Making a Differencewith Pastor Phil Erickson

Sep 30th Priority Check

Today’s Reading – Haggai 1 & 2

Ye looked for much, and, lo, it came to little; and when ye brought it home, I did blow upon it. Why? saith the LORD of hosts. Because of mine house that is waste, and ye run every man unto his own house. (Haggai 1 & 2)

Haggai is writing to the children of Israel that have returned to the land after the captivity. They had done well in the beginning: they immediately began to re-build the Lord’s temple in Jerusalem. However, after some opposition they put aside the building of God’s house and began working on their own houses and farms, etc. The problem was that God was not blessing them in their work. In many respects they were spinning their wheels. They were working hard, but God wasn’t helping them.

I see a lot of parallels today with church people. There has never been a time in the history of America when we were as busy as we are now. Many families have both husband and wife working with some folks working two and three jobs. It is very common to hear people say that they would like to attend all of the church services, but they have to work. After all, they have to take care of their families, don’t they? Now, I understand that people need to work. Work is good. The Bible says that men need to work in order to eat; but when our work replaces God, or seriously interferes with our worship of Him, something is wrong. And I wonder if God isn’t doing to us what he did to those Israelites of old who had mis-placed priorities. Do you miss church regularly due to work? I’m not saying it always wrong, but you have to ask yourself and the Lord if your missing services is OK with Him.

The same could be said about our giving. We would like to give, but money is tight. We justify again that we need to care for our families. But did you ever think that by taking matters into your own hands, you are forsaking God and removing His blessing upon your life. God said that were wages were going through a bag filled with holes. I have often felt that my money was going into a bag like that as well. Have you stopped giving your tithes and offerings because money is tight? You can expect it to get even tighter.

The problem is that we are often blind to this condition. We don’t see where we have put something above God in our lives. Ask yourself honestly. Have you put something in front of God: your job; your children; your pleasure? What is causing you to miss the full blessing of God in your life. We need to put God back where He belongs in our lives. He deserves and demands first place. After the Israelites starting working again on the temple, God said, “I am with you”. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to know that God is with you, that His hand of approval and blessing is on every aspect of your life?

Sep 29th We Already Have It.

Today’s Reading – Zephaniah 1 – 3

The LORD hath taken away thy judgments, he hath cast out thine enemy: the king of Israel, even the LORD, is in the midst of thee: thou shalt not see evil any more. (Zephaniah 3:15)

If I understand this verse correctly, it appears that Zephaniah is looking forward to the Millennial Kingdom of Christ on earth. It would seem that this will be the only time that all of the things mentioned in the context could take place. In the first two chapters Zephaniah wrote of judgment which has already come and is still coming, but the future holds a time for Israel when they will be reconciled completely with God; and God will once again be pouring out His blessings upon them; and will remove all of there enemies from the land.

My thought this morning, however, is how this verse, though directly dealing with Israel, applies perfectly to the Christian today. The Christian already has today what He is going to give Israel in the future. First, it says “The LORD hath taken away thy judgments”. How wonderful it is to know that the penalty for sin is gone. I will not be judged for my sin. I used to hear preachers say that when I stand before God, He is going to show a video of every bad thing that I have ever done. Not true. Jesus paid for all of my sins at Calvary and they are all under the blood. My record is clean because of what Jesus did for me at Calvary. My sins are gone! Praise God!!!

Secondly, Zephaniah says “he hath cast out thine enemy”. Now this isn’t true yet; but it soon will be. My enemy is Satan, and though he and his devils are reeking havoc today, he is already defeated. Some day soon, we will see Satan cast into the lake of fire. I am on the winning side and Satan is a loser. Just a thought: why do so many people, including Christians, follow him.

Finally, Zephaniah says “the king of Israel, even the LORD, is in the midst of thee”. I know that this verse is talking about God dwelling in the midst of His people Israel, but I have God dwelling in me right now.

To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory: (Colossians 1:27)

Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. (John 15:4)

In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise, (Ephesians 1:13)

What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? (1 Corinthians 6:19)

God is not only with me, He is in me. And if I will allow Him to have His way with my life, I will reveal Him to others around me.

By the way, the picture above has nothing to do with the post. It’s a picture of the place Cindy and I are hiking to today.

