The Corinthian culture was much like the American culture today. It would be nice if marriage were Valentine’s day everyday! The Bible answers questions about sex, marriage, parenting, singleness and every other social and moral question you could ask. If you want the right answer go to God! Everyone seems to like Jesus however following Him seems to be a tripping point for most! People have to give up their sin and just too much for many. We have a sexual ethics problem in America because our culture is following voices that oppose the voice of God! If you follow Jesus you follow peace, joy, kindness and sexual boundaries! A restoration ministry focuses on brokenness. We deal with brokenness of the past! The Church is committed to discipleship. Paul was not anti-marriage when he said it is not good to marry. Paul was also encouraging women who were married to be respected and dignified. Paul went on to say in marriage your bodies belong to each other. Do not deprive one another. Marriage is a gift from God! Sex is powerful and marriage allows the healthy expression of this gift. The institution of marriage allows mutual respect and a healthy environment for sexual expression. One of the common abuses in marriage is couples using scriptures to beat up on each other. The wrong attitude is you owe me sex! The right attitude is we serve each other with sex. Not the power to control each other but to serve each other. We serve each other in marriage with sex. Do not keep score! Do not use sex to manipulate and control each other! Jesus produces a new attitude within us! The wrong attitude is my wife owes me sex. Sex is designed by God for pro-creation and not recreation. Jesus has given us a new way of living to serve each other in marriage. Wrong attitudes is this is your job and this is my job. Be kind and serve each other. Verse 12. Unbeliever’s are sanctified by the believing spouse. Women are often taking the children to church alone. Paul encourages them to stay steady. Do not put him out. Divorce is not an easy option. Divorce is not a fire escape. My mother was a believer but my father was not until I was 20 years old. I still had a great dad! While dad went deer hunting my mother took us to church. There were sometimes arguments about church. Paul also said not to stay in a abusive relationship. Do not give up easy. My mother instructed me in the scriptures and I am saved today because of her care for me. Verse 32. Single people also have purpose! Paul says you are valuable even if single. Couples have to focus on marriage issues while single people can focus on God’s affairs. Singleness is an opportunity! You can use your time and resources on building God’s Kingdom. About 20 years ago I had a couple come into my church office in real trouble. They showed physical aggression towards on another. They sat in chairs at opposite ends of my office and cursed at each other. I came to realize I could not fix their problems in one hour! Curse words flowed like water! You are a mother of this, that and everything! I shared with them that they need to learn to like each other. Need to treat each other like they were living in Mr. Roger’s neighborhood. They needed to forgive each other! They were messed up bad! They scheduled another appointment and this time they did not curse so much! Bad words were there but not so many. No death threats this time so things were looking up. They wanted me to help them have a good divorce! I asked them if they wanted a good marriage? They came back to my office again and again. Finally they sat next to each other on the same couch in my office! They smiled and began to love each other. Then ran a metal works business. They brought me a metal Cross they built in their shop as a gift in gratitude for the help I gave them. It has hung in my office over past 20 years as a reminder of God’s faithfulness! Forgive people! Forgive yourself and others! Let judgment go! We are called to forgive! Do not give up! Do not try to manipulate and control people! God has forgiven us through the Cross! Let Him restore and redeem you! Let us pray——— Source; Pastor Brady Boyd, New Life Church, Colorado Springs, Colorado. Message given on Sunday, February 16, 2014
Tag: new
Sharing Your Faith With Others! Matthew 7:6
I love the balance the scriptures provide to us! We are commanded by Christ to go our into all the world to preach the Gospel or good news! However Jesus did not send us out to get blind sided by Satan! Jesus said in Matthew 7:6, “Give not that which is Holy to the dogs, neither cast your pearls before the swine, lest they trample them under their feet and turn again and rend you!” The word Holy here means someone physically pure or a moral person. The word rend means to tear in pieces. Jesus is reminding us to be wise with the beauty He has given us. We know that the world is one third Christian. If the entire world has heard about Christ and made a decision for Him or have rejected Him then one out of three has accepted Him and two out of three have rejected Him. I wish our evangelism programs were this good! Bottom line is we need the whole council of God and the entire Bible both Old and New Testament gives us an important balance to our Faith as we live for Him! Thankyou. James and Hamsa Sasse. GodWhoisGod.com
Desperation Conference July 9-11, 2014
Thousands of students from all over the world will descend on Colorado Springs for this conference! About a dozen church leaders from around the globe will be ministering to our youth and pass on their wisdom and experiences to the next generation succeeding them! You may sign up for this youth explosion conference by going on-line at; DESPERATIONONLINE.COM You may also contact us by E-mail; Info@DESPERATIONONLINE.COM Thankyou. Pastor Brady Boyd, New Life Church, Colorado Springs, Colorado Phone; 719-278-3334.
