Abundant Living

Genesis Chapter Two

2008-09-17T12:41:00.000-07:00

Genesis Chapter Two
Adam & Eve

Verses 1-3 The word “rested” comes from the Hebrew word “shabat” and doesn’t imply fatigue by means “ceased”. Because God had completed the work of creation He simply ceased working. Our God is not a god who grows tied. He is the true God with unlimited power and unlimited knowledge. As humans we certainly don’t have unlimited anything and need to rest. That is why God gave the provision and example for us to do so.

Verses 4-26 We are not looking at a second creation here but a second account of creation. The account in Genesis 2 is more detailed and doesn’t contradict the account of chapter 1 but instead gives us more information.

Verse 7 Life comes from God! Not only is he the creator of all but He also is the one who gives life. Not only that but He is also the one who removes the “breath of life.” Our time is literally in God’s hands and we should live that way. The bottom line is that we are not the one’s who are in control. We’d like to think we are but we just can’t ignore the evidence that proves otherwise.

Verses 15-17 Here we see free will introduced. From the beginning of time man has had to choose God’s will over his own. God doesn’t force us into love and obedience because he wants us to be genuine in our love for Him. A slave has no choice but to be obedient. There is no genuine loyalty and there certainly is no devotion in forced obedience. We would be followers of God because we have to be and not because we want to be.

Verse 24 God’s plan for marriage is clearly laid out here in this verse. A healthy marriage consists of three things found in verse 24.

I - Leaving things behind (father and mother) and devotion to one another.

Many marriages fall into trouble because they can’t leave behind past relationships and tendencies that are unhealthy to the marriage. Men and women can’t run home at the first sign of trouble and they can’t maintain a healthy marriage if they are more devoted to other things.

A good job may support a spouse but if a person is more devoted to that job than they are the spouse they are trying to provide for then they are doing more harm than good to their marriage. To be devoted to a spouse means that the majority of your attention and quality time are devoted towards them. Working long hours may make you more money but it won’t grow a marriage.

II – A man and a woman are joined together and they both love their mate above all else.

I don’t know for sure how far I want to go down this road but the bible clearly illustrates that God intended marriage, and sex for that matter, to be between a man and a woman. Remember, at this point the world is perfect and so we can say that this was God’s perfect plan for marriage with no alternatives.

The bible gives us a clear definition of what love is in 1 Corinthians 13. I had just stated previously that a person has to be fully devoted to their spouse and the only way to completely do that is to love them above all else, including yourself.

III – The two become intimate.

Notice that intimacy wasn’t first on this list. Marriages based solely on a sexual relationship are doomed from the start because at some point that initial attraction is going to wear off. Then what are you left with?

Devotion and love will always lead to greater intimacy. However intimacy very seldom leads to greater love and devotion.

Genesis Chapter 1

2008-09-10T10:09:00.000-07:00

Genesis Chapter 1
The Beginning

You may have heard people say that it requires more faith to believe that the universe and our planet “just happened” and that we as people “evolved.” Consider this, the galaxy that we live in spins at the speed of 490,000 miles an hour and still needs 200 million years just to make one rotation. Some scientists will tell you that the number of stars in space is equal to the grains of sand on all the beaches in the world and yet it all spins with order and efficiency. The odds of something like that happening by chance are literally zero.

Understanding that God created us and the world in which we live in gives us an accurate understanding of just how valuable we are. God chose to create the universe and everything in it and he chose to create us as his masterpiece. We are the finishing touches, the centerpieces, on an amazing work of art. Just about every ancient religion has a story about how the earth came into existence but only the Bible teaches that God created it for the purpose of man’s pleasure and enjoyment and that he created man to fellowship with. That places value on every person!

But still the question remains, how did he do it? One of the secular theories out there is the Big Bang Theory in which there was some sort of cosmic explosion that resulted in the formation of our solar system and the very planet on which we live. Verse two tells us that the earth was, “formless and empty”. There was nothing there! Over the next six days God would give form to the universe and fill the earth with living things. The inertia and general energy expelled by going from nothing to everything we have in our universe would be the same as a massive explosion thus giving way to scientific evidence indicating as much.

Days of Creation
First Day: Light
Second Day: Sky and water
Third Day: Land and seas; vegetation
Fourth Day: Sun, moon and stars
Fifth Day: Fish and birds
Sixth Day: Animals, man and woman
Seventh Day: God rested

Verses 26-31 take us through the sixth day when man was created. We learn from the bible that the Spirit of God (Job 33:4, Psalm 104:30) and that Jesus (Colossians 1:16) were present at and at work in creation. This is why we find the use of the plural word, “us” in verse 26.

We aren’t made in the exact likeness of God because God has no physical body. Instead this, “image” we are created with is the character of God. We are reflections of God’s glory and we are to reflect his likeness in our relationships with other people.

In verse 28 God tells Adam and Eve that they are to, “rule over” the creation. We recognize that ultimately God is in control and has the ultimate rule over the earth but in this delegation of responsibility we see God’s love for mankind by allowing humans to be in control of the creation.

The Christian mindset that everything belongs to God and that we are nothing more than His children in possession of His belongings is extremely accurate. Your spouse, your children, your finances, all that you have and the world that you live in all belong to God and are on loan to you for your pleasure. We stop finding pleasure in these when we lose this mindset and begin to abuse them by not honoring and treating them as God’s and not ours.

Genesis chapter one is crucial to the Christian belief for several reasons. To take the words, “In the beginning God” to heart leaves no room for any other methods of creation. It establishes God as the Supreme Being who is motivated by love. He created you and said that, “it was good.” You and I are not accidents and neither is the world that we live in. Motivated by love, God designed and created everything with a purpose. We become fulfilled when we live by that purpose and honor our creator in everything we do. Remember, you were designed to have the character of God. That is how you should live!

The Discipline of Giving

2008-06-23T18:44:00.000-07:00

The story is told that when General Sam Houston gave his life to Christ and was baptized that the minister, Dr. Rufus Burleson, noticed that he had a watch and chain on his vest. He said, “Mr. Houston, you probably want to take that off before you’re baptized, because it will get ruined.” So he takes it off and hands it to a friend. Then Dr. Burleson adds, “You may want to take your wallet out, too, and hand it to your friend.” Sam Houston replied, “No, my wallet needs baptizing, too.”

There is an unfortunate movement in some Christian circles that says the discipline of tithing is not biblical. I say unfortunate because it couldn’t be further from the truth. Some will argue that it was a practice of the Old Testament Law and later abolished in the New Testament. Others say that it is an unfair manmade practice that is easy for the rich and difficult on the poor. Yet, others will argue that it is just ministers manipulating their congregations into providing them with luxurious lifestyles. All of these show a person’s biblical ignorance as well as the true condition of one’s heart. It was for reasons like this that Jesus warned that, “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Matthew 6:21) While just about anyone can argue with the logic of man it becomes impossible for a Christian to argue with the Word of God. So what I would like to do is address the aforementioned arguments with what the Scriptures say.

Yes, the discipline of tithing was part of the Old Testament law but it actually predates the law. We read in Malachi chapter 3 where God chastises the nation of Israel for not bringing the “full tithe” to the storehouse and accuses the people of “robbing God” for withholding their tithes. Obviously God is interested enough in the tithe to include it in the law and to discipline the people for not giving it so why would it be a practice that He’d stop? We’ll get to that in a minute but let’s look at where it started. In Genesis Chapter 14 we read that after Abram returned from victory in battle we would receive a blessing from God and then (in verse 20) give to the Lord, “a tenth of everything.” (On a quick side note the word “tithe” literally means a tenth.) Not only did this action take place long before the law would be given it also even takes place before the Abrahamic Covenant. So we know that the practice of tithing had been around for centuries before we read Malachi’s charge in the final book of the Old Testament but was it a practice condoned by Jesus in the New Testament? The answer is, ABSOLUTELY!

Keep in mind that the New Testament demands more than the Old. In the Old Testament we read, “Do not commit adultery.” Exodus 20:13-14 However, we also read that, “if you think of a woman lustfully then you have committed adultery.” Matthew 5:28 Later on Jesus would chastise the scribes and Pharisees for neglecting justice, mercy and faith but would commend them for tithing (Matthew 23:23 ). The point being made is that tithing is a practice that goes along with the other aspects of the Christian lifestyle. It just isn’t a part of the law (both Old and New Testament) it is an important part of the law. Keep in mind that Jesus didn’t come to abolish the law but to fulfill it Read Matthew 5:19-19

Now, how about it being unfair because it is easy on the rich and hard on the poor? Let me ask you which is more difficult, giving $10 or $100-1000? The great thing about the tithing principle is that for a person who is spiritually disciplined is that is isn’t really difficult. When you consider all the minimal things we send 10% or more of our paychecks on then you see where tithing is a reasonable practice instituted by God. Where the difficulty comes is when your 10% is a larger amount rather than a small one. I heard the story once of a businessman who made a covenant with his pastor to always tithe 10% of his profits to the church. When the man’s business grew into a multimillion dollar a year business he began to think of all the other things he could do with the hundreds of thousands of dollars he was tithing to the church. He went and met with the pastor and told him of the struggle and said that he was seriously considering no longer tithing 10% because the amount had grown so large. He ended by asking the pastor to pray for him to which the pastor replied he would pray that the Lord would decrease his profits back to where giving 10% was once again manageable.

The thing is that 10% is manageable to anyone and when you develop the attitude that you are returning 10% of the 100% God has blessed you with back to Him then it also becomes reasonable. The issue of tithing has nothing to do with the pastor of your church, the size of the congregation, the worship style or the ministry plans. It has everything to do with the condition of a person’s heart. The assumption that failing to tithe is a sin and shows a lack of faith is a correct one. That was the whole point that God was making in Malachi chapter 3 when God said that the people were robbing him. Rather than getting offended get your heart right by trusting completely in Christ and living by faith. It isn’t about manipulation it’s about salvation! A person who is a Christian should show a strong desire to live by the principles and disciplines of the Christian lifestyle.

Unfortunately scandal has hit the church just as it has in the business world, the sports world and even in politics. However people still invest in Fortune 500 companies, they still pay hundreds of dollars to attend sporting events and they still vote. I find it ironic that they choose the church to single out because of scandal. You can’t judge all of Christianity based on the unfortunate decisions of some ministers who lost sight of their calling. Just like you can’t judge the entire sports and business world as well as all politicians based on the mistakes of a minority of the people in those professions.

Just keep in mind that your giving to the work of the Lord has everything to do with your relationship to Him and nothing else. We live in a society that excuses almost everything and makes excuses for not doing the right thing. I hope and pray that the tithe isn’t the next thing on the list.

Just the Facts

2008-04-30T11:41:00.000-07:00

Did you know that 13 people die a year from a vending machine falling on them, 40% of women have hurled foot ware at men, 50% of bank robberies take place on a Friday, 90% of boats sold are used for fishing, 90% of women who walk into a department store turn right, a car is stolen every 30 sec in the US, 200 babies are born every minute, approx 97.3978271128 of statistics are made up, assuming Rudolph was in front there are 40,320 ways to rearrange the other 8 reindeer, August is the most popular moth to have a baby, the average 4 year old asks 400 questions a day, adults spend approx. 14 minutes in the shower a day, average person speaks 31,500 words a day, average female spends 2 years of her life on the phone, average person spends 2 years of life waiting for traffic lights to change? Did you know that I may have just constructed the longest run on sentence, ever?

It’s amazing how many useless facts we keep track of. They are interesting to read and usually fun to look at but really they aren’t good for anything at all. If you memorize them they just become useless information stored in our brain that we do nothing with.

Here’s one for you. Did you know that 89% of the population of Nigeria attends a church of some kind as opposed to 44% of the population here in the United States ? In fact the U.S. is 11th among all the nations in church attendance percentage but is third in the world in population with 301,139,947 people. Last one, I promise. A recent survey showed that over 90% of unchurched people would go if someone would just ask them.

What’s the point? As believers in Christ we have an obligation to share with other people what we know about love, joy, peace, forgiveness, acceptance, heaven, hell, eternity, salvation, purpose and invite them to the church where you learned those things. Otherwise we are just retaining useless information.

Ben Stein Making the Debate Interesting Again!

2008-04-23T14:30:00.000-07:00

Let’s be honest. The Creationism/Darwinism debate isn’t going away any time soon but Ben Stein’s new film “Exposed” sheds some new light on the debate. Not from the “God created” vs. “nothing created” perspective but from the freedom of speech perspective. Creationists are labeled to be narrow minded judgmental people but that couldn’t be more false. In fact, as this film exposes, it is the Darwinist who could be tagged with that label for their aggressive and hateful attacks on creationists simply for questioning a theory that isn’t backed by any hard evidence. (For great examples of this just look at the videos posted on YouTube in response to the trailer for Stein’s film.)

Darwinist are still frantically looking for the evidence that has been missing from the very beginning in order to validate their theory while Creationists have the evidence that all of creation points to a designer backed by the validity and historical accuracy of the bible. However it is Darwinism that is taught and regarded as actual fact and Creationism as some far out theory with no evidence that only the ignorant hold on to.

The debate will continue to rage on but as this film exposes the labels need to be swapped.

Is Capital Punishment a Sin?

2008-04-16T15:12:00.000-07:00

There has been some talk in the news recently about the death penalty and whether it is constitutional or not. As the nationwide halt on executions is expiring I have to admit that my initial thought was disgust. Not in the fact that death row inmates will soon be facing the consequences of their actions but rather in the fact that there is such a huge battle to protect convicted killers but not unborn children. I don’t want to turn this post into an abortion debate but I do want to say that this issue speaks volumes to how backwards our society has become.

There is a biblically ignorant argument out there where people will tell you that the bible says, “Thou shall not kill.” The reason I say this is ignorant is because the bible doesn’t say that at all. In Exodus chapter 20, where God is delivering the 10 Commandments, we find that it actually says not to commit “murder.” Now, simple logic tells us that there is a huge difference between the two. Is a soldier engaged in battle or a man who is protecting is family guilty of murder if their actions result in someone’s death? Well…no! However, a person who commits a crime which results in the death of another person is and those are the men and women who we find on death row.

God does value human life and He does love each and every human on the face of the earth but the bible over and again teaches accountability. We are responsible for our actions! Newton’s third law teaches that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. We know that the consequence for murder could be the death penalty. If that isn’t enough to deter a person from committing the act then they should be prepared to deal with the reaction.

Since the beginning of civilization cultures have reserved the most severe penalties for the most severe crimes. Even among God’s chosen people, the Israelites, murder was dealt with swiftly and justly. Even living under God’s grace we must face the consequences of our actions. We can find forgiveness in Christ but the consequences for our actions against others remains.

Add to the discussion: Share your thoughts and views on Capital Punishment and vote on the opinion poll in the forum.

The Oprah Cult

2008-04-09T14:58:00.000-07:00

This video should be a startling revelation to Christians all over the world regardless of denomination or location. Oprah is a world known figure and she is leading millions of people astray from the truth of the Gospel with a watered down humanistic view of God. Here are just a few of my responses to her contradictions of God.

Yes, there is only one way. Jesus made that very clear in John 14:6 when he declared, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” Just because a person can’t fathom the reality of this statement doesn’t make it any less true. Jesus warned of false prophets and people who would attempt to lead others astray and that is exactly what Oprah is attempting to do. Regardless of how you feel about her show and the millions of dollars that she gives to charity the idea that there are other ways to get to heaven other than through a relationship with Jesus Christ is a lie that has severe eternal consequences.

Yes, God is a jealous God. He is everything that Oprah describes Him to be. He is all powerful, all present, all knowing and all loving but He’s also a jealous God. The Old Testament refers to God as being jealous 10 times. Here’s what many people don’t understand about God’s jealousy. It is motivated by love. You see we are all creations of a Holy God. He is an artist and we are His masterpieces. Of all his created beings we are the only ones that He loves enough to sacrifice himself on the cross for. Because of His amazing love for us He desires that we worship Him and Him alone. When we refuse to believe in Him or live a lifestyle that does not honor Him he becomes jealous of the attention that we are not giving to Him. This isn’t doctrinal its biblical.

10 Then the LORD said: "I am making a covenant with you. Before all your people I will do wonders never before done in any nation in all the world. The people you live among will see how awesome is the work that I, the LORD, will do for you. 11 Obey what I command you today. I will drive out before you the Amorites, Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. 12 Be careful not to make a treaty with those who live in the land where you are going, or they will be a snare among you. 13 Break down their altars, smash their sacred stones and cut down their Asherah poles. 14 Do not worship any other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God. Exodus 34:10-14

Rather than make an attempt to understand this concept Oprah is moving away from it because it is easier to serve and please ourselves than it is God. She is instead teaching that we can worship ourselves and find satisfaction it that. However, the worship of self is also what the Church of Satan teaches.

God wasn’t made in man’s image. Rather man was made in God’s image. Again what we are dealing with is a person’s inability to understand and live by biblical principles. To accept the biblical God a person has to accept the lifestyle that goes with it. Because people would rather create their own standard of holiness than the way the bible says we should live we try to “logically” say that is a religious law or doctrine made by man so in turn they actually do create their own man made religious laws and doctrines and follow them.

Yes, Christians are to be the light of the world and here is the full text of what Eckhart is trying to quote.

13"You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men.

14"You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. 15Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 16In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven. Matthew 5:13-16

What Jesus is saying is that Christians (people who actually believe in Him) should live a lifestyle that benefits those around them through sharing the love, joy and peace of Christ and ultimately bring glory to God. This passage in no way indicates that because we are the “conscious of the world” that we should create a new image of God where the standard of holiness is different from what is lined out in the bible.

How ironic is it though that two people who are trying to deny the biblical view of God will actually use a quote from Jesus to try lure people away from the Gospel. Talk about a wolf in sheep’s clothing. The other thing is that he (Eckhart) says that he doesn’t think about eternity (life after death) but will quote the teachings of Jesus. What kind of hope is there if this world is all we get? What kind of religion teaches that you have your human existence (75 years) and that is it? Here’s the truth, you can’t have Jesus without an afterlife. You can’t quote one passage from the teachings of Christ and then deny the biblical view of God. It is all or nothing and regardless of your view of God there will be an eternity for everyone. Refusing to believe that and attempting to explain to millions of people why it isn’t logical to you doesn’t make is any less true.

By the way I don’t believe him that he doesn’t think of what happens after death simply because every person who has ever lived does. The difference is that this cult that they are trying to get people to buy into doesn’t answer the questions about eternity and therefore can’t be discussed because it leaves a big open hole in their belief system. That hole is called hope and discussing eternity would cause millions of people to realize that the Oprah Cult leaves you without any.
God is very much about a belief. Again we find humanistic logic that says we have to see (or in Oprah’s case feel) to believe. The requirement for a Christian lifestyle is that we believe in God and in Jesus Christ his son as our Lord and Savior.

9That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. Romans 10:9-10

You are not a God and you never will be! You aren’t holy on your own account and you can’t be! Our natural inclination is to be rebellious towards the things of God putting each and every one of us in the need to be reconciled to God. Because of God’s love for us we can become reconciled to Him and made holy but make no mistake it will be totally because of God and not of ourselves. Submission to Christ doesn’t make you a God but it will make you a child of God.

26You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. Galatians 3:26

You can see more videos on Operah's beliefs on the message board.

Panama Day Two – Tour of the City

2008-01-25T00:14:00.000-08:00

Roger and I had the first part of the day off so we decided to do some touring of Panama City. We walked a few blocks before hailing a taxi and taking the twenty minute ride down to the old Panama City ruins. Standing on the ruins of structures that were built almost 500 years ago was pretty amazing.

After leaving the ruins we walked several more blocks (hailing a taxi in Panama City is a little more difficult than you would think) before catching another cab to the Hard Rock Café for lunch and then a little souvenir shopping before heading back to the hotel.

Later that afternoon we went with the missionary to meet with a potential pastor and then we visited a local house church.

10that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. – Philippians 2:10-11

If you’ve never had the opportunity to attend a worship service that is not done in your native language it is an amazing experience. The above verse came to mind as I listened to the voices of just a handful of people worship without restriction or inhibition. We sit in our sanctuaries with instruments and multimedia devices surrounded by dozens, if not hundreds of people, and we watch rather than participate.

As long as we are prohibited from worshiping by pride, prejudice or down right unwillingness we are failing to confess Jesus Christ as Lord. If He was truly Lord of my life then there’s nothing that would prevent me from acknowledging that through worship.

Panama Trip Day One – Jumped by a Monkey

2008-01-18T19:32:00.000-08:00

I arrived in the country of Panama last night to make arrangements for our mission team that is coming down in March. While yesterday was pretty uneventful with nothing more exciting happening than traveling down here today, our first full day in country, was a pretty busy.

We started out with breakfast at the hotel where Roger, my traveling partner, spotted a monkey running by on the fence. I gotta be honest I really didn’t believe that he saw a monkey. Not that Roger would lie I just suspected that whatever he saw appeared to be a monkey to him but was actually some other kind of animal.

We left our hotel and traveled to the community of La Chorrera to meet with leaders from the local church there that we will be working with in March. The meeting was very productive and we left with a complete list of ministry activities for the week that will only need to be fine tuned a little before we arrive for the main trip.

We also booked hotel rooms in the community and checked out food options. If you are one of our mission team members reading to check in on how the trip is going let me just warn you in advance that the upcoming trip to Panama will be like nothing experienced in the past.

The craziest thing that happened to me today is actually the craziest thing that has ever happened to me in Panama. As we were walking out of the hotel tonight to go to dinner we saw Roger’s monkey on the gate that goes out to the road. When the little guy saw us he climbed to the top of the gate and looked right into my eyes. Roger had just said, “Look out that thing is about to jump on you!” when suddenly he did. So there I was in Panama with a monkey on my back. We still have three days here but it is going to be very difficult to top that moment. The adventure is just beginning!

The Attributes of God Found in Jesus Christ

2008-01-09T00:18:00.000-08:00

Christians believe that faith in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior is the only way to eternity in heaven with God the Father. Obviously if a person could find a way to deny that Jesus was the Son of God and that he had the attributes of God then they would be able to totally debunk Christianity.

We believe, by faith, that Jesus is the Son of God but there isn’t a lack of physical evidence either. In response to Thomas’ doubt in his resurrection demanding to see physical before he would believe Jesus replied, "Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed." John 20:29

Jesus didn’t just believe that he was the Son of God with all the power of God he actually was. The bible records that Jesus had all of the biblical attributes of God. While pundits are going to claim that the bible is irrelevant and inaccurate it should be mentioned that way of thinking is inaccurate in itself. We’ll get to that at a later time but for right now we’ll stick to the bible as the ultimate authority on identifying Jesus as God incarnate.

Attributes of God	Found in Christ
*Omniscience (all-knowing)*	John 16:30 the apostle John affirms of Jesus, “Now we can see that you know all things.
*Omnipresence (all-present)*	Jesus said in Matthew 28:20, “Surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
*Omnipotence (all-powerful)*	All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me,” Jesus said in Matthew 28:18
*Eternality (no beginning or end)*	John 1:1declares of Jesus, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
*Immutability (unchanging)*	Hebrews 13:8 says, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.

What this means to us is that the Christ we’ve invited into our lives is the most powerful being ever. Having the power to know all, see all, overcome all and exists through all there isn’t any area of our lives that he can’t have a significant impact on. The question is, are we able to accept his Lordship by faith or do we, like Thomas, require physical proof before we believe? Regardless there is a blessing for believing, just a greater one for not requiring proof first.

Putting Together the Pieces for Panama

2007-12-28T19:02:00.000-08:00

2007 is just about to give way to 2008 which will bring plenty of new opportunities. Each spring members from our church travel to Panama for a mission trip. Honestly its one of the best weeks of the year that leads to establishing new relationships enhancing existing ones.

I’ll be traveling to Panama mid-January to make arrangements and to get things set up for the group trip in March. It’s around this time of the year that I receive the most traffic on the blog because people are checking in for information and details. I’ll do my absolute best to update from Panama everyday with photos and thoughts on my travels to Central America.

Meanwhile back at the church our mission team is forming and preparing themselves for the trip. It is definitely a busy time as passports have to be ordered, airline reservations need to be made and mission activities need to be planned. Definitely wont be a slow start to the new year for us.

God and Evil

2007-12-17T15:05:00.000-08:00

An over used argument against the belief in God is the existence of evil. People want to make the statement that if God was all powerful, all loving and all good then the presence of evil in the world show that God either isn’t all of those things or that He just doesn’t exists.

I have actually lost count on the number of times this case has been presented to me in an attempt to disprove God. It’s a flawed argument that defies logic. I recently received an email that contained some facts that help defend against this argument.

Did you know that there are different types of heat? You have heat, even more heat, super-heat, Mega-heat, unlimited heat, white heat, a little heat or no heat, but we don't have anything called 'cold'. We can reach temperatures of 458 degrees below zero, which is no heat, but we can't go any further after that. There is no such thing as cold; otherwise we would be able to go colder than the lowest -458 degrees. Every body or object is susceptible to study when it has or transmits energy, and heat is what makes a body or matter have or transmit energy. Absolute zero (-458 F) is the total absence of heat.

You see cold is only a word we use to describe the absence of heat. We cannot measure cold. Heat we can measure in thermal units because heat is energy. Cold is not the opposite of heat just the absence of it

Did you know that there is no such thing as darkness? Darkness is not something; it is the absence of something. You can have low light, normal light, bright light flashing light, but if you have no light constantly you have nothing and its called darkness, isn't it? That's the meaning we use to define the word. In reality, darkness isn't. If it were, you would be able to make darkness darker, wouldn't you?"

If you argue that there is life and then there's death; a good God and a bad God. You are viewing the concept of God as something finite, something we can measure. To view death as the opposite of life is to be ignorant of the fact that death cannot exist as a substantive thing. Death is not the opposite o f life, just the absence of it.

Evil does not exist, or at least it does not exist unto itself. Evil is simply the absence of good and our standard of good does come from God. It is just like darkness and cold, a word that man has created to describe the absence of God.

God did not create evil. Evil is the result of what happens when man does not have God's love present in his heart. It's like the cold that comes when there is no heat or the darkness that comes when there is no light.

Nehemiah’s Wall Discovery Should Affirm Our Faith in the Bible

2007-12-04T17:58:00.000-08:00

An archeological discovery made last week in Jerusalem adds validity to the accuracy of the bible should encourage Christians in their faith in the book that is the foundation for their religious beliefs.

The discovery of the wall that Nehemiah built is turning heads in Jerusalem and around the world, especially among those who argued that the wall never existed. There’s no way to deny it now but its discovery is of no value if we fail to recognize the significance of it.

Nehemiah teaches us to follow God’s desire for us despite the sacrifice, resistance and how impossible it may seem. Nehemiah left a position in the Persian government in order to motivate the Jewish people to go back and reconstruct the Jerusalem wall. Along the way he encountered complaining from his own people and threats from enemies. In the end the wall was rebuilt not by Nehemiah’s greatness but his allowing God to be active and work through him and his people.

We accept the bible by faith but evidence like this discovery reaffirms not only the truth of the stories found in God’s word but also the truth of who God is through those stories. It gives us confidence to continue to trust in God while living in a world that tries to deny His existence.

15 So the wall was completed on the twenty-fifth of Elul, in fifty-two days. 16 When all our enemies heard about this, all the surrounding nations were afraid and lost their self-confidence, because they realized that this work had been done with the help of our God. – Nehemiah 6:15,16

We all get spiritually run down at some point and there are times when we feel that God is not active in our lives. Those are all feelings that result from us straying away from God and not Him backing away from us. Like God’s call for the Jews to return to Jerusalem to rebuild the wall He also calls us back to Himself to rebuild or reestablish our relationship with him. For that to happen we’ll have to sacrifice the things that have hindered our spiritual growth, overcome resistance from friends, family and even ourselves to continue walking in the light of Christ.

Sometimes people may feel that it is impossible to find their way back to a loving God because of the way they have lived their lives. Remember that Nehemiah faced a task that seemed impossible as well but it was God’s power that allowed him to complete the rebuilding of that wall. Now we have actual physical evidence of it but you yourself can be the evidence of God’s power if you would just let Him work through you as Nehemiah did.

The Lighthearted Side of Preaching

2007-10-31T14:27:00.000-07:00

As a pastor I understand as well as anyone the occasional tongue twist and mispronounced word or twisted phrase. Two years ago a youth pastor in Colorado made a horrible mistake when he tried to say “pitched his tents.” The video floated around on YouTube resulting in a great practice joke.

I’m just glad that nothing like this has ever happened to me!

