Lots of people in our world today struggle with decision making. (Lebron’s “Decision” last summer)

It is not uncommon for you to hear someone say “I hate choices.” Or “I hate having to make decisions.” Decisions are often very hard to make. Especially when there are major ramifications to what you decide.

Well in Luke 6, we see a vivid picture as to how the God-Man approached making a big decision.

In Luke 6:13, the Bible says “he (Jesus) called his disciples and chose from them twelve.” Now we do not know how many disciples were there. Obviously it had to be more than 12, But we can assume it was quite a bit. 50, maybe 100 or 200, who knows. But the last few chapters of Luke have been showing a huge response and following to Jesus’ ministry. Regardless of how many people were there, Jesus had a huge decision to make. He was choosing from those disciples a select 12 that he would invest himself in and later commission to go and change the world through the Spirit’s power by preaching and spreading the Gospel.

Jesus’ choosing the 12 apostles was an enormous decision that was not to be taken lightly. So how did Jesus approach this big decision?

The previous verse tells us. In Luke 6:12-13a, the Word of God states “In these days he went out to the mountain to pray, and all night he continued in prayer to God. And when day came, he called his disciples…”

So before Jesus makes the world-changing draft picks for who his 12 apostles would be, he spent the entire night alone on a mountain in prayer to God. Wow! Alone. On a mountain. All night. In prayer. God led Jesus to choose those 12.

Next time you are faced with a big decision… who to date, who to marry, what to buy, how much to spend, new car, new house, new job, what school, what direction, and so on and so on… approach it the right way, the humble way, the surrendered way, the depending on God way, the Jesus way! Get alone and seek God in prayer, He will lead you!

Yesterday the heat index was up into the high 90s. It was hot.

So the boys and I made some slip n slide fun. You can check out 3 different videos on http://joshjr.blogspot.com/

There are some places in the Bible that are so, so very serious. So intense that they can be disturbing!

Revelation 16:4-7 is one of these passages. This is the section of the 7 Bowls of God’s Wrath. These particular verses are the Third Bowl. This third angel is praising God while he pours out a Bowl of the Wrath of God. This bowl turns the rivers and springs of water into blood. While this is happening another angel cries out at the end of verse 6:

“It is what they deserve!”

SO SERIOUS! Any human being will have a hard time with someone being punished under the wrath of God. UNLESS their view and allegiance to God is big and true.

See, the Bowls of God’s wrath are not to be taken out of context… The seven seals of chapter 6-8 and the seven trumpets of chapters 8-11 are judgments also but they are warnings too. They are not final. They were judgmental warnings that were intended to get peoples’ attention to turn to God. But “the rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent…” (Rev. 9:20) Event after event was happening and should have caused people to turn to God, but they refuse to turn to God. Instead they continue cursing God.

So it is fitting in the end, when the angel of God praises God for pouring out his wrath on sinners.

Its a hard truth. But God’s Holiness is at stake.

May we followers of Jesus, redeemed only by grace, be humbled by this reality.

Summer Break is here and we are in the middle of our church’s VBS week. It is an awesome time and so much joy and fun for so many reasons.

My sons are growing up, and it is all so new to me. I really cannot believe where God has brought me in life. Here are two recent pictures of each of the boys. JJ is 3 and a half. Eli recently turned two. And Noah is 8 months.

As I have been studying Revelation a lot lately, I am loving God and His word more and more.  This week I will be teaching through chapter 16 in our Men’s & Women’s Bible Studies. Chapter 16 contains the 7 Bowls of the wrath of God. One of the books I have been studying is Michael Wilcock’s book The Message of Revelation in the John Stott Series.

Here is an excerpt from Michael Wilcock’s book:

“The angels’ Bowls, moreover, are filled with the wrath of the God who lives for ever and ever, and ‘it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God’ (Heb. 10:31). It means that though our life may end with its bang or its whimper, his life continues unaffected. The bomb goes up, the smoke clears, the dust dies down– he is still there. Or alternatively, the busy world is hushed, the fever of life is over, and our work is done, and we look forward to peace at the last– but he is still there to be reckoned with. ‘Do not fear those who kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. But I will warn you whom to fear: fear him who, after he has killed, has power to cast into hell'(Luke 12:4, 5). It is the classic horror story situation, where you flee from the thing you fear, take refuge behind your barricades, and find you have locked it inside with you. It is the Hound of Heaven, only a hound of judgment, not of mercy. ‘Who among us can dwell with everlasting burnings?’ (Isaiah 33:14).”

“I believe God made me for a purpose, but he also made me fast. And when I run I feel His pleasure.”  -Eric Liddell

“those who honor me, I will honor” -1 Samuel 2:30

THIS IS A MUST READ ARTICLE!

Dr. Russell Moore has written an awesome article that I wish everyone could read.

Please click here to read his article titled “Are you smarter than Anthony Weiner?”

Last night, I heard a good sermon from Psalm 25 by Adam Willett. It stuck with me.

So when I woke up this morning, this one thought was running through my head. I want to share it here.

Psalm 25:4:

“Make me to know your ways, O Lord”

Me… to know… Your ways! Make me to know your ways! Me… Josh Greene… to know God’s ways?

This is the whole sum of our faith, true religion. That a lowly person can know God and his ways. And it is God that makes it happen.

What a thought! What a mystery! What truth! What beauty! What glory!

Lately we have been having some good discussions about the meaning and use of the well-known phrase “once saved, always saved”.

If you are a baptist or have been around church-life much, chances are that you have heard this phrase discussed. Many people prefer the phrase “eternal security” instead of “once saved always saved”. And other people prefer to use perseverance!

I wanted to simply share with you some crucial passages from the Bible that need to be considered in this discussion. It is so healthy for Believers (who are filled with the Spirit) to read God’s Word and then spend time thinking through it. The whole Bible is involved in teaching us how to understand the great work of God saving sinners. But these few passages here are helpful to understanding this discussion.

John 10:28-29

“I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.”

1 John 2:19

“They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us.”

Romans 10:13

“For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

Revelation 13:8

“and all who dwell on the earth will worship it, everyone whose name has not been written before the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who was slain.”

James 2:19

“even the demons believe– and shudder.”

Hebrews 6:4-6

“For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance…”

My two oldest sons, JJ and Eli, love playing music. It makes me so happy to see them like this. I don’t know where they get it from.