Friday, January 29, 2010

Love Your Neighbor


And Jesus said to him, Go and do likewise.
Luke 10:37

One of the hardest things for Christians to do is to simply love their neighbor. Many of you will argue this point until your death. Many of you will make the assumption that you already love your neighbor because you watch their house while they are on vacation. You are wrong. What if one Christian exhausted the "love your neighbor" idea to the extremes that Christ was talking about? In the parable of the "Good Samaritan," true love is seen. A young man is beat almost to the point of death. Then, along comes the "Good Samaritan." The Samaritan picked up the young man. Bandaged up all of the young man's wounds. Took him to a Hampton Inn in his Lexus, put him in a room, and then gave the hostess $200 and said, "Hey, if he needs anything else- get it for him and charge it to this credit card." This is the ultimate "love your neighbor" scenario! The Samaritan did not know this guy from Adam but still sacrificed all that he could for him. This brings me to this thought: So many times we as Christians think that this only means a physical injury. However, that does not match the other thoughts of Christ. Christ always extended his love and help in all situations. What about the people you know who are struggling spiritually? Do they qualify for the same love and mercy? I guess my real question is this: are you willing to "Go and do likewise?"

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Proving God


Just this past weekend the question was posed to me: "How do you explain that God really exist?" I hate to say this, you will never fully be able to explain how God is real until you personally have experienced Him in a real manner. The only way to experience God is through Christ. Having a relationship with Him. It is the same idea as explaining a restaurant. How can you fully explain the taste of the food, the atmosphere, and the service without first experiencing it? I know, it is utterly impossible. How do you pose that you will explain whether God exist or not if you've never given it a try? I would love to prove God to you today. Jesus states, "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life; no one comes to the Father but by Me." (John 14:6) The only way to truly experience God is this:
Understand and know that you are not perfect. Christ stated to the Pharisees that he did not come to save the righteous. No one is perfect. Romans 3:23 says that everyone sins and no one can meet the mark that God has set up. You can try everyday of the week to be good and great, but it won't get you to Heaven. Ephesians 2:8 says that it is only by grace that we are saved through faith, not anything we can do, because it is a gift from God.
Believe that Christ paid the ultimate price for your life. You know this verse- John 3:16, "For God so loved the world that He gave His only son, that whoever believes in Him, will not die but have eternal Life." Understand that what Christ did on the cross was not in vain, but for your eternal life, your soul.
Last is pray- Ask God to forgive you of all your sins. Ask God to save you and He will! In Romans 10:9 it says that if anyone confesses Jesus Christ and believes in his heart the God raise him from the dead, then he is saved! John 14:15 says that whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, then that person is in God and God is in him!
This is the only way you can ever experience the awesomeness of God! He is real. He is alive.... It's all up to you now.

Monday, January 25, 2010

Hold Please?


Even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me.

Psalm 139:10


I find this extremely interesting. I'm sure you've heard the songs that say, "Hold onto Jesus," etc, etc, etc. I have got news for you. Stop holding onto Jesus! Don't be too shocked about this.I'm going to show you exactly why I have said this.
God never asked us to hold onto Him. Never once does God say in the Bible, "Hold onto me and I will take care of you." Not once! I understand, this is going to blow some of the Independents complete theology out of the water. God doesn't want us to hold onto Him because of this. That puts everything in our power to hold on. God only ask us to believe that He has the power to hold us. Believe that He can protect us. I love what Isaiah had to say about God holding us. In Isaiah 41:13, it reads, "For I the LORD thy God will hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, Fear not; I will help thee." Remember when you were little and you were walking across the parking lot? What would your parents say? Usually mine would say, "Hold my hand!" You are probably saying, "OK..." what does this mean? Here is the meat- I would put my hand up, they would grab it, and no matter how hard I would try... they held my hand. That is what God does. He holds our hand. Check this out- "I the LORD have called thee in righteousness, and will hold thine hand, and will keep thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles." (ISaiah 42:6) God literally says, "Stop trying to do this on your own! I'm in control here." In 2 Timothy 1:12, it says that God will keep what we have given to Him. Through much thought and prayer. From simple learning experiences. I have figured this out. God whats us to let go. He doesn't want us to hold onto anything. He wants us to let go of ourselves. Let go of our secrets and hidden sins. Let go of our past doings and memories that have haunted us. "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service." (Romans 12:1) Look at "a living sacrifice." The word "sacrifice" means to let go of something important. To let go of something that is valuable or of meaning to you. I'm asking you today- What are you holding onto that God is asking you to let go of? This is serious stuff. I held onto the past for so long that eventually it hurt me extremely bad. It is time to let go. Maybe you are holding onto the door post, attempting to keep God from moving you somewhere. It is time to let go. Maybe you are holding the door knob to your closet of secrets that God is trying to open. It's time to let go. God is holding your right hand. The only thing that keeps you from experiencing the awesomeness of God is you. Let go.

