7. April 2008 by admin.

I am preparing this week to perform a vow renewal ceremony for a couple in the church.  I have been giving them a hard time saying I was naive enough to do it once, and I was not sure my wife could talk me into doing it again.  I had a deacon when I pastored in South Carolina that used to tell his wife, “I told you I loved you when I married you, if I ever stop, I will let you know.”  I think I can speak for him when I say that both of our comments were made for the simple value of humor.  I have been thinking though, what a wonderful thing it would be if we would all make a renewal of our vows.  I am not speaking of our marriage vows, but our vows that we made when we gave our lives to Jesus Christ.  As you read the Bible, the church and thus believers are referred to as the bride of Christ.  I wonder how faithful we have been to our vows.  We invited Him in as Savior, the one that guarantees us a home in heaven.  The one who paid hells payment for us that we might be set free from the weight and bondage of sin.  We also invited Him in as Lord, the one that we would serve.  The one that would lead us and guide us as we continue this journey called life.  Few have a problem with the Savior part, but many stumble when it comes to the Lordship of Christ.  Jesus tells us in John 12:26 “If any man serve me, let him follow me; and where I am, there shall also my servant be: if any man serve me, him will my Father honour.”  Let’s take some time to realize the promise that we made when we accepted Jesus into our heart and let’s renew the vows we made to Him.  Let us be servants.  If you have never accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, maybe now is the time that you enter into this wonderful relationship.  “And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.” Revelation 22:17

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5. September 2007 by admin.

     A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.  Eze 36:26

     I spent 2 hours yesterday trying to get a web site template to do what I wanted it to do.  I tried everything I knew to do but could not get it to behave the way I wanted it to.  I changed the appearance, I moved some things around, I even tried to rename some things.  Still nothing.  Finally I opened the template in my web site editor and went inside, rewrote some code and what do you know it was just like I wanted it.     I began to think; this is the same think that happens when a person gets saved.  We can change the outward appearance, we can move things around, and we can even try and rename our sin to something more attractive.  The fact is until we invite Jesus to come into our heart and reprogram us, there is no hope.  We must have the old heart cleansed and allow God to write the code he desires upon our hearts.  We must be born again.

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