Should Christians Vote for Mitt Romney?

2007-10-24T21:37:00.000-07:00

Christians should vote their convictions and not be convicted about their votes. When it comes to selecting America’s next president Christians should be more concerned about a person’s stance on critical issues than their religious affiliation.

Romney is a devout Mormon, a religion that Christians view to be a cult, but for a Christian to not vote for him based solely on his religious preference would give validity to a secular world’s view that Christians are judgmental and close minded.

Instead Christians need to evaluate their own stance of hot topics like abortion, tax cuts, the war in Iraq and gay marriage. Then find a presidential candidate who best matches those convictions. Keep in mind that as believers in God our standard of morality comes from the bible. We, unlike political candidates, don’t have the luxury of wavering on our own personal standards and morality. The bible is what it is and we either believe in it or not. We are either Christ like or we are not but the choice is ours.

We can’t expect every presidential candidate to have the exact same convictions as we do but there will be some out there who are close. By informing ourselves of where the candidates stand on issues that are important to us we can cast a vote without compromising our own moral convictions regardless of the candidates religious affiliation.

Leave Baby Jesus Alone!

2007-10-16T00:32:00.000-07:00

Thinking through the major American Holidays and their subsequent decorations I can’t think of one more controversial than the nativity scene and I really don’t understand why. No one complains about Cupid’s arrows of love in February and he’s traced back to Roman mythology. In the spring no one complains about the Easter Bunny whose origin traces back to an ancient pagan goddess named Eostre. No one takes issue with Uncle Sam in July although he has been linked to wars involving America dating back as far as 1812. Every November pilgrims pop up all across our nation despite the fact that these men and women represented religious freedom and Christian values.

Regardless of the origin and folklore surrounding them each major holiday is represented by some form of a character and long before Christmas had Santa Clause it had baby Jesus. Jesus is what Christmas is all about and without him we wouldn’t have the winter holiday and yet people still ardently protest nativity scenes at city hall.

Sure we live in a world of religious intolerance but what did baby Jesus ever do to anyone? Again, no one complains about the pilgrims making appearances on City Hall windows and doors in November and they not only stood for Christian values but they also brought disease and death to the indigenous people. We’ll gladly celebrate them but let the Savior of the World lay in his manger on the front lawn and the law suites start filing in.

In my opinion the problem is cultural. We’ve developed a secular society that is so hatefully opposed to organized religion and the things of God that the church that lawsuits are becoming the newest trend among law firms. Unlike the Easter Bunny, Jesus is convicting. To truly believe in him means to turn from a sinful lifestyle and to embrace a biblical standard of morality. However, our society would much rather be offended than convicted! How dare anyone, including baby Jesus, tell us that our lifestyle is wrong. Therein lies the problem with baby Jesus lying in the manger.

Christians are viewed, unfairly, as narrow minded, judgmental and unacceptable by a society where 90% of the people claim to believe in God, 84% believe in the survival of the soul after death and 77% believe in the virgin birth. So why are Christians so grossly misrepresented? Because the people who oppose them are more vocal. Jesus spoke of this in John 15:19, If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you.

Christians need to become more vocal but not in the hateful manner used by those who oppose us. Instead, respond in love and explain why you believe what you do and why something like a nativity scene is important to you. It represents not only the birth or the savior and the rebirth of sinful man. There’s no lawsuit that will ever take that away!

The Word

2007-06-20T13:29:00.000-07:00

1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2He was with God in the beginning.
3Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4In him was life, and that life was the light of men. 5The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.
6There came a man who was sent from God; his name was John. 7He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all men might believe. 8He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light. 9The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world.
10He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. 11He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. 12Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— 13children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God.
14The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
15John testifies concerning him. He cries out, saying, "This was he of whom I said, 'He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.' " 16From the fullness of his grace we have all received one blessing after another. 17For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only,who is at the Father's side, has made him known.

In Hebrew scripture the word was an agent of creation, (Psalm 33:6), the source of God’s message to his people through the prophets (Hosea 1:2), and God’s law.

In Greek philosophy the word was another expression for God.

John is clearly talking about Jesus Christ and is expressing the fact that he has been around since the beginning of time. He’s not a mythological creature and he didn’t just appear on the scene at the virgin birth. The “in the beginning” phrase used here is the exact same phrase we find in Genesis 1:1.

There isn’t a single thing in creation that was not made by God. Even man made things are made with the things of God. All around the world God’s creation cries out to His existence even though people go to extreme measures to deny Him.

The agents working against God is the darkness we find in verses 4 and 5. They are not necessarily evil and in some cases not even bad but the world’s standards. They are just simply absent from the presence of God.

God is often described as light and that is how you have light in Genesis 1 before the creation of the sun and moon. The light there is the presence of God and darkness is His absence. Some people just simply don’t understand God while others purposely don’t want to understand and yet still some are so ardently opposed to the concept of God that the hate Him and all things or religion.

Not everyone who hears the words of Jesus Christ is going to accept it but those who do will have all the rights of the Children of God including a Holy inheritance. The Word is so much more than just the bible. Jesus Christ makes the word come alive because he is the word became flesh.

Why People Don’t Believe in God

2007-05-27T18:38:00.000-07:00

There is a whole world out there that doesn’t trust the church and believe that Christianity is nothing more than a bunch of phony rituals and traditions to a non-existent God. Why do they feel this way? Because there are people like holding ministry positions.

I’ll not use his/her name but there is a Methodist pastor in Baltimore who is not satisfied with the person that God created them to be so this person underwent a sex-change because God made a mistake.

“The gender I was assigned at birth has never matched my own true authentic God-given gender identity, how I know myself. Fortunately, God's gift of medical science is enabling me to bring my physical body in alignment with my true gender.”

People are entitled to opinions and they certainly have the right to pursue happiness but what this person has done goes against everything biblical. Again people certainly have the right to chose to deny a biblical lifestyle, its called free will, and they do but I don’t see how a minister can preach the infallibility of God and then say He made a mistake on creating them?

Christian’s are supposed to be different. We are supposed to be set aside, made holy. We are supposed to be examples of what a relationship with Christ looks like. When we read the bible, go to church, pray, and then go out and live a lifestyle that is no different from people who don’t do those things then we are telling the world that we follow a God who doesn’t work.

The Great God Debate

2007-05-23T15:59:00.000-07:00

I finally got around to watching, “Does God Exist? The Nightline Face-Off” and I have to say that my fear of this being a bad idea even before the debate was proven true during it. I have a ton of respect for Kirk Cameron and Ray Comfort and I think that they each did an outstanding job at voicing their beliefs and convictions but an event like this is a no win situation for either side because they are so ardently opposed to each other’s view points.

The problem for the Christians in a debate like this is that the rules aren’t the same for both sides. The atheist camp can respond and react with hatred and sarcasm, which they did, but if the Christians were to slip and respond in that manner then they would be ridiculed for it. To their credit Cameron and Comfort both kept a calm respectful tone while the atheist disrespectfully looked away and responded and attacked in hateful tones. There was a clear difference in the level of respect given between the two sides.

The other thing that is wrong with a debate like this is that the atheists don’t really care to hear what the Christians have to say. They view God (if He existed) as a heavenly tyrant, Christians as foolish and narrow minded, and are actually out for victory in this debate where the Christians just want to get their message out and let the audience make their own decisions and there lies the problem for the atheists in an event like this.

They attack the Christian’s stance so aggressively but defend their own with a weak effort. They gave no clear answer to the development of morality with the absence of God; they grossly misrepresented the scriptures, failed miserably to defend the gaping holes in evolution and refused to answer questions of proof regarding some of their “facts”.

While I’m certain that this event did not portray and adequate depiction of atheism it can be said that the atheistic views of Christianity aren’t adequate as well. They tend to focus on the corruption of the church and the deviations of Christianity rather than the true depiction of a believer in Christ.

In all I appreciated the efforts of both sides but also thought that they could have been represented better. I did like the format and thought that the program’s choice to leave the final decision up to the viewer was a good one.

Jerry Falwell (1933 – 2007)

2007-05-16T13:33:00.000-07:00

Jerry Falwell was often outspoken and often controversial to which I didn’t agree with on several occasions but you cannot downplay the impact he had on American Christianity and politics.

His ministries have reached out to thousands of people over the past 50 years. His church has grown from 35 members at the first meeting in 1956 to over 24,000 members in 2007.

Liberty University, founded by Falwell, not only gave us DC Talk (My favorite music group of all time) but continues to grow into one of the leading institutions in America for Christian based education.

Most importantly Falwell got the Christian body involved in politics. Sure he spoke his mind and stirred up controversy on just about every political and social front but he also motivated the “Moral Majority” to be heard in the political world by providing a platform for Christian values to be voiced in politics.

Keep on Keeping on

2007-05-11T21:18:00.000-07:00

The majority of the post is simple copy and paste which may be plagiarism but it’s an inspiring story of determination and surrender to following Christ. Many people follow God as long as it’s comfortable and convenient but true worshippers follow in good and bad as they stay the course no matter what.

Missionaries return to Tanzania after surviving brutal attack there
By Charlie Warren
Published May 8, 2007

MOSHI, Tanzania (ABP) -- Two Southern Baptist missionaries are on their way back to Tanzania, where they were attacked with machetes and shot during a vicious robbery in the E ast African country.

Carl and Kay Garvin, Southern Baptist missionaries who returned to Arkansas after the Feb. 23 attack in a remote village south of Moshi , Tanzania , have recovered remarkably well from the assault. They arrived in Nairobi , Kenya , April 24 for missionary meetings and a prayer retreat before a May 6 return to Tanzania .

The alleged robbers and would-be murderers have been apprehended by Tanzanian authorities, but the Garvins are still reeling from the harrowing evening when they were attacked in a rural inn.

They had just finished working in neighboring churches and were settling down after dinner when two men burst into the building, shouting for everyone to get on the floor. Baptist volunteers traveling with the Garvins ran to their rooms, but when the Garvins retreated to their room, the men tried to break the door.

Carl Garvin braced his back against a bed in the small room with his feet on the door to hold it closed. The door finally broke, collapsing onto Carl Garvin’s head and cutting him deeply. He was partially blinded by blood pouring into his eye. One of the men swung a machete at Garvin, who blocked the blow with his left arm.

“I felt the force of the blow, but I did not feel any pain,” he said. “The man was wild-eyed. He looked demon-possessed to me. He was very much out of control. He never stopped. He just kept constantly swinging. I counted six or seven hits on my body.”

At the same time, another “very calm” man stood in the hallway with a pistol. When the men demanded money, the Garvins gave them a purse and a wallet. But as the first intruder laid down the machete, Kay Garvin picked it up and took a swing at him.

That’s when she was shot by the man in the hall, whom she had not noticed.

“I told Carl, ‘He shot me!’” she said, “I was in disbelief that the man did that. I truly thought I was going to die.”

The bullet entered above her left breast, went through her lung and lodged in her back. It missed her aorta by an inch.

Carl Garvin feared the worst. “I thought I was going to get shot,” he said. “We had seen their faces. I was not afraid, but I was resigned to the fact that the next bullet would be mine.”

But the men took the money and a few possessions and left. Carl Garvin, a military nurse for 34 years and a Vietnam veteran, began treating his wife.

“I had seen gunshot wounds, and I knew that the chest was not a good place to get shot,” he said. “I thought I would lose her. I found it very difficult to say much more than a sentence prayer.”

Just then, volunteers Joe and Cindy Lennon, members of First Baptist Church of Harrison, Ark., and Rudy Dehrens, a member of Grandview First Baptist Church of Berryville, Ark., emerged from their rooms.

Dehrens, a nurse, began treating Kay Garvin. Carl Garvin, who had severely damaged bones in his arm and knee, organized locals to move his wife to a car to drive to the nearest medical facility, in Moshi -- a two-hour drive over rough roads.

“All I could do was pray short prayers,” Kay Garvin said. “‘Lord, I love you.’ ‘Lord, thank you for your protection.’”

She said she asked God not to let her die.

“I knew if I went to sleep I would never wake up,” she said. “I looked out the window. The sky was bright. The stars were beautiful, and I said, ‘Lord, I know you are all around, and I know you’re going to protect me.’ But I still had that fear. For two hours, I did not know if I would make it.”

As she looked at the stars, she said, she started to sing “God is so good,” and the others joined in.
Once on the road, Carl Garvin notified the International Mission Board, their employer, by calling the cell phone of the strategy associate in Nairobi , who happened to be in a meeting with IMB vice presidents. IMB personnel then called the Garvins’ children and started a prayer chain.

When the Garvins and the volunteers arrived at the Moshi medical facility, they immediately met with three missionary doctors and a Muslim doctor the Garvins had befriended.

Meanwhile, the IMB arranged for a medical evacuation plane, equipped with a doctor and a nurse, to fly to the nearby Kilimanjaro airport. Lanterns were placed on the airstrip so it could take off.

The Garvins had to get special permission to leave the country. Finally, 12 hours after the attack, they arrived at a hospital in Nairobi to receive the quality medical treatment they needed.

Today, Carl Garvin has a steel plate in his arm and can’t drive or lift anything for three months. He may face surgery on his knee in a few years.

Through it all, critics have asked the Garvins how God could let such an attack happen to people apparently serving him. But Carl Garvin calls that “shallow thinking.”

“God was in the room with us,” he said. “God allowed our bodies to be touched, but our lives were preserved. God’s purpose was they could only go so far.”

Plus, he added, God enabled everyone to remain calm throughout the ordeal. God provided a driver to the hospital, protection on the difficult journey to Moshi and comfort to the injured during the trip, he said. Moshi even had electricity that night -- an uncommon occurrence at times, he added.

“This is not our story. It is God’s story,” he said. “It is a story of his mercy, his grace, his power, his timing, [and] his miracles. It was miracle after miracle.”

Kay Garvin plans to attest to that power. After her surgery, she held the .38-caliber bullet once embedded in her back. She’d like to keep it for good.

“It was given to me personally, and I want it back,” she joked, adding that she plans to mount it on a necklace and use it as a conversation piece about God.

Indeed, the Garvins firmly believe their return to Africa is necessary as a way to reach more people in Tanzania and encourage other missionaries there. Kay Garvin, for all she’s been through, said she’s excited to go “home.”

“There will be many things we will have to face as we return, but God has seen us through so much already [that] I am sure he will see us through these things also,” she said. “We look forward to see his plan for our life and how he will use us to share the gospel. We want to share what he has done for us, and we want the African people to see what a wonderful God we serve.”

Blessing Others Through Your Prayers

2007-05-02T13:47:00.000-07:00

I recently had someone share with me an acronym (B.L.E.S.S.) that can be used as a prayer guide to lead you in praying for others. It was simple and practical so I decided to turn it into a sermon outline preached it this last Sunday. Here it is.

Body – Pray for the person’s healing or continued health.

Matthew 15:29-31
29Jesus left there and went along the Sea of Galilee. Then he went up on a mountainside and sat down. 30Great crowds came to him, bringing the lame, the blind, the crippled, the mute and many others, and laid them at his feet; and he healed them. 31The people were amazed when they saw the mute speaking, the crippled made well, the lame walking and the blind seeing. And they praised the God of Israel.

Asking for healing and continued health is nothing new to Jesus. He has been asked countless times and history is filled with the testimonies of those whom he has blessed with health.

Labor – Pray that the person’s actions, whether at work or at home, would honor Christ.

2 Corinthians 5:20
20We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God.

As Christians we are the representatives of Christ. When we misrepresent Him through selfish actions we are showing the world a Jesus that doesn’t exist.

Emotional – Pray for the person’s emotional well being, that they would constantly feel the love and acceptance of God.

1 Corinthians 14:33
33For God is not a God of disorder but of peace. As in all the congregations of the saints,

Emotional stress seems to be a natural part of life and many people live in a world of confusion because of it. They don’t have to! Pray that they would submit to God’s guidance on their lives as they experience his love for them.

Social – Pray that the person would become the major influence among their friends rather than their friends becoming the major influence over them.

Romans 15:20
20It has always been my ambition to preach the gospel where Christ was not known, so that I would not be building on someone else's foundation.

The influences that a person allows in their life greatly affects the way that they live. There are far too many Christians out there who are influenced by the world instead of influencing the world. They are “building on someone else’s foundation” by letting other sources set their standards in ethics and morality.

Spiritual – Pray that the person would understand what it means to walk in the spirit and that they would develop a strong desire to do so.

Romans 8:8-9
8Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God.
9You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ.

One of the major reasons that people refuse to believe in God is because there are a ton of Christians out there who are walking billboards advertising to the world that Christianity doesn’t work. The “pray, read their bibles, and go to church” but yet there is absolutely no difference between their lifestyles and the person who doesn’t do any of those things.

Christians are to be drastically different from unbelievers because they have the Spirit of God living in them which means a God first instead of a me first attitude should develop.

Things I’ve Learned Since Becoming a Pastor

2007-04-24T00:20:00.000-07:00

I was invited to speak at the pastor's conference for our association on Monday. Being new to pastoral ministry and understanding that the majority of the pastors in our association have years more experience than I do I felt it best just to share with them a few of the things that I've learned since becoming a pastor.

Here's a brief transcript of what I shared with them.

I’ve been a pastor for almost two years now and I feel like at this point that I can tell you more things not to when it comes to leading a growing church than things to do. God has really blessed both my family and my church since July of 2005 and he has taught me a lot about myself and ministry. I would like to share with you a few of the things that I have learned.

I’ve learned not to force God into service. It’s easy to jump into any ministry situation and structure it around our dreams. The problem is that sometimes our dreams and God’s desires don’t match. When this happens we must always yield to God.

Paul experienced this in Romans chapter 1 in his desire to get to Rome.

11I long to see you so that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to make you strong— 12that is, that you and I may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith. 13I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that I planned many times to come to you (but have been prevented from doing so until now) in order that I might have a harvest among you, just as I have had among the other Gentiles.

In his book “Experiencing God” Henry Blackaby reminds us that we need to find where God is working and join Him in it rather than work against Him.

I’ve learned that I can overcome circumstances. Wilma Rudolph was born the 16th of 18 children in a poor black family in middle Tennessee. She weighed just over 4 pounds. At the age of 4 she contracted polio and lost the use of her left leg. The battle with polio left her weakened and she developed chronic pneumonia and scarlet fever. She managed to survive, but spent most of her childhood as a cripple. It was only through years of therapy, and determination that Wilma was able to regain the use of her left leg. She played high school basketball setting a single season record averaging over 30 points a game. In 1960, Wilma represented the United States in the Olympics. She won gold medals in all three of the events in which she competed. She tied the world record in the 100-meters, set a new Olympic record in the 200 and in the 400-meter relay she brought her team from behind to win the gold. At the very least, we can say that Wilma Rudolph rose above her circumstances.

There always going to be things that we must overcome and being in ministry doesn’t make it any different.

I serve at a church that has tripled in size over the last two years. We have sent out mission teams twice internationally and once domestically. We have started several new ministries including one for Spanish speaking people. Even with that, last week I had a church member call me just to inform me of all the things that I’m doing wrong as a pastor.

The great news is that I don’t have to overcome anything under my own strength or power but I can rely on the one who has already overcome the world.

"I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world." John 16:33

I’ve learned the desert can be a place of blessing. When I graduated high school I received as a gift a two week vacation up the West Coast with some family friends. I was really excited because up to that point in my life I had only been east and I had never seen the desert before. When we reached the desert of Arizona and Nevada I immediately noticed two things.

First, the desert is very dry (duh). As the wind would pick up it would send huge dust clouds racing across the landscape. Second, the desert is lonely. There weren’t quite as many places to stop for gas or to sightsee in the desert.

However the desert can be an amazing place of refreshment with the right provision. Moses spent time in the desert leading the Children of Israel to the Promised Land. David spent time in the desert during the rebellion of his son Absalom. Even Jesus had some time in the desert. When you read all three accounts you find that God provided for their needs. For Moses it was manna and quail. For David it was supplies through friends and unexpected sources. For Jesus it was immediate nourishment after forcing the Devil to flee.

When our spiritual walk dries up and gets lonely there are several books to read, places to go, or people to talk to but the true blessing of the desert is found in God’s provision.

Easter Gladness to Funeral Sadness

2007-04-16T20:02:00.000-07:00

It really is amazing how much difference a week makes. We spent this day last week celebrating having 165 people involved in our Easter weekend services. We spent today laying to rest one of our most beloved church members.

I don’t really know that people understand the highs and lows that come with being a minister nor the emotional strain it puts on a person.

Why Pray?

2007-04-02T15:26:00.000-07:00

We had another amazing Sunday here at Mayfair. We had 110 in attendance for our worship service and had a family join the church with the husband coming forward to give his life to Christ.

Mayfair continues to move in the right direction under the guidance of Jesus Christ. We have some wise and Godly men and women in our church, in leadership positions, who seek God’s will in everything church related.

As we continue to grow it’s vital that our congregation collectively seeks God’s will for their lives and we as a church grow in our prayer lives. Because of that I am focusing on prayer this month with my sermons. I started the series this Sunday with a look at the reasons why we should pray.

Building a Community of Prayer
Ephesians 6:18

In a small Kentucky town there were 2 churches and 1 whiskey distillery which was owned by the town atheist.

Church members complained that the distillery gave the community a bad image so they unsuccessfully tried to shut it down.

One Saturday night they held a joint prayer meeting during which a terrible storm raged for hours. Lightning struck the distillery and it burned to the ground.

The next morning both pastors preached on the ‘POWER OF PRAYER’. The insurance company decided to not pay for the damages due to the ‘act of God’ clause in the policy so the distillery owner sued both churches for conspiring with God to destroy his building.

In court both churches denied any involvement in causing the fire.

A confused judge said, ‘I find one thing about this case very perplexing: The plaintiff (an atheist) is professing belief in the power of prayer and the defendants (church members) are denying that same power.

18And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints. Ephesians 6:18

Prayer is the true backbone of the church. The church only functions as it’s members pray. Growing churches have active praying members and dying churches don’t. Sure there are other differences between the two but the primary difference is the act of prayer amongst the congregation.

10And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, Colossians 1:10

Prayer is what allows a church to not only stand firmly but to also function properly. We live in a society where the church is attacked from every direction and sometimes backs down when it shouldn’t.

Abortion is a great example of what I’m talking about. No matter where you stand on the issue the fact remains that abortion stops life. Abortion plain and simple is murder and the church collectively didn’t stand when it should have to try to make a difference in this issue when the opportunity presented itself.

Instead of attempting to be more involved in the legislation of the laws regarding abortion the church backed down to the protesters when they said that the institution was infringing on the rights of the individuals. These are many of the same protestors who speak out against putting a convicted killer to death but are completely content to watch and allow an unborn child to die.

The church needs to pray for strength to stand in the midst of opposition and be a voice for Holiness and righteousness. I feel strongly that we have lost that voice and will not get it back until we find our way back into an active prayer life.

Prayer is also the key to success in ministry. When was the last time that you prayed for an opportunity to minister to someone? Churches grow because they are active in ministry and sometimes the words of Jesus haunt churches in regards to their ability to minister. “You have not because you ask not.”

3And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. Colossians 4:3

Prayer is the key to accountability. On a personal level we often don’t view ourselves as being accountable to God because we aren’t connected to Him. A greater understanding of God leads to a greater since of accountability to Him.

When we view God as being righteous and holy then have a better understanding of what we should desire to be like as followers of Christ. Sin runs rampant in our lives because we aren’t actively seeking God’s direction.

12We pray this so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Thessalonians 1:12

The only way Christ can be glorified in you is if you are actively communicating with Him and allowing Him to shape you through your prayer life.

Panama Mission Trip

2007-03-28T14:41:00.000-07:00

I had the amazing opportunity to spend last week in Panama working with a small church in developing outreach and evangelistic programs. We took a group of eleven people from our church to a small community called Margareta which is located near the port city of Colon.

We spoke to the church on Friday night in about focusing on a vision for ministry. We were able to be more specific and watch the church members strategically plan Saturday with a men’s prayer breakfast and a ladies’ luncheon. We capped off Saturday night with an evangelistic event that featured a movie for students and a marriage enhancement conference for adults.

One of the highlights of the week was teaching the kids to play American football on Sunday afternoon. After playing for about an hour and a half one of our ministers was able to present the Gospel in which 16 young men gave their lives to Christ.

Monday and Tuesday were spent out in the community meeting people and sharing information about the church. We were able to get two of our group into the schools on Monday and Tuesday to talk about what their life is like in America. Of course going to church and having a relationship with Jesus Christ is a part of that for them and they had the liberty to share that. Of the two people that we go into the schools one is a freshman in college and the other is a senior in high school.

Wednesday we took a tour day of the Panama Canal and some shopping and sites around Panama City before traveling home on Thursday.

I led our first group on a short term mission trip last spring and there were five members from Mayfair who attended. This year the group grew to eleven and each of them said that they would return next year if God opened the door.

It excites me to see how God is not only growing our church numerically but also growing the hearts of our congregation to be more outward focused instead of inward.

Ambassadors of Christ

2007-03-12T17:43:00.000-07:00

Thursday a team of missionaries will leave from Mayfair Baptist Church for Colon Panama to work a week of ministry in a local church there and in the community around that particular church. I’m excited about the way God has provided for this trip and the way our church has supported this mission effort. I’ve often said that I wanted this trip to not just be a group of people from Mayfair going to Panama but rather Mayfair sending out a group of missionaries. However, with that said we have to understand that even though we are coming from Mayfair Baptist Church we are Ambassadors of Jesus Christ.

Webster defines an ambassador as an authorized representative or messenger.

We talked last week about the Great Commission. In that study we were sure to emphasize the authority of Christ. It’s His command that gives us the initiative to go but it is His authority that empowers, or authorizes us, to go. But here’s what we have to understand. We aren’t Ambassadors of Christ because we are going to Panama. We are going to Panama because we are Ambassadors of Christ. Paul reinforces this fact in 2 Corinthians 5:20.

20We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God.

Everyone who has entered into a relationship with Jesus is an ambassador for Him. You represent Christ in every aspect of your life. You attitude towards worship reflects Jesus Christ. You faithfulness in your tithe represents Jesus Christ. The way you treat your family literally everything you do in every aspect of your life represents your relationship with Jesus Christ, but as it is with any type of ambassador when it comes to representing Christ there are good ones and bad ones. Some of us are guilty of grossly misrepresenting what it means to have the attitude and heart of Jesus Christ and the tragic part is that some of you know you are guilty and yet you don’t care because it’s easier for you to stay the way you are than to change to the way you need to be. Which begs the question, are you pretending to be someone you are not when it comes to being a Christian?

So, here’s the question. This is what we are looking at today. Who are you and what do you represent? An Ambassador of Christ…

Represents Christ to the world.

Galatians 2:20
20I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

Despite the fact that many people actually feel this way we are not here on earth represent ourselves. There is a much higher calling in life.

Paul makes sure to point out that he had been crucified with Christ and that he no longer lives for himself but that Christ now lives through him. This is a concept that we often pay lip service to but fail to actually live out.

When we commitment our lives to Christ, it should be Christ in us directing our lives.

Is an Example

Luke 3:10-11
10"What should we do then?" the crowd asked.
11John answered, "The man with two tunics should share with him who has none, and the one who has food should do the same."

John is simply just stating that true followers of Christ set examples of how people are supposed to live and not follow other examples that may be out there.

You are to be the example of generosity, love, peace, kindness and most of all what a person who has had a life changing experience with Jesus Christ is supposed to look like.

Instead we respond to hatred with hate and are more than willing to match wrong for wrong in a society that has no sense of morality at all. Whose example is that?
Preaches the Word

There are two schools of thought out there. One, Jesus radically changes your life is such a way that all things change to reflect the attitude of Christ and the word of God becomes your standard for living.

Two, you tell everyone that Christ has radically changed you life when in reality nothing has changed but you keep living the lie.

Now, there are many people out there who set out after number one but end up living number two. The difference?

The Word of God! An Ambassador of Christ will preach Christ at all times and stand firm in the Word of God. The world recognizes a phony when it sees one and only those who are truly reading and living the word can preach it.

Those who don’t take the truths of who Jesus is to heart will give into the pressures and voices of the crowd. The desire to please their own sense of self value and find favor among people rather than God will continue to be their driving force.

You read the story of Pilate in Mark 15. He had Jesus in his charge all night. He asked Jesus point blank who he was (recorded in John 18:35-37) and yet still armed with the knowledge of the reality of Christ he still gave into the voice of the crowd.

Mark 15:15
15Wanting to satisfy the crowd, Pilate released Barabbas to them. He had Jesus flogged, and handed him over to be crucified.

