:14-18 NASB)

So the idolater, having heard what a fool he is for carving wood into idols that can't see him or hear his prayers, repents and gets rid of all the idols. In fact, he is so sorry for his foolishness that he swears off the use of wood forever. Cold and hungry, he perishes.

How blessed is the man who has made the LORD his trust, And has not turned to the proud, nor to those who lapse into falsehood.
(Psalms 40:4 NASB)

New CD by David Regier and Scott Hill

"Immersed," my new CD with Scott Hill is now available on iTunes and Amazon.com.

I wrote all the songs except "I Surrender All."

Hope you're blessed.

Watches

There was a man who admired fine Swiss timepieces. He absorbed the history of watchmaking, gloried in the intricate works, thrilled at the gentle sweep of the second hand in the finest watches.

Whenever he had 5, 10, or 20 bucks, he went out and bought an imitation of one of these beautiful watches. He ordered them online, he bought them from the streetcorner hoodlum. Sometimes when he got a little extra money, he'd buy a more expensive replica, even though its second hand lurched forward just like the cheap ones. He knew their works were far inferior to those of the Swiss watches he adored, and he freely admitted it, always pointing out to people how much he truly valued the real deal.

He kept buying the replicas. He probably had a thousand of them.

A True Parable

There was a group of Christian farmers in Russia during the 1870's. Facing extermination or exile, they had their children pick through the wheat, saving the best kernels in giant seedbags. The rest they baked into hard rolls to sustain them on their journey to America.

Once here, they settled in the unforgiving prairie land of the Midwest. But their healthy, hardy winter wheat thrived in the harsh conditions. Eventually it became the standard throughout America's farmland, the breadbasket of the world.

A parable

There was a man who, having taken a shower, put on the sweaty, grungy t-shirt that he had been wearing for the whole week. It fit him well, and it was very comfortable. But no one wanted to get near him. At last he figured out that people don't like seeing a dirty t-shirt, so he put a clean one on top. It was really uncomfortable and tight, but it covered up the smell some, at least for a little while.

Col. 3:1-17

Can this be done without trying to sound like U2?

Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God.
(Col 3:16 NASB)