Blog Archives

8/26/2024

Do you know Jesus?

Back Pew Prophesy- In 2024, a church will replace the classic altar call hymn 'Just as I am without one plea' with a QR Code 'easily' scanned by your phone?

Salvation is now just a tap away, empowering each of us to connect with our Jesus in a new, accessible way. Halleluiah!

I am all for using QR codes and other technologies to communicate online Gospel messages and contacts. God's written and spoken word have the power to change lives, but at the end of a church service, offering a QR code altar call makes me cringe. BUT IT IS MY PROPHESY... LOL

So onward to social media where Christian Banter likes to declare winners and 'heretics' while leaving very little ground to just disagree. More frequent than sharing the Gospel message that saves lives are the arguments/discussions with Baptists v Pentecostals, Calvinists v Free Will folk, and Women Preachers yea or nay, OSAS or NOT, Mary is just a woman CHANGE MY MIND, Catholics v Protestants and the 'progressive' church v traditional Christianity.

This leaves very little time for the Gospel

So today, let's take a moment and ask, 'Do you know Jesus?'

For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have everlasting life. John 3:16

“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23)
“But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8)

“For, ‘Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’” (Romans 10:13)

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9)

You don't need a QR code altar call after all. Who knew?

May God bless you on your journey to pursue God daily and believe that Jesus is your Lord and Savior. May we, as believers, share the Gospel message in word and deed.

Blessings

Jeff

PS - If you find yourself drifting and the Lord feeling distant, take time to read/pray Psalms 139.

A few more toons sharing Jesus below

This was pretty much me at 6 years old

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8/19/2024

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Millstone Shepherds

Okay, there are primary faith issues and secondary issues. There are issues we can (if we try) have polite but spirited disagreements on and issues we must come to agree on. According to many on social media, HERESY is just another word for 'we disagree.'

So I would like to return to the basics

LOVE GOD with all your heart, soul, and mind and others as yourself. Mt. 22:36-40.
Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. James 1:27

Next, we must study God's Word and seek Him in prayer to cultivate and grow the truths found in Mt. 22:36-40. and James 1:27 lest we be swayed by Shepherds wearing millstones.

For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Hebrews 4:12
In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil. Hebrews 5:12-14

I am reading an excellent book by Megan Basham, Shepherds for Sale, which exposes the issues of Big EVA and others promoting a woke theology. I have observed this problem for years in the seeker-friendly church model where putting people in the seats is job 1, and pastors become more concerned with appeasing a secular/pagan society than offending Almighty God. We want to be liked even though Jesus said

Do you think I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I have come to divide people against each other! Luke 12:51

Again, having a different opinion is one thing, but never willfully distort God's teachings out of ignorance, convenience, or indifference.

It would be better for them to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around their neck than to cause one of these little ones to stumble. Luke 17:2

With this concern in mind, let me share with you my collection of what I would call Millstone Preachers

AGAIN, it is okay to disagree. Catholics v Protestants, Pentecostal v Reformed, etc., etc., and the above Millstone examples are for those who go too far in preaching another Gospel. For those shepherds, God will not judge kindly.

Therefore, the people wander like sheep oppressed because of the lack of a shepherd. My anger burns against the shepherds, and I will punish the leaders. Zechariah 10:2-3

But take heart, for we have God's Word to read and learn from. His Spirit will always guide us. So, let's be still and confident in the Lord. And, of course, find a good church, a community where you can belong, led by a pastor who embodies these principles without any signs of a millstone.

Have a blessed Millstone-free day

Jeff

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8/16/2024

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Another Year in the Rear View

August 2024 has brought me another year older (67), and another wonderful year married to my love Mary (40). It is strange to think of being this old and having been married this long, or should I say someone would stay married to me for this long.

I am truly blessed with a patient wife. Mary makes our house a home, is a wonderful mom of three, and is now a grandma of six. She does all this while I tag along. My only jobs are to 1. lift heavy things, 2. reach items on high shelves, 3. kill bugs and mice, and 4. open jars. I am very good at opening jars.

So, happy birthday and anniversary to me. With these SELF well-wishes out of the way, let me leave you with a few cartoons and a prayer for God's blessings in your lives.

Mary & Jeff during the Covid Summer of 2020

I pray that you all can feel the Lord's Blessings beyond circumstance. May your joy be in the Lord and not found in the vices and pace set by mankind. I pray you find peace that passes all understanding in this world, which is anything but peaceful.

May you find love that starts with a love for Jesus. A love that is kind, patient, and never self-serving. I pray you are blessed with a Godly family and heritage as your foundation and a church that preaches the Gospel of salvation while loving others and our God.

And I pray that the Lord will lead those enduring difficult family circumstances to a good church and friends where you can experience community.

And pray your birthdays and anniversaries are many. God is good.

Amen

Jeff (blessed beyond my years) Larson

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8/12/2024

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Psalm 139... WOW!

Psalms 139 is simply one of the most awe-inspiring chapters in the Bible.

In fact, I have Psalm 139 pinned on the bulletin board behind my desk, but I must confess I rarely read it and consider it too infrequently.

The Lord has searched me and known me from the moment of conception through my entire life. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me. My God knows and cares for every thought, worry, joy, and grief in my life. This truth is lost in the pace of today's world, and I am too often sucked into this 24/7 pace, and I lose sight of the wonderful truths in Psalm 139.

So, I share it today. May you be blessed by His word.

Note: Of course, since I am a cartoonist, so I will share a toon or two as I cannot help myself.

1 You have searched me, Lord,
    and you know me.
2 You know when I sit and when I rise;
    you perceive my thoughts from afar.
3 You discern my going out and my lying down;
    you are familiar with all my ways.
4 Before a word is on my tongue
    you, Lord, know it completely.
5 You hem me in behind and before,
    and you lay your hand upon me.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
    too lofty for me to attain.