The Spiritual Mystery of Sex! 1 Corinthians 6—–
The Greeks invented athletic contests and held them in honor of their gods! The Isthmus games were held every two years at the Isthmus of Corinth. The ancient Olympics were begun in 700 B.C. in honor of Zeus. No women were allowed to watch the games and only Greek nationals were allowed to participate. Corinth was a beautiful place in southern Greece with ocean on both sides. It was a major trade route with lots of wealthy people living there. The population had a lot of retired Roman military leaders living there so it was a secure place. It was a thriving place! It was also a sexually broken place with 1000 prostitutes in their temples. The poor got wealthy there! Quick money was to be made in Corinth. God created sex and it is one of his best idea’s! Next to Salvation He has never come up with a better idea! The problem is the world has perverted a great idea. There are over 430 million pornography sites on the internet! It is the most viewed topic on the internet. It has devastating effects on relationships. The world’s question about sex is, “How can I have better sex with more people?” This was Corinth and the world we live in today. What should be the question about sex in the Church? How can I Glorify God with my sexuality? 1 Corinthians 6:18. Flee sexual immorality! God designed sex to be used in the marriage covenant. The purpose of children is to raise righteous seed to counter the unrighteous seed in the earth. God’s design for marriage is beautiful! People do not like to hear wait until marriage. The city slogan in Corinth and even in America today is I will do what I want with whom I want where I want and when I want! People in Corinth would ask an immoral person the following question? Have you been Corinthinized? Have you been Americanized? Porn devastates the Church! The body is not meant for sexual immorality but for the Lord! Our bodies are members of Christ’s Body! The world says it does not matter what you do with your body? Is it your body or His? The cultural teachers in America say you can do what you want? No boundaries! Choices do not matter? Christ took on a human body. His human body was Crucified on a Cross. He was resurrected in a human body. Christ gave dignity to the human body! What we do with our body does have consequences! Good or bad! If Christ lives in your body can you unite Him with a prostitute? The two become one flesh! Sex has a spiritual and a physical dimension. You cannot have one without the other! You save yourself for marriage not as a consequence but as a Gift from God. Matthew 19:5-6. Leave your father and mother and become one flesh. Parents this is the only way you get grandchildren! No longer two but one. God joins two together as one in spirit and flesh. You are welded together. Do not be unequally yoked. Let no man separate what God has joined together! The powers of hell cannot separate us. Many do not wait? If so start over. Today start over. Anyone who comes to Christ is given a second chance! Sexual sin is commited against your own body. A little like suicide. Stand firm and flee sexual immorality! Turn and run! Run away from sin and run towards God! Psalm 101:2. Set your eyes on no vile thing! There are thousands of ads everyday promoting products with sex! David’s sin with Bathsheba began with wandering eyes! Stay focused on God! Do you notice the word, “Bath”, in her name? An idol replaces the true worship of God. Since in creation the woman was taken from the man it is easy for men to worship the woman which is self worship! It can become idol worship and replace the true Worship of God! There is a fine line here and we have to discern. I love my wife best when I love God! Take inventory! Do you need a warehouse to store all your idol’s? Your body is the Temple of The Holy Spirit! Honor God with your body! We are not our own but have been bought with a price! We serve one true God in one Temple who lives in us! The Greeks temple was aphroditis and their 1000 prostitutes! Corinth also had a slave culture. It included more than just sex slaves. Paul did not endorse slavery! In the Greek culture slaves were indentured servants! When a slave escaped and got captured he was turned over to a worse master. If you try to escape God your are turned over to the King of slave masters who is Satan! Christ has freed you from slavery! Jesus is not a cruel slave master but became a slave for you and laid down His life for you! Honor God with your body! It is personal to God what we do with our bodies. Why? We belong to Him! If you come into my house with mud and manure on your shoes I will get upset! I belong to Christ! My children belong to Christ! My family belongs to Christ! Our bodies belong to Christ and what we do with our bodies is very important! Source; Pastor Brady Boyd, New Life Church, Colorado Springs, Colorado. Message given on Sunday, February 9, 2014.
