A Modern Reformation

Christian Yoga? It's a stretch. By Mark Driscoll

2011-11-18T11:53:00.002-06:00

I recently found this article and thought it very well thought out and presented. It was written by Pastor Mark Driscoll and can be found in it's original form at http://pastormark.tv/2011/11/02/christian-yoga-its-a-stretch#_ftn5

There is nothing wrong with stretching, exercising, or regulating one’s stress through breathing. But when the tenets of yoga are included, it’s by definition a worship act to spirit beings other than the God of the Bible. By way of analogy, there is nothing inherently wrong with intimacy, sex, and pleasure. But when the tenets of adultery are included, it’s a sinfully idolatrous worship act. A faithful Christian can no more say they are practicing yoga for Jesus than they can say they are committing adultery for Jesus.

A little over a year ago, I said yoga was demonic. My stance hasn’t changed since then, but I thought I’d take this opportunity to provide a much fuller and comprehensive teaching on what yoga is and why it is in fact demonic. By demonic I mean it’s a spiritual act to a being other than the God of the Bible. And, for those unfamiliar with me, I’m no raging Christian fundamentalist. My most vocal critics tend to be from the fundamentalist tribe as I do drink alcohol, have been known to use strong language, and talk very frankly about the joys of married sex. I’m no prude, but I am a pastor.

Giving sound teaching on yoga is important because there is increasing adoption of yoga by our culture, with over 15.8 million people practicing yoga and nearly every store you go into selling all kinds of yoga products. It’s gone mainstream. As such, Christians are also adopting it as a healthy aspect of exercise and lifestyle—complete with things like “Holy Yoga,” which is an oxymoron. Saying yoga can be Christian because you do it for Jesus is a bit like going into a mosque, going through the worship practices, and then saying you’re not a Muslim because you’re doing it for Jesus. They don’t mix.

When looking at the acceptance of yoga in the Christian church, I find that there are two issues at hand: (1) People simply don’t understand what yoga is, its roots, and its tenants; or (2) People think that they can engage in yoga because it’s just stretching, while ignoring the religious aspects of the practice of yoga.

As one woman who identified herself as a mainline Protestant said in an article about my comments a year ago, “Here we go again with fear-based, black-and-white thinking. . . . It's not fair to say yoga is demonic. In fact, I find it insulting. There are many ways to grow spiritually." To this I would reply, “No. There are not many ways to grow spiritually. There is one way, which is through the power of the Holy Spirit provided through Jesus’ death and resurrection on the cross, as part of God the Father’s plan for salvation.” Comments like this woman’s are the exact reason why it’s important to explore what yoga really is and what it teaches, and to understand that the spiritual elements of yoga make their way into our life and culture in ways we don’t necessarily see overtly.

In this lengthy post, I’ll define what yoga is, give a history of yoga, talk about the various forms of yoga, and take a look at yoga through the “receive, reject, or redeem” matrix that I commonly use.

What Is Yoga?

There are many different types of yoga—which we’ll cover below—but it’s important to begin with a general definition of yoga that will provide a basic framework for what the entire realm of the discipline is intending to do. According to Elliot Miller, noted New Age expert and editor of the Christian Research Journal:

Yoga is derived from the Sanskrit word yug, which means “to yoke.” This is a term [most Christians are] familiar with from the Bible (Phil. 4:2; Matt. 11:9). A yoke is a crossbar that joins two draft animals at the neck so they can work together; the term, therefore, is applied metaphorically to people being joined together or united in a cause. In Hinduism, as in many religions, union is desired with nothing less than God or the Absolute, and yoga is the system that Hindus have developed to achieve that end.

The historic purpose behind yoga, therefore, is to achieve union with the Hindu concept of God. This is the purpose behind virtually all of the Eastern varieties of yoga, including those we encounter in the West. This does not mean it is the purpose of every practitioner of yoga, for many people clearly are not practicing it for spiritual reasons but merely to enhance their physical appearance, ability, or health.[1]

However, as I’ll show, it’s nearly impossible to practice yoga and divorce it from its spiritual elements.

This is a sentiment that is not just mine but also shared by prominent Hindu academics such as Professor Aseem Shukla, who wrote in The Washington Post,

Why is yoga severed in America's collective consciousness from Hinduism? Yoga, meditation, ayurvedic natural healing, self-realization—they are today's syntax for New Age, Eastern, mystical, even Buddhist, but nary an appreciation of their Hindu origins. It is not surprising, then, that Hindu schoolchildren complain that Hinduism is conflated only with caste, cows, exoticism and polytheism—the salutary contributions and philosophical underpinnings lost and ignored. The severance of yoga from Hinduism disenfranchises millions of Hindu Americans from their spiritual heritage and a legacy in which they can take pride.

Hinduism, as a faith tradition, stands at this pass a victim of overt intellectual property theft, absence of trademark protections and the facile complicity of generations of Hindu yogis, gurus, swamis and others that offered up a religion's spiritual wealth at the altar of crass commercialism.

Sentiments like these have led to a growing movement of Hindus who want to "Take back yoga." As Christians, we must be intellectually honest and respect that yoga is in fact intertwined with Hindu religious practice. They have a right to be offended as much as we would be equally offended if they underwent Christian baptism or communion while denying any religious connection and secularizing it or doing it in a Hindu way.

The History of Yoga

According to yoga historian Mark Singleton, “Some scholars have found evidence of early yogic practice in the archaeological artifacts from the Indus Valley civilization in Sind, which developed from about 2500 BCE.”[2]

The posture exercises that most people consider to be yoga today had little or nothing to do with how the practice originally developed:

In spite of the immense popularity of postural yoga worldwide, there is little or no evidence that āsana [posture] (excepting certain seated postures of meditation) has ever been the primary aspect of any Indian yoga practice tradition—including the medieval, body-oriented haṭha yoga—in spite of the self-authenticating claims of many modern yoga schools. The primacy of āsana performance in transnational yoga today is a new phenomenon that has no parallel in premodern times.[3]

Basically, what Singleton is saying is that despite the arguments that yoga is just stretching, there is no historical evidence that this is the case—quite the contrary. The history of yoga is overwhelmingly spiritual in practice and the postures of yoga are only one aspect of yoga, and they are part of a broader system aimed at union with God and attaining enlightenment.

It is important to note that the exercise/stretching/posturing element of yoga only represents one of the eight limbs of yoga viewed as a whole. As Elliot Miller describes,

The eight limbs of yoga involve strict moral, physical, and mental disciplines. They are (1) moral restraint, (2) religious observance, (3) postures (asanas), (4) breath control (pranayama), (5) sense withdrawal, (6) concentration, (7) meditative absorption, and (8) enlightenment (samadhi). A consideration of the limbs quickly reveals that yoga is a demanding autosoteric (salvation based on self-effort) system, similar to original Theravada Buddhism with its eightfold path, which historically preceded Patanjali’s yoga system and probably influenced it.[4]

Miller goes on to explain that the two limbs of yoga that exercise the body, asanas and pranayama, were never meant to be separated from the other eight limbs of yoga like they have been in the West.[5] Some forms of yoga even go as far as to not demand extreme stretching positions because they actually get in the way of meditation. As Miller explains, “Patanjali’s expressed concern was for the practitioner to assume ‘steady and easy’ postures that would be conducive to meditation.[6]

Thus, the goal of yoga was “to develop the desired pure state of consciousness [making] it necessary to withdraw from the input of one’s senses and to develop one’s powers of concentration.”[7] Ways in which this was (and is) accomplished include:
•Concentrating on sounds by chanting the names of Hindu gods or the sacred om, which Patanjali said is the voice of God

•Focusing on images, such as the tip of your nose or a religious icon

•Concentrating on one’s own breath

The purpose of these exercises—both physical and mental—was to attain a state of “pure consciousness . . . where the practitioner begins to lose the distinction between subject [self] and object [whatever one is focused on]” in order to feel at one with the universe or God.[8]

The ultimate goal of the entire practice of yoga is samadhi, which is direct and ultimate knowledge. The first seven limbs of yoga were meant to result in the eighth limb—samadhi— “which is defined as direct knowledge, free from the distortions of the imagination,” completely free from the constraints of the material world.[9]

In this way, yoga is a religious practice that advocates oneism (or monism), which I discuss in detail in my book, Doctrine. Oneism is a pagan and idolatrous practice that claims there is no distinction between the creation and the Creator—and can even be a denial of a Creator altogether. The material form of oneism is atheism, and the spiritual form of oneism is often called New Age, New Spirituality, or Integrative Spirituality, which are categorically committed to pantheism or panentheism.

According to spiritual oneism, the universe is a living organism with a spiritual force present within everything. Thus, everything is interconnected by the life force or the world soul. This life force manifests as spiritual beings (Christians realize these are demons) that manipulate the course of world events. These spirits can be influenced to serve people by using the ancient magical arts. Humans possess divine power unlimited by any deity. Consciousness can be altered through the practice of rite and ritual. Magic is the manipulation of objects, substances, spirit entities, and minds, including humans and demons, by word (rituals like yoga, incantations like om, curses, spells, etc.) and objects (charms, amulets, crystals, herbs, potions, wands, candles, etc.). Visually, you can think of this in terms of one circle in which everything is contained and interconnected as one. Through various rites and rituals—such as yoga—the reality of the universe and consciousness can be manipulated, it is said.

Oneism—and by association, yoga—is antithetical to Christianity in a number of ways. It states that:
1.There is no distinction between Creator and creation. Romans 1:25 calls this paganism and idolatry: “They exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator.”

2.There is not a focus on looking out to Jesus Christ for salvation, but rather in to self for enlightenment and peace.

3.There is no distinction between good and evil since all is one, which leads to cultural pluralism and the denial of truth.

4.There is no distinction between humans and creation since all is one, thereby lessening the value of human life (which was created in the image of God).

5.There is no distinction between religions as all spiritualities are one, resulting in a vague spirituality and people saying, “There are many ways to grow spiritually,” “all religions are the same,” or “I don’t have a religion. I’m just spiritual.”

Whether they know it or not, Christians who engage in yoga are participating in a religious expression that is antithetical to Christianity. The result is often an unguarded spirit that is susceptible to the many lies of Satan and a slow, almost unperceivable degradation of faith and Christian truth in one’s life. The act itself is a worship act. Subsequently, it cannot be done in a way that is not spiritual. Romans 12:1 is clear that what we do with our bodies is worshipful toward the God of the Bible or something or someone else: “Present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.” Everything we do with our physical bodies also involves our immaterial souls. We are one person, and whatever we do involves and affects the totality of who we are.

Various Types of Yoga

Historically, there are seven types of yoga that have developed, each with their own systems and ways of reaching samadhi, which is not surprising given the pluralistic nature of Eastern religions that generally offer many paths to enlightenment. (Again, this is entirely antithetical to Christianity, which teaches the truth that there is only one way to salvation—through Jesus Christ. Jesus himself said this in John 14:6, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”)

The following is a quick summary of each and a brief example of how each system of yoga has infiltrated itself into our current Western thinking and way of life. My hope is that you’ll begin to see clearly how yoga at its core is much more than a physical exercise but rather a system of thought that contends against Christianity and subtly finds its way into our thinking, habits, and lifestyles.

Bhakti Yoga: This system of yoga seeks salvation through a “devotion to a personal representation of God.”[10] While this echoes Christianity in its focus on a personal God, the way in which salvation is attained is through acts within yoga, not through God’s gift of grace as revealed in the Scriptures. Additionally, Bhakti yoga is based on the belief that we are manifestations of God, blurring the boundary between God and man. In this system, “everything exists within God, but everything is not God. . . . the world and souls are real but they are also part of God’s being, not separate from Him, as in Christianity.”[11]

This is clearly seen in our culture through movies such as Avatar. It is also found in those who believe rocks, trees, water and other parts of creation house an inherent spiritual energy. The idea that there is a vague spirituality manifested through all of creation is a subliminal belief of most young people and this philosophy is reinforced through mass media. This is why many young people prefer to call themselves spiritual rather than identify with a religion. Little do they know that by doing so, they are identifying with a religion—classic paganism, also called monism, pantheism, panentheism, and yoga.

Hatha Yoga: This system of yoga is based on physical activity and is the type of yoga most commonly practiced in the West. Indeed, most Western people think of yoga as only a physical exercise, but in its roots, Hatha is about much more than just stretching. Rather, the physical activity in Hatha is meant to achieve an altered state of consciousness, as Elliot Miller explains:

First, it is common for literature on hatha yoga originating from Hindu sources to emphasize that the purpose of the postures and breathing exercises is to “free the more subtle spiritual elements of the mind.” In other words, the physical exercises of yoga are intended to facilitate altered states of consciousness. They further are intended to foster “the development of will power, concentration, and self-withdrawal,” all necessary to “help you put your mind in a focused state to prepare for Meditation and, eventually, the search for enlightenment.” Finally, they are designed to “open the energy channels, which in turn allows spiritual energy to flow freely.”[12]

This form of yoga has manifested itself in culture through meditation and breathing exercises. Popular culture is filled with “practical” advice to conquer stress through breathing, meditation, and exercise. While these advice columns don’t cache this information in the framework of a spiritual energy, the advice is derived from such beliefs. To be clear, these things can be helpful from a physical perspective to help reduce stress and regulate the body toward a relaxed state. Still, the Bible says to be “self-controlled and alert” (1 Pet. 5:8, NIV), which is impossible if we are seeking an altered state of consciousness and opening ourselves up to any and every spiritual influence without discernment.

Jnana Yoga: As Miller puts it, “Jnana yoga could be described as ‘yoga for intellectuals’ or ‘yoga for philosophers.’ It seeks salvation through intellectual knowledge and discrimination.”[13] But this is not the end of Inana but rather just the beginning. The end goal of Inana is “detachment from temporal concerns (but not necessarily withdrawal from them), virtue, and longing for liberation. Some form of meditation is also essential as a means of intuitively and experientially taking possession of the truth that has been logically discerned.”[14]

This form of yoga is taking root in an aesthetic representation of Christianity that is commonly referred to as poverty theology. At its core, poverty theology shuns the material in favor of the spiritual. Knowledge is more prized than the physical. But the Bible is clear that both the physical and the spiritual are God’s creation, and God calls all of his creation “good” in Genesis 1. Furthermore, Jesus is God who took upon himself human flesh during the incarnation, which reveals that God values the physical. The Bible also promises believers will rise from death in a physical body to live in an eternal physical kingdom with God.

Karma Yoga: Many people operate on the system of karma even if they don’t practice yoga. Simply put, karma is a system of yoga that is based on salvation through good works.

Prominent Los Angeles yoga teacher Bikram Choudhury clearly explains the role of karma yoga in attaining salvation:

Generally, a work brings as its effect or fruit either pleasure or pain. Each work adds a link to our bondage of Samsara and brings repeated births. This is the inexorable Law of Karma. But, through the practice of Karma Yoga, the effects of Karmas can be wiped out. Karma becomes barren. The same work, when done with the right mental attitude . . . does not add a link to our bondage. On the contrary, it purifies our heart and helps us to attain salvation through the descent of divine light or dawn of wisdom.[15]

That we casually use the term “good karma” in everyday speech in the Western world is proof of how the philosophies of yoga have infiltrated our culture without most people even realizing it. Even goofy TV shows like Earl have been based upon the entire notion of karma. We use the words and believe without question the philosophy of karma, but many cannot explain how we came to know them other than through cultural osmosis. As Christians, we believe in Christ, not karma. We believe that Christ rules over our lives, not karma.

Kundalini Yoga: According to Miller, “Kundalini yoga deliberately attempts to arouse and raise the kundalini, believed to be Shakti or creative divine energy, which sleeps at the base of the spine like a serpent, coiled in three and one-half circles.”[16] Through control of the respiratory system, Kundalini yoga teaches that people can tap into this energy within and harness it, thereby controlling their entire body. Not surprisingly, this system of yoga is also associated with visualization—the belief that you can manifest reality by imagining what you want.

Kundalini yoga is on the rise in our culture in a materialistic form with such teachings as The Secret, which asserts that you can manifest your desires by simply visualizing them. In this way, people are given almost God-like power to create their own reality and rule sovereignly over their lives and futures.

Raja Yoga: Raja yoga teaches that the mind is the highest part of the body and that by mastering your mind, you can master your body. In this system, vigorous exercises are meant to help you discipline your body through the power of your mind with the ultimate goal being a pure state of consciousness.

This system is seen in modified form as self-help gurus who teach that in order to prosper in life you have to master your mind and chase away the little thoughts that whisper you’re not good enough and that people don’t like you. By mastering your mind, you can find success. This has resulted in a cult of self-esteem that encourages people to push aside any doubts about themselves and trust that the only thing to fear is fear itself. Ignored is the fact that our biggest problem is not that we lack control, but rather that we are sinners who manifest our sin nature by wanting to be in control like God.

Tantra Yoga: Tantra yoga is based in the belief that engaging in taboo practices results in enlightenment. As such, tantra is associated with normally renounced practices in Hindusim, such as eating meat, drunkenness, and sex. An extreme form of tantra, known as left-handed tantra, “not only involves actual sex, alcohol, and drugs, but also has been known to involve black magic and all kinds of debauchery and criminal acts, including child sacrifice.”[17]

If gluttony, drunkenness, and perversion are the telltale signs of devotion, perhaps no form of yoga is more prevalent in our society than the tantra. Our culture is consumed with the idea that partying and sex will lead to happiness. What’s left, however, is abuse, pain, depression, and sometimes even death.

Christian Yoga?

As stated earlier, there is a growing movement of Christians who are engaging in “Holy Yoga,” claiming that you can practice yoga and be a Christian as long as you divorce the practice of yoga from the teachings of yoga. In this last section, I’ll briefly consider whether there can truly be such a thing as Christian yoga.

Often at Mars Hill Church, I use a simple matrix to help my congregation discern how to engage culture: receive, reject, or redeem. (I wrote a lengthy post on this for theresurgence.com, “Why Christians Go Postal Over Facebook, Jay-Z, Yoga, Avatar, and Culture in General,” which I encourage you to read.)

Receive: There are things in culture that are part of God’s common grace to all people that a Christian can simply receive. This is why, for example, I am typing on a Mac and am going to post this article on the Internet without searching for an expressly Christian computer or communication format.

Reject: There are things in culture that are sinful and not beneficial. One example is drunkenness, which has no redeeming value and must be rejected by a Christian.

Redeem: There are things in culture that are not bad in and of themselves, but can be used in a sinful manner and therefore need to be redeemed by God’s people. An example that has resulted in a great deal of media attention is sexual pleasure. God made our bodies for, among other purposes, sexual pleasure. And, although many have sinned sexually, as Christians we should redeem this great gift and all its joys in the context of marriage.

So the question when it comes to yoga is, should it be received, rejected, or redeemed?

As I’ve explained in this post, yoga is a religious philosophy that is in direct opposition to Christianity. Thus, in its true form, yoga cannot be simply received by any Christian in good conscious. To do so would be to reject the truths of Scripture and thus Jesus himself.

Thinking through whether a Christian can redeem yoga becomes murky. As I alluded to earlier, going to a yoga studio to practice yoga as a Christian is a bit like going into a mosque to practice Islam as a Christian. They don’t go together. Complicating the issue even more is that, as explained above, yoga is often not overt in its teachings but rather weaves them through seemingly harmless practices such as stretching. Without a discerning spirit, one can find oneself naively participating in spiritual activities that are not Christian.

My advice is to not attempt to redeem yoga properly understood, as it is a system of belief that is unchristian, against Scripture, and thus demonic in nature. You cannot redeem such a thing.

So, in conclusion, Christians must reject yoga, as defined here. I’d also go so far as to say you should reject the term “yoga,” as it is impossible to divorce it from its historical and spiritual context without much explanation and linguistic gymnastics. Instead, feel free in Christian liberty to stretch however you’d like, participate in exercise, calm your nerves through breathing, and even contemplate the Scriptures in silence. But do so in a way that does not identify with yoga and non-Christian mysticism. Do not seek to negate your mind, but rather renew your mind with the Word of God. Do not seek to empty yourself, but rather be filled with the Holy Spirit. Do not seek to turn into yourself for enlightenment, but rather look out to the God of the Bible. Do not seek to become one with the universe, but rather be reconciled to God through Jesus Christ.

Exercise is a gift of God for us to take care of the bodies that he created for his glory. It’s good and important to exercise. But we should never, in our desire to be in shape and be healthy, adopt systems antithetical to Christianity because they make us feel good or have bodily value. Rather, let’s first stay true to God and his Word and work out our bodies to his glory by his values handed down to us through Scripture.

Grace in practice, not just theory

2011-11-02T17:36:00.002-05:00

One of my favorite maxims is "The best of men are men at best". It's a reminder to me that no matter how venerable I may think some man - either living or dead - to be, he had flaws and errors both in his beliefs and his practice. Countless times I have found an author or preacher whom I feel I can agree with in all points, but inevitably I find a something in his life or his teachings that I disagree with and I am disappointed. The fact that this discovery disappoints me is puzzling for two reasons. One, his overall agreement with me on what I think to be right ought to cause me to pause and consider whether or not this point on which we disagree is an inconsistency in my life instead of immediately supposing that the fault belongs to the other party. Secondly, it exposes to me that I had again fallen into the trap of imagining that there was a man who was in all actuality perfect while here on this earth. While I claim to refute that doctrine, and ever do in word, my hypocrisy is evidenced when the failure of a man I admired causes me feel betrayed.
I'm striving to fix this inconsistency in my life and to live every moment in the reality that every human on this earth has shortcomings and therefore a need for grace from their fellow humans. I expect it myself, when I fail in a duty or what someone expected of me, I want them to realize I'm fully human and forgive my fault. With all this in mind, it sickens me to see the level at which so many so-called christians look for opportunity to expose, decry, and disassociate themselves from someone else who claims to love the same Lord they claim to love, because of a difference in belief or practice on an issue of lesser importance than the gospel. What I am referring to is not the instances where men who have dedicated their lives to watching for the souls of other men do their duty and warn the true disciples of Jesus Christ of false teachers who are preaching another gospel; but of men and women of all walks of life who will verbally flay any man or woman who happens to disagree with their soap-box issue. The devil loves to see us defame a man who exalts Christ in his preaching because he dresses more casually than we deem appropriate, but listen to a preacher whose preaching is empty, because we like that he wears a tie, or when we would rather hear a distorted message preached from the KJV than Christ and him crucified from the ESV. How fractured and divisive, weak and lethargic, ineffective and unchrist-like the church is when we major on minors.
If we claim to believe the doctrines of grace, but all that means is that we are proud that we have our intellectual "I"s dotted and "T"s crossed, with no intention of showing a little of that grace to someone who is not on the same spiritual plane we imagine ourselves to be on, we have made a mockery of Christ's love for us. The Pharisees were horrified not only that Jesus associated with publicans and sinners in his evangelism, but that he chose and loved fishermen, tax collectors, and physicians as his religious cohorts, and even went so far as to call them brethren! Therefore, if I'm maligned for refusing to partake in the bashing of those who don't look, act, or believe just exactly like I do, or vilified for actually defending them, I'll feel like I'm in good company. After all isn't that the essence of grace?

