One night a thief broke into a house he thought was abandoned. As he walked then the darkened house with a flashlight he heard a voice from the kitchen that said, “Jesus is watching you.’ He stopped and said, “who’s there?” There was no answer so he thought he must have imagined it. But after he took a few more steps, the voice said again, “Jesus is watching you.” He decided to walk toward the voice, just before he entered the kitchen, he heard it again, “Jesus is watching you.” He swung the flashlight up and saw a parrot talking in a cage. The parrot said, Jesus is watching you.” The their turned flipped on the kitchen light and said, “Why you’re just a dumb bird.” The he looked in the corner of the room and seen a huge Rottweiler couching. And the parrot said “Get him Jesus.”
You might think it’s strange that Jesus would compare Himself to a thief. Of course, Jesus isn’t identifying with the sin of stealing. But just a good thief (that’s a oxymoron).that tries to sneak in quickly and quietly and escape with His people. That’s an accurate description of how Jesus will rapture His church.
We should all be living as if Jesus was crucified yesterday; raised from the dead this morning, and is coming back this afternoon.
1 Thessalonians 5: 1-4 tells us, “But concerning the times and the seasons, you have no need that anything be written to you. For you yourselves know that the day of the Lord comes like a thief in the night. For when they are saying, “Peace and safety,” then sudden destruction will come to then, like birth pains on a pregnant woman; and they will in no way escape.
We should know these 4 things
1. Jesus will return, But we don’t know the exact day.
Can you imagine a thief sending you a text or email saying, “Just wanted to know that I’m coming to rob your house tonight.” Of course not. Thief’s don’t announce when they’re coming. They sneak in and out.
When I was growing up my Dad used to do military funerals when a soldier or veteran would pass away. My father would keep all the guns in his closet. One night when no one was home the house was broken into and all the M16 rifles were stolen. He was very upset because they trusted him with these rifles. For a long time there would be someone home, or a neighbor would be watching the house.
Jesus told us to keep watch, because you don’t know on what day the Lord will come. We need to understand, if the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and not let the house be broken into. So we must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you don’t expect him (Matthew 24:42-44),
There have been times throughout history when many people expected Jesus to return. We use the Gregorian calendar now, but when the Julian calendar turned from year 999 to the year 1000, people expected Jesus to come for a new millennium, the same was true in the year 2000. People were on their best behavior, In the year 1000 history says that worldly goods were sold and money was given to the poor. Prisoners were set free, and many traveled to Israel to wait for Jesus’s return,
In the second and third chapter of Revelation, Jesus gives messages to the 7 churches, which represent all churches of all time. When He wrote to the church at Philadelphia, He says, “Since you have kept my command to endure patiently, I also will keep you from the hour of trial that is going to come upon the whole world to test those who live on the earth” (Revelation3:10).
In Luke 17 Jesus compares His return to a couple of Old Testament events. “Just as it was in the days of Noah, so also will it be in the days of the Son of Man. People were eating, drinking, marrying and being given in marriage up to the dat Noah entered the ark. Then the flood cane and destroyed them all. It was the same in the days of Lot. People were eating, drinking, buying and selling, planting and building. But the day Lot left Sodom, fire and suffer rained down from heaven and destroyed them all. It will be just like this on the day the Son Of Man is revealed (Luke 17:26-30).
Small-talk bores me. I used to think small talk had a secret rulebook that everyone had but me. You smile, you ask, you answer, you repeat. Then I feel my attention drift after a few minutes. My mind would start scanning the room looking for a deeper topic.
Ever since I can remember I have always had a desire for deeper connections. Because of my social anxiety growing up, I shied away from people, I was taught everyone judged me, so I better keep my mouth shut.
As a result I my focus has become choosing authentic deep conversations over the constant exhausting content of small talk. While I know some small talk is vital, I don’t like to just banter words back and forth and get nowhere.
We all need help making choices. The best help I know is found in God.
Deuteronomy 30:19 tells us, “choose life that both you and your descendants may live.”
Joshua 24:15 says, “choose for yourselves this day who you will serve, but as for me and my house we will serve the Lord.”
