Thief!
Pastor Jim Kilby • June 26, 2024
If you have two good hands, a strong back, and are able to work, is it stealing if you sit at home and draw welfare? It is if there is work available and you won't do it. As Christians, we are to work for what we get--to earn enough to feed ourselves, our families (if we have them), and even to have some left over for those who are in need around us. This week I ran into a beggar who looked stronger and more able to work than I am. Although I did go ahead and give him some money, I also took a few moments to talk to him about the Lord. When he told me he knew Jesus personally, I took the opportunity to exhort him to get a job! It was actually a pretty interesting conversation, because I could see in his eyes that he knew I was right. Be generous, be hard working, and be ready to tell people the truth (in love) when they need to hear it.
"He who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with his own hands, that he may have something to share with those in need." Ephesians 4:28
Pastor Jim Kilby
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Have you seen any of the newspaper and magazine headlines that claim that Christians must be "dumb" or just "idiots" because we actually believe in crazy things like the virgin birth of Jesus, a literal interpretation of the Bible, that Adam and Eve were REAL people, etc? Well if you haven't, I must admit you're not paying attention, but either way I'm proud to be called an idiot if that's what pleases them. All their worldly intelligence and "proof" that God is a myth will be piled on their heads before they know it. May God have mercy and show them the wonders of His Truth as well. "For it is written: 'I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.' Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe." 1 Corinthians 1:19-21 Pastor Jim Kilby Your donation spreads good news! www.harvestyouth.org/donate
Today's pop culture will often try to persuade us that God loves and accepts everyone. The notion that God will eventually accept all people regardless of their deeds, their beliefs or their faith in Him is ridiculous even on its surface. Who of us would believe that God would embrace Adolph Hitler or Sadaam Hussein? But what we forget is that we are all wicked inside and capable of equally terrible evil. Without Christ as a redeemer we are also all facing the same consequence--total separation from God forever. And even this is not God's fault. Those who face these consequences do so because of their own rejection of God, not because of His rejection of them. "They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness." 2 Thessalonians 2:10b-12 Pastor Jim Kilby Your donation spreads good news! www.harvestyouth.org/donate
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