Something new...

 Greetings to the few who follow this blog. I wanted to share a quick update for you and anyone else who happens on here to pass along. I have started a series of sermons on Youtube taking a look at the Bible through a wider view lens, a bigger picture if you will, of God and his interaction with mankind. It is not a series of sermons to delve deep into passages and their deep theological import, no. They are meant to show God's working through history, and looking at the Bible for its interconnectedness and continuousness. Many would say that the Bible is a loose collection of stories and that it is disjointed, these sermons are meant to show that the Bible is a whole and one continuous story of God. So please click on the link and pass it on to others as well. Thanks and God bless.

Here is the link: https://youtu.be/ufvtDssSt8Q 

2020, Still the Year of our Lord

It is now June and half of our year has slipped us by. And what a year it has been. It has seen the ridiculous circus proceedings to try and remove a sitting president for no other reason than dislike of his person, it has seen a global pandemic that has taken the lives of thousands and destroyed the lives of hundreds of thousands, and now, it is playing witness to the chaos and destruction of those who would want to benefit from the wrongful death of a man in police custody. Yes, it has been a turbulent year to say the least.

Now I am not going to dig deeply here into the political realm of debate. I know where I stand on the issues and I know my opinions are not what many would agree with. But that was never the point of this blog. I will however warn that I am also not going to play the game of political correctness as the term itself holds little meaning to me since I find it a lame and weak crutch for too many people who would use it as a club to beat the masses into submission. No I will speak my mind only, and I hope that the words coming out from my mind will in some small way resemble the thoughts of God as I try to lead, as the prophets of old, the people back to God.

So what then am I saying and why am I writing? For this reason, to dispel fear, and bring peace. This is a fearful time for many. Everywhere you go people are wearing masks to protect against an unseen enemy, Covid-19. The dreaded bug from China that has made a full circle around the world leaving death in its wake. Was it grown in a lab, is it a biological weapon? Or, is it a judgement from God on a world that is nearing it's end? At this point does it really matter? If it was not this virus mankind, as always, would have found new ways to kill themselves. If not this this virus abortion was doing just fine in killing off the next generation for the last 30+ years! 50 million and counting!

But this virus we can't sweep under a rug, or toss in a back alley dumpster, so we live in fear, and face masks. But our hatred is always stronger. Our president speaks his mind. He may even at times be an idiot, but then again most of government these days are run as if it was a three stooges rerun. The problem is trying to determine who is Larry, who is Moe, and who is Curly. But for what its worth before this year is over we could either have a loud obnoxious but straightforward  business man, or a man who likes to forget what country he lives in almost as much as he likes to stick his foot in his mouth.

And in the background to all of this is the age old excuse for violence, the race card. "I am black, so I am oppressed! Let me go burn down an Arby's." Never mind the guy who died a totally wrong and unavoidable death to bring you this excuse for a riot. While we're at it lets blame the cops that everyone could sit back in fear and video tape but not lift a finger to stop. But I guess that is what we are good at these days, hiding in bushes to video tape wrong doers so we can start race wars. In case my sarcasm is not obvious then let me spell it out for you, that was sarcasm. We are a nation of idiots. But more importantly, we are a nation of fools who have missed the true calling of what children of God can become.

All around us lay the seeds of what we could be if we weren't so busy giving credit to nature, and the unseen force of naturalism, or humanism, instead of giving the credit to God, our creator and savior. Evolution divides us, creates racism, evokes fear of death and the end of life as a meaningless endeavor to nothingness. So we riot, loot, and burn down fast food chains that "have the meats!" We mud sling and tell lies in the hopes of pushing out of power so that we can obtain power. We literally become the very animals we claim to have evolved from. Watch national geographic and then flip over to the news, you will see the similarities. But God brings life, hope that something greater lies beyond this existence. He claims in his word that we are all ONE race, the HUMAN race. There is nothing that divides us. And when we kill each other, we are killing a part of ourselves as we are all related under one man, Adam.

But to acknowledge this then is to also acknowledge that we are all responsible for our own actions, that every man is responsible for his own stupidity and therefore none are above. Yes, the black man who died has died wrongfully,  he was a sinner who would be judged for his sin before God. And yes, the white cop was a lawman who was still guilty of his sin of hatred before God and will also stand before God and be judged. The difference? God does not look at the skin color, the wealth or station of the man, but he looks on the heart. The heart of the man is what will judge him.

