‘‘Twas The Day After Christmas

‘‘Twas the day after Christmas
And all through the village
People’s holiday refuse lined the roadside
Just waiting to be pillaged.

There’s a tv box here
 and a new recliner to boot
There’s a turkey’s cooked carcass
And plenty of fruitcake to suit

In all of the rubbish
 and trees in the trash
You’ll also find The Christmas Spirit
That was discarded so fast

If Christmas is so important
And you say that it’s true
Why isn’t this Christmas spirit carried over
Practiced all the way through

There is a reason
 and this is no lie
The real reason for Christmas
 is that Christ came to die

When you believe that reason
It also must be said
He was also buried for three days
Then rose from the dead

Believe on him with out delay
And you too will find
It’s not a Christmas Holiday
It’s actually God’s plan to mind.
- Original poem by Tim Delello
Published by Happy Day Publishing Company 12/26/17 8:22am

Lessons From The Zombie Salmon

Sometime ago I was able to go salmon fishing in Upstate NY. I was so excited when my lure had been taken by a fish. As I struggled to bring the fish to the riverbank I noticed the fight was not nearly as hard as I had envisioned. When the fish broke the water’s surface I found that I had been busy “landing” a zombie fish. I was frustrated. What I had caught was a near dead stinky white spotted fish that was of no use. It couldn’t swim upstream. It floated with the current. It couldn’t spawn. All it could do was destroy the life of the eggs that other salmon had spawned and fertilized to propagate the species for one more year. 

I’ve had my fair share of zombie Christians too. They also have no fight. They refuse to spawn spiritually. They sit around not picking the progress others are making and destroy the lives of the future of the church by devouring their zeal and enthusiasm. They aren’t involved in the church’s outreach. They don’t give faithfully. They just stick around wasting their life interfering with the hopes of fishermen lining the shore. They too stink. Everyone can tell they stink. They are very offensive. They are bitter, condescending, and full of scorning. 

The only recourse is to drag them out of the water and let them die so they do not destroy any other “eggs” or waste anyone else’s time and energy. Zombie Salmon refused to swim upstream. They took their time enjoying the river and weren’t focused on the time they had left. They got distracted by the world around them and didn’t pay attention to the changing of seasons and times. When they came to adversity they stopped swimming. Sure they are in the river but they are NO good to anyone. Not even to themselves. Nobody wants a zombie fish. Not even the bears (Satan) will eat them. They line the riverside rotting to death. Their meat is rough and nasty. They are a detriment to everyone and everything around them. 

Don’t be a zombie salmon. Keep swimming. Leave new lives alone. Stop offending. Pay attention to the seasons and times. Overcome adversity. Don’t be a distraction to those doing the work. 

Repent Of Your Sins

The only thing a person has to repent of for salvation is from anything they are trusting in for salvation other than Jesus Christ. Romans 11:6. Hebrews 6:1-2. Repentance towards God means “God is right my way is wrong” and faith towards the Lord Jesus Christ means “I am trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ and him alone” for salvation. Anything else is a work of our own self righteousness and is not of faith. It is heresy. It is putrid. Nobody has ever come to God by their conscious, by works, by the law, by religion, by the blood of animals, by sacraments, by turning over a new leaf etc. 

If you peddle any such trash you are a heretic. You are a false teacher. Your god is your belly. You are a messenger of antichrist. 

Ephesians 2:8-9

For by grace are ya saved through faith and that not of yourselves it is the gift of God not of works lest any man should boast

Titus 3:5a

not by works of righteousness that we have done 

Romans 6:23 for the wages of sin is death...(not repentance...not membership...not religion...not reform...not remorse...DEATH. )

But the gift (freely given- not earned- not bartered- not a contract based on your self righteousness or sincerity to give up the things you are convicted of or over) of God (not of me or of you or of some preacher or some religious thought or action) is eternal life (all that man contributes to is death) through Jesus Christ our Lord. (He’s the only way in. His death burial and resurrection. Anything else is a false gospel.)