Sep 28th Not Always Easy To Do

Today’s Passage – Habakkuk 1 – 3

Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls: Yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation. (Habakkuk 3:17 & 18)

This morning as I write this post, I am sitting on the patio of a luxurious condominium on the Big Island of Hawaii. To my left is a spectacular view of a golf course with a beautiful mountain off in the distance. Directly in front of me is an expansive pool with exquisite landscaping. I am drinking a cup of coffee, listening to the tropical birds chirping in 75 or so degree temperatures; and as you can see from the picture above, there is not a cloud in the sky. It’s easy to rejoice and “joy in God” under such circumstances.

However, Habakkuk is facing very difficult days where there was little to be happy about, at least from a human perspective. However, he chose to rejoice; he chose to be thankful to great and powerful and awesome God despite his present circumstances. This is not easy to do. It takes a great deal of spiritual maturity to look past the temporal and rejoice in the eternal blessings that God gives, as well as just rejoicing in who God is.

Today, I have a lot of good things to enjoy about my life. I am in a virtual paradise on earth; but the true test of my spirituality will be determined when I choose to rejoice and “joy in God” when the vacation is over and when I am back to the old grind, contending with all of the problems that all of us face in life. The crazy thing is, I have just as much to rejoice about then as I do now. It’s all a matter of how I choose to look at it. God is good all of the time!

Sep 26th Do Right, Love People, Walk With God

Today’s Reading – Micah 5 – 7

He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God? (Micah 6:8)

A simple but very profound verse of Scripture from the Book of Micah. Do you want to know how you can be right with your God? There is a simple three point outline here in verse eight of chapter six that explains just how to do that. Notice, however, that this verse is written to a people that already know God, so in order to make the application to yourself today you would have to have already begun a relationship with Him through faith in His Son, Jesus Christ. If you have already been trusted Him as your Savior, then this verse is for you:

1  Do justly – this has as much to do with our relationship with others as well as our obedience to God. We need to strive to be in a right relationship with others; and do the right thing by them. If we have wronged somebody, let’s try to get it right. “Do the right thing”.

2  Love mercy – this has to do with forgiving others who have wronged you. Are you bitter against somebody today? Why not release him from the debtor’s prison in your heart; and forgive him. Look at how God (and others) have forgiven you. Loving mercy could also apply to your love for the souls of men.

3  Walk humbly with God – We need to see ourselves for who we really are – nothing; and see God for who He is – everything. Do you have a walk with Him? Are you spending time daily in prayer, and in the Word? Are you living your life in submission to His will.

Living in a right relationship with God is not all that mysterious or difficult. Jesus said that his yoke is easy, and his burden is light. But if we refuse to submit ourselves to His Lordship, holding on to our own will and desire; walking with Him will be impossible. I’m not talking about perfection here: we all blow it at times; but when that happens, we must confess it to God, get back up, and move forward again in our walk with Him.

Sep 25th The Saturday Morning Post by Pastor Ted Stahl

Micah 4:1 But in the last days it shall come to pass, that the mountain of the house of the LORD shall be established in the top of the mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills; and people shall flow unto it.  

I kept coming back to this verse while reading. As I dwelled upon this verse I could picture all the people flowing into the house of the LORD. Then I started to think of those who influenced me for Christ. Then I got to thinking of the one who probably influenced me the most: my uncle: Frank Lyons.

I love my Uncle Frankie. He taught me how to build model airplanes: plastic and balsa wood ones. During WWII he was in the air force, stationed over in England. He was the faithful son that took care of his mother till her death. When I was a young child, he would take me, my mom, and grandmother to church. He played his guitar in church. He read his Bible and loved Jesus.=If I had to sum up my uncle in one word, it would be: faithful. Being up in age, Uncle Frankie has some problems. My sister Ruthie is caring for him. He was in a wheel chair for a while, but I’m happy to report that he is using his walker again.

What else can I say about Uncle Frankie? I know he prays for me. He reads his Bible through around six times a year. And like I said, even though he has problems, he still does these things: he still loves the Lord. Faithful. That is the idea behind the picture. I took this shot of a Monarch Butterfly down by the ocean. He had part of his wing missing, but he was still flying around doing what butterflies do. Working with the Senior Saints Sunday School, I see lots of damaged butterflies. But they are not as damaged as you think. As long as we are all alive, God still has something for us to do. We will be busy for the Lord until He calls us home. Till then, may we all be found faithful like my Uncle Frankie. Let’s increase the flow.

Peace.

Sep 24th Doest Thou Well To Be Angry?

