Burunche’s Blog

1 John 2:1- 2 “My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you will not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate before the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. He Himself is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.”

“Chuck Colson, of Prison Fellowship, tells about a prison in Sao Do Campos, Brazil, which is run according to Christian principles. The prison only has two people on its staff. The inmates do everything else. Each prisoner has another to whom he is accountable. Every prisoner goes to chapel or takes a course in character formation. Each prisoner is assigned to a volunteer family outside the prison that makes him a part of their family. The rate of return for crimes after release is 4% compared to 75% in other Brazilian prisons.

When Colson visited the prison to discover the secret of their success, a prisoner took him to what at one time was an isolation cell. When the door opened, Colson saw a beautifully carved wooden figure of Jesus hanging on the cross. The prisoner pointed to the figure of Jesus and whispered, “He’s doing time for all of us.”

Jesus made the sacrifice for you. He went alone to the solitary confinement of our cross and did our time—all of it. That means you are completely forgiven! That’s what makes Jesus different from everything else in the world! Only one religion gives us a Savior who has done it all for us. Only one religion offers complete forgiveness.”

There’s a Country Gospel song that says

“He paid a debt he did not owe,

I owed a debt I could not pay
I needed someone to wash my sins away
And now I sing a brand new song, “Amazing grace”
Christ Jesus paid the debt I could never pay.”

“He paid a Debt He Did Not Owe, ” Alton Howard Singers

Jesus made an atoning sacrifice of himself when he willingly died on the cross at Calvary. He could have summoned legions of angels. He could have annihilated the Roman soldiers and the religious leaders. But he willingly laid down his life to make a perfect blood sacrifice for our sins.

Nobody else could have paid that price. None of us is good enough. All of us have sinned and have fallen short of God’s glory. Psalm 95:6 – 8 says “O come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the LORD our Maker. For He is our God, and we are the people of His pasture, the sheep under His care. Today, if you hear His voice, 8do not harden your hearts…”

A few days ago, I quoted the C. S. Lewis book, The Great Divorce. It is worth repeating the quote. “There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, “Thy will be done,” and those to whom God says, in the end, “Thy will be done.” All that are in Hell, choose it. Without that self-choice there could be no Hell. No soul that seriously and constantly desires joy will ever miss it. Those who seek find. To those who knock, it is opened.”

Jesus wants to be our Advocate; however, we have a choice. If you are arrested and must go before a judge, you can choose to have a lawyer or you can choose to attempt to defend yourself. But even if you are a trained lawyer yourself, you are still better off having someone else defend you. The choice is yours: accept Jesus and allow Him to be your Advocate, or reject Him and try to defend yourself before God, the perfectly righteous Judge.

PRAYER: Father God, thank you for loving us so much that you sent Jesus to live and to die for our sins. Thank you that if we will confess our sins and accept what Jesus has done for us, He will be our Advocate. We gratefully accept what Jesus has done for us and we praise you for providing us a means of escape from eternal damnation for our sins. In the mighty Name of King Jesus. Amen.

1 John 1:5-10 “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make Him out to be a liar, and His word is not in us.”

This is an election year and politicians in several countries are making all kinds of promises. One cynic asked, “How can you tell when a politician is lying?” The answer was “When his or her lips are moving.” Unfortunately, this is frequently the case; however, most of us are no better than those politicians.

We deceive ourselves constantly. We tell ourselves that we are thinner, more successful, prettier, or more handsome than we actually are. Many parents choose to believe that their children are little angels, although now that COVID has forced parents and children to stay home together, that notion may have gone by the board! We choose to believe all kinds of fictions: we want to believe that we can eat any amount of rich food without gaining weight; we want to believe that we have exercised longer than we actually have; we want to believe that all of our motives are pure while we harshly criticize those around us; we want to believe that we are excellent drivers and that the problem is all those other idiots on the road. The list is endless.