Joseph: A type of Christ

2011-10-24T12:02:00.004-05:00

Gen. 45:7 And God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth, and to keep alive for you many survivors.
Gen. 45:8 So it was not you who sent me here, but God. He has made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house and ruler over all the land of Egypt.
The story of Joseph's life is one that is included in most children's bible story books. The love of his father, betrayal of his brothers, and slave to prince progression in Egypt make for a captivating story. However, this story, like every other one in the scriptures, is for more than entertainment purposes, it was to give the Old Testament saints a shadow of the coming Messiah, and preserved to show us God's eternal plan and sovereignty in carrying that plan out.
The story starts with a son, greatly beloved of the father, even over all his other brethren. So Christ from eternity past is the Son greatly loved by the Father, the one through whom all his brethren are loved.
However his brothers did not love him, but hated him and devised a plan to kill him. They did not kill him themselves, but handed him over to the gentiles to do the work for them. In like manner, our Savior was not loved by us initially, but we hated him and were at enmity with him. In fact his own kinsmen in the flesh, as well as those who would be later adopted into his family, devised a plan to kill him, and they turned him over to the gentile Romans to do the deed for them.
Joseph was brought to Egypt as a slave and before long found himself unjustly imprisoned, his journey to the seat at the right hand of the King of Egypt began in the humblest place possible, a prison slave. Jesus was born in a stable, thought by many to be nothing more than a cave in the ground, to the world he was seen as nothing more than the illegitimate son of a carpenter. The king of glory, came to be the only savior of mankind's plight, and it began in the basest manner imaginable.
In spite of all this, Joseph continued to serve and glorify God and he was promoted a position - so that when the world was starving, and his brethren who had thought to kill him had no other place to turn but to him - they found that their attempt to kill him had indirectly resulted in their own salvation through his mercy. Is this not the mirror image of our Savior? Who through his sinless life and death was raised again and exalted to the right hand of the Father, where he ever lives to make intercession for us. And when we realize that our famished soul has no other place to turn, we find that hand in whom our fate rests, is the one we hated even to his death, and yet in the words of the hymn writer, "Plenteous grace with thee is found, grace to cover all my sins!"

Run from false teachers!

2011-03-09T22:38:00.002-06:00

Wow, I hope we continue to believe this and not simply in a moment of emotion after a national crisis!

A lover of good men

2011-03-05T19:15:00.005-06:00

"For a bishop must be... a lover of good men." -Titus 1:7, 8-
When I read through the requirements for a proper biblical pastor in I Timothy 3 and Titus 1, I see a great number of things that make me uncomfortable because I know I have a lot of work to do if I'm to fully match the description. However, this qualification is not one that is difficult or uncomfortable for me, because I love good men. I recently heard Dr. Michael (my fellow pastor at Emmanuel Baptist Church) explain this passage while teaching his theology class, and his definition here of "good men" was eye-opening. We know that according to scripture, in our natural state there is none that doeth good, no, not one (Rom. 3:12) but the "good men" here refers to men who love good things. I have gleaned several applications from this particular requirement as I mulled it over the past few days and would like to share them here with you.
First, the obvious and clearly stated principle, I should love men who love, live and teach good things, and I do! In my personal life I love men who personify the love of good things, I love conversing with them, watching how they live life, and following their example. I love being around them, goofing off with them and learning from them. A few "good men" that fall into this category would be my dad, Dr. Michael, the deacons at Emmanuel, Paul Washer, several other local pastors that preach truth and a few of the congregants at Emmanuel that match this description of men who are truly in love with good things. Beyond that, I love some "good men" that I've never met before, but whose sermons, ministries, books and public lives have blessed and taught me. Men whom I love as fathers in the faith and brothers in Christ even never having met them in the flesh. These are men who I would have no problem endorsing or recommending to my own flock. Included in this number are men like John Piper, Mark Driscoll, R. Kent Hughes and John MacArthur. Then in a third category I would say there are "good men" that I love although they are not even alive any longer, but I know of them and love them through their writings. This list is probably the longest of the three considering I have 6000 years of dead guys vs. the other two categories being limited to my short time here on earth. However, it would be headed by names like, C.S. Lewis, C.H. Spurgeon, John Calvin, Jonathan Edwards, and Martin Luther.
In my contemplation of what it is to love men who love good things and who some of those men are, I was struck with another thought. Many times a truth is seen most clearly when we understand it's antithesis, yet in this particular situation I thought it compelling that we are never told to be haters, refuters or debunkers of evil men. While Titus does tell us to sharply rebuke the deceivers, it does not say that we are to spend a great amount of time ranting to everyone else about them. Understand, I do not deny that we are to warn our flocks of false teachers and false prophets, but here are my reasons for not making this a focal point of my teaching. One, if I boldly and consistently teach truth, my congregation will know error when they hear it. Two, those who are constantly looking for a new preacher to rail against, will inevitably make a godly man the brunt of their wrath, based either on a comment they heard out of context or perhaps even a legitimate (but minor) error in their theology. The fact of the matter is, every one of the "good men" I listed in three lists above, have/had their holes in their theology. As I often say, "The best of men are men at best", but to be an accuser of our brethren is not my job, in fact it is one job that is ascribed to Satan (Rev. 12:10).
So, I'm going to continue to love good men and look for more of them to love, understanding they are not perfect, simply error-prone men being sanctified daily, just like me. I'm also going to continue to try to walk the fine line of warning God's church of those who really are wolves in sheep's clothing, without attacking a true sheep who simply has some spots in his wool.

Spiritual applications from sports.

2011-01-31T13:13:00.006-06:00

2Ti 4:7 I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith:
I like sports. Be it football, basketball, volleyball, ultimate Frisbee, or anything else that includes activity and competition, I'm right in the middle of it. Unfortunately, I am rarely ever the highest jumper on the court, nor do I have a vast knowledge of coverage schemes or how to execute a "pick-and-roll", I don't have the strongest hands, quickest acceleration or most endurance. Because of all of this, when I play with people who don't know me well, I'm usually not one of the first people picked. However, I have decided that whatever I lack in athleticism or knowledge I will make up in effort and perseverance and it usually doesn't take long before everyone in the game has recognized that I'm giving 100%. Because of all of this, I expect the same from everyone else on my team, I don't expect you to be Joe Montana or Michael Jordan, just to give it everything you've got, never give up on a play, and if you get beat on a play to line it up and run it again with maximum effort.
So all of this got me to thinking, do I take the same approach to my daily walk with God as I do in a frivolous game? Am I as determined to get up and "run it again" when I've been "beaten on a play" by Satan or my flesh? Do others around me respect me because in spite of the fact that I'm not the most versed theologian or experienced christian, I only fall because I'm running so hard, and never stay down for long? Paul said toward the end of his life that he had fought a good fight and finished his race. Not that he had never been punched in the face, but that when he did he kept fighting; not that he had never tripped, but that when he did he got up and kept running. I am so frail, so weak, and so unstable, but never let it be said of me that I am apathetic or a quitter. By God's grace I'll lean on Christ's finished work and "play till the whistle blows".
Pro 24:16 For a just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again: but the wicked shall fall into mischief.

Boaz, a type of Christ

2010-11-22T23:57:00.005-06:00

In my last post I wrote about the cities of refuge being a type, or picture, of Jesus Christ. I would say that is one of my favorite "things" that typifies our Saviour in the Old Testament. However, one of my favorite people that give us a forshadowing of Jesus, is found in the book of Ruth, pictured in Boaz.
First we see that he was a near kinsman to Ruth (Ruth 3:9). Here we have a Moabitess, and yet she was of close kin to this man of the stock of Abraham. These, who looked on the outset like two total strangers were in actuallity close relatives. In like manner we are told that we were predestined to be conformed to the image of Christ, that He might be the firtsborn among many brethren (Rom. 8:29). Again in Hebrews 2 we read that Jesus was made a little lower than the angels that he might bring many sons to glory, also that He is not ashamed to call them brethren. Though our sin has robbed us of much of the image of God, and on the outside we would never be associated with Him, yet through His mercy he has made us siblings and joint heirs with Christ.
Secondly, Boaz was a mighty man of wealth (Ruth 2:1). The same was said of our Lord Jesus in II Cor. 8:9, For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich. The Son of Man walked this earth from infancy in a stall to manhood with no place to lay His head, He was despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and aquainted with grief; this same Jesus is the owner of the cattle on a thousand hills, He both appoints and casts down every king raised up and every one defeated. Although in humilty he made himself of no reputation and took upon himself the form a servant, let us not forget that truly the Messiah was a mighty man of wealth!
Third, we see that even as a mighty man of wealth, Boaz took notice of a stranger. Eph. 2:19 Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God; Boaz had no need of Ruth, he had many servants and gleaners, he had a nation of women who came from a much more acceptable background from which to choose his bride. But, in mercy and grace and he chose the woman who was a stranger and foreigner.
Lastly, before Boaz could marry Ruth, he had to redeem her from the hand of another. (Ruth 4:1-10) We too were possessed by another, we were by nature the children of wrath, and in need of a redeemer. Thus we are told in Gal. 4:4-5 But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.
Isn't God gracious to give us such a clear picture of his love for us through a love story in the Old Testament?

Cities of refuge

2010-10-17T21:02:00.005-05:00

Num. 35:12 And they shall be unto you cities for refuge from the avenger; that the manslayer die not, until he stand before the congregation in judgment.
Throughout the Old Testament we have many pictures, types, and foreshadowings of Christ. Many times they come in the form of people; Abraham, Moses, David, and many others were a picture of the coming Messiah. However there are also times when inanimate objects and even certain ceremonies and days picture aspects of our Lord. The Cities of Refuge are one of those inanimate objects that give us a colorful illustration of part of what Christ would accomplish.
In order to see Christ as the City of Refuge we must see ourselves as those who had committed manslaughter and in need of a protector. We met that criteria in two ways. First, we were present by representative in Adam when he effectively killed all his descendants through the original sin (Rom. 5:12). Secondly, we were guilty in the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, who was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him (Isa. 53:5). So while we might say we did not personally go out looking to kill either time, it does not change the fact that we were guilty of blood in both cases.
When a man was guilty of manslaughter, it was expected that a death penalty of sorts was placed on him in that the family of the deceased would look to enforce the law of an eye for an eye and tooth for a tooth. We have here further continuity in the illustration, for we were by nature the children of wrath. I have heard this explained as though we ran to Christ to escape Satan, the accuser of the brethren, (and I suppose in a way that is true). However, it much closer to a correct understanding to see God as the offended family member, it was his wrath and condemnation we were under, not Satan's!
So here we are, guilty of the blood of an innocent man, whether intentional or not and we have heavy on our heads the impending and inevitable wrath of God. Our only hope is to fly to some mountain, to a Rock of Ages, to a City of Refuge and cast ourselves upon it in faith that it can withstand the fury of the pursuing party until the day of our trial. As Paul told the Corinthians that the Rock in the wilderness was Christ, so I say that refuge for us was only found in Christ.
All physical illustrations have their limitations when attempting to picture something spiritual, and this one is no exception. The striking difficulty here is that God is (by Christ) the slain innocent, he is the vengeful family member, he is the City of Refuge itself, and he is the judge that will eventually proclaim us just (albeit not for our innocence, but for the righteousness of Christ for us). But is it not fitting that in a foreshadowing of our redemption, its greatest problem is that God is "too" present and active? For in our salvation the same is true, God is both just and the justifier! (Rom. 3:26)

Reflections on love

2010-10-07T21:41:00.005-05:00

Does the truest and deepest love always/inherently carry the highest risk of pain and hurt? Is it a sign of selfishness to only be willing to expose your deepest emotions to one in whom you have a level of certainty will appreciate such exposure? We have a perceived paradox in scripture in that the greatest love is exhibited in a man laying down his life for his friends; and he who has friends must shew himself friendly. So on this hand we have a mutual relationship as our definition of the greatest love. The flip side to this coin is that we only love God because he first loved us, in fact he sought and purchased us when we were yet his enemies! At what level and to what extent then do we carry this principle over into human relationships? I am hesitant to say that there is a greater nobility in love than that which abides regardless of time, space or affections returned. This is the love written of by the ancients, eternally captured and lauded in sonnets, legends, and riddles. Yet I am equally concerned that such an ideology, while noble to its core, has little to no practicality; of what use is love that cannot be practiced? In the end, the question - Is a noble, solitary love of greater worth than a practical, mutual affection? - is left unanswered.

Questions to ask in times of trial

2010-08-02T23:28:00.005-05:00

"Why me? Why now? Why this?" Are these the first thoughts to cross your mind when something unpleasant occurs in your life? Something painful, or at least uncomfortable? If you're anything like me, they are. Our culture has trained us to be comfortable and amused at all times and if we are ever inconvenienced we are highly offended! Sure we claim to believe in the fall of man, we are aware that the bible says something about this life being filled with sorrow and the Christian life in particular requiring sacrifice and chastisement. That's all good and well in abstract, it makes for stimulating conversation and thought provoking theory, but when those chickens come home to roost it's another story entirely. But do we really deserve a life of happiness? Is it our intrinsic right to live a life free of too much care or worry? Or is perhaps the opposite true? Perhaps the song writer had a legitimate point when he asked, "Must I be carried to the skies on flowery beds of ease, while others fought to win the prize and sailed through bloody seas?" As I meditated on these things recently I purposed to begin asking myself four questions whenever my life was bumped, rocked, or upset by some unpleasant circumstance.
1. Is there any sin in my life that has directly led to this calamity?
I am always amazed when hear stories or read articles about someone whose sin directly led to a mishap and they say something like, "I don't know what happened, everything was fine and then this happened!" A man is shot in a drug deal gone wrong and his surviving family bemoan his passing as though it was unprovoked and he a martyr. But how often do I do this very thing? More often than I would like to admit. I have been in car accidents that were a direct result of rebelling against the authority of the civil government's set traffic laws. I have injured myself carrying on in some foolishness, I have lost money by not exercising proper stewardship. More often than we like to imagine, our personal storms are brought on us by our own sinfulness.
2. Is there sin in my life not related to this trauma, that God is trying to get me to stop and think about.
Miriam's rebellion did not naturally lead to her leprosy, but God used it to show her it was sin, nor did Ananias and Sapphira's lies directly lead to their deaths, but God killed them and a righteous fear fell on the church and world alike. If I have examined myself under the light of the first question and see no connection, that does not mean I'm off the hook. I now will examine my life in total and see if perhaps God is using this fire to purge out some dross somewhere else in my life.
3. How can I be made more like Christ through this trial?
If I have made sure there is no sin for which I have not repented in my life, I attempt to distinguish in what areas might this pressure enhance my character. Will it give me more patience, long suffering, love, joy, hope, meekness, some combination of the above...? You will remember that Jesus healed a blind man that had not suffered that for a sin, but simply that God might be glorified in him. How did your last tribulation glorify God through your life? How did it make you more like Christ? How did it sanctify you?
4. How can my love for others be more effective now because of my hardship?
If God sends me a storm for no other reason than to hone my ability to help others, can I really complain? Did not Christ suffer many things simply so it might be said of him, "For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin."? If our master suffered to be able to empathize with us, shall we murmur and complain when asked to suffer in order to show his love more clearly to others? God forbid! I pray every trial I face, every pain I endure, and every inconvenience I experience would make me a more able minister of the gospel.
These are questions I am going to attempt to ask myself from now on, and I was encouraged by a friend to blog them, so here they are. I pray they help you in some small way. To God alone be the glory.

Third Day - Cry Out To Jesus W/Lyrics

2010-07-29T20:34:00.000-05:00

Is there a better answer to give when faced with pain or problems? Cry out to Jesus!

John Piper - Where are the faithful young men?

2010-07-29T19:54:00.001-05:00

I was convicted by this, at the same time I thanked God that I know where a few of these men and women are and I am blessed to count them among my friends!

Coming rain

2010-07-29T19:18:00.003-05:00

I close my eyes and resist the stiff wind, enjoying the feeling of it tugging at my shirt and tustling with my hair. A sudden gust forces my eyes back open simply to retain my balance. I inhale deeply and taste the sharp mixture of fresh air cleaned by the coming rain and the pugnent - yet strangely intoxicating - scent of wet asphalt. The charcoal grey clouds are moving closer by the second, boiling over the backdrop of a blue sky that appeared so serene only moments before. Somewhere close the ominous sound of thunder sends shivers down my spine, shivers not of fear but simply wonder at the power and mystery of the thunder. My cheek is stung by a tiny raindrop, whipped forcibly at me by the strengthening wind. I wonder for a split second if it was a stray raindrop, somehow seperated from the bulk of the storm and driven to me by the wind, or if it was the first in line to fall directly over me, a harbinger of his brothers, eagerly awaiting their drop or perhaps free-falling already. I chuckle at myself for such a random thought and focus instead on watching the lightning, I see a flash out of the corner of my eye but it leaves as quickly as it came and I cannot turn my head quickly enough to feel as though I actually saw it. I had never really stopped to consider it before, but I quickly realize that try as I might it is impossible to watch a bolt from inception to retreat. This frustrates me, but in the end simply serves as a reminder to me of my own limitations. The warehouse at my back is hot and stuffy and I am disinclinded to leave this moment, but duty calls and with a final sweep of my eyes, I reluctantly return to work and wait for the rain.

A puritan prayer

2010-07-27T22:59:00.005-05:00

O Lord God,
There is no blessing we implore,
but thou art able to give,
hast promised to give,
hast given already to countless multitudes,
all unworthy and guilty like ourselves;
Make us willing to recieve the supply,
of our need from thy bounty.
To this end convince us of sin,
soften our hard hearts,
to bewail our folly, ingratitude, pride,
unbelief, rebellion, corruption.
Through the law may we die to the law,
then look with wonder, submission, delight,
to the provision thou hast made
for the glory of thy Name
in the salvation of sinners.
Give us a hope that makes us not ashamed,
a love that excites to holy obedience,
a joy in thee that is our strength,
a faith in thy Son who loved us and died for us.
May we persevere in duty
when not fully conscious of thee,
wait upon thee and keep thy way,
be humble and earnest suppliants at thy feet,
live continually as on the brink of eternity.
Let us be at thy disposal for the duties
and events of life,
submit our preferences to thy wisdom and will,
resign our enjoyments if thou ,shouldest require it
as our absolute Proprietor and best Friend.
In our unworthiness and provocations
make us grateful for the means of grace
and the ordinances of religion
and teach us to profit by them
more than we have done.
Help us to be in the Spirit on the Lord's Day,
to enter upon the sabbath mindful of its
solemnities, duties, privileges,
setting all things worldly aside
while we worship thee.
May we know the blessedness of men
whose strenth is in thee,
and in whose hearts are the highways
to heaven.

Walk with Christ

2010-07-26T11:33:00.006-05:00

2Ti 4:16 At my first answer no man stood with me, but all men forsook me: I pray God that it may not be laid to their charge.
2Ti 4:17 Notwithstanding the Lord stood with me, and strengthened me; that by me the preaching might be fully known, and that all the Gentiles might hear: and I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion.
I have recently been wrestling with the doctrine of the Sabbath day; how exactly we are to keep it holy, and what the correct balance is between enjoying all God’s good gifts and yet making sure the day is separated for God. God has been showing me many things through His word, personal experiences, and godly counsel of parents, pastors and friends. However this post is about a different subject that I have been convicted about as a result of that study.
As I began to be more and more convinced that I was abusing the liberty allowed for the Lord’s Day, I tried to rationalize my continuation in such things, perhaps the foremost rationalization being that were I to conclude that the Lord’s Day is to be used strictly for spiritual thoughts, speech, and actions I would be isolated. Like most people, I’m a social creature, I don’t like being by myself when I know my friends are all off having fun somewhere, so I continued to fight the growing evidence of scriptural and natural revelation, knowing that embracing them would mean I would have to give up doing many things that I enjoy most and usually only get a chance to do on Sunday afternoons. (Watch football and play sports with my friends) God broke me this morning as I gave in to the truth that has been nagging me in the back of my mind all this time, if truth is truth, than to deny it for the sake of pleasure and convenience is an act of cowardice, hypocrisy, and idolatry.
Was not our Lord forsaken of all when arrested? Is it not enough for me to be as the Master? (Matt. 10:25) Was not Paul abandoned by all for standing for the truth? Have not many godly men stood alone through the ages? Are we not called to forsake all to follow Christ? I confess now that my rationalizations were nothing but a fight to feed the flesh that we are called to kill. So I write publicly to remind you, as I have been reminded, that there is an inherent cost built into true Christianity that we are called to count. If being alone is too much to pay than I am no true follower of Christ but a Pharisee, with white-washed walls but inwardly filled with dead men’s bones.
Once I settled this with myself, that I would attempt to obey scripture regardless of the cost, I was reminded that even if all men forsake me, I will not taste the full loneliness of our Lord when he cried with a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, Lama, Sabbachthani” which being interpreted is “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” If I am forsaken by men it is only so I can walk with Christ, who has promised to never leave or forsake me. If there is an area in your life that is contrary to scripture, yet you are holding on to for fear of abandonment, I call you to mortify the deeds of the flesh and walk with Christ.