Sex In The Church! 1 Corinthians 5:1
Ephesus and Corinth both suffered from sexual brokenness! God wants us to live in a new community of sexual purity! In Corinth just like the world today there are no sexual boundaries. The shock value of sin is very low in America. Corinth was a shocking culture! The Corinth culture gradually influenced the Church just like in America today! God wants us to be a peculiar people with a pure image in marriage and in our Church family. Paul confronted a man who had his father’s wife in the Church at Corinth. Even under Roman law a man could not marry his step-mother! Paul goes on to say you are even proud of it and does not seem to bother you? Paul says you should be filled with grief! Perverted un-repented sin among believers should grieve us! Paul was not condemning or judging people struggling with sexual sin but encouraging them to repent. Paul is saying there is an elephant in the room and we cannot ignore him. We cannot pretend to be blind but have to confront this behavior in the Church. Paul said in verse 5 that this man needs to be turned over to Satan so his flesh nature is destroyed and his spirit could be saved on the Day of The Lord! We want to help everyone but everyone does not want help! Willful and public sin needs to be challenged! This sinner may have been a wealthy member of the Church. Sometimes in a small congregation the Church will overlook sin because of money. The pagan’s did not even like what was going on. Sexual sin in America is often celebrated? All of us are tempted in this perverted American culture we live in. Sin must not be tolerated and ignored by the Church. Paul is not cursing this man. Paul is saying if you follow your flesh we cannot help you! This man was personally known to the congregation. Paul was trying to help but this man was premeditated to do wrong. He did not want help. He was in love with his flesh! Paul could not help him until he was ready for help. Until he got sick of himself Paul could not help him. A little sin grows like a cancer and consumes the whole body. Death is the final outcome. First spiritual death and then physical death. Paul says in verse 6 that a little yeast or spoilage spoils the whole lump. The yeast and the swelling up represents pride! Do not allow a little of the world to enter your soul. It will take over you! Let the Holy Spirit clean your house. Guard your home. Dad’s are to pray and give leadership in the home. Guard the innocence of your children! Your children are not your buddies. Lead them in paths of righteousness. Parenting should not be a popularity contest. My children do not stay overnight with parents I do not know. Know your kid’s friends! Do not associate with sexually immoral people. There are different standards for the world and the Church. Dogs bark and cats purr and sinners sin. Laws of nature. The world acts like the world. Be ambassador’s of salt and light. Paul goes on in verse 11 we are not to associate with sinners. Not to be mean or nasty to them but not to let them influence you. Judgment starts at the House of God! Use discernment and grieve the sin not celebrate it. Galatians 6:1-3. Come face to face with ugliness and seek to restore if possible. All of us were broken at one time. We were addicted in bondage. Mercy found us and made us the called out ones in the community. Most of us have a story of how God came in and restored us. God holds us to a higher standard. Sin is a terrible burden but to be Holy is Joy! Jesus has already taken our Judgment. Jesus paid for us on the Cross. Remember no Judgment from people is final! Like the thief on the Cross Jesus gets the final word! What pronouncement have people made over you? Ephesians 2:4-7. God has a great love for you! His Grace has saved us! The kindness of Jesus has moved us. Yes, while we were yet sinners! In spite of our flaws His ocean’s of Grace cover us! Have people written you off? Jesus has written your salvation in His own blood! Is your resume full of sin? Fire the Devil and go to work for Jesus. Jesus has purchased you with a price! His life! God gives Grace! Believe it! I did in August of 1988 and He changed my life forever! He can and will for you! Let us close in prayer———-. Source; Pastor Brady Boyd, New Life Church, Colorado Springs, Colorado. Message given on Sunday, February 2, 2014.