By the time John is writing this letter, he might be in his seventies or eighties. John has a very accurate idea of the way humans behave and he lays it on the line. “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” OUCH! But John is right; each and every one of us has sin in our lives. Unfortunately, getting rid of sin is another problem. Anybody who has lived in a rural area with tarred roads knows how tough it is to get fresh tar off a vehicle. That tar sticks fast! Sin is even worse than tar. None of us has any effective means of getting rid of our own sin. BUT there is a remedy! “ If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” What we cannot do for ourselves, God will do for us, if we will only confess our sins.

Confession brings problems. Before you can confess that you are a sinner, you must really believe that you have sinned and that you cannot free yourself. And this is where many people get stuck. “Who me? But I’m a good person! I don’t cheat and I don’t steal, and I don’t even watch filthy stuff on TV.” Well and good. But what do you do when someone cuts you off in traffic? How do you behave at a store when someone ahead of you hauls out 50 coupons and chooses that very moment to sort through them before paying? And what do you do when your colleague at work suddenly dumps the project he or she was supposed to have completed five days ago on your desk at 4:30 on a Friday afternoon when the deadline is Monday morning? No. We all have problems with sin.

We human beings are so funny. Despite the fact that the one true living God knows us better than we know ourselves and knows all our thoughts and the intentions of our hearts, we still want to believe that we can fake out God. We are like small children who have spilled purple grape juice all over a white rug; we hope that if we move something over the stain, our parents won’t see it! John tells us, “If we say we have not sinned, we make Him out to be a liar, and His word is not in us.”

Numbers 23:19 says, “God is not a man, that He should lie, or a son of man, that He should change His mind. Does He speak and not act? Does He promise and not fulfill?”God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. Lies require darkness, and God is perfectly holy and dwells in unapproachable light.

What can we do about sin? There’s really only one thing that we can do: confess our sins and ask God for forgiveness. But the good news is this: If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. One pastor put it this way: once we confess our sins, God throws them into the Sea of Forgetfulness and puts up a “No Fishing” sign.

What sins are you carrying today? Why struggle with those sins any longer? Confess them and let God forgive you and help you to start a new life.

PRAYER: Father God, we confess that we have sinned by the things we have thought, the things we have said, the things we have done and the things we have failed to do. We have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. We have not loved You with our whole hearts. Lord, forgive us! Clean us up! And help us to follow hard after you all the days of our lives. In the mighty and precious Name of King Jesus. Amen.

1John 1:5 – 7 “And this is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you: God is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with Him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.”

The darkness was impenetrable that night in Saboba in northeastern Ghana. Twenty – seven years ago, we had no electricity, and I was riding a bicycle with a faulty light. To make matters worse, the path was uneven and full of potholes. Suddenly I found myself pitching forward as my front bicycle wheel caught on something. Blessedly, I didn’t break any bones, but I certainly left some skin from my hands and knees on the road! It would be five more years before electricity actually made its way to our village, and in the meantime we all had to cope. I have delivered babies and sutured wounds by the light of a kersene lantern. I have started drips (IV’s) by torchlight. Once you have had to live without electricity, you REALLY appreciate light!

What is the speed of darkness? The speed of darkness is the speed of light. When light comes in, darkness must flee. When John the Apostle was writing these words, his readers could readily identify with the importance of light. In those days, most homes depended on small oil lamps that cast a small amount of light in a limited area. The only time there was full light in any area was during the day.

Why is it that “God is light and in him is no darkness at all?” God is completely holy, without any stain of sin. When I was a kid growing up on the farm, we had a small creek below our house. The creek had very little water; however, there was plenty of mud. Once we were playing and I attempted to help a small cousin over the creek by throwing him to the other side. Unfortunately, I wasn’t as strong as I thought, and my cousin and I both wound up completely covered with mud! Mom wouldn’t even let us in the house. We had to stand by the back door while someone poured buckets of water over us and then strip off our muddy clothes. Did Mom love us? Yes, she did. But could Mom let us into the house covered with mud? No.

God loves us and wants us to be with Him. But we all have choices. We can choose to pursue righteousness and holiness, to study God’s Word, to pray, and to ask God to change us into His likeness. OR we can go our own way, deluding ourselves that “we are really good people and anyway, God isn’t REALLY going to reject us.”