The father's role as bread-winner.

2010-07-08T23:18:00.004-05:00

The following is an excerpt from my pamphlet The Proper Roles in a Biblical Family. Luke 11:11 If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent?
Luke 11:12 Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion?
Luke 11:13 If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?
The first principle I want to look at is the most basic duty of a father, that of providing and caring for those of your household. It is and always has been the responsibility of the father to provide for the physical necessities of the house. In this passage Jesus calls his own disciples “evil”, yet the assumption is that even the evil men take care of their households. As it is written in I Tim. 5:8, “But if any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel.” It is not the responsibility of the wife or the children or the state to care for your family, it is yours and you need to do everything in your power to fulfill that obligation. The scriptures do not say that it is your responsibility to make sure they are provided for, but rather it is your responsibility to provide for them. It has always been Satan’s goal to reverse the decrees of God, he calls good evil and evil good, and he is attempting to reverse the roles in our families as well. Fathers, provide for your families and if you turn even a part of that over to another party, you are letting the proverbial camel’s nose into the tent.
Many ask, “What about the families that need the wife to work?” The situations where that is actually a necessity are few and far between, if the father is willing to work hard there will be no reason for anyone else to have to care for that man’s family. I’m not promising that they will have the same standard of living as the Jones, but no one else needs to work in the vast and overwhelming majority of American families in order for them to survive. The only exceptions I can think of might be if the father has a physical handicap that keeps him from working. I can say this with a fair amount of assurance, because I grew up in a family of eleven, my father was the only one in the family that worked until I, as the oldest boy, got old enough to get a job. Even then my father continued to provide me with all the things he had always provided me with until I moved out of his house, all I had to take care of were the extra things such as my car and cell phone. My father didn’t have a high paying job, yet somehow I always had food in my belly and a dry place to sleep, we had gas in our cars and our house was heated and air-conditioned. Now admittedly we lived in a trailer, our cars were at least ten years old most of the time, and we didn’t have the newest gadgets, but that was a conscious decision my parents made in order to be as biblical as possible. The idea that there has to be two incomes to support a family is a myth that is being propagated by the devil through our modern culture, and thousands of Christians have bought it hook, line and sinker and now go so far as to mock those who refute it. The scriptures always refer to the father as the one who cares for the physical provision of the family, and calls those who abandon it deniers of the faith and worse than infidels, or unbelievers. Fathers, husbands, it is time for us to reclaim our biblical role in our houses and that has to start with the most basic of duties, that of caring for our family’s needs.

Who can/should I vote for as a Christian?

2010-04-26T13:28:00.003-05:00

Pro 29:2 When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice: but when the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn.

1Ti 2:1 I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men;
1Ti 2:2 For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty.

Rom 13:1 Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God.
Rom 13:2 Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation.
Rom 13:3 For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same:
Rom 13:4 For he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil.
Rom 13:5 Wherefore ye must needs be subject, not only for wrath, but also for conscience sake.
Rom 13:6 For for this cause pay ye tribute also: for they are God's ministers, attending continually upon this very thing.
Rom 13:7 Render therefore to all their dues: tribute to whom tribute is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honour to whom honour.

A while back I had a friend ask me, “How do I know who to vote for as a Christian? The vast majority of the candidates are not people I would worship with, so on how much can we disagree without violating my conscience by voting for them?”
Let me begin by saying we have an extremely unique opportunity in America. The ability to have a say in who it is that will be making the laws that will affect you and your children for generations to come, is a privilege rarely enjoyed - not only in today’s world - but in the history of the world! With that in mind, the decision not to vote is not merely a mockery of the lives that were given to obtain that right, but an abdication of your Christian duty to procure a safe and moral country for yourself and your posterity. Should a day come when every candidate in a political race does not meet my most basic qualifications, I would still exercise my right to write in the name of someone I did feel was qualified. For I believe I will give an answer to God one day, for the people I made an attempt to put in authority with my vote! That being said, let me attempt to give some biblical and common sense qualifications that we should look for in a candidate.
The first thing we must understand in answering this question is that as Christians our first allegiance is to God and his laws, not America and her laws. Therefore, in voting for a candidate for public office, our first qualifications are not economic, national security or social welfare questions; but how does this candidate feel about God’s laws and how far are they willing to go to uphold them. Regardless of how much we may agree with a candidate on their social issues, if they are opposed to God’s laws, I cannot vote for them and still claim that my highest allegiance lies with God. The candidate that promotes or ignores the infanticide raging in this nation can never have my vote, for God has commanded us not to murder. The candidate that promotes fornication by promoting government sex-ed funding, likewise will not have my vote. Homosexual rights, militant government invasion on a parent’s authority over their children, racism, euthanasia of any sort and the force-feeding of evolution are a few other moral issues that would disable me from voting for a candidate whose platform included one or any combination of them.
All that being said, a candidate’s personal life will not keep me from voting for them, unless it is an area that would obviously change their legislative actions. I.e. I would vote for a divorced candidate, although I believe divorce is a sin in most situations. I would vote for a Catholic, although I would disagree with most of his doctrine. I would not vote for someone who was homosexual, because obviously they would have a personal motivation to legislate that particular immorality. I would not vote for an atheist, because he believes there are no moral absolutes.
Another important point in choosing a candidate is that a Christian should never stoop to voting for “the lesser of two evils”. To vote for a candidate that will legislate immorality, in an attempt to keep someone out that you think will legislate greater immorality, is twisted logic and not in any way biblical. As Bob Jones once said, “It’s never right to do wrong to get a chance to do right.”
The role of a government authority is to execute judgment on evil-doers and reward the righteous with a peaceful life. I encourage you to step up and perform your duty to put those in authority that will properly implement those standards. You will be judged both by future generations, and more importantly God, on either the way you voted or your apathy and abdication of duty in not voting at all. I encourage you therefore, to do your due diligence in finding the most qualified candidates, based on God’s qualifications, and vote both in the June 1 primaries and the November general elections.

Pride and evil speaking

2010-02-08T21:31:00.003-06:00

Prov. 6:16-19
16 These six things doth the LORD hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him:
17 A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood,
18 An heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief,
19 A false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren.

I have recently been meditating on these verses, considering that if something is said to be hated of the Lord and even abominable to him; I ought to also hate it and examine myself closely to ensure I am not caught up in something found on this list. As I thought about each of these sins, how they interacted with each other and what they looked like extenuated out to their furthest end, I was struck with a startling truth. Every one of these sins are engaged when we gossip about someone in order to elevate our position or reputation.
It starts (as so many sins do) with pride, we view ourselves as deserving of some recognition that we are not currently getting and so go about to change that, by dragging someone else through the mud.
Secondly, it moves to that member that James said was the hardest to control, the tongue. We craftily work in barbs, "white" lies or simply exaggerated truths, about whoever we need to cut down, into our conversations with those we wish to impress.
We are now guilty of hands that have shed blood. Not only is the hatred in our heart considered murder by God, (Matthew 5:21-22) but to wreck someone's reputation has long been considered a physical offence in courts of law because of the damage it does to their ability to interact in society and even make a living.
Of course none of this just happens. Bitterness builds up in our hearts as we allow our pride to steep and continue to tell ourselves that deserve better, that we've been wronged. We decide which words will do the most damage to our victim with the person to whom we plan to speak, we decide what lead-ins will be the most effective to portray ourselves in the most innocent light and our comments the most natural to the flow of the conversation. All of this is followed by a justification in our minds for doing what we did or what we're about to do.
It is now time to execute our plan, we've decided what to say, who to say it to, how to say it, and we now find the most convenient time to say it, preferably sooner than later. The longer it goes unsaid, the longer we remain in our current state and the longer we have to watch the one we hate deserve recognition we think should be ours.
There is here the assumption that what we are about to say is not the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. This is the crucial link and the one we work hardest to convince ourselves we are not committing. For sure, there are times we can speak the truth with malicious intentions, but most of the time we, like Daniels opponents, have to fabricate something in order to maximize the effect it will have on cutting them down and ultimately building us up.
The last sin is exactly what we are hoping for; this entire process has been devised and executed with the sole purpose of driving a wedge. Many commentators say that when these lists are given ("six, yea seven", "three, yea four" etc.) the last item is the one with the strongest emphasis. When we consider the seemingly endless list of passages that call us to love the brethren, walk with them in unity, edify one another, forgive each other, and so many commands that are contrary to the notion of discord; we begin to understand how much God hates the one that sows such among his children.
Perhaps I've used some superlatives in this post, maybe I used words that you considered over-the-top or too strong for "such a small sin", but that is my great fear; that we are minimalizing something God sees as huge. Gossip, slander, lying, bearing false witness, sowing discord... these are sins that God despises and we are fools if we commit them and then try to justify ourselves by minimalizing them, they are wickedness of the highest sort!

All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable!

2009-09-08T00:02:00.005-05:00

Gal 3:8 And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed.
I love this verse because it dashes to pieces many erroneous doctrines concerning the difference between the Old and New Testaments.
First we see that it does in fact call an Old Testament passage "scripture". Those who claim that the Old Testament is somehow inferior to the New, or less relevant than the New, do not recognize that they are cutting off the branch they are sitting on. Every New Testament writer consults the Old Testament, or calls it scripture, or uses it as a foundation for their arguments. The apostles would not have accepted Jesus Christ as the Messiah except for the fact that starting in the Law and the Prophets he showed them how the scriptures foretold of him. Peter and Paul could not have convinced the Jews that Gentiles now stood on equal ground with them in the sight of God, except for the prophesies that a day would come when those who did not know God would be called the children of the Living God and the prophesy that there would come a day when a light would be shined on those who walked in darkness. Without the Old Testament the New Testament writers would not have had a leg to stand on, so to diminsh the role of the Old Testament is to diminish the foundation on which the New Testament stands.
Secondly, this verse claims that the heathen were saved by faith, and because of that, God spake to Abraham a Gospel of salvation by faith. Abraham, Adam, Isaiah, the thief on the cross and Paul the apostle were all saved the same way I was... by faith! There can be no argument that the law was the avenue of salvation for the Jews unless we cut Galations 3 out of the Bible. Paul makes a very strong argument, Abraham came before the law so how could the law have saved him? And if Abraham was saved by faith, were the Jews after the law saved differently than faithful father Abraham? (Gen. 15:6 says it was Abraham's belief in God that ws counted as his justification before God.) The law was never meant to save, but to show men that they are incapable of saving themselves and must cast themselves upon the Messiah for mercy.
Thirdly, it says the message spoken to Abraham was "the gospel". The gospel is not unique to the New Testament, the Old Testament saints had it as well. They did not know that His name would be Jesus, but they knew a Messiah would come that would be God incarnate and would save his people from their sins, they knew that He would be God with them, they knew He would be born of a virgin and that it would please God to bruise Him. Even Adam and Eve knew that there would be a seed of the woman whose heel would be bruised by the serpent, yet would ultimatly crush the head of that Old Serpent the Devil.
If ever a man or woman has been saved on this earth, it is only because they believed God and that was counted to them for righteousness. It is only through faith that a sinless Messiah would take their sins and pay their penalty. Thank God that you and I have the New Testament to show us that His name was Jesus, but in the words of our Lord, "Blessed are they who have not seen and yet have believed".

Was king Saul saved?

2009-03-31T10:55:00.002-05:00

Alright here's another question recently asked me, eat the meat, spit out the bones, but don't spit them at me! :-)

Was King Saul saved? And if so what does I Sam. 16:14 mean when it says “the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul,”?

The first thing that we must understand when dealing with this question is that we must be careful of attempting to say definitively whether someone was or wasn’t saved, when scripture is silent on the issue. While I say we must be careful in such a statement, I do not say that we cannot discern such issues based on what the scriptures do tell us.
When attempting to ascertain whether or not someone is converted, there are certain characteristics that the scripture tells us to look for. I will give you those traits and then we will lay them against Saul’s life and see how he measured up.
(1) A saved person trusts completely in God for his salvation, deliverance, and sustenance. (Gal. 2:16)
(2) Said faith will manifest itself in actions both personal and observable. (Jam. 2:14-18)
(3) A saved person loves God. (John 8:42, I Cor. 8:3, I John 5:2,
(4) A saved parson loves others, particularly his brothers and sisters in Christ. (I John 4:7-8, 20-21)

So then, let us now look at how King Saul matches up to the litmus test God has given us.
(1) Did Saul trust fully in God for his salvation, deliverance, and sustenance?
I could not find one place in scripture where it speaks of Saul’s faith and reliance on God, in a positive or negative way.

(2) Did Saul’s actions show faith in a personal and observable way?
While I could not find a place in the scriptures where it says that Saul believed in God, I did see two distinct events where he showed great reliance on self and no reliance on God. The first takes place in I Sam. 13, here the Israelites are planning to do battle (though greatly outdone both numerically and technologically) with the Philistines. God has clearly commanded that there is to be no sacrifice offered but by the priest, in verse 9 Saul disobeys God’s command, bypasses the correct order of worship, and sacrifices himself. The second incident occurs in chapter 15, where God commands Israel to utterly destroy the Amalekites, yet Saul makes the executive decision to save alive the choicest animals and the king of the Amalekites himself. Now, I understand that great, godly, saved men often sin, sometimes in disbelief; but I found two elements that intrigued me concerning both incidents. The first is that both times when confronted with his sin he tried to pin the blame on someone else, in chapter 13 on the Philistines, the people and Samuel, in chapter 15 he again falsely accuses the people. The second correlation was that of no true repentance, the first time there was no repentance at all (I Sam. 13:15). The second time, while there was a show of sorrow, it was evidently to save face and not true repentance before God. (I Sam. 15:30)

(3) Did Saul love God?
Again the scriptures are silent on this issue, while I could find no place where the scriptures say Saul loved God not, I could neither find a reference that said he did love God. This becomes more troubling when we realize that the scriptures expressly say that the next two kings, David (Psa. 18:1) and Solomon (I Kings 3:3) loved God. Doubts then begin to creep into our mind as to why the scriptures say no such thing of Saul.
(4) Did Saul love others, particularly saved people?
This question has the clearest answer out of the four in my mind. Saul hated anyone that interfered with his plans. He attempted to kill David on multiple occasions, (I Sam. 19:10, I Sam. 24, I Sam. 26) he used his own daughter to further his agenda, (I Sam. 18:21) and even attempted to kill his own son for sticking up for David (I Sam. 20:33).
All of these facts along with the idea that God rejected Saul as a leader of His people, leads me to believe that Saul was in fact unregenerate. Like Pharaoh was set up as king so that God might be vindicated in His promise that Israel would repent that they had ever asked for a king.
As for the second part of the question, “What is meant by ‘the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul?’” All the commentators I could find agreed that this is not speaking of the Holy Spirit, which abides in a Christian for one’s entire life, but of the general graces which God had bestowed upon Saul previously. Clarke writes,

“The Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul - He was thrown into such a state of mind by the judgments of God, as to be deprived of any regal qualities which he before possessed. God seems to have taken what gifts he had, and given them to David; and then the evil spirit came upon Saul; for what God fills not, the devil will.
An evil spirit from the Lord - The evil spirit was either immediately sent from the Lord, or permitted to come. Whether this was a diabolic possession, or a mere mental malady, the learned are not agreed; it seems to have partaken of both. That Saul had fallen into a deep melancholy, there is little doubt; that the devil might work more effectually on such a state of mind, there can be but little question. There is an old proverb, Satan delights to fish in troubled waters; and Saul’s situation of mind gave him many advantages.”

Some difficult passages

2009-03-25T15:24:00.001-05:00

I recently had a facebook friend ask me about some hard to understand passages in scripture, as my response was too long to put in comment form I decided to paste it here on my blog. So, enjoy and if you disagree with me about something that is fine, just please be cordial and christian in your comments.

The parables in Matt. 25 are dealing with the world and particularly the church being unprepared for the final coming of Christ. The first parable tells us that some of the virgins (many old commentators think that this is dealing with the professing church, as a virgin would denote professed purity and singularity of heart to a particular person) had slumbered and had not prepared themselves adequately to meet the bridegroom, while others had fully prepared themselves for his coming. The second has similar implications of some servants who had kept the return of their lord in the forefront of their thinking and resulting actions and others who had for all intents and purposes forgot that the lord would come and demand an answer for his actions. If you are asking how this relates to the doctrine of justification by grace alone through faith alone, we must understand that those whom Christ as justified he will also ensure that they grow in grace and truth. (Gal. 3:3, Phi. 1:6, I Cor. 6:9-11, Jam. 2:17-18) when a person is truly converted God begins a sanctifying process in them, a spiritual washing (Eph. 5:26). Someone who claims to be saved and yet lives a life that shows no care for the things of God, that looks exactly like the rest of the world, that has not experienced victory over besetting sins over a period of time, such a person ought to examine himself to see whether he be in the faith. (II Cor. 13:5) Not to see if one has lost their salvation, but to see if they ever really had it at all.
Concerning Heb. 6:4-6, there is no denying that this as a hard passage of scripture to understand and has been debated by hundreds of theologians over thousands of years. My understanding through study is that it speaks of those who have "tried" Christianity out, never fully trusting in Christ but giving him a "trial period" of sorts, when such ones decide that Christianity is not for them, they are without hope. The venerable Dr. John Gill held to this position as well and gave Cain, Pharaoh, and Judas as examples of such. If they make a mockery of Christ's sacrifice for them and cast it off, how else will they be saved? There is no other name given among men whereby we must be saved, so it is impossible for them to be renewed to repentance as they have already made up their mind they will not submit to Christ's finished work.
Hope this helps in some way, I highly recommend John Gill if you can find any of his commentaries, they are available for free on esword.

Is Matthew 24 talking about the end times?

2009-03-25T15:13:00.005-05:00

A friend of mine recently raised the question, "If Matthew 24 isn't talking about a "rapture", what is it speaking of?" Here are a few of my humble thoughts.

Let me begin by saying that I agree with Matthew Henry who held that Matthew 24 was speaking directly of the fall of the Temple and the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD, yet was a shadow and type of the end of the entire world. Verses 1-2 are self-explanatory, vs. 3-26 also took place in very real fashion between 40-70 AD, as is well documented in many historical and religious writings. Between the fierce persecution of the Christians from both Jews and Romans, and the heresies that were running rampant as we see from the majority of the epistles, we cannot deny that there was both fierce tribulation and false christs occurring during this time.Of verse 27 where Jesus speaks of the coming of the Son of Man, John Gill writes
"which must be understood not of his last coming to judgment, though that will be sudden, visible, and universal; he will at once come to, and be seen by all, in the clouds of heaven, and not in deserts and secret chambers: nor of his spiritual coming in the more sudden, and clear, and powerful preaching of the Gospel all over the Gentile world; for this was to be done before the destruction of Jerusalem: but of his coming in his wrath and vengeance to destroy that people, their nation, city, and temple: so that after this to look for the Messiah in a desert, or secret chamber, must argue great stupidity and blindness; when his coming was as sudden, visible, powerful, and general, to the destruction of that nation, as the lightning that comes from the east, and, in a moment, shines to the west."
Verse 28 makes an obvious reference to the Roman army (whose symbol was the eagle) encamped around Jerusalem. History reports that the banners bearing the image of an eagle were carried by each band of soldiers and were dotted all around Jerusalem during the siege. Verse 29 is also interpreted by Gill in a very figurative sense, which would seem quite plausible since verse 30 refers to "the sign of the Son of Man".
Verse 31, is actually one of the easier verses to understand under this understanding or interpretation of this chapter. It is universally accepted that the angels mentioned in the beginning of Revelation are pastors or preachers. If we read the word angels here with the same interpretation, we already know that the fall of Jerusalem shot christians into every corner of the world preaching the gospel with the noise and clarity of a trumpeter. Vs. 34 is the hinge on which this thesis turns, Jesus said it would happen within that generation or roughly within that 40-50 years. Vs. 40-41 are then understood as speaking of the stories where there were many who escaped both through miraculous as well as "natural" means, even when everyone else in their city was massacred.
Let me close with this, I don't do intense studying on the "end times" (though I do believe the Lord will return one day to judge the quick and the dead) for the same reason the reformers and Puritans didn't. I have enough studying to do on all those things that relate to life and godliness, that I don't need to know how it will all end. Regardless of what happens, my responsibilities as a christian here on earth never change. So why spend my time trying to figure out something that teases the edges of my imaginations, but has no practical relevance, when I can be studying those things which sanctify, wash, and grow me to make me more like Christ. So when I do see my Redeemer face to face I will be presented as a pure and spotless bride, I may not know everything about the wedding day, but I want to know everything about the Groom!

War for love.

2009-02-12T21:09:00.007-06:00

I open this post with the disclaimer that this post is a summery of Dr. Paul Tripp's sermon on "The War of Love" that I heard him preach tonight and not an original work.
1Jo 4:7-11 Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.
A couple of words that we rarely if ever used in the same breath are "war" and "love", yet this scripture passage teaches that we are in fact fighting a war of love and there are four battlefronts where this war is seen.
I. The confrontation of definition.
There has been much damage done to the church of Jesus Christ in America because we have allowed the world to redefine what is meant by "love". It is more than respect, it is more that affection, it is more than an absence of dislike. Love is willingly and sacrificially giving of yourself regardless of whether the one being loved deserves it or not! Herein is love... [God] sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
II. The confrontation of motivation.
The motivation that is presented to us here has nothing to do with whether we feel like it or not, love is a duty. However, biblical love is always joyful because it is motivated by something greater than itself. Our motivation is to be that we have been loved when we were the least deserving, the vertical love from God to us should cause us to manifest horizontal love for everyone around us. All too often we are guilty of the sin of forgetfulness though, we go throughout the day without ever once thinking about the fact that God saved our souls from hell. We allow other's action or our feelings to be the motivation for our love, instead of remembering that the greatest love ever manifested was manifested towards us! Such a great love cannot be bottled up inside of us, we should not be able to help but love others because of that.
III. The confrontation of conflict.
It is our nature to be bent toward deceit, this is even (perhaps especially) true with self-deceit. We allow ourselves to believe that because we raise our hands in worship, or because we regularly attend church, or work hard, or tithe, that we really do love God. God has given us another test, he says that any man who claims to love God yet hates his brother is lying. It's not okay to argue with your spouse on the way to church, it's not okay to get angry at the slow driver in front of you, it's not okay to get fed up with the kid's bickering and just start smacking, IT'S NOT OKAY! God says "Quit lying to yourself, because you are proving that you don't really love me!" This war for love is being waged a very regular basis, since our sovereign God knew just what to give us as the ultimate litmus test to see whether we truly love him or not.
IV. The confrontation of calling.
There is an incredible truth given to us in one little word in this text, that is the word ought. When we read that word we often think of it as synonymous with should, such as "I ought to go to the grocery store today." We think it means a good idea or logical suggestion, while that is a good definition there is another connotation being carried here that we tend to overlook. That is the definition that means a natural course or literally designed for that purpose. Such as "Rain ought to be wet" or "The sun ought to be bright". When we apply this definition to this passage we find a radical concept, that is that as Christians a part of our new man that has been put on is an intrinsic design to love. That is what we are called to do, what we should do, and also the very thing we were designed to do; love is our purpose in life. When we fail to love our brother not only are we in disobedience, but we are also using our bodies and emotions in a way that they were never meant to be used, against their very nature.
Cool quote: "Love (God) rescued me from love (for self) so that I can love (others)!
I hope this short outline helped you in some small way, the way the sermon did for me in a large way. I was called to reexamine my view of brotherly love, love toward God, and my very purpose in life.

