Bruce Collins, Evangelist

The personal website of Bruce Collins

The Solution for a Troubled Heart!

John 14:1  "Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me.

Hopelessness!

Recently we had terrorist attacks in Paris and of course it reminds us that we had a major terrorist attack in the US on 911 of 2011.  We had the Boston bombings.  We read about the plight of refugees fleeing Syrian that no one wants to help because there are likely terrorists trying to get into our counties by pretending to be refugees.  We not only have international terrorism but we have gang wars in our cities.  Frankly, the world is a scary place.

The reason it is scary is because humans who were made to represent God decided to believe Satan rather than God.  They seemed to think that they should have the ability to decide right and wrong instead of leaving that to the God who created them.  Ultimately, Adam and Eve had two children.  One decided to obey God and offer to Him the worship that He wanted.  The other decided to worship God his own way and was angry when God didn’t accept His sacrifice.  Instead of “repenting” and offering the proper sacrifice, Cain who had offered a sacrifice of his own choosing, decided to kill his righteous brother Abel who had been obedient.  And so murder entered into the world and we have had religious wars ever since.  Some of those religious wars are unbelievers (Cain’s) against believers (Abel’s).  But many of those wars have become nonsensical wars of unbelievers against unbelievers. Because dictators have generally used religion to control people. One has to wonder if the dictators and their followers  have any fear of any God.  Paul seems to summarize what has happened to societies that have turned away from God in this way in Romans 3:10-18:

“As it is written: "THERE IS NONE RIGHTEOUS, NO, NOT ONE;  THERE IS NONE WHO UNDERSTANDS; THERE IS NONE WHO SEEKS AFTER GOD.  THEY HAVE ALL TURNED ASIDE; THEY HAVE TOGETHER BECOME UNPROFITABLE; THERE IS NONE WHO DOES GOOD, NO, NOT ONE.  THEIR THROAT IS AN OPEN TOMB; WITH THEIR TONGUES THEY HAVE PRACTICED DECEIT; THE POISON OF ASPS IS UNDER THEIR LIPS;  WHOSE MOUTH IS FULL OF CURSING AND BITTERNESS.  THEIR FEET ARE SWIFT TO SHED BLOOD;   DESTRUCTION AND MISERY ARE IN THEIR WAYS;  AND THE WAY OF PEACE THEY HAVE NOT KNOWN. THERE IS NO FEAR OF GOD BEFORE THEIR EYES.

Thank God for a Remedy!

Romans 3 seems pretty dismal and concludes that all of mankind (not just some of mankind) is guilty of sinning against God.  But fortunately we also have good news:  Romans 3:26 says that God is  just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.  Sinners who are guilty can be declared righteous through faith in the Lord Jesus.  But even for the believer, life has become scary.  That is why I am glad for the truth of John 14.

Thanksgiving!

I am always thankful this time of the year because it was at Thanksgiving time in 1963, that the truth that Christ had died for the ungodly gave me peace.  President Kennedy’s death forced me to face my own mortality; and, frankly,  the world was a scary place at that time.  We had failed at the Bay of Pigs invasion into Cuba.  Then we had the Cuban Missile Crisis and things were really heating up in Vietnam.  I realized at that time that if there was anything to this business of being “saved”, I needed to find that salvation  And if there wasn’t anything to the business of being saved, I needed to quit worrying about it and get on with life.  But I am glad I came to the conclusion that there was something to this business of being saved.  I am extremely thankful ;that for the last half century, I have been encouraged by the words of the Lord, “Let not your heart be troubled.”

Frankly, I am to some extent an obsessive compulsive controller.  As a result, I have a hard time not being troubled at times.  I tend to believe Murphy’s law that if something can go wrong it will go wrong.  In addition, I assume that if something does go wrong it is probably my fault.  That may have had to do with the way I was raised because it seemed like a lot of things ended up being my fault back in those days.  But even though I can look at things very negatively, what would life be like without the promise, “Let not your heart be troubled?”

The Hope of the Christian

I don’t know how people who believe that when we die it is all over get through the day.  I realize many of them are very moral and have higher ethical standards than many people that call themselves Biblical Christians even though the Bible charges all with sinning.  But Paul says that they are “without hope.” For the believer, no matter what life throws at us, we have the Lord’s promise in this chapter that He is coming again for us and that He is preparing a place for us in the Father’s house.  We don’t have to worry about the place that has been prepared for the devil and his angels (Matthew 25:41).

Every day is a day of thanksgiving for me.

Bruce Collins

Meditation for the week of November 22, 2015

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