My wife and I spent a few wonderful hours earlier in the evening on Friday the 10th at the church we are members of. It was a dinner for the older set. Need to be 50 years old or older. And we had some good conversation and some even better music and songs. Just wonderful music and songs. Beautiful. Our church is richly blessed with very gifted musicians. The Good Lord is very good to us and I am thankful to just be a part. To belong. To hear. To sing. I enjoyed the musicians this evening more than my mere feeble words could convey.

I decided to give one of the pastors a copy of the faith-based poetry book I wrote back in 2010, He didn’t ask for a copy. To my knowledge, he didn’t even know I wrote a book. This gesture wasn’t done to win favor [hardly with my writing ability] or to stroke an ego. No, I just wanted to hopefully have him get to know me a bit better. That’s all. It’s a very large church and it isn’t easy to get to know folks or the pastors really unless one has spent a considerable amount of time there. And my wife and I have made this our home church we regularly attend for the past 4 years, or so, and we’re just beginning to break the ice as the world says. It’s a big place. And folks are set in their ways. Just how people are. And I’m not the most outgoing of people. Until you get to know me. Which doesn’t help.

I am here now because I read the article below upon coming home. Upon which I decided to publish the article here on ACP. Which motivated me to write as I am now.

In the book, I wrote 10 years ago, or so, I state that I believed in God, I believed in Jesus, I believed in the Holy Spirit but I was not truly saved. Not truly transformed by the power of the Spirit of God.

I, like Mr. Robertson, the writer of the article below, grew up hearing the Word of God preached frequently. In fact, the church I attended as a young person with my parents held three Sunday services. That’s not a typo. Yes, 3 Sunday services. Morning, afternoon, and then evening. I went to the Friday night youth group. I attended mid-week evening services. I heard the Word preached a lot. Weekly, Monthly, Yearly, For some number of years.

I believed there was a man named Jesus, and I also believed what is written in the Bible that He is the Son of God. I believed He was born of a virgin. I believed everything I ever heard or read in the Bible. I did not doubt. I believed. Genesis, Noah, the Red Sea, Moses, all that wondering about, the prophets [for this church preached as much from the Old Testament as the New, as all churches should] John the Baptist, all the stories. The Resurrection. I believed all. But I was not saved.

From my very early 20s, I went into the world and became a sinner beyond the basics of sinners. I’m not proud of this. I state it to show that the greatest of sinners can be chosen by God, chosen before the foundations of the world by God to be one of His. I believed all the stories. I knew the Bible stories. I never had the necessary change of heart, the change of mind, the life-altering belief within. The REAL belief that leads to REAL change within and then without. I knew I wasn’t saved.

I knew I wasn’t saved for so many years. So many years.

Know why? And this is what triggered my writing this tonight — it’s what Mr. Robertson wrote below;

” I only knew facts about Jesus, but He wasn’t my Savior… not yet.”

I only knew the facts of God, Jesus, all the Bible stories. I didn’t doubt them. But I only knew them as facts. You see when it says in God’s Word as in Acts 16:31 or Romans 10:9 that belief and you shall be saved? Now I haven’t attended any seminaries, no theology schools and I have no piece of paper as a credential, but I do know at this time in my life I have been truly transformed by the Spirit of God and I am in Christ and Christ is in me. And this BELIEVE and you will be saved? It goes far beyond head knowledge. Beyond facts. Beyond intellect. Beyond knowing and believing the stories, or even saying with your lips “I believe that Jesus is the Son of God and that He was resurrected from the grave.” Because it’s a heart with a flame ignited for Jesus. An understanding beyond our finite comprehension. It’s a Supernatural occurrence in an individual’s life.

You see, even the demons know and believe that Jesus is the Son of God. They know. They believe. But they are not saved. Never will be. It isn’t in their heart, their spirit to know the movement, the act, the change that occurs, the igniting of something that was never there to become so real that Jesus becomes Lord of their life, their Saviour.

You see, even Satan knows and believes that Jesus is the Son of God. He knows. He believes in Jesus. They’ve actually met. Face to face. Remember in Matthew 4? But the devil believes as an adversary. Oh, the Evil One knows that Jesus is the Son of God. He knows Jesus always was. Was before Lucifer was created, for the Lord Jesus Christ is not a created being as is Satan, the fallen angel.

