"Taking Jesus Seriously"

Taking Jesus seriously! We say we do, but do we? I heard a story at Annual Conference about a hunting trip that Billy Martin and Mickey Mantle went on. You see, these two men were baseball players. Not only did they play baseball together, they also loved to go hunting together. The story goes like this. Billy and Mickey were driving up to a ranch were they had permission to hunt. Out of courtesy, they would always ask permission prior to hunting. So as the story goes, Mickey goes up to the ranch house and asks the rancher for permission. The rancher said, yes you can hunt you know that. You don't even have to ask. But can you do me a favor? My donkey is very sick and is not going to make it. Would you put him down for me? Mickey said, "Sure, I'll put him down for you." So Mickey thought to himself as he was walking to the car, "I'm going to play a joke on Billy. He gets to the car and acts like the rancher told him he can't hunt. He throws his fist in the air and tells Billy, "I can't believe this rancher will not let us hunt, I'll get back at him." He picks up his gun and goes in the barn and shoots the donkey. Meanwhile Mickey hears two shots, he comes running out of the barn and sees that Billy just shot two cows. He says, "What are you doing shooting these two

cows." Well Billy said, "I seen how mad you were and it made me mad also that we could not hunt so I shot two of his cows." Mickey said, "I was not serious about not being able to hunt."

Taking Jesus seriously is serious business. As Christians we stand on the Word of God, the Bible and must take it seriously. This is God's desire for us, but Satan wants to throw obstacles and worries in our way. To help avoid this we must know God's Word by reading and studying it; not only that, but then taking what we read and applying it to our daily lives. This is taking Jesus seriously.

You see, we don't have to worry about God's Word being truth today and being wrong tomorrow. God does not change! We change, but God does not. The older we get the more our metabolism slows down. Aging takes its effect on all of us. We don't run as fast; we don't see as well; we don't hear the way we used to; we forget things more often. Yet God does not change. He is not composed of flesh and bone. No age spots on His hands. He does not get dark circles under His eyes for lack of sleep. He is the great "I Am." Even when Christ became a man; God's nature did not change. Flesh did not become God, but "God became flesh and dwelt among us."

God's love has not changed either. He loved us from the very beginning of time. The Bible says, "Long before he laid down earth's foundations, he had us in mind, had settled on us as the focus of his love, to be made whole and holy by his love" (Eph. 1:4). God's nature and His love for us have not changed! Let's continue to take Him seriously!

Pastor Dwayne