Adam and Eve had a choice. Noah had a choice. Zacharias had a choice and Paul had a choice.
Don’t let evil convince you that you don’t have the power to choose. God gave us power to choose.
Has anyone ever made a bad choice? I know I sure have, quite a few in fact. All throughout history, there are accounts of bad decisions.
Sam Phillips sold the small recording company called Sun Records in1955 for $35,000. It included an inclusive contract with Elvis Presley. He unknowingly forfeited millions of dollars in royalties.
Tom Selleck turned down the lead role for Indiana Jones.
A thief in America tried to steal two live lobsters, and he decided to stick him down his pants.
All bad decisions. The key to making wise decisions is listening to God.
In the wise words from Solomon in Proverbs 2, if you want better insight and discernment, learn the importance for reverence for the Lord and of trusting Him. He shows how to distinguish right from wrong and hoe to find the right decision.
If you want to make better decision decisions, listen to God.
There are some practical ways I’ve found to test a decision.
The Test: does it line up with the Word of God?
In life, you have to decide what’s going to be the thing you base your life on – what’s going to be your ultimate authority for what you do. You either base your decisions on God’s Word or on what society values.
If you base your life on what the popular opinion of the day is. Things are constantly changing. There is no solid foundation for society is doing at any given time, it’s always on the move.
On the other hand if you face your life on God’s Word, the truth never changes. Truth I’d always truth. If God says something was wrong 5,000 years ago, or today it is still wrong today. I don’t care what the popular opinion poll says. I don’t care about political correctness says, I don’t really care what is pushed on us from the main stream media. If God says it’s wrong it’s wrong. We have a choice to build our life on shaky constantly changing foundation or we can build our life on what God says which never changes and gives us a solid foundation while everything else is up in the air.
If we reject, disobey, or ignore God’s principles we are the ones who get hurt.
The oldest temptation in the book is to doubt God’s Word. Whenever we find something in the Bible we don’t like, think it’s restrictive, outdated, or old-fashioned we start to doubt God. “Did God really say, did God really mean.” Anytime we begin to question the Bible we fall into the oldest trap in the world. It’s Satan’s original temptation, the one he used on Adam and Eve.
So when making a decision the first test is, what does God say about it in His Word.
2. The integrity test: Would I want everyone to know about this decision I am making?
If you were making a decision and you worry about what others will think about it then it’s probably a good indication that it’s not the right decision to make. Bad decision is always lead to secrets, and those kind of secrets will lead to pain in our lives.
Proverbs 10:9 tells us “The man of integrity walks securely but he who takes crooked paths will be found out.”
Noticed it doesn’t say might be found out or even if there is a high probability of being found out. It says you will be found out..
When making decisions we have to have integrity.
We’ve all been there. We’re about to make a bad choice we know is wrong and it’s a choice we shouldn’t make, but think no one will find out. I’m we make that decision and start thinking someone’s going to find out and feel the fear that comes from that. That’s when we know we’ve violated the integrity test.
It always helps me to remember Luke 8:17, “For nothing is secret that will not be revealed, and anything hidden that will not be known and come to light.”
The test of integrity is that your public life and your private life match. What’s in your heart and what’s in your life are the same thing. The truth is when it comes to integrity, even if you fool everyone else, you can’t fool yourself or God. If you violate your conscious, you have to pay for that.
James 4:17 says, “To him who knows to do good and does not do it, to Him it is sin.”
There are times I have thought, “I know I’m about to do something wrong, and it has entered my brain, “Even though it’s wrong I’ll do it and God will forgive me.”
The problem with that is God isn’t stupid. If we think we can go ahead and do something that He says is wrong and there won’t be any consequences, we are fooling ourselves. That’s the reason God doesn’t want us to make that decision. There are consequences to every decision we make, and every bad decision always leaves scars.
The Bible says we reap what we sow.
That’s how it is in life. The truth of God does forgive us for all the wrong things we do. But that forgiveness doesn’t free us from the pain and consequences that come from our bad decisions.
When we think about things that we know are wrong, it’s easier than the gray areas. How do you decide what those gray areas are. When in doubt, it’s a violation of the integrity test.
3. The improvement test:
Will this decision make me a better person?
