The Bible makes it pretty clear that no one knows when Jesus is coming back. It says that his coming will be in the blink of an eye, and everyone who has accepted him as their Savior will be taken to heaven. With this in our mind, how do we want Jesus to find us when He comes back?

Jesus Himself illustrated this in Matthew 24:46-51, using an illustration of two servants, one who is doing is his job, and another who is partying and ignoring his job while their master is away. The one who was doing his job was rewarded, but the one who was partying was severely punished. When Jesus comes back, do we want Him to find us sinning? Or do we want Him to find us doing what He has called us to do?

This doesn’t mean that we can’t relax or have fun, but it does mean we need to make sure that what we do to have fun is ok. If you would be ashamed if Jesus saw you having fun, you probably shouldn’t do it, and instead find a better way to relax. We should also keep our focus on our work and our calling, instead of focusing on fun. It doesn’t really mean much if Jesus comes back and we’re doing what we were called to do if we spend most of our time relaxing.

Because Jesus could come back at any moment, we should also take every opportunity we have to witness. If we feel God leading us to witness to someone, take the opportunity. It may be the only opportunity you have to witness to that person. Or worse yet, it may be the only time that person hears the Gospel. The most important thing that we are told to do is to Love God with all ourselves. The second most important thing is to love our neighbor as we love ourselves. If we truly Love them, wouldn’t we tell them about Jesus?

Now, keep in mind that just because Jesus may come back today, it doesn’t mean that we should stop paying the bills or working our day jobs. Those things need to be done as well, and it destroys our witness when we live haphazardly like that. It can be hard sometimes to do the right thing, but just think, how would you feel if Jesus came back right now and you were doing the wrong thing?

It’s very easy to be a Christian when everything is going well. It’s much harder when you have to sacrifice something for God, or go through a hard time for Him. There are numerous examples in the Bible of people who followed God until it got hard. People like Peter, Jonah, and the rich young ruler spring to mind quickly. The example we will look at is in Matthew 19:17, where a rich young ruler asks Jesus how to have eternal life.

The first thing that Jesus asks after the rich man asks Him his question was whether or not he has followed the commandments. The man responds that he has followed all of them from his youth, and he wanted to know what else he had to do. Jesus tells him that he needs to give up all his possessions, give them to the poor, and follow Jesus. The rich man then leaves in tears.

The rich man had it all. He had money, possessions, and to top it all off he was young as well. He had followed all the commandments from his youth. On the surface, he seemed like his life was made. But, he knew that he had a problem. He didn’t have assurance of eternal life, so he sought out the answer, but when he got his answer, he couldn’t do what he needed to do.

He believed everything that he needed to, had everything that he needed for this life, and followed all the laws, but he wouldn’t give God his all when it required him to sacrifice. He was willing to follow God as long as it didn’t require him to give up his possessions that he loved. The Bible says that he went away in great sorrow, because he loved his possessions so much. This passage isn’t saying that we as Christians need to give up everything that we own, but rather we need to be willing to if God leads us to.

How about us? Do we follow Jesus only when it is easy, and doesn’t require us to do anything hard or dangerous? Or are we willing to sacrifice everything we have or have planned in order to follow Jesus? Following God’s will can require great sacrifices, but in the end, it’s worth it.

Jesus said that the greatest commandment is to love God with all our heart, soul, and mind. He then said that after that, we need to love one another. Not only are we supposed to love fellow Christians or family, but we’re supposed to love our enemies as well. At the time, this kind of thinking was very foreign to the people. Even now, 2000 years later, people still consider it normal and ok to hate those who hurt us. Let’s take a look at exactly what Jesus said.

Jesus said in Matthew 5:44 to love our enemies, bless them that curse us, do good to those who hate us, and to pray for those who persecute us. That sounds simple enough on paper, but how many of us actually do that? You know the guy who cuts you off while you’re driving, or the guy who insults you publically, how do you act around them? Do you avoid them or gossip about them? Or do you pray for them, and be polite to them, and see how you can help them?