Back Off! Exodus 3:5
Take off your shoes for you are standing on Holy Ground! What man made thing is separating you from God? Source; Jon Egan, Executive Pastor of Worship, New Life Church, Colorado Springs, Colorado. Comment; The word “Ground”, is translated from the Hebrew to mean the clay or earth God used in the creation of man. Thankyou. James and Hamsa Sasse. GodWhoisGod.com
Church In The City (Lesson 3) 1 Corinthians 3: 6-11
Paul wrote this letter to Corinth from Ephesus. By comparison today’s culture in America looks like Disney World compared to Corinth and Ephesus! God raises up a group of people to follow Jesus in a wicked culture. Let His light shine through you in the midst of a dark world. World history boils down to God looking for a group of people to follow Jesus! Do not get missed! The only one to change the world for good is Jesus Christ. The power of God and His Holy Spirit works through people. We need to improve in our relationships with our marriage, parenting, jobs and all other social relationships. Paul reminds us we need to improve! There are two principles involved in the process of improvement. Paul sends a troubleshooter named Apollos to Corinth. Apollos was from Alexandria Egypt. He was a scholar just like Paul. Apollos had bright shiny new ideas! Whether Paul or Apollos God causes things to grow. Man plants and waters but God gives the increase! We are God’s building. Be careful how you build. We are all building. We are either growing or diminishing. Our foundation has to be Jesus Christ. Planting is difficult! God comes to us and puts his spotlight on us. He zeroes in on our issues! Sometimes we feel like we are being picked on! Seems like God is disrupting our plans. Our ground is unfallowed and hard so God plows up our soil of our heart and removes the hardness so something can grow. Planting is done one or two times a year. As we as a church work through our 21 day fast and prayer period God shines His light on us and shows us where the changes are needed. God wants to uproot our unfruitful work. He wants to make the soil of our heart fertile and productive. There is a season to plant then God waters and a harvest comes. Watering is a determined work. God showers us with His Grace. He encourages us and strengthens us with His Mercy! His Mercies are new everyday! God will finish the work He has started in you. His work redeems us. Man’s work is never done but God’s work as Jesus said on the Cross, ” It is Finished!” His light pushes back the darkness. We have seasons of difficulty but God is determined to water us. God gives us a good crop with increase! We need to know which season of life we are in. Ecclesiates Chapter 3 says there is a time for everything! Look for times to speak encouragement to your spouse and you children. Window’s of opportunity come and go. If you think you are going to fix your spouse you are a train wreck waiting to happen! Parenting seasons change as children grow up. There are many voices out there in the world. Love is lacking when you are always laying down the law! Cheer on your family and encourage them. The Bible over 5000 years ago in Deuteronomy Chapter 6 tells us the best time to speak to our children. The two times they are most apt to listen to you are when they wake up and when they prepare for bed. They used to say the Brady’s are good when they sleep. Let your children make all their mistakes at home! Water the work God is doing in their lives. Plant-water, Plant-water, instruct-encourage, instruct-encourage. Know your strengths! Speak the truth in love. Learn to balance. Life is lived between the extremes. Learn from one another. Know the soil of your heart. Be quick to forgive. You cannot give away what you do not have! You will reap what you sow. Forgive and receive forgiveness. Recognize the soil of your heart. People treat other people the way they think God treats them. How does God treat you? Is God mean? Unforgiving? Do you believe God has forgiven you? Forgive others as God has forgiven you. We are not naturally kind. We are self-protective and defensive. But God has changed this for us. Now He has given us forgiveness and love. Know the season, your soil, your strengths and how you are wired. You can impact the world if you allow God to change you. Paul left about 35-50 people in Corinth out of a city of over a million people. It is a long story how I got to New Life Church! Back in 2007 I was ministering in Dallas Texas. God spoke to me that He was moving me! I thought about some churches i would like to go too. Where Lord? When Lord? I had some desires but God had a different idea. God told me I am going to send you to a church that is already planted and you are going to water it. We got to New Life Church in 2007 and 100 days later we had a shooting at our church. Darkness will never overshadow those in Christ! The scripture that most strengthened me is 1 Corinthians Chapter 3. God brought our marriage together and our children and He will bring our Church family together. Since 2007 God has done a miraculous work here at New Life Church reaching to the ends of the earth! God gets the Glory! What God has started He will finish! Get your soil right and God will water you and make you grow! Source; Message given by Pastor Brady Boyd at New Life Church, Colorado Springs, Colorado. Message given Sunday January 19, 2014.
