So, we say with confidence,
“The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can mere mortals do to me?”
Remember your leaders, who spoke the word of God to you.
Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith.
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.
- Hebrews 13:6-8
Loving abundantly, even though this is my desire, is an impossibility if Jesus Christ is not a part of... NO! HE IS THE part of love.
To love those who have hurt you, are hurting you, or anyone who is making decisions that remove themselves and family members from a fellowship where God’s hand is working has always raised the hair on the back of my neck.
Reasons given go like this:
Well, it’s time my children need to go to this other fellowship and... they need, you know, Mom and Dad’s support, you know, we’re really torn as to whether to move or not.
The real reasons are that someone has hurt them in some way by word, by action, or by decisions that were made that were not in line with their wishes. The Church didn’t accommodate their own personal ideas or thoughts, based on self-centeredness.
Many of us give major lip service to Jesus Christ when we say things like, “This is my life and my soul,” and then shut Him out in decision-making that we do. When will we ever learn that the grass on the other side of the fence is greener only until we set foot on the other side and look back to discover that now where we came from is greener? You would think we might catch on at some point in our lives, but we just continue seeing the other side as greener, and we move to discover again how green it is where we came from.
Catching on would be to see that we need to have our inner man completely renovated by the Holy Spirit and allow Him to undue all things, not just a few things, all of our self-centeredness.
Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as elaborate hairstyles and the wearing of gold jewelry or fine clothes. Rather, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight.
- 1 Peter 3:3-4
Finally, all of you, be like-minded, be sympathetic, love one another, be compassionate and humble.
- 1 Peter 3:8
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As most of you know, my earthly father passed away in April of 2025. I greatly miss him. Other than Jesus Christ, He is easily the greatest man I have ever known. I am incredibly blessed to call him not only father but friend. Now that he’s in heaven with the Lord, I wish I had given even more of my time to spend with him in person, on the phone, or even playing more cribbage. He truly loved to play cribbage, and thankfully, he passed the love of that game on to me. My father always wanted to preach and desired to share the truth in love with those he knew and didn’t know. I think deep down, he always desired to do something as a father and son in this realm. We did do a little bit together, but not at all what it could have been.
So I am pleased to announce that my oldest son, Ezra, and I will be starting a new podcast in 2026. It will be titled “Falling Apples” – hence the title of this blog post. My son mentioned while recording these editions that, “It sure would have been nice to have Grandpa here to do this with us so we could have the perspective of three generations on what we are going to discuss.” And that brings me to part of the reason for this blog post.
My mother has given me two incredible gifts. One is my father’s Bible. It is loaded with highlights and his own personal notes and cross-references. LOADED! The second gift is one of his personal journals from 2002-2003. There are so many writings in this journal that it is going to take me years to read through them and compile what he has written. This is where my son and I are hoping to receive a gift from him, but also to share with people, like you – a gift that we didn’t know we could give. On “Falling Apples,” we are hoping to not only share what we believe the Lord is leading us to share with you, but also share much of the Godly insight, wisdom, and passion from my father through his writings. We are hoping this podcast will just be organic, real, raw, and very transparent. We currently have a Facebook page for this podcast, so please be on the lookout for new information coming out about this new endeavor.
To finish up this post, I’d like to share one of the writings from my father so you can get to know his heart better.
“CHOICES”
Deuteronomy 30:11-20
Now what I am commanding you today is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach. It is not up in heaven, so that you have to ask, “Who will ascend into heaven to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?” Nor is it beyond the sea, so that you have to ask, “Who will cross the sea to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?” No, the word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart so you may obey it.
See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction. For I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in obedience to him, and to keep his commands, decrees and laws; then you will live and increase, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land you are entering to possess.
But if your heart turns away and you are not obedient, and if you are drawn away to bow down to other gods and worship them, I declare to you this day that you will certainly be destroyed. You will not live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess.
This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the Lord is your life, and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
Cherries fruit tastes wonderful, but at the same time, the PIT contains deadly poison – CYANIDE.
Our life and choices we make are not much unlike this fruit; if anything, life is like this fruit. We must choose daily between good and evil, like choosing to read God’s Word and praying (talking with Him). BUT it’s when we choose to do otherwise that we slowly poison our souls, and so slowly that over time we begin to think and justify that what we are doing is OK. Like the cherries, life doesn’t have to be the pits; you see, my choices make the difference.
Choice.
Colossians 2:6 states, “as you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him.” “JUDGMENTAL” ME.
We want to have our cake and eat it too. What a saying. A lot of the time, no. Way too often, we attempt to establish our relationship with God by the feelings of mountain-top experiences and move dramatically from one to another. What happens is if these tippy top happenings aren’t a part of our lives, we believe that our faith is weakening (a feelings-centered faith).
Didn’t verse Colossians 2:6 say, “Walk in Him,” a Christ-centered faith?
We need Him in the highs AND lows of our lives. When we do, our lives will become rooted and grounded in Him. Like those things that grow from the earth, their roots need to grow deep to give stability to the plant. Those mountain-top experiences can and are beneficial, but nothing will profit each of us more than our ongoing CHRIST-centered life of faith.