Isaiah 64: 5-6 says “You welcome those who gladly do right, who remember Your ways. Surely You were angry, for we sinned. How can we be saved if we remain in our sins? Each of us has become like something unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags..”

Romans 3:23 says “For all have sinned and have fallen short of the glory of God.”

“But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.”

By ourselves, we are sitting in darkness, deluding ourselves that we are creatures of light. We are all small children covered in mud that no amount of water will remove. But God has made a way for each one of us to leave the darkness behind. How can we really walk in the light? We must confess to God that we are sinners and that we cannot do anything to free ourselves. We must ask Jesus to come into our hearts and clean us from our sins. And then we must follow Jesus and stop repeating the behaviors we followed when we were in darkness.

PRAYER: Father God, we confess that we are sinners and that nothing we can do is good enough for us to earn our way into heaven. We thank you that Jesus died for our sins on the cross at Calvary. Please forgive our sins and help us to live for you for the rest of our lives. Amen.

1 John 1:1 – 4 “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our own eyes, which we have gazed upon and touched with our own hands—this is the Word of life. And this is the life that was revealed; we have seen it and testified to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life that was with the Father and was revealed to us. We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And this fellowship of ours is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ. We write these things so that your joy may be complete.”

Matthew 4:21-22 “Going on from there, He saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John. They were in a boat with their father Zebedee, mending their nets. Jesus called them, and immediately they left the boat and their father and followed Him.”

When James and John came back from fishing that morning and began mending their nets, they had no idea that their lives were about to change forever! They were sitting there minding their own business when Jesus the carpenter’s son from Nazareth came by. But when Jesus called, there was something so compelling about his voice that they had to follow him. And follow him they did, for the rest of their lives.

Had you been picking disciples, James and John might not have made the cut. For one thing, they were working men with only basic educations. For another, they both had tempers! Jesus himself nicknamed James and John “Sons of thunder.” But John became the disciple who was closest to Jesus. John was on the Mount of Transfiguration with Jesus. It was John to whom Jesus revealed the name of Judas as His betrayer. It was John who followed Jesus into the courtyard of the high priest and who spoke to the guard so that Peter was allowed to come into the courtyard. It was John who followed Jesus to Calvary. And it was John to whom Jesus gave the care of His mother Mary.

King Herod killed James during the early days of the church; however, John lived a long and productive life, albeit a tumultuous one. At one point, John was exiled to the Island of Patmos in about 95 AD, and it was there that he had the visions that are discribed in the Book of Revelations. It’s likely that John wrote his letters to the early Christians shortly before he was sent to Patmos.

John might have had a temper, but he could love passionately and persistently. The Gospel of John and the epistles shine with love for Jesus. John has the same sense of urgency that Peter had when writing his epistles. John wants his readers to know that he has been an eye witness to everything he is describing. You can hear the voice of a working man, a fisherman, who has no time for fancy phrases but who is telling the truth plainly.

ETERNAL LIFE! FELLOWSHIP! JOY! These are the things that John wants his readers to grasp and to experience. John spent three of the most important years of his life living closely with Jesus, absorbing His teachings and observing His way of life. John wants everyone who reads his writings to feel the same wonder and exhilaration that he has felt.

As we continue to study John’s epistles, please give your imagination free play. Join James and John as they sit in that boat in the shallows of the Sea of Galilee. Listen to the seagulls crying. Hear the waves lapping on the shore. Smell the tang of the water. And look! There on the shore someone is coming! The morning sun is gleaming on His face. You don’t know what is about to happen, but you are sure of one thing: your life is about to change forever!

PRAYER: Father God, thank you for John’s faithfulness. Thank you for your love, for your fellowship, and for your joy! Let all who read this seek you and know the wonders of eternal life in You. In the mighty and precious Name of Jesus. Amen.

2 Peter 3:14 – 18 “Therefore, beloved, as you anticipate these things, make every effort to be found at peace with Him, without spot or blemish. Consider also that our Lord’s patience brings salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom God gave him. He writes this way in all his letters, speaking in them about such matters. Some parts of his letters are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction. Therefore, beloved, since you already know these things, be on your guard so that you will not be carried away by the error of the lawless and fall from your secure standing. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.”