Couseling conference

2009-02-11T20:42:00.000-06:00

I am writing today from Lafayette, IN where I'm attending Faith Baptist Church's annual counseling conference. On the superficial side of things the weather hasn't been too bad, we had some wind and rain today but overall not too cold, no ice or snow. As far as the real issues, the sessions have been incredible! They have done a good job of balancing the philosophical and practical sides of counseling. I. e. a sampling of some of the sessions from track one which I'm attending have been, Processing Data, Walking in the Light, Dealing with Depression, Growing in Holiness, The Biblical Principles of Sex. In other words, they have been very thorough in teaching the whole counsel of God concerning counseling. I now see that with the Scriptures as my guide, I am competent to counsel. I've learned in general that the main problem for every counselee is the heart, but I've also learned how to take an issue (Depression, Marriage Conflicts, Anorexia, Etc.) and use the scripture to diagnose what is causing them to act that way and use the scriptures to resolve the problems.
While Anna and I have been attending track 1 covering the basics of counseling, Pastor and Mrs. Michael have been going through track 5 which focuses on how to become NANC (National Association of Neuthetic Counselors) certified. He says there is a lot more paperwork and less lectures that are involved in track 5, but the information he is gathering will be invaluable when we go to get certified.
All the while Jason Wallace has been learning many of the more specific situations you will run across in counseling in track 2. Learning about issues like Miscarriage and Infertility, Eating Disorders and Provocative Parents.
The hope is that at the end of the week and in the coming weeks we can share notes, collaborate on issues and methodologies and ultimately have several certified and competent counselors of different age, gender and station in life. Be praying with us that none of this knowledge or these resources would go to waste, but that God would use us as able ministers to our church and our community.

A stumbling block and foolishness.

2008-12-22T17:41:00.000-06:00

1Co 1:23 But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling block, and unto the Greeks foolishness;
The first century church was used in some incredible ways by God, on one occasion God used street preachers to save over three thousand people on one day, other times He used miracles and signs and wonders Men of God preached the truth regardless of their surrounding conditions and God used them for the conversion of souls and the glorifying of Himself. However Paul knew that God uses means and tools to bring about His will, and he knew that there was a great difference between the Jews and the Greeks. When Paul preached to his own people, the Jews, he was preaching to a group of people that understood the creation of the world, the fall of man, the universality of sin, the truths of God's interaction with men, and the inerrancy of the scriptures. So then when he preached Christ, and Him crucified to the Jews, they understood everything he was saying; the problem was they did not want to believe it because that would mess up their idea of getting to heaven through good works and personal sacrifices. On the other hand, when Paul preached to the Greeks he was preaching to a culture that was completely humanistic. The Greeks believed in many gods, none of them all powerful, in fact they believed that most of their gods were simply highly evolved men. So when the gospel was preached to the Greeks, it could not simply be said, "believe on Jesus, the son of God, to save you from your sins." The Greeks would throw this off as the empty babbling of unlearned men because they had no idea what the true meaning of "believe" was, they had no idea what was meant by a singular God and His son, they didn't understand what "sin" was. So Paul rightly classified the Jews as those who didn't want to believe, and the Greeks as those who could not believe.
Now what is the point of all this? How does it apply to us today? It has a great application in how we, as Christians, present the gospel. Most of us are too frightened or ashamed to ever present the gospel at all, but if and when we do, I'm afraid we go about it all wrong. We have to identify which culture we live in, not in order to pamper to it and become more like it, but so we know how to approach it with the gospel. Contrary to popular belief, not everyone in the bible belt is a christian and further more not everyone in the bible belt even understands some of the most foundational truths about the bible. This used to be a largely "Jewish" culture (meaning that the majority of people understood the fundamentals of the scriptures). There was prayer not only in school but at almost every public event, the bible was taken seriously and taught as fact, most people attended church at least sporadically if not frequently. The make up of this country has changed drastically over the past 100 years. There is now no mention of anything remotely christian allowed in any public place, evolution is taught as fact in our education system, the scripture is ridiculed and quickly disposed of by anyone with any aspirations of national acclaim and recognition. We are living today in the picture of a Greek culture. If the gospel is to be heard and accepted by our culture, we must start relaying the foundations, reteaching the authority of scripture, reinforcing the truth of man's depravity and God holiness, rebuilding the fortress of salvation through Christ alone. Otherwise, our preaching will continue to be rejected as foolishness and we will be found as unwise stewards of what God has given us, holding the truth in unrighteousness.

A righteous ruler.

2008-12-22T17:37:00.000-06:00

Prov. 29:2 When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice: but when the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn. Sept. 14, 2008
It hardly seems possible that the presidential elections are only two short months away, and yet the most common sentiment I hear, from Republicans and Democrats both, is discontentment. I do not deny that Obama's camp remains as enthusiastic as ever, nor that McCain's choice of Palin seems to have energized his supporters, but the populace as a whole seems to think that this year most of us will have to choose the lesser of two evils. It seems as though we must choose between fighting terrorism or growing our economy, between good stewardship of our environment and decreasing our dependence on foreign oil. It seems as though there is not a candidate who has a balanced plan to do what is best in all of these areas, or at least that is the way it is being presented to us. Unfortunately, I think our priorities have become confused concerning which issues we look at and how we view them. We have fallen so in love with our money, that our pocket book begins to decide which candidate we support; both camps are spending the majority of their time and effort trying to convince us their plans are better for your wallet. I have yet to hear an honest evaluation as to which candidate is more righteous, no media source has taken the lifestyles and credentials of the candidates and matched them up against scripture. You see how far we have come from scripture and how far we have fallen in step with the world, because even now you are probably thinking that what I'm suggesting is ludicrous. You have bought into the mantra of the unconverted that we are not supposed to allow religion to play a role in who we vote for. I have heard the phrase "We are not electing a pastor, we're voting for a president." Whenever someone says that, they are failing to remember that the scripture says that whether a ruler is righteous or wicked has a direct affect on the well being of a country.
I too am having a hard time deciding who to vote for, but I know this, I am not letting my bank account decide! I am going to have to stand before God one day and give an account for who I put into a position of authority in my country, so I must vote for the man that my conscience allows. I must take into consideration his view of God and his word, I must look at his view of the sanctity of life, I must consider his opinion of the family and the structure of a home, and I promise you it will not be an easy decision to make. I beg you as well, whether you vote for McCain, Obama, an independent, or exercise your right to write a name in, vote for a righteous man. The result will lead to the entire nation rejoicing or mourning.

Faithful Stewards

2008-12-04T18:06:00.000-06:00

I Cor. 4:2 Moreover it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful.
As Christians we understand that we are nothing more than stewards here on this earth, we know that our bodies are not our own since we have been bought with a price. (I Cor. 6:20) All our possessions and faculties are only good gifts which come from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness neither shadow of turning. (James 1:17) Therefore this verse is a direct admonition to every Christian concerning how we are to live our lives, and according to this verse the primary thing is that we be found faithful. This is a truth that is found in almost every walk of life, an employer would rather have a consistent, trustworthy employee, than an employee that works hard, but is inconsistent or untrustworthy. We see it all the time in sports, there may be someone who can hit the odd home run or catch a long touchdown or two each season, but the best players are the ones that are consistently hitting RBI or consistently catching the first down passes and moving the chains.
Christianity is no different, it is not required of stewards that we be martyred, or that we sacrifice all on the foreign mission field, our job description does not include being able to write a best selling book or pastor an enormous church. Every Christian though is required to be faithful, we are all commanded to not become weary in well doing and often times that takes more faith than a martyr. I have long said that I think it is easier to die for Christ than to live for him, death is a short, one time action, a devoted life requires re-commitment every morning. This means that when our reputation is attacked we keep doing right, when our family rejects us we keep doing right, when our finances suffer we keep doing right, when we feel betrayed by those closest to us we keep doing right.
There is a song I sang as a child, that contains theology that isn't too deep and yet we rarely follow it's words, it goes "Do right 'till the stars fall, do right 'till the last call, do right when there's no one else to stand by you. Do right when you're all alone, do right though it's never known, do right since you love the Lord, do right."
On the day that I enter through the gates of the celestial city I want to hear my Father say, "Well done thou good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of thy Lord." The scriptures ask the question in Luke 18:8 "When the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?" I do not know the day or hour of his return, but if he should return during my lifetime, I hope that I might be found holding fast to the profession of faith. If instead Christ should tarry, at the point of death I want to be able to say with Paul "I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith." (II Tim. 4:7)
All of this starts with how I conduct myself today, this week, and this year. Let us commit to being faithful to the things of God where ever we are at; we may never be a
C. H. Spurgeon or a John Owen, we may not be martyred by a reverse crucifixion the way Peter was or give our all in the heathen lands the way Adoniram Judson did, but we can fulfill the requirement of stewards, that we be found faithful.

Be not conformed

2008-12-04T18:00:00.000-06:00

Rom. 12:2a And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind,
Paul's epistle to the church at Rome is an extraordinary book and one of the easiest to categorize. Rom. 1:1 - 3:20 is showing us the necessity of salvation for all men everywhere, 3:21 - 4:25 tells us that God provides righteousness to those who trust Jesus Christ as Lord, we see in chapters 5 - 8 that salvation produces a new life, 9 - 11 teaches us that God is faithful to perform all his word, and then chapters 12 - 16 call all regenerated hearts to a completely changed way of life. Paul basically summarizes these final four chapters in 12:1, 2, verse two being our focus this week.
There has been a question that has been bugging me for quite a while now and it is, why do so many, so-called christians, look so much like the rest of the world around them? If you pulled the average church goer out of their pew and examined every aspect of their life during the week, what would be the distinctive factors about their life that would show us clearly that their entire world view has been turned up-side down? With this thought in mind I have been examining my own life, do I listen to music other than that which directly glorifies the Lord and if I do, then why? What about my dress, is it always chosen with the thought of modesty, moderation and presentability in mind, so that I might be the best witness possible to the greatest number of people? Or do I choose it to draw attention to myself or for the purpose of looking "cool"? What about my choice of the video games I play and movies and TV shows I choose to spend my time watching, is there a purpose in any of them higher than pure entertainment, (which is complete selfishness and self-absorption)? Going deeper than things, I must also examine my speech, do I speak many vain and empty words just to hear myself talking? Or perhaps filled with pride I speak with the intent of being quick, sharp and witty instead of being complimentary, encouraging and teachable.
You see, it is not just about being different for differences sake, I don't stop driving a car because the rest of the world drives a car. My main purpose in life is not to be different, my highest goal is to be like Christ and if I'm acting like Christ than I most certainly will be different; because our culture is at enmity with God and therefore the things that pertain to God and godliness. I have not yet worked out all the kinks in my life, but I assure you that I am working on it and will continue to work on it for as long as I'm alive. I often wonder though, am I the only one that is so sick of all this hypocrisy, am I the only one that is tired of "playing church"? I know I am not, but if you too are tired of all the pretense than don't quit going to church because it seems as if everyone there is a hypocrite, begin reforming your own life and pray that with much love and mercy God would begin to change the hearts of those around you. We must make a choice, will we live godly and suffer persecution (II Tim. 3:12) or will we conform to the world and get society's collective pat on the back. It is one or the other, we cannot have the approval of God and society, friendship with one equals enmity with the other, conformity to one must necessarily mean a distinct difference from the other.

The only way

2008-10-10T22:30:00.000-05:00

Acts. 4:10-12 Be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by him doth this man stand before you whole. This is the stone which was set at naught of you builders, which is become the head of the corner. Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.
This is one of the strongest portions of scripture, that speaks of the exclusivity of Christ for salvation. It is becoming not only popular but expected that we believe that everyone can find their own to heaven and be okay. That what is right for one person may not be right for another, that there are many religions that all have the same goal but different terminology. The scripture is very explicit in its denial of this fallacy and those of us that claim to believe that it is indeed the very word of God, have no other recourse but to deny such heresy as well. When one understands the simplicity of the state of man and the justice of God we realize that such exclusivity is necessary.
Here is the situation man is in, everyone born of a woman has sinned. Either we have lied or we have taken something that did not belong to us or we have lusted in our heart and mind, one way or another we have all sinned and that in multiplicity. So then, knowing that the law states that the punishment for sin can be no less than eternal death, how can God grant us entry into heaven. We cannot say "A loving God wouldn't really let a basically good person go to hell". Here is why, what if you came home this evening and found that every member of your family had been brutally murdered, you catch the murderer with blood on his hands running out the back door and drag him to the police. On the day of his trial his defense before the judge is that he is a middle aged man with no record at all with the law. He admits that he did murder your family, but except for that he as never gotten so much as a speeding ticket. Could that judge be loving and merciful and allow that man to walk free because he is basically good? Of course not, to be a good and just judge he must sentence the murderer to what ever punishment the law has dictated. So God would be unjust and unrighteous to ignore his own law and let a guilty man (no matter how "basically good" he was) walk into heaven.
Now let us look at another possible scenario, what if the judge sentenced that murderer, in accordance with the law, to stay in prison until he could pay a twenty-five million dollar settlement to you. Now someone steps up and pays the twenty-five million dollars for that man, he is now free from the sentence of the law because the debt has been payed. So when the book of Acts says that there is no other name given under heaven whereby we must be saved, except for the name of Jesus it is not that ridiculous a statement if you look at it logically. Buddha could not pay that debt for you because he had his own debt to pay, as did Muhammad and Gandhi and even Mary the mother of Jesus was a sinner.
So then we can see that not only is perfectly right that God rejects everyone from heaven on their own merit, but we can equally see that if we will apply the payment of Christ alone for our sins we can be saved from hell in the afterlife and sin in this life.

False Pastors

2008-10-08T23:11:00.000-05:00

Jer. 23:1, 17 Woe be to the pastors that destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture! saith the Lord... They say still unto them that despise me, The Lord hath said, Ye shall have peace: and they say unto every one that walketh after the imagination of his own heart, No evil shall come upon you.
I mentioned in my last post how amazing it was that the prophet Jeremiah could write something so long ago and so far away, yet it still have such impact today. I have chosen a different portion of Jeremiah this time, but it too is extremely relevant in our culture today. God is speaking through Jeremiah to the religious leaders of Israel and rebuking them for destroying and scattering the children of God; but what I find so disturbing is the way in which they were destroying and scattering the people. God does not rebuke them for being insensitive to the feelings of the people, he did not say that he was displeased by their lack of making people feel good about themselves. God's quarrel with the false pastors is that they were telling those who were haters of God that God would give them peace, they were telling those that were ignoring God and living however they wanted to that God would never really recompense them for their evil deeds. The problem was that the pastors had abandoned truth for feel-good messages. This is a sin that is running rampant in our churches and seminaries today, so called "Bible colleges" teach the future preachers of our country to steer clear of speaking of repentance, because repentance insinuates sin and sin makes people uncomfortable. What they are missing is that the Bible says that repentance is part of the belief that is necessary for salvation. The problem is that most churches would rather have a church with three hundred souls in it that are headed for hell, than to have a church where thirty regenerated people worship. We have given up true spirituality in order to grow numerically and God says he hates it.
Our televisions are full of preachers who have built their entire "ministry" around telling people that they can have their best life now, or that God just wants you to be you, or that God is not mad at you no matter what. Their messages are the same as those in Jeremiah's day and if God does not change, why would we think that he condones now what he cursed then?
For any pastors or preachers that might be reading this I would exhort you to continue to preach the truths of the gospel, that the wages of sin is death and what a man sows that will he also reap. That without faith it is impossible to please God and if in this life only we have hope of Christ we are of all men most miserable, but thank God that we have a hope outside of this life. For the lay readers, let me encourage you not to fall prey to the false prophets that only tell you what you want to hear instead of what we all need to hear. A drowning man would probably rather hear that he is okay, but if I really care for him I will tell him of the danger he is in and provide him with a way of escape. The preachers that tell you that God just wants you to be rich, successful and comfortable, do not really care for your souls. Subject yourself to a man of God that will watch for your soul as the scriptures command him to, instead of conforming to everyone's whims in order to fill his pews. In reality the pastor that makes you feel better about yourself is probably the one that God says is scattering and destroying His church; but if you find a man that will preach on sin even when it makes you uncomfortable so that you will repent and turn back to Christ, that is the true man of God.

Glory in the Lord.

2008-10-08T23:05:00.000-05:00

Jer. 9: 23, 24 Thus saith the Lord, let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches: But let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the Lord which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth:
It is amazing how much the prophecies of the Old Testament still apply to us today, they were written thousands of years ago, to a culture completely different than ours, in a country on the other side of the world. They remain relevant for two reasons, one is because they were directly inspired by God and he knows just what to write that will stand the test of time, the other is because mankind stays intrinsically the same. Our time passes, cultures change, and circumstances change; but the way we think and act stays the same. It was obviously a struggle for the people of that day to stay humble, it always has been for human beings. Ever since the fall, when Adam and Eve were tempted with pride and fell, it has remained one of the greatest weaknesses of their offspring. We are so quick to take the credit for the blessings that we enjoy, the rich men brag of their riches, the strong men brag of their strength, the smart men brag of their brains, and everyone of them are simply enjoying a blessing given by God. The first angle we can take on these verses is that every good thing we enjoy on this earth is a gift from God and therefore not to be bragged about or gloried in.
The second way we could look at it, (which in my estimation is most consistent with the context) is that all of those things listed by Jeremiah aren't really all that good. Strength is a good thing, but it takes a lot of upkeep. it requires you to exercise regularly, eat properly, and do many other things regarding you sleep, diet, and activities, to keep your strength. Wisdom is good, but with it comes much more understanding of how little you really know, combined with the fact that a lot of smarts requires extra responsibility and time and focus on your specialty. Riches are helpful, but they bring with them the burden of extra management and oversight of just how you are using those riches. On top of all this, every one of those things will one day fade away! No matter how wise you are you will one day lose it either to the degeneration of your body or for sure at the time of your death. The same goes for physical prowess or strength, and we all know that money never lasts. If you somehow manage to keep it all to the day of your death, you still can't take it with you.
Contrast all of this to the gain that comes with knowing more about God and his son Jesus Christ. The more knowledge and understanding and wisdom you gain in regard to them, the better off you are. It carries no eternal downside to it, sure you may have to sacrifice some here on this earth because of it, but you probably won't remember that at all in ten thousand years. It will not fade away, you will carry your relationship with Christ and your knowledge of him to the grave with you and into eternity. The story is told of John Newton the author of "Amazing Grace", when he had gotten so old he could no longer see and was beginning to forget much about his life, he would still tell those that came to speak to him, "I know this, I am a great sinner and Christ is a great Savior". History tells of the apostle John, when he had gotten so old he could no longer walk and eventually he got to a point to where he could no longer even speak in sentences, he would say to all who would listen "Love, love, love". If you read his three epistles you would see why that was such a preeminent theme in his mind. For both of them it was all about Christ.
I would encourage you to not be so worried about your body or your mind or your finances as you are about Christ. Let him be your most passionate obsession and all the rest will fall into place.

Godly sorrow

2008-10-06T11:03:00.000-05:00

II Cor. 7:9-10 Now I rejoice, not that ye were made sorry, but that you sorrowed to repentance: for ye were made sorry after a godly manner, that ye might receive damage by us in nothing. For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death.
Paul here is writing the church in Corinth for the second time and is referring here to the strong words that he had with them concerning a sin within the church. Though he was sorry he had had to hurt their feelings, he was glad that they had heeded his words and repented of the sin, to repent means not only to be sorry in your mind and words, but in your actions as well. The very definition of the word repent is "to feel such sorrow for sin or fault as to be disposed to change one's life for the better; be penitent." This is a contrast to the word sorrow here, it is very easy to be sorry about something but to repent is another thing altogether. How many of us have seen the occasion when one child will smack another in a fit of anger, and then as soon as the second child begins crying immediately start expressing how sorry he is? Unfortunately this is not unique to children, we have all seen the public figure get caught acting in a immoral way only to stand before a microphone to tell the world how sorry he is for doing it. It is easy to be sorry, what's hard, is to forsake that way of life and begin to act differently, the child who is truly repent will not smack another child again, the dignitary will never again commit whatever indecency he was caught in.
Lets take this to a more personal level now, how many of us have ever heard a sermon or read a book that laid bare some particular sin in our life and we have felt sorrow and remorse throughout the entire speech or reading? Yet how often do we walk out of the church or put the book down, glad to have that burden off our shoulders, and continue to live the same way? No one cares if you are sorry that you did something, in fact Paul said that sorrow without repentance led to death. We know that continuing in our sin leads to death as well,(II Pet. 2:10-12) so then the issue is not whether you are sorry or not, but whether or not you repent.
So then following this train of thought I would exhort you as well, to be careful when you hear preaching that convicts you about a particular sin in your life that you waste no time in turning from that sin. Unfortunately, it has become a rare thing in this day to hear preaching against sin, the name of the game today is preaching that only makes people feel good about themselves and is encouraging. While there is no doubt in my mind that is important to preach encouraging messages, it is also true that we are reprove and rebuke as well as exhort. We live in a part of the country where if we don't like what's being said in the pulpit we can just pick up and move to the church across the street. However, the man in that pulpit is watching for your soul if he is a true Pastor, and he does not want to see you die spiritually, but to see you brought to the repentance that leads to salvation not to be repented of. I would then encourage you to examine yourselves to see whether you have repented and turned from your sins, or have you simply been sorry only to continue in them?