Glimpse Of God's Holiness

Gazing into hell for 5 seconds would alter your thinking for mankind; gazing into heaven would revolutionize your thinking for the glory of God.

Man is worthy of hell. Man deserves to burn forever having his skin burning in an eternal unquenchable flame. We deserve to be tortured beyond measure for our iniquity and trespasses against a thrice Holy God.

And yet we whimper and whine when something on this earth seems tragic  and bring such an impugn on God's sovereignty and Justice. We claim God responsible for problems in our life when it is our sin nature and the repercussions of Adam's choice.

Peer into heaven and see as Isaiah saw- Holy God high and lifted up! We are an unclean people with unclean hearts and hands. Woe is me gets changed to Woe am I!
 When we confess our sinfulness then will he allow us to repent. When we repent then will he forgive and purify us. Then we will be able to go to the world and tell them as God has said.

I beg of you- get a glimpse of God's chief attribute- he is Holy!

He commands us to be Holy EVEN as he is Holy. Purify your hands and hearts ye double minded!

The Testimony Of The Tomb

I recently preached a sermon about the Testimony of the Resurrection. Do you realize that the gospel was first preached by the world? The enemies of Christ first preached the gospel?
1. At the cross the Roman centurion declared Jesus dead "truly this man was the Son of God". The soldier who pierced his side instead of breaking his legs also verified his death.
2. Pilate verified his death by giving Christ's body to Joseph and nicodemus to be buried. Also, the scribes bore witness of his death and burial by asking for guards to be posted at the tomb lest Christ's body be stolen.
3. When Christ arose - the soldiers were not killed. They were knocked down and out by the angel's presence and earthquake. Certain of the guards went and reported that Jesus had risen. They were given hush money and a bribe to claim that his body was stolen after the soldiers were "overpowered by fishermen" 🙄
Lastly there is the overwhelming proof of the Apostle Paul who had met the risen Lord enroute to persecute Christians- believers of the resurrection. He killed and incarcerated believers for his hobby. Something drastically changed and that was that he met the resurrected Lord.

I Tim 3:16 BELIEVED ON IN THE WORLD!

The most important fact of the gospel is that he rose again and the World/ lost were the first to believe it- even before the followers of Jesus.

I Can Take You (poetry)

I Can Take You

 

 

I can take you to Bethlehem where Jesus came

I can take you to Galilee where miracles occurred

I can take you to see the man who was lame

I can take you where Jesus spoke His Words

 

I can take you to the Mount where thousands were fed

I can take you to a house in Bethany

I can take you to a cross where my Saviour once died

I can take you to the Hill of Calvary

 

But I can’t take you to the place

 Where his body now lays

For The tomb is Empty

He is living today

 

This world may mock and ridicule

And deny his Holy name

He’ll return with power and every eye will see

That very nail-scarred thorn crowned Lamb

The Son of God who was crucified for me

 

But I can’t take you to that heavenly home

Where I’ll live eternally

On Jesus Christ you must believe

And from sin you’ll be set free

Abandoning The Empty Tomb

Recently, I came across a tract from an area Independent Fundamental Baptist Church which gave a simple plan of salvation. I won’t take the time to type it word for word but in the message it gave the word “repent” but said nothing of the death, burial, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. This sparked my thoughts about the last time I actually read a tract which shared the GOOD NEWS of the GOSPEL with the lost and dying world around us. I was amazed at this. What exactly have we done with the plan of salvation that would cause us to abandon the GOSPEL? I have seen my share of tracts which tell us that Jesus died on the cross for our sins; and he did! However, the gospel is not that he died for our sins and thus ends the story. The gospel is the death, burial and resurrection! We celebrate Easter with the reminder of the cross and Christ’s death. We will sing about a risen Saviour but we fail to preach this to the lost and dying world around us. The Apostle Paul said “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. (Romans 1:16)
“Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:” (I Corinthians 15:1-4)

