Did I see Jesus handing out fish sandwiches?

Before I begin this blog I need to point out that I am not seeking any donations nor does my site, Sozo Resources.com, that is not what this is about. Since I am so hard on the Body of Christ and the leadership, specially in the areas of giving and money it has been on my heart to address giving...


As a Christian we are often confronted with the giving of our finances. Televangelist beg for every dollar you can give, they promise special books, hankies, plates, and other nice novelty gifts in exchange for our kindness. Churches seek our money for their growth, building projects, in-church programs, and so on. Now, in all honesty, if you are so inclined or are lead to give to those ministries then you should. And let's face it, the world runs on money, including the needs of the church. Practically everything in this world requires money.


As a Christian when we give based on our faith, God honors that and does bless our giving. As a Christian, I also believe that we are to responsible about our own giving. Jesus gave us the parable about the master and the servants. In this illustration the Master gave the servants money and they each did with as they saw fit. When the Master returned he judged what the servants did with their money.


We have all heard this sermon, many times probably, but an angle which I think we might need to look at is that he gave his servants RESPONSIBILITY over the money. The smart servants didn't throw there money in a hole, they wisely invested it in something that gave a return. I believe THAT is a very important point that needs consideration when it comes to giving, even to ministries. We should use wisdom in giving. As I stated before, I believe God honors our giving, and it is the responsibility of the receiver to use what they have received wisely as well, but too often we have a tendency to give blindly without a thought of how our gifts and donations are actually being used. Lately we have heard about too many ministries and organizations who are using those donations improperly and even illegally.

I know that we are not able to find out exactly how our donations are being used and exactly where they are going. But I also believe that it is NOT IMPROPER to ask ministries and organizations how our gifts are going to be used. Most upstanding organizations will offer some type of disclosure of what our giving goes for. Some organizations go as far as to use third party accountability groups to reassure us that donations are used responsibly.

Now hold on, I also know that if we are giving to our local church we are attending we can have a certain amount of trust that they are using the finances properly...paying the bills, the minister, supporting their missionaries and so forth. Most of our churches have finance meetings that disclose what they are doing with the donations and how our money is working. They act very responsible. Many non-profit organizations have public records that are available to givers to show them exactly how they are using their donations. i.e. The Red Cross and so on. And we should check the records out once in a while. We should hold them accountable for how they use our donations. It is proper. I honestly believe in my heart that it is not rebellion to ask how a ministry how they are using your tithes and offerings. I believe it is just being a responsible giver and a good stewart.

Be obedient and give as God directs you with out reservation. But remember God wants us to use wisdom in all things.

Seek Him, and SHARE JESUS FREELY!

Do you know my Jesus?

Out there is a world full of lies and deceit. A world full of hate and distrust. A mean place that doesn't really care for you. The world, no matter how inviting it looks, only cares about what you can give it, not what it can give you. You know this is true. The world feigns sincerity but when it comes down to it the world doesn't love you at all.

The world is a place that doesn't believe in God the father, the son or the Holy Spirit. The world mocks the Christian. And let's face it the Christian hasn't been the best example of our savior, have we. In fact it is often hard to tell the Christian from the world. Myself included.

But, the world doesn't know my Jesus. I want to introduce you to my Jesus. My Jesus was with God the father and chose to leave his side to come down here to a world that he knew would mock him and eventually abuse and kill him. But he came anyways. My Jesus came out of love and touched the hopeless, healed the sick, ministered to the wounded, and redeemed the sinners. He touched their lives, not with great social programs, not with building projects, not with dazzling shows of light and sound. No, my Jesus reached the people with love. Real to God, honest love and true compassion.

My Jesus shared food and drink with those who were the most horrible of sinners. He reached out his hand in friendship and showed his love for them without worry. The needs of the people deeply moved Jesus and he responded. My Jesus lifted the spirits of those he met, from the prostitute about to stoned in the street to the lowly children he sat lovingly on his knee.

My Jesus noticed the slightest touch of a sickly woman, who had what they called an issue of blood, and that touch was enough to heal her and Jesus who was surrounded by a massive crowd of people noticed the insignificant little touch of that woman. His love was so great AND he took the time to notice the small things like her touch.