Leaving our waterpots behind.

2008-09-25T10:38:00.000-05:00

John 4:28 The woman then left her water pot, and went her way into the city, and saith unto the men, come, see a man that which told me all the things that ever I did; is not this the Christ?
These two verses come from a very familiar story in scripture concerning a Samaritan woman at a well, and her conversation with Jesus. In this story we find that Jesus not only lays her sins bare and shows here her need of a savior, but he also tells her that he is capable of giving her the living water that will cause her to never thirst again. When Jesus finally announces that he is the Christ, the woman that has already professed her belief in the Messiah, leaves her waterpot behind to go tell others of this radical transformation that has just taken over her life. There is a beautiful picture presented here in the woman leaving her waterpot behind at the well when she left to tell the city of Jesus.
The first thing I want you to see is that she was leaving behind the very thing that had sustained her up to this point. In it rested her every hope of staying alive, in the time and place that she lived, if you did not have a waterpot and someone else did not draw water for you, you would die! This woman left it behind because she now had a greater sustaining force in her life than water, even as Jesus said, "my meat is to do the will of Him that sent me". Do you want to know why we have such weak, anemic and empty christians in this country? It is because we still rely completely on the physical things for our sustenance and know nothing of the meat and drink that this woman was partaking of, which was to do the will of her Father.
Secondly, I want you to see that the waterpot that she left behind epitomized her entire old way of living and it was left behind when Christ changed her. When a person is converted there will be some changes that immediately begin to take place, the things that once brought you pleasure will turn to gravel in your stomach. Everything about her old life had become so unimportant and even despicable in her eyes that she left it behind. If you have a regenerated soul your old ways of living ought to no longer pleasurable to you, and you ought to leave them behind to take on a new life.
This waterpot was also her mission up to this point, she came to the well with one purpose in mind, to get water. When Christ saved her, all her goals and missions had changed, she left that well and all her earthly ambitions about drawing water had been forsaken. How many of us have goals, plans and missions for our life that are exactly the same as before we claim we were converted? This woman had the same goal as every other woman in that village, to get water; she became unique when she dropped that bucket. So often I am like that woman, in that my goals for my life look just like everyone else's, to get money, to get fame, to get a step up in the world. When the truly unique thing to do would be to drop those ambitions for the sake of Christ. If I have put off the old man and put on the new, if my stony heart has been replaced with one of flesh, why wouldn't my goals and plans change, why wouldn't I leave my waterpot at the well? Her plans didn't just change for the sake of changing though, she replaced them with Christ's plans and goals, to tell other of Him.
If Christ has converted you, then I would ask have you left your waterpot at the well in every sense of the phrase? Have you left behind your sustenance, your sins, your dreams and goals in your haste to obey Christ? If not I would beseech you to make this the day that your waterpot is dropped, and you trust completely in the sufficiency of Jesus Christ.

Choosing our friends wisely

2008-09-03T10:45:00.000-05:00

I Cor. 15:33 Be not deceived evil communications corrupt good manners.
This verse of scripture is used often in our culture, but because of the way our language has evolved in the last few centuries it doesn't quite mean what it sounds like in our modern English. In order to understand this verse properly, we need to define a couple of words. The word "communications" here, is not referring directly to methods used to impart opinions to others through speech or words, as we often use it today. Instead it means the type of people we associate with, or who we make our companions. The second word that is a little confusing is the word manners, today when we say manners we are talking about customs or traditions that are considered polite in our culture. When the KJV was first translated in 1611 the word was most commonly used to speak of a way of life, which is the way Paul wrote it in the Greek. So then this verse's connotation is something along the lines of, Don't be deceived evil companions corrupt your life.
Proverbs tells us that he that walketh with wise men shall be wise; but a companion of fools will be destroyed, Paul is reiterating this passage. We live in a culture in which we are forced to deal with people every day from every sort of background, and I think that is a good thing. As Christians we are not called to come out of the world, but that we would walk differently in the world, and one of the key components of our life is who we choose to hang around with. I know many people who claim to be Christians and yet spend the majority of their free time around "The wrong crowd". I don't know about you but I have heard so many testimonies of someone that was "a good person" but got involved with the wrong crowd. Paul warns the Christians in I Corinthians that if they played with fire they were going to be burned, and even prefaces it with "be not deceived". I think one of the main reasons he said that is because it is so common for us to either trick ourselves or be tricked into thinking that we can hang out with people who are constantly in trouble and yet somehow avoid the trouble ourselves. The truth is whether it's simply guilt by association, or actually becoming tangled up in the trouble (which is more common), you will become part of that "wrong crowd". People don't get in the wrong crowd, they become the wrong crowd.
Let me encourage you to be very careful who you decide to hang out with, if they are the ones that are always pushing the legal limits or always hanging out at the clubs or simply always wasting their time, don't become part of that group. Look for friends that will encourage you to righteousness and wisdom; because if your friends are wise you will be too, but if your friends are fools not only will you become a fool, they will only lead you to destruction.

justification and sanctification

2008-09-03T10:43:00.000-05:00

Titus 2:13-15 Looking for that blessed hope and, and glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ; Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works. These things speak, and and exhort, and rebuke with all authority. Let no man despise thee.
In this passage of scripture, Paul is writing to a fellow minister in the faith, counseling him on how the church is to be run, and reminding and teaching him some fundamental doctrines. We must keep in mind that at this point, the church as we know it was in it's infancy and Satan was doing all in his power to corrupt the truth before it got spread too far. Paul starts out these verses telling Titus to be looking forward to that day when Jesus Christ, our great God and Savior, will appear. I'm thankful that he also took this opportunity to remind Titus of just why Jesus came to die the first time.
The first reason Paul gives is that Jesus came to redeem us from (that is pay for) our iniquities. We know that the scriptures plainly teach that sin pays out wages and those wages are death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. God cannot simply ignore our sins though, the only reason God can offer that free gift is because our debt has already been paid by a sinless one, Jesus Christ. We call this "Justification", basically it means that God as a judge looks at our record and sees that although we once owed a debt, it has been paid, and we are therefore free to enter heaven. Although we continue to sin on occasion as long as we are in this world, all of it has already been paid for if you have received salvation through faith in Jesus Christ.
Paul then gives Titus a second reason that Jesus came to die and that is to purify us and make us zealous to good works. This is called "Progressive Sanctification" and it is the doctrine that over a period of a lifetime God's children live holier and holier lives through the strength of the Holy Spirit. The reason Paul mentions this as a reason Christ died, is because before we are redeemed, we can do nothing but sin, we have no choice. When Christ saves us we now have freedom; not to live however we want to, but to choose the right. As we grow in grace and God teaches us through the guidance of the Holy Spirit and the scriptures, we begin to make the right choices with greater frequency. Satan hates this doctrine and has tried ever since Paul's time to eradicate it, but in God's word we have preserved for eternity that Christ came to die to purify us and make us zealous of good works. The one who denies this is saying the same thing that those who teach works salvation are saying, that Christ's blood can't really do all the scriptures say it can do. One crowd says it is not powerful enough in itself to justify you, the other says it is not strong enough in itself to sanctify you. Paul says it is strong enough to do both, and inevitably does both. You did not choose to be justified and you cannot choose whether you want to be sanctified or not, that's God's business!
Lastly in these verses, Paul tells Titus to speak these things with authority, and to let no man discourage him through despite. We cannot stop people from despising the truth, but we can go on, holding fast to the doctrines of Christ, speaking the truth in love. If you stand on God's word than you can be sure you are on the side of the truth, because God will be true and every man (that disagrees with Him) a liar. You may suffer for speaking the truth, but fight the good fight, keep the faith, that you may finish your course with joy. If you are one that has been redeemed, let me encourage you to be pure and zealous of good works, as a faithful servant of Christ.

Thou shalt not covet

2008-09-03T10:39:00.000-05:00

Exo 20:17 Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour's.
Out of all the ten commandments, this last one is probably the least thought of and most shrugged off. While we commonly agree that it is a heinous sin against God and man to commit idolatry, adultery, theft, murder and most of the other ten commandments, the idea of covetousness is not thought of as one of the "worst" sins a man could commit. On the contrary, we live in a culture that heavily promotes the idea of covetousness, one that floods all our senses with the idea that we don't have as much as we deserve. TV, billboards, radio, magazines and everywhere else an advertisement is found, a sense of ingratitude is being cultured, nine times out of ten. I don't mean to say all advertisements are bad, but I do mean to say that the way they are presented often are. This problem persists outside of advertising though, in the business world you are often told things like, "it's do-eat-dog world out there", "look out for number one first" and "trample on whoever necessary to get to the top", such sayings promote the idea that material possessions are more important that people.
While this is the only commandment that deals only with your thought life and not directly with an outward action, does not cheapen it's importance in God's eyes. Take a look at Eph. 5:5 "For this ye know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God". This passage is very clear that those who are living in a constant, unrepentant state of covetousness are showing out what's inside, or rather the lack of it, the spirit of God obviously is not dwelling in them and they have no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ or of God. Notice he doesn't say they have a lesser or smaller inheritance, but that they have no inheritance. Covetousness does not make you lose your salvation, but is you are living with it and refusing to repent, you are proving that you never were saved to begin with. If God were to deal with you as a child he would help you defeat that spirit of covetousness (which the bible says is idolatry) whatever correction it took. If he is leaving you in slavery to your sin, than he is dealing with you as a bastard and not as a son. (Heb. 12:8)
Obviously than this sin of covetousness is a very abominable one before God, it is one that is easy to fall into in our culture, yet it must be avoided at all costs. Our souls are at stake here, steer clear of placing things as more important than God or even other people. A man's life consists not in the abundance of the things which he possesses. (Luke 12:15)

The necessaries of life

2008-09-03T10:36:00.000-05:00

Job 23:12 Neither have I gone back at the commandment of his lips; I have esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary food.
Job is in the middle of some of the greatest trials ever endured by a mortal, he has lost his vast fortune, he has lost his position of authority, he has lost all of his children, he has lost the support of his wife, and he is in the middle of enduring rebuke and false accusations from his friends. To top it all off this had all come in the space of about two weeks from the best we can tell. Now Job opens his mouth and defends himself, telling his friends that he has not gone back on God's commands, in fact he said that he had made God's word the highest priority in his life. Chapter one tells us of his faithfulness in praying and offering sacrifice for his children on a continual basis.
We should learn a lesson from the example that he left for us in how important the word of God should be for us. In a day and age when we are so busy running to work, running to school, running errands, going to our social activities, we have laid aside the truly important things of life. How often do you get so busy that you let an entire twenty-four hours go by without eating? On the contrary when was the last time you let a day go by without reading a passage from the word of God? I know how easy it is to allow a day to slip away without going to God's word to either start it off or finish it out, but simply because it is common place or easy to do is not an excuse. It is not just the place of the preacher to be studying, it is the place of every christian. How many of us could honestly say that we have not gone back from the commandments of God? I know I'm still a work in progress. How many of us could say we miss meals more often than we miss our time alone with God? If you can, I commend you and encourage you to stay the course, but all too often we allow ourselves to be convinced that there are more important things than our walk with God.
Deut. 8:3 tells us " that He might make thee to know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live." (Jesus quotes this passage in Matt. 4:4) Yet there is little to no practical application or even recognition of this among those of us that call ourselves christians. Bible reading and prayer time is one of the luxuries we allow ourselves if we have time, instead of being the most important thing in our life that causes us to change our schedule to accommodate. I would challenge you to take God's words and commandments more seriously, to make a habit of making sure you have fed your soul before you ever feed your body. We find a way to squeeze food into our busy schedules, if it were really important we could find a way to read the bible. Prioritize your life, if you honestly cannot read you bible daily because of you schedule then quit something. I am not over-simplifying, I am not preaching anything I don't practice, there have been many occasions where I have quit a job or social club membership because it was cutting into my time with God. It is not an impossibility, it just takes some determination and dedication. Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.

For all have sinned

2008-08-30T15:18:00.000-05:00

Rom. 3:23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;
This verse is a very well known verse in scripture, it is one of the most commonly used verse in evangelism, used to show people that they are indeed sinners. While this is very important, since there is no need of salvation if you have not sinned, we often fall short in explaining just what sin is. We live in a culture that thinks nothing of sin, a culture that uses sin in advertisements, entertainment, and even every day life. You can no longer walk into the grocery store, much less turn on the television without being assaulted by the sight, sound, and feeling of sin. Immodesty, sexual innuendo, blasphemy and pride, are just a few of the sins that are so blatantly portrayed all around us all the time. We live in a culture that is no longer shamed by sin, my generation as a rule has forgotten how to blush.
So when we say that all have sinned, people do not feel horrified by the thought that they have offended a holy God, but instead they feel vindicated that they are not the only ones that are sinning, in fact every one is. To say that you have sinned basically means that you have broken a law, and on the outset that doesn't sound to bad, until you understand that it is God's law that you have broken. Even then this doesn't phase many people because they don't understand who God is, but when you understand how infinite God's goodness and mercy and love and holiness is, it brings the idea of sin to a whole other level. If we sin against a king, our punishment needs to be relative to how worthy the king was and consequently how offensive our crime was. When we sin against a God that is infinitely worthy, that means that we are guilty of an infinite crime and therefore worthy of infinite punishment.
Secondly, the verse says that we have all come short of God's glory. Once again the common response is "Well of course I have I'm just a man and he is God". What needs to be explained is that in order to get into heaven we are required to meet God's standard of glory. So then we have two options, either we must become a god and live a perfect life or else we must get in on the repute of another who is worthy. This is why Jesus Christ had to live and die as he did, had he lived a sinless life and then simply ascended into heaven we couldn't get in because no payment would have been give for our sin. Had he lived anyway short of Godly perfection his death would have meant nothing. So this verse provides the necessary preamble to any evangelistic message, but it means nothing unless the people see sin as heinous as it is, and the dire consequences for coming short of God's glory.
Any sin is nothing short of spitting in God's face, there is no excuse in the fact that everyone does it, coming short of his glory is a automatic exemption from heaven. As the hymn says " Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in his wonderful face, and the things of earth will grow strangely dim, in the light of his glory and grace." If you turn to Jesus for salvation he cannot not only pay your sin debt, but he can restore you positionally to God's glory.

Eternal security

2008-08-30T15:15:00.000-05:00

Rom. 8: 38, 39 For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
In last week's column, I wrote about the importance of examining ourselves to make sure that we are indeed new creatures, saved and changed by the spirit of God. Because I am afraid that there are many out there that have a wrong idea about what salvation is, and are going about with a false security. As much as Satan would love to tell a lost man he is saved, the flip side to that coin, is that he also tries to convince saved men they are lost. While this does not do quite so much damage as the former, it is a very real and very dangerous threat to Christianity. If the devil can convince a lost man he is saved until he dies, that man will forever be in eternal torment; but if he can convince a saved man he is lost, it will have no consequence on the soul, but it will make that saved man a much less effective servant for the kingdom of God.
With that in mind let us take a look at our two text verses, Paul lists every physical and spiritual resource you can imagine and diffuses any possibility, of any of them having the power to "unsave" a man. There are many denominations and religions that will tell you that there are ways to lose your salvation, ranging from something as small as missing a church service, to as great as committing suicide. There are also debates as to how you can become saved once again, or even if it is possible to be saved again once you have lost it. It is the doctrine of salvation by grace alone that sets true Christianity apart from every other religion in the world. Every religion outside of true Christianity teaches that you have to either do something to gain your salvation or do something to keep it, both are heresies. Paul says that there is nothing that can separate those who have been saved from God's love, no deed of their own, no power of hell, no act of another, is more powerful than God. When anyone claims that salvation can be lost, they are in essence claiming that there is something stronger than God. I can tell you this, if God can't keep me saved there is no hope for me; because if God isn't strong enough to secure my salvation, I'm certainly not stronger than God. If the perfect blood of Jesus Christ is not enough to pay my sin debt, what can I give that is worth more?
Do not give place to the devil, when he comes at you with accusations of your sinfulness and tries to convince you that you are not good enough to deserve salvation. You can rest assured in the fact that he is right you are not good enough to deserve salvation, that is what makes grace, grace, that is what is meant when the scriptures say that salvation is a gift of God, not of works lest any man should boast. Yes, we're saved unto good works, but not because of good works, we are saved because of God's love for us, and that is something that can never be changed.

A new creature

2008-08-25T22:59:00.000-05:00

II Cor. 5:17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
Isn't it amazing how almost every word we use for being saved carries with it the connotation of change. We say they have been converted, when you convert something (i.e. electricity) it goes in one end and comes out the other side something completely different. We say they have been regenerated, according to dictionary.com that means "to re-create, reconstitute, or make over, esp. in a better form or condition". We say they have been born again, once again implying that they are no longer the person they were under their first birth. All these terms are theologically accurate because there is indeed a change wrought in those that have believed, doesn't it sound almost ludicrous to suggest that God runs the universe and is sovereign in all matters including salvation, yet is incompetent to cleanse? Paul says that if any man is in Christ he is a new creature, old things are passed, all things have become new. Note the lack of variables, it is not that all things should be new, or he ought to act like a new creature, or we hope the old things have passed away, it is definitive.
That would then beg the question, what if someone has gone through the motions that the preacher told them to go through, they said the prayer, they knelt at the alter, they asked Jesus to come into their heart, and yet there is nothing new about them, what about them? That is a very relevant question, because there are so many people (especially here in the buckle of the bible belt) that could apply that very question to themselves. The preacher told them that if they would just understand "the five truths God wants you to know" or some other neatly packaged ticket to heaven they would be saved. Yet for all that they have never felt remorse for sin, they do not enjoy being around other Christians, they would much rather read the daily news then the Bible. There has been no evidence of a changed heart over the past fifteen years or so, since they did what the preacher said to do to get out of hell and into heaven. Whenever they approach someone about it though, they are told that's just the Devil trying to make you doubt, don't worry about it, while that may be true, it may also be true that they are not truly converted and it is the Holy Spirit convicting them and drawing them to salvation. You, my dear reader, may even be one of these very people that find no sense in this verse because nothing has become new to you. I cannot tell you with absolute certainty whether you are lost or saved, because God has not given me the authority or knowledge to say such things. What I do know is that the scriptures say if you are in Christ, you are a new creature, and if your thoughts and actions have remained exactly the same as they always were, the only logical conclusion I can see is that you are not in Christ. Not that you lost your salvation, for we know once a soul is put in Jesus' hand it can never be removed, but that perhaps He was never in you to start with. Like I said I cannot see your soul, but I can see the outside which is a reflection of what's on the inside.
May God bless you as you search yourself and the scriptures, that you may either be assured of your salvation or be converted, not by following some prepackaged "Romans Road" or any other work, but by the moving of God and the drawing of his Holy Spirit.

Belief in Christ

2008-08-25T22:53:00.000-05:00

Acts 2:36 Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ.
Last week's column was on the critical issue of belief, however belief in and of itself means nothing unless you understand what it is that we are believing in. You can believe in George Washington, you can believe in a light switch to bring you light, we can even believe in our belief, but none of those things will save us. What is really critical is what we are believing in, if you have true belief, but it is in works to save you, then your belief means nothing, our belief must be in the Lord Jesus Christ. Unfortunately, very few people who think they know who Jesus is, actually know the Jesus of the scriptures, they want to take Jesus on their own terms instead of going to the Bible to find out who it says He is. It is my desire to show you the Jesus of the Bible, (if such a thing is possible in such few words as I have at my disposal here.)
The first thing we need to address is just which Jesus we are talking about, Jesus was and still is a very common name among Jews. In Hebrew it is the same name as Joshua, and it is not enough for us to believe in just any of the many Jesus' of today or history. Peter specifies it when he says "that same Jesus", the Jesus that Peter is talking about is the one that was born of a virgin, lived a sinless life, died as an innocent man, and raised himself the third day. If you disagree with any of those facts, you are not believing in "that same Jesus" that I am believing in, and that Peter was preaching, if you deny any of that about Jesus you are putting your trust in a Jesus that is never mentioned in scripture.
The second thing that Peter preached about this Jesus is that He was the Christ. It is not enough for you to believe in Jesus the good man, or in Jesus the prophet, or Jesus the miracle worker. Believing in the Jesus of the Bible means that you believe He was the Christ, the Messiah, the chosen one of God, and in fact God Himself. The scriptures use the phrase "Jesus Christ" standing alone, without any other words describing Him, 93 times. How can anyone claim to believe in the Jesus of the Bible and yet deny the fact that He was the Christ? You can't, saving belief includes believing that He was and is the Christ.
The third and final description that Peter said was so intrinsically intertwined into who Jesus is that there is no salvation outside of it, is that this same Jesus is also Lord. This is a doctrine that is bucked by many and yet there can be no more escaping this fact then the truth that he is Christ, because the name Jesus is proceeded by the title "Lord" 115 times in the New Testament. To say that you believe in Jesus and yet refuse to submit to his authority as Lord, you would have to tear 115 verses out of the Bible. To believe in the Jesus of the Bible it is expedient that you believe that He is Lord, and if He is Lord then we need to be obeying His commandments, and that is where so many people get hung up. They want to believe that they have been saved from hell, but when the rubber meets the road they don't want it bad enough to except it on God's terms, they want to get it on their own terms. They want to be saved from hell but not from their sins, until God has brought you to a point where you are willing to believe on the Jesus of the Bible, the Jesus of Peter, Paul, and Silas, then there can be no salvation.
Belief is the critical doctrine of Christendom, but it is all a bunch of rot if you are not believing in the right person, I would challenge you to examine your own life and see just who you have believed in. Was it the Lord Jesus Christ? Have you ever believed at all? Believe in the Jesus of the scriptures and be saved.