1 Corinthians 10:23 tells us, “All things are lawful for me, but not all things are profitable. All things are lawful for Mr, but not all things build up.”
Paul is saying here that some things are not necessarily wrong they are just not necessary. They’re not essential. It’s not a case of good or bad but rather a matter between what’s good and what’s the best. Many choices we make in life are not a case of good versus evil. Most of us don’t get up in the morning and say I will read my Bible or I will become an international terrorist.
The issue is what’s really best for our life. A lot of things are not necessary, they are morally neutral, but they are not necessary. We need to have a higher standard and ask what am I doing to make myself a better person. that’s the improvement test
Many activities in life are morally neutral. They are not right or wrong. It’s just that they are not helpful. They are unnecessary. The question isn’t, is there anything wrong with it? The question is, is it making me a better person?
4. The independence test:
Could it become addicting to me or could it begin to control or dominate my life?
No matter how appealing something is or how cool it seems or how much fun you’ll have -if it starts to dominate your life or control it it’s a bad decision. No matter how popular or something is, no matter how good something is or someone else if it dominates our life, it becomes addictive to us.
Don’t let anything on earth dominate your life.
This is important because whatever dominates your life becomes your God. The first commandment is “You will have no other God before Me.” God knew how easy it is to become addicted to our idols. We think idols are those little stone statues that people put on the shelf and worship. We have idols today. There are a lot of things we can become addicted to. Work, sex, money, or even the Internet can become idols.
Psychologist Stanton Peele named over 2000 classified addictions. But we can become addicted to almost anything. Soda, chocolate, anything that takes over our life.
Ask yourself “What do I think about most? What is it when you’re alone, when you’re relaxed, and find yourself thinking about it again and again? It’s a hard thing to admit, the things that dominate our lives. It’s hard to be honest with ourselves. Are you going to let that control your life?
Only Jesus should have that kind of place in our lives. He’s the only one worthy of that place in our lives. Anything else we put in that place will eventually dominate, control, and ruin our lives.
5. The influence test:
Will my choice harm other people?
One of the biggest mistakes in our life is we forget how much our actions will influence and effect other people every day. We are tempted to make decisions that may be the best thing for us that could have devastating effect on the people around us. We need to ask ourselves will it harm other people? Will it be a stumbling block?
Culture is good at causing us to only think about ourselves -what we need, or what we desire, no one else matters. the truth of it is God expects us to think more about this ourselves. The Bible says one day we will have to stand before God and give Him account on how our decisions affected others. God takes this very seriously.
Romans 14:12-13 says, “So then each one of us will give account of Himself to God. Try to live in such a way that you will never make another stumble by letting him see you doing something he thinks is wrong.
I remember one time I seen some people from church at a birthday party at a bar, I had a soda in front of me, and I immediately thought, “I bet they think Im drinking alcohol. Since then I have not walked into a bar for any reason. I was not in the right by choosing to go to a party at a bar. I could have went to the person’s house and visited them. I may have caused them to stumble.
Whether we like it or not, people are watching. There is no such thing, as it will only affect me. Everything we do has an effect on others either directly or indirectly.
The influence question is whether what I am doing, going to hurt someone else. We should be interested in how we live because we are influencing other people. People are watching, whether we like it or not. We can’t just live our lives where we want to. We have to be aware of our effects on other people. We bear the burden of being considerate of the doubt and fears of others.
Mature people limit their freedom for the benefit of others. Immature people don’t. In situations where there are gray areas we have to ask ourselves. Will it affect others.
6. The investment test:
Is it the best use of my life or time?
Ephesians 5:15-17 tells us to be careful how we live. Don’t live like those who are not wise. Live wisely. Because we are living in evil times. Don’t be foolish with your lives. Learn what God wants you to do.
If you want your life account, if you want to make the best of your life, if you want to make an impact, you’ve got to do one thing. You’ve got to control your time. Your time is your life.
Every one of us has been given the same amount of time each week -168 hours. Time is the one thing in life we cannot get more of. We can get more money, or possessions, but we only have a certain amount of time and once we waste it, we can’t get it back.If you waste you time p, you waste your life. Ask yourself is this the best use of my time.