I’ll end with a statement about serving Christ and being an ambassador for him made by biblical scholar G. Campbell Morgan, he says we should “Make the must of His life, the must of our life” If a political ambassador represents his or her own country and uses every possible means to promote that countries interests. How much more should those who represent God to a lost and dying world represent God’s interests? We are called to be ambassadors to this world for the cause of Christ. In all situations we are called to be ambassadors…. Let us be diligent in that task!

Church Update

2007-03-07T07:40:00.000-08:00

I’ve said this before and it’s very true. God is good all the time! This last week was an amazing week for me in ministry at Mayfair. It started out on Monday of last week when I made a visit to a couple who are fairly new to the church. During that visit the idea of starting up a weekly bible study in their home came up. This is something that I had been praying about for a while because it has not only has the possibility of changing the dynamic of the church but also gives us the ability to reach a demographic that we are not currently reaching, young professionals who have not yet started their families.

This couple would later send me an e-mail expressing their sincerity in the home bible study as well as mentioning some people whom they have already discussed it with and invited.

Sunday morning we had over 100 in our worship service which was a site for sore eyes after a few weeks below the century mark. However the highlight of the service was the invitation time that saw several people come to the altar to pray and one student who gave her life to Christ.

Monday night of this week I had another meeting with our retired missionary friend and some key leaders in the church about the possibility of starting a ministry to reach a minority group. It looks like we have a solid ministry plan to start a Spanish bible study this summer.

To my amazement God continues to bless Mayfair and grow us. I am so blessed by what he is doing and really don’t feel worthy to be involved such a great ministry but I’m glad that I am.

Become A Missionary

2007-03-03T00:35:00.000-08:00

A Religion Professor named Dr. Christianson taught a required survey of Christianity course at small college. Every freshman was required to take the course regardless of his or her major. Although he tried hard to communicate the gospel, students viewed the class as nothing more than a waste of time.

One particular year Dr. Christianson had a student named Steve. Steve was the Center for the college football team and also a strong Christian who intended on going to Seminary. One day Dr. Christianson had an idea and he asked Steve to stay after class. "How many push ups can you do?" He asked. Steve said, "I do 200 every night." The professor asked Steve if he could do 300. "I have never done 300 before" Steve said, "but I think I can do it." "Good," the professor said, and he proceeded to tell his plan to Steve.

Friday came and Steve got to class early. Dr. Christianson came in with a large box of fluffy, cream filled doughnuts. The class was excited, it was Friday the last class of the day, and they could start their weekend early. Dr. Christianson went to the first girl in the row and asked, "Cynthia would you like a donut?" "Yes," she said. Dr. Christianson then turned to Steve and asked, "Steve would you do ten push-ups so that Cynthia can have a donut?" "Sure." Steve jumped down out of his desk and counted off ten push ups. Dr. Christianson laid the donut on Cynthia’s desk. Joe was next. He asked Joe the same question and Joe said "yes." Steve did 10 more pushups and the professor laid the doughnut on Joe’s desk. And so it went all the way down the first row and half way down the second until it came to Scott. He was a basketball player and friendly to female companionship. Scott replied to the professor’s question by saying, "I want the doughnut if I can do my own push ups." Dr. Christianson said, "No Steve has to do the pushups." Then Scott said, "Well I don’t want one if I can’t do my own." Dr. Christian turned around and asked, "Steve, would you do ten push ups so Scoot can have a donut he doesn’t want." Scott said, "hey! I said I didn’t want one!" Dr. Christianson said, "Look, this is my classroom, my class, my desks, and these are my donuts, Just leave it on the desk if you don’t want it." And he put the donut on Scott’s desk.

Steve had begun to slow down a little and sweat had began to form on his cheeks. Dr. Christianson started down the third row. Students were beginning to get a little angry. Dr. Christianson asked Jenny, "Jenny, do you want a donut?" Sternly, Jenny said, "NO!" Then Dr. Christianson asked, "Steve, would you do ten more push ups so Jenny can have a donut that she doesn’t want?" Steve did ten-Jenny got a doughnut.

By now a sense of uneasiness had filled the room. The students were all beginning to say "no." There were uneaten donuts on every desk. Steve was now putting forth a lot of extra effort to get the pushups done for each doughnut. A small pool of sweat was on the floor, his face was red, and you could see the sweat soaking through his shirt. Dr. Christianson asked Robert, the most vocal unbeliever in class, to watch to make sure Steve did the full ten. Dr. Christianson started down the forth row. Students from other classes had came in and were sitting along the side of the room watching on. When the professor saw them he counted and saw that there were now 34 people in the room. He was worried about Steve, "Could he do that many push ups?" Jason, a recent transfer student, didn’t know what was going on and came in to see. The class yelled, "Go away! Don’t come in!" Steve picked up his head and said, "let him come in." Jason was asked and he said "yes." "Steve will you do ten push ups so Jason can have a donut?" Steve did ten pushups very slowly and with great struggle. Jason, confused, was handed a donut and he sat down. Dr. Christianson then finished the fourth row and began on the visitors. Steve’s arms were shaking uncontrollably with each push up. By this time sweat was pouring off of his face and arms. The very last two students were cheerleaders. "Linda, do you want a donut?" Linda cried and said, "no thank you." Professor turned to Steve, "Steve would you do ten push ups so Linda can have a donut she doesn’t want?"

Grunting from the effort, Steve did ten very slow push ups for Linda. The last girl was Susan. "Susan would you like a donut?" Susan was full of tears and did not answer. "Steve would you do ten push ups so Susan can have a donut?" Susan asked, "Dr. Christianson why can’t I help him?" Dr. Christianson had tears in his eyes also and replied, "I have given him this task and he is in charge of seeing that everyone has an opportunity for a donut whether they want it or not. When I decided to have a party I looked at the grade book and found that Steve was the only person with a perfect grade. All of you had failed a test, skipped class, or turned in inferior work. Steve told me that in football practice, when a player messes up he must do push ups. I told Steve that none of you could come to my party unless he paid the price by doing your push ups. He and I made a deal for your sakes."

Steve slowly got up off the floor, he had done 350 push ups, his arms buckled beneath him as he started to get up. Two students helped Steve up off the floor and to a seat, physically exhausted, but wearing a thin smile. "Well done good and faithful servant", said the professor, "not all sermons are preached in words class." Turning the the students the professor said, "My wish is that you may fully comprehend all the riches of grace and mercy that have been given to you through the sacrifice of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. God did not spare His only Son but gave him up for all of us. Whether or not we accept His gift is our choice. The price has been paid. Wouldn’t you be foolish and ungrateful to leave it lying on the desk?...

I’m always amazed at the number of people who won’t share their faith in Christ with others. Out of fear, stubbornness or even selfishness many Christians treat their relationship with Jesus Christ as though it was a dark nasty secret and if found out would ruin their lives.

In one of the most overlooked passages in the bible Jesus actually commands his followers to go tell people about him. I say the passage is overlooked because many people have heard and read it, they just refuse to be obedient to it.

Matthew 28:18-20
18Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."

I don’t understand how people can read this passage and just ignore it. There’s no secret code involved. It’s not a riddle and there is nothing to try and figure out. Right there, plain as day, black and white from the mouth of Jesus you are commanded to “go” make disciples. You can’t even play it off by saying that it was something the preacher told you to do and since you don’t like the preacher you’re not going to do it.

It wasn’t the preacher who told you to do this it was Jesus Christ. By choosing not to obey this command you are choosing not to obey Jesus.

What I want to do is break Jesus’ command down into six parts that will help us understand not only the calling but also the priority in fulfilling that calling.

“All authority” – Jesus is the ultimate source of authority. He establishes that fact when he says that, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.” Who gave Him such authority? God did. Jesus is the most powerful being in all the universe. There is no power above Him and there are none who are not subject to him.

I cringe when I hear people call the devil the prince of the earth or the ruler of the world. The truth is that there is no ruler, no power and no authority other than Jesus Christ.

“Therefore” – Connecting word that links the two verses together. Our action is based on the understanding of the authority of Jesus Christ. You are either obedient to that authority or not but you will not be able to deny that authority.

Jesus establishes himself first as the ultimate source of authority and then connects his authority to the command.

“Go” – Verb/Action word. This word literally means what it says, go! It means to leave or not to stay. We’ve built churches and have modified our personal evangelism styles so that people can come to us on their own terms at their own comfort level.

We’ve become so concerned with offending someone and so fearful of rejection that we have stopped going and started waiting. We’ll talk to people about God only after we find out that they are believers as well. Instead of going we are satisfied with spreading the Gospel only in our bible study groups and call it good.

My friend, that is not going it is waiting and is disobedient to Christ’s command. Find a short term mission trip to be a part of, join your church’s outreach team and do more than just contact church members through it. Go to work and proclaim Christ, go to your neighbors and to your family. Go into your world and proclaim Christ. That’s what missionaries do. They go and take the Gospel wherever they are called.

You can make all the excuses that you want to try to make yourself feel better but truth is truth and failing to follow this command is a willful act of disobedience.

“Make Disciples” – Doesn’t say “find” disciples. It says make them.

A man walked up to a vending machine, put in a coin, pressed the buttons labeled, “coffee, double cream, sugar.” No cup appeared, but the nozzles went into action sending forth coffee, cream and sugar. After the proper amounts had gone down the drain, the machine turned off.
“Now that’s real automation,” said the man. “This thing even drinks it for you.” That is just how some people want their faith. They want to make a deposit, put in some money and let the rest be taken care of automatically. But, there is no such thing as automated prayers, devotion, worship in song or service.

You’ll never make any disciples by stating where you are physically and spiritually.

“Baptizing & Teaching” – The church’s responsibility is to baptize and teach. By that I mean the institution of the church. The pastor’s job is to equip the saints of God to do the work of God. It is the congregation’s responsibility to do the actual work. Without you committing to discipleship through baptism and then following through in actual discipleship the church, the body of Christ, will die.

“I am with you” – Our security is found in Christ. Do you understand what that means? Remember, he is the ultimate authority in the universe and holds all the power that comes with such a title. Not only is he on your side he is actually with you every step of the way, providing comfort, strength and security as you advance His Kingdom.

Pastor for Hire?

2007-03-01T09:48:00.000-08:00

I got a call from a funeral home on Saturday because a family had suffered a loss and had no church home or pastor to minister to the family. I agreed to help and called the family. I met with them on Monday and performed the service yesterday morning.

Before the service the funeral director gave me a envelope with a check in it. He told me that it was compensation for my time. I certainly didn’t expect it but told them that I appreciated it.

After everything was finished and wrapped up I went to the funeral director to thank him for his help and for giving me the opportunity. Here’s how he responded, “You did a great job. Can we call you again the next time we have a need?” Nothing unusual there but when I replied with a “Sure” he said, “Great, I’ll add you to our vendor list!”

What? Add me to the vendor list? What’s that? One of the other gentlemen from the funeral home told me that was just the list of people they buy things from. “What in the world would they buy from me,” I inquired? “Your services,” he replied.

Honestly, I have no idea what to think of that. I understand that as a minister it is my job to minister to people, which I certainly don’t mind doing. It is also my job in which I use to support my family so why not get paid for performing my “services”? I’ve just never thought of it as selling. As a minister I get called a lot of things, some good some bad. I just never in a million years would have expected to be called a vendor.

Loving God With All Your Heart

2007-02-25T13:19:00.000-08:00

When Charles Schwab was 70 years old, he made the following statement. These words were spoken for the record in a court of law after he’d just won a nuisance suit. He said, “I’d like to say here in a court of law, and speaking as an old man, that 9/10ths of my troubles are traceable to my being kind to others.

Look you young people, if you want to steer away from trouble, be hard-boiled. Be quick w/a good loud “no” to anyone and everyone. If you follow this rule, you will seldom be bothered as you tread life’s pathway. Except you’ll have no friends, you’ll be lonely, and you won’t have any fun!”

We have been talking about love over the last three weeks and while we have discussed several aspects of love relationships we have yet to fully devote time to the way we are to love God.

At the height of his ministry and popularity Jesus found his greatest opposition to be from the religious leaders of the day. In fact many of them hated Jesus because he didn’t do things according to their traditions and the popularity of Jesus’ love based ministry threatened to bring imminent change.

Hoping to trap Jesus and turn the crowd against him the religious leaders asked Jesus what the greatest commandment was. In typical Christ like fashion he didn’t reply the way they expected but he did give the correct answer. It is this answer that teaches us how we are to love God.

Matthew 22:37
37Jesus replied: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.'

Loving God with all of your heart, soul and mind literally means loving Him with all that you are. I want to put the focus of this lesson on loving God with all your heart because your heart is the source of all your emotions.

What does it mean to love God with all your heart?

It means to love God will all of your character. Each of us at some point has been in a relationship where we didn’t show our “true colors” to the other person involved. We didn’t allow that person to see our real character. We can’t be that way with God because he created us and already knows our true nature/character. There is no fooling God and no holding anything back because he already sees and knows all. So why not love Him with all of your emotion.

Love God through your joy.

It’s easy to love God when things are going great. Even the most ungodly will stand before thousands and thank God when the win an award but loving God through your joy is more than just acknowledgment it’s a way of life! Look at what Jesus said.

John 15:10-12
10If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father's commands and remain in his love. 11I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. 12My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.

Joy has nothing to do with material things, or with a man’s outward circumstance...A man living in the lap of luxury can be wretched, and a man in the depths of poverty can overflow with joy. - William Barclay (1907 - 1978)

There’s a huge difference between joy and excitement. Often we confuse them thinking that because we heard a good sermon, sang our favorite song, read a passage, got a promotion or experienced something else that brings about a sense of excitement that we have joy but joy is lived not experienced.

Joy stems from love and is completed in the person of Jesus Christ. Loving God with all your heart means seeking to not only live in joy but to share your joy and its source every day.

Love God through your sorrow.
Here we have the exact opposite issue than we do with joy. Sorrow is a part of life but for some reason when we experience it we want to get mad at God, the church and Christianity as a whole. Everyone experiences pain and sorrow but not everyone has learned to love God through them.

Look at Job’s complaint about the condition of his life and then his response towards his own complaint.

Job 19:7-21, 25
7 "Though I cry, 'I've been wronged!' I get no response; though I call for help, there is no justice.
8 He has blocked my way so I cannot pass; he has shrouded my paths in darkness.
9 He has stripped me of my honor and removed the crown from my head.
10 He tears me down on every side till I am gone; he uproots my hope like a tree.
11 His anger burns against me; he counts me among his enemies.
12 His troops advance in force; they build a siege ramp against me and encamp around my tent.
13 "He has alienated my brothers from me; my acquaintances are completely estranged from me.
14 My kinsmen have gone away; my friends have forgotten me.
15 My guests and my maidservants count me a stranger; they look upon me as an alien.
16 I summon my servant, but he does not answer, though I beg him with my own mouth.
17 My breath is offensive to my wife; I am loathsome to my own brothers.
18 Even the little boys scorn me; when I appear, they ridicule me.
19 All my intimate friends detest me; those I love have turned against me.
20 I am nothing but skin and bones; I have escaped with only the skin of my teeth.
21 "Have pity on me, my friends, have pity, for the hand of God has struck me.

25 I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand upon the earth.

Job got it that there was something bigger than his sorrow. To him it was never a question of control. He didn’t look to make excuses or cast blame even though there was a group of people around him begging him to do so. Instead he stated his situation for the world to hear and then proclaimed his trust in God, his redeemer, being in control.

Loving God through your sorrow means using your experiences to show others your true self and genuine faith in God because it will allow others to do the same.

Dr.Claude H. Barlow was a missionary to China and one of the most revered foreigners to work in that land. When a strange disease for which he knew no remedy was killing people Dr. Barlow sought for a way to fight it. There were no research laboratories for this disease, so Dr.Barlow conducted his own research. He studied the disease, filling a notebook with his observations. He then procured a vial of disease germs and sailed for the United States. Before he arrived, he took the germs into his own body, and then went to the John Hopkins University Hospital to be observed. Claude Barlow was very sick now. He allowed his old professors at John Hopkins to use him for experimentation. A cure was found, which a healthy Claude Barlow took back to China with him.

His efforts saved countless lives.

We would never be able to minister to others during their time of sorrow if we never experienced sorrow ourselves.

Love God with full surrender.
Here’s the problem that keeps people from living a Godly lifestyle. It’s the same problem that prevents us from experiencing true worship. I’m talking about a heart that hasn’t been surrendered to God.

There are people who will not come to faith in Christ simply because they don’t want to surrender their hearts. If they did it would mean a change in lifestyle, a change in their thinking process and a change in the way they view God.

A fully surrendered heart will say yes to God when it really doesn’t want to. We see that in the life of Jesus as he was agonizing in the Garden of Gethsemane. He was so torn between his own will and the will of God that it caused him to sweat drops of blood.

Matthew 26:38-39
38Then he said to them, "My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me."
39Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, "My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will."
That’s surrender! “God, I don’t want to give up my life of immorality but not as I will, but as you will.”

If we could just learn to utter those prayers over all the areas of our lives we would see not only our lives but those around us drastically changed.

Love God by modeling Christ.
As in most everything else in life Jesus modeled for us what it looks like to love God with all your heart. All we have do then is model Christ in the way he loved God without holding back.

God is Good – All the Time!

2007-02-19T12:06:00.000-08:00

Well, since making the statement two weeks ago that Mayfair had finally navigated beyond the beyond the 100 barrier we haven’t seen the century mark. Last week we had 90 in our worship attendance and yesterday was 93.

I have to admit that is a little discouraging but there are plenty of other areas in our church where we can see God working. Last week we finished up the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering to raise money for international missions. Our goal was to raise $1,500.00 for missions and we went beyond that to $1,600.00. We have a mission team of eleven people who are leaving in just over three weeks to go to Panama for a mission trip. Mayfair has been thoroughly behind this trip by supporting our team members financially and through prayer. Wednesday night is our mission’s banquet and we have basically sold out of our tickets to attend. There is an overwhelming sense that the Spirit is moving in our church as we are reaching people and changing lives. We are constantly seeking God for new avenues and opportunities to reach people and He has been faithful to provide.

Tonight I am meeting with a retired missionary and some minorities who are members of our church about starting a non-English bible study. Our goal this year is to reach out to an ethnic group and it appears that God may be opening that door for us. Please join with us in making this a matter prayer as we are excited to see what God has in store.

The most exciting thing that God is doing in the church right now, to me, is bringing us new members. Over the last two weeks we have had four new members join the church.

Loving No Matter What

2007-02-16T12:02:00.000-08:00

C.S. Lewis penned these powerful words about love. "To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly be broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable."...

Its amazing how often the word love is misused. We often use it in place of infatuation, a strong liking or even a desire to get to know better. Truth be told that we often have no idea what we are talking about when we tell another person that we love them. Love in its truest form is sacrificial. It gives way more than it receives even to the point of hurt.

We are designed to love and really can’t function properly without it. We are genuinely miserable without experiencing true love but on the same hand we are often brought to our highest points of frustration by the ones we love. However complete love allows us to move beyond the frustration hurt and pain that are commonly experienced in relationships to continue in the joy that God intended for that relationship bring into our lives.

The question is how, how do we continue loving no matter what? The answer is actually easier than you might think. There are two keys to growing your love relationship through difficult times. First, understanding what true love is and secondly, understanding how to truly forgive when you have been hurt.

In general we live in two types of love relationships, Eros and Philia. Its pretty easy to identify which type of love matches each of our relationships but it isn’t always easy to understand the full measure of that love.

For example, Eros is the type of love that describes our romantic/marriage relationships. We know it best as an attractive or sensual type of love but if that is our only understanding of it then we are missing out because there is so much more to it.

Eros can easily be defined as a selfish love based on the way the world understands it but in reality it is a giving love. It was Eros that not only initially attracted you to your spouse but it was also the motivating factor in your desire to be united in marriage. Think about that for just a second. Because of this kind of love you not only desired your spouse (selfish) but you also desired to give yourself to him/her in marriage. The concept of giving out of our romantic love is reinforced through the bible.

1 Corinthians 7:4: The wife's body does not belong to her alone but also to her husband. In the same way, the husband's body does not belong to him alone but also to his wife.

Ephesians 5:22: Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord.

Ephesians 5:25: Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.

When your romantic/attractive love fails to be sacrificial or giving then it will also fail to survive through the most difficult times of your marriage relationship.

However romantic relationships aren’t the only ones that have the potential to bring both joy and hurt in our lives. Many of us have been hurt by our closest friends and then find years later that we were hurt worse by the severing of that relationship than we were by the actual hurtful act.

Philia is the word used to describe brotherly love which is the type of love that we enjoy with our closest of friends. It is the type of love Paul uses when he referred to the church in the book of Philippians.

Philippians 4:1
1Therefore, my brothers, you whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, that is how you should stand firm in the Lord, dear friends!

There is nothing romantic or sexual stated in that text. It is just a man longing to be with his friends whom he genuinely loved as though they were his own flesh and blood.

This is also the type of love that Jesus enjoyed with Peter, James and John. Remember that John is often referred as the disciple that Jesus loved. It was these three men who not only shared in all the great moments with Jesus during his three year public ministry but also were with him during the lowest point of his life at the Garden of Gethsemane.

Keep in mind that Jesus was fully human and experienced all the emotions that came with his humanity. He enjoyed the company of his friends and understood what it took to make a friendship relationship work. Understanding that, Jesus gave us the ultimate example of what it is to be a friend.

John 15
12My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. 13Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.

Once again we find that giving and sacrifice are crucial elements to not only enjoying but also continuing a relationship that is based on brotherly love.

Now the key to loving not matter what is not just understanding Eros or Philia love but also understanding and living Agape love.

Agape love is the way that God loves us. It is unconditional love that allows us to say, “I may not like you at times but I will always love you!” That is exactly the way that God views you and me. He doesn’t like the sin in our lives but He does love us. God’s love is not based upon who we are or what we do but solely on who He is. We are God’s creation and as I said last week there is absolutely nothing we can do to cause Him to stop loving us. That is Agape love!

Understanding Agape love and living it will allow you to repair the hurt done and continue on in that relationship.

I can hear you right now, “But you don’t understand what they said or did to me.” You are right I don’t and while I acknowledge that hurt will many times sever a relationship, forgiveness always provides a way to bring it back together. Remember if your love is unconditional then it isn’t based on the other person it is based on you.

If our relationship with God was based on us then we would be in a lot of trouble because we allow sin to come between us and God on a daily basis. Some of you have been hurt more than once by your friends or your spouses and even though you desire to see that relationship continue you are at a loss as how to make it happen.

Look again at God’s example. Jesus didn’t die for the righteous he died for the wicked so that they may become righteous. He died for you and I in the midst of our rebellion against Him.

Romans 5:8: But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Look at that, while we were still sinners! We have this misconception that God only loves those who love Him but the truth is that not only does he love everyone He loves everyone in spite of their sin.

Knowing that sin would sever the lines of communication and damage the relationship God made a way for us to receive forgiveness and be restored to the full benefits of that relationship. Follow what I am saying here.

1) We are the ones who have the sin problem.
2) God loves us in the midst of that sin.
3) Our sin is direct rebellion against God
4) God is the one who paid atonement for our sin.

The power of God’s forgiveness is humbling. He offers us what we don’t deserve over and over again in spite of the fact that we are the ones hurting him.

Whether it is your spouse, child or friend they are going to hurt you at some point. The key to repairing that hurt and mending that relationship is not what they offer in retribution but what you offer in forgiveness.

Church Update

2007-02-13T21:15:00.000-08:00

I had the opportunity to go to the national pastor’s conference last week in Jacksonville, Florida. It was an amazing time of ministry and worship and I came home eager to continue the work here at Mayfair. While I do love my job it does get taxing at times when you are working with people who have, “never done it that way before.”

Not that our church has a negative attitude, they really don’t, they are just learning to do new things and serving at my first church as pastor I am learning along with them. We have made some great strides and have experienced significant growth as a result. Frankly the people of the church deserve more credit for allowing God to use and stretch them than I do as the pastor.

Mayfair has finally reached the point where we are almost always over 100 in attendance during our worship services. We actually had a low Sunday this week, due to illness and some families traveling, but still had over 90 in attendance. We’ve come a long way since our low Sundays were in the 30’s.

I started a sermon series on love that I am really excited about. It’s only a three week series but I believe it has the potential to not only be life changing but also change the dynamic of our church. I preached the first message titled “Love the Way God Intended” Sunday and we had three people come forward and join the church. I’m sure it was God working in their lives more than it was the words coming out of my mouth.

Right Now on the Message Boards
Christians being persecuted in Mexico

Love the Way God Intended

2007-02-08T23:43:00.000-08:00

Okay, honestly, raise your hand if you have ever said of thought any of those things you saw in the video towards your husband of wife. There have been times in my life when I have wondered why or better yet how my wife loves me as much as she does. I have rolled out of bed before, look into the mirror and said, “What was she thinking?”

I’m glad that I am confident in the fact that my wife loves me but where does that confidence come from? Part of it comes from when I look in the mirror. She is too smart to put up with a guy like me for all theses years if she didn’t really love me but the main thing that gives me confidence is my understanding of love. Not the love that we find that video, or on television and in books and magazines but love the way God intended it to be.

My goal through this lesson is to illustrate through some personal examples from my life God’s design and intention for love. Not that I have a better life than you do or that I am somehow on a pedestal above you, because I don’t think that way and if you know me then you know for certain that I’m not. However, I have to use illustrations from my life because you didn’t give me permission to use illustrations from yours.

Look for a moment at how the bible describes love in 1 Corinthians 13.

4Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Look at the adjectives in this passage. Can you honestly say that these descriptive words are found in your love relationships? If you can’t then you do not love the way God intended.
We have to understand that love is a process. All of these characteristics don’t just pop into the picture the moment you first fall in love. Rather they are developed over a time through the process of learning how to love.

The mistake that we often make is to assume that because love is a natural emotion then all the characteristics of love will come naturally with it as well. That is simply not true! Marilyn and I will celebrate our 14th wedding anniversary this coming May, Lord willing!, and I can honestly say that I am so much more in love with her now than I was almost 14 years ago when we stood at the alter and shared our vows.

Why is that? It is because over the last 13 plus years I have been learning how to love her. That’s the beauty of love the way God intended for it to be. Through the process of instilling all of these qualities into your relationship you actually see your love for another person grow.
With Oklahoma among the top five states in the nation with the highest divorce rates there aren’t as many people who will give you the testimony of their marriage that you just heard from me. There is no shortage in theories when it comes to identifying the reasons for a rising divorce rate but the problem is actually pretty simple. People just simply don’t want to adjust.
The process of love requires adjustment.

I told you earlier that Marilyn and I are close to celebrating 14 years of marriage but honestly some of you have been married for so long that you would still describe us as being in the honeymoon stage. Think about this for just a moment. How many things do you know now about your spouse that you didn’t know about them before you married them? What kind of adjustments did you have to make in order to continue loving them? What kind of adjustments did they have to make in order to continue loving you?

That’s the process that I am talking about. For you to enjoy love it has to grow and for it to do that you have to be willing to invest time and effort into the process making the required adjustments.

Failing to adjust to the process had implications on all three types of love relationships.
Eros – Romantic relationship
Philia – Friendship relationships
Agape – Godly relationship (also the way you should love your children)

Let me tell you two quick stories. Several years back the church that I was working at hired a new secretary. She was exceptional and very efficient in her work and above all else was a huge OU basketball fan. She had a grandson around my oldest son’s age and we would tell stories about the boys as well as talk sports just about every day.

One fall she asked Marilyn and I if we would like to tickets to the OU/Texas football game. Absolutely we did! It was the perfect opportunity to get away from the kids for a weekend and enjoy some alone time as well as watch our favorite football team. Going to the Cotton Bowl to watch the Red River Rivalry is the Mecca to both Oklahoma and Texas football fans and we finally had an opportunity to make the trip ourselves.

On the day of the game parking was chaos. We finally made our way to a small lot where we paid an outrageous amount of money to park our little car. After passing through the gate into the lot we were guided to a tiny spot to park. It was so crowded in that lot that after we pulled in the parking spot there wasn’t enough room for Marilyn to get out of the car. I tried to pull the car over to a lager spot so we could have enough room to actually get out and the lot attendant came sprinting over to emphatically tell me why we couldn’t do that. It was at that point when I saw my beautiful wife do something I had never seen before. She actually got out of the car and stood nose to nose with this man matching his tone of voice and body language demanding that she either get a parking spot that would allow her to get out of the car or her money back.