True belief

2008-08-25T22:51:00.000-05:00

John 3:36 He that believeth on the son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the son shall not see life: but the wrath of God abideth on him.
The doctrine of belief in Jesus is the single most important issue in all of Christendom. According to the gospel of John (as well as the rest of the scriptures) it is the only way that salvation can come, without belief the wrath of God abides on every person. If this is all so, than it is expedient for us to understand what it is to truly believe. Even in the New Testament, error was not only sneaking into the church but some of it was storming in. In order to lay down a clear and concise statement of what Christians should believe and how they should interpret difficult portions of scripture, christian leaders would gather together in councils and write a creed articulating a doctrine. One such doctrine that was being disputed was this issue of belief, what did it mean to believe in the Son? Is there a difference between believing in many secular things and believing in Christ? This is what was decided hundreds of years ago by these giants of the faith, and has been held by orthodox Christianity ever since.
The first kind of belief was given the Latin term notitia, notitia is the word that we derive our verb "to note" from. This type of belief means simply to understand what is being said, I say to you that a chair will hold you up, and you understand what a chair is, you understand what it means to sit, and you understand what it means to hold up. You notitia what I'm saying, you understand it. However, notitia is not saving belief, there are many atheists that notitia the gospel, they understand what is being said, but that does not save them.
The second kind of belief is another Latin word, assensus. You can probably tell that this is where we get our word "assent" from, it means that you agree that what I'm saying is true. To assensus the gospel means that you leave the realm of pure intellectualism and take a small step of faith. Not only do you understand what I mean when I say the chair will hold you up, but you actually agree that the chair has the ability to hold you up. Unfortunately, there are many filling the pews of our churches who assensus the gospel, but it means no more to them than the fact that Napoleon lost the battle of Waterloo. Assensus by itself is not saving belief either, I know a man that agrees with everything I say about the gospel, but will have nothing to do with it personally. By his own admission he is heading to hell, yet he refuses to believe in the gospel.
The last part of saving belief is known as fiducia, the English word fidelity springs from this term. This is the belief that is spoken of in John 3:36, while it is not possible to have it without the first two, it is the essential, final piece to saving belief. To fiducia the gospel it becomes personal, you actually sit in the chair that you have already said you believed would hold you up. A person that has this kind of belief in the gospel is eternally secure in Christ, there is no if, ands, or buts, for a person that fiducias the gospel. If you are trusting in anything else outside of Christ for your conversion, (i.e. baptism, church membership, good works, Communion) you do not fiducia the gospel. While all of those things are critical components for someone who is already saved, they have no bearing on your whether God saves you or not. I pray that your belief goes beyond that of notitia and assensus and that you have put complete fiducia in the Son, so that you may escape the wrath of God and have everlasting life.

The Lord is my shepherd

2008-08-25T22:49:00.000-05:00

Psa. 23:1 The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
Probably one of the best known verses in scripture, this first verse of the twenty-third psalm has many truths in it that we do injustice to when we simply skim over the verse and don't take much time to meditate on it. First off we see who it is that is doing the shepherding, it is the Lord. What we need to remember is that "the Lord" is not God's name it is his title, when we say that the Lord is our shepherd we are in essence saying that we admit that God is the Lord of our life. It is not simply God as our Father, or Savior, although both of those are true descriptions of him, it is God as our King, Captain, and Lord. Secondly, David admits that God is his shepherd. While this statement probably causes us to conjure up images of a very feminine and European looking Jesus, carefully watching over some sheep in a green pastures; anyone that has ever had sheep or goats knows that those animals are rarely content to stay in that green pasture. It would almost seem as if they were bent on their own destruction, they are forever wandering close to cliffs and precipices and places that can mean nothing but danger. The shepherd has to lead them away from those places time and time again, always patient and loving. I am so much like those sheep so often, I wander into a place in my life that will lead me into nothing but trouble, and God in all his mercy and long suffering leads me back to the paths of safety. I think of the hymn "Come thou fount", I can always relate to the last verse where it says "Prone to wander, Lord I feel it, prone to leave the God I love". The christian life isn't always those peaceful green pastures, many times we ignore the shepherd's call and then expect him to bail us out when we fall over that cliff. Every time he leaves the ninety-nine to find the one that has gone astray. Admitting that the Lord is our shepherd means acknowledging that there will be times when we don't want to go where he wants to lead us, it is those times that we must remind ourselves that we are but sheep, and we can do nothing but listen to the shepherd's voice and follow where he leads. Because many time he will lead us through rocky canyons in order to bring us to the greenest pastures.
Lastly note that the psalmist says he will never want, that word want does not mean he will never desire anything, it means he will never be without the things he really needs. The New Testament tells us that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. The grass often looks greener on the other side of the fence, but the good shepherd always knows which grass is best for us. Sometimes what we think we need God knows we don't, and once again we have to learn to give in to the shepherd's will and rest in the fact that he will always give us what we need, which is often the opposite of what we want. The Lord is our shepherd, and we will never lack, but don't think that means he'll give you everything you want, when you want it. Imagine if sheep were simply given everything they ever wanted, it would ultimately lead to their demise. So we too, would destroy ourselves if left to our own devices.
Trust in the good shepherd, even when the hardest thing to do is trust, especially when the hardest thing to do is trust, and you will never lack.

keep thy heart

2008-07-23T10:12:00.000-05:00

Prov. 4:23 Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.
It's amazing how many people think that Jesus came to do away with that "old, broken law of the Old Testament", in order to implement a "new and better formula, called the New Testament". When Jesus himself said that he did not come to abolish the law but to fulfill it. In Matthew 15:17-20 Jesus said something that went against everything the Jews had learned through tradition over the last several hundred years, this is what he said, "whatsoever entereth in at the mouth goeth into the belly, and is cast out into the draught[.] But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and they defile the man. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies: These are the things which defile a man: but to eat with unwashen hands defileth not a man."
Jesus here is not denying the fact that one of the ceremonial laws was to wash your hands before you ate, but the pharisees had turned it into something spiritual, something that was necessary for their salvation. What the Pharisees and other Jewish leaders were missing, was that the ceremonial law was always either a picture and type fulfilled in Christ, or something that was given to the Jews for their own benefit. The law about washing your hands never had anything to do with salvation or holy living, it was given as a sanitary issue that we still follow today. (Just look at the signs in any public restroom, "all employees must wash hands before returning to work.") Unfortunately, the Jews had taken the hand washing rule too seriously (By making it a spiritual law) and had completely ignored Prov. 4:23. Jesus wasn't giving them some new law, he was clarifying the old one that they had twisted up.
I don't know that on the day of judgment we'll give an account for how often we did or didn't wash our hands, but I think we will give an account for how clean we kept our heart. We live in a world much like the one that Jesus was dealing with, if you are caught returning to work without washing your hands you can lose your job. If your boss found out you were living an immoral life style and tried to fire you, he would probably get sued for discrimination. Now don't get me wrong, if you're going to be handling my food (or anything else for that matter) I hope you wash your hands before you leave the restroom; but I am even more concerned that your heart be clean. We provide our children with condoms and by doing so we shout to them the message that we care much more for their physical life than their spiritual one. When the government hands out sterile needles so that drug addicts can continue abusing themselves "safely", we tell them that so long as they live a few years longer, we care nothing if they burn for eternity in hell.
Oh, beloved in the Lord, stop bowing to the to the pressure of our sinful culture, stop "running to the same excess of riot" that they do. Gird up the loins of your prophet's mantle and love our country enough to tell them what they need to hear about eternity, instead of what they want to hear about today. When we stress the physical and neglect the spiritual, we are acting just like the Pharisees and proving that the truth is not in us.

Warriors for Christ

2008-07-23T10:08:00.000-05:00

II Tim. 2:4 No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier.
In the context of this passage Paul is writing to a young pastor named Timothy, and encouraging him to be a faithful soldier in the army of Christ, not a physical army but a spiritual one where instead of killing your enemies you love and care for them. Paul is encouraging him to learn all he can of the scriptures and then to turn around and teach other men what it is he has learned. Paul says that in order to be a good soldier Timothy cannot become to involved in all the things of the world around him, Paul draws a parallel with something that Timothy could relate to, the Roman soldiers that were garrisoned in every town in the then-known world. Everyone knew that a good soldier had to make his profession his life, you couldn't be involved in every social program and entertainment center and still be the complete soldier you needed to be. Much like our modern athletes that play more than one sport, a problem arises when both start competing for your time and specific concentration. As a Christian, Paul emphasized the importance of keeping first things first and making sure you kept yourself free from the affections of worldly lusts which so easily ensnare us.
There is a glaring absence in today's "Christianity" of this kind of dedication to the things of God. A recent poll conducted by the Times Daily showed that almost half of the respondents didn't even attend a religious service on Easter Sunday. Many of these people probably call themselves Christians, but they cannot even obey the simple admonition to not forsake the assembling together of the believers. We go to church... unless there is a really good book we stayed up late reading, or a ball game we want to watch, or a school program our kids "have" to be involved in, or any other affection of the world that we have tied ourselves to. We read our bibles... unless we have too much work to do, or we're too tired, or we don't feel like it. Have the facts changed? Can a man be a warrior and yet entangle himself in the things of the world? The sad fact is that the facts are the same, which leads us to the conclusion that we aren't really soldiers at all. We have given up fighting in order to please our flesh, which in turn proves that we don't really care about pleasing God who has called us to be a soldier. If we don't care about pleasing God, why do we call ourselves Christians? Those sound like some pretty stark words, but what other conclusion can we come to if the bible says that you keep yourself from the things of the world to please God?
On the flip side of the coin, we cannot take ourselves out of the world and we must needs have have communications with ungodly people and organizations on a regular basis. The key word is "entangleth", it becomes a sin when we allow those things (and they may not even be ungodly in and of themselves) to get in the way of doing all those things that a child of God is called to do. Would you join with me in resolving to cut loose of the secular things that are keeping us from doing those things that are expected of a Christian? Would you decide that you are not going to let anything new tie you down and stifle your ability to serve God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind? Be a warrior for God, and make sure that whatever your occupation, it is just another tool to show forth the love and mercy of Christ on depraved, helpless sinners like us

Keep the faith

2008-07-22T22:42:00.000-05:00

II Tim. 4:7 I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith:
Paul is writing from a prison cell, probably awaiting execution. He is writing to a young preacher named Timothy and exhorting him to preach the truth without thought of repercussions or personal loss as a result. Paul uses his own experience to encourage him in that endeavor, without boasting he tells Timothy that he has fought many battles, endured many hardships, and through it all he has persevered to the end.
As I read this passage I was encouraged myself to overcome temptations my looking at the big picture. It's easy to fall to temptation when you only think of the immediate results, but when you consider what it could cost you down the road, it makes it much easier to overcome. Paul was not perfect, he said himself that he often did those things that he hated, and that he considered himself the chief of sinners. The difference with Paul was that every time he fell he got right back up, every time he realized he had sinned, he immediately repented and started doing right once again, he never allowed his failures and shortcomings to discourage him to such a point that he stopped working for Christ. I have heard many people say that they used to be an active servant for Christ but over time they just burned out, others have told me that while I'm young I'll be energetic and optimistic but when I get older it will be inevitable that pessimism and weariness will force me to stop working so hard. While I'm sure that with age I will gain experience and my body will endure some wear and tear, that does not mean that I will not be able to work with equal vigor for Christ. The reason I can say that with such confidence is because there are abundant examples in the bible. Paul here looks back on his life and has no regrets about his work ethics, in the old testament Caleb continued to drive the pagans out of the promised land into his eighties.
Another thing I gleaned from this statement was how your priorities change when you're looking death in the face. Paul says nothing about his social accomplishments, he makes no mention of how much fun life had been, nor did he note his education, the only thing he told Timothy that gave him comfort was that he had done his best for God. How many people have you heard of lying on their deathbed and wishing they had spent more time at work, or more time out on the town? You don't, you always hear people say they wish they had spent more time with their families, or more time serving their community, or more time serving God. The reason for that is that all men know in their heart of hearts that they are about to meet their maker, and all the things that are done for self will count for nothing. When we stand before God, the things that will count for something are the things that we did in obedience to scripture.
Let's take this advice from Paul and use our time in the pursuits that will really count for something, both to us when we look back on our lives, as well as to God when we meet him after death. For it is appointed unto man once to die, but after this the judgment.

All for the glory of God

2008-07-22T22:39:00.000-05:00

Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God. I Cor. 10:31
The first question in the Westminster Shorter Catechism for Younger Children is "What is the chief end of man?" The answer being "Mans chief end is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever." As the custom of catechizing our children has become rarer, we have begun to lose this prime truth that ought to be the governing force in our lives. If I were to ask most professing christians today why they ate and drank, I can say with fair confidence that the majority of them would say it was in order to stay alive or healthy. I doubt as to whether there would be even one that told me their motive for eating and drinking was to bring glory to God. If I were to put this question in different words and ask how much we do each day for the express purpose of bringing God glory, I don't think the answer would be much different. The sad truth is that we do relatively little, if anything, on a regular basis with the prayer that God would use that action to glorify himself. If we begin to grasp what exactly it is that Paul is teaching here it would change the way we live our lives, it would change the way we think, our entire worldview would have to be completely reassessed.
Now to be sure, God is bringing glory to himself every day, in every way. God is conducting the entire world in the way he wants it to go, and therefore glorifying himself whether we acknowledge it or not. If we are not actively seeking to glorify God it does not rob him of glory, but it does rob of us of a blessing. When we are living our lives with the subconscious belief that the chief end of man is to pleasure himself, we are living in disobedience to scripture, we are living a life that makes our self god, by inserting ourselves where God was meant to be, that is the center of our lives. While we don't think of ourselves this way most of the time, it is in fact how most of us live out our lives. We eat to keep us alive, we work to pay our bills, we spend our free time doing what makes us feel good, we sleep so that we feel better. When we ought to be eating so that we may serve God better, pay our bills because that is what God expects, spend our free time doing what God has asked of us, and sleeping so that we are refreshed to do God's work.
For the vast majority of christians and the world alike, we spend our lives thinking, or at least acting like, we are the center of the world. With such sayings as, "You only go around once", and "It's a dog eat dog world", and "You have to look out for number one first", the truth of what is in our hearts begins to spill out. It's true you do look out for number one first, the problem is we have put the prime number on the wrong individual, we are not number one, God is number one.
I would encourage you with each passing day, to take this truth to heart in a way that changes the way you act. I have resolved to live my life in such a way as to make sure that the reason I do what I do is that it is something that glorifies God. That applies both to the "grand tasks" such as what I preach, down to the "menial ones" such as what and when, I eat and drink. Don't waste your life thinking you are the chief end of your life, do something that will transcend this life, make glorifying God your chief end.

Desire the word

2008-07-22T22:35:00.000-05:00

I Pet. 2:2 As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby:
Peter is writing to christians scattered throughout Asia Minor and encouraging them in their faith. There were those among them who were dealing with severe persecution from both the Roman government as well as the Jewish authorities, and they were beginning to question whether or not their faithfulness was worth all the trouble. Paul encourages them in this passage to desire the word of God as their life sustaining force. He tells them to desire it the same way that that a baby desires it's mother's milk.
One of my goats recently had twins, it is amazing to see the fervor and frequency with which they nurse, it is a driving force inside them telling them that if they want to live long, they have to go to their mother's milk. It ought to be the same for us as christians, if we want to grow and thrive as children of God, we have got to read God's word with both fervor and frequency. It is not a chore or obligation to read our bibles on a daily basis, instead it ought to be both instinctive and a pleasure. If the word of God ought to be as important to us as nourishment is to a growing baby, then why are we so negligent about reading our bibles? Why are we so reluctant to put ourselves under the preaching of the word of God? Why do we look for entertainment as opposed to strong doctrinal content in our pulpits?
Peter said one of the best ways to counter trials and persecution is to develop a deep desire to read God's word, the only way to develop a desire for something is to fall in love with it, and the only way to fall in love with something is to spend time with it. We have a hard time keeping our daily bible reading schedule, because we don't discipline ourselves to read it. I have found in my own life that when I make sure I'm reading my bible, I have more of a desire to read my bible, and when I let myself become slack I lose interest and desire.
Notice also Peter calls it a sincere word. The scriptures are not simply a guideline for life, they are not good suggestions for how you ought to live, nor are they trivial historic factoids. The bible is a sincere word, one that needs to be taken seriously, a word of truth that is a command to righteous living. Peter had no qualms about it's authenticity and the trendy attraction that has taken over much of the world questioning the Bible's canonicity, had no place in Peter's way of thinking and speaking to others concerning the importance of the holy writ. Such vain babbling ought not persuade us, instead we are to be steadfast in our belief, trusting in the sincere word that has the power to shine the light of the glorious gospel on our hearts.
I would encourage you to follow Peter's command to both desire and revere the word of God, that it would be a staple for your daily life, and a blessing instead of a burden.

The throne of grace

2008-07-17T10:50:00.000-05:00

Heb. 4:16 Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.
We live in a culture, in which the reality of God has been watered down, to some it is nothing more than an exclamation of surprise, others honestly believe in God but his holiness and purity have been belittled by the televangelists with their catch phrases, like, "Just say 'Jesus, I take you!' and he's yours". The Jews lived in the polar opposite of this culture, under the Old Testament law there was only one group of people that could offer sacrifices for the sins of the people. Of this group of people there was only one man that could come before the mercy seat, (the mercy seat being the throne of God in the holy of holies, where a single sacrifice was placed once a year to atone for all the sins of the Israelites that year). When this high priest would go into the holy of holies to offer this sacrifice, he would go in with bells tied to the bottom of his robe and a rope tied around his ankle, because the people knew that if he went before the throne of God in the wrong way, God would strike him dead. Therefore, if the bells stopped jingling for a certain period of time, the people outside would know to pull his dead body out of the holy of holies, for they could not go in to retrieve him.
The writer of Hebrews then, is telling the recipients of his letter (who were Jews), that since Jesus had been crucified for all God's children, the veil separating the holy of holies from the rest of the temple had been miraculously torn in two pieces. This signifying that anyone could now come to the mercy seat to find grace, and come boldly not fearing the wrath of God on their unrighteousness. The difference is, that before the death of Christ the high priest would go before God, hoping that he had done everything necessary to appease the wrath of God. Now we come before God with the full understanding that we can do nothing good enough to appease God's wrath, but instead fully trusting that Jesus' death and resurrection did fully satisfy him. The high priest went before God the same way that those that trust their good works to save them do, without any assurance that they had done everything necessary to appease God. The writer of Hebrews wants to make sure that we understand this old covenant is no longer in place, but instead we can come boldly before the throne of grace, trusting in nothing but the finished work on Calvary to save us from our sins.
All of this does not negate the fact that we still must honor God's holiness, and fear his justice, boldly does not equal impishly or arrogantly. Instead it implies the same healthy relationship between a father and son, we still honor, respect, and in God's case worship him, but we do it with complete trust that he is looking out for our best interests, and no matter what offenses we have committed against him, he will always be our father. We can disappoint, offend, or displease him, and it ought to break our heart when we do, but that does not bar us from boldly and humbly approaching the mercy seat and asking for forgiveness for the sake of Christ.

Wise fools

2008-07-17T10:43:00.000-05:00

Rom. 1:21, 22 Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools.
Paul uses the first few chapters of Romans to prove that all men know of God, through a universal knowledge written in our hearts by God. This is seen to be true, all the world over, any civilization you find will always have a basic knowledge of a god, an alter, and a mediator between basic men and that god. Paul then builds on that principle, and teaches that all men left to their own devices will reject the true God. Which brings us to our text verses, where Paul says that even though man knows God, they refuse to acknowledge his omnipotence and instead try to come up with any other explanation for this law written on their hearts.
We deal with this in so many different ways in our modern world, we see people chalking their existence up to evolution, or the blessings they enjoy as coincidence. Pride has caused our heads to swell, and now wisdom (or education) is the name of the game, and yet the theories the world comes up with to explain away God sound so juvenile (or as Paul says foolish). The one we deal with with the most regularity, is the theory of evolution. The entire theory was thought up on the presupposition that there is no God, and it has spread so quickly because of the dogma that has been so aggressively pushed saying that you can not be scientific and believe in God. In recent years this has extended to the point that scientific establishments have begun firing their scientists based solely on whether or not they believe in creation. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools. Their logic doesn't seem make much sense to me, no one in their right mind would find a clock on the side of the road and conclude that a garbage truck had driven by and it just so happened that all the right pieces had fallen off, and fallen together, to make the clock. Even if a garbage truck drove by once a day for millions of years the chances of the right pieces, falling in the right place, to form a clock are non-existant. Why then, do we look at something much more sophisticated, with billions of cells, doing everything in perfect sync, and believe it was an accident of nature? Especially since hundreds of scientist have tried to make a living organism out of non-living substances, using all the ideal situations and places, and have failed. But we will believe that it all happened by chance? Who is wise, and who is the fool here?
Now, we have to conclude that micro-evolution happens around us all the time, that is that there are some animals that adapt to their environment as it changes. However this is just further proof for an amazing creator. Never before has a species morphed into a completely new species, and those that claim to believe that they do regardless of proof or evidence, are fools claiming to be wise.

Gain to me, loss for Christ.