So what can we take away from all this craziness? Is there any hope? Yes, with thunderous shouts of glory! Our God still reigns and sits on his throne. Presidents are raised and brought down by his hands, viruses are nothing to his healing touch, and riots, well he has seen it all and he is not afraid. It is therefore never too late. As long as we draw breath we can turn back to him, repent of our sins, and be healed of our hatred and death sentence. What greater hope could there possibly be. "If we confess with our mouths the Lord Jesus, and believe in our hearts that God has raised him from the dead, then we can be saved." Not saved from poverty, or racially driven police brutality or dog walking park videos, but saved from our selves, our own hatred and divisiveness. Saved from the eternal judgment that awaits us should we not repent. I know where I am going, do you?

Dichotomy between the “Flesh” and the “Spirit”

Once upon a time,

I knew no sin,

Did what I wanted,

Lived as a heathen.

Then came a law,

I knew nothing about,

But under these rules,

Of my deeds I had doubt.

This law brought new peace,

Order, structure, and tokens,

And one dire consequence,

If just one code was broken.

However there’s hope,

For the law/death trapped soul,

His name is Yeshua,

And he came with one goal.

Sadly he died,

After teaching me life,

But from death he did rise,

To make me his bride.

Being baptized with Christ,

Makes me dead to this law,

Now I walk in the Spirit,

Not my flesh where I fall.

But who is this Spirit,

With whom I traverse,

This roadway of life,

With my flesh so perverse?

It is the Spirit of God,

Dwelling inside me,

Bringing a new law,

For me fulfilling.

He prays when I can’t,

Putting to death my foul deeds,

So that closer I draw,

To the God I now need.

Now justified by faith,

In Christ my true King,

A slave to his love,

And I am happy indeed.

Seeing Christ on a tree,

In a worshipful vision,

Knowing now the full price,

Of my sin and transgression,

I have decided to walk,

Alive in this Spirit,

For there is nothing else,

That truly comes near it.

So with a loud voice,

I praise and I holler,

To my Savior and Lord,

I cry “Abba Father.”

Well, here it is. This was a work long in process, and one that I was not entirely sure I wanted to do. But one does not question God's leading without risking a stern lecture from the Lord. I strongly believe that God was directing me to write this book, even with my few years of husbanding. So I did it. And after a rather long road, full of late night typing after a long day at work, and a lot of waiting around for news from the publisher to move into the next step, this book was born. And it is available for purchase by any who are interested on learning something new to put into their marriages, or maybe some guidance on what is ahead of them if they are about to get married.

I do not claim that this book will help everyone, or anyone for that matter. But if willing, I do promise that this book will speak something new to each person who reads it, something new from my life, and something new that I have learned from scripture on what it means to "love our wives as Christ loved the church." So I present to you here Husbands: Men Who Are Ready to Love Their Wives. You can find this book at Amazon.com or at Westbowpress.com. On both sites you can search for the book by title or by author. Or you can click this link and it should take you to the purchase page on the Westbow Press website. Thanks for looking and may God bless you.

God or Gun Control

Another shooting, another battle of tighter gun control or better background checks. Who is right and who is wrong, or is it even that simple? I was in high school when we all heard of Columbine. Do you remember? If not, or in case you missed it, they are making a movie about it so you can see it all over again. But the point of this entry is to ask what is the answer. Well, what is the answer?

Let us put a few things into perspective first. As I sit here this evening I am watching The Patriot with Mel Gibson. Maybe you have seen it, it is about the revolutionary war. A different time in America's history when men and women had to fight a different fight. Not about gun control, or abortion, or public school versus home school, but independence, the right to govern oneself. A fight to honor the God given right of all men to worship God, live in peace, and raise their families.

What, you may ask, is the point between that and a school shooting in Florida? Just this. Where is God? Some of you may have heard the saying about God being a gentleman and when we asked him to leave from all areas of society then he left, so I am not going to rehash that here. What I am going to say is this. My grandfather had several guns. The only ones to fear were the deer and the turkey. Many who live in the woods of this country have enough guns to form their own militias and yet the only creatures to fear are the wildlife that come around during hunting season.

Do not dare to accuse me of being insensitive at this time either. I have my own children. I would be beside myself if this happened to any of my children, but my question again is this, where is God? During the revolutionary war everyone had a gun in their home, where are the records of the mass shootings, the schools, or the shopping centers? I am not a historian and I don't claim to be but I do know that when a society honors God, freedom, and the value of life, then guns do not magically get up and shoot people.