Peter is winding up the second of his letters. Remember, Peter is sitting in Rome, wondering when the Roman soldiers are going to carry him off to prison. Peter is a plain – spoken working man with no time to waste. Why is Peter referring to Paul in this manner?

As an observant Jew, Peter certainly received a basic Torah education; however, it’s likely that once he was big enough to help with the fishing, he left school. Paul, on the other hand, was a scholar who had studied under Gamaliel, one of the foremost teachers of that time. Peter probably spoke one language well and a second language poorly, while Paul spoke and wrote Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, and possibly Latin. Peter came from a blue collar background while Paul’s family were religious aristocrats. It’s true that Paul was a tent maker, but it was part of the rabbinic tradition for a rabbi to have another profession in addition to being a life – long student.

“Therefore, beloved, since you already know these things, be on your guard so that you will not be carried away by the error of the lawless and fall from your secure standing.” Peter is concerned that his readers not become confused by “jargon jugglers,” that is, people who overwhelm their listeners with words while they espouse strange theories that have little or no basis in Scripture.

These days there are many people who prey on fears or uncertainties to gain influence over shallow thinkers. It was the same in Peter’s day. Conspiracy theories and strange philosophies abounded then just as they do now. How can we protect ourselves from being unduly swayed? Pray! If someone sends you a video or a link, pray about it! God has promised to send wisdom to all who seek it and He is a good Father who does not play charades with His children.

PRAYER; Father God, help us to truly grow in grace and not to get caught up in strange philosophies. Lord, help us to always seek wisdom from You first and to remember that if some new theory does not line up with Scripture, there is probably something wrong with it. Thank you for loving us and for sending Jesus to die for our sins. Help us to whole – heartedly follow you all the days of our lives. In the mighty and precious Name of Jesus. Amen.

2 Peter 3:10 – 13 “But the Day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar, the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and its works will be laid bare. Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to conduct yourselves in holiness and godliness as you anticipate and hasten the coming of the day of God, when the heavens will be destroyed by fire and the elements will melt in the heat. But in keeping with God’s promise, we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, where righteousness dwells.”

A few years ago, some friends here in Ghana went through a horrifying experience! In the middle of the night, they heard gunshots outside their house. Before they knew what was happening, armed robbers had thrown cement blocks through the security door at the back of the house and had entered. Their poor watchman was bound and gagged, unable to do anything. The armed robbers stripped our friends of all their money, cell phones, tablets, and computers. One of the men threatened to rape the oldest daughter; however, when she began to call on Jesus, the men panicked and left, taking their booty with them. That poor family will probably never read these verses again without thinking about their ordeal.

No victim SCHEDULES a robbery! Robbers take every advantage of their victims. In this particular case, it is likely that robbers tracked the husband from the airport to his house upon his return from a business trip. The robbers then scoped out the situation and waited for an opportune moment to strike. Although the technology has changed, robbers have always struck when they were least expected.

Yesterday we spoke about the fact that none of us knows how much time he or she has left in life. Since we are already making eternal choices, let us choose to serve and worship God and to act in holiness and godliness. In the fairy tales, there were stories about trolls who worked their evil at night. But these trolls had to rush into caves before the sunrise; otherwise, they would turn to stone forever. In a sense, we are like those trolls. We have the opportunity to make choices and to live as we wish; however, there will come a moment in time when our lives will end. Death will come “like a thief in the night.” Choose eternal life! Choose to follow Jesus Christ!

PRAYER: Father God, thank you that we can freely choose to love you and to serve you. Help us to make righteous choices and to follow hard after you all the days of our lives. In the mighty and precious Name of King Jesus. Amen.

2 Peter : 3:1-9 “Beloved, this is now my second letter to you. Both of them are reminders to stir you to wholesome thinking by recalling what was foretold by the holy prophets and commanded by our Lord and Savior through your apostles.

