“Whoever claims to abide in Him must walk as Jesus walked.” – 1 John 2:6

If you’ve ever seen a newborn horse or deer try to walk, it’s a funny but heartwarming sight. It’s almost like they are trying to find their legs for the first time. Little children are much the same in that when they learn to walk, it’s a bunch of trial and error at the beginning. After a while, walking gets to be easier. It’s all about practice and confidence. They see someone else walk and think, “Well enough of this crawling around stuff, I want to walk too.” It doesn’t matter how silly it looks at the beginning, it is worth the trials and errors just to be able to walk.

There’s a lot of comparison to a little child learning to walk and a person becoming a Christian. First off, the unbeliever sees a Christian and decides whether or not to walk with Jesus. Just like in everything in life, the first step is the most critical. If we as Christians claim to have faith but we only act like Christians on Sundays, then we will drive people away from Jesus through our own lack of walking in God’s Spirit. We are members of Christ’s earthly ministry and need to walk as such. People might hear what you say, but they will definitely remember how you lived.

Secondly, as a new believer comes up in the faith, they are immediately bombarded by people all around that see the difference in them. All the slings and arrows you could imagine come at them, and many of them from their own friends and family. Remember to take this in stride, because it is hard for people to deal with such a change. When you start your walk with Christ and get closer to Him, your life can’t help but be different than what it was. The unsaved person that you used to be wouldn’t even recognize the new Christian you. “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!” – 2 Corinthians 5:17

Lastly, no matter how much confidence or practice you have in being a Christian, you will occasionally fall down. That’s OK as long as you don’t ever give up. Jesus isn’t just for one time, He’s for all times. Just like a good parent helping their children, God our Heavenly Father sees us occasionally struggle in our walk and He promises to always be there, no matter what we do, to pick us up and set us right again. The slippery slopes in life are made into a stable footpath thanks to the blood of Jesus.

One thing that deserves a note, realize that new believers are just that, new believers. They have just spent most of their lives crawling through life, sometimes literally crawling out of bars and even crack houses. They have come to realize that there is a better way to live and that is why they needed Jesus. Their walk might not yet be as stable as yours or mine, so don’t laugh at them or tear them down with your words and actions just because they are still trying to find their “spiritual legs.” Instead, use your words to build them up and confirm them in the things they get right.

The Bible says that the Gospel looks like foolishness to some people. Just because my walk seems a bit silly to you doesn’t mean it’s not the best one I’ve got at the moment. I’m trying and getting better every day. In the end, I won’t be crawling around wondering where I went wrong. Thanks to Jesus Christ, I will be able to walk boldly through the gates of Heaven to hear my Father’s voice saying, “Well done.”
 

God’s blessings to you. 
DH

“As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one.” – Romans 3:10

 

Right now, in the United States and all over the world, people are waging wars against their fellow human beings just because they are from a different country or they have different colored skin. Such factors as where you are from or what language you speak can influence somebody enough to make them want to cause you physical harm. That is not what God ever intended.

 

If you think that you are better than someone else, think again. We are all children of the same God. We all have the same ingrained desire to love and to have purpose. We all bleed the same color of blood. However, that blood gets spilled every day somewhere in the world because two people can’t see eye to eye. Whether it’s due to low self esteem or whatever the reason is, humans have a nasty tendency to point out faults in others just to make themselves feel better or to allow themselves some sort of higher society status.

 

In Luke, Chapter 18, Jesus told a story about two people who went to the temple to pray. One was a religious leader and another was a tax collector. The religious leader said, “Thanks God for not letting me be like other men.” He then went on talking about how other people were so bad and how he gives so much to the church, all in the interest of making himself feel like such a big deal. Oh, how important he thought he was to God.

 

However, in the temple was the other man, the tax collector, who was despised for his corruption and wicked ways. That man started crying and beating his chest in sorrow, saying, “God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” He wouldn’t even look up to Heaven because of how repentant he was for his actions.

 

So, who do you think was saved? Here’s a hint, it wasn’t the guy who thought he was all high and mighty. Granted, everyone wants to feel good about themselves, and they should. So should you, but we all need to recognize that we have a long way to go until we are free of our unrighteousness. Through the precious blood of Jesus Christ, we are cleansed of our sins. All of our wrongs are forgiven, but that doesn’t mean that we are immune to the temptations any longer, we just aren’t a subject to them anymore. We still have those bad thoughts that invade us now and again. We still find ourselves fighting against the weakness of the flesh. And that isn’t just a person of one nationality or one race; that is everyone. We all need the same help no matter who you are.

 

The best approach to life and our dealings with our fellow human is to see the best in others and to see the worst in ourselves. We are all sinners who are in need of saving. Just because I am from a different social standing doesn’t mean that God loves me any more than you. There are no political party lines drawn in Heaven. In the end, when time gives way to eternity, you and I will be in Heaven or Hell, period. There is no getting around that and it didn’t have anything to do with what side of the railroad tracks you lived on while you were on Earth. It has everything to do with the love of God. That makes all the difference. It’s not earned and it’s not because we are a certain color or race. God loves us because we are all His children.