I believe, and I may be wrong in this as I have not attended a seminary, a theology school, the BELIEVE, the BELIEF said by the apostles in the New Testament is such a BELIEF it is a life-changing, forever life-altering RADICAL beyond human words BELIEF. Not just believing as we believe most things. It isn’t like believing in or about anything else in this world to come to believe in Jesus Christ to the point a heart, a spirit, a life within is altered so that that person is recognizably different to those that know them. It’s a belief that can be seen without words. Or heard because the words the person who has come to believe to such a degree they are regenerated, renewed of mind and spirit are so different than the words that person speaks or writes reveal this life-changing, heart-changing, mind-changing event took place within them.

This is evidenced in my own life. I used to write a blog/website called The Write Stuff for a few years prior to beginning A Crooked Path. The Write Stuff was purely current events/political. Conservative commentary. American patriotism. Pure politics. Pure worldly. And during this time I was radically forever changed in my life, in my heart, from the inside out. In one night’s time. One winter’s night. By the power of the Spirit of God and a belief unlike I had ever had in my life.

And people saw that change in what I then wrote about, what I said. And that place, The Write Stuff ended. Because I had changed, and I went from writing about politics to how every world event tied into God, Jesus, and the Bible. And all of the folks who had been coming there left. Except one. And that one person was a born anew true Christian. But everyone else left. I received emails from people that had become friends through the course of my writing and putting information on The Write Stuff that told me unless I stopped all the God, Jesus, Bible, and Christian stuff they not only would no longer read what I wrote, but they could no longer count me as a friend, or remain in any kind of contact with me.

So be it. Tragic that this is how things turn, but as the Lord Jesus Christ said the world would hate us as it hated Him. Our faith and obedience to Him and the Word would drive a wedge between husband and wife, parents and children, mother and daughter, father and son, and so on. So, it stands to reason, among those that once were friends also. But Jesus must take priority. Always.

Towards the end of the evening at our church, another pastor in attendance read from Hebrews;

Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery.

Hebrews 2:14-15 — Engish Standard Version

This was read, and the pastor expounded briefly on these words as they are befitting the Christmas story. What? Hebrews 2 is key to the Christmas story? “We thought that was about a baby, a manger three wise men [erroneously thought as the Word of God never mentions how many] and so many other things, like trees, and gifts, and parties and big roasts! But not something from Hebrews!”

But, alas, the passage from Hebrews is one of the most fitting of Christmas parts. As God came to this earth, in human form, fully God, fully man. Tempted and put through trials always remaining spotless, blameless, sinless. To endure what the Lord Jesus did. Why? So we who would come to believe through faith to such a degree it ignited a flame in our hearts, that that belief was such it is life-changing. Visibly audibly life-altering. A transformation. Only made possible by our faith, the free gift of grace from God, and by God choosing us. And we happen to FINALLY see, FINALLY, hear!

Belief is a beginning. What is required is belief to such a degree it brings about desired obedience. Desired love. Desired change. Desired submission. Desired MAKING JESUS LORD OF ONE’S LIFE. Not merely knowing the facts. Not merely believing — but LIVING out that belief.

And the Christmas story is not about a baby that we keep a baby. It isn’t about lights, or our gift-giving or big meals or any of that. It’s about what the image I used for this piece represents which is not a typical Christmas image. No manger. An empty tomb. A risen LORD! 

The Greatest Gift is as one of the pastors said earlier this evening — Jesus released us from being hostages. Released us from being enslaved.

That is what it’s all about. Beyond His birth. Beyond the manger. The star in the sky. It’s about Jesus taking sin upon Himself though sinless upon the cross and conquering death as God promised. Rising from the dead, and all of us who believe to the point our hearts are aflame risen with and for the Lord, we believe to the degree our lives have been forever changed — THAT is what the real Christmas story, the Greatest Gift ever given is about.

I love my pastors.

I love the folks at our church.