Church In The City (Lesson Two) 1 Corinthians 2
Paul was in Corinth for 18 months. Corinth was a dark place. Paul labored in Corinth praying, preaching, proclaiming, evangelizing and leading a small congregation. Paul was a tent maker and labored with his hands rather than demand money from others. He lived in a second story apartment. He stayed with Acquila and Prascilla who were displaced Jews out of Rome. Paul taught in the Jewish Temple in Corinth. Paul also taught in public forums and debated with passion for Christ with unbelievers. Paul himself had a miraculous conversion on the way to Damascus. Paul was faithful, steady and also met resistance everywhere he went. Sometimes you do not get the fruit you are going after. The Gospel is slow but sure! If you are fruitful God will send someone behind you to carry on the work. The foolishness of the Cross transcends all our understanding! Have the mind of Christ or be a fool. Last week we covered some of the particulars of the city of Corinth and it’s brokenness. A prosperous city yet very wicked. The city was ignorant of Christ. God did do miracles there in the midst of darkness. The power of the Gospel has not diminished. 1 Corinthians 2:6. Human wisdom versus God’s wisdom. The wisdom of this age and the rulers of this age. Politicians, military leaders, philosophers and cultural leaders came to nothing in Corinth. Today Corinth is a tourist trap. God’s secret wisdom was hidden before time. If the world had wisdom they would not have Crucified Christ! I am thankful to be an American but that will not save me! Be careful not to let pride steal God’s Glory. Those enamored with intelligence have no room for God! 1 Corinthians 3:18. Do not deceive yourselves. Paul engages the Greek and Roman cultures. A quote from Socrates,”Only true wisdom is to understand that you know nothing!” God has an ocean of wisdom! God’s wisdom is hidden from the world. Just as Paul was blinded from his natural sight the scales were removed from his eyes to see Christ! Here in Colorado Springs we have a 14000 foot mountain in front of us. Pikes Peak towers above all else here. Sometimes the mountain is completely enveloped in a cloud out of view. If you were a tourist passing through our city on a cloudy day they would miss it. So much of the world misses God’s wisdom! How small we are compared to Pikes Peak and the God who created it! Open your mind to the greater. In American culture today you hear you this statement a lot. I am not religious but very spiritual! What does this mean? People are saying I do not need the Bible, I am going a different path, I want my own way, I just do what I understand and I do my own thing. It was spiritual people who murdered Jesus! The Holy Spirit must open our eyes. Listen to the Holy Spirit and He will reveal God to you! The Spirit of God versus the spirit of the world. Is Google your first choice? What God says is right versus what the world says is right. The world points to self as the solution. A great mistake! The greatest mistake and danger to civilization is when you believe you are God! Adam and Eve got tricked by satan when he told them they could be just like God. Yes to know everything! Leave that to God. Be careful if your decisions point to self. Life is simple if you do it the right way. God’s wisdom must be our influence. No decisions without Christ! What did Jesus say about marriage, parenting, money, sex, health, ect? Read your Bible! So many wrong voices out there. Be intentional and make your first call to God! Jesus Christ must be at the center of our decisions. Start with deciding to follow Him. American culture has lost it’s centrality to Christ! We cannot worship intellect and survive. We need right attitude. We are powerless! Humility leads to the power of the Cross! God either leads us or someone else will. Say God I believe and God I choose you! Recognize the limitations of the human mind. Recognize He is God and you are not. Alcoholic recovery organizations have a creed that is really Biblical. They say,”You are powerless to get out of it!” Religion is powerless to overcome sin! Remember Jesus got mad at religious people! God is personal like a home schooler. Parents know best and sit down and teach their children. One of the limitations of public schools is no personal instruction. God connects to us personally so we can understand Him. God is not distant. We are powerless but God is personal! Are you following Him? Source; Message given by Pastor Brady Boyd at New Life Church, Colorado Springs, Colorado. Message given on Sunday, January 12, 2014.