 

Next time you are tempted to think poorly of someone for a mistake they made or something that they were born with and had no control over, please think about Jesus. Our Lord didn’t hang on the cross and point at a select few people in the crowd that He was dying for, He was crucified for everyone. Our job is to accept what He did and to realize that we are all sinners in need of His saving grace. John 6:37 is comforting in that Jesus says “he that comes to me I will in no wise cast out.” That was a promise given with no certain stipulations or other fine print. Again we read about that in Romans 10:13, “ For whosoever shall call on the Lord will be saved.”

 

God sacrificed His only Son on a cross for us. Until we all put aside our differences and accept that Holy sacrifice, we shall continue to sacrifice ourselves and our children on the battlefield until there’s nothing left.

 

God’s blessings to you.

DH

“God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.” – Psalm 46:1

It’s hard to understand, but God “feels” for us during our trials. He knows us inside and out. He knows our pain and our frustrations, but take heart. God says that we are not alone in our trials. When we accept Christ, He lives in us and through us. His Holy Spirit is with us as our comforter and He is a comforter like no other.

In order to be a good comfort in the midst of a struggle, you must be familiar with those struggles. To help deal with a friend’s pain effectively, you must be familiar with the pain. Take comfort that our Savior is no stranger to pain. The bible says he was tempted in all ways and that He bore our sins on the cross. When His friend Lazarus died, Jesus wept even though He knew what would happen next. He went through all of the pain because of what waited on the other side of that pain. And in all things, He kept looking up and praising the Father.

Before breaking bread and handing it out to the multitudes, He looked up and thanked His Father in Heaven. Jesus blessed the bread through His praise. We need to truly understand that. Our struggles will bend us and sometimes break us, but the bible says in ALL things give thanks to God. If we foster a habit of constant praise, no matter the situation, we will be blessed far beyond what we could imagine. The bread was blessed and then became a blessing to many. The bread fulfilled its ultimate purpose because of it breaking, not in spite of it. Jesus will bless us through our trials so that when we come out of them, those trials will in turn make us into the blessing that many others need to help them through their own trials. God likes to use the ordinary to do the extraordinary.

So this day and every day, no matter the situation, we need to give praise to God our Father. We need to come to Him even when we don’t feel like it. Smile up at God because He’s smiling down on us. Take comfort that He is here with us and has something wonderful in store for us. It may be a rough road for us now and then, but Christ is there to offer His love and His comfort to us and through us.

“And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain.” – Revelation 21:4

God’s blessings to you. 

DH

“God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” – James 4:6

We went to the zoo a little while ago and saw many animals, but one of them that stood out were the peacocks. They walked around with their beautiful feathers fanned out, almost with an air of arrogance about them. Just then, I saw a teenage boy parading around and showing off for his girlfriend. Now, I don’t think for a second that we are descended from apes or anything, but that situation made me think that the teenage boy might have been born from a peacock.

Many times in scripture we see God being angry with people for thinking they are high and mighty. God is just like any good parent and wants His children to know the value of staying humble. I know that there has been times in my own life that God taught me humility, and those were lessons that I won’t soon forget. Humility brings about peace and kindness, because you realize that we are all on the same level as brothers and sisters in God’s holy family. We all deserve love.

Only God deserves the top spot in our lives and as soon as we think that we’ve somehow earned that spot ourselves, we are headed for disaster. It’s ok to acknowledge that you have certain gifts and be happy about them. Some people are good artists or singers. Some are good at sports. I’m a good preacher. That’s not pride or arrogance talking, that is simply an acknowledgement of a gift of the Holy Spirit. The problems come when you start thinking that your skills and talents came from anything you did in and of yourself. Your blessings are just that, blessings. The Bible doesn’t say that I can do all things just because I’m Daniel Harlow and I’m awesome. It says that I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. No Christ equals no strength.

My mom used to tell me not to get ‘too big for my britches’. I like the old time country way of putting things into simple terms. That is much like the Apostle Peter wrote, “Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time” (1 Peter 5:6) God is not impressed with your stylish cars or clothes. Not once have I ever thought that I’d rather have a fancy movie star as a daughter rather than my own girls that love me deeply. God loves you and you are important to Him just the way you are. You have no need for a Rolex in Heaven. You came into this world naked and you’ll leave just the same. The Revered Billy Graham put it best when he said, “I’ve never seen a hearse with a U-Haul trailer.”

Sometimes it’s the simplest things in life that really bring you the greatest rewards. Humility is the gateway to Christ’s Kingdom and the key to our Heavenly Father’s eternal blessings. You can’t lift yourself higher than what God can lift you.
 

God’s blessings to you. 

DH