Most importantly, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires. “Where is the promise of His coming?” they will ask. “Ever since our fathers fell asleep, everything continues as it has from the beginning of creation.” But they deliberately overlook the fact that long ago by God’s word the heavens existed and the earth was formed out of water and by water, through which the world of that time perished in the flood. And by that same word, the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men. Beloved, do not let this one thing escape your notice: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. The Lord is not slow to fulfill His promise as some understand slowness, but is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish but everyone to come to repentance.”

God is infinite – He’s infinitely good, infinitely kind, infinitely loving and infinitely patient. But He is also infinitely just. All actions have consequences, whether or not we believe it. We are already inhabiting eternity and making choices with eternal consequences.

Everything in nature has its own set of sequences. The seasons continue to come regularly. The sun rises and sets and rises again. And all of us are growing older, if not wiser, every day. But there is also an end to everything. Two days ago, on September 11^th, we remembered all those who went to work that morning thinking that it would be an average day. Many of those people never came home again. Travelers on the planes that hit the Trade Center, the Pentagon, and that meadow in Pennsylvania had no inkling when they boarded those planes that they were going to their doom.

Here in Ghana, there is a saying “Nkwa hia,” “Life is precious.” Two weeks ago, we were horrified to learn that one of our long – time friends had died suddenly at the age of 66. (Both of us are older than that. Enough said.) None of us knows when he or she will die, or how we will die.

God has given each of us many chances to serve Him and to live for Him. But if we continue to reject Him or to scoff and laugh, one day we will die in our sins. The verse says that God WANTS everyone to come to repentance; however, we are creatures of free will and not puppets. God does not force Himself on anybody.

In C.S. Lewis’ book The Great Divorce, he writes “There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, “Thy will be done,” and those to whom God says, in the end, “Thy will be done.” All that are in Hell, choose it. Without that self-choice there could be no Hell. No soul that seriously and constantly desires joy will ever miss it. Those who seek find. To those who knock, it is opened.”

If you are reading this today, you are alive and you still have the chance to choose to serve God and to tell Him, “Thy will be done.” Tomorrow is not guaranteed to any of us. Several thousand years ago, Joshua told the Children of Israel “Choose this day whom you will serve, but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” Today, what will you choose?

PRAYER: Father God, I pray that all those who read this will choose to serve you and to follow you! Let your Holy Spirit move in the hearts of all those who read this and bless them as they choose righteousness. In the mighty Name of King Jesus. Amen.

2 Peter 2:20 – 22 “If indeed they have escaped the corruption of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, only to be entangled and overcome by it again, their final condition is worse than it was at first. It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than to have known it and then to turn away from the holy commandment passed on to them. Of them the proverbs are true: “A dog returns to its vomit,”and, “A sow that is washed goes back to her wallowing in the mud.”

For years, this passage has raised fears for Christians, who wonder if they can lose their salvation. Peter is still speaking about false teachers and those who follow them.

Here is a lucid explanation from Bible (https://bible.knowing-jesus.com)

 “In this passage Peter is raising concern that those, who for a time escaped the pollution and defilement of the world, when they heard about the Lord Jesus, end up in a far worse state when they return to the world’s entanglements. This verse has caused many Christians to think their salvation is lost if they become discouraged; walk away from their faith for a time or become engage in worldly carnality. It is therefore increasingly important to read every verse in context and identify who is being referenced in a passage, and to whom the word is addressed.

This letter is written to Christians, who have the same precious faith as Peter, and this verse is exposing the danger of false teachers and the devastation they can cause to those that are ignorant of God’s Word. Paul is warning his readers of the increasing numbers of apostate teachers who distort the Person and work of Christ, and encouraging them to have a closer walk with God and an ever deepening understanding of their faith.

Peter insists that knowledge of the Lord and paying heed to Scripture are two important elements in identifying a false teacher and discerning their destructive lies. In his earlier letter he assured his readers that God’s mighty power will protect all who have come to saving faith in Christ and will guard their hearts against such lies, while Paul reassures us that when God starts a good work in the life of a Christian, He promises to bring it to completion.

