SAM HONIBALL BLOG

Jesus Christ accepts you completely. He loves you and accepts you. That doesn’t mean he approves of everything you do. No, he doesn’t do that. But he accepts you. You can accept someone without approving of what they do. A good example is one day Jesus was walking down the street and some religious leaders who were trying to trap Jesus caught this woman in the act of adultery. It’s interesting they didn’t catch the guy. But it says they caught the woman in the act of adultery. They bring her before Jesus and throw her down before Jesus. This woman was caught cheating on her husband. What are you going to do about it, Jesus? You know this famous story. Jesus looks at all of the accusers and says, “Ok, anybody who has never sinned, you get to throw the first stone.” And of course they all start going away. What is Jesus doing here? He’s giving acceptance, not approval. He didn’t approve of what she was doing. The first thing that Jesus did was he defended her dignity. He said, I’m not go...

MATT. 22:36-39 (LB) “WHICH IS THE MOST IMPORTANT COMMAND?” JESUS REPLIED, “LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, SOUL, AND MIND. ‘THIS IS THE FIRST AND GREATEST COMMANDMENT. THE SECOND MOST IMPORTANT IS SIMILAR: ‘LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS MUCH AS YOU LOVE YOURSELF.” I hate to tell you this but the truth is one day all your trophies are going to be trashed. Given enough time somebody’s going to throw them away. That bowling trophy! That merit badge! That report card! That certificate of accomplishment! That gold watch that you got for retirement! Nobody’s going to remember those things. I doubt that you have any of the awards that your grandparents got. When people are dying they don’t want things around them. What they want is people. They want the people that they love and they want to love those people. The truth is everybody – every one of us – will eventually learn the basic truth of life that life is about relationships not accomplishments. Everybody’s going to eventually learn...

Why didn’t God just create you to take you to heaven? Have you ever thought about that? Why does he let you spend sixty, seventy, eighty, ninety years here on a broken world where there is sin, suffering, sorrow, sadness, problems, pressures, stress? LIFE IS ALL ABOUT LEARNING HOW TO LOVE. In fact, one day Jesus was walking down the street and a guy came up to him and he said, Lord what is the most important command in the Bible. Jesus said, I can summarize the entire Bible for you in two sentences. If you get these two things you get it. You get what life is all about. It’s called the GREAT COMMANDMENT. We’ve looked at it many times. JESUS SAID, MARK 12:30-31 (LB) “LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND ALL YOUR SOUL, AND ALL YOUR MIND AND ALL YOUR STRENGTH. AND LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF. THERE ARE NO COMMANDS MORE IMPORTANT THAN THESE.” Learn to love God with all your heart and, by the way, learn to love everybody else. He said if you get those two things, you’ve got it...

Today there is an EPIDEMIC OF LONELINESS in our society. Four out of ten people experience intense loneliness.“Everywhere you look, there are signs that PEOPLE ARE HUNGERING FOR FELLOWSHIP, community, and a sense of family. Beer commercials don’t sale beer, they sell fellowship. No one is ever portrayed drinking alone. Always in the context of enjoying each other’s company. People long to be connected. There are many ANALOGIES for a CHRISTIAN DISCONNECTED FROM A CHURCH: a RUGBY/SOCCER PLAYER without a TEAM; a SOLDIER without a PLATOON; a VIOLIN PLAYER without an ORCHESTRA; a SHEEP without a FLOCK. But the most understandable and biblical picture is that of a CHILD WITHOUT A FAMILY. That FAMILY IS THE CHURCH. God does not want his children growing up in isolation from each other, so he created a spiritual family on earth for us. A CHRISTIAN WITHOUT A CHURCH FAMILY IS AN ORPHAN. THE CHURCH PROVIDES PEOPLE WITH THINGS THEY CANNOT FIND ANYWHERE ELSE IN THE WORLD. So next time you go to chu...

The Living Bible says "IT'S FOOLISH TO THINK WEALTH BRINGS HAPPINESS!" Things can bring happiness for a while. But the thrill doesn't last. The excitement wears off. When you get something and open the package you think, Wow, this is great. But after a while it's not so great any more. You're bored with that piece of art or that furniture or that car. Why? WHY DON'T THINGS KEEP YOU PERMANENTLY HAPPY? BECAUSE THINGS DON'T CHANGE. HUMAN BEINGS LIKE CHANGE. If things don't change we get bored with them. That's why we have a thing called fashion or style. Because things don't change we get bored with them and we have to have something new. Pretty soon you have to redecorate, or remodel or repair or replace or at least rearrange it. Things don't give permanent happiness. I wonder how many of you are still thrilled about the Christmas gift you got last Christmas. You don't even remember what you got last Christmas! Things do not bring la...

Dr. Leonard Keeler, inventor of the lie detector machine, has tested 25,000 individuals and came to the conclusion that human beings are basically deceptive. No kidding? How can we be honest in a dishonest world? How do I tell the truth? We first have to look at why people lie. WHY DO WE LIE? The Type of Lie / The Motive The cruel lie - You tell it to get revenge. The cowardly lie - You tell to escape consequences The conceited lie - You tell it to impress The calculated lie - You tell it to manipulate other people The convenient lie - You tell it because it takes effort to tell the truth Jesus is saying the real problem is not my mouth but my heart. What's coming out of my mouth, these lies, are really an indication of what's inside of me. It's not what comes out that matters it's what's inside of me. Matthew 15:19 "For out of the heart comes evil thoughts, murder, adultery, fornication, lying and slander." Jesus said that what's in your heart is wha...

Six men in Walmer, Port Elizabeth pulled off a daring robbery by ramming their bakkie into a bank on Monday, 15 June 2009. At 3.45pm a red bakkie crashed through the window of an FNB bank, six men armed with pistols jumped out of the back, threatened the cashiers and demanded cash. Having stolen an undisclosed amount of money, the men jumped back into the bakkie, reversed out of the bank and drove off. No one was injured and no arrests had been made. Most of us would frown upon an incident like the one mentioned above and on the eighth commandmend that says: You shall not steal. It's however amazing the number of ways that we can steal. In the dictionary the word for stealing has 138 synonyms. Let’s look at just six ways that we can steal: 1. Deceiving customers by overcharging. 2. Defrauding employers by taking supplies home. 3. Delaying payments. 4. Defaulting on loans. What in your garage or on your bookshelf do you need to return to somebody? 5. Defrauding or deceiving the Gov...