Saturday, January 23, 2010

God is True

He that hath received his testimony hath set to his seal that God is true.
John 3:33

God is true- wouldn't it be weird if God was a liar? Imagine Noah- sitting way back in something B.C. and God says, "Noah, build a giant boat!" So Noah builds it. Four hundred years later (Spoken as if the Narrator from Spongebob.) Noah looks up to God and says, "Hey! Hey God! You up there still? Haven't heard anything about this giant boat in a while. Just needing a little reassurance right about now." Six hundred years later (Again, spoken like the narrator from Spongebob.) "Okay God. It has been 600 years. Where is this flood? I'm about to keel over down here! We got people laughing at me, no animals coming to the boat, annnndddddd NO WATER coming from the sky! Where is this flood!?" God is true! He is true to His words and true to His promises. If God said it, it will happen! I wonder why we don't believe God? For thousands of years people have been believing God and God has never once lied! Why would He start lying to us now? Not that long ago, (when I was extremely far from God and thought that God hated me)I remember yelling at God and saying, "God! You said You will never leave me! You said that You will always bring your kids back! Where the heck are You now!?" I was ticked off.. I look at things now, and I realize how much God wanted me to learn. God is always true! Sometimes we don't understand, sometimes it is not in our timing, God is still true. God will not lie to you. He will do what He said He is going to do, just not always in your timing.

Friday, January 22, 2010

"God is Able"


And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.
2 Corinthians 9:8

I like the very first part of this verse. "And God is able..." Some of the intellectuals who read this will be yelling "Fragment!" right about now; but that is not important. It is simple, "God is able!" That is all you need! When you are down in the hole financially- God is able! When life seems to be spiraling out of control- God is able! It really is that simple and easy. I understand that this verse goes on and on about "grace abound to you," etc., etc... but that is not the main meat of the verse. Before you can understand anything else about this verse you have to understand the very first part- God is able. So many times we sell God short. We keep Him locked in a cage and don't let Him out. People! LET GOD OUT! HE IS ABLE! I like what Numbers 11:23 says, "And the Lord said to Moses, 'Has the Lord's arm been shortened? Now you shall see whether what I say will happen to you or not.'" My question to you: When did God become less powerful? When did God go from being the Almighty to the "can't do anything God?" God is Able! No matter what situation you are in, God is able!

Thursday, January 21, 2010

God is Love.... 1 John 4:16


And we have known and believed the love that God has in us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.
1 John 4:16

God is Love
Love... What exactly is love? How can you honestly describe love? I like what the Bible says about love. It says in 1 Corinthians 13:4-8, "Love is kind and patient, never jealous, boastful, proud, or rude. Love isn't selfish or quick tempered. It doesn't keep a record of wrongs that others do. Love rejoices in the truth, but not in evil. Love is always supportive, loyal, hopeful, and trusting. Love never fails! Everyone who prophesies will stop, and unknown languages will no longer be spoken. All that we know will be forgotten." What you have just read is God. It is such a deep thought. Recently I finished reading a book called The Shack, by William P. Young. (If you have not read this book, I recommend that you do.) In The Shack, Young gives an amazing representation of how much God loves us. The main character is called "Mack" and Mack is told that he is to judge his children. He was allowed to send two kids to Heaven and the other three to Hell. Immediately Mack is stuck in limbo trying to figure this all out. How can he possibly send any of his kids to Hell. He loves them so much! Finally, Mack falls on his face and begs that instead of his kids going to Hell, he go to Hell in their place. I had to stop and think hard on this. God, the Almighty, loves simple, imperfect, sinning me so much that He took all of my sin at the cross. God loves me so much that He allows me independence to make my own choices. God loves me so much that no matter what I do or where I go, He still wants fellowship with me. God is love. There is just so much that you can say about God's love! Referring back to 1 Corinthians 13, check this out: "Love is always supportive, loyal, hopeful, and trusting." No matter what you choose, God is going to be there. My walk has been crazy. Let's face it. I have been there done that. I've been in the bar so drunk that I had to be carried out. I've been the guy that Christians point at and judge. The whole time, though, God simply looked at me and said, "I love Tim. Just the way he is, I love him. He has chosen a way that isn't going to get him anywhere, but I love him." Guess what!? I have news for you. God loves you. Just the way you are. In all of your drunkenness. In your drug trip. In your adulterous lifestyle. God loves you! He wants so much to have a relationship with you. He knows you are not perfect and He loves that about you! He wants you! He is chasing you right now and all you have to do is stop, just for a minute, and He will be there to hold you! God loves you! If you need anything, have any questions, just want a friend to talk to... call me 513.460.0704. Or you can e-mail me at timharpe@live.com
Remember:
God is love.... and He loves you.