I was absolutely speechless. Try your best to get the mental picture of my little wife matching a rather large man in a battle of wills. I had never seen this behavior before and had no indication to ever expect to. After just a few minutes we were invited to enjoy a parking spot at the very front of the lot that left more than enough room for us to exit the vehicle to which Marilyn said, “Now, that’s more like it.”

Here’s the thing about Marilyn. She doesn’t settle for second best. It doesn’t matter if it’s a parking spot, our kid’s grades, the condition of our house or whatever. She wants the absolute best for herself and her family. Sometimes that attitude can be frustrating to me, especially when it comes to house cleaning, but it was something I needed to adjust to and here’s what I realized.

There are day when I don’t feel very confident in who I am as a person, a father or a husband. Hey, I’m just human and I am the first to admit that I am very imperfect. Its that truth in life that often causes us to feel less than we really are. Check this out, my wife doesn’t settle for second best and she chose to marry me! It is not in her nature to settle for second rate and I am the guy she fell in love with. What does that say about me? It says that I am not second rate, I am not second best. When I am having a bad day at work and feel like a miserable failure, my wife doesn’t settle for second best. When I have messed up at home and guilt makes me feel like a bad father or husband, my wife doesn’t settle for second best! Do you see the adjustment there? That is the process of love.

Here’s another angle from this story. When we returned home from the weekend I shared the parking story with our friend who gave us the tickets. She laughed and thought it was funny but guess what happened the next year? Not only did she come through with tickets again but this time she got us a parking pass that allowed us VIP parking right next to the team busses.
Now over the course of our friendship we have given her a few gifts as well on holidays and birthdays but I can honestly say that I have never given her anything like this opportunity and yet she continued to get us the tickets year after year for as long as she could. Here’s why? God’s intention for love isn’t self-focused.

How many times have you based a gift on what you received from that person? How many times have you helped out a friend only to the extent that they have helped you? Are your friendships based on you or are you truly reflecting God’s intention for love.

There is another aspect to love the way God intended and that is the Agape or unconditional love. His love for us is not based upon our actions, good or bad. His love is based solely on His love. There is absolutely nothing that you can do to make God love you any less. In fact the bible teaches that if we could then we could never again gain that measure of love back.

4It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, 5who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age, 6if they fall away, to be brought back to repentance, because to their loss they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace.
Hebrews 6:4-6

Jesus was crucified once for the forgiveness of man’s sin. It was God’s love for you that allowed Jesus to go to the cross. Many people will try to use this passage to make the point that you can actually lose your salvation but that couldn’t be any further from the truth. In fact, the warning is that if you could fall away you will never be able to come back. Why? In order for God to withdraw His salvation from you not only would that mean that the cross wasn’t enough it would also mean that He would have to actually go back on His word and quit loving you.

Do we deserve the cross and God’s offer for salvation? No! Do we get it anyway? Yes! Because God’s love for you and I isn’t based on condition.

When I was a kid there were many things my dad asked me to do or not to do. I wish I could say that I always did what I was asked but I was a child and as children do I often disobeyed. My disobedience earned me what I deserved which was punishment by my father.

I remember one particular incident when my brother had deliberately disobeyed our parents and were caught red-handed by dad. Knowing what was to come we were sent to our rooms to await our punishment. In our minds this punishment deserved spanking and when dad arrived to our room we “assumed the position.” However instead of swatting us (what we deserved) dad actually gave us some toys and candy he had bought earlier in the day for us.

It was the perfect time to explain God’s grace which is simply defined as unmerited favor or getting from God what we really don’t deserve. Dad could have easily spanked us and been justified by it but instead he chose to take the opportunity to show us favor and instill in us the confidence that even in our disobedience he still loves us.

There is a lot of talk and debate today about what is and is not sin but the simple truth is that sin is anything that is outside the will of God for your life. It is an act of rebellion against God and the bible teaches that we deserve eternal separation from Him (death) for those willful acts of rebellion. Instead of justifiably giving us what we deserve God instead offers us the gift of salvation in what is His greatest example of love the way He intended it to be.

Evidence that God Doesn’t Exist?

2007-02-03T18:22:00.000-08:00

I initially intended for this to be a quick post to go on the forum but wound up ranting a little longer than normal. Feel free to leave a comment below or discuss it further here.

New Book Examines Existence of Divine Creator Using Scientific
Method
Amherst, NY – Books on God and science, religion, and nonbelief have enjoyed unprecedented popularity in recent months—a trend Time magazine called an “atheist literary wave”—demonstrating the interest of American readers in intelligent debate on these topics. The God Delusion by evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins is number nine on the New York Times Best Seller List dated February 4, 2007; Sam Harris’s atheistic response to critics, Letter to a Christian Nation, sits at twenty-six. In interviews, both men have directed readers to an additional work that continues the “new atheism” trend: God: The Failed Hypothesis (Prometheus Books, January 30, 2007.)In God: The Failed Hypothesis, physicist Victor Stenger argues that science has advanced sufficiently to make a definitive statement on the existence or nonexistence of the traditional Judeo-Christian-Islamic God. He invites readers to put their minds—and the scientific method—to work to test this claim. After evaluating all the scientific evidence—the studies done by reputable institutions on the power of prayer; the writings of philosophers who have puzzled over the problem of God and of good and evil; the efforts of biblical scholars to prove the accuracy of holy scriptures; and the work of biologists, geologists, and astronomers looking for clues to a creator on Earth and in the cosmos—Stenger concludes that beyond a reasonable doubt the universe and life appear exactly as we might expect if there were no God. He convincingly shows that not only is there no evidence for the existence of God, but scientific observations actually point to his nonexistence.

I guess people will truly believe whatever they want to and honestly anyone can bend facts or create evidence to support to match their beliefs. I don’t plan on purchasing or even taking a second look at this book because it really is a “seen one seen them all” format with these types of books.

These “intellectuals” chose to ignore the evidence of an organized created universe and grasp on to theories in an attempt to refute the existence of God. Science has yet to fully explain, and provide evidence, for a universe that is self caused. It cannot explain eternity or the complexity and order of created things (DNA etc…).

They would rather explain the anthropic principle (the universe is so finely tuned as to allow life to exist on earth) as a freak accident and ignore the fact that is just makes more sense that there was a creator.

Where do morals, ethics and values come from? How do we know something is good? There has to be a standard. No one will deny the existence of evil but yet how do we know of evil. In order to have evil then you must have a standard of good (Holiness) to compare it with. However, if God does not exist then there is no standard of Holiness and therefore there is no opposite, evil.

These guys say that faith is foolish and people are blindly led astray by it but they base their existence on an unproven impossible scientific theory and stubbornly hold the position that it will someday be proven true despite mountains of evidence that point to the contrary. It really makes you wonder who is blindly being led astray.

Right now on the Message Boards:
Evidence that God Doesn’t Exist?

Arrest for Street Preaching Leads to Lawsuit

I’m Back!

2007-01-31T20:52:00.000-08:00

I know it has been a while. So long in fact that many of you reading this are asking the question, “Who are you?”

I took a sabbatical from the blog but now I’m back with some fresh ideas and a new look. I really debated whether to just delete Abundant Living and start over or revise it because I wanted a site that focuses on religion but was also driven by the readers.

So I decided to change the look of the site, add a message board and continue on with Abundant Living. I’ll post a few times during the week but the meat of this blog, for it to work properly, will come from contributions of the readers.

You can contribute by participating in ‘Ask the Pastor’ or by posting on the message board. Ask the Pastor gives you the opportunity to ask questions about God, the bible, religion or life in general.

Send your question to Ask the Pastor!

The message board lets you discuss, ask and even debate a variety of topics. Feel free to post there as often as you like. You do have to register to become a member of the message board but that keep out comment spam.

Abundant Living is back and has the potential to be a great site! Not because of me but because of you and your continued participation. Feel free to go ahead and get started.

Why Does God Allow Evil & Suffering

2006-10-19T16:35:00.000-07:00

One of, if not the, greatest challenges against a person’s belief in God is the existence of evil. More than once in my life I have heard the following argument:

1. If God is all good, then he would get rid of evil.
2. If God is all powerful, then he could get rid of evil.
3. Evil does exist.
4. Therefore, God must not exist.

Initially it looks like a strong argument against the existence of God. However, it is actually an argument for the existence of God.

In order for someone to call something “evil” they must assume that there is a standard of “good” by which one can compare. God is the only fixed and unchanging standard by which evil is identified.

Anytime someone says there is a way things should not be, they are implying there is a way that things should be.

The question is: where does this sense of moral obligation come from? Why ought or should anyone do anything? You can say that there is a plan that is unchanging. This can only be explained through the existence of God.

Another problem with the existence of evil is trying to identify good in it. If you have evil apart from God’s existence then it would be pure evil and nothing can be gained from it.

Think about the good things that have come from pain and suffering. At the time of our suffering we only see the pain and evil but in hindsight we can see the good that came from it.

Through evil, pain and suffering we acquire an absolute appreciation for life and the good things that are given to us. We also see a person’s character develop through an experience of pain and suffering. Finally, pain and suffering will often lead people into a closer relationship with God.

These are only three examples but none of them are possible without the existence of God.

Deciding Your Worldview

2006-10-12T16:40:00.000-07:00

The best description that I’ve heard of a world view is that it is like a pair of glasses. If you have red lenses then you will see everything red. If you are using orange lenses then you will see everything orange, etc…

It is the same way with our beliefs. If someone is an atheist, they will view life through “atheist glasses”; if they are Buddhist, then they will see life through “Buddhist glasses”; and if someone is a Christian, then they will see life through “Christian glasses.”

Once you understand a person’s worldview it helps you understand their perspective and stance on life and religion. This is important when engaging in a conversation especially when it comes to discussing different views on religion.

There are three major worldviews that are prevalent today. Monism, Naturalism, and Theism are the most influential worldviews. Most of today’s religions funnel from one of these three perspectives. However, for a worldview to have any value it must answer four fundamental questions:

1. Where did the world and man come from?
2. Where do morals come from?
3. Is there any absolute meaning in life?
4. Where does man go after he dies?

If a worldview can’t adequately answer these four questions, it is really not worth believing in because it cannot help guide me through life. So, let’s look at these three worldviews in light of these four questions.

Monism is the belief that everything is ultimately “one.” There are absolutely no distinctions that can be made in life. Distinctions are actually just illusions that we must learn to overcome.

Where did the world and man come from? Monistic religions (Buddhism and Hinduism) generally believe that the world and the universe are eternal (has always been and will always be there.) They reject the consensus of modern science and do not mind believing in contradictory statements since logic is primarily a Western ‘invention.’

Monism provides no answer to question one.

Where do morals come from? Karma is the moral law that drives the universe forward within Monism. Within this moral system, you have both good karma and bad karma. However the big problem here is that if there are no distinctions in Monism, how can there be both good karma and bad karma? For that reason Monism fails to answer the question of morality.

Is there any absolute meaning in life? Again Monism has the same problem when it comes to finding meaning in life. If everything is ultimately one, then that means there are no true distinctions between things. If this were true, then there would be absolutely no meaning in life for individuals since individuals are a contradiction to oneness. Again no answer found.

Where does man go after he dies? The soul at death becomes part of the cosmos. The cosmos is one, eternal, and impersonal existence and your soul will become a part of the whole.

Here we find a possible answer but it doesn’t satisfy because of the unreliability of the first three answers. If your beliefs can’t provide a valid answer to questions 1-3 then it makes the answer to number 4 unreliable.

Naturalism is the belief that all that exists is the natural world. The only way we can ever know anything is through our five senses. There is no God, there are no souls, and heaven/hell does not exist.

Where did the world and man come from? Naturalists have to believe one of two things about the origin of the universe: 1) it has always been here (eternal) 2) it popped into existence out of literally nothing.

The problem here is that the consensus of science tells us that the universe is not eternal and that it did not pop into existence from nothing. No answer is found in either of these two options.

Where do morals come from? According to the naturalist morality is the product of evolutionary development. Since the world is purely the product of physical and biological evolution, then morals must have evolved as well.

According to the theory of natural selection only those characteristics that perpetuate a species survive. Therein lays the problem for naturalism and the evolutionary ethic because it cannot explain why we should be good. Just because something may have originated one way does not mean there is any obligation that we should have to do it.

Another point here is that evolution cannot explain such acts as the sacrificing of one’s own life for the lives of others. Evolution tells us to do whatever it takes to preserve our own life not sacrifice it for others. There is no answer for morality found here.

Is there any absolute meaning in life and where does man go after he dies? Meaning and destiny do not exist within naturalism because the physical body is all that truly exists. Once the body dies, the brain and consciousness die with it; therefore there is no ultimate purpose or end for living.

Theism believes that although the world exists and our senses can detect the world, there exists another dimension where God exists.

Where did the world and man come from? There is a definite beginning to the universe and God was the cause of it. Since the universe must have a cause and since it could not cause itself the only reasonable explanation is that something caused it. That is where Theist point to an all powerful God as the cause giving us an answer to the first question.

Where do morals come from? Because God exists and His character is unchanging, He has established certain morals that are absolute and unchanging.
If God did not exist the only reason stealing would be wrong is because society tells us so. But so what? Why is anyone obligated to listen to their societal laws?
God is the source of morality.

Is there any absolute meaning in life? Since man is made in the image of God everything he does matters to Him. Every act and every thought reflects our relationship to God and therefore every single act has meaning.

Where does man go after he dies? Heaven is described as a place where there is no sin, sickness, or death. Heaven is a reward for all of God’s children who have put their faith in Him and accepted Jesus Christ as their savior.
There is also an eternal destination for those who have rejected God and His love. It is described as a place of utter darkness and eternal torment where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Not only does Theism answer the question of eternity but it is the only world view that adequately answers all four questions that guide a person through life. That makes Theism the only logical choice for a worldview.

Written with the aid of Walter Nusbaum’s “A Defense of the Faith.”

Does God Exist?

2006-10-05T15:43:00.000-07:00

“In a quiet revolution in thought and argument that hardly anybody could have foreseen only two decades ago, God is making a comeback. Most intriguingly, this is happening not among theologians or ordinary believers, but in the crisp intellectual circles of academic philosophers where the consensus had long banished the Almighty from fruitful discourse.”
-- Time, 1998

Cover of Newsweek: "Science Finds God”

“The achievements of modern science seem to contradict religion and undermine faith. But for a growing number of scientists, the same discoveries offer support for spirituality and hints of the very nature of God…Once, science and religion were viewed as two fundamentally different, even antagonistic ways of pursuing that quest, and science stood accused of smothering faith and killing God. Now, it may strengthen belief.”
-- Newsweek 1988

“For the scientist who has lived by faith in the power of reason, the story ends like a bad dream. He has scaled the mountains of ignorance; he is about to conquer the highest peak; as he pulls himself over the final rock, he is greeted by a band of theologians who have been sitting there for centuries.
-- Dr. Robert Jastrow
Founder and Director of NASA’s Goddard Space Institute

Have you ever wondered why there is something rather than absolutely nothing? Why does the universe even exist? Has it always been there or did it come into existence? These are all questions in which the answers lead you to God or to absolutely nothing.

Until recently many scientists still believed that the universe was eternal, that it had always existed. The reason scientists liked this view was because if the universe has always been here, there would be no need for a God to create it.

However, the view that the universe is eternal has fallen under severe attack. There is a virtual consensus among contemporary astronomers and physicists that the universe did in fact have a beginning.

There are four options that explain the presence of the universe.
1. The universe is eternal.
2. The universe is an illusion
3. The universe came into being by nothing
4. The universe came into being by something.

Of each of these four options only one really seems to be reasonable. The first option contradicts the findings of science. The second one doesn’t make any sense. The third one accepts the fact that the universe came into being but contradicts itself in saying that something can come from nothing. The fourth one has to be the best option. The universe came into being by the power of something, God. This is called the First Cause Argument.

Walter Nusbaum brings up the following analogy. Think anbout everything that surrounds your life. Is there anything that ever happens without any sort of cause? In fact, everything we think of has some prior cause. If this is true, then it makes sense that the universe had a cause too!

A term you might want to familiarize yourself with is the Kalam Argument. It is a three part argument that says that everything that begins to exist has a cause, the universe began to exist, and therefore the universe has a cause.

There is another popular argument that is called the argument from design. It says that anything with order and complexity required a designer because nature does not produce complexity and information.

Again Nusbaum gives us the following thought. You wake up one morning and your wife had poured your alphabet cereal in your bowl. If you saw the words “Good morning, Honey” spelled out, would you think it was just a fluke chance that the cereal letters came out of the box like that or would you think your wife did that?

When you look at the complexity of our world, universe and even your own body are you going to say that it just randomly happened or that it was a designer who created it that way? Christians believe in God for many different reasons but one of the largest is because His creation screams out about his existence.

Apologetics

2006-09-12T13:19:00.000-07:00

Have you ever been is a situation when you were asked to defend what you believed but couldn’t. We often know what we believe but we don’t know why we believe it. Learning how to explain and defend your beliefs is known as apologetics.

The word apologetics comes from the Greek work ‘apologia’, which means ‘defense.’ Anytime you are defendng your beliefs you are using apologetics.

Anyone who believes anything has an apologetic. All religions, cults and even atheists have apologetics. As Christians we need to make sure we not only know what we believe but are able to make a sound defense of our faith.

In his study book, “A Defense of the Faith” Walter Nusbaum gives us three reasons why Christians should study apologetics:

1. We are commanded.
15But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect. 1 Peter 3:15

The bible is full of examples where people defended their beliefs in God. No one will believe in a God that you can’t explain how He relates to you.

2. Study increases your confidence in evangelism.

Most people don’t share their faith not because they are afraid but because they don’t know how. Paul said that he wasn’t ashamed of the Gospel. The reason why is that he fully understood it and knew how to effectively communicate it to other people.

When we study Apologetics we begin to understand not only more about God but our relationship with Him. It becomes easier to explain and we grow more confident in sharing it with others.

3. Apologetics will draw you closer to God.

There is a direct link between knowledge and love. The more you learn about God and His love for you the more your love and devotion will grow for Him.

Maybe it’s time to discover why you believe what you believe!

Church Update

2006-08-22T13:35:00.000-07:00

I know that it has been a long, long time since my last update and I apologize for that. Things have been extremely busy here at Mayfair but extremely good at the same time.

We are three weeks into our “Developing the Mind of Christ” series and to this point God has blessed us with seven new church members over those three weeks.

Last Sunday we had 103 in our worship attendance which marks our third Sunday in a row with over 100 in worship.

On Friday myself and a handful of our church members will head out to New Orleans for a mission trip. This will be the second mission trip this year for our church (We sent a group to Panama in March).

We have also launched a church website - www.mayfairbaptist.org – check it out and let me know what you think. It’s very interactive with message boards, opinion polls and a blog. If you would like to keep up with what’s going on in New Orleans I’ll be updating the blog each night.

Developing the Mind of Christ

2006-08-10T17:03:00.000-07:00

Jimmy Moore was a dying man. There just wasn’t any future for him. Then he got his chance at life again in the form of a heart transplant at Vanderbilt University. Two years later, he completed the grueling Music City (Nashville, TN), Triathlon which consisted of a 1k swim, 40k bike ride (24.8 miles) and 10k (6.2 mile) run.

The man who had a heart transplant 18 months earlier crossed the finish line with tears in his eyes and these words across the front of his T-shirt, “I’VE HAD A CHANGE OF HEART.”

There are many Christians in the world today who need to have a change of heart. People come to know Christ and recognize him as Lord but they never realize what they are supposed to do next. Becoming a Christian means becoming a new person. That involves changing your heart, the things you desire, and mind, the things you think about.

The Bible tells us in Colossians 3:2 that we should, “Set our minds on things above, not on earthly things.” One of life’s biggest frustrations is when we know we are supposed to do something but we don’t know how we are supposed to do it.

According to T.W. Hunt and Claud King’s book “The Mind of Christ” developing the Mind of Christ Occurs in Three Stages

Beginning Stage
In this stage a Christian must learn to put his/her mind on things above. Philippians 4:8 - Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.

You have an amazing machine inside your head we call the brain. You may not have a high IQ, maybe only average or even below average intelligence. But your brain is still something amazing. Did you know that inside the skull of your head is more information stored than in all 17 million volumes in the library of congress? That is pretty amazing for a little machine that only weighs about 3 pounds.

Psychologists tell us that each person has about ten thousand thoughts per day. That means you have at least a one in ten thousand chance of having a good thought every day.

Much of the whole thought process remains a mystery to scientists and psychologists. But one thing is not a mystery about the mind. How you think is going to affect your Christian life. How you think will make a profound difference in how you represent Jesus Christ. A person must decide, choose, or determine the focus of their mind.

Growing Stage
The Christian lives in a constant state of renewal. Romans 12:2 - Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

Why do you suppose that there are close to 100 million church members in America yet they are not making more of a moral and spiritual impact? Why is that on Sunday morning thousands of churches have more empty pews than full? Why is it that the average Sunday School in America has less than 66 in attendance and that the average worship service has 84? Why is it that only 50% of a church membership can be expected to attend on any given Sunday? It’s because people make a decision about Jesus but never a commitment to Him.

Without a commitment to Christ your relationship will suffer and so will your mind. It’s that commitment to Him that allows us to transform our minds to focus on Godly things rather than selfish things that hinder our relationship to Him.

Qualified Stage
A Christian’s mind must be prepared for action. 1 Peter 1:13
Therefore, prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed.

It was the late 1920’s when a woman and her new husband moved into the man’s old family home. It was a clapboard house with a hall down the middle. It wasn’t much of a home, but it was all they had. Ten years later, however, the two had managed to save just enough money to tear down the old house and build another next to it which was to be their home for the rest of their lives. To cut back on the expense of the new place the husband, without informing his wife, decided to reuse many of the materials from the old house in the construction. He used old facings and doors, and many other pieces of the finishing lumber. When it was completed, the woman was finally permitted to inspect her "new home." As her husband walked her through it tears streamed down her cheeks. Unfortunately they were not tears of joy, however, but sadness. For as she looked around she saw the same old doors that wouldn’t shut properly; the same crown molding that was split and riddled with nail holes, the same unfinished window trimming. There wasn’t much in fact that was really very "new" about it. So on what should have been one of the better days of her life; she eventually sat down and had herself a good cry. Her husband was confused at her response. "But I’ve built you a new home," he objected. "No, you didn’t," his wife responded. "You just rearranged the old one."

Why do so many people get spiritually frustrated? It’s because their minds are not prepared for action. We allow our minds to focus on a “me first” attitude and it removes God prom the equation. Without a “God first” focus we cannot experience a growing relationship with Him. That means we often feel as if He is not hearing our prayers and we don’t feel a sense of value or purpose.

There you have it. Three easy steps to having a change of heart, all you have to do now is set your mind to it.

Ask the Pastor

2006-08-01T14:19:00.000-07:00

This week’s question is not only a great question but it’s something that all of us have asked at least once in our lives.

Why do we pray if God already has a plan for us and everything will happen according to His will? My husband has been sick for years, and we constantly pray for him to no avail, so my daughter feels there is no point in praying.

We know that God does have a plan for our lives based on what we read in Jeremiah 29:11, but what happens when our plans and God’s plans are not the same?

In Genesis Chapter 18 God is ready to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah because of the wickedness of those two cities. Abraham steps before the Lord in verses 16-33 and ask God if he would change his mind if he finds 50 righteous people in the cities. God does say that he will withhold his judgment for the sake of 50 righteous. Then Abraham begins to bargain with God talking Him down from 50 righteous people to 10.

So we know from this example that we call on God and petition Him with our own desires and He will listen to us. This is reinforced in the New Testament when Jesus told us to ask and it will be given to us (Matthew 7:7).

So why do people get sick and things happen that we don’t like? I have always taught that God answers prayer in one of three ways; yes, no, and grow.

Yes is the answer that we all like to receive from God because it means that He has heard our request and out of His love for us grants that request just the way we asked.

The other two are a little tougher to swallow because it’s not really the answer we were hoping for. We have to remember that God is a just God and His purposes are greater than ours. That is why it requires faith to grow in a relationship with Him. He tells us no because it is not according to His purpose and plan that is designed to ultimately benefit us even though we may not see it at the time of our request and His response.

Sometimes God tells us no because we have put the object of our request ahead of Him in our lives. Remember God is just and he desires our true devotion. Basically we are asking Him to give us something that is more important than He is.

God will also delay His answer sometimes because we need to grow in our faith and relationship with Him. Perhaps we don’t see what circumstances the granting or our request would bring up in our life and He knows there is a spiritual danger ahead and we need to grow a little in order to overcome what comes next.

Send your question to Ask the Pastor

The Reality of Hell

2006-07-24T13:35:00.000-07:00

In a national poll conducted several years ago by USA Today “67% of American adults said they believe in a hell. But less than 25% believed that they would go there.

Strangely enough a newer poll conducted by US News and World Report (2000) reveals that more Americans today believe in Hell than they did in the 1950’s or even 10 years ago. But most now think of hell as “an anguished state of existence” rather than a real place.

I assure you that the Devil believes in a real Hell. You may not believe in hell or you may think that it is just a state of mind, but as the old revival preacher said to the skeptic, “You not believing in Hell don’t lower the temperature there one degree.”

We don’t like think about the reality of Hell and we often hear the statement, “I don’t believe that a good god will send anyone to Hell.” This statement is based on error and inconsistency. We never make the statement, “How could a good judge sentence a mass murderer to death for his crimes?” We don’t say that because the judge is not responsible for the man being sentenced to death, his actions are.

In the parable that Jesus tells in verses Luke 16:19-31 we see two men from two very different walks of life and find themselves in two very different eternities.

Before death the rich man lived in complete luxury not wanting anything and Lazarus the beggar lay at the gate to his house wishing that he could just eat the crumbs that fell from the rich man’s table.

Not only is Lazarus described as a beggar but he is also described as a man covered in sores. So much so that the wild dogs of the city would come to him and lick the open sores that covered his body.

Death changed everything for both of these men. The bible tells us that when Lazarus died he was carried by angels to Abraham’s side and when the rich man died he found himself in the torments of hell.

You can argue the existence of God, heaven and hell all you want but one thing that you cannot deny is the fact that we all face death. It’s a morbid and sobering thought but you and I are going to die at some point and at the funeral it will be just your physical shell lying in the casket. The real person, the soul/spirit, has already departed to either a place of torment or a place of comfort, depending on the person’s spiritual condition.

Why is the rich man in hell? Reading this story by itself without an understanding of the rest of the Gospel a person might think that the rich man is in hell for being rich. The real reason for his being in hell was his disregard of the word of God and his rejection of the Lord.

Some people have an image of Hell that is not based on reality. For instance Mark Twain said, “I’ll take heaven for the climate and Hell for the society.” Ted Turner once said “I’m looking forward to dying and going to hell because I know that’s where I’m headed.” People would not be so flippant about Hell if they understood the reality of it. Through the experiences of two men Jesus gives us a glimpse into Hell. It is brief but powerful enough to blow apart many of man’s misconceptions about Hell.

Misconception # 1
Hell is nothingness we will just cease to exist, hearing, seeing and feeling nothing.

Hell is a real place of continuous anguish. This man was not dreaming. His hell was not on earth. He was conscious and aware of his surroundings – he could feel, he could speak, experience thirst – and was in anguish. In verse twenty-four he pleads, “Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.”

In fact, this is not the only place that the Bible uses vivid language to describe Hell. In Matthew 25:30, Jesus describes Hell as a place of “outer darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth.” Hell is also described in the Bible as a place where the worm does not die and the fire is not quenched (Mark 9:48). In the book of Revelation the Final Judgment is described as a “lake of fire.”

Every description of Hell is one of suffering, torment and agony. In this parable we see the word “torment” used four times, and it speaks of definite pain.

Misconception # 2
Not realizing that the choices we make in this life fix our destiny in the next.

There are no second chances after death and eternity is a long time to be wrong. The bible says that ultimately every knee will bow down to Jesus Christ. For some it will be in adoration and worship and for others out of disbelief and astonishment that they were wrong. One of the most fearful horrors of hell is the undying memory of what could have been.

Misconception # 3
After I spend sometime in Hell I will be able to get out.
“And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us. Verse 26”

There is no purgatory, no reincarnation, no chance for relief, no way out, no end to the suffering in hell. In Hell it is too late to pray, it is too late to change your life and it is too late to repent. Hell is a place where hope is dead.

Life on earth is the opportunity to secure your eternity. Once a person passes beyond the boundaries of this world it will be too late to change anything.

Misconception # 4
Hell won’t be so bad, I’ll be there with my buddies.