2008-07-17T10:40:00.000-05:00

Philippians 3:7, 8 But what things were gain to me, Those I counted loss for Christ. Yea doubtless, and I count all things loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ.
Paul in his letter to those in Philippi, tells them in a very forthright way that all the things that exalted himself, all the things that made him look better or that were a gain to him in any way, he accounted as a loss on Christ's account. Furthermore, that all the things that glorified himself that he had given up, were in his estimation dung, and not something to regret giving up but instead things that he was glad to be rid of. Paul says in another place that we should follow him as he follows Christ, and this would be a good place for us to follow his example. We live in a country and generation and culture that has saturated us in the idea that we deserve to have everything we want exactly when we want it, and they will go to the furthest extant to allow us this luxury. From credit cards to fast food to drive through wedding chapels in Las Vegas, our world makes sure every lust of the eye and lust of the flesh and pride of life is satisfied at the first inkling.
The Christians of our day (at least here in the western part of the world) could use some of Paul's advice, when he said that anything that benefited his ego or lusts, was a loss for the case of Christ. We are so sold on the idea that we have to drive a new car and we have to have a wide screen HD TV and we have to be entertained at all times, that I wonder what we are putting to Christ's account. Now I don't think that it's wrong to have any of those things in and of themselves, but what Paul is asking is what would you have been able to do with that money and time if you had used them for God instead of yourself? I could water that down and ask what would happen if we equally split our resources between ourselves and the things of God? The answer would be an enormous impact on the world. Can you imagine the shock waves that would be felt around the world, if half of the time and money we spend only on our non-essentials, were given to missions or some other gospel based ministry? In a country as rich as America, where billions of dollars a year are spent on entertainment alone, the blessings are unspeakable, the responsibility is then likewise enormous, and we are squandering our responsibility as stewards on a daily basis.
As part of the gimme generation, I know the temptations that bombard us from every outlet are hard to resist, but it comes down to seeing the worth of what Christ did for us on Calvary. Jesus said in Matt. 16:26 that the entire world is not worth as much as a single soul, if Jesus then redeemed our soul that is of such value, why are we not devoted to giving him everything we can? Paul saw the pleasures of the world in such a light that he said they were to him as dung, something that he was not only glad to get rid of, but something he would want to put as far away from him as possible. Why then do we act like we are some sort of heroic martyr when we give up the smallest thing for Christ? We give up a sin that our flesh loves and believe we have done something extraordinary, we put more than a tenth in the offering plate and act as if we have done God a favor, we give up an afternoon in front of the TV to minister to those in a nursing home and imagine we have done some noble act.
Would you join me in working harder each day to count those things as undesirable things that we are glad to be rid of? To try with increased vigor to give more of our resources to the things of God, and to see our salvation as something worthy of everything we have to offer? Not that you'll ever repay the debt Jesus paid on the cross, but out of an overwhelming gratitude that changes our outlook on the things of earth. As the hymn writer Isaac Watts wrote, "Were the whole realm of nature mine, that were a present far too small, love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all."

Trust in the Lord

2008-07-17T10:35:00.000-05:00

Prov. 3:5, 6 Trust in the Lord with all thine heart: and lean not to thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct your paths.
As a human, and especially as a man, I am so often tempted to think that I can take care of myself, that I don't need someone else telling me what to do. I have to constantly remind myself that I am nothing outside of Christ, that I cannot do anything without God's strength. Obviously, outside of Christ's atonement and God's effectual calling I would be headed for hell, and rightly so. What's harder is keeping in mind the fact that I can do nothing physically outside of God and his mercy. It is a common misconception among men, that they are self made, or that they made themselves who they are today. When in fact it was God who gave them the strength of body to accomplish whatever feats they had to overcome in their lives. It is God who gives us the clarity of mind to make the daily decisions, that so often have lasting repercussions. That's not to mention the basic necessities he grants me such as the upkeep of my heartbeat and the air flowing through my lungs. How vain it is of me to imagine that there can be any physical success in this life outside of the mercies of God.
David's admonition was to trust in the lord with all thine heart, but instead we are tempted to trust God along with other things. A man who is sitting on a platform and yet has all sorts of safety belts on as well, is not truly trusting that platform to hold him up; people who claim to trust God for everything, and then go out and build up physical supports "just in case", are not trusting God with all their heart. I once heard of a man that said he honestly believed it was only through faith and trust in Jesus Christ that he could be saved, but just to be safe he also got baptized in the catholic church, took the Muslim pilgrimage to mecca, and did everything, every religion, told him was needed for salvation. That man was not trusting Jesus at all, but instead was just trusting in the Lord with some of his heart.
David also says that we need to acknowledge Him in all our ways. All too often we want to trust in God in some areas of our life, and yet unwilling to turn others over to him. We will trust him to give us each day the strength needed, but not believe he can do everything necessary to save us. Or, we will say that he can save us, but not keep us saved. Others trust God with their health, but not their money. David said it was expedient that we acknowledge God's sovereignty in every aspect of our lives.
The last part of these verses (like almost every other command in scripture) have a promise attached to the command. That if we do trust God with all our heart, in every aspect of our lives, he will direct your paths. God never leaves his children out to dry, David says in another psalm, that in all the years of his life he had never seen God's children begging bread. That's because God has promised that for those that do his will, he will lead them in the paths of righteousness for his names sake, and even in the valley of the shadow of death we need not fear evil for God is with us. Will you make the new years resolution with me, to try and trust God more in this next year? To acknowledge his omnipotence in every aspect of your life, and allow him to prove his faithfulness to keep his promise to direct our paths?

If my people

2008-07-13T22:10:00.000-05:00

I Chr. 7:14 If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear I heaven, and will forgive their sins, and will heal their land.
As I said in last week's editorial, I feel as if this country is in dire straits. However, I know from scriptures that there is still hope for this country, if the christians will begin acting as christians should. In the future revivals only come when the christians in the country start focusing on their own walk with God. There is a lot of focus on evangelizing the lost world, or reaching out to the youth in our communities, and while these are admirable ministries they will be futile if the ones ministering are not right with God.
You will notice in this passage that God says that it is his people that are in need of repenting from their sins. He does not say that they need to get more people into the synagogues, or even to do more door to door witnessing, he says that they need to humble themselves and turn from their wicked ways. There are too many churches across this country that are so "seeker friendly" they have stopped preaching the biblical doctrines of sin, the depravity of man, the just wrath of God, and holy living of the saved, because they are afraid of scaring people away. The truth is the preachers need to preach the bible in love and allow the saved to conform to it, and the lost to leave. While that may sound harsh, it would purify our churches back to what they are supposed to be, a sanctuary for the saints to be able to retreat to and be free from the filth of the world. Instead we have bought into the idea of bringing the lost world into the church, instead of bringing the gospel to the world and keeping the church for those whose have been converted.
I want to see this country revived as much as anyone, I want God to hear from heaven and heal our land. As one man told me recently, "Our churches are sick, but we've got to give them the right medicine." The funny thing about medicine is most of it isn't very fun to take, but when we get over it and take it, it helps us get better. If pastors want to see this country turned around they will have to stop giving their congregations candy and start giving them medicine. It may taste bitter for us to eat some humble pie, but the end result will be a spiritually healthier country.
One other aspect that is mentioned in this verse is the need for prayer, unfortunately we live in such a busy world that it has become easy for us to make the excuse that we have too much going on to spend more than a few minutes a day in prayer. For those of us that desire to see a return to christianity in this country over the next decade, must begin praying in that direction. Both aligning ourselves to the will of God and praying that others would do the same, is necessary for change come. It is my prayer that you will join me in this effort to reform our country, first by conforming ourselves to the word of God and secondly by fervently praying that God will ignite others hearts to see the need for healing.

Exalting a nation

2008-07-13T22:07:00.000-05:00

Prov. 14: 34 Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people.
I love the country we live in, I love the freedoms and liberties we enjoy. These liberties and freedoms were set down by men of God who understood that for any country to succeed it must be founded upon the laws laid down in scripture. The principle that all men are created with the right to life, the appeal system to ensure an unbiased trial, the fact that there must be an absolute right that when followed is rewarded with liberty, and absolute wrongs that are punished. All of these are principles found throughout scripture. Unfortunately, this country has come such a long way since that time, that the average American couldn't name five of the ten commandments, and because of that ignorance of the bible the foundational rights are being abused.
The same judges that rule that every person has an equal right to life, will deny that right to the many million babies that have been aborted, they will admit that there are absolute laws that must be followed, then turn right around and say we have no right to teach the bible as the exclusive Word of God. These judges call pornography "freedom of speech", yet deny the right to read the bible in schools, they will not allow you to spank your children in public under the pretense of "abuse", and yet divorce and adultery, the biggest destroyers of families, are winked at. How can we still say "God bless America" and expect it to be true? After tragedies such as 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina, how could people ask "Why would God let this happen?" Proverbs tells us that sin is a reproach to any people, no matter how scientifically advanced they think they are.
America rose to world prominence during a time of great revival and scriptural dependency in this country. Shortly after Darwin's theory of evolution became widely accepted, abortion was legalized. Did you know that up until the 1970's the medical community still considered homosexuality a mental condition, but when tolerance became our society's watchword, it became an "alternative lifestyle". You can look back on our nation's history and clearly see that in the times that righteousness was expected, our nation was exalted, and in the times when the sins of atheism, tolerance, and the destruction of absolute morals prevailed, the people were reproached. Do not be afraid to stand for the truth, when it seems as if all of society is rejecting it, there have been hundreds of men, women, and children that have died because they refused to say that their culture was right and the bible wrong. Is it so much to ask that you would suffer a little rejection or a little scorn for it? I still think that we live in one of the greatest countries on earth, and I still think there is time to turn this country around to the roots from whence it came. But, the only way this can happen is if we as God's people begin rejecting sin and turn back to righteousness.

A debtor

2008-07-13T22:05:00.000-05:00

Rom. 1:14 I am debtor both to the Greeks, and to the Barbarians; both to the wise, and the unwise.
Paul is opening up his letter to the Romans here, and in this verse he is prefacing the statement that he is ready to preach the gospel wherever he is called upon to do so. The reason he feels so ready to preach is because he sees himself as a debtor. His debt is actually not to the Romans or Greeks, it is not the wise or unwise that he owes anything to. His debt is to God, he is indebted to Jesus Christ for the salvation of his soul. However there is no way he can repay that debt to God, it is not possible for him to make it up to God, there is no way he can give God anything God does not already have, especially something as important as the soul. Therefore if Paul wants to begin to repay this debt to God, he must be a servant to God for the rest of his life, and bring this saving gospel to all men.
We too, have been saved by the power of Christ, and have no way to repay this debt. Paul says in Rom. 12:1 "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service". That "therefore" is referring to the previous chapter where he explains that we have been saved by the mercies of Christ, and therefore are to live accordingly. Please do not misunderstand me here, we work for Christ because of our salvation, not for our salvation. Paul also says "For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain." He is a debtor to Christ and because of this debt he preaches the gospel to all men.
Secondly, I want you to see his obligation to bring this gospel to all men. Paul says in Rom. 10:14 "How shall they believe on him whom they have not heard, and how shall they here without a preacher?" And again in I Cor. 1:21 "It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe." Doing this will not repay God for what He has done, it will not benefit Him, God is holy and perfect and can not be benefited by the actions of mere men. However, Paul had the privilege of hearing this gospel preached and now knows he is obligated to give every man possible the same opportunity. That is not to say that everyone that hears will be saved, but that those whose spiritual ears God has opened, will believe unto salvation.
Now with these two principles in mind, let us come to the applicable conclusion. If you are saved, it is because you heard or read the gospel of Christ, and if someone went out of their way to give you that gospel, shouldn't you do the same? God has saved you regardless of who you were, or what you could give back to Him. You are now a debtor the same as Paul was, you owe it to everyone you come in contact with to proclaim the gospel and give them the chance to believe on Him of whom they have just heard. It is your reasonable service to present your bodies to God as a living sacrifice and preach His gospel, no matter how foolish it sounds to the lost. Believe me, to them it will sound foolish, Paul says in I Cor. 1:18 "For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God." Start paying on that debt, start preaching the gospel to every creature

The mirror of God's word.

2008-07-06T23:15:00.000-05:00

Psa. 119:133 Order my steps in thy word: and let not any iniquity have any dominion over me.
Have you ever met someone that was just photogenic? Sometimes they are not even strikingly good looking in real life, but you just can't get a bad picture of them. I hate those people, okay I don't hate them, but I sure do envy them. I do not know what the opposite of photogenic is, but I'm it. A good picture of me is as rare as hen's teeth, hard to find and harder to believe. I don't think of myself as a bad looking person, my ego tries to tell me I might even be bordering on good looking, but a quick trip to the photo album quickly relegates my head back to it's normal size. I'm either slouching, or the angle makes my nose look huge, or they catch me blinking. Maybe the problem is with the cameras, yea, someone needs to invent a camera that makes me look good. Oh boy, you got your work cut out for you. You would think that somewhere in a hundred pictures there would be at least one good one of me, you would be wrong. I thought I found one once, but then I realized it was someone else standing in front me that made me look good.
Unfortunately, it's not only the camera that catches me at my worst. I read my Bible on a regular basis, and each time I look in it's pages I see a new angle of me that I don't like. I like to think I'm a pretty good person, my ego tries to tell me I might even be better than most, but a quick reading of God's word quickly shows me other wise. I don't know what it is, but I just can't seem to find a passage of scripture that puts me in a good light. I thought I found one once but then I realized it was Jesus standing in for me that made me look so good. There is one major difference between the two. As far as the cameras go, I'm stuck with this mug for life and it probably won't get any better, but when it comes to the scriptures, with each new flaw I find, I have a chance to make it right. That's what I'm hoping in, though I may look pretty bad right now, I pray that with God's help I can correct the flaws with time. The challenge is humbling myself enough to realize that the problems are just that, and then being dedicated enough to do what I have to do to fix them. All too often I want to think the problem is with the Bible, and if I could just change that, I'd be okay. If only the Bible could be changed to make me look good. This is the solution many people have come up with, and have either reworded or redefined the bible to fit their agenda. The problem is, that while all of heaven and earth will one day melt away with a fervent heat, God's word will stay the same forever (II Pet. 3:10, I Pet. 1:25). So I guess that means that the only option left is for me to change. Oh well, that will give me something to do while I wait for you to invent that camera that makes me look good. Good luck.

Laborers

2008-07-06T23:11:00.000-05:00

Matt. 9:37, 38 Then saith He unto His disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few;
Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that He will send forth labourers into His harvest.

All around us, every day there is a harvest to be gathered, souls headed to hell that need to be saved, christians that need to be taught how to live godly. Those of us who are saved, now have a responsibility while we are on this earth. Too many Christians once they are saved simply kick back and decide to live the rest of their lives in a state of relative ease, this is not what we were put here to do. The bible says we must work while it is day, for the night cometh when no man can work, this is speaking of the fact that we will only live a few short decades here on earth compared to an eternity in God's presence. Therefore our responsibility is to work for God the entire time we are here on this earth, Paul said "For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain". This ought to be our motto as well, that we would live our entire life here in the service of Christ, and wait for eternity to take our rest, to get our gain.
We live our life as if this is where we are supposed to get our gain, when in reality this is where we are supposed to work. We are laborers that have been put in the middle of a ripe harvest, and there are far too few of us to waste our time. Just as your employers expect you to use your time at the job for him and then rest at home, so God expects us to use our lives harvesting for Him and then rest when we get home with Him.
Secondly, note that Jesus commands us to pray that God would send laborers. Not only are we to live our lives as laborers, but we are to ask the master to send us some help. I don't know about you, but so often I get caught up in what I'm doing and forget to pray for more laborers, yet it is an express command from Jesus Christ to do so. We would do well to remember this, to add this to our prayer list for each day. If Jesus has commanded us to pray for something, we should do just that. It's a common thing if a business is growing, for the employer to hire more employees, if that would bring him more gain. We, as the servants of Christ are here for one purpose, to bring Him honor and glory. If more laborers would help us better accomplish the task, than that is what we should pray for.
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. (Romans12:1) Let us live our lives with this as our creed, that we would live our lives as diligent servants of the master for the entirety of our lives, continually praying that He would send laborers to assist us in bringing even more glory to Himself.
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The power of the tongue

2008-07-06T23:07:00.000-05:00

Prov. 18:21 Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruits thereof.

How many of us has ever said something in the heat of the moment, only to instantly wish we could have it back? I know I have. How many of us have ever been hurt by words, worse than any sticks or stones ever could? The tongue has an incredible power that no other part of the body possesses. In fact the bible says if we can control our tongue we can control our entire body, because no other member is as hard to get a bridle on. The bible speaks of the tongue in some pretty potent terms, it compares it to a sword, a fire, and this passage even says it has power to kill. However the tongue was created as a blessing, the words of encouragement we can speak to each other, the songs of praise we sing to our redeemer, and the power to persuade, are all much more powerful spoken than written. But, because of our depravity we have taken that blessing and turned it into a curse, we've taken the very thing made to give life and corrupted it into an instrument of death. We as Christians have been given a new heart, and it is our job to take all of those things that sin has corrupted and start using them for their original purpose, to glorify God. It is Satan's goal to corrupt all the good things in life and use them for his purposes, and he has done a pretty good job with the tongues of mankind. The shock jocks spend their entire career trying to think up some new hurtful or crass comment just to get someone's ire. Political candidates are no longer content to simply promote their own agenda, they have to trash talk everyone else's, and we do the same sort of thing every day. If we talk bad about someone else, either to their face or behind their back, we do it because it makes us feel better about ourselves. If we can convince others that everyone around you is a lazy good-for-nothing, it makes us look like a pretty good person in comparison. The amazing thing is that the most well respected people are not those that try to make others look bad so they can look better, but the ones who honestly work at being the best person they can be and don't worry about what everyone else thinks. All that to say, we have been blessed with a peculiar gift in the tongue, let's not abuse it. Let's use it for the purpose it was made to be used for, helping others. If you have been blessed with much, you now are responsible for much. The tongue and power of speech is a big blessing, when we're called to give an account for how we used it, will it be a good report or bad? Will it be seen that we used it for the edification of the saints, or the exalting of ourselves? Let's be really careful every time we open our mouths, so that when we do speak, it will only be with words of life.

Joy

2008-07-02T17:00:00.000-05:00

Ps. 51:12 Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation;
David wrote this Psalm after he had committed the sin of adultery with Bathsheba, he is writing with a heart full of guilt, sorrow and despair. He realizes the heinousness of his sin, and the fact that it was committed not only against Bathsheba and her husband, but against the God who has saved him from the penalty of such sins. There is no surprise in the fact that he has lost the joy of God's salvation.
Notice first, that what he wishes to be restored is not the salvation, but the joy of it. Sinning against God does not revoke our salvation, nothing you can do can pluck you out of God's hand, but his joy is gone. There are those that debate the doctrine of security of the believer, arguing that if you couldn't lose your salvation there would be nothing to keep you from enjoying all the sins of this world, and then die and enjoy heaven as well. David shows the fallacy of this argument, when a true believer sins, he ought to lose his joy. There is no joy in living with ought between you and God, there is no pleasure found in allowing sin to interrupt your fellowship with Christ. A Christian who is living in sin has not lost his salvation, but he has lost the joy of it.
Secondly, note the fact that he admits it is not his salvation at all, but God's salvation. David uses every opportunity here to show God that he is the worm of a creature, and God is the holy sovereign. David says earlier in this chapter that he was born in sin and conceived in iniquity, he admits that he did nothing to merit salvation, yet God gave it to him anyways, and now he has messed up. When you sin, (and as long as you are on this earth you will never be sinless) it should break your heart to think that the sin you have just committed is part of the load that Christ bore at Calvary. It should tear you apart to think that you have failed a God that so graciously forgave your sins, who adopted you into his family in spite of all your faults. It is not the fear of losing our salvation that keeps us from sinning, it is the instant remorse, the overwhelming sense of failure, and the sorrow that comes with the realization that you have offended your loving Father.
Lastly, consider that fact that David asked God to restore unto "me" the joy of your salvation. The next verse says that then he would teach transgressors of God, but not before he has made sure everything in his own life was right with God. Do not attempt to go and tell others how to live righteously if you are living in open sin! Don't preach to others about honesty unless you are being honest in all the areas of your life. Don't tell others to stay pure if you are living in fornication. David realizes the importance of teaching sinners about God and his laws, but he also knows he cannot effectively teach until he has gotten his own life right with God.
Let this portion of a verse be a lesson, we are saved forever, but when we sin we lose all the joy in our life, we should be miserable until things are cleared up. Salvation is not our right or our just desserts, but something God gave us in spite of the fact that "there is none that seeketh after God." Also, that teaching others requires us to practice what we preach, so don't stop teaching, start practicing

Filled to the brim

2008-07-02T16:55:00.000-05:00

John 2:7 Jesus saith unto them, "Fill the water pots with water". And they filled them up tho the brim.
I read this passage of scripture and wondered at the response of the servants, they reacted in way rarely seen by mankind. Jesus Christ gave them a command and they not only obeyed, but went above and beyond the call of duty and fulfilled not only their obligation, but then did a little bit more. I wonder how we would have reacted if we were put in the same situation? The truth is we are put in this situation every day, we have commands from Christ that we are required to live in every day.
The first thing we do when confronted with the command is to question Jesus' command. We consider ourselves logical beings who can discuss the situation with God. Unlike the obedient servants we say, "But Lord, if I tithe, how will the cable bill get payed?" The fact being God asks us to obey without questioning. We are not called to look at what we think the results will be and then act accordingly. We are called to obey, if we do that the end results are in God's hand, we will not be held accountable for what happens if we only obey.
Secondly, more often then not we do only the amount required to scrape by. Christ tells us not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together, so we drag ourselves to church on Sunday morning, and just let the rest of the services slide by, resting in the fact that we've fulfilled our "obligation" to God. These servants did not consider it an obligation, but an opportunity to carry out zealously. If we reacted the same way they did we would be in church Sunday morning, night, Wednesday night, and any other opportunity presented to us.
If commanded to tithe, we would give ten percent and then some, when commanded to pray we would not pray for five minutes because we had to, but all day, wherever we were, we would pray without ceasing.
Why don't we start acting with the zeal that these servants did? God asks us to fill our water pots with water, do we fill them to the brim, or fill them halfway? Do we obey out of obligation or out of love? Do we leave the results up to God, or argue with God, thinking ourselves more logical then God. Although we would never word it that way, that is exactly what we're doing when we disobey Christ's commands because we think we've got a better way. Let's forsake ourselves and simply obey what Christ has asked of us. We sing "Trust and Obey", but do we act it out or simply pay God lip service? Let's commit to never give the world a reason to laugh us to scorn, by obeying Christ with all our might and filling our water pots to the brim.