So, why is it that we have neglected, forgotten, no ABANDONED the whole gospel?
1.   Focused On A List
We are so result oriented. We live by plans or schedules. Most church tracts have a 4-5 point plan for salvation. A. Admit you are a sinner. B. You can't save yourself. C. Jesus DIED for you. D. Call upon the Lord. We have turned the gospel message into a plan for salvation. Say yes to these four steps and repeat a prayer and "poof!" You have believed the gospel.  The gospel may be contained in the plan but the plan is NOT the gospel. The gospel is the plan.
2.  Familiarity Of The Lord’s History-
A recent study in England gave a statistic that only 17% of the people asked in this poll actually believed that Christ arose.
While talking to a seasoned, mature believer I asked what importance the resurrection was. He said it was a mute point and paled in comparison to the death of Christ. "Of course he rose again but it's old hat. The resurrection was a big thing back then because it had not happened before." We have become so familiar with the facts that we lose focus of its meaning. Someone once said " the meaning of the resurrection is just to prove that Christ's death was the satisfactory payment for sin."

Another article states that only 64% of American adults actually believe that Christ literally arose.

Intellectual assent teaches us that one can have a knowledge of facts and would probably get past the first round of "Bible Jeopardy" but does not indicate one believes in this important tenant of the faith.

Scripture tells us that there were at least 3 rumors or conspiracy theories regarding the resurrected Lord:
A. His body was stolen by the disciples.
B. He arose and inhabited another body (spirit possession)
C. That he didn't actually resurrect.
His resurrection is more than history. Without his resurrection he is a lunatic. He is a liar. He is not Lord.
There has been an increase of several blogs, articles, essays, and polls published in the past decade questioning the veracity of Christ's resurrection.
http://www.epm.org/resources/2010/Feb/2/why-resurrection-so-important/


        3. Forgetfulness Of The Lord’s People
Face it. We forget the importance of the resurrection. We stress the vicariouts death of Christ and his shed blood but we conveniently breeze past his burial and resurrection because it is not important to the modern day sinner. Who doesn't know that he rose again? We do not have time to teach them if they don't know because we have to finish our plan and get on to the next house. I do not intend to say that we need to give them a 10 week long bible institute class on the doctrine of Christ before they can be given an invitation to accept and believe Christ. There is simplicity in Christ for a reason. However, we should be more mindful of the gospel. Why did Christ have to die? Why did Christ have to be buried? Why did Christ have to rise again?
Are we as believers ashamed of the gospel of Christ? Is this why we have substituted it for a plan of salvation? Does believing the gospel make it easier to believe? Many denominations teach the death burial and resurrection. Does it make them right?

The resurrection is the center focus of our faith. Without his bodily resurrection we have no hope. We are yet in our sins. We are believing in vain. His words are void. He is a liar. We have no help. We have no home. Without the resurrection we have no victory over this world and over sin. Death still has a sting and the grave is final. Heaven is a myth and we are above men most miserable.
There is no newness of life. There is no Holy Spirit. There is no comfort, joy, peace, goodness and faith. Prayers are unanswered. Love is sensual and human based.
Paul wrote that desired to know the power of his resurrection and to have fellowship with Christ's sufferings being made conformable to his death.  My friend, the resurrection is more than just a historical fact. It is more than an afterthought of his death. It is the reason why we have faith today.

The gospel in it's entirety must be preached. You can keep your plan of salvation. I don't want to tip your sacred cow but by all means remember the gospel. The plan of salvation spiritualizes and boils down the gospel but eradicates the Saviour from being the center focus.

He died for our sins. He was buried and rose again for or justification. (Romans 4)
The gospel isn't a cultural phenomenon. It is the power of God unto salvation. Let us be diligent to declare the gospel as it is to men as they are.