He had compassion even on those who did not fully believe. He never begged for money, He never condemned the possessed, he never exploited the infirmed, instead he touched them and ministered to them. He looked into their hearts and loved them in spite of their afflictions or crimes. He healed the leapers, not because it was his job, not because he owed it to them, not because it would make him look good, he did it because he loved them and wanted to sincerely help them.

Then, after healing the sick, ministering to the poor in spirit, touching the lives of the destitute, and changing the hearts of those he touched he allowed himself to be arrested, tortured and executed by the same people he loved so dearly. Even in the last moments of his life he showed unselfish compassion to a common thief that was being executed for his crimes. Then when God the father was so disturbed by what was happening that He couldn't look at Jesus, Jesus prayed for God to forgive us and those who were killing him.

After that he was buried and rose from the grave three days later. No fanfare, no party, no parade. He simple rose from the grave showed himself to his believers and left us to continue on his work. But even still after all that he sent the Holy Spirit as a comfort to us so we would not be lonely without him. Such love and compassion. That is my Jesus.

There but for the Grace of God...

I know a gentleman who was once in jail. He was once a criminal and had lead a very hard life. In prison he met Jesus and accepted him as his Lord and savior. He became a changed man. He is filled with a passion and a fire for God that I have rarely seen. My brother seemed to think that this man and others like him had such fire because they felt they had a greater debt to pay or their deliverance was so dramatic that it gave them a special testimony. My brother reminded me that it is said that "those who are forgiven much, love much." I can't find fault in that at all and I believe it to be true. It is truly amazing when a man who has lived such a hard life comes to experience the love of Christ.

But I look at the Church and I look at myself and I see a lot people who have been in church for years and have not been such great sinners. We have not seen such dramatic deliverance and we end up talking about everything under the sun except Christ. We have no fire, no zeal. And to honest it doesn't make sense why we don't have that same fire and zeal as the gentleman I spoke of earlier. Our pitiful little sins were sending us to the same hell he was bound for when we met Jesus. Our petty crimes had convicted us to be punished just as much as his great crimes. Our deliverance may not have been as dramatic but the results were the same...we were saved from eternal damnation and hellfire just as he was. Where is our fire?

We are the vilest of sinners no matter how great our sin is before we meet Jesus. We are just as horrid in the eyes of God as the biggest murderer until we accept Christ. Once we really get that into our heart we can begin to understand that our deliverance is just as great. If we don't feel that fire or zeal...maybe we don't realize exactly what God has done for us?

Keeping The Faith...Baby!

I am a big fan of old television shows and one of my favorites is Dragnet with Sergeant Joe Friday. In one of the episodes Joe had went back to college for self improvement. During the course, lead by a very liberal pot smoking professor, he was asked to leave because he arrested one of his fellow students for carrying pot, which at the time was very illegal.(Which it should be.) But Joe reacted humbly but presented his case for why he shouldn't be ejected from the class. Well eventually he didn't leave the class but he stood up for what was right, he stood up for his rights as a student even though the majority of his classmates were against him. His big line during the episode has always stuck with me. He told them that while they all wanted to do their thing his thing was..."Keeping the Faith...Baby." Doing what is right and his job.

Man how that type of bravado is needed these days. In the face of much adversity we should "Keep the Faith...Baby." When the church world is full of compromise we should "Keep the Faith...Baby." When our lives are overrun with doubt and confussion we need to "Keep the Faith...Baby." Doing what is right is not always easy...in fact it is often much harder.

I know I harp on the body of Christ a lot but in all honesty it is aimed at myself more than anyone else. This blog is intended to be a Word of encouragement. "Keep the Faith...Baby." If you are having struggles in your Christian walk, "Keep the Faith...Baby." Which is saying hold on. Don't give up. Hold fast because the truth will outlast the troubles you are having. Christ will sustain you in all your tribulations. Regardless of how messed up the Body of Christ seems to be, God still is on the Throne. His blood still covers our sin. His salvation is still FREE.

You may think you are the only one going through what you are experiencing but I assure you that Christ understands and he is weathering the storm with you. So, "Keep the Faith...Baby." If your church is going nuts with lots of problems, "Keep the Faith...Baby." Don't allow yourself to be drug down by the actions of others. Avoid those snare which easily trip us up.