I love the gifts the Good Lord has given so many at our church [these folks could get recording contracts if that is what they sought, but more importantly every pastor and teacher is Bible-centered, Bible-teaching, Bible-believing, Bible-preaching — all of it. Even the difficult parts!] and most of all I love the gift of salvation the Good Lord has given to so many worldwide. And to me, though I did not deserve it. Did nothing, could do nothing to deserve it or earn it. So thankful.

And that gift of salvation is still to be given, to be received, to those who will come to believe to the degree they know it within themselves beyond the definition of belief the world knows. It’s a belief, a knowing only those who are the Lords’ come to know, can know.

And the door of grace is open. The way to salvation is open. It’s the Lord Jesus Christ. Find Him in the Word of God. Find Him in prayer. Find Him in your heart and allow Him to change your heart, your life, your eternity. Receive the Greatest Gift ever offered.

The free gift of grace, the gift of forgiveness of sin, the gift of salvation…from God, from the Lord Jesus Christ, from the Holy Spirit.

And I desire for all of you the best Christmas and anyone who asks the Lord for the Greatest Gift from Him will not only have the greatest Christmas ever — they will have life eternal.

Accept the invitation.

Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.

John 3:36 — English Standard Version

Ken Pullen

Saturday, December 11th, 2021

ACP — A Crooked Path

The Royal Invitation

Friday, December 10, 2021

By Rick Robertson

Reprinted from American Family Association

The worshippers sing, “Glory to the newborn King!”

The believer’s heart declares, “That’s my King!”

One of my favorite Christmases was my first Christmas as a believer. I was 26 years old and had been a Christian for just a few months. I remember sitting in church on those December Sunday mornings singing the Christmas hymns that I had sung all my life. Yet something was gloriously different that year. God had mercifully given me a new heart… and new ears to hear the songs like never before. When we sang words like “Glory to the newborn King,” I knew I was singing about my King.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come (2 Corinthians 5:17).

Growing up I heard the gospel preached numerous times. Dad made certain of that. I remember lying in bed on Sunday mornings hoping that Dad would let my brother Tom and me sleep in, but that didn’t happen. I’m so thankful that God gave me a father who was concerned for my soul.

Through my teen years and into my early twenties, I was haunted by the fact that I had never received Christ as my Savior. I only knew facts about Jesus, but He wasn’t my Savior… not yet.

During those years, I feared dying without Christ. I knew the consequences of that. And I was jealous of those Christians God had placed around me. I wanted what they had.

It was so kind of God not to allow me to be at peace in my lost condition.

In my mid-twenties, my world became unraveled, and during that season, God drew me to Himself. He responded to my cries; He rescued me there in my bedroom in Winona, Mississippi. I understood that there was no good in me. I was a sinner. I felt that. And I realized that my only hope was to place my faith in Jesus Christ.

But to all who did receive Him, who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God (John 1:12).

I think of the people who have attended church for years, yet they remain in that same darkness where I lived for years—far from the Light. They attend church each Sunday, and they bring with them a nagging emptiness inside. They are kind people who present themselves as Christians, but they know deep down inside that they serve a king called “self.”

Perhaps that describes you. If it does, please be encouraged that God has given you eyes to see your situation as it truly is. Consider it a kindness from God that you have been brought to feel the emptiness that comes from not knowing Jesus as your Savior.

Edward Payson lived in the late 1700s and early 1800s here in America. He was known worldwide. Like many pastors, he longed to see those who were empty filled with the joy of knowing Jesus Christ as their Savior. As he concluded a Christmas sermon, he delivered this passionate plea. Listen to it as if he is speaking directly to you.

“Trembling sinner…permit me to take you by the hand and lead you to Jesus. Why do you linger, why do you hang back?

It is to Christ, it is to Jesus, it is to the Babe of Bethlehem, to a man like yourselves, to the meek and lowly Savior of sinners, that I would bring you. Here are no terrors, no flaming sword, no burning throne to appall you.

Come, then, to His feet, to His arms, to His heart which overflows with compassion for your perishing souls.

Come and contemplate the glory of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth, and receive of His fullness grace for grace.”

Consider this invitation from Jesus:

Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light (Matthew 11:28-30).

What is your response to such an invitation? Are you willing to humble yourself before King Jesus, to place your crown to the side, and to live under His kind rule? Will you place your faith in Christ today?

[B]ecause, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved (Romans 10:9).