"He answered, ’Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my father’s house, (28) for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.’ (29) "Abraham replied, ’They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.’ (30) ’No, father Abraham,’ he said, ’but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’ (31) "He said to him, ’If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’ "

We don’t see the rich man reveling in fellowship with his friends, he is very much alone. He is not looking forward to his friends joining him there either. Rather he is desperate to find a way to warn them from coming there.

You can’t believe in God without believing in the devil. You can’t believe in heaven without hell. Why do you think they call it getting saved? You are being saved from the torment of a literal hell. The teachings of Jesus clearly tell us that there is an eternity. You have two choices as to where you are going to spend yours but the important thing to remember is that it is your choice.

Freedom Celebrated

2006-07-06T14:52:00.000-07:00

Atop the hill in Washington, D.C. stands the Capitol Building of the United States of America. The cornerstone was laid in 1793, but the crowning touch, is the statue on top known as the “Freedom Lady” that was placed there in 1863. The Freedom Lady, stands nearly 20 feet tall. A crest of stars frames her face. A shield of Stars and Stripes is in her left hand.

Sculpted in Rome, “the Lady” was brought to America aboard a sailing ship. During the trip across the Atlantic Ocean, a fierce storm developed. The Captain ordered cargo thrown overboard to lighten the load. The sailors wanted to throw the heavy statue overboard, but the captain refused, shouting over the wind, “No! Never! We’ll sink before we throw ‘Freedom’ away.” And so, “Freedom” was saved, and the statue stands above the dome today, because one man stood for “Freedom.”

One word sums up America, freedom. America prides itself on her freedom. Yet many Americans have taken for granted their freedom and have forgotten the religious principles that our country was built upon.

As Christians who worship the God who granted our freedom and the many fighting men and women who have defended it there are three things we should do in celebration of freedom.

Rest in what God has done for you.

You can rest in what God has done for you, because of what Jesus has done to make us free. John writes in Revelation 1:5b, 5and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth.

God is in control over all worldly leaders, and Jesus has set us free. Why worry? There is a lot of talk about the growing super power of China, or the nuclear threat of North Korea or even the latest developments in Iran, but guess what? God offers rests! He is in control.

People are trying more and more to deny the existence of God but the reality is that we wouldn’t have the United States of America if it were not for a group of people who believed in God. One reason why we confess our sins as we gather in worship is to experience this rest that God offers. Freedom is for resting in what God has done for you.

Respond with a life empowered by the Holy Spirit. Understanding freedom is a bit like understanding kite flying. If the wind is strong, the kite goes higher, and grows smaller and smaller as it tugs against the string. The harder the wind blows, the higher the kite rises. Then let’s say the string breaks! The kite is free, but no longer soars higher. It tumbles, and crashes to the ground or becomes tangled in the trees. What kept the kite airborne was the restraint of the string. When that was lost, the kite was unable to fly. We are never freed until we are restrained by something that pulls us higher and higher. It is not the absence of restraints that makes us free.

There is no freedom in life until one belongs to God. Every other form of it is an illusion. We find the freedom to achieve the greatest desires of our lives only when we live in that relationship. The loving life of freedom is lived out wisely as we follow the Holy Spirit in how we live. Paul offers us a life empowered by the Holy Spirit when he writes in Galatians 5:22-23a,

22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

We have been freed for resting in what God has done for us and responding with a life empowered by the Holy Spirit.

Reach out by becoming a contagious Christian.

Leviticus 25:10b , proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants.

God has the same purpose for our lives today to proclaim liberty throughout the world that is ours through Jesus Christ. Paul reminds us we have a common need for the free gift God gives in Jesus Christ.

Romans 3:22-24,
22This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, 23for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.

In a land that is free millions of people are slaves under the burden of their own guilt. Freedom is celebrated because we live in the freest country in the world but everyone, world wide, needs to be able to celebrate their spiritual freedom as well. It’s something that we all need and is available so what are you waiting for?

Ask the Pastor

2006-06-30T12:51:00.000-07:00

Why does it seem that in today's world, people have so much trouble telling their loved ones they love them? Or to take the time and tell a friend you care about them. Fear of rejection? Too busy? Life get in the way?

Thanks!

That’s a great question! All of us have someone that we wish we would have told them how much they mean to us or how valuable their friendship was to us. I don’t know the reason we don’t say the words but I know the sorrow that can be felt when they are left unsaid. I can tell you this; you can never say it too much.

The bible tells us in Hebrews 3:13 to, “Encourage one another daily, as long as it is called today.”

There are a ton of reasons why we don’t tell people how we feel about them but none of those excuses hold water once that person is gone from our lives. To me one of the worst feelings we could experience is wondering if a person knew how much they meant to you.

Imagine how Peter felt after he denied Christ three times in the courtyard only to see Jesus crucified the next day. The Gospel of John, chapter 21, tells the story of when Jesus appeared to the disciples, after his resurrection, while they were fishing.

Peter is the first to recognize Jesus and he jumped into the Sea of Tiberias so he could be the first to greet the Risen Lord. Later on that same morning Peter and Jesus had that conversation in which Jesus asked Peter three times if he truly loved him. He gave Peter the perfect opportunity at redemption. There is no doubt that after that morning Jesus knew exactly what Peter’s feelings were towards him.

Life is opportunity! Opportunity to live and love is what we like to say. We have an abundance of time to tell those we are close to how much they mean to us. We should all make sure that we don’t live in a way that disregards the one’s we love. Because you don’t want to carry the burden of wasted opportunity.

Send your question to Ask the Pastor

A Step of Faith

2006-06-26T16:44:00.000-07:00

There was a Pastor, who after the usual Sunday Evening Hymns, stood up, walked over to the pulpit and, before he gave his sermon for the evening, briefly introduced a guest minister who was in service that evening. In the introduction, the Pastor told the congregation that the guest minister was one of his dearest childhood friends and that he wanted him to have a few moments to greet the church and share whatever he felt would be appropriate for the service. With that, an elderly man stepped up to the pulpit and began to speak.

"A father, His son, and a friend of his were sailing off of the Pacific Coast," He began, "When a fast approaching storm blocked any attempt to get back to shore. The waves were so high, that even though the father was an experienced sailor, he could not keep the boat upright and the three were swept into the ocean as the boat capsized.

The old man hesitated for a moment, making eye contact with two teenagers who were, for the first time since the service began, looking somewhat interested in his story. The aged minister continued with his story, "Grabbing a rescue line, the father had to make the most excruciating decision of his life: to which boy he would throw the other end of the lifeline. He only had seconds to make the decision. The father knew that his son was a Christian and he also knew that his son’s friend was not. The agony of his decision could not be matched by the torrent of waves. "As the father yelled out, ‘I love you son!’ He threw out the lifeline to his son’s friend.

By the time the father had pulled the friend back to the capsized boat, his son had disappeared beneath the raging swells into the black of the night. His body was never recovered." By this time, the two teenagers were sitting up straight in the pew, anxiously waiting for the next words to come out of the old minister’s mouth. "The father," he continued knew his son would step into eternity with Jesus and could not bear the thought of his son’s friend stepping into eternity without Jesus.

Therefore, he sacrificed his son to save his son’s friend… With that the old man turned and sat back down in his chair as silence filled the room. The Pastor again walked slowly to the pulpit and delivered a brief sermon… Within minutes after the service ended, the two teenagers were at the old man’s side.

"That was a nice story," Politely stated the boys, "But I don’t think it was realistic for a father to give up his son’s life in hopes that the other boy would become a Christian." "Well, you’ve got a point there," the old man replied glancing down at the worn Bible. A big smile broadened his narrow face, he once again looked up at the boys and said, "It sure isn’t realistic, is it? But I’m standing today to tell you that the story gives me a glimpse of what it must have been like for God to give up His only son for me. You see… I was the father and your Pastor was my son’s friend."...

I have to be honest I don’t think I am willing to sacrifice any of my children for the hope that someone would come to faith in Jesus Christ. I do share my faith and I defend it without backing down but I just don’t think I could have thrown that safety line to anyone other than my child. That’s just the selfish love of a father but you know God has a selfish love for us as well. He desires to know you and spend eternity with you.

I am amazed at how many people don’t know how to share their faith with other people. I believe that there are people out there who would if they only knew a simple way to do it.

Leave it to those creative evangelism gurus to create such a method. It’s a simple acronym for the word FAITH.

F is for forgiveness.
We cannot have eternal life and heaven without God’s forgiveness. It just can’t happen! Because of the sin that you and I have in our lives we aren’t able to make it. The good news is that God recognized that and offered us redemption.

Ephesians 1:7a7In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace

A is for available.
Forgiveness is available. What’s available? Forgiveness is! It’s available for all (John 3:16) but it’s not automatic. To me the most tragic, and scary, passage of scripture is Matthew 7:21.

21"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.

There are going to be a lot of people who thought they could get by with just “playing religion” and find out that is not what God was looking for. A Christian isn’t something that you say or do it’s someone you become.

A relationship is what God desires and will settle for nothing less. Forgiveness is available for anyone who wants it, but you do have to accept it. Just knowing about it won’t work.

I is for impossible.
It is impossible for God to allow sin into heaven. That is why we need forgiveness and why God made it available. God is a loving God but he is also a just God. His judgment is against sin and the bible tells us that we all are guilty of sin (Romans 3:23).

How can a sinful person enter heaven when God allows no sin?

T is for turn.
Turn means repent. If we were driving down the road and you brought to my attention that I had missed the exit we would have to turn around. That is what happens to us spiritually. We turn from something—sin and self. (Luke 13:3b).

Then we turn to Someone by trusting Christ only. Romans 10:9.
9That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

So, what does a person get if they do that?

H is for heaven.
Heaven is eternal life. God wants you to experience it both here (John 10:10) and Hereafter (John 14:3).

How? How do I become a Christian? It’s a lot easier than you think. Just say a simple prayer like this.

“Lord, I know that I am a sinner and I have done things in my life that are not according to your plan for me. I am genuinely sorry for my sin and I ask you to forgive me and remove it from my life. I recognize Jesus Christ as your son and invite him into my life to be my Lord and Savior. I commit from this day forward to confess Jesus has my Savior and live my life according to his plan for me. Thank you Lord for my salvation and continue to teach me what it means to live as a Christian.”

The next step for you is to find a church in your area that teaches the bible and go get discipled.

Ask the Pastor

2006-06-19T19:44:00.000-07:00

I am starting a new feature on Abundant Living called Ask the Pastor. It is based on the hunch that there are tons of people out there with tons of questions about life and religion that they would like to ask. Thanks to all of you who have submitted questions. This first one comes from somewhere in the Southwest.

1. The guy has been informed by his wife they are divorcing; she moves out, they separate.
2. The guy then meets someone new.
3. The two hit it off really well and start moving forward with their new relationship.
4. Neither of the spouses has pushed the divorce through.
5. Ages later, the wife finds out about the new girl and decides she no longer wants the divorce.
6. The guy hates being the “bad guy” so doesn’t push the divorce.
7. At the same time the guy is adamant about not loosing the new girl.
8. The new girl is left wondering “what the heck is going on?”

In accordance with “thou shalt not commit adultery” does the new person severe ties and move on? What are the ramifications if one stays in the new relationship?

Here’s the deal. A quick definition of adultery would be any type of sexual relationship outside of the confines of a marriage relationship or any type of romantic relationship with a person other than your spouse after you have been married.

Divorce does not carry a spiritual death penalty. Jesus talks about divorce in Matthew chapter 19 and even gives a biblical reason for it. That reason? Adultery, Matthew 19:9.

Adultery in any form is sin and divorce is the result a husband or wife or both allowing sin in their lives. God intended for all marriages to be permanent and divorce for any reason other than adultery is sin but we are all guilty of some kind of sin, Romans 3:23.

If this man’s wife left him then he should have tried everything in his power to make the marriage work. If there was no hope of reconciliation then the marriage should have ended officially before either of them pursued a new relationship. As long as he is still married his wife is his priority, for better or worse. Any other relationship would be adultery.

Send your question for Ask the Pastor to dolphinfan73132@yahoo.com

The Legacy of Dad

2006-06-19T13:55:00.000-07:00

Did you know that Mother’s Day is the day of the year that the most phone calls are made as opposed to Father’s Day when the most collect phone calls are made. If you forget Father’s Day it really isn’t a big deal but if you forget Mother’s Day then you have better have an excuse along the lines of, “I’m really sorry mom but I was in the hospital on my death bed.”

Mothers and their day are held in higher regard than fathers and in my opinion rightfully so but fathers are important to the complete family unit as well. Every dad leaves behind a legacy on their family, good or bad.

American television and culture has dumbed down the father in our society. He comes across on sitcoms, movies and commercials as the person in the family who is out of touch with reality and incapable of doing anything productive in the family other than earn a paycheck and some struggle even with that.

Statistics are now proving that the removal of the value of the father in the home is contributing to the declining immorality of our nation. The reason why is that fathers are being pushed out the door and children are growing up without understanding the value and the role of a father in the home. In fact 39.6 % of the children in America are going to bed every night without their biological father in the home.

Fathers need to be reinstated to the level of importance that God intended for them! God set up the family unit with a father and a mother each doing their responsibilities in raising their kids in a way that provides the children with the most opportunity to be successful in life.

Colossians 3:18-20
18Wives, submit to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord.
19Husbands, love your wives and do not be harsh with them.
20Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord.

A father must be the head of his family. A wife submitting to her husband is not an act of self-degradation but of obedience to the will of God.

In Ephesians chapter five when Paul tells husbands to love their wives the same way that Christ loved the church and gave himself for her (5:25) we get the biblical picture of marriage.

If a husband loves his wife more than himself and made her the priority of his life then there would be no issue of submission.

This passage in Colossians goes on to fulfill the responsibilities in the family by urging children to obey their parents because it pleases the Lord.

Notice that all three of these hinge on the father. Without the father properly fulfilling his responsibilities in the home the family breaks down.

When a man becomes a father, he isn’t given some sort of rulebook on how to conduct himself. Don’t you wish you had known what you know now about your children when they were born? Fathers do their best to learn “fatherhood” on the job. They learn to express love in various ways but the key word here is learn.

They learn from the examples of own father. Every boy grows up and remembers things their father did and said to them when it comes to their own children. They will apply those things in their relationships with their children good or bad. That is a father’s legacy!

A father has an awesome responsibility to his family and it’s not an easy task. That’s why Father’s Day should be a day of encouragement and appreciation to dads everywhere. A legacy is something that is passed on from generation to generation and is often difficult to get away from. That is why it’s so important that dads take their responsibilities seriously and daily work to become men of integrity and faith.

Think about this for a second dad. If you want your daughter to have a high sense of morality then you had better not be immoral because she will learn her morals from you. If you don’t want your son to be dishonest then you had better be a man of integrity because his perception of truth comes from you.

As you celebrated Father’s Day on Sunday what kind of legacy were you celebrating?

What Wives Wish Their Husbands Knew About Women

2006-06-15T15:07:00.000-07:00

If you have been keeping up with the last few post then you know that we have already established that men and women are very different.

Understanding your wife’s differences is one of the keys to a happy and successful marriage. Your differences should be celebrated because that is what brings you together in marriage. You wife wants you to know that she is different and that she is not just, “one of the guys.”

There are some other key things that we as men need to know about women and their differences? I’ve got 3 things I want to briefly touch on.

Men, here is what your wife wishes you knew.

1) Women have a deep need for effective communication. They need to feel listened to.

John Gray says that “As a marriage counselor, the number one complaint he hears from women who come to see him is “My husband does not listen to me.”

Women primarily communicate to build relationships. They talk about feelings and emotions openly and find that talking about problems helps them feel better and helps them work things through. When they share problems, they want a sympathetic ear. They don’t want a solution.

A common mistake that men make is to try to provide a solution to our wife’s problems when she is sharing because for men, communication is very different. For Men, communication is a tool for solving problems. If you have a problem, you solve it yourself if you can, and if you can’t you talk about it to get a solution. If we do talk about other things, it is usually about things and activities. We usually hate talking about feelings and so our relationships are not based on talk, but activities.

Women need to feel as though they have been listened to. That also means giving them our full attention. Listen to what the bible says in the book of James.

James 1:19 “Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak.”

If we could take this verse and apply it to all of our relationships then we would experience the joy of blessed relationships. When it comes to our wives one of the most precious gifts we can give them is to listen to them because through this, we show them worth and value.

2) Women need to feel special, valued and LOVED.

One of the key differences between men and women is that men get their self esteem from achievements - getting a promotion, finishing a project, driving a nice car.

Women get their self esteem through relationships. Women feel good about themselves if others feel good about them.

Paul taught the early church that husbands are to “love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her” Eph 5:25.

Husbands it is your responsibility to make sure that your wife never feels the absence of love. You married her for a reason. You fell in love with her because she was special to you. You purposed to her because there was no other woman in the world that you would rather be with. Do you still feel that way? Do you let her know that?

3) Women need to be seen as equal partners not as slaves

The last key thing that we as men need to know about women is that they are equal partners, not our slaves. For most of human history, women have been oppressed and restricted. Until recently, a woman could be executed in Afghanistan for no more than learning how to read. Unfortunately, the Christian Church has also been guilty of treating women unfairly. In many ways the Christian community simply reflected the prevailing attitude of the entire ancient world.

All of Greco-Roman society looked at women as inferior to men. The philosopher Socrates argued that being born a woman was a punishment because a woman is halfway between a man and an animal. Women weren’t allowed to vote in ancient Greece, they had little choice over who they married, and in Roman society they aren’t allowed to be seen outside the home. Women in Jewish society didn’t fare much better. The Jewish rabbis prayed, "Thank you God for not making a woman." Jewish women were forbidden from learning the Jewish Bible. In fact, one rabbi said, "It would be better to see the...scriptures burnt than to hear its words upon the lips of women".

The attitude that women are inferior to men is a deception of Satan and it prevailed until Jesus Christ came to our world. Jesus both taught and demonstrated an entirely new attitude toward women. Jesus and the apostles taught that men and women were equal but different. Gal 3:28 says that, "There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise."

In God’s eyes, there is no distinction in value between a man and women. It has been said that Eve was made from one of Adam’s ribs - from His side, not from his head to surpass him or his feet to be trampled upon, but from his side. She was taken from the side of man to be his equal, to go beside him, to walk with him, to help him. No where does the Bible uphold that males are in any way superior to females.

God created women to complement men. You see, guys, when we were created, we were good, but we were not complete. We needed a helper, so God created women. –

Gen 2:18 - “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him”

In our English Language, the term “helper” often is used of a junior employee or one who is less experienced or capable. But the Hebrew word used here is of a person who works beside, complements, supports and aids. They are not inferior, they are equal. The fact that man needed a helper actually says more about the fact that man is incomplete than it does about women being a helper.

Teaching Your Children to Honor

2006-06-09T00:07:00.000-07:00

In Exodus chapter 20 God gives the Israelites the 10 Commandments. Each one of the commandments was to be honored as holy and from the Living God. These are more than just words in a book or decorations in a court of law. The 10 Commandments are guidelines for a successful, happy and satisfied life.

I want to focus today on the 5th command because it is the first of the ten that comes with a promise.

"Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you.” Exodus 20:12

To honor your mother and father is the command. A long life in the land that God has provided is the promise. That is how important this command is to God. That He would actually be willing to attach a promise to it allowing us to enjoy an even better life if we keep it.

You may look at this and say to yourself that the burden of responsibility for this command is on the children and not the parents but I would encourage you to open your mind and look a little deeper at the Word of God.

Children are taught honor and respect by their parents. You cannot expect your child to honor the position that you have over them as a parent if you first don’t model to them what it is like to honor authority.

Your children’s lives are at stake here by what you teach them. This command is reinforced in the New Testament book of Ephesians but notice the verse that follows the command.

1Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. 2"Honor your father and mother"—which is the first commandment with a promise— 3"that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth." 4Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord. Ephesians 6:1-3

It is your responsibility as parents to “bring up” your children with proper life instruction. You have to instill in them honor and respect by teaching them as fundamentals of lfe.

Why? Let me give you three powerful arguments for why you should obey this commandment.

The First Reason to Obey the 5th Commandment
More than anything else, your adolescent craves your total trust. It doesn’t come natural for your teen to obey you but if you look at Ephesians 6:1-3 again you will see that the command for children to obey their parents and the command for parents to teach their children are linked.

How can your child ever respect and honor you if you never teach them what it means to respect and honor. Many parents punish their children by removing their trust but they fail to teach them how to do what is expected of them.

Author Fritz Ridenour says, "You might as well trust your teenager; you don’t have any other reasonable choice. Distrust simply breeds more distrust, but if you keep trusting your teenager, sooner or later the message will get through."
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The Second Reason to Obey the 5th commandment

The 5th Commandment has a Reciprocal Consequence

This is going to be a hard pill to swallow for some of you. God didn’t say honor your parents if they’re honorable. Nowhere does he say that respect must be earned before you have to give it. God simply calls us to give honor where honor is due and that is too our parents, for better or worse, because they are the ones who gave us life.

This means that, at the very least, you refuse to speak disrespectfully of your parents, no matter what they’ve done.

One of Grimm’s fairy tales tells of an old man who lived with his son, the son’s wife, and the young couple’s four-year-old boy. The old man’s eyes blinked, and his hands shook. When he ate, the silverware rattled against the plate, and he often missed his mouth. Then the food would dribble onto the tablecloth. This upset the young mother, because she didn’t want to have to deal with the extra mess and hassle of taking care of the old man. But he had nowhere else to live. So the young parents decided to move him away from the table, into a corner, where he could sit on a stool and eat from a bowl. And so he did, always looking at the table and wanting to be with his family but having to sit alone in the corner. One day his hands trembled more than usual; he dropped his bowl and, and broke it. “If you are a pig,” they said, “then you must eat out of a trough.” So they made the old man a wooden trough and put his meals in it.

Not long after, the couple came upon their four-year-old son playing with some scraps of wood. His father asked him what he was doing. The little boy looked up, smiled, and said, “I’m making a trough, to feed you and Mamma out of when I get big.” The next day the old man was back at the table eating with the family, from a plate, and no one ever scolded him or mistreated him again.

So you see the enormous implications of honoring your parents. We’re so disconnected from this commandment today that we have to re-learn how to honor our parents.

The Third Reason to Obey the 5th Commandment

Living with honor for others equips you for all of life.

When God first gave this commandment to his people, he told them one of its purposes. “If you want to live a long and good life in the land I’m giving you, honor your parents.” The negative implication is that if they fail to honor their parents, they’ll be expelled from the land.

By learning to respect parental authority, one learns to respect the authority or other superiors, such as teachers, ministers, policemen, and state and federal officials.

Dr. Laura Schlessinger writes writes in her book The 10 Commandments: The Significance of God’s Laws in Everyday Life; “Parents are teachers of faith and morality. What God is to the world, parents are to their children. Unfortunately, some parents become so focused on the element of friendship or their own convenience, comfort, self-fulfillment, happiness, or love life that they forget their job is to help mold moral character so their children will have the strength to do what is right in a world that sometimes encourages them to do otherwise.”

Surviving As a Single Parent

2006-05-30T22:33:00.000-07:00

The American Family Unit has changed drastically over the years. Where the typical family unit used to be a mother, father and children the majority of families today are single parent with the majority of single parents being mothers.

Surviving as a parent is difficult enough but making it as a single parent can be brutal. Here are a few things that all parents can do to survive parenthood and raise Godly children.

Be Fed
In I Kings 17:9-12 Elijah had fled from the wrath of King Ahab to Zarephath under the Lord’s direction. There he meets a woman who recognizes him as the prophet of God.

He asks her for a drink of water and a cake of bread. Her reply was interesting to say the least.

"As surely as the LORD your God lives," she replied, "I don't have any bread—only a handful of flour in a jar and a little oil in a jug. I am gathering a few sticks to take home and make a meal for myself and my son, that we may eat it—and die."

Her intent was for her and her son to eat to die. Even though she recognized that she was in the presence of a man of God she didn’t recognize what God could do in the life of her and her son.

She made the same mistake that many parents are making today. She tried to rely on her own means for the survival of her son.

There are so many resources and helps for parents out there. The church is leading the way in this by providing ministries for children and their parents that are targeted at enhancing spiritual as well as physical growth.

It is the parent’s responsibility to equip themselves in a way that allows both themselves and their children to succeed in life.

Follow Godly leadership
In verses 13-16 the prophet Elijah instructs this single mother to go ahead and fix the bread for her and her son but to make him a small portion first. By doing that the jar of flour and bowl of oil would never be empty.

This was a simple test of faith. Did she really trust in the guidance and leadership of this man of God? Verse 15 says that there was enough food every day to feed her, her son and Elijah.

There is a reason why the divorce rate among couples that attend church is less than half of that of couples that do not. There is a reason that the graduation rate is higher and pregnancy rate is lower among teenagers who have grown up in church.

There is a right and wrong way to do everything including raising your children. Everyone follows a certain type of leadership but not all of it is Godly. Whose leadership are you following?

Place your children in God’s hands
17 Some time later the son of the woman who owned the house became ill. He grew worse and worse, and finally stopped breathing. 18 She said to Elijah, "What do you have against me, man of God? Did you come to remind me of my sin and kill my son?"
Why did this happen? After all this widow had done for Elijah why would her son die?
It’s amazing how many things we fail to give over to God. We give our lives to Him and call Him Lord but we never let Him in our marriages or in our homes. We don’t trust him with our children or anything else important to us. Those things we want to manage ourselves so we can always keep a firm hold onto them. What we are really doing is not trusting God enough to place those things in His hands.

19 "Give me your son," Elijah replied. He took him from her arms, carried him to the upper room where he was staying, and laid him on his bed. 20 Then he cried out to the LORD, "O LORD my God, have you brought tragedy also upon this widow I am staying with, by causing her son to die?" 21 Then he stretched himself out on the boy three times and cried to the LORD, "O LORD my God, let this boy's life return to him!" 22 The LORD heard Elijah's cry, and the boy's life returned to him, and he lived. 23 Elijah picked up the child and carried him down from the room into the house. He gave him to his mother and said, "Look, your son is alive!"

This mother had to experience total loss before she placed her child in the arms of God. What are you waiting for?

On February 19, 1979, a small plane crashed into Ontario Peak in the San Gabriel Mountains, and a ten-hour story of death, courage, and survival began. The passengers of that Cessna 172 included the pilot, a young woman, an attorney, and his eleven-year-old son. The pilot and the attorney were killed in the crash. The boy said he knew his father was dead when he tried to rouse him and “he wouldn’t wake up.” The boy and the young woman huddled in the snow near the plane for seven hours, hoping to be rescued. Finally they decided they must attempt the treacherous descent of the mountain or freeze to death. Shortly after they began, the woman fell 350 feet to her death. The boy, all 75 pounds of him, was lost and all alone on a mountain in the freezing cold. Bloody and bruised, broken bones in both hands, his father lying dead a few feet away—what was he to do? He never gave up. He slid most of the way down the mountain on the seat of his pants, clutching a stick in his fractured hands. Whenever he began to slide too fast, he wedged the stick in the snow as a brake. About 5 p.m. he was found near a village at the foot of the mountain and rushed to a hospital. Wet, bloody, and exhausted, he was still very much alive.

Before his release from the hospital there was a news conference. The boy encountered a barrage of questions about his ordeal. How did he find the courage to go on? Didn’t he feel like quitting? He answered simply, “I’m alive today because my dad taught me never to give up.”

Your children are learning from you. They are learning to be people. They are learning to be husbands and wives and they are learning to be mothers and fathers. How are you teaching them?

Three Things Every Husband Wants to Hear His Wife Say

2006-05-26T21:11:00.000-07:00

I’ve started a series on the family that will cover all the family unit
relationships. The purpose is to encourage families and marriages to be even better than what they currently are. Not saying that they are bad but understanding that every successful marriage takes work and for every “happy ever after” there was a husband and wife who were willing to continue to make their marriage better.

There are three things that every husband wants to hear his say. It’s not an issue of respect, or lack there of, nor is it an issue of one gender being better than another. It’s simply an issue of loving your husband enough to say one of these three things to improve your marriage. I promise it will change your marriage for the better. So, here we go…

1 "You’re the man."

Genesis 3:16 To the woman he said,"I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing; with pain you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you."

This is your curse ladies! You may not like it but you can’t leave it. Adam and Eve messed up and it changed the world. It was Eve who took the fruit and passed it on to her husband and it was Adam, who was equally at fault, who did not protect his family.