We need to make decisions with a purpose. If not, you don’t have a basis for your decisions.
Affect people figure out what is essential in life and what’s trivial in my or they spend more of their time doing their essential things and less time doing the trivial things. We can’t eliminate all the trivia in our lives, but we can reduce it. It sounds easy, but it isn’t. Too often it is difficult to choose between what’s best for our lives and what’s easiest for our lives. It’s not an easy thing to choose.
When we’re tired, then we don’t want to do the best thing. We want to do what’s easy. We don’t want to do what’s right, we want to do what’s comfortable. That’s why if we’re going to make something of our lives we have to learn to get some rest. If we’re not rested, we’re tired, and if we’re tired, we do not have the mental, emotional, physical, or spiritual ability to say, “I’m going to do the right thing instead of the easiest.
Don’t go through life just existing, coping, or getting by. We were not put on this just to get by. God made us for a purpose. And it starts by asking the question is this the best use of my life?
I would say my favorite drink is coffee. It doesn’t matter if it’s hot or iced coffee I like it, as long as it’s not decaffeinated.
There’s a coffee, personality chart I came across onetime that I found interesting. I had no idea there was psychology behind the type of coffee we drink.
I choose to be around positive people. We become who we are around most in our inner circle because it boosts our moods, gives us self-esteem, and motivation especially during difficult times.
It’s important to evaluate your circle once and a while and decide whether they bring us energy or drain it. And identify those who offer genuine support rather than criticism. Then we can limit the time we spend with the negative or toxic ones who hinder us. Being around positive people encourages us to reach our highest potential.
“God has done what the law weakened by the flesh, could not do” -Romans 8:3
How do people change? How do you and I really change? We all need to. If God is who He says He is -and He is – and if we are who He says we are -and we are – then we need to change. But how? There are two approaches to change law and grace.
The 10 Commandments, and all His commandments in the Bible are God’s Law. Romans 7:12 us, “The Law indeed is holy, and the commandments holy, and righteous and good.” What if for just one day everyone on earth obeyed the 10 Commandments? It would go down in history as a great day. The problem is not the Law but what the Apostle Paul calls “the flesh,” I think Paul wants us to notice that even the Law of God is weakened in its practical sense. It tells us right and wrong, but it doesn’t change us. It only condemns us. If logic and rules cannot actively help us overcome our natural weaknesses and passions, the reason only serves to make us aware of our foolishness, rather than helping us improve. This comes from Alexander Pope’s “An Essay on Man.”
Law is not only the commandments of God in the Bible. If only the Law is within us, it becomes an accusing voice inside of us. We accuse ourselves and others. If we learned God’s law as a Religious law, we might have heard “Do this and you’ll be superior” such as wear this. Follow the rules and God will like you. Conform to us, and we will accept you.” Neither the Law of God nor the law of man can change our hearts.
So what is the mechanism for change? The grade of God changes us. The grace of God does not say, “I love you just the way you are.” It says, “I love you for the way Jesus is. I love you enough not to leave you the way you are. I will imprint Jesus on your heart.” Grace succeeds, because it works with two unstoppable powers -the power of acceptance, and the power of the Holy Spirit. This is God at work. Grace is God giving Himself to us wholeheartedly and calling us to trust Him. Grace works because it’s how we change. When we face what we are and hand ourselves over to the grace of God because He knows what we are and still handles us with compassion.
I don’t think our problem is God’s Law, our problem is flesh. The Law is powerless to do what it is meant to do because it is weakened by our sinful nature. Our flesh keeps us stuck because we don’t think it’s sinful. So we need to watch out for our sinful nature. We won’t understand ourselves until we notice the real enemy within. We never know how much we need God, until we notice this.
It’s pretty easy to think we’re the “good guys” Who are working on a few problems and end up as shallow believers, that only rearrange the surface things in our lives. With Law and grace, we can go deeper into a relationship with God.
How can we obey the Law of God if the power inside of us decides that we’re going to want other things? It’s like trying to jump out of a joke that has no bottom.