Church In The City
How would the city of Corinth compare today with a modern city? Corinth was the first frontier outpost. It was a prosperous city. Caesar’s Roman army retirement community live there. It was located on a key east-west trade route. The poor got rich in Corinth! You might say all the lotto winners lived there. The displaced Jews lived there because Caesar kicked them out of Rome. Sexual perversion was rampant in Corinth. Somehow money and sex are always linked together? The Temple of Aprodita had 1000 temple prostitutes as part of their worship. The Temple of Apollos had nude statues of male prostitutes. Corinth was much like American culture today with sexual brokenness. When Paul walked into Corinth people were celebrating the Isthmian games which was the ancient Olympics. Corinth had athletic training centers much like Colorado Springs does today. The people of Corinth celebrated strength, independence, intellectualism, materialism and public debate. The Greek orator’s debated constantly. They all figured it out they did not need God! 1 Corinthians 2:3-5. Paul says I was not with you with enticing words of man’s wisdom but in demonstration of the spirit and of power. That our Faith should not stand in the wisdom of men but in the power of God! Can God raise up people in a corrupt culture? America is becoming more secular. Heathenistic cultures trump pleasure over purpose. The message of the Crucified Christ is not popular in America just as it was not in Corinth 2000 years ago! But it is still really good news! Polite people did not talk about the Cross in the 1st. century. The worst criminals were crucified. How do you message people about the Cross? The cross was cruel and ugly punishment. Jesus was tortured, beaten, bloodied and murdered! He died the lowest kind of death. It goes to say the Cross is foolishness to the perishing. Why did God choose death to redeem? The wages of sin is death! To the saved the Cross is the power of God! Are you grateful for the Cross? The Cross is central to belief. The Cross is entry to everything. The Cross destroys the wisdom of the wise! Intelligent people say that if God cannot answer all my questions then I will not follow him! My adopted son Abram is a very intelligent little boy. His grandfather was a nuclear physics engineer! Sometimes Abram will ask me questions that are deep and thoughtful. Sometimes I do not know the answer to his question. God came to save us and not answer all our questions. Corinth had some of the best minds of that era. They were intellectuals, philosophers, Romans, Greeks and Jews. Preaching Christ was foolish to the gentiles. The Jews expected a military Messiah. What do you want to hear? I want to be skinny and rich! American and Corinth cultures say “Blessed are the smart and the strong, Blessed are the ambitious, God helps those who help themselves!” Superman has arrived! It is me! Jesus said,”Blessed are the poor in spirit,meek,merciful and kind.” The Roman government of Corinth ruled by fear and intimidation like many governments do today. Why did Jesus submit to the tyranny of the Roman government and the Jews and go to the Cross? To show the world a new way to use power! The world uses power to rule over people. Watch an NFL game. Hundreds of millions of dollars spent to try to dominate one another! Competition is to fight for power! Dominate others! Get power to defend yourself! Buy armies and men and women to rule over others. When Pilate had Jesus on trial he told Jesus he had power to condemn Him to death or release Him. Jesus told Pilate I lay my life down and unless my Father gives you power you cannot touch me. Christ goes to the Cross to use power in a new way. Christ gave His life for people and not to rule over people! God has given us power for people in service to people and care for them. Jesus became a nobody to save everybody. Jesus is calling the marginalized and the down and out. Not to manipulate them but release them from the bondages of sin. The nobodies are being invited in. Discover a new way of being powerful. Everyone can belong! No disenfranchised! The Cross is where you start and finish. No substitute for the Cross! All must come to the Cross and believe! Source; Sermon notes taken from message given by Pastor Brady Boyd at New Life Church, Colorado Springs, Colorado. Message given on Sunday January 5, 2014.
Tribute To Captain David Lyons USAF 1985-2013
One of our very own Captain David Lyons was celebrated at the memorial service today in Colorado Springs at New Life Church. The military protocol was moving as hundreds of Air Force Academy Cadets and other military members attended the services along with New Life church members. Captain David Lyons was killed in action last month in Afghanistan by a suicide bomber. Other military members were killed and injured in the attack along with some NATO troops. David was a star athlete at the Air Force Academy and still holds the Idaho High School State record for the shot put throw. He was adopted and took on his adopted parents name. His wife Dana is also an Air Force Academy graduate and serves in the Air Force. It is so encouraging to see military members and church members support their fallen hero’s and their families. I want to give you a famous quote by Charles Province which was given at the memorial service. It reads as follows;” It is the Soldier, not the minister who gives us freedom of religion. It is the Soldier, not the reporter who gives us freedom of the press. It is the Soldier, not the poet who gives us freedom of speech. It is the Soldier, not the campus organizer who gives us freedom to protest. it is the Soldier, not the lawyer who gives us the right to a fair trial. It is the Soldier, not the politician who has given us the right to vote. It is the soldier who salutes the flag, Who serves beneath the flag, and Who’s coffin is draped by the flag!” Jesus said in John 15:13, “Greater love hath no man than this, That a man lay down his life for his friends!” The word friends translates from the Greek as neighbor. Remember in Mark Chapter 12 the scribes asked Jesus which is the greatest Commandment? Jesus answered, “”Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, soul, mind and strength. Then the second is to love thy neighbor as thyself. There is no greater Commandment than these!” David did lay down his life for his neighbor’s which represents millions of American’s and millions of people in Afghanistan! We must also recognize a distinction here. David laid down his life to save others! The suicide bomber laid down his life to destroy others! There are two separate eternities for each. There are two sides of the fence here. In one eternity David is joined with Christ the one he lived and died for! The suicide bomber who died to bring death to others is separated from God forever in the fires of hell! Two different outcomes created by two different choices! Choose this day who you will serve! James and Hamsa Sasse. GodWhoisGod.com