Both were at fault and both had to suffer the consequences of their actions. For the man it would be working to earn and provide for his family. That is his charge. That is his responsibility. The worst thing a father can be to his family his lazy. Not only is he not fulfilling his obligations to his family but he is also modeling to his children what not to be as a husband and father.

A husband should be hard working and dedicated to the support of his family. I’m not saying that women shouldn’t and couldn’t work. I believe if a woman wants to work outside the home then they should be commended for their additional support to the family but it should also be their choice.

If it’s the man’s responsibility to be the family workforce then it’s the women’s responsibility to be the encouraging and supporting force. If your husband is working to support your family then I promise he wants your encouragement. He wants to know that you support him and are proud of him for what he does.

When the bible says to wives that their husbands will rule over them it is a challenge to the husbands rather a knock against the wives. It’s interpreted as highly disrespectful to women and women often look at a husband trying to be the family leader as the man withholding his love and not appreciating her advice.

God created men and women as equal partners but he also created your family with the man as the intended leader of the home. We believe in and trust the promises found in John 3:16, Eph. 2:8,9, Romans 10: 9-10, John 10:10....why do bug out when we read Eph. 5:22-23?

Ephesians 5:22
Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. [23] For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. [24] Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.

We read the word "Submission" and we go "Ugh!" We don’t like to hear it, especially when a man says it to a woman. Husbands and wives are equals and they are partners but the man is intended to be a leader among equals.

I can see why women who don’t believe in God, Jesus, resurrection and forgiveness of sin would have trouble with Eph. 5.

But for the woman who believes....Ephesians 5:22 is simply God’s instruction to the woman just like Eph. 5:25 is God’s instruction to the man.

Ephesians 5:25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.

I’ve always said that a wife who is loved and cherished by her husband will have no problem submitting to his leadership as the leader of the home. It’s alright ladies. Tell your husband he’s the man.

2 "Yes we can."

Here’s a surprise. Men and women are different. A woman’s need is to be appreciated and listened to. Experts say that a woman needs 8-10 nonsexual touches a day. Things like having her hand help, a hug or just simply having her husband’s arm around her.

Men on the other hand need sexual touch. Ladies, it’s not just your husband. All men were created that way.

It takes two to tango but only one not to tango. According to the bible husbands and wives have the duty to fulfill each other.

I Corinthians 7:3-4
[3] The husband should fulfill his marital duty to his wife, and likewise the wife to her husband. [4] The wife’s body does not belong to her alone but also to her husband. In the same way, the husband’s body does not belong to him alone but also to his wife.

Wives if you withhold your body because of revenge, punishment or manipulations you’re messing up biblically. The same thing goes for husbands.

3 Honey, I was wrong, will you forgive me?

Proverbs 27:15 A quarrelsome wife is like a constant dripping on a rainy day; 16 restraining her is like restraining the wind or grasping oil with the hand.

Proverbs 21:9 Better to live on a corner of the roof than share a house with a quarrelsome wife.

This post is not meant as a knock against wives but rather as an encouragement. Trust me a post for husbands is coming soon. Ladies, it’s important that you don’t criticize your husband to other people and when you do point out his faults, do it privately and out of love.

Be willing to acknowledge when you have done wrong yourself and don’t be afraid to say you are sorry. Apologizing puts the ball in his court so to speak and puts the responsibility of resolution on his shoulders.

"Let the wife make her husband glad to come home, and let him make her sorry to see him leave." - Martin Luther

The Big Easy

2006-05-21T22:32:00.000-07:00

I had the opportunity to go to New Orleans last week as a part of a damage assessment team. My job was to lay the ground work for a team from our church that will be going in August to help with rebuilding.

I was amazed at how much devastation was still there. I was able to tour through some of the most devastated areas and was shocked at what I saw. There is no doubt in my mind that it will be years before the city is restored to a pre-Katrina state. Right now the city is still missing half of its population.

I encourage you to look at the photos below and find a way to get involved in the rebuilding of the city. Volunteer to go on a work trip or find a good reputable charity or ministry to make a donation to. After being there first hand I can honestly say that every little bit helps.

The bible speaks, in Ezekiel, of looking for someone to stand in the gap to rebuild the wall but no one was found. My fear is that many will have the attitude that New Orleans got what they deserved for building a coastal city under sea level. I pray that many will step up into the gap on behalf of the hundreds of thousands of people who are still displaced and have lost everything.

Photos from New Orleans

2006-05-21T22:26:00.000-07:00

Here are some of the photos I took of the flood area in New Orleans. These were taken in the Lower 9th Ward and in Saint Bernard Perish. Photos don't do it justice but it allows you to see how devastating this storm really was.

Sights like this are still very common. This is a church in Algiers. This area sustained mostly wind damage.

This pile of rubble is what is left of the home that were at "Ground Zero" when the levee broke in the Lower 9th. Every home within about six blocks of the levee was totally washed away.

This is the foundation slab that is left from a home washed away when the levee broke. This actually was a neighborhood in the Lower 9th this time a year ago. There were some homes where not even the foundation was left.

Smashed vehicles like this one, along with boats, are found littered throughout the Lower 9th Ward.

This is a home in the St. Bernard Perish. The water entered one side of the house and then blew out the wall on the other side. There are several homes just like this one.

All of the homes in the flood zone are marked like this. The upper numbers (9-30) are the date the home was searched. The letters and numbers to the left (SA-2) is the unit that searched the home and the number on the bottom (0) is the number of bodies recovered in the home. Unfortunately there were several homes where this bottom number was not 0.

These next two photos are what the inside of the flooded homes look like. Imagine a 30 foot wave of water hitting and flooding your home floating everything around for three weeks and then setting everything as it drains. This is what it looks like.

When our team goes in August our job will be to totally clean out homes like this. Everything has to come out to get rid of the black mold.

This was the way of escape for many people in St. Bernard. The water rose so quickly that people were forced to their attic and had to escape my making a hole in the roof before the attic flooded.

This shrimp boat was located in the middle of a neighborhood in St. Bernard. It gives you an idea of how deep and how much force the water had. This boat was 3/4 to one full mile away from any body of water.

Is the Old Testament Credible?

2006-05-17T15:29:00.000-07:00

All people, believers and non-believers alike, need to know whether or not the Old Testament is what it claims to be. Where the books in the Old Testament really written by Moses and the prophets whose names are attached to the works are is it all just a hoax?

There are two types of evidence that can be used to establish the credibility of the Old Testament. Internal evidence is looking within the text itself and external evidence looks at things outside of the text.

Internal Evidence of Authorship
The Old Testament book of Numbers (33:2) tells us that Moses recorded the journeys of the Israelites and he did so by the commandment of God. We read in the book of Exodus, after the battle against Amalek (17:14) that God told Moses to write for a memorial in a book.

In one of his last acts Moses finished writing the book of the law and then commanded the people to put it inside the ark of the covenant so that it would be a continued reminder to the people (Deuteronomy 31:24-26).

The Law is referred to throughout the remainder of the Old Testament. Judges 3:4, II Kings 21:8 and Malachi 4:4 are just a few places in the Old Testament that mention Moses’ writings.

In addition several New Testament writers and Jesus himself support the authorship of Moses on the first five books of the bible – known as the Pentateuch. Matthew 19:7-8, Mark 12:19, Luke 20:28, Acts 3:22 and Romans 10:5 all support the authorship of Moses.

There is also internal evidence for the authenticity of the remainder of the Old Testament. In Matthew 24:15 Jesus validates the authorship of Daniel. He also gives validity of Jonah (Matthew 12:39-40) and Isaiah (Matthew 12:17-21).

External Evidence of Accuracy
Once the Old Testament had been complied it was translated into several various languages. As the years passed the original manuscripts of Moses, the various historians and prophets were used and copied so many times that they eventually disappeared.

Scribes would use ingenious means to guarantee the accuracy of the scroll they were copying. Each scroll contained a count of the number of letters, the number of words, the number of lines, even such significant facts as the middle word or letter. When a copy was made the letters, words, and lines would be counted and double checked against the original. If a difference existed, the entire copy would be checked until the error was located and immediately corrected. If a scroll contained more than the allowed minimum errors it would be destroyed.

In 1947, a revolutionary discovery was made. The Dead Sea scrolls, in the caves at Qumran, were discovered by a shepherd boy. This discovery would yield over 40,000 fragments representing hundreds of scrolls and included every book of the Old Testament except Esther. Some of the fragments represented scrolls that had been written 150 years before Christ, more than a thousand years older than any previously known manuscripts.

Careful examination and comparison of the Qumran scrolls with existing medieval manuscripts revealed a consistency in textual integrity which was unbelievable. There was little noticeable difference between the texts written in 150 B.C. and those written in A.D. 800-900. This evidence supports the accurate preservation of the text.

Amazing Grace

2006-05-09T16:15:00.000-07:00

It could be the most popular song in all of Christianity. It has been sung by artist world wide, been in movies and recorded over and over. But do you know the story of the man who wrote the song?

In a corner of the churchyard of Olney Parish Church there is a large tombstone on which the inscription reads: “John Newton, clerk, once an infidel and libertine, a servant of slaves in Africa, was by the rich mercy of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ preserved, restored and appointed to preach the faith he had long labored to destroy.”

John Newton was the son of a sea captain engaged in Mediterranean trade. His mother died when he was 6, and after several years at school, he joined his father’s ship at the age of 11. Immorality, debauchery and failure followed. Rejected by his father and finally jailed and degraded, he later served on slave ships where he incurred the hatred of his employer’s black wife.

He was eventually brought to his senses by reading “The Imitation of Christ” by Thomas a Kempis, the great German preacher of the 13 and 1400’s. He gave is life to Christ and at the age of 39 he became a minister of the Gospel and was the pastor of the Olney Church for 15 years. He wrote many hymns but the most familiar is:

Amazing grace! How sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me.
I once was lost but now am found,
Was blind but now I see.

What we need more than anything in life is the grace of God. There are three aspects of God’s grace – saving grace, sustaining grace and sanctifying grace.

God’s greatest demonstration of grace is seen in Jesus Christ! Without Jesus there is no grace. He is the very personification of grace.

It is only through a personal relationship with Jesus that a person can find forgiveness and healing. That is saving grace!

God’s grace sustains us as well. Do you realize that people outside of Christ have no assurance of Salvation? People as searching for security, peace and some sort of assurance of eternity but are not finding it.

I am amazed that God sustains my salvation despite my faults and short comings. Even through my failures He sustains me.

“Blessed are they whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will never count against him.” Romans 4:4-7

That is sustaining grace!

The grace of God should sanctify us. Sanctification is the act of becoming holy and godly. This process should start when we come in contact with God’s grace and surrender our lives to Jesus Christ. That’s sanctifying grace!

God Has a Plan

2006-05-04T13:30:00.000-07:00

I couldn’t believe the words I was hearing. I was asked to come to the pastor’s office for a “brief” conversation and upon arriving I was told that I was no longer needed at the church and my job had been terminated. I was being fired!

Twelve months earlier I had moved my family from the south side of Oklahoma City to the northwest side to take a position as student pastor at a local church there. It had been an amazing year of student ministry full of trials and triumphs. We had seen the ministry grow to over 100 students and were making preparations for a great summer.

Then I was called to the pastor’s office. Thoughts raced through my mind trying to rationalize the situation, trying to discover what I could have done to deserve this and I was drawing an absolute blank. I even asked what I had done to cost me my job. The pastor’s reply was that I had done nothing wrong. He said that they were proud of me and my ministry but it was time to move in a different direction.

I stumbled out of the office trying to search for the words I would use to explain to my wife and children that I had lost my job. I was in a complete daze when I remembered the words that God had spoken to the prophet Jeremiah, “For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” – Jeremiah 29:11

What could possibly be God’s plan in all this? Fast forward five years from this “event” and I am now pastoring a church on the northwest side of Oklahoma City and God is blessing and growing it at an amazing pace. I became the pastor here in July of 2005 and since that time we have had 65 new members join the fellowship of our church.

Over the past five years God has shown me that not only did He have a plan for my life that it is perfect. After leaving the church in Northwest OKC I realized quickly how much I need God to be involved in my ministry. We like to put matters in our own hands because we can’t stand the feeling of not being in control.

The key to successful Christian living is not us being in control but God being in control and the same is true with ministry. After coming to that conclusion I was called to join the staff at a great church in Miami, OK located in the far northeastern corner of the state. I’m a city guy! I grew up in OKC and had always lived around the OKC metro area. Had I not been in the situation that I was in I never would have been open to moving that far (3 hours) away from “home”.

We lived in Miami for three years and it was there that I felt God calling me away from student ministry to become a pastor. I was fortunate enough to be working with a pastor who understood what I was going through and was willing to mentor me.

Now that I have been back in Oklahoma City for nine months I can look back on that time and see where God did have a plan for that day in June of 2001 and He continues to have a plan for my life now.

Jesus never promised us an easy life. He never said that there wouldn’t be hard times and difficulties in life. In fact, in Matthew 10:16 Jesus says that Christians in the world are like sheep among wolves. All of us will face trouble in life but the difference is whether you have embraced God’s plan for your life and have the faith to live it.

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. Romans 8:28

Cracking the Code

2006-04-30T16:21:00.000-07:00

A Look at the Da Vinci Code from a Christian persperctive.

On May 19 the world will be exposed to a new look at the formation of the church and the person of Jesus Christ. Many will be deceived into thinking that Jesus Christ was much less than a God figure and that the church is just one big conspiracy and cover-up.

Of course I’m talking about the release of the movie “The Da Vinci Code” based on the best selling novel by Dan Brown. His book has already sold over four million copies and has been translated into several languages and now the movie will bring his message to a whole new audience.

The Code
The Da Vinci Code is described as a complex tale of intrigue and conspiracy. I follows a Harvard professor of religious symbology and a cryptologist for the French version of the FBI as they investigate a mysterious murder and find themselves in the middle of the ancient quest for the Holy Grail. The story is fiction but Brown contends the book is historically accurate and therein lies the problem.

While being interviewed on NBC’s Today Show, Brown was asked, “How much of this is based on reality?” He replied, “Absolutely all of it. Obviously, Robert Langdon (the book’s main character) is fictional, but all the art, architecture, secret rituals, secret societies – all of that is historical fact.”

Keep in mind that Dan Brown is not a theologian or a church historian. He mixes more fiction than fact in his novel. His theories draw heavily on alternative views of the historic Jesus such as the Gnostic Gospels and the work of the Jesus Seminar. The bible warns against this in II Timothy.

For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. II Timothy 4:3-4

The Deception
Millions will be deceived when this movie releases because they will think they are watching something on historical fact and the reality is that the movie and the book are nothing but fiction.

The premise of The Da Vinci Code is simple: Jesus was not divine and the church is lying. As people walk away from the movie or when they put down the book they would have been told that Jesus was not divine, that he married Mary Magdalene and had a child with her. You will also discover that it was Jesus’ desire that Mary be the head of the church and that the church has been covering these secrets up, at all cost, for centuries.

This is again addressed in the bible in I Timothy.

Have nothing to do with godless myths and old wives’ tales; rather, train yourself to be godly. I Timothy 4:7

You cannot learn theology from a novel and unfortunately that is what many people are doing with this book. The danger is for those people who are “seeking” the truth about God and Jesus Christ. They are under the assumption that what they are reading and watching are historically accurate and it helps them form their view of Jesus and the church.

For anyone who has knowledge of Christian history The Da Vinci Code will leave you scratching your head.

The Answers
There are too many errors in the Da Vinci Code for it to be accepted as historical fact. Here are a few of the errors that I came across.

* The pagan religion Wicca was invented during World War II and has no relics.

* Constantine never commissioned a new Bible.

* Brown claims that Paris was founded by the Merovignan royal family; the city was actually founded by Celtic Gauls called the Parisii in the third century BC.

* He claims that Constantine made Christianity the official religion of the Roman empire but that didn’t happen until Theodosius in the late fourth century.

* Brown says that the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered in the 1950’s (page 234. They were actually found in 1947. He also refers to these scrolls as among “the earliest Christian records” (page 245). These scrolls are Jewish, with nothing Christian in them.

*He says that “Jewish decorum” would have forbidden “a Jewish man to be unmarried” (page 245). This just isn’t true. The Essene community that stored the Dead Sea scrolls was made up of unmarried male celibates.

* Brown states that Jesus was not considered divine until the Council of Nicea (page 233). This is not true either. The Old Testament makes it abundantly clear that He was divine and the early church fathers attested to this fact as well, years before this council even met.

* He also states that the divinity of Jesus was established by a “relatively close vote” at Nicea (page 233). But only two of more than 300 church leaders voted against the creed, that is a long way away from a close vote.

* It also says on page 341 that, “Every faith in the world is based on fabrication. That is the definition of faith – acceptance of that which we imagine to be true, that which we cannot prove.” It should be noted that Christianity is a religion in and of history. Archeology has verified the bible’s accuracy and reliability over and over. To date, over 25,000 sites have been discovered which establish the accuracy of innumerable details in the bible.

* Brown actually gets the most important name in the book wrong. Leonardo Da Vinci was not, is not, called Da Vinci. Da Vinci means “from Vinci.” Art history books, dissertations, librarians, scholars – none of them refer to the artist as Da Vinci, but Leonardo. As Welborn notes, calling him Da Vinci is really like referring to Jesus as “Of Nazareth.” Getting the name of the central character wrong is enough to douse anyone’s inner spark.

If you are a person who is seeking the truth about Jesus Christ, God and the church then you need to know that the answers are found in the bible and Christian literature not in fiction.

The Reaction
Should Christians read The Da Vinci Code and see the movie? Yes, because this movie is an amazing opportunity for the church to step up and respond. As believers and defenders of our faith in Jesus Christ we should look for non-confraternal ways to reach out to people and show them the difference that a relationship with Jesus Christ can make in their lives. This book and movie will give Christians everywhere the opportunity to talk with people about the real Jesus. I just pray that they make the most of that opportunity.

15But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect. I Peter 3:15

Crisis of Faith and Obedience

2006-04-26T17:48:00.000-07:00

In the book of Numbers chapter 13 the Israelites have reached the borders of the land of Canaan. God instructed them to send spies into the land to see that it really was as good as He had promised (verse 19). They were also instructed to see how the people of the land lived, whether in the open, in tents, or in fortified cities.

The spies stayed in the land forty days and discovered that is was a prosperous land just as God had promised. They were able to cut such a large and heavy cluster of grapes that two men carried it on a pole between them.

Verses 27-29 record the report the spies gave to the congregation of Israel. Only Joshua and Caleb insisted that by obeying the Lord they could take the land. Unfortunately the people listened to the ten spies who said that it was an impossible task that God had asked them to do.

How many times have you failed to follow God’s plan or will for your life because you thought it was too difficult? History is dotted with the stories or ordinary people who did extraordinary things with their lives because they allowed God to do through them the things that were impossible for them to do on their own.

However history is full of ordinary men and women who remained ordinary because they did not have the faith to be obedient to God in the face of difficulty.

In the next chapter (14) we find the people of Israel are angry at Moses and at God because God is testing their faith and obedience. They became determined to appoint another leader and return to Egypt (verse 4). They were willing to go back and be slaves instead of show absolute faith in the God that had led them to this point without fail.

As idiotic as that sounds to you and I are often no different when we decided not to follow God for various reasons. We return to the slavery of ourselves and selfish desires every time we turn away from God.

God was ready to destroy the Israelites for their lack of faith and disobedience but Moses interceded for them. Because of Moses’ intercession God pardoned the people. You and I also have someone who intercedes on our behalf when we are disobedient. Jesus Christ becomes our advocate. His death on the cross made pardon for our sins which is all the more reason to be obedient.

Because of his love for us and the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross we do have forgiveness and redemption for our spiritual failures but there will still be consequences to our disobedience.

Because of the people’s lack of faith none of those twenty years old and up, who had complained against the Lord, would not see the promised land (verses 29-32).

The numbered men were 600,000. Over the next thirty-eight years and a half, which is 14,508 days in the wilderness, the Israelites would see the death of forty-two or forty-three men a day, three to four men an hour. The next thirty-eight and a half years in the wilderness would be a constant funeral, a sad reminder of their lack of faith and obedience.

What is your crisis of faith? I pray that it leads you to strength and obedience instead of disobedience. Have the faith to cross the river and understand that God will not send you anywhere alone nor will he lead you to failure.

Learning How to Worship from Leviticus

2006-04-20T13:37:00.000-07:00

The book of Leviticus contains no time span but it does give the means by which Israel could have access and fellowship with God. We can learn from the Israelites and the guidelines that God put before them in regards to the areas of worship and our personal relationship with God.

Chapters 1 through 7 details the way offerings and sacrifices are to be made. We can learn from that in the sense that many of us struggle to give to the church or to God if it involves sacrifice. Whether we are giving of our time or our money it is an act of worship and worship should involve sacrifice. In fact if it doesn’t then what is it worth to God? Have you truly made him Lord of your life if you only worship when it is convenient?

Chapter 8 contains the record of the preparation for Aaron and his sons to enter the office of high priest and the priestly offices. This was the final step in putting the worship system in place and the Lord affirms the new system in chapter 9.

24 Fire came out from the presence of the LORD and consumed the burnt offering and the fat portions on the altar. And when all the people saw it, they shouted for joy and fell facedown.

God is not random. He is organized and it is all for a purpose. There are specific ways we are supposed to do things. He has organized a way of life that allows us to make the most of everything from the way we relate to people to the way we relate to Him. That is why He gave the law to the Israelites so that they would learn how to live under His guidance.

God responded in fire because they were about to enter the land of Canaan and the inhabitants there believed that the pagan god Baal was the god of fire. By using this response the Israelites would know that it was their God, Jehovah, who was not only the God of fire but the God of all.

God even has a specific order for our worship. He doesn’t desire our worship for our glorification but for His. When we come to worship we should make the focus about Him and Him alone.

In Chapter 10 we find Aaron’s two sons bringing an “unauthorized” fire before the Lord in opposition to what He had commanded. It was not an offering to the Lord and it was not a sacrifice. Aaron’s sons brought the offering in order to bring attention on themselves and their new positions in the priestly office and thy paid the ultimate price for it.

1 Aaron's sons Nadab and Abihu took their censers, put fire in them and added incense; and they offered unauthorized fire before the LORD, contrary to his command. 2 So fire came out from the presence of the LORD and consumed them, and they died before the LORD.

We cannot worship God on our own terms. God has put all things in order and worship is one of those things. When we try to customize our own way of worship we take the focus off of God and put in on ourselves. In essence we are making the same mistake the Nadab and Abihu made.

Resurrection – Fact or Fiction

2006-04-17T20:56:00.000-07:00

The Resurrection is the supreme miracle of Christianity -- it’s at the very heart of the faith. If it never happened, Christianity collapses into mythology and billions of people have been deceived. If it did happen, it authenticates everything Jesus did and said -- and believers have the guarantee of eternal life and forgiveness of sins. Jesus staked His entire reputation on the Resurrection -- if it didn’t happen, everything that Jesus said and did is open to question.

I would like to present you three pieces of evidence, that when taken together, will provide convincing proof that Jesus rose from the dead.

1. The Empty Tomb

The Bible teaches that after Jesus was crucified Jesus his body was wrapped in linen cloth and placed in a solid rock tomb. A very large stone, estimated to weigh about 2 tons, was then rolled in front of the entrance to the tomb.

After this boulder was in place, a contingent of up to 16 Roman soldiers was assigned to secure the tomb. Some pictures you may have seen show one or two men standing around in mini-skirts, holding a spear in their hands. That’s simply not the case. These were trained soldiers assigned to protect the area.

Matthew 27:66 tells us that in addition to the Roman guard, they put a tamper-proof official Roman seal on the stone. Anyone who made it past the Roman soldiers would then have to break this seal, thus incurring the wrath of the Roman law.

In spite of all these precautions – the stone, the soldiers, and the seal – the tomb was empty that first Easter morning!

Critics down through the years have not been able to refute the empty tomb -- instead they’ve come up with other possibilities. Maybe the disciples stole the body? But this seems far-fetched when you consider that this group of cowards would have had to overpower armed soldiers, roll away a two-ton boulder, dispose of the body, and then manufacture a myth about His resurrection -- a myth that they gave their lives for.

Another possibility would be that the religious leaders disposed of the body. But, this has some serious flaws as well. If they had removed the body, all they would have had to do is parade the remains through the streets of Jerusalem and they would have derailed Christianity from the very start. But, they couldn’t produce the body because the body was no longer dead.

Christianity rises or falls on the empty tomb. It is the one silent and infallible witness. Critics cannot explain it away. If Jesus did not rise from the dead, then where is the body? Leaders of every other religion died and stayed dead. That’s not the case with Jesus. He claimed that He would rise from the dead on the third day -- and that’s exactly what He did. The empty tomb validates His claim.

2. Multiple Witnesses

The most outstanding proof that Jesus rose from the dead is that more than 515 eyewitnesses saw him on 12 different occasions.

Acts 1:3
“After His suffering, He showed Himself to these men and gave many convincing proofs that He was alive. He appeared to them over a period of 40 days and spoke about the kingdom of God.”

Jesus gave unquestionable proof that He was alive! After His resurrection, He made an appearance to a woman in the cemetery. Later that same day, He walked through a closed door and talked with his frightened followers who were huddled in Jerusalem. In the evening, he walked side by side with two men as they made their way down a road. The bible tells us that he spoke with over 500 people after his resurrection.

1 Corinthians 15:3-6
“For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. After that, He appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep.”

3. Changed Lives

Those who met the Resurrected Jesus have had their lives totally transformed. The Resurrection is validated by the changed lives of His followers.

After Jesus was put to death his disciples hid behind locked doors out of fear but something changed them. These ordinary men were transformed from frightened wimps into one of the most effective missionary organizations the world has ever seen. What motivated them to go everywhere and proclaim the message of the risen Christ? Was it for money? Power? Fame? No!

Every one of them had come from doubt to determination, from confusion to conviction, from fear to faith. Look at how they died and determine if you think that they were making up the resurrection.
• Matthew was killed in Ethiopia
• Mark was dragged through the streets until he was dead
• Peter, Simeon, Andrew, and Philip were crucified
• James was beheaded
• Bartholomew was flayed alive
• Thomas was pierced with lances
• James, the less, was thrown from the temple and stoned to death
• Jude was shot to death with arrows
• Paul was boiled in hot oil and beheaded

The only thing that could have possibly changed their lives so dramatically was the Resurrection of Jesus Christ? Every one of these guys could have lived if they had said just one statement: “He is dead.” But they refused because they knew He was alive!

Not only did the resurrected Christ impact this group of individuals, His life-changing power has transformed people from the third decade of the first century down through today. The combined testimony of changed lives attributed to the risen Christ runs into the billions.

Jesus has changed my life. And I know that He has changed many of yours as well.

How do you explain away the empty tomb? Second, how do you argue against multiple witnesses? Finally, how do you get away from the fact that the Resurrected Christ changes lives?

My First Easter as a Pastor

2006-04-17T20:54:00.000-07:00

I just experienced my first Easter Sunday as a pastor and what an amazing experience it was. Our church hosted an Easter breakfast for church members and the neighborhood. It was difficult to count how many people showed up for the breakfast because there were a lot of people moving around but there were well over 60 people there.

After the breakfast we had an Easter egg hunt on for children on the church lawn. It was pretty successful. We had enough children there that we had to break them into four different age groups and do separate hunts.

The hunt led into our worship service which was the largest service we have had a Mayfair since I became pastor. There were 151 people in attendance! I know it is Easter and everyone goes to church on Easter and Christmas but considering that we were in the 50’s and 60’s in attendance less than a year ago we have come a long way.

We had a family join the church at the end of the service as well. The Lord has really blessed our work at Mayfair and we are experiencing both spiritual and physical growth from it. Thank you for your prayers and support for our ministry.

The Gospels vs. the gospel of Judas

2006-04-15T20:24:00.000-07:00

There has been a lot of noise regarding the gospel of Judas and its contradiction to the four Gospels in the bible. Before you rush to refute the bible based on this newly released ancient manuscript that portrays Judas as the best friend of Christ let me give you a few facts.

No one knows who wrote the gospel of Judas. It is linked to a sect of second century Gnostics. The biblical Gospels were written by four men who were with Jesus during his three years of public ministry, saw him betrayed, crucified and witnessed his resurrection first hand.

The gospel of Judas could be dated as late as A.D. 180 whereas the latest possible date for the biblical Gospels is A.D. 70. With over 100 years difference the possibility of the gospel of Judas being a fist hand account is next to nothing. So if you are truly seeking the truth about the accounts of Christ in the bible who would you listen to, someone who was an actual witness or someone who passed down second hand information a century later?