He continues in Matthew 5:46 saying that even the unsaved love those who love them. He was saying that it is nothing special to love those who love you, it’s far more important to love those who hate you. It sets us apart from the rest of the world because we love. If we just hate people back, we are no better than they are. Like the old hymn says, they will know we are Christians by our love.

It can be hard to love someone who hates or hurts us, but it’s the right thing to do. In the end, we can win people over by treating them with kindness, instead of repaying evil with evil, and we can gain a friend, instead of keeping an enemy.

Christians have an important responsibility when it comes to the rest of the world. Jesus said in Matthew 5:13 that we as Christians are the salt of the earth. It’s an interesting analogy, especially when we look at what salt does.

Let’s take a look at the historical context of salt. Salt was extremely important in those days, as it was used as a preservative for foods. When Jesus called us the salt of the earth, he was saying that we need to work to preserve the world, to help those who need help, and to lead them to Christ in the process.

If we look at how salt interacts with the body, we find that people can’t live without it. Your body needs salt in order to stay healthy. Without Christians being the salt of the earth, the world gets sicker and more corrupt. As salt of the earth, we need to be making a stand for God, and pointing people in His direction.

Finally, if we look at the effect that salt has on things, we find that it has a powerful effect, even in small amounts. If you look at recipes, most dishes only call for a small amount of salt proportional to the rest of the ingredients. However, if you omit the salt, the dish just doesn’t taste the same. You might think that as only one person you can’t do much to help the world. But, even as an individual, there is so much that you can do. You can volunteer for missions work, help out at the church, or even witness to your unsaved friends. While these actions might not seem like much at first, they add up, and the effect may be much more than you expected.

One last thought in closing, Jesus then said that if salt has lost its flavor, it’s worthless and should be tossed aside. We need to keep our “flavor” and not let the things of God be pushed off to the side. As soon as we let the fun of this world overshadow our duty from God, we’re not accomplishing anything for Him, and are good for nothing for the kingdom of God. Keep that in mind as you go out…

We all know someone who’s going through a rough time in their life. Maybe it’s something huge like losing a job or a losing a loved one, but it could be something smaller like problems at work or school. They are really stressed, upset, or angry over these events. Because we care about them, we want to help them. What does the Bible say we are to do?

First and foremost, we need to pray for them. The New Testament is full of verses telling us to pray for each other. James 5:16b says “The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.” If we’re righteous, our prayers will accomplish much. While we all would be willing to pray for someone we love or care about, not all of us would be as willing to pray for someone who has hurt us, or who is an enemy. We are told in Matthew 5:44 to pray for our enemies. If we see someone going through a hard time, we need to pray for them, even if it is someone who has caused us much pain.

Secondly, we need to help them as much as we can. Galations 6:2 says that we need to bear one another’s burdens. If they need help doing something, we should be there to help them with it. However, we need to be careful to do it humbly, and not rub it in their face that we can do something that they can’t. It’s hard sometimes to be humble like that, but where is the value in helping when we make it obvious we think we’re better than they are?

Sometimes though, there is nothing that we can do for people besides pray for them. In those times, we can just be there for them. Sometimes that means we’re there to talk, other times it means we’re just there, not saying anything. While that may seem hard to do, it can make all the difference in the world to them, because they then know that someone truly cares for them.

Helping other Christians who are going through hard times is extremely important. We all know someone who is, so pray for them, and see what you can do for them.

Merry Christmas to all of you.

Let us remember that today Jesus was born.

It’s easy to tell people what they are doing wrong, while we do the same thing that we criticize them for. When we do this, we are being both sinful and hypocritical. How can we criticize someone for sinning, when we do the exact same sin?

In Matthew 7:3-5, Jesus tells us to worry about the log in our eye before we try to remove the speck in our brother’s eye. In other words, deal with our sins first, before trying to fix someone else’s. If we still have our sin in our life, it will keep us from being able to help someone else. How can we expect to be able to fix someone else’s problem, if we haven’t fixed our own?