James 1:2-3
Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.
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Because you have made the Lord, who is my refuge, even the Most High, your dwelling place,
No evil shall befall you, nor shall any plague come near your dwelling;
For He shall give His angels charge over you, to keep you in all your ways.
In their hands they shall bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone.
You shall tread upon the lion and the cobra, the young lion and the serpent you shall trample underfoot.
“Because he has set his love upon Me, therefore I will deliver him;
I will set him on high, because he has known My name. He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him;
I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him and honor him.
With long life I will satisfy him, and show him My salvation.”
- Psalm 91:9-16
Today was our monthly men’s meeting. Part of our time at the very end was centered around, “Why is it that there’s this sense or feeling we’ve lost our passion?” Of course, I had to speak up.
“We can’t blame God or anyone else for this loss of passion except ourselves. You see, if individually, each of us, in our vertical relationship isn’t there or is almost non-existent, to have a horizontal relationship with each other can be confusing and literally, impossible.”
Seeing questioning looks in the room, in essence saying, “What are you talking about?” excited me to share more.
You see, in today’s life of all the business with our schedules just so full, we don’t take time to read God’s Word, let alone pray and talk with Him. Basically, we seek Him when a crisis hits. We pray when it’s convenient for us.
All along, we spew out our know-it-all attitudes, and then when the ceiling falls in on us, the finger-pointing begins. The “He said, she said” verbiage begins.
We’re confused and don’t know what to do because we have not stayed in control with the One who has the answers for us. Also, most of the time we don’t like His answers because they’re so unrealistic, so simple, or they’re not in line with our thinking.
We can’t show up for a one-hour time frame or less per week and walk out the front door of God’s house thinking and/or saying, “Well, I’ve done my duty for the week. You know this Christian thinking, it’s not so hard.” Think about that for a moment, in this light – just because I go and sit in my garage overnight doesn’t make me a car by morning.
We need to remember that sin brings pain to us and to God. Just because God isn’t physically right here, we have a hard time believing He’s experiencing pain. In Judges 10:15, Israel knew they had sinned, they let God know, and asked to be delivered from the day in whatever way God would choose. In Judges 10:16, it tells us that God’s soul could no longer endure the misery of Israel.
Does God hurt? Does God feel pain? You bet! And not just heart pain, it went to the depths of His soul.
The misery we suffer because of spiritual rebellion will always cause pain to the Lord. Isaiah 63:9 says, “In all their affliction, He was afflicted.”
The greatest pain God suffered was when His Son went to the Cross for our sins.
When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow you.
When you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned, nor shall the flame scorch you.
- Isaiah 43:2
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Special Note from our president, Jason DeZurik: In April 2025, my earthly father went to be with His Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Though it has been incredibly hard losing him physically here on earth, I am so honored to share with you writings of his from over many, many years of journaling from his personal devotion time while here on the earth. Admittedly, I considered just keeping these for our family to enjoy, but I know my father would want these to be shared with the world. If these writings will help to bring only one person into God’s Kingdom, that is enough for my wonderful earthly father, Frank DeZurik. I believe he has not only given to me and our family a great gift but also a gift for all of us to meditate on and enjoy as well. The following is just the first of many installments to our blog from my father posthumously.
1 Peter 1:3-9
Even when Christ died on the cross, there were many who taunted and jeered and looked upon Jesus’ crucifixion as just the death of another criminal. They knew His death was very different from those they observed in the past, and even with all the happenings were blinded because of the choices man made. Yes, God could have stopped it, BUT God’s plan for His son was drawing to a close.
All through Scripture, we’ve read how the blood was an atonement for sins, and it needed to be one spotless and pure. From the Old Testament to the cross, we read and come to our understanding of the purity, the cleansing power, and its atoning power, the last sacrifice necessary to cleanse us and usher us into God’s throne room of grace.
Today, those so inclined go to, of all things, a blood bank. Of course, the importance here is to give life to someone whose own supply is dangerously low because of some injury, whether an accident or because of bad choices made by others.
Now, not all who donate or want to donate can because of something they’ve contracted through tainted food, or because of some bad choice made, and someone has HIV-AIDS. Now, I know accidentally you can contract AIDS. The thing is, we should not even be dealing with this disease if, through the course of time, man had chosen to follow God’s law and teaching rather than his own selfish, lustful desires, but this is a whole other matter.
Let’s see Christ’s death, a perfect sacrifice, His blood shed for the atonement of the world, when He took His last breath, and the heavy curtain that separated man from God was torn in two, meaning we can all now have direct access to God. BUT each of us, like in the Old Testament, needs to bring before God a perfect sacrifice for our sin. That is our personal relationship of knowing Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. NOTHING else will do, nothing else in and from this world can take the place of the cross, not even our own self-believed perfections.
Yes, we can donate blood, give blood to help save someone to live for another day, BUT how about offering them the blood of life to save them to live for all eternity?
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