There are many alternate accounts of the life of Christ! There are many contradictions out there in but they haven’t passed the test of time. That is why they were not canonized and why they were not included in the biblical scriptures.

I believe that the biblical account of Judas is accurate and true. I also believe that every man/woman should make their own decisions regarding the validity of the bible but that they should all be fully informed as well.

Fellowship

2006-04-10T13:59:00.000-07:00

I preached on fellowship yesterday. Unfortunately for most people when they think of fellowship in connection with the church the first thing that comes to mind is the image of food. However, that is a far cry from what the bible describes as fellowship.

In his book “The Body” Chuck Colson states the following:

Surveys show that the number one thing people look for in a church is fellowship. But what most modern westerners seek is a far cry from what the Bible describes and what the early church practiced. No term in the Christian lexicon is more abused than fellowship.

A biblical description of fellowship is found in the book of acts describing the early church. Acts 2:42-47

42They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 43Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. 44All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. 46Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

In the New Testament the word fellowship literally means “a communion”, a participation of people together in God’s grace. When we have fellowship it should be based on the fact that we live for and serve Jesus Christ.

Here are three of the benefits that we receive from fellowshipping with other believers.

1. Fellowship meets a basic human need, people to live with.
2. Fellowship provides us a family for living.
3. Fellowship gives us an emotional benefit, support.

We talk about having the light, “Well, I used to do so-and-so but I saw the light and now I don’t do that anymore.” Paul talks in the book of Ephesians about having eyes of our heart enlightened or illuminated. Even the cartoonist describes a thought as a little light bulb. To say that God is light means there is nothing that God does not know either about us or about anything else.

Morally it speaks of the holiness of God. If you wanted to use one word to describe God it would be Holy. The bible says, “Be holy as I am holy.” God is absolutely holy! John said, “God is light.” That is a positive. Then he uses the negative, “In Him is no darkness at all.”

In the Greek it’s a double negative. There is no, not any, none, not a shed of darkness in God at all. The basis of fellowship is this light.

If we are to have fellowship with God, we must walk in the light, we must walk in the light because God is light.

As far as the service itself we had a ton of people out sick. There has been a stomach virus going around OKC, my family and I had it all week, and we only had 69 people in worship.

The big news of the day is that it seems as if our church has found a worship minister. When I came to Mayfair as pastor last July there were no staff members here. We have since call a youth minister, missions and outreach minister and a family minister but we have struggled in finding a worship minister.

After much prayer and consideration several committees got together and met with a man yesterday afternoon for the second time and decided to recommend that our church call him as our minister or worship. I am really happy and excited about this!

Changing Directions

2006-04-07T22:23:00.000-07:00

I have decided to rethink my approach to this blog. My original attempt was to provide a place for people to find ministry helps, devotions and church/ministry links. While I believe it was a good idea I just didn’t have the time, or talent, to make that work. That is why it has set without any updates for over a month.

So I’ve decided to make Abundant Living my personal blog about the life of a small church pastor. I will be a place for me to rant, vent and share. It’s also a good way to help keep family and friends up on what God is doing at our church and in my life. If you think about it there really is no greater life than one lived in the will of God. That truly is the abundant life!

After serving as a youth minister for almost thirteen years I surrendered to pastor my first church in July of last year. It was a struggle for my family and I. We had lived in a small town in northeastern Oklahoma for the last three years and we loved it. We served at a great church and were in charge of a great ministry in a great community. Even though I had felt the Lord calling me and had surrendered to pastoral ministry almost two years earlier I never thought I would be a pastor this early in my life. I honestly planned to stay in student ministry until well into my forties but here I was at age 31 being called to pastor a church.

Saying yes would mean moving my family back to Oklahoma City and taking over a church that was smaller in attendance than what I currently had in my student ministry. The first Sunday I preached at Mayfair we had 43 people in our worship. I can remember questioning my decision to move here while I was preaching the message.

God has been faithful to our calling and to our church. He has blessed us with over 40 new members in the last eight months. Needless to say it has been a tremendous blessing the way God has blessed our church with growth especially for my family. When we first arrived at Mayfair there were no children the same ages as mine. Now there are enough children that we have the need to begin a children’s church program.

Last month members from Mayfair served on the mission field as five members from our church went to Panama for a week. Two members from other churches even tagged along with us.

To this point things have been good and I pray that they keep getting better. I am sure the struggles will come along the way but Jesus never promised us the easy life it was the abundant life that he promised and desires to freely give.

Panama Day Four

2006-02-22T14:55:00.000-08:00

Monday January 30th
We went as far into the jungle as we could today. We walked (100 yards) until we found an opening in the foliage and there were homes on the other side of the opening.

We checked out of the Allbrook Inn first thing this morning then we went to pick up a few last minute souvenirs. The major thing that friends and family request for me to bring home is coffee, so we made a stop at a local grocery store.

We spent the majority of the day in La Rivera with Pastor Eduardo and we have everything planned out for our trip in March now. His church will be starting 40 Days of Purpose the week we are there and has asked our group to help with a Gospel distribution in the areas surrounding the church.

His church meets in his home which is placed in a growing suburb and the goal of the March trip will be to help start cell groups within that community. The church will also be holding a revival that week and the pastor invited me to preach the revival services. I was really honored and am looking forward to the opportunity.

After we had finished meeting and praying with Pastor Eduardo we went to eat and then checked into a new hotel. Tonight Eric and I are staying at the Riande Hotel which is a serious upgrade from where we have been this week. We met with the hotel manager and negotiated a rate for our group in March. I was pleased with the rate and we got breakfast included as well.

This evening we set around tonight in the hotel restaurant brain storming for Vacation Bible School and beyond.

In all this has been a very productive trip. Everything is set for the mission group in March and Eric and I are anxious to get home to our families. Our flight leaves at 10:25 in the morning and we land in Oklahoma City at 4:00 p.m.

Photos From Panama, Day Four

2006-02-22T14:32:00.000-08:00

This is the view from the end of the jungle. Well, at least the end of the 100 yards or so that we walked.

This is me with Pastor Eduardo and one of our volunteers when our group arrives in March Aunna.

This is Pastor Eduardo's house which is also the church he pastors.

This is a photo of some of the ruins of old Panama City.

Ahhh, the ride home. It is just over four hours from Panama City to Houston, TX and then another hour to OKC.

Back at the Will Rogers World Airport in OKC.

My wife and oldest son waiting on me in baggage claim.

Panama, Day 3

2006-02-07T21:31:00.000-08:00

Sunday January 29,

Today was a crazy long day! Eric and I left this morning to cross the isthmus from Panama City to Colon. Panama City is located on the Pacific Ocean side (West coast) and Colon is on the Caribbean side (East Coast). The trip across took about and hour and fifteen minutes. Before we left Eric and I took a brief stroll into the jungle… er… rain forest. I would like to go a little further tomorrow morning.

Colon reminds me a lot of the Bahamas. It is quite different from Panama City. There is still a lot of poverty there and the crime rate is high. However, there was a huge difference in our worship experience. We actually met in a church building! This was the first time I have worshipped in Panama in an actual building that was built as a church. All of my previous experiences have been in homes, apartments or abandoned buildings.

This is Eric’s first trip to Panama and my fourth so when we were asked which one of us was going to share in church it was his turn. Speaking through a translator is more difficult than you would think and it is an experience that every volunteer missionary needs to experience.

The service lasted just over two hours and afterwards we took the local pastor out to eat at McDonalds. It’s amazing how in America we even take McDonalds for granted. The pastor was humbled and very appreciative of us taking him out to eat there. I ordered fried chicken there. I have never seen fried chicken on a McDonalds menu in the United States but they have it here. I have a photo to prove it!

After lunch we took a drive around the city of Colon and to the shoreline. There were some massive waves there as well as several ships who were waiting to enter the Panama Canal or who had just come out of the Canal.

When we got back to the Pacific side of Panama we had almost an hour and a half to visit the Panama Canal. This was my fourth visit to the canal and Eric’s first. The Panama Canal is a once in a lifetime attraction. It is an amazing man made piece of work but you really only need to see it once in your life time. It was cool seeing the big ships pass through.

We took the missionaries out to eat dinner tonight to show them our appreciation of their work. They are retiring at the end of the year after serving the Lord for 20 years in the Republic of Panama. I really love the country of Panama and enjoy it every time I come down here but I can’t imagine living here for 20 years. That is a huge sacrifice.

We went out to eat dinner at an open air sea food restaurant on the Bay of Panama. It has an amazing view and some of the best sea food I have ever eaten.

Tomorrow is our last day of work before heading home on Tuesday. Stay tuned!

Today I am thankful for…
• My salvation
• My family
• My ministry
• Grace
• God’s creation

Photos From Panama, Day 3

2006-02-07T19:35:00.000-08:00

Here is a photo from our walk in the jungle. It was located on the back side of the Albrook. We didn't go very far, just enough to get the photo.
This is the view from the back of the church in Colon. From here you can see the homes and landscape that surround the church. If you have ever visited the Bahamas this view will look familiar.
This is what the inside of the church in Colon looks like. It was the first time I had been in a church in Panama that was actually built to be a church.
Eric and the kids are all smiles as he passes out bubble gum after church.
Value meal number 8 at McDonalds. Fried chicken, medium fries and a drink.
The pastor of the Colon church and me.
These are the ships coming out of the Panama Canal on the Atlantic side.
This is the view if you turn around from looking at the ships in the bay. It's quite a different view when you turn around.
Here is a ship coming into the Panama Canal on the Pacific side. It takes about 48 hours for a ship to pass completely through the canal.
Here is the same ship from the same view. Notice how much lower it is. In this lock the ships are lowered 25 feet.
These gates open up and allow the ships to pass through to another lock to be lowered another 25 feet.
Even the ship's crew find going through the canal interesting. Notice how close the ship is to the side. There are only two feet of clearance on each side of the ship.

Panama, Day 2

2006-02-02T21:18:00.000-08:00

Sorry that I skipped a day in posting but being gone for five days has left me way behind with office stuff. Here are my thoughts from our second day in Panama.

Saturday January 28

I have pretty much decided that this is not the hotel that our group will be staying in when we come in March. It’s not because for some strange reason the television came on at 4:00 in the morning or because the construction workers were busy just outside our door at 6:00 this morning. Actually this hotel isn’t that bad. It has comfortable beds and a hot shower. What more could you ask for?

The reason why we will not be staying here is because there is one that is closer to the area where we will be working when we come in March. I have stayed there before and I know first hand that it is a nice hotel. Eric and I will stay there Monday night because it is close to the airport as well.

We started the day by going to grab a cup of coffee (hot chocolate for me) with the missionary. Then we went and surveyed the area where we will be working in March. It is a middle class suburb by the airport called El Rivera. There are around 500 homes there and only one evangelical church. We met the pastor’s wife today and were able to pray with her and do some strategic planning for our trip. We will be walking the neighborhoods surrounding the church, that meet’s in the pastor’s home, distributing copies of the Gospel of John and searching for people who would be interested in starting a bible study group in their homes. Our goal is to go to 100 homes each day for 5 days.

This area is so much different than the areas of Panama City where I have worked before. This is my fourth trip to Panama and for the first three we worked in the El Chorrilo area of Panama City. El Chorillo is a very poor and run down part of the city. There are a lot of drugs there as well as gangs. There is a great need for ministry there but it is hard to keep established ministries going due to lack of funding and volunteers.

After meeting with the pastor’s wife (the pastor is away on a trip) we left El Rivera and headed to Chorillo where Eric and I were able to help with a woman’s ministry meeting that was promoting an Ann Graham (Billy’s sister) crusade in Panama City later on this spring.

After leaving there we went to the missionaries’ home to fill out the official request form for our trip in March. It took about an hour to complete. Now I have to go home and reply to the request I helped make.

Next, it was time for dinner. We went to the bus station/mall where there is a food court. We spent an hour eating and shopping before heading back to the hotel for the evening.

On a side note let me just say this. I’m a cold weather kind of person. I love the winter time. I love the snow and the bitter cold. IT’S STINKING HOT DOWN HERE! The heat and the humidity take a lot out of you. I’ve been here several times before, yet I’m always caught off guard by the tropical heat.

Things I’m thankful for today…
• My Salvation
• My family
• E-Mail (so I can keep in touch with my family)
• People who have so little and yet give so much
• Missonaries

Photos From Panama, Day 2

2006-02-02T19:56:00.000-08:00

Here are some photos from places we visited on our second day in Panama. You can enlarge the photos by clicking on them.

This is the Bay of Panama. The buildings across the bay are the high rise apartment buildings of El Chorillo where I have worked in past trips. It is an area of extreme poverty. Eric and I went there today to help with an information meeting on an upcoming Ann Graham crusade.

The next few photos are taken from the La Rivera community where we will be working in during our trip in March.

Most homes are two bedroom homes and made out of concrete with a metal roof. There is no air-conditioning and the temperatures are very warm.

Some people in the area can afford an automobile and others keep their lawns neat.

There is a sense of pride among the home owners in La Rivera. The people who live here are the working middle class.

The structure in the middle is the remains of an old convent dating back at least to the 1700’s. We passed this on the way from La Rivera to El Chorillo.

This is the information meeting for the Ann Graham crusade. It was held at El Chorillo Baptist Church. Compare the photos of this church to the churches I'm going to post in the next few days.

This is an upclose photo of the El Chorillo area. As you can see it is a far cry from La Rivera.

Panama Journal, Day 1

2006-02-01T10:04:00.000-08:00

I had the opportunity to visit the country of Panama last week to make preparations for a mission trip in March. It was a great experience and we got a lot accomplished. I sat down every evening to journal a few thoughts. I will share a journal entry and photos each day for the next five days.

Friday January 27, 2006

The entire day today was spent traveling. My kids were all sick so none of them went to school. My wife’s parents came over early this morning to stay with them while she took me to the airport. I didn’t have to be there until 9:30 but they arrived early enough for us to leave and get breakfast before she dropped me off.

We flew first from Oklahoma City to Houston, Texas. It was only an hour flight which was a good thing because it was a tiny airplane. After an hour and a half layover in Houston we were off for the four hour flight to Panama City, Panama.

The in-flight movie was Charlie and the Chocolate factory. If you haven’t seen it good for you, it means you didn’t shell out any money to see it at the box office. If you saw the original Willy Wonka and the Chocolate factory then it would be worth a rental to see the contrast between the two movies. It’s definitely not worth $6.00 a person at the theater.

We landed in Panama City around 6:45 p.m. and hooked up with our missionary friends. We went to eat dinner at a Mongolian BBQ place. Imagine the irony here, a Spanish speaking wait staff cooking and serving Mongolian BBQ, in Panama. It was a really good dinner!

Accompanying me on this trip is our church family pastor, Eric. It is his first time to travel to Panama. Our goal is to lay the ground work for a mission trip that members from Mayfair Baptist Church will be attending in March. That also means checking out hotels! For tonight, and for most of the week, we are staying at the Albrook Inn. It is a hotel that is located on the old US Air Force Base in Panama City. It’s not bad but there is another hotel that I want to check into that is located closer to the area where we will be working.

Tomorrow we are going to the community in which we will be working in March and see both the community and the job tasks first hand. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Today I think God for…
• My family whom I already miss very much.
• Safe travel to Panama City.
• Missionaries who serve here in Panama and across the world.
• My salvation
• My calling to serve Christ and advance the Gospel to all the world.

Photos from Panama, Day 1

2006-02-01T09:53:00.000-08:00

You can click on the photos to enlarge them.

Eric enjoys his Mongolian BBQ. This was our first meal in Panama City Friday night. Good stuff!

This is the Albrook Inn where we would stay most of the week. It was the visiting officers quarters at the old US Air Force base. This is one of two hotels that were in consideration for our group to stay in when we come in March.

This building was the officers club at the Old Air Force base. It is located across the parking lot from the Albrook Inn.

Stewardship Part III

2006-01-23T20:11:00.000-08:00

Part III in a 3 part series on Stewardship

In the final part in our series we are going to look at relationships. The way you relate to other people will show your heart for Christ. You could attend church faithfully and give more than your regular tithe but if you don’t honor Christ in your relationships people will see straight through you.

In Colossians 3:18-15 Paul gives us a detailed account as to how we can honor Christ in our relationships with our spouses, family and co-workers.

Colossians 3:18-25
18Wives, submit to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord.
19Husbands, love your wives and do not be harsh with them.
20Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord.
21Fathers, do not embitter your children, or they will become discouraged.
22Slaves, obey your earthly masters in everything; and do it, not only when their eye is on you and to win their favor, but with sincerity of heart and reverence for the Lord. 23Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, 24since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving. 25Anyone who does wrong will be repaid for his wrong, and there is no favoritism.

Honoring God in your marriage relationship
Colossians 3:18 – We see the duty of wives. This is not an excuse for husbands to abuse their wives and it is not putting women below men in the marriage relationship. Nowhere does it say that a wife is to obey her husband. Children are to obey in verse 20 and slaves are to obey in verse 22, but wives are to submit. There’s a difference.

This is a charge to wives to allow their husbands to take the spiritual leadership role in the family. Some men fail to become spiritual leaders in their homes because they are lazy. Some fail because their wives don’t allow them.

Do you and your spouse feed each other a steady diet of put-downs? If you do, your marriage could be headed for divorce court.

When psychologists Cliff Nortarius and Howard Markman studied newlyweds over the first decade of marriage, they discovered that couples who stayed together uttered 5 or fewer put-downs in every 100 comments to each other. But couples who inflicted twice as many verbal wounds -- 10 or more putdowns out of every 100 comments -- later split up.

Watch what you say! Little, nit-picking comments are like a cancer in marriage, slowly draining the life out of a committed relationship.

Ephesians 5:21 tells us that both husbands and wives are to submit to the Lord and to each other.

Colossians 3:19 shows us the duty of husbands.

The above illustration shows what can happen when harsh words are spoken in the home and many husbands will say that they love their wives but they don’t fully understand the biblical definition of love.

1 Corinthians 13:4-5
4Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.

A few years ago, the Harry S. Truman Library in Independence, MO made public 1,300 recently discovered letters that the late President wrote to his wife, Bess, over the course of a half-century. Mr. Truman had a lifelong rule of writing to his wife every day they were apart. He followed this rule whenever he was away on official business or whenever Bess left Washington to visit her beloved Independence.

Scholars are examining the letters for any new light they may throw on political and diplomatic history. For our part, we were most impressed by the simple fact that every day he was away, the President of the United States took time out from his dealing with the world's most powerful leaders to sit down and write a letter to his wife.

What better example is there of a man who showed love for his wife?

Honoring God in your family
Colossians 3:20-21

Ray Stedman lists three things that fathers do that can lead a child to discouragement. I’ve added a fourth.

Ignore them. A father who has no time for his children soon creates within them a deep-seated resentment. Children in these homes can grow up to feel unloved and unaccepted and may end up looking elsewhere to have their needs met.

Indulge them. These types of fathers give their children everything they want. This is not good because a child who is indulged all the time can become restless, dissatisfied, and spoiled.

Insult them. Some dads like to criticize their kids and even call them names. Sarcasm and ridicule can knock the stuffing out of a child faster than anything else.

Paul goes on to clarify his charge to parents in Ephesians 6:4.
4Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.

Honoring God at work
Finally, in Colossians 3:22-25 Paul gives us three ways to honor Christ in our relationships at work.

1. Do your best at your job at all times.

2. Worship at your work.

3. Recognize Jesus as your boss.

Panama Bound

2006-01-23T20:03:00.000-08:00

I'm leaving Friday morning for Panama City, Panama. I'll be doing some inner-city ministry work there as well as making preperations for a group trip that our church is taking in March.

I’ll be journaling each day and will post the journal entries here at Abundant Living when I return.

I would appreciate any prayers from my readers for safety, effectiveness and for my family while I’m gone.

Thanks!

Stewardship Part II

2006-01-19T14:55:00.000-08:00

Being a Steward of Our Resources
Part II of a three part series on stewardship

When we look at being a good steward of our resources we are talking about becoming better managers of three areas of our lives. Those areas are our Jobs, our finances and our possessions.

Remember, the Christians perspective is that everything belongs to God and He has entrusted us to me managers of the tings that we have.

When was the last time you viewed your job as something that God possessed and trusts you to take care of? Our jobs provide us with three opportunities.

First, our jobs provide us the opportunity to be an example that imitates God. When we first are introduced to God in the Bible he is working. Genesis chapter one records the creation and we see in that account that God worked six days straight. He was diligent in every detail and because of that man had everything that he needed. There was no work until after man sinned. Then we read in Genesis 3:17-19 that because of his sin man would now have to work for everything he had both for survival and pleasure.

Genesis 3:17-19
17 To Adam he said, "Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, 'You must not eat of it,'
"Cursed is the ground because of you;
through painful toil you will eat of it
all the days of your life.
18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you,
and you will eat the plants of the field.
19 By the sweat of your brow
you will eat your food
until you return to the ground,
since from it you were taken;
for dust you are
and to dust you will return."

We have to work! It’s a part of life. God has given us our jobs as a means of provision and survival. We should view our jobs as an opportunity to work just a diligently and hard as God did.

The second opportunity our jobs provide us is a test that develops Character. I once heard a pastor say that when it comes to our career, most of us have our dream job and then we have our real job.

If it was easy it wouldn’t be called work. If it was given to us then we wouldn’t call it earning a paycheck. No doubt all of us have had one of those days at work where we didn’t ever want to go back because things were so stressful and hectic. Look at what James says about those trials.

James 1:2-4
2Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. 4Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

Every time your job gets tense or stressful that is your opportunity to develop your Christian character.

Finally our jobs provide us an opportunity to enhance our dignity.

Ecclesiastes 3:13
13 That everyone may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all his toil—this is the gift of God.

We should take pride in the fact that we get to work for a living. It gives us something to be proud of. Our homes, vehicles and possessions are all things that we have earned. That gives us dignity.

A small church needed to have a new roof in the worst of ways, but there was no money in their account. Most of the congregation was very poor except for the local banker. He was an ornery old cuss, and he would be the first in church so he could always sit in the back pew by the door. That way, he could always get up and leave during prayer right before the offering was collected.

One day, on the way to church, an accident in front of him made him late. When he got there, the only place to sit was on the front pew in front of the pastor.

As the pastor prayed for God to send them money for the roof, a piece broke off and fell down, hitting the banker on the head. He immediately yelled out, "I’ll give $1,000. for the roof!" And one of the men in back yelled out, "Hit him again, Lord!"

Like everything else our finances belong to God. He has given us all and only asks for a tiny amount back. Imagine walking down the street in Seattle and you come across Bill Gates. He greets you and tells you that he is going to trust you with his fortune. All you have to do is give him back ten percent. Which one of us wouldn’t do that? You get to keep 90% of his money to do with as you please. Why would you walk away from that deal?

That is what God is saying to you and me. He provides us with everything we have and only ask us to give him ten percent back. Here is a passage from the book of Malachi where God explains the concept of tithing.

Malachi 3:6-10
6 "I the LORD do not change. So you, O descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed. 7 Ever since the time of your forefathers you have turned away from my decrees and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you," says the LORD Almighty.
"But you ask, 'How are we to return?'
8 "Will a man rob God? Yet you rob me.
"But you ask, 'How do we rob you?'
"In tithes and offerings. 9 You are under a curse—the whole nation of you—because you are robbing me. 10 Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this," says the LORD Almighty, "and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it.

Do you have enough faith in God to trust Him in that promise? You faith, or lack of, is shown every Sunday when the offering plate is passed.

When it comes to our possessions James gives us an interesting perspective.

James 1:9-11
9The brother in humble circumstances ought to take pride in his high position. 10But the one who is rich should take pride in his low position, because he will pass away like a wild flower. 11For the sun rises with scorching heat and withers the plant; its blossom falls and its beauty is destroyed. In the same way, the rich man will fade away even while he goes about his business.

A Christian understanding of possessions changes our view of people. We see people through the eyes of God and understand our equality. We are all limited by time on the earth and we will not be judged by what we have rather than what we do.

It’s fine to have nice things. I don’t believe that is wrong at all. It is when we place our value in those things instead of in God that is wrong.

A Christian understanding of possessions changes our view of possessions. Do you remember the old bumper sticker that said, “He who dies with the most toys wins”? I like the one that followed it that said, “He who dies with the most toys still dies.” The truth is that those things that we posses are material and have no impact on eternity. We cannot take them with us and they don’t help us in get anywhere after our lives end.

Being a good steward of our possessions means understanding them and the people who own them.

I have held many things in my hands and I have lost them all; but whatever I have placed in God's hands, that I still possess. – Martin Luther

Stewardship Part I

2006-01-09T13:28:00.000-08:00

As we came into the New Year I was praying about what I could teach my church that would encourage them as they are becoming the men and women that God desires them to be and ultimately the church that He desires for us to be.

So, what was it that the Lord was leading us to study? Stewardship! By definition a steward is one who manages another’s property, finances, or other affairs.

As Christians we believe, or should believe, that everything we have belongs to God anyway and as we grow in discipleship, learning to become more like Christ, we should learn to be responsible caretakers of all that God has trusted us with.

As a church we are going to spend the next three weeks learning to become better stewards.

If you had a bank that credited your account each morning with $86,000 that carried over no balance from day to day...Allowed you to keep no cash in your account, and every evening cancelled whatever part of the amount you failed to use during the day, what would you do? Draw out every cent every day, of course, and use it to your advantage!

Well, you have such a bank, and its name is TIME! Every morning it credits you with 86,400 seconds. Every night it rules off as lost whatever of this you failed to invest to good purpose. It carries over no balances, it allows no overdrafts. Each day it opens a new account with you. If you fail to use the day's deposits, the loss is yours. There is no going back. There is no drawing against tomorrow.
What gets your time? We devote a lot of our time to pursuing things we value. Those things we give our time to become our priorities. Jesus said that if we learn to value and live God’s priorities then the other stuff we need comes as well. (Matthew 6:33)

The key being a steward of your time is knowing God’s priorities!

What Are God’s Priorities?
1. Loving God with all of your heart, soul, mind and strength.
2. Loving others as you would yourself.

When we look at the Example of Jesus we see that he made time for God (Matthew 14:23; Luke 2:46-49), he spent time in prayer and in worship. That time alone with the father was valuable time to him and he was not ashamed to be found in God’s presence.

Jesus also made time for other people. He made time to love other people, He made time to reach out to other people, and he made time to serve. Keep in mind that this is God we are talking about. He valued his time as something that was precious and made sure to make every second count.

How would you like to spend 2 years making phone calls to people who aren't home? Sound absurd? According to one time management study, that's how much time the average person spends trying to return calls to people who never seem to be in. Not only that, we spend 6 months waiting for the traffic light to turn green, and another 8 months reading junk mail. These unusual statistics should cause us to do time-use evaluation. Once we recognize that simple "life maintenance" can chip away at our time in such huge blocks, we will see how vital it is that we don't busy ourselves "in vain"

It’s important that we make sure that every thing we do with our time counts. As we become better stewards of our time, let’s learn to live by God’s priorities and not our own.

The Life

2005-12-19T15:16:00.000-08:00

Final part in a series on John 14:6

Someone has calculated how a typical lifespan of 70 years is spent. Here is the estimate:
Sleep................23 years...........32.9%
Work.................16 years...........22.8%
TV....................8 years...........11.4%
Eating................6 years............8.6%
Travel................6 years............8.6%
Leisure.............4.5 years............6.5%
Illness...............4 years............5.7%
Dressing..............2 years............2.8%
Religion............0.5 years............0.7%
Total................70 years............100%

We are defined as who we are by what we do. Jesus said that he is the Life in John 14:6, stating that he was the source of life as well as the way to a purposeful and meaningful life. Here are a few things that we have already learned about life.

We already know that Jesus is the way to life. I discussed that two weeks ago in the first part of this series. And we already know that Jesus wants to give us a full life, John 10:10, but what is life?

Now, let’s look at what life is.

Life is short, James 4:14. Think about all the things that we put off in life assuming that we may get to them at another time. Many people put off their relationship with God until they have settled down and are ready.

The problem with that way of thinking is that we are not guaranteed another today. We take tomorrow for granted but there is no guarantee that it will be there.

Living for Christ means living like there is no tomorrow, loving people and doing the right thing today. Understanding God’s love for you and living His desires for your life now, finding your purpose, meaning and value in Him at this very moment. That is understanding that life is short.

Life is sacrifice, Luke 9:24-25. Paul tells us that we should present our bodies as a living sacrifice. We allow ourselves to become selfish and indulge in our own desires before we ever think about how our actions affect our relationships with other people and God.