Paul calls “the flesh” our moral, and emotional subculture under everything else about us. It’s the mediocracy we settle for -the defeated selves that we are, socially acceptable with. Our flesh is our natural moral condition. It’s both virtues and virtues, our capacity for evil and good. It’s something we need to work on every day to reach our potential.
With God’s help, we can abondon our flesh and take new steps according to the Holy Spirit we can change in ways that surprise us.
I don’t have any favorites, I wear casual sandals in the summer, ankle boots and knee boots in the fall, and winter and dress sandals when I dress up. It basically depends on the situation and the weather. As long as I can wear them because they don’t hurt my feet.
We live in a world that never stops talking. Notifications buzz, opinions shout, and everyone seems to have something to say about who we should be, what we should believe, and how we should live. In all that noise, living out our faith can feel less like a declaration and more like a quiet struggle.
The Bible remind us that this noise isn’t anything new. In 1 Kings 19, Elijah doesn’t encounter God in the wind, the earthquake, or the fire, but in a gentle whisper. God often speaks softly, which means we have to be intentional about listening.
Living our faith in a noisy don’t world starts with creating space or quiet. This doesn’t require a perfect routine or even long hours of prayer. It can look like starting the day with a few minutes in scripture, or taking a short pause to pray before reacting. These small moments can re-center our hearts when everything else distractions our attention.
It also means living differently, not loudly. Jesus didn’t compete with the noise of His culture -embodied truth through love, humility, and consistent obedience. Our faith show most clearly in not what we argue about, but how we treat people, handle stress, forgive, freely, and choose integrity when no one is watching.
Our faith in a noisy world requotes trust. Trust that God’s voice guides us, and that faithfulness matters even when it’s unseen, and that quiet obedience can have a lasting impact. In a culture obsessed with volume and visibility, choosing a steady faithful walk with God is a powerful act of worship.
Sometimes the most faithful thing we can do is turn down the noise and listen.
The greatest gift I have ever received was God’s forgiveness because He died for me. It’s a gift that never fades or breaks.
The greatest gift I have ever received that I can physically touch is my children. It was a profound, God-given experience, and the spiritual, emotional, and physical transformation I’ve ever had.
“Don’t give that which is Holy to the dogs, neither throw your pearls before the pigs, lest perhaps they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces” Matthew 7:6
This is from Jesus’s sermon on the Mount. It warns against sharing valuable, sacred, or deeply meaningful knowledge with those who cannot appreciate or understand it. As such efforts are futile, and the recipient may disregard, ridicule, or react with hostility, trampling the message and tearing the giver.
Jesus advises us against wasting spiritual truths (pearls) on inreceptive, antagonistic, or disrespectful people (swine).
Pearls represent wisdom, valuable spiritual truths, or the gospel. And swine represent individuals who are not only incapable of appreciating the value but are also destructive to it.
It is a call for discernment, advising that while sharing truth is important, it should not be forced upon those who are actively hostile to it. It is closely related to the idea of not being a judgmental hypocrite.
The modern application of this can be described as not wasting time, effort, or resources such as advice, love, and trust on people who do not value them.
I admit I used to be horrible at budgeting my money. But over the years I’ve learned a few things. Every 2 weeks I sit down and make a budget. The first thing on my list is tithing -giving God His share. The Bible tells us that all gold and silver belong to Him. We are considered stewards, not owners, entrusted to manage these resources. When we give tithes and offerings blessings will come to us. Then the bills, food come out, the car payment, and gas as budgeted in. After that if there is any money left that’s money for me to spend on myself.
I wish they would teach finance in high school, it would lead students down a good path to enrich their lives.
It’s common for people to focus on Jesus standing in place of our punishment. The Bible talks about the substitution, but there are others. Jesus created a tapestry on the cross that we often miss, because we focus on one part of the cross and Jesus.
These are all mentioned in the Bible. They are facets of the atonement and they all fit together.
1. Substitution
Jesus stands in our place, so that as Martin Luther King put it the “Great Exchange,” we gain His righteousness while He takes our sin. This is our cross to bear, our rightful death, and He takes it instead of us.
