July 2009

Dear Friends and Visitors,

You might have noticed that we have added two new articles to our library, Buying a Home –Structural Considerations Part 1 and Buying a Home – Natural Gas Furnaces. These articles are intended to help educate anyone thinking of buying a home. The article on furnaces was written and edited with the assistance of a mechanical engineer.

If you would like additional articles of this kind, please email us to encourage us and offer topic ideas.

Thanks for visiting our site.

Jerry Prugar

When someone has asked me, “What is your favorite Bible verse?” I have usually had an answer, but the answer would almost always be different. I eventually realized that my favorite Bible verse was usually the last one I read that opened my eyes to another one of God’s truths. For reflection I write about a few of them here.

The first favorite I recall was quoted by Dr. Tony Evans at a men’s conference, “Vanity of vanities, saith the preacher, vanity of vanities all is vanity…” and later he read, “…everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun.” Those verses pretty much summarized what I had come to feel. I had come to realize that everything that I had struggled and worked for and accomplished is temporary. And when I die, it is all vanity (emptiness). My life was like a chasing and grasping of the wind: and when my life ends, my hand will still be empty. And like the prosperous man or the poor man, the wise man or the fool, the man of long life or short, the kind man or cruel man, the leader or the follower, and the hard working or the slothful, the man of many friends or the man of few, my days shall also come to an end. And then what?

The Bible states that all that has been done, said, or thought by a man or woman shall be brought to review and judgment. Not only deeds of unkindness, but words and thoughts of unkindness will be judged. Not only unkindness to others around me, but doing, speaking, and thinking with little or no gratitude to the God who created all things. Just as ingratitude toward our parents is detestable, ingratitude toward God, the Father of all Creation, is even more so. This ingratitude manifests itself as subtle or open rebellion against what God has said is right and good, transgression of what God has established as rules for mankind living together in peace (the Ten Commandments), and even falling short of being the kind and loving people we should be all the time. These are classified as sin, and “the wages of sin is death.” In our repeated rebellion, transgression, and falling short of God’s standard we not only confirm that we deserve a physical death, but also a spiritual death. It was then that I realized I was not the good man I thought I was, but a man who had taken the life God had given to me and squandered it on myself and my pleasures with little regard for Him. I was a religious Pharisee, following the rules to try to appease a distant God. I had unknowingly been paying lip service to God with regular church attendance and half-heartedly following His Ten Commandments, rationalizing away my guilt.

But, when Dr. Evans said it was time to come home to a God who loves me, a God who came and died for me, a God who cares for me, it was then that I realized that He was like the father in the story of the prodigal son (the gospel of Luke chapter 15). The father was willing to go out every day and look and hope for the return of the disobedient prodigal son.

But I didn’t perceive myself as the prodigal son. I was like to the son who complained and rebelled when the prodigal son returned. I complained and rebelled because I wasn’t getting what I thought I deserved for my apparent obedience to Him. That is, even though I thought I was the “stay at home son, the good son,” my heart was far away from the Father. On that day, I called out to the Father, “Forgive me for I have sinned against you. Save me from my sin.” I left the conference with the words from Joshua, who had led the Israelites into the Promised Land, “Chose this day whom you will serve, but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” Something changed inside me that day – I was different, I saw God, the world and myself differently - but it took months to understand what had happened that day.

The second verse I recall is, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ.” About four months later, listening to a sermon by Warren Wiersbe on the radio, I came to understand what had changed in me. God had reconciled me to Himself and made me new inside. Just like that old hymn says, “Amazing grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now am found. Was blind, but now I see.” I am a wretch – it is a word that has no equivalent in the Microsoft Word Thesaurus. A word that has been dropped from the American vocabulary, because it is contrary to the teaching of self-esteem.

The third verse I recall was written by the Apostle Paul, “Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst. But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his unlimited patience…..” When I read Paul’s words I came to realize that before the courtroom of God I had the standing of a great sinner, but on the account of nothing I did, God showed His great mercy and patience by reconciling me to Himself. And now I understood even better what had happened at the men’s conference.

The fourth verse I recall is, “If anyone else thinks he has reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for legalistic righteousness, faultless. But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith.”

Like Paul I had put my confidence for gaining heaven on my infant Baptism, my heritage of being from a particular Christian denomination, technically and practically following the Church laws and the Ten Commandments; attending church every Sunday; having a passion to make right what I had perceived as an injustice; and regular attendance at confession. But I realized, like Paul, that none of these can make me right with God. My rightness with God does not come from what I do, but comes from God and is based on what Jesus Christ did: He lived a perfect life which He proposes to credit to my account and He died on the cross taking the wrath of God for my sin, which He proposes to credit to my account. These credits are a gift that are received by faith, a faith that shows itself in a change of heart and a desire for obedience to God. A faith that is given by God, not earned, not worked up within myself.

The Bible instructs us to examine our faith to see if it is real. Jesus says, “Many will say to Me in that day Lord, Lord,… {but] I will tell them plainly I never knew you.” Don’t be caught in this situation: examine your faith. If you are not sure about your faith, call out to God the Father and Jesus Christ for mercy and help with this.

I could write on for days about the verses that have changed my heart, my thoughts, and my life, but I will close with only one more.

The last verse I am recalling here is, “and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." These are in red because they were said by Jesus Christ. He said them just before He ascended in heaven. These are important because I am not called to convert you, cajole you, or convince you that what I say is true. I am just a witness who was confronted with an accurate understanding of my distant relationship with God and an accurate understanding of who Jesus Christ is and what He has done for anyone who calls on Him. I was confronted with the question that Joshua asked the Israelites after they had entered the promised land but had forgotten about God, “Now fear the LORD and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your forefathers worshiped beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD. But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD."

Make time to consider these claims thoroughly before rejecting or accepting them. Your verdict at the final judgment will depend on it. Read the testimony of others in the Bible. The gospel of John is a good place to start because John says, “[T] hese are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.” And if any of you lacks wisdom, ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given.

May God bless you in these unusual times.