Living in Christ means not being selfish, it means doing the right thing, even if it requires giving up our desires.

Life is Christ, Philippians 1:21. I love this statement from Paul. He really got it! His life was a result of Christ and everything he became was a direct result of his relationship with Him.

Life is Eternal, John 3:16. Many people think that when their life ends on earth then that is all there is. This philosophy couldn’t be more wrong.

The bible is very clear about eternal life. We either spend it with God or separated from Him. The difference is what we do with Jesus, which brings me to the final point.

Life is your Choice, Joshua 24:15. During World War II, Winston Churchill was forced to make a painful choice. The British secret service had broken the Nazi code and informed Churchill that the Germans were going to bomb Coventry. He had two alternatives: (1) evacuate the citizens and save hundreds of lives at the expense of indicating to the Germans that the code was broken; or (2) take no action, which would kill hundreds but keep the information flowing and possibly save many more lives. Churchill had to choose and followed the second course.

Life is full of choices, some easy and some difficult. Joshua is pretty clear when it comes to serving God. It’s a choice you make but you have to live your choice.

Biblical Confession

2005-12-14T14:14:00.000-08:00

A fellow blogger asked me what my thoughts were on confession of sin and I wanted to reply based on what the bible says about confession and more importantly forgiveness.

The first thing we should look at is sin. A basic definition of sin is anything we do outside the will of God. I shouldn’t need the bible to back me up on this but I’ll use it here just in case. Paul tells in Romans 3:23 that everyone has sinned and come short of what God desires for them. I actually had a conversation with a man a few months ago who actually said that he never sins. If that describes you then this post won’t really help you, but I encourage you to see my previous post on Truth.

The result of the sin in our lives leads us to separation from God. Again going back to what Paul writes in the book of Romans we learn that our sin results in death. This is speaking of spiritual death or eternal separation from God but God does offer the free gift of eternal life in that same verse.

So where does confession come into play here? We need forgiveness from our sins to gain the eternal life that God is offering. In order to begin a relationship with Christ we have to confess. The bible tells us that we believe in Christ and are justified with our hearts but we confess and are saved with our mouths.

Who do we confess to? Some people believe that we must confess our sins to others in order to receive forgiveness. That is not true! The bible does tell us that we should confess our sin to each other and be healed, but that is different than forgiveness. When our sin affects other people then we should go to them and confess and make it right. We should seek their forgiveness as well but God’s forgiveness comes only from God.

The Bible doesn’t teach receiving God’s forgiveness through man it teaches receiving His forgiveness through the sacrifice of Christ on the cross. If you and I confess our sin to Him then He will be faithful to us and forgive us of that sin and restore us to righteousness.
How does confession work? You simply admit to God that you have sinned, done something outside of His will, and that you are truly sorry. To be truly sorry means to have a desire to no longer commit this act because you recognize that it is in violation of God’s desire for your life. That is called repentance; it literally means to turn around.

The key to all of this is your relationship to Christ. True confession only works if you have invited Him into your life as Savior. Recognizing Him as Lord of your life is what gives you the desire to repent from your sin.

I hope this helps answer your questions about confession. If I didn’t answer something or there is another question please feel free to e-mail me. My address is in my profile.

Truth

2005-12-12T15:42:00.000-08:00

Part 2 in a 3 part series on John 14:6

In his book which provides a statistical analysis of religious beliefs in America, George Barna cites several fascinating statistics which are based on a national survey.

In chapter four he states, "The Devil, or Satan, is not a living being but is a symbol of evil." Then asking that segment of his survey respondents who have identified themselves at being Born Again, he states, "Do you agree strongly, agree somewhat, disagree somewhat, or disagree strongly with that statement?"

The Born Again population reply with 32 percent agreeing strongly, 11 percent agreeing somewhat and 5 percent did not know. Thus, of the total number responding, 48 percent either agreed that Satan is only symbolic or did not know!

His next question, "Christians, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, and others all pray to the same God, even though they use different names for that God." Again, the respondents were asked to agree strongly, agree somewhat, disagree somewhat or disagree strongly.

Of that population surveyed who identified themselves as Born Again, 30 percent agreed strongly, 18 percent agreed somewhat and 12 percent did not know. That is a total of 60 percent!

It’s amazing how many people profess to be born again believers and yet they do not know the truth about who Jesus really is and what a relationship with him can actually do in their lives.

Jesus said knowing truth would set us free, but free from what? Free from our sin. Knowing that Jesus is the source of truth and that a relationship with him will open our eyes to the condition of sin in our lives is a scary and sobering to understand. But that is what knowing truth is about.

The truth is that sin does capture and enslave us. That is why we call coming to know Jesus as Lord being saved. The truth is that you and I are powerless over our sin and our only hope to over come it and have redemption is to know Jesus as Lord and Savior.

So how do we know this truth? It’s actually pretty simple. We know the truth by knowing and living the word of God. Jesus is the truth and knowing truth means to know Him. In order to know him we must …

• Be honest about who we are. Sometimes we are not the person we say we are and we can even fool ourselves by pretending to be someone we are not. To know truth means to be honest about whom we really are in light of who God desires us to be.

• Be honest about who God is. Is He really Lord of your life or are you playing the God game? Do you serve Him wholeheartedly or do you make a public appearance in His house once a week?

• Be honest about our sin. We can’t hide our sin from God. We can hide it from other people and protect our little secrets but God knows and sees all. We have to be honest about our sin and let God have control.
• Be honest about our desires. Do we really want to serve Him as our Lord? Sometimes we mix the desire for a feel good spiritual moment and the desire to know the Lord. What is your true desire when it comes to God?

• Be honest about your relationship with God. Do you have a growing relationship with Him? Are you really as spiritually solid as you appear to be?

Sometimes the truth can hurt because it means seeing who we really are. We often come up way short when we see ourselves in the light of God’s truth. So the question is; what do we do then? Do we desire to change our lifestyles and habits to become the person that God desires us to be? Or do we continue to feed our selfishness?

The Way

2005-12-05T16:45:00.000-08:00

Paul Harvey tells the story about a family on Christmas Eve. This family had a tradition where the Mother and children would go to the Christmas Eve service, and the Father would stay home and read the paper. When the family returns home from church, they would all gather to open up their presents.

The Father was not an evil man, but he just couldn’t believe in the childhood stories anymore of God coming as a baby in a manger. As the family left for church, he opened up the evening paper and began to read by the fireplace.

Suddenly, he heard tapping on the window. It was a bird flying against the glass of his window trying to get out of the snow into the warmth of his home. The man had compassion on the bird, and he went outside, hoping to bring it in.

As he approached the bird, the bird just flew against the window even harder. Pretty soon, the bird flew into the bushes below the window, half frozen, yet too afraid to be caught by this huge man. The more the man tried to reach for the bird, the more the bird flew frantically into the snow and thorns of the bushes.

After a few minutes in the cold and seeing the bird continue to injure itself, the man yelled out in frustration, "Stupid bird, can’t you understand that I’m trying to help?" The man paused and thought, "If only you understood you wouldn’t fly away ... if only ... if only I could become a bird, and get you to understand."

Just then, the church bells rang, as they always have on the hour. But when the man heard the bells this time, he fell to his knees and began to cry, saying, "Oh, God, I didn’t understand. Oh, God, I didn’t understand."

As we rush into the Holiday Season its important that we acknowledge who Jesus is. People all over the world will celebrate the birth of our Savior without realizing or acknowledging that he is God who became man to help you and I understand completely the depth of God’s love and provide a way for us to spend eternity with Him in heaven.

In John 14:6 Jesus makes an amazing revelation, in response to a question from Thomas, about who he is. By telling Thomas that he was the way, the truth and the life he was telling the world how they can better know Him and the Father.

What is Jesus the way to?

He is the way to fulfillment, John 10:10. He has a plan for our lives that lead us to a full and complete life. Many people live busy lives but guilt and doubt keep them from living a full life. Jesus wants you and I to experience life through him, a full life.

Jesus is the way to peace, John 14:27. We look so many different places for peace when all we need is to know Jesus Christ as Savior. He is the ultimate peace and you will never experience a deeper peace than knowing him.

Jesus is the way to unity, John 17:11. Jesus’ desire is that we be united with other believers and with Him in the same way that He was united with God. Why are churches failing to make an impact in their communities, because there is no unity?

Jesus is the way to meaning, John 11:41-44. We should find value in the fact that God has designed us and created us with a purpose. We should find value in the fact that Jesus died specifically for us.

When Jesus told them to remove the grave clothes from Lazarus he was telling Lazarus to go live. Before we came to know Christ we were spiritually dead he resurrected us, called us from the dead, when he called us to salvation. We need to take our spiritual grave clothes off and live for Christ. Live like we have value and meaning because he validated that for us on the cross.

Next week we’ll talk about truth.

Koinonia

2005-11-28T14:40:00.000-08:00

According to Henry Blackaby the word Koinonia means the fullest partnership and fellowship with God and other believers. The author of Hebrews gives us an example of Koinonia in chapter 10:24-25.

24And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. 25Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

To spur one another means to push in a direction. In this case it means to push towards love and good deeds. It is a church understanding that they are in partnership with God and each other and that partnership reaches its fullest point when the church comes together under God’s direction.

Remember there is the person that God desires us to be and the person that we are. We should constantly be striving to become the person that God desires us to be and our churches should strive for the same has well. For that to happen Koinonia cannot be an option. It has to be found consistently in our lives as well as in our churches.

When we allow sin in our lives and in our churches it breaks our fellowship with God and each other. In other words it disrupts our Koinonia. We must remember that God is faithful to forgive us for our sins and restore us to righteousness but we have to come before Him in confession of our faults.

Here are four essentials for making Koinonia a part of your every day life.

1. We must love God with our total beings. Matthew 22:37-38
At some point this becomes a struggle for all Christians. We truly desire to love, serve and follow God but we hold something back. Loving God with everything we are is just that, loving him with everything. That includes our thoughts, dreams, desires and every aspect of our lives without holding anything back.

2. We must submit to God’s sovereign rule. 1 John 2:15-16
Do you really make Him Lord of your life? That means you seek His will for you rather than your own. It means that you seek to please Him rather than yourself. It means you acknowledge God as an authority in your life.

3. We must experience God in a real and personal way. John 15:5
Do you remember that feeling you experienced the first time you recognized God in your life? When you surrendered to His will and invited Him into your life as your savior? I often wonder what happens to that feeling for many Christians. God doesn’t cease to exist we fail to continue to know Him in a personal way. Remember God is not going to force Himself upon us. We are drawn to Him and must remain in Him.

4. We must trust God completely. Isaiah 31:1
Do you think God for what He is going to do in your life tomorrow? I guess the question is, do you trust God to do something amazing in your life tomorrow? Complete trust means knowing that God is there in good and bad times and knowing that He has a plan for your life. Do you see that? Can you believe in that? Do you trust in that? Then live it!

Kingdom People

2005-11-21T12:50:00.000-08:00

On April 23, 1985 Coca Cola made one of the biggest marketing blunders in history by stopping production on their original formula and putting a product called “New Coke” on the shelves.

This move was brought on by the rapidly shrinking market share that the soft drink had. In the late 70’s Pepsi began their Pepsi Challenge Campaign and for the first time outsold Coke in supermarkets.

Coke’s market share dropped from 60 percent just after World War II to under 24 percent in 1983. So Coke execs made a huge change for their company by changing the formula to sweeten the beverage in order to compete with Pepsi.

The project failed miserably as Coke consumers rejected the new product, signed petitions and even filed a class action lawsuit demanding that Coke sell the original formula if they were not going to produce it anymore. On July 10, less than three months later, the original formula went back on the shelves as Coca Cola Classic.

The problem was not necessarily the product inside the can, which tasted a lot like Pepsi, but the name on the outside of the can. For 100 years people associated that name with a particular taste and they were not willing to accept anything else. To them, what was on the inside of the can didn’t match what was on the outside of the can.

For over 2000 years Christian people have been trying to live a Christ like life. It’s is so important that what we say as Christians matches what we do. In other words what is on the inside must match what is on the outside. We should live today as if we were living in the Kingdom of God because we are. If you are a believer in Christ and have entered into a relationship you are a “Kingdom Person.” Real quickly let’s look at Kingdom People.

What do Kingdom People do?
They are on mission with God. Notice that we are not on mission with God or on mission for God. We are on mission with God. He will send us but he will also go ahead of us. What is the mission?
John 3:16
16"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

Our mission is to tell the world about Jesus. We should always be ready to proclaim Christ. Acts 8:26-39 tells the story of Peter being willing to follow the Lord’s direction and go where he was told. He was also willing to proclaim Christ when the opportunity came.

How do Kingdom People live?
Obviously there are different principles for living in God’s Kingdom and living in the world. The teachings of Jesus are filled with principles for living in His kingdom. A great example of this is Matthew 18:23-35. If we would actually live what we read in the Bible we would be living like Kingdom People.

How do Kingdom People relate?

The word Koinonia means the fullest partnership and fellowship with God and other believers. That is how we are to relate to others. Understand that we are in partnership with other believers on this mission with God and we should fellowship with all people with God’s grace and mercy leading us. We should approach our relationships to other people with the same attitude that God has, Koinonia.

1 John 2:9-11
9Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates his brother is still in the darkness. 10Whoever loves his brother lives in the light, and there is nothing in him to make him stumble. 11But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness; he does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded him.

The Church

2005-11-14T14:54:00.000-08:00

The church has long been an institution that contributes to the developing of the moral foundation that our nation was built on. It has been a major life changing and character developing factor to people all over the world and it continues to grow and spread today.

When looking at what God’s will is for the church it’s important to understand that the church is the body of believers who come together to worship and minister under the guidance of Jesus Christ. An amazing thing happens every Sunday morning as individuals are transformed into one body. Paul talks about this in Romans 12:5.

5so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.

As this group of individuals becomes a body of believers the also become responsible to each other. They are responsible for both the physical and spiritual growth of the body. They are responsible discipling each other and meeting each other physical and spiritual needs.

Most importantly the body is responsible for allowing God to be present and active among them. Henry Blackaby wrote that when a church allows God’s presence and activity to be expressed, a watching world will be drawn to Him.

A church allows God’s presence to be active when it becomes unified through understanding what Christ, the Head of the church, is telling them. Paul talks about this as well in 1 Corinthians 1:10.

10I appeal to you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another so that there may be no divisions among you and that you may be perfectly united in mind and thought.

So how does a group of individuals become unified in one spirit so that God can use them to do amazing things? If you think about it, it just doesn’t make any sense. When you get more than one person together you have differences. The only way the church can accomplish unity is by the people of the church taking on the mind of Christ and having a desire to serve Him above all else. Again we find the words of Paul to apply to this.

1Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. 2Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. Romans 12:1-2

The people who make up the church should practice daily sacrifice. That means putting aside our wants and desires daily for what God wants from us daily. When we learn to do this we find that not only is it easy to become unified with other believers but God is using us and making us effective. That’s when a church becomes vibrant and growing because the people who make up the body make themselves useable to God.

What is your mindset when it comes to your church? Do you go in search of unity? Have you made yourself usable by God? You would be amazed at how much of a difference your daily sacrifice can make in the body of believers.

Adjusting Our Lives to God

2005-10-31T10:12:00.000-08:00

Stephen Kuropas was born with cerebral palsy. He cannot use his hands to write, he gets around in a wheelchair, and he requires help for such day-to-day functions as eating. However, after making some adjustments to his life and daily routine Kuropas was able to graduate with an associate’s degree from Community College of Philadelphia, at the age of 41.

Signing up for one class each semester, Kuropas tape recorded lectures and had assistants who took notes for him. Because he gets migraines from reading, helpers also recorded all of his books onto cassettes. At home, he typed his assignments onto a computer, using his head. Because he cannot speak clearly he communicates through expressive gestures and he shares his more complex thoughts on paper.

No doubt Stephen Kuropas had to make some major adjustments in his life to accomplish his dream. In the same way you and I must make adjustments in our lives in order to men the men and women of God that we desire to be.

Listen to the words of Jesus in Luke 14:33.
In the same way, any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple.

You see in life you cannot stay where you are and go with God. You have to give up everything you are in order to take on the life that Christ has in store for you. Too many times we attempt to follow God while keeping our old lifestyles that we are so comfortable with. When we accept Christ as our savior and make him Lord of our lives we give up the way we spoke, the way we thought, the way we act, and the way we desire things. We take on a new identity in Christ. Basically we adjust our lives to him.

Here are a few men who made major adjustments in their lives to follow God.
Noah – Prepared for a world flood, even though there had never been rain before.
Moses – Went back to Egypt the place where he fled from.
Matthew – Gave up his lifestyle to follow Jesus.
Saul – Changed his identity and life purpose.

Even Jesus had to make major adjustments. He left heaven and came to earth. He became a man. Instead of being in complete control he allowed men to beat him and stretch him out and nail him to a cross.

Your greatest single difficulty in following God may come at the point of the adjustment. The reason why is because you are giving up something you want for what God wants. Why? Why would God want us to give something up that we want? It could be because He wants to see if we are truly devoted to Him, or it could be that He just knows better than we do.
Isaiah 55:9
As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.

During the terrible days of the Blitz in World War II, a father, holding his small son by the hand, ran from a building that had been struck by a bomb. In the front yard was a created that had been created by a bomb. Seeking shelter as quickly as possible, the father jumped into the hole and held up his arms for his son to follow. Terrified, yet hearing his father’s voice telling him to jump, the boy replied, “I can’t see you!”

“It’s okay”, the father yelled back, “I can see you.” The boy obeyed his father and jumped, trusting that he would be there to catch him.

Life adjustments come through obedience and faith. We have to trust God, even when we can’t see the outcome. We have to be obedient to Him, even when we are scared.

Here is the question it all comes down to. Do you really believe that God is who He says He is?

Go this week and allow God to adjust your life and desires to His will and His desires for you!

God Speaks II

2005-10-17T11:06:00.000-07:00

We began discussing last week how God speaks and who He speaks to. I want to finish that up this week by looking at a few more ways that God speaks and then at how we should respond to Him.

Last week we said that God speaks in different ways. He speaks to us today through the Holy Spirit, the Bible, and through prayer, emphasizing that the relationship with God is the key to communication with Him stating that children recognize and hear their father’s voice. Let’s look at a few more ways God speaks to us.

God speaks to us through the Holy Spirit.
1 Corinthians 2:10-12

Only the Holy Spirit knows what God is purposing in your life. Many Christians are frustrated with what God is doing, or not doing, in their lives because they don’t have a peace about it or they are uncomfortable with the clash between their lifestyles and the holiness that God desires.

The problem is we make all the decisions regarding our lives based on what we know and what makes us comfortable and not on what God is purposing for us. Let me give you a life application of what I am talking about.

At Mayfair, the church I pastor, we are a small growing church. I believe that God is leading us to be active in missions by sending a team into the mission field. I wasn’t for sure about it, but the more I prayed about it, the more I felt that is where God was leading our church. We had a mission trip information meeting to see if anyone else felt the same way about missions. We had 20 people who showed interest in participating in a mission trip. It turns out that I wasn’t the only one who felt God leading us to the mission field.

It would have been easy for us as a church to say that we are too small to go on the mission field. We are a growing church, 28 new members in 12 weeks, so it would have been easy for us to say, “Let’s wait until we grow more.” Instead we are moving forward with God’s purpose that the Holy Spirit has shown us.

Another way God speaks is through circumstances. In John 5:17 we learn that God is always working. That means in all situations He is at work. Our lives are full of both good and bad circumstances. We have to understand that in the middle of those circumstances is the voice of God. The key to hearing Him is understanding His perspective on our situation. When we learn to do this in both good and bad situations we will also learn to hear God’s voice.

Finally, God speaks to us through the church. A New Testament church is the Body of Christ. It is the responsibility of all members to function in the capacity of Jesus Christ Himself. You have heard the phrase, “Be His hands and feet”, that is exactly what the church is about. Just as your body has many parts, with each part having its own function, the church is made of many people who each serve in different functions.

Every action that you make begins in your mind. Before you stand up your brain actually gives the command for the muscles in your legs. Before the church makes a move, it should receive a command from the head of the body. That head is Jesus Christ! How do you know, if a church is functioning properly? Is it preaching the bible? Is it doing the things of Christ? When the church functions as the body of Christ and listens to the head, Jesus, it becomes the biggest voice of God to the modern world.

God Speaks Part I

2005-10-10T12:18:00.000-07:00

Have you seen the e-mail that goes around titled “Church Bulletin Bloopers”? It makes its way to me about every four months and it always has new additions to it. They are actually pretty entertaining. Here are a few of my favorites.

The Sermon this morning: “Jesus walks on water.”
The Sermon tonight: “Searching for Jesus.”

Don’t let worry kill you …let the church help.

This evening’s sermon: “What is hell like?”
Come early and hear the choir practice.

Obviously these statements say one thing and mean another. The problem is in communication and communication problems always lead to confusion. Many Christians today are confused spiritually because they are struggling to hear from God. God does speak to people today! The questions we are going to look at are how and to whom?

Hebrews 1:1
1In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways.

In the Old Testament there were several ways God spoke to people. He used prophets, angels, visions, and dreams. The list could go on but when looking at the Old Testament the key is not how God spoke, but understanding that He did speak.

When God spoke, the person was sure God was speaking to them. In Exodus 3:14, when Moses looked for assurance as to who God was, He responded by telling Moses, “I Am who I Am.” In other words he was telling Moses that He was God and there was no other word to describe Him. There would be no chance for a case of mistaken identity. Moses knew exactly who was speaking to him.

When God spoke, the person knew what God said. God speaks in detail. He leaves no doubt as to what He is asking you to do. When you look at the story of Noah you see that God told him in exact detail how to build the ark and what he was to do with it.

In the Gospels, God spoke through Jesus.
John 14:9-10
9Jesus answered: "Don't you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, 'Show us the Father'? 10Don't you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work.

When the disciples were with Jesus they were face to face with God the same way Moses was. When you and I allow Jesus into our lives we are inviting that same God to live through us.
In the book of Acts and to the present time God speaks again through various ways.
He speaks through the Holy Spirit.

1 Corinthians 6:19
19Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own;

The Holy Spirit dwells within us and speaks to us and allows us to hear the voice and feel the nudging of God.

God speaks through the Bible.

Hebrews 4:12
12For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.

The Bible is God’s gift to you. It is His message to you, everything that is in there is there because He desired it to be. When we read it and apply it’s principles to our lives, it comes to life and we hear Him speaking to us through it.

God speaks through prayer. Prayer is about a relationship, not a religious activity. To speak to God and hear from Him requires that you actually know Him, not know who he is, but know Him in an intimate way.

We’ll talk more next week about how God speaks, but I want to close by discussing who hears Him.

John 8:47
47He who belongs to God hears what God says. The reason you do not hear is that you do not belong to God."

Children hear their father’s voice. A father speaks to his child in different ways, he may speak tenderly out of love or he may speak firmly out of correction, but a caring father always speaks out of love. When we look at our relationship with God as a father/child relationship, we understand that God speaks directly to us out of love.

Have you accepted God as your heavenly father? If not, why are you waiting? He loves you with an everlasting love and He wants to give you all the benefits of being His child. Can you hear is voice?

An Invitation of Love

2005-10-03T14:38:00.000-07:00

By Matt Hofeld

My kids love to receive invitations. When they are invited to a birthday party or to a friend’s house they just glow with excitement. I even like to get invitations. What makes invitations so popular? When we are invited to something it means that someone wants to include us and we all like to feel included. It means that we are liked or loved.

Did you know that God gives you and me an invitation to join Him in what He is doing? He doesn’t do it because He needs us. He gives us an invitation to join Him in what He is doing because He loves us. Before we talk about joining God in what he is doing, let’s talk about the different ways we experience God’s love.

First, we experience God’s love by knowing Him.
John 14:21
21Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him."
We show God our love for Him through our obedience and our obedience is what allows us to know Him. Notice that the Lord will show Himself to the one He loves, the one who shows love through obedience.

Second, we experience God’s love through worship.
Psalm 96:2
2 Sing to the LORD, praise his name;
proclaim his salvation day after day.

When we give our devotion to God in worship He gives back to us in love. When we stay close to Him, He will revive us. When we learn from Him and walk in his teachings, He will keep our hearts devoted to Him. All acts of worship draw a response of love from God.

Keep in mind that there are always indications of the depth of our love. Our daily choices to honor God with our lifestyles, how much time we spend in God’s word, and how much time we spend in communication with Him daily are all indications of our love for Him.

God’s indication of His love towards us is the invitation for us to join him. He is already at work and His work isn’t limited to our participation.
John 5:17
17Jesus said to them, "My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I, too, am working."
Often we pray for God to use us or to start something with us. Instead we need to ask Him to show us where He is working. He has already started something and has invited us to join Him, it’s our responsibility to find out where He is working and get plugged in.
John 14:15-17 tells us that the Holy Spirit will guide us, but it’s still our responsibility to seek.

The bible is full of stories where God showed where He was at work to normal people and they joined Him. Moses was tending sheep in the desert when God gave him an invitation to join Him. Peter and Andrew were fishing when Jesus gave them their invitation.

What about you? What were you doing when God invited you join Him? Did you accept his invitation? God’s work will continue whether you join Him or not.
Philippians 1:6
6being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.
It’s out of love that He chooses to invite us. That should make you feel valuable and accepted by the most important being in the entire universe.

In Hot Pursuit

2005-09-26T11:29:00.000-07:00

A woman walks away from her family to begin her pursuit of love. Imagine leaving your husband to try to find true love, imaging leaving your children looking to be needed and wanted. This happens every day in America as people search to be loved greater than they currently are.

When Jesus spoke of love, he spoke of it in the highest regard. When asked what the greatest commandment was he responded with, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment.” Matthew 22:37-38

Of all the things we could do for God, the greatest is to love Him with all that we are. There is no higher form of human love than loving with all your heart, soul and mind. You are literally loving with all that you have. So what is it about love that makes it the greatest commandment?

First of all you and I were created for a love relationship. We were designed to both give and receive love. Have you ever watched a child love something? It could be a parent a pet or a toy; they are going to love it with all that they have. It’s the only way they know how. Why do abused children cry when their parents are removed from them? Because even in an abusive situation a small child only knows how to love, we are naturally built that way. When we grow older we sometimes lose that ability to give love but we never lose the desire to receive love.

This principle holds true spiritually as well. We have a need to receive love from God. In fact, everything in your Christian life depends on the quality of your love relationship with God. You were created to love and be loved by Him and our relationship is only as deep as our love. When you struggle with a particular sin issue in your life, that struggle becomes even more difficult because we are choosing that sin over God. We do not love God with all that we are in that particular situation. We are not giving real love.

When we look towards the party scene and immoral relationships, or drugs and alcohol for fulfillment, we only wind up living in more guilt and misery because we are only receiving a temporary fix and not real love.

How do we know what real love is? This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. I John 3:16

Real love is sacrifice. It always gives and it never takes. Jesus gave up being God to walk the earth as a human and suffer a brutal death for you. God gave up His only son and watched him suffer on the cross for you. Why? Why would they do that? It was done out of love. God understands the concept of real love. He understands that it is always giving. What about you? In your relationships with other people are you a giver or a taker. How about when it comes to God? Do you give to Him or always seek to take?

Not only were we created for a love relationship, but a love relationship with God. He does love you. It’s your purpose in life to be loved by Him. People actually look for proof of God’s love, but it is only found in a relationship with Him. You actually have to decide to accept His love.

No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money. Matthew 6:24

You can’t serve God and be rich? Sure you can! I know some very wealthy people how are loving Christians and have amazing testimonies of how God changed their lives. There is nothing wrong with having money. This is a reference to choosing God or the ways of the world. Who is your master? Do you say you love God and yet pursue the lifestyles that the world offers? You actually have to make a choice here. You have to choose to be fully in love with God or fully in love with other things. You can’t be both! That is the point that Jesus is making in this verse.

Here is the most amazing thing of all. While we are out there looking for real love, God is actually pursuing us. He is desperately trying to catch you so that he can love you. Jeremiah paints this picture for us in chapter 31.

The Lord appeared to us in the past, saying: “I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving-kindness. Jeremiah 31:3
How about that? God is actually wooing us to Him. He is trying to pull us towards Him with loving-kindness. Are you currently in a pursuit of love? Why don’t you choose today to end your pursuit be ending God’s? Turn to Him, open your life and let Him take control. Let Him give to you and then find you purpose and meaning. Make your choice today to love God with all that you are!