Today’s Reading – Jonah 1 – 4

“…and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not. But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry.” (Jonah 3:10b – 4:1)

I thoroughly enjoy reading the little book of Jonah. This was one of the first Bible passages that I ever read or learned about as a child; but it still helps me today. I got to thinking about how Jonah is not much different than me a lot of times. I get rather apathetic toward the things of God; and sometimes even get hardened toward His people, losing my compassion for them. As I read today, I thought about three ways that you can tell that you are a backslidden preacher. By the way, this does not just apply to preachers in the pulpit, any Christian can make these applications.

You know you are a backslidden preacher when:

1  You avoid and even run away from opportunities to serve God.

Jonah was given a unique opportunity to serve God by preaching to the Ninevites: a people that God loved, but Jonah despised. Millions of others were bypassed, and God chose Jonah; but he refused; he rebelled; he ran away from the will of God. Preachers and Christians today often do the same thing. It may be something as big as running from a ministry; or it may be something as small as not volunteering to serve in the nursery. Either way, an opportunity was there  to serve the God of Heaven, to make a difference in His Kingdom; but it was refused.

2  Your life ceases to be a blessing to those around you; but rather, you become a burden.

If Jonah was on board the ship on his way to fulfilling the will of God, the sailors would have been helped along the way by the blessings of God. Notice also, that it took the storm to get Jonah to even mention God to the sailors.

3  You fail to rejoice when God saves a soul. You even get angry in the midst of revival.

I remember when I was in college. We used to see literally hundreds of people saved and baptized every week. At first, I was excited as I saw the the people lining up for baptism, but after I had been there for a while it got old and I wondered to myself “when will the service be over. I want to go home.” The thought of people getting saved didn’t thrill me like it used to. Now I am here in New Jersey, and I don’t see nearly as many saved as I used to; but I got my excitement back. God gets excited over one sinner that repents. We have become hardened to the true spiritual victories that God gives us. We would be thrilled if somebody gave us something tangible, but we have lost our zeal over the spiritual blessings.

Have you found yourself becoming like Jonah? Do you get angry about the trivial, when God is doing great things in the eternal realm? Ask God to re-kindle the flame of revival in your heart; and re-ignite a passion for people.

Sep 23rd A Famine of Desire for the Word of God

Today’s Reading – Amos 6 – 9; Obadiah 1

Behold, the days come, saith the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord: (Amos 8:11)

Amos is writing concerning Israel about a time where there will be an absence of the Word of God among the people. But that famine of Bible instruction and principle comes as a result of the lack of desire among the people of Israel for hearing the Words of God. The people of Judah and Israel had their fill of God. They no longer desired to hear what He had to say; they no longer desired to live in by His precepts. They simply felt that they no longer needed God or His instruction.

I feel that America today is in the same boat. There is no famine here. There may be preachers out there who water down the Word of God; and there may be a lot of compromise out there; but there is certainly available to nearly every person in America a copy of the Word of God, and a church where the Bible is being preached and taught on a regular basis. The problem is not the availability of the Word of God. Rather, the problem is a lack of desire of most America for instruction from God. We have loosed from the moorings of our Biblical heritage and are floating in the sea of secular humanism. We are shouting to God from our culture, “Get Out!”. We don’t need you and we certainly don’t want you. I don’t think it is too far fetched to think about a day in the near future when our authorities try to stop the distribution of the Word of God altogether.

God will not stay where he is not wanted. In fact, the only thing holding back the judgment of God is a remnant of people in America who love the Word and the God who wrote it. So what is the solution? Can this tide of apathy and antagonism toward God be stopped, or even slowed? I am not sure. But my instructions are still to “preach the Word”, even when it is out of season. Christian, it matters not what the world thinks about our God and our Bible. We need to keep obeying God by sowing the seed of His word to the world around us. Some day soon, our job will be done; but for now it is still our responsibility to reach who we can with the glorious gospel of Christ. There are still people out there that hunger and thirst after righteousness.

Sep 22nd Are We On The Same Page?

Today’s Reading – Amos 1 – 5

Can two walk together, except they be agreed? (Amos 3:3)

The context of verse 3 above deals with both tribes of Israel and how they have chosen to live contrary to the principle of the Word of God. They have become immoral and idolatrous. They have become enamored with the cultures of the heathen nations around them. God tells them here that He cannot walk with these people because they are not in agreement.