We have spent several decades giving up our rights to speak, giving up our rights to worship, killing our babies brutally before they are even given the right to breath and then when a shooting happens we run and think that tighter laws, less freedom, and more background checks are the answer. I guess all the obvious history before us of God in our schools, prayer in public arenas, and the very obvious of less mass shootings is to clear that we just can't see it. We must be so bright as evolution would say we are getting smarter that the obvious is obviously not obvious.

If you couldn't tell the obvious I was being sarcastic. So in closing what is the answer? What again was the question, where is God? He is stepped out of the picture waiting for us to call on him. Husbands need to call him back into their homes and lives. School principles need to call him back into the halls, pastors, yes I said pastors, need to call him back into their churches. In short, we need God to be in our hearts and in our lives. The more we devalue human life, the more we pass the blame for our actions to everyone around us, the more our legislation will take the place of our morality, and of course, without a standard, their can be no morality to legislate. We will continue to drown in our own festering sewage of decay and manure until we get down on our knees before God, repent of our sins, and begin to value the human life that was created in the image of God. Do this and the shootings will eventually stop, do it not and more than likely they will only get worse. What are we going to decide? Tighter gun control, or God?

GoFundUs Please...

Well, it is official, we have prayed, did our homework, talked with contractors, etc, and now believe it is time to take the next step through the door that God has opened before. We have asked all of you to pray and seek the face of God for direction in helping us to raise the funds to both buy and fix up this property for our home and mission to the surrounding community and beyond. Now the time has come to see what God will do.  We have a GoFundMe page up and running, the link is www.gofundme.com/ndsg8y-gods-house-jersey-shore-pa. Please check it out and please help us out in this next adventure.  We look forward to whatever God has next for us.  Please check back for regular updates.  Thanks so much and God bless.

Through the next door...

Hello everyone and happy June!  Yes, we are now half way through 2017.  My how time flies by as we travel further down this road of life.  Four years ago I never would have thought I would be walking across the stage at Moody church to shake hands with the president of Moody Bible Institute to receive my diploma but what do ya know, I am now a college graduate!  Look out world!  But really, life passes us by so quickly that we don't have time to sit idly by and fret about tomorrow, "for so do all who live to see such times, but that is not for us to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us."

And so we move forward. A few weeks or maybe a month or two ago now (again, time flies) we mentioned to all of you that we were still interested in serving God either foreign or domestic, or a combination of the two, and that we were looking at the purchase of a building to use as a home/mission community center for Jersey Shore.  Well we have been talking with contractors, electricians, environmental removal services for possible asbestos, etc.  We have made many phone calls, and returned some.  And we believe that God is keeping this door open.  We are growing very excited for what our path continues to hold.

So what is the point?  I am glad you asked.  We are asking you all to pray, pray about giving.  In a week we are going to pray, and as long as the door remains open we will be launching a GoFundMe page to begin fund raising to purchase this building. For those of you who missed this news please see "New Dreams and New Plans" posted on 4/10/17. There is even a picture of the building we are hoping to purchase.

Now to put some details this building has sat empty, except for a large amount of trash, for the last several years, at least about 5.  There is a lot of space that just needs some TLC.  But there is also a lot that needs to be repaired, updated, or down right replaced. Without giving too much away and because we don't have specifics just yet, only estimates, we are looking somewhere in the ball park of 300,000. Yes that is in US dollars, and not in Monopoly money.  But praise God we serve the Creator of the world.  He owns it all already so nothing is beyond him.  This is just initial start up, and not what we will need in monthly support to keep the building up and running for ministry.  But one step at a time.

We know that this all may be a bit overwhelming to some of you but we are asking that you please pray. We believe strongly in this as we have always believed that God has a mission for our family. But just as when we served over seas so too here we could not move forward without our family of friends and prayer warriors. The battle is not over yet, God still has more he has called to hear his word, but "how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!" Romans 10:14-15. Please consider helping us to go and reach those who have not heard, or have heard but maybe just need a push in the right direction.

Again, we will be setting up a GoFundMe page in about a week so please be praying through this next week how God can use you to be a part of this mission and we will let you all know when the page is posted to donate. If anyone wants more info please either leave a comment in the comments section of this post, or on our Facebook, or through our email if you know it, we will try to reply as soon as we are able. Thank you again and may God be praised for all he has done and is going to do, to him be the glory and praise. Thank you all for stopping by and reading our blog. God bless you through your week. Talk to you soon.


The Bierlys