Jesus died so we don’t have to, even though our sin causes death. This is found in Isaiah 53:6, 1 Peter 2:24, and 2 Corinthians 5:21
2. Propitiation
This is often lumped together with substitution but it’s a distinctly different thing. It means the turning aside of wrath. Jesus’s death turns aside the wrath of God so that His anger is not poured out at those who trust in Jesus’s death.
Therefore, God’s wrath is not poured out against any of us who believe even though He is just and we deserve it. This is found in Romans 3:35, 1 John 4:10.
3. Expiation
Jesus cleanses our filth so that our sin is taken far away from us. If we think of the second goat (the scapegoat) on the “Day of Atonement” or Yom Kippur who is sent out into the wilderness to be eaten by goat demons. He is identified with the people’s sin and cast out of the camp with their uncleanliness on him. Jesus cleanses us not just from the penalty of sin but from its pollution, sending it far away.
Even though of sins make us filthy, Jesus cleanses us. This is found in 1 John 1:7, Leviticus 16.
4. Ransom
Jesus paid the price for our sin. He paid the price to the Father.
We are free from the price of our sin. This is found in Matthew 20:28, Colossians 2:14.
5. Redemption
Some church teachers or preachers use the example of redemption using slave markets and say that being redeemed is like being bought from slavery. I think this is half right, but the referent can be wrong. If we look at Exodus. God didn’t buy Pharaoh off, He crushed Him under the weight of the Red Sea. Jesus forcibly brings us from the oppression of this world’s snake-king into a promised land.
We are set free from our bondage to sin. This is the narrative of the whole Bible. Read Galatians 3:13, and Exodus 6:6.
6. Reconciliation
This is the classic “bridge to life” analogy. If we follow Jesus, we are no longer enemies of God but we are at peace. Our warfare with heaven has ended. And more than that we are given the greatest love, the love of the age to come. Jesus declares us as friends.
We can have a relationship with God despite our sin. This is found in 2 Corinthians 5:18, John 15.
7. Sacrifice
The Cross acts like the Levitical sacrifice of Purification, Ascension, and the Peace Offering. We are made Holy, our sin is covered, and we are lifted to the heavens, and a table is laid in the Lord’s Supper with the meat of the sacrifice.
Jesus takes us to the Father and feeds us a meal. This is found in Hebrews 9:13-14, and Leviticus.
8. Recapitulation
This is the climax of the Cross. The Resurrection, Ascension and the Gift of the Holy Spirit. Jesus consciously re-done Adam’s failure at the tree in the Garden, and being spiritually killed on wisdoms tree so that we will have access to the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
9. Demonstration
Jesus’s death is a demonstration of God’s justice. This is found in Romans 3:24-25, Romans 5:8, 1 Corinthians 1:22-25, and 1 Timothy 1:15-16. It is in the death of Jesus, that we discover who God is.
10. Example
Jesus’s death is an example of how we are supposed to live, self-forgetfully and self-sacrificially. Because some people have taught that Jesus’s death was only an example, others scoff at it. But, it’s a Biblical idea, ad we look at God dying for us, we can learn who God is and who we can turn to.
We are called to live like Jesus. 1 John 3:16, 1 Peter 2:21.
11. Victory
Jesus conquered death. Death is dead in the death of the living. He has wrestled the keys of hell from the enemy’s cold hands and now rules over death. Satan, sin, and death died on the Cross and Jesus won.
Satan was defeated in the way Zechariah 3:1-4 described it. The true accusations of the accuser are made to be false because Jesus stood in our place on the Cross. Found in Colossians 2:15, Genesis 3:15.
12. The Gift
The Cross was not required by the laws of God had set to govern the universe. No one forced Him to do it. Jesus chose to freely offer Himself in our place. He hung in the air, arms wide outstretched to embrace the world. Found in Isaiah 53:10, Galatians 2:20
God loves us. And that’s good news.
“My life is but a weaving Between God and me. I cannot choose the colors He weaves steadily. Oftentimes times He weaves sorrow. And in my foolish pride forget He sees the upper and I the underside. Not until the loom is silent and the shuttles cease to fly will God unroll the canvas and reveal the reason why” -Life is but a weaving by Corrie Ten Boom.
Where we only see the messy underside God sees the beautiful finished pattern on the top.
From Pity to Praise 