These final verses of chapter 2 are not talking about losing one’s salvation. There is no question that the salvation of a truly born-again individual can be lost. However, Peter is expressing his concern for unbelievers, who are brought to a superficial knowledge of Christ, without being saved by faith in Him. Such people quickly become entangled back into the world, through the influence of false teachers,who twist the truth for their own evil ends, with no concern for the eternal destiny of those they teach.

False teachers play havoc in the lives of their listeners – both the saved and the unsaved, because they deny God’s word and discredit His truth. They deceive their listeners with sugar-coated lies and challenge the authority of Christ and His appointed apostles. But those who allow their ears to be tickled without ever coming to the knowledge of the truth, by faith, are in serious spiritual danger – and their last statebecomes worse that at the beginning.”

HOW CAN YOU TELL FALSE TEACHERS FROM REAL ONES?

1. What content is this person teaching? Is the person teaching Scripture or something less with a thin veneer of fine – sounding phrases? Business owners train their employees to detect counterfeit money by teaching them what real money looks like. There are lots of Satanic counterfeit teachings out there, but the Bible remains the Word of God. If a teacher is promoting something that does not agree with the Bible, follow the Bible.

2. Is the teacher leading people to a faith in Jesus Christ or to a faith in himself/herself? If the teacher is promoting his/her powers of healing, miracle – working, prophecy, etc., rather than exalting Jesus Christ, run in the opposite direction!

3. What is the actual purpose of the teaching? Are people being encouraged to trust God and to seek His face, or are they being encouraged to follow some program?

False teaching is like the inflatable rafts that non -swimmers might rely on. Those toys might be all right as long as you are paddling around in a small pool, but if you get into a larger body of water and they deflate, you will sink because you never really learned how to swim properly.

PRAYER: Father God, we confess that we are sinners and that nothing we can do will pay for our sins. We thank you that Jesus paid the blood price for our sins when he died on the cross at Calvary. We are trusting in Jesus for our salvation. Help us to study your Word and to follow hard after you all the days of our lives. Help us not to become confused by false teachers. Thank you that you have promised to lead us and guide us. In the mighty Name of King Jesus. Amen.

2 Peter 2:17 – 19 “These men are springs without water and mists driven by a storm. Blackest darkness is reserved for them. With lofty but empty words, they appeal to the sensual passions of the flesh and entice those who are just escaping from others who live in error. They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves to depravity. For a man is a slave to whatever has mastered him.”

Peter is still talking about false prophets, and you can hear the agony in his voice! No parent who has ever grieved over a wayward child can fail to understand Peter’s sorrow. Someone whom Peter loved had been seduced and had returned to old sins.

Years ago, some childhood friends had one son. When this boy was growing up on the family farm, he seemed to be doing fine. The boy played Little League baseball and helped his father on the farm and attended church. The boy’s parents did everything they could to raise him properly. But somehow the boy became addicted to hard drugs, even bringing them home. Finally, the boy’s grieving parents had no choice but to advise him to leave and find some other place to stay. The boy moved in with his girlfriend. Sadly, one morning while the girlfriend was at work, the boy decided to do drugs one more time….and it was one time too many. This beloved son, once the hope of his parents, died from an overdose at the age of nineteen.

The boy’s parents never knew the people who introduced him to hard drugs, but they were the ones left to mourn for a lifetime. Jesus did not mince words about those who entice others into sin. In Luke 17:1-2 Jesus told his followers, “It is inevitable that stumbling blocks will come, but woe to the one through whom they come! It would be better for him to have a millstone hung around his neck and to be thrown into the sea than to cause one of these little ones to stumble.”

The question each one of us must ask ourselves is this: are we stumbling blocks or are we building blocks? We are surrounded by people who may be far more fragile than we realize. When we have had a bad day, when we are under stress, when we are struggling, do we lash out at others? Are our lives exhibiting the fruits of the Holy Spirit – love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self – control? Or are we bearing some other kind of fruit?

Galatians 5:19 – 21 states, “The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity, and debauchery; idolatry and sorcery; hatred, discord, jealousy, and rage; rivalries, divisions, factions, and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.”

