So why the sour look?

You ever wonder why some Christian walk around with such a sour look on their face you'd think they were weaned on a pickle?
 

John 15:11-15(NKJV)

“These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full. 

This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 

Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends. 

You are My friends if you do whatever I command you. 

No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you. 

If you are joyful then let your face know!!!  :)

Wow, if only I had listened!!!

Life would have been so much easier if I had heeded this advice.  Especially the "do not disdain" part. 

Proverbs 8:33(NKJV)

    Hear instruction and be wise,     And do not disdain it.

When I was in high school I purposely didn't do my school work.  It was a way to rebel.  In effect I disdained instruction and wisdom.  It was fun to rebel but it made the beginnings of adulthood way harder than it needed to be. 

Nobody's fault but my own.  God had warned me but I chose not to listen.  Silly me!

Do you have the Holy Spirit? Can you tell?

Yes I do and yes I can.  And the cool thing is that you can have the Holy Spirit too.  All you have to do is ask.  "Dear Jesus…."

John 14:15-18(NKJV)

“If you love Me, keep My commandments. 

And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever—

the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. 

I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.

"Therefore be wise as serpents…" an interesting juxtaposition

Now this is an interesting juxtaposition

Matthew 10:16(NKJV)

“Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves. Therefore be wise as serpents and harmless as doves. 

This is Jesus speaking telling us to be wise as serpents. 

The reason I see it as a juxtaposition is that in this case "wise as a serpent" seems to be presented as a positive thing.  But remember it was a Serpent pedaling "wisdom" (knowledge of good and evil) that first led man astray!

Does Jesus pray for everybody?

Not according to Jesus He doesn't.  I don't think He can make it any plainer than that.

John 17:9(NKJV)

“I pray for them. I do not pray for the world but for those whom You have given Me, for they are Yours. 

Or to put it another way, Jesus only prays for those who have accepted Him. 

Now don't confuse what Jesus does in this situation with what He instructed us to do.
 

Matthew 5:44(NKJV)

But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, 

Does that seem contradictory?  I don't think it is and I'll tell you why.

As far as who Jesus prays for I think that makes total sense from the standpoint that we are described as heirs with Jesus when we accept Him.  I see being prayed for by Jesus as one of the things that we receive because we are heirs that non-heirs are not entitled to.  Makes perfect sense to me when I look at it this way.

As far as our enemies, I think the point here is that we should continue to pray that they come to accept Jesus.  That is how we can demonstrate our greatest love.  Does that make sense?   

Is not believing in Jesus a sin?

I had never really thought of it that way before but in the last two days I have found Scripture that says exactly that!

John 15:18-25(NKJV)

“If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. 

If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. 

Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. If they kept My word, they will keep yours also. 

But all these things they will do to you for My name’s sake, because they do not know Him who sent Me. 

If I had not come and spoken to them, they would have no sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. 

He who hates Me hates My Father also. 

If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would have no sin; but now they have seen and also hated both Me and My Father. 

But this happened that the word might be fulfilled which is written in their law, ‘They hated Me without a cause.’ 

John 16:5-11(NKJV)

“But now I go away to Him who sent Me, and none of you asks Me, ‘Where are You going?’ 

But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. 

Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you. 

And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: 

of sin, because they do not believe in Me; 

of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more; 

of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.

Why do bad things happen to Christians? Isn't God protecting them?

Have you ever wondered that?  I know many have.  I love the way John 15 explains it.

John 15:1-8(NKJV)

“I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. 

Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit. 

You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. 

Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.

“I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. 

If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned. 

If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. 

By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.

It's interesting that just the other day I was watching a video on Youtube about pruning Lilac bushes.  Lilac is my favorite smelling flower.  I have two bushes that are huge but they don't put out many flowers. 

What I learned from the video is that to make my Lilac bushes produce more fruit they need to be pruned.  Parts of it need to be trimmed away.  In the case of my bushes they have not been done correctly that I am going to need to start over.

I need to cut them all the way down to ground level.  That will be pretty traumatic for the bushes.  But it is only through that trauma can they be made to be more productive.  Make sense?

Or another way of saying it is that there are some life lessons that can only be learned the hard way.  

Now if we look at the highlighted part above what did Jesus say?  Every branch that doesn't bear fruit to God is simply snipped away for good.  But even the branches that are bearing fruit for God need to be trimmed back (trauma) so that through the lessons learned they can bear even more fruit. 

And that is why bad things sometimes happen to Christians.