During these times draw closer to Christ. Don't lose sight of what is real and what is true. Remember Jesus is the author and finisher of our faith. He knows our heart. If Religion has beat you up and spit you out, "Keep the Faith...Baby." I pray that I can make this a battle cry throughout the rest of my life. When I am struggling with my pride, doubt, or selfishness or anything that pursuades me away from the path of righteousness.

The Bible tells us that when we have done all we can to stand, Stand. And when the enemy attacks you on every side remember that God will raise up the standard or the defenses for us. So, "Keep the Faith...Baby."

Making Jesus Conform

Well, the battlelines are drawn and people are choosing their champions. The new leader of the USA is in our sites and we will now become polarized and divided as a nation. And guess what, all of them claim to be Christian. Now I am not going to say they are not because I hope they are Christians and I hope they will listen to the Holy Spirit about being a good leader for this nation. But what I am having a difficult time with in all the arena of politics, is how we try to make Jesus conform to our political platform.

The Republicans seem to pray for and prey on the Christian voter base. The Democrates can't stand the conservative Christian voter and thinks we should not vote but they call on our churches to promote their liberal based programs. It's like, "Come here Jesus so we can be seen with you." or "Jesus is my co-pilot and I know he supports my position." --I can't stand it anymore!

We Christians have got to stop trying to make Jesus conform to our ideas. Here's a radical idea...let's conform to his! Hmmm....Love your God above all and Love your neighbor like you love yourselves. It's so insane it just might work. In fact it'll change your life. Too often we vote without really thinking about the moral choices we are making with our vote. Too often it ends up being all about the money or following the social trends.

Now I know we have to make political choices and some choices we make will be good and others turn out bad but we should be prayerful about any choice we make. We should travel down our political paths with Jesus as our Compass not our luggage. Not just in our political lives but our everyday life as well. We want to MAKE Jesus fit into our social routines, into our friend-base, into our church and into the way we want to walk the Christian walk. I know that there are many times that I have walked the Christian walk asking Jesus to follow me. And I know darn good and well that you have too. It happens, but we need to recognize this problem and humble ourselves before our God and King.

We must decrease so that He can increase. We must try to conform to His divine will and quit trying to shove Jesus into a little box that we put on our shelves.

Free Christian Resources at SozoResources.com

The FREE JESUS Blog is not a place where I would promote anything other than to FREE JESUS in our lives and to the world. The major goals are to give Jesus away to others for free at no cost and to promote Christian living. In working towards these goals I have developed SozoResources.com.

SozoResources.com. is a growing resource site that offers everyone FREE downloads of digital and audio bibles, FREE tracts, FREE bookmarks, and FREE resource links. It is available for everyone - churches, ministers, organizations, and the average folks like you and me. The site will NEVER sell anything nor will it directly promote the selling of anything. Though there are links to sites that do sell products it is not done for any payment or advertising income to me or anyone associated with SozoResources.com. I DO NOT charge nor receive any money for any links or banners on the site. I do NOT ask for money or donations. The site is not a company or business and I am NOT a structured ministry or ordained minister nor am I a 501(c)3 corporation so I CAN'T recieve any donations like ministries can - and I don't want them.

God has blessed me with a wonderful business I support my family that way. I honestly only want to share the goodness and freedom of Christ with others - for FREE. I feel I need to say something at this point, the freejesus.blogspot.com and SozoResources.com. sites are not comments, nor condemnations of any ministry or organization that may have products for sale. It is strictly my personal conviction, mission, and goal. BUT I may gripe about ministries and ministers that are all about the money and I know the Holy Spirit will correct me when I am wrong.

Please check out the site and let others know about it as well. If you have any resources that you know about and you think would be a good fit for the SozoResources.com Site please don't hesitate to send me an email with information about the resource. You can send it to info@sozoresources.com.

Thank you and God Bless

Interesting Article on Christianity.com

A buddy of mine just sent me a link to a great article from Max Lucado on the Christianity.com website it is located at this link http://bible.christianity.com/devotionals/upwords/11566477/

Also a wonderful article by Melody Green. Minister, singer, songwriter, Widow of Keith Green. The article is located at:
http://www.lastdaysministries.org/streets/peoplegettingsaved.html

Check them out I am sure you will be blessed.