I have often quoted this verse when preaching, particularly while speaking on matters of separation. How is it that the professing Christian today feels so comfortable walking alongside the people of the world, who do not know Christ. There must be agreement in order for their to be fellowship. Now, I can walk alongside anybody for a short distance. I will have to work with people who are not Christians at times; and hopefully, I will walk along with a lost man for a time trying to persuade him to trust Christ. Jesus walked and ate with some lost people at times in order to reach them. But, I do not think that this verse is talking about casual, purposeful, or limited contact with the lost world around us. It is talking about true communion. God cannot commune with people who have forsaken Him; and we should not be comfortable running with people who are not in fellowship with Him either.

Christian, be careful who you run with. Surround yourself with people who are going to influence you positively, encouraging your walk with God. Stay away from the gossips who have “the goods” on everybody else. Avoid those who are always negative: who desire to tear everything down, instead of building things up. Run with people who have the same doctrine and standards that you have. My preacher used to say, “You are, or soon will be, who you hang around.” I want to run with people who will cause me to do right and grow in the Lord. Just a thought!

Sep 21st Multitudes in the Valley of Decision

Today’s Reading – Joel 1 – 3

Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision: for the day of the LORD is near in the valley of decision. (Joel 3:14)

This Book of Joel, much like many of the other prophetic books which we have recently read, deals in the immediate context with the people of Judah being warned of impending judgment because of their falling completely away from God. This book, however, is unique in that it begins referring to the judgment as if in the past tense. At first glance, you might think that Joel was writing after the Babylonians had already come. It is possible that the judgement referred to in chapter 1 could be a reference to the Assyrian invasion of the northern kingdom; or perhaps to one of the first incursions into Judah by the Babylonians. You may remember they came in several times before the final destruction.

Another curious aspect of this book is that it transcends from the immediate future to the distant future, promising that the day will come when God’s people will once again be in a right relationship with Him; and all their enemies will be destroyed. In the second chapter God promises that if they will repent and turn to them, “rending their hearts”, that God will be merciful. We know from history that they never do this prior to the Babylonian captivity; and from what I can gather from Scripture, they never will until the time of Great Tribulation.

Which brings us to the above referenced verse. There will be multitudes in the valley of decision. The word “decision” there has to do with judgement. On the surface it almost sounds like God will give them the opportunity to decide; however, by this time, these Gentile enemies of God will have already decided against Him. This is the great Battle of Armageddon. As I read this, part of me wants to “jump for joy” because of the victory of God. However, I then begin to think about who makes up that multitude in the valley of decision. It is made up partially of people that I know: maybe family members, neighbors, co-workers: people I failed to reach with the gospel. Then I think about Jesus weeping over the multitude because they were as sheep having no shepherd. My previous joy is now turned to mourning. Many people will enter into a Christ-less eternity that day.

But that day is not yet. I still have a little time, though it is quickly running out. I still have an opportunity to help people decide for Christ before they get to that Valley of Decision: the time of final judgment. Lord, help me to love and care about people like you do. Help me to be the testimony that I need to be. Help me to have boldness to share the gospel of Christ with the people that you have surrounded me with.

Sep 20th It’s Always Time To Seek The Lord

Today’s Reading – Hosea 7 – 14

Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground: for it is time to seek the LORD, till he come and rain righteousness upon you. (Hosea 10:12)

Last year, the verse above was the theme verse for our church. Throughout the year, we would say to each other before services or soul winning, “It’s time”. In the context of Hosea’s book, Israel was at the end of their time for turning to God. God had warned them over and over again to come back to Him; but they were content to stay away. They had become comfortable, and content. They had been protected and prosperous, but they attributed their success to themselves rather than to the blessings of God. God had been patient; but His patience was running out. It was past tie to seek the Lord. Judgement was imminent.

As a preacher, I sometimes feel the same frustration that Hosea and the other prophets felt. I preach the best that I can, yet I get the feeling that for the most part, my words are going in one ear and out the other. I am not speaking here about people who are trying but struggling. I am in that category myself sometimes; but I am sensing that their is an indifference to spiritual things by many in our community and even in our church. I believe with all of my heart that we are in those “perilous times” that Paul spoke of where men will “heap to themselves teachers having itching ears”.

Those of you that are reading this blog most likely are not in this category. You are the “choir” that so often get preached at (or written to). You love God, and though you may have your weak moments and battles with the flesh, the world, and  the devil; you desire to live for Him. Keep seeking God. Don’t let the attitude and apathy of the world cause you to back up in your love and devotion for Him. Keep moving forward, keep growing. Hosea was writing to a bunch of lost Israelites about turning back to God; and we certainly want to encourage a lost America to turn to God. But, we also want to plead with those who may already have a relationship with God to keep seeking Him; keep drawing closer to Him.