Wednesday, January 20, 2010


This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in 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. 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 a liar, and his word is not in us.
1 John 1:5-10

This is going to be weird for some people to see and understand. I hope, however, that I can explain and clearly show my view. I am not perfect. For those who know me, you know this to be extremely true. I have fallen several times in the Christian walk and sometimes even completely left the Christian walk. Why did I leave the walk? That is something that I don't fully understand. Yes, I was hurt and confused- but that does not justify my fully leaving the Christian walk. I have, however, slowly began reworking myself I guess you could say. This will be the first "study" of a long list of Desired Stash postings. Today I want to look at 1 John 1:5-10. In verse five, I see this amazing description of God. It states, "God is light." You ever really thought about light? I mean, seriously contemplated light? Think about this for a second. Lets compare God to the sun. When the sun is out we can see. We can navigate and understand our surroundings. What is even more exciting though, is that even when it is nighttime, because of the suns reflection- we can still see! This brings me to this thought. Without God, the light, in our lives, how can we even begin to think about navigating through this world? Another thought, The sun is warm. The sun can bring warmth into our daily routines and allows growth around us. Look at this now: without the sun, no plants would grow, the human race would struggle to survive because of the temperature, and we would struggle to survive because of vegetation. God, being the light, brings warmth into our lives. He brings growth into our lives. He feeds us the food that we cannot get from anywhere else. Without this Almighty Light how can we even expect to be happy. Without God our lives are dark and cold. Some are better at hiding their true feelings than others. I personally voice exactly what is on my mind. Just look at some of the music I have written. A lot of it is dark. This is because for quite sometime I have not allowed God to shine His light in me. Like a light bulb, I have turned God off and refused to allow Him to light the dark corridors of my life. We cannot refuse the awesomeness of God. We can try and turn Him off, we can try to run, but He will always find us right where we are. He loves me and He loves you. Please, take it from someone who knows, don't run from God anymore. It's not worth it.

Caskets and Scooters


In downtown Cincinnati there is this little casket shop that sells scooters. Yes, I said caskets and scooters in the same sentence. I found it extremely ironic! After much thought, I have finally figured this out. In the year 2000, there were 40,500 emergency injuries related to scooters. My thoughts are this...
"Once upon a time, in the urban area of Cincinnati, there lived a young, single man- his name was Joe. He enjoyed his urban life a lot. He loved walking through the town and seeing the sights. He especially loved people watching. On one of these glorious people watching occasions he saw a sight that would change his young life as he knew it.
On a rather clear Tuesday morning this is what Joe saw:
Speeding down the road on his baby blue Vespa was a metro-sexual male flamboyantly dressed in Gap and J. Crew clothing. He raced along a little carelessly not noticing the large metro bus about to stop in front of him. The bus rapidly applied its brakes, as all bus drivers seem to do, and the little Vespa, riding, metro-guy smashed into the back of the bus. The little man careened through the air with his baby blue Vespa close behind. The metro-sexual man, screaming in pain, then landed on a nearby car. Emergency services were called immediately as bystanders watched. Joe quickly came up with a brilliant idea. With the way things were looking, he thought for sure the flamboyantly dressed man had a chance of death. Seeing how well the little Vespa maneuvered in town, it is a pretty brilliant means of transportation. What if, the same person who sold the Vespa also sold the casket that would be needed for when the person was killed on the little metro-sexual male killer.
Immediately Joe sought a building to house his Vespa and casket selling shop. He finally found a quaint little place on Main St. in downtown Cincinnati, Oh. His excitement grew to un-proportional amounts as everything began to come together. His caskets would be delivered on Monday and then the Vespa's would be delivered on Thursday. It was going to be an exciting time in Joe's life. After all of the products were delivered Joe opened his shop. His first sale was this: 'Buy a new Vespa and get your casket half-off!'"

And that is the story behind the casket and Vespa shop.