Paul, in Romans 2:21-24, criticizes the Jews for teaching others, and not paying attention to what they are teaching, and asks them questions about what they teach and whether or not their lives reflect what they are teaching. There’s a lot we can learn from this passage. First and foremost, when you are teaching someone something about the Bible, make sure that you’re learning too. Don’t ignore what you’re teaching, because it all applies to your life too. Secondly, make sure that you don’t do what you are preaching against. It would be like me writing about forgiveness, and then refusing to forgive someone.

Not only is it wrong to not “practice what we preach”, it also makes us as Christian look bad. If we don’t do what we say people are supposed to do, why should anyone take us seriously? We should examine our lives carefully before trying to teach someone to make sure that we don’t have the same problem.

As Christians, we are supposed to forgive those who hurt us. But, there is more to it than just forgiving people, we need to reconcile with them. According to the dictionary, reconcile means “to recreate friendly relationships.” While reconciliation can be difficult, not only are we told to do it, in the end, things are so much better.

God wants us to reconcile. In fact, Matthew 5:24 tells us if we are at the altar, and remember that a fellow Christian has something against us, that we should leave our gift in front of the altar, and go find him, and reconcile with them. In God’s eyes, reconciliation is a higher priority than giving Him a gift.

Reconciliation is not always easy. A lot of times, when people hurt us, the last thing that we want to do is to forgive them and “recreate friendly relationships”. Or we might forgive them, and that’s all we’ll ever do with them. It’s hard, but we should give people a second chance. Not only are we told to, but if we hurt someone close to us, and repent, and change our lives, wouldn’t we want a second chance?

Now, sometimes the person we are trying to reconcile with won’t listen to us. In that case, Matthew 18 tells us to bring a one or two witnesses with us, and have them try to speak to the person. If the person ignores them, take it before the church, and if he ignores the church, we are to see the person as a heathen.

Reconciliation can be very difficult, as can forgiveness, but it is necessary, and everyone is better off in the end.

A lot of people these days try to escape their lives. They believe that their life is too much for them, or they don’t like where they are at. They feel that they can’t face their lives, so they try to escape from them. They drink, do drugs, smoke, play video games, listen to music, or anything else that they can lose themselves in. While most of those things aren’t evil or bad in moderation, in excess like that they are not only harmful for the person, they’re also wrong in God’s eyes.

When we try to escape our lives, we miss so much. Yes, we get away from a lot of the bad, but we miss out on so much good as well. The time we waste trying to escape something we can’t ever get back. Yes, there are things in everyone’s lives we’d rather not have to face, but if we look, we’ll find that the good things outweigh the bad things.

Not only do we miss out on the important things, most of the escapes people use are very harmful. The damage that drugs and smoking do is almost always irreversible. Too much alcohol can cause us to do things that will haunt us forever. The consequences for those escapes tend to follow one for the rest of their lives, sometimes even cutting their lives short. Is escaping really worth that cost?

Looking at the Bible, one can see that escaping is wrong as well. God tells us that He should be the God of our lives. People make their escape their god, rather than letting God be God. God tells us to trust Him, and that we are here for a reason. If we try to escape our lives, we’re not trusting that God has a plan, and we don’t believe that we’re here for a reason. God says that our lives have a purpose, but by escaping, we’re saying that our lives don’t have a purpose, and that they are worthless. Why would we do something that directly contradicts what God tells us? Why do we get so caught up thinking that we know more about our lives than the God who created the universe?

Rather than trying to escape our lives when we don’t like them, why don’t we trust God and pray that things work out. Seek wise counsel and get good advice on how to get through the rough parts of your life. Find a friend who we can talk to, but don’t try to escape from everything. While escaping may make things easier in the short run, in the long run, it’s not worth it.

We’re finding it hard to believe, but it’s been a whole year now since CPO was launched, so HAPPY BIRTHDAY to CPO!!!