7 Where can I go from your Spirit?
    Where can I flee from your presence?
8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
    if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
    if I settle on the far side of the sea,
10 even there your hand will guide me,
    your right hand will hold me fast.
11 If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me
    and the light become night around me,”
12 even the darkness will not be dark to you;
    the night will shine like the day,
    for darkness is as light to you.

13 For you created my inmost being;
    you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
    your works are wonderful,
    I know that full well.
15 My frame was not hidden from you
    when I was made in the secret place,
    when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
16 Your eyes saw my unformed body;
    all the days ordained for me were written in your book
    before one of them came to be.

17 How precious to me are your thoughts, God!
    How vast is the sum of them!
18 Were I to count them,
    they would outnumber the grains of sand--
    when I awake, I am still with you.

19 If only you, God, would slay the wicked!
    Away from me, you who are bloodthirsty!
20 They speak of you with evil intent;
    your adversaries misuse your name.
21 Do I not hate those who hate you, Lord,
    and abhor those who are in rebellion against you?
22 I have nothing but hatred for them;
    I count them my enemies.

23 Search me, God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts.
24 See if there is any offensive way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting. Psalms 139:23-34

I pray that today you will meditate on Psalms 139 and be blessed by the truth that we serve an infinitely loving God.

Blessings

Jeff

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8/9/2024

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Beware of... Big EVA

No, Big EVA is not your aunt visiting from the former Soviet Union. Or the nickname of a trans weightlifter winning gold at this year's Summer Olympics.

Big EVA is a force out there in the world of Evangelicals with power and influence including many powerful/wealthy preachers & ‘ministries’ influencing today’s churches while blurring biblical truths with ‘woke’ rhetoric.

BIG EVA is, in fact, more of a POPULIST movement than a FAITH movement, with great influence and little accountability.

Big EVA owns publishing houses, runs conferences, teaches in seminaries, and pastors our largest churches.

Big Eva promotes woke agendas regarding Climate Change, Social Justice, LBGTQ+, and gender roles without applying a Biblical worldview. Those who disagree with their 'golden nuggets of truth' are shunned as bad stewards certainly living outside the Lord's will.

So what's an honest believer to do?
As always...

Be in God's Word. Know it!
Be prayerful, and quiet before God, and
listen to those you respect on issues.

This will put us well on the road to living out a Christian Worldview which is a pleasing service and offering to our Heavenly Father.

We serve, dare I say, a Big God, not Big man, and certainly not a group of men dressed up as ... BIG EVA!

Blessings

Jeff

note: I would like to recommend a great book on this very topic called

Shepherds for Sale How Evangelical Leaders Traded the Truth for a Leftist Agenda
by Megan Basham.

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8/8/2024

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Screen Time, Big Time

Q. Did the Apostle Paul prophetically know that the amount of time the typical American spends on a device in our 24/7 electronic society would be a problem? Between our iPhones, laptops, smartwatches, and 24/7 streaming Big-Screen TVs, too many of us are 'screen-timed up.'

Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, because of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. 2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world (screen time), but be transformed by the renewing of your mind (in God's Word & Prayer). Then you can test and approve God’s will—his good, pleasing, and perfect will. Romans 12:1-2

Ok, maybe my cartoons are not the literal illustrated fulfillment of 'Paul's Excess Screen Time' prophesy, but I think you get my point.

I confess I am on my devices a bit too much daily. I am on my phone or my laptop or am watching YouTube videos, sports, or the dreaded 24/7 news during an ELECTION YEAR. Lord, have mercy on my soul.

Just a friendly reminder: everything, including your SCREEN TIME, should be in moderation.

Let me leave you with this further blessing from the Apostle Paul and... me.
5 Let your moderation (OF SCREEN TIME) be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand. 6 Be careful with nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. 7 And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:5-7

Blessings

Jeff

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8/7/2024

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Our Good, Bad, and Ugly online Faith

There is so much contention in the online Christian community. Everyone MUST take a side, and just like politics, it seems people pick a side while leaving no place for the nuance of opinions. YES v NO, BLACK v WHITE, Calvinist v Free Will, OSAS or NOT, Women Preachers...Yeah or Nah, and of course, CATHOLIC versus PROTESTANT.

And now, today, we have WOKE-Theologians powered by Big EVA. Woke? Theologians? Is that an oxymoron?

We are not content on majoring on the majors to love God, & care for others as the two greatest commandments Matthew 22:36-40 and minor on the minors (almost everything else) because on X (formerly Twitter), EVERY TOPIC is treated as a MAJOR.

While minor issues are often important, let's prioritize and share the core message of our faith. Let's not lose sight of the Gospel message for salvation. Our goal should be to lead others to know God and to seek to honor Him in all that we say and do.

If you spend any time on X, you find most all faith topics are debated in short, terse, blurted opines and/or put-downs of those they disagree with. The unspoken rules are 1. There must be a winner or loser, and 2. an unspoken bonus is available if you declare someone a HERETIC.

It is easy to get caught up in a situation even when you believe you are the peacemaker. I have too often tried to share the voice of reason until someone blows up on me with a snide post.

Ohhh, then I want to (and sometimes do) send return fire in hopes of putting my 'now declared enemy' in their place.

But I digress, as I am posting today imploring for a kinder, gentler X.

The truth is, no matter how smart or spiritually deep any of us think we are, we are very finite and limited, and so we are better off spending most of our time encouraging each other in this life to love our God with our lives.

The rest will be trivial pursuit by comparison.

Blessings,

Jeff (armed with strong opinions) Larson

Caring or a Karen