What has mastered you? If your Master is Jesus Christ, well and good! In Jesus there is peace and joy and freedom. But if anything else has mastered you, whether it be food or drink or sports or even “good things” such as physical fitness – you have become a slave to that which has mastered you.

God has given us free will to choose right from wrong and good from evil. Today, let us choose to follow Him and no other.

PRAYER: Father God, help us to truly love you and to truly serve you. Forgive us for following lesser masters and for becoming slaves to them. Open our eyes to see those things that we need to reject so that we can truly follow you. In the mighty Name of King Jesus. Amen.

2 Peter 2:13 – 16 “They consider it a pleasure to carouse in broad daylight. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their deception as they feast with you. Their eyes are full of adultery; their desire for sin is never satisfied; they seduce the unstable. They are accursed children with hearts trained in greed. They have left the straight way and wandered off to follow the way of Balaam son of Beor, who loved the wages of wickedness. But he was rebuked for his transgression by a donkey, otherwise without speech, that spoke with a man’s voice and restrained the prophet’s madness.”

WHEW! Peter is really worked up! Why? Peter was writing to people who had gotten saved out of all kinds of sin and immorality. There is nothing new under the sun, and the sins we see today were all practiced in Peter’s day. Evidently, there were Christ followers who had gotten delivered from terrible practices, only to be enticed back into the same things or worse by their old friends.

One of the requirements for anyone entering a treatment program for alcohol, drugs, or other obsessive behaviors is to attend 90 meetings in 90 days. Why is the 90 day rule important? Studies have shown that the first 90 days of recovery are the most important for preventing relapse. Research published in the Psychology of Addictive Behaviors found that the risk for relapse was at the highest rate during the first three months. A second requrirement, at least with Alcoholics Anonymous, is that each recovering alcoholic have a sponsor, someone they can call on when they are having a rough time and are tempted to take a drink. These sponsors are people who are recovering alcoholics themselves, so they understand the temptations. Repentance means to make a total change in direction; otherwise, a person can fall back into the same sins or even worse.

Now, who was Balaam and why was Peter referring to him and what’s with the reference to the donkey? The story is found in Numbers 22 -24. By this point, the Children of Israel had left Egypt and were now on the plains of Moab across the Jordan River from Jericho. Balak, the King of Moab, was terrified of the way the Israelites had already destroyed other powerful nations, and he decided to enlist spiritual help.

Balak sent a delegation to Balaam, who had a reputation for divination and for successfully blessing and cursing people. Even though Balaam was obviously a pagan, he still had conversations with God, and that night God told Balaam to leave the Israelites alone because He had already blessed them. The King of Moab kept sending delegations making to Balaam, promising incredible wealth. Finally, Balaam agreed to travel to Moab, but God was angry because He had already told Balaam not to go. (God actually told Balaam he could go but Balaam was to strictly follow God’s orders.)

As Balaam was riding his donkey, the angel of the Lord confronted them three times. The donkey could see the angel but Balaam could not. Finally when the donkey laid down and refused to go any further, Balaam beat the donkey. At that point, God allowed the donkey to speak and the donkey asked Balaam why Balaam was beating him, since the donkey had never failed to obey Balaam before. Suddenly Balaam saw the angel, who warned him to ONLY speak what God wanted him to.

Balaam pronounced blessings over the Israelites but later got the local women to involve them in orgies of sex and drinking. Obviously, these actions were NOT what God had told Balaam to do, and ultimately, Balaam was killed for his disobedience.

Balaam’s story has several morals. 1. When God tells you to stay home, stay home! If Balaam had stayed home, he would have lived a lot longer. 2. God will do anything necessary to get someone’s attention, even allowing a donkey to speak. 3. Don’t make an ass of yourself! Listen to God!

PRAYER: Father God, please help us to follow hard after you all the days of our lives. Help us to have humble hearts and to obey you and not to argue with you. Give us fellow believers who will help encourage us as we also encourage them. In the mighty and precious Name of King Jesus. Amen.