A sure foundation

2008-07-02T16:50:00.000-05:00

Ps. 11:3 "If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?
Down through the ages there has been a precedent set for today's Christians. If the Bible is not clear on an issue, a good idea is to look back and see how orthodox Christianity has acted in the generations before us. Nine times out of ten, the pattern will show you the correct view. The church as we know it today (as a called out assembly of believers) is being built by God down through centuries until one day when He calls us home, we will be a perfect, unified assembly, in which each age will contribute it's piece to fit into the holy convocation. (Eph. 4:16)
Why then, this present and very prevalent idea, that we need to pull away from the pattern and precedent laid down for us by our forefathers? It seems as if the modern view of the church, is that it must conform to look like the world, instead of making the world conform to Christ. The foundation is singing hymns, psalms and spiritual songs. (Eph. 5:19) Today's church has decided that these type songs are too full of controversial doctrine, so in order to be more relevant, we have replaced them with "Praise and worship" songs. Unfortunately these song have little to know doctrinal content, when the words of a song are such that a Mormon, Muslim, Catholic, and Baptist, could all sing along without confrontation, the song is not fit for church. Take for example this song found in many "Orthodox Christian" church hymnals.
"Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia,
alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia.

He is God's son, He is God's son, He is God's son, He is God's son,
He is God's son, He is God's son, He is God's son, He is God's son.

We will praise him, We will praise him, We will praise him, We will praise him,
We will praise him, We will praise him, We will praise him, We will praise him."

This is an actual song with the very original title, "Alleluia". What has happened to the songs that were lifted up to God singing of his holiness and justice, what of the hymns sung among the believers, that held so much undeniable truth Christians were martyred for not recanting them? The foundations are being destroyed, and the righteous are being crippled, because the world is having a larger impact on the church, than the church is on the world.
The foundations laid said that joining a church was a strict process in which your salvation was made sure and your walk with God was watched diligently, and if you fell into a sin of which you refused to repent, the Bible would be followed and you would be taken off of the rolls. Today a church will put you on the rolls if you attend once (that is the actual practice of at least one of the churches in our area) and God forbid that you should ever mention taking someone off the membership roll.
I pray that the righteous will begin taking a stand while they still can, and say "I will stand by the foundations that my fathers died on, I will not stand idly by and let the world destroy the foundations." For thousands of years men have lived and died trying to keep the church of God pure, will you let that pass in a few short generations? Will their efforts have been in vain? Or will you, like Martin Luther take a stand against the errors in the church, and attempt a reformation? It must be done in love, but it must be done.

meditation

2008-05-24T18:43:00.000-05:00

Ps. 119:97 "O how I love thy law! it is my meditation all the day." Sept. 26, 2007
I was recently sitting in on a bible college class, in which the professor stated that the two most neglected duties in a Christian's life were probably prayer and bible study. If you think about it, the three most important things for a christian are probably prayer, (our communication to God) bible study, (God's communication to us) and fellowshipping with like minded believers, (our communication to each other). To think that we fall short of the mark on two out of three areas, is a pretty disappointing statistic. Yet I'm afraid it's true. As I examined my own life, I realized that I do fall short of the mark in my bible studies. David said that he loved God's word to such an extant it was his meditation all the day. What do we meditate on all day? Our job? The errands we still have to run? What time we have to pick the kids up from school? The cares of this world end up choking out any thoughts we had on God's word. Now don't get me wrong, I want you to be focusing on what you're doing when you are operating a piece of heavy machinery, and I want you to be focused on the road as you're driving, but so often we have a million things running through the back of our minds, and rarely is it God's word.
I would hope that you set some time apart in the morning to read the scriptures, and whether you read a few verses or a few chapters, whether you are in Numbers or Romans, I would encourage you to pick out a verse or set of verses that you can apply to your life. Then throughout the day, mull over that portion of scripture, think about what you need to do to make your life form around it, consider what importance it has in your walk with Christ, decide how it can help you live better with your fellow man, connect it with other portions of scripture you know. Let your mind meditate on the law of God, not a meditation that clears the mind, or focuses on some singular abstract, but the type of meditation that brings your focus back time and time again to the word of God.
The first part of this verse is critical in bringing the second about. Can't you hear the desire and passion in David's voice as he exclaims "O how I love thy law". It is a declaration of longing for the things of God, a true earnestness about finding out what it is that pleases God. If you read the scriptures because you want to be able to say you did if someone asks, or because you think it is a religious duty you must do to stay in God's good favor, you will never truly meditate on it the way David did. A true love for God and his word must precede meditation. If you've ever been separated from a loved one, you know you read every letter you get from them, not out of fear they'll ask if you did, but because you honestly want to know what they're thinking about and what you can do to help them. So it is with the bible, we must approach it with an honest love for the author, we must read it looking for his will for our lives. Then when we think about the bible verse we read, we won't be doing it out of obligation, instead it will simply be a natural occurrence, something we do because we want to, not something we do because we have to.
As read your bible tomorrow morning, think about the fact that God has preserved this word for thousands of years, because he wants you to know of his love for you. Think about the fact that this book is written by someone who gave his only begotten son to die for you, though you had done nothing to deserve it. Perhaps it will give you a greater appreciation for the bible, and just maybe that portion of scripture you picked out, will come back to your mind throughout the day.

Potter and clay

2008-05-12T18:25:00.000-05:00

Isa. 64:8 "But now, O Lord, thou art our father; we are the clay, and thou the potter; and we are all are the work of thy hand." Sept. 12, 2007
Isaiah brings out a good point in this verse, he reminds the children of Israel that God is the creator and they the creation. We would do well to be reminded of this fact on a daily basis, to have our memory refreshed and our pride crushed under the weight of the knowledge that we have no "rights" when facing God. Paul says it best in Rom. 9:20, 21 where he says "Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? Hath not the potter power over the the clay; of the same lump to make one vessel unto honor, and another unto dishonor?" When we come to Christ, we have no chips to bargain with, we have no right to life, liberty, or the pursuit of happiness. Isaiah says in the sixth verse of our text chapter, "All our righteousnesses are as filthy rags", so clearly we can not store up enough good works to out weigh the bad ones, because even our righteousness is as filthy rags.
I love America, I am fiercly patriotic, and I would gladly die to preserve the rights we have in this country. That being said, I am afraid that all the rights we have in this country have created an attitude that we have rights in every other aspect of life as well, and that is a misconception. You have a civil right to speak your mind, but a christian ought to forfeit that right if speaking his mind would offend a brother or cause shame to come on the name of Christ or his church. Before a judge we are innocent until proven guilty, and if proven guilty, good behavior can reduce your sentence. We enjoy no such luxury when standing before God, we are born guilty and no good deeds can reduce the sentence of eternal damnation.
This would drive many to cry "What then can be done for my soul?" It is here that the beauty of it all comes in, the creator, the one who has every right to life, the one who has every bit of innocence, can take on the form of the creation. The potter makes himself a vessel, the inventor takes on the attributes of the invention, and somehow the innocent takes all the punishment of the guilty, the one with all rights to life, dies. Is this fair? No, if fair prevailed we would all be in hell, but God so loved the world that he did the unfair thing and took the punishment on himself, through his son Jesus Christ.
With all this in mind, why do we think we deserve anything from God? What pride drives us to think we are worthy of his love? How could we stand before him and be justified by all our filthy rags (aka good works)? We ought to gladly throw down our rights, after all didn't Christ? We ought to gladly submit to the unfair and uncomfortable, after all didn't Christ? We ought to be willing to be used however God can best use us, after all we are the vessels, he is the potter, creator, inventor, and master.

Biblical Authority

2008-05-12T18:17:00.000-05:00

Rom. 13:1,2 "Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God. Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God:" Aug 29, 2007
I was speaking with someone the other day, and we got to talking about the fact that in the south, people don't like to be told what to do. There are many people who might never go to Wal-mart, but if you told them they couldn't got to Wal-mart, they would go just to prove to you that they would do what they wanted to do. Unfortunately this is not just a southern thing, this is built in to every human being. When God created this world he created in a perfect state, he created man with only one rule, that they couldn't eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Satan, (who had already rebelled against God himself) convinced Eve to rebel and eat of the forbidden fruit, ever since man has had an intuitive desire to rebel against authority. There are those who say, "I will submit to God, but not a man, no man has the right to tell me what to do." The bible says otherwise, the bible says all the men that are in authority here on earth are put there by God and to rebel against their authority is to rebel against God.
When Adam and Eve were first created they were perfect, but when sin and rebellion entered there was the need for a new system to restore order and decency, God chose to use authority to do this. He placed the husband as the authority over the wife, he placed parent as authorities over the children, he put pastors over congregations, and civil authorities over governments, in order to restore a system of decency. We all know that a battle can not be won without an officer giving the commands, a football game cannot be won without a coach calling the plays, and families, churches and governments operate under this same principle. The devil also knows this and is working hard to destroy the biblical call for authority, he tells parents not to restrict their children, but instead to be their buddies, parents are not supposed to be their child's buddy but their authority! Satan tells us churches are made to be run as a democracy where everyone has equal say, pastors aren't supposed to be just another member with equal say, but an authority that will give an account to God for what the church did. Satan tells us that policemen, congressmen, the president, etc. are a bunch of clowns messing up our country, the bible says they were put in authority by God, and we as the general public are to submit ourselves to them.
Unless an authority commands you to directly violate scripture, you are to obey them. rebellion is not a joke, it is not something to be proud of, it is a sin that the bible likens to witchcraft (I Sam. 15:23). If I claimed to be a christian and a member of Wicca, any biblical church would kick me out, yet we have churches whose pews are filled with men and women that refuse to submit themselves to authority, and we think little of it. I would call on every man , woman, boy and girl, to examine their lives and make sure they are in biblical submission to authority. I would also ask every husband, parent, pastor, and civil authority, to stop tiptoeing around everyone's feelings and start asserting your God given authority. Because one day you will give God an account for how those under your authority acted, and you will have to explain to God why you chose to throw off your responsibility.

Seek ye first

2008-05-06T18:38:00.000-05:00

Matt. 6:33 "But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you." Aug. 22, 2007
In this portion of scripture, Jesus had just finished telling his disciples not to worry about their clothing or food or lodging, because God takes care of all nature, and he is surely able to take care of us. Now like anything, you could take this verse out of context and proportion and use it to excuse laziness or irresponsibility, you could say "God is going to take care of my needs, I don't need to work or provide for my family." However that's not what Jesus is telling them, he's telling them they need to prioritize. He says "Seek ye FIRST", the priorities need to be in the right place, if you don't have your spiritual state in order don't worry about the physical. The bible clearly states that there is no gain if you get all the physical benefits this world has to offer and lose your soul to hell.
The doctrine of fasting illustrates this point perfectly, when we are serious about some spiritual issue we forgo meals in order to pray without losing our focus on the matter at hand. We are admitting that there are issues that are more important than our physical well being, and that is our spiritual well being. We live in a society that is constantly catering to our flesh, it teaches us that we ought to have everything we want exactly when we want it. To withhold food, so that we can study the bread of life (the bible) more fully, is considered foolish by the majority of America. To deprive your body of sleep so that you may rest more fully in Christ, is a foreign notion to most Americans. Jesus Christ said that if your priorities were right (seeking the kingdom of God) then all these things, (food, clothing, housing) would be added unto you. All the physical pieces are able to fall into place once the spiritual one are taken care of.
In the Old Testament we read the story of David's death, and when David was about to die he gave the kingdom to his son Solomon, now Solomon was not the oldest or most experienced son, but David chose to give it to him anyway. Soon after this God appeared to Solomon in a dream and told him he would give him anything he wanted, Solomon asked for wisdom to lead the Israelites according to God's will. God told Solomon that because Solomon had asked for righteous wisdom instead of money or long life or prosperity, God would give Solomon wisdom as well as all the physical blessings, if Solomon would follow God the way David had. 2000 years before Jesus was ever born, God told Solomon since he sought the spiritual things first God would add to him all the other things. 2000 years after Christ's death the principle still stands, the priority is spiritual, the real important things of life are those that pertain to the kingdom of God.
Let's determine that we will not let the world brainwash us into believing the physical life is more important than the spiritual. Let's decide that we will make sure our walk with God is where it needs to be, before we worry about our job or bills. Let's make sure we are following Christ's will and not ours.

Bearing each others burdens

2008-04-24T18:17:00.000-05:00

Rom. 15:1 We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not please ourselves. Aug. 8, 2008
I heard a story some time back about some young men that had gone off to boot camp, and the last thing they had to do before graduating was run ten miles in full gear, boots, helmet, rifle, and backpack. They were all doing fine until the last couple of miles, it was at that point that one of them men started lagging behind. His buddy on the right reached over and took his rifle from him and carried it along with his own gear. This helped for another mile or so, but then the man began to fall behind once again, this time his buddy on the left reached over and took his helmet and carried it along with his own stuff. The weaker man ran with renewed vigor until the last half mile when once again he began to stumble and almost collapsed from exhaustion, the two men behind him then relieved him of his backpack and continued to run bearing his excess weight along with their own. The entire unit finished the course together.
When you think about it all those other men could have finished that course, probably even faster than they did, if they hadn't helped the weaker soldier, but they knew that the unit was important then themselves. Christians ought to think this same way. I wonder what would happen if more people began laying down their luxuries, their comforts, and even their rights, in order to promote unity. If our churches were filled with Christians who were willing to forgo some of their preferences in order to bear the weaker brother's burden, what great things could be accomplished? The fact of the matter is, most people are so focused on what pleases them, they aren't willing to follow Christ's example and humble themselves in order to maintain unity and harmony among God's people. We live in the Burger King generation, that says "I want, what I want, when I want it." Most of the previous generations were raised to understand that the only way you could survive in this world was to give a little, take a little. In other words sometimes you got what you wanted, sometimes you had give in and let the other guy get what he wanted. Our current generation is being raised with no idea of responsibility or give and take. The psychologists have told us "If they don't get everything they want it might make them develop an inferiority complex, and if they don't get it right away they may fell emotionally neglected." The biblical perspective is right the opposite, it says you win some you lose some, and whenever you are able you ought to forget about yourself and help the unit.
I would challenge you, when you go to church tonight or next Sunday, to lay your preferences down, if required, in order for the church to grow in grace and unity. Reach over to that person struggling next to you and take his helmet, relive him of a little of his load, that the entire church would be a stronger more unified body, that could finish their course with joy.

A lively God

2008-04-22T19:08:00.000-05:00

Heb. 10:31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. Aug. 1, 2007
About 200 years ago a preacher by the name of Jonathen Edwards preached on this passage, his sermon was entitled, "Sinners in the hands of an angry God". It is reported that he read this sermon word for word off his notes in nearly a monotone voice, and yet by the close of the service the listeners were clinging to the pillars of the building, screaming that it was as if they could feel the flames of hell licking at their feet. What caused this reaction, clearly had nothing to do with his delivery, but instead with the profound content of the verse. When we break it down, we find layer after layer of doctrine condenced into these fourteen words.
First off we see that falling into the hands of a God ready to take vengance on those whom vengenace is due, is a fearful thing. We often lose sight of the fact that we serve a God that is complex and multifaceted, we do not undersand evrything he does, we're not told to understand we're told to believe and accept it as holy. It is a very popular subject today to talk about the love of God, there's nothing wrong with that, God is love. (I John 4:8) The problem arises when we attempt to limit God to that single attribute, God is not limited and he is as fearful to those who reject him, as he is loving to those who are his children.
Second, we see that it is a fearful thing to fall into his hands. That is to find youself completely at his mercy. God can do all his holy will and "none can stay his hand, or say unto him, What doest thou?" (Dan. 5:35) Our God is all powerful, and at every moment of every day we are completely at his mercy, even "the king's heart is in the hand of the Lord, as rivers of water he turneth it withersoever he will" (Prov. 21:1) Once again we try to limit God to a position where he is convinient for us to access. God has hands that reach to every corner of the earth. To be at the mercy of such powerful hands and be deserving of punishment would be fearful indeed.
Thirdly, we see it is a living God. Whether you choose to recognize it now or at the moment of your death, there is a God and he is very alive. Two prevalent ideas in this age is that there is no God, or that God is not active. The secular realm sticks to the "no God" argument, the obvious point of this scripture is that the fearful thing is that he is alive. The "religious" crowd tries to tell you that God got this world spinning and then just sat back and let it alone. This word "living" however entails being "lively" or active, our God is not limited to heaven, he works in evryone's life, every day, acting for the good of his children and his own glory.
These are just the three most obvious points of this verse, but still enough to make us reconsider how we view God and fit him into our lives. Do we think of him as an unlimited deity that can do all his holy will, or a limited God that we have carved out to fit our wants? As C. S. Lewis said of Aslan "He is good, but he is not a tame lion."

Think on these things

2008-04-22T18:42:00.000-05:00

Phi. 4:8 "Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things." July 25, 2007
As the saying goes, "the mind is a terrible thing to waste." Why then are there so many people who do just that with their minds? I'm not speaking of those who never educate themselves as much as they could (although that's a problem too), I'm talking about those who trash their minds with pornography, explicit violence, curse words and blasphemies. They give into the pressure of the flesh to gratify their fleshy desires. When this happens to a lost man it's sad, but expected. The real problem arises when the children of God, those who have trusted Jesus through faith and proclaimed that to the world, think on these fleshly things. The church has been compromised over time, giving into the world in the little things, a little at a time and the end result is a far cry from the truth.
I personally know "good, christian people" that allow their pre-teen children to watch movies laced with profanities, sexual references, and suggestive clothing. Then we wonder why they end up pregnant at sixteen, or when they learned how to cuss out their parents. The under lying problem is their thought patterns, from there it's only a mater of time until their actions follow. So what should we be giving them, (and ourselves) to think on?
Things that are true, the bible is 100% truth, but how many of us read it on a daily basis? Things that are honest, you'll be amazed how much you learn by reading history and real events. Things that are just, this implies teaching them that there is a difference between right and wrong, and that when a rule is broken, justice demands punishment. Things that are pure, purity simply means without any blemishes or defilement, this would cover a vast multitude of academic and entertainment sources, just so long as they're not tainted with sinful undertones. Things that are lovely, we live in an age that says "What's right for you is right for you, and what's right for me is right for me." People following that train of thought say "Who's to say blue jeans and a t-shirt is any less appropriate that a suit and tie, or blouse and dress." Everything from our clothes to art to music has been infiltrated by this teaching of "Beauty is relative." The bible teaches absolutes and that carries over into loveliness, different cultures have different definitions, but every culture has a fairly clear ideal as to what constitutes beauty. Things that are of a good report. The vast majority of the media focuses on all the bad, because bad news sells better than good news. Christians ought to strive to find information that is optimistic, now I realize that it's hard to to put the Virginia Tech shootings, or 9/11 in a good light, but we're not supposed to be dwelling on these. We are to be meditating on anything that is full of virtue and praise.
Don't feed your body good things and then fill your mind with trash, commit to use your mind and body and soul for the glory of God, by thinking on good things and letting good actions follow.

Praying with faith

2008-04-15T14:51:00.000-05:00

Acts 12:5 Peter therefore was kept in prison: but prayer was made without ceasing of the church of God for him. July 18, 2007

Peter, in this portion of scripture, had been thrown into prison by the gentile king, and all the church gathered to pray for him. God heard their prayers and in order to show Himself mighty, He rescued Peter from the prison by an angel. Once in the street Peter went straight to the house where the brethren were praying for him, the servant who answered the door ran and told those praying that Peter was at the door, they wouldn't believe her. They said that either the servant was crazy or Peter had been killed and his ghost was there, until they saw Peter with their own eyes. They were praying with no expectation of God answering their prayers. How often do we pray this same way? We pray for the sick, never really attributing it to God when they recover. We pray for the lost, never expecting them to get saved. We pray for rain and then act surprised when we get it. Just like those Christians 2,000 years ago praying for Peter, human nature really never changes and we forget that the bible has promised that "The effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much." Do we pray because it's a religious obligation, or because we have a Father who cares for us and our petitions? Do we pray to be seen of man, or to be heard of God? In Matt. 7:9-11 Jesus said "Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he will he give him a serpent? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gift unto your children, how much more shall you Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?" Any father with natural affection for his children loves to give them the things that are good for them and make them happy. But what if your child walked up to you and in a monotone voice, made some generic request, without looking directly at you, then walked away without waiting for an answer. How would you feel about how much they really wanted what they were asking for? If we began praying like we talk to our fathers, maybe God would would reward our faith and trust. Instead of the way so many people currently pray, as if they're talking into the air and not to the God of the universe. I know it's easy to fall into the trap of disbelief when speaking to someone we can't see, but that is when faith comes into play, that's when it really matters. Anyone can believe in the things they see, but it takes true faith to believe in the God you can't see or hear, yet you can see Him at work. Like the wind you can't see it but you can see the work of it, so likewise we can't see God, but we can see his handiwork all around us. That ought to encourage us to take more time to pray with the expectation that God is not only going to hear our prayer but answer it. Let's learn a lesson from the account of those praying for Peter, when a prayer is answered we should be thankful, but not surprised.

God is greater than our heart

2008-04-15T14:27:00.000-05:00

I John 3:20 For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things. July 11, 2007
It seems as if the modern world we live in has completely forgotten that this verse is in the bible. The prevalent theme being pushed by Hollywood today is "follow your heart", and the modern Evangelists, for the most part, have latched onto it. After moderating the "conversion experience", the recipient will ask the evangelist "Now am I saved?" He replies "What does your heart tell you?"
Such an interaction teaches the convert that the status of his salvation depends on what his heart feels. Jeremiah 17:9 says "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?" There comes a time in many believers lives when their highly deceitful heart tells them, "You can't be saved, you're not good enough." It is at that time that our confidence in the saving power of God coupled with his all sovereign, keeping power, takes over. The second part of what our heart told was correct, we're never good enough for salvation, however we can be saved if we remember I John 3:20 is still in the bible. We have a God who is greater than our hearts, and though the logic of our heart would seem to tell us we are headed for hell, our faith in a sovereign God overrides that.
When the greater part of Christendom begins rejecting or downplaying the sovereignty of God, it hurts all aspects of our life, but no one area is hit harder than the area of conversion. Because if we do not serve an all powerful God, what hope do we have for salvation? I know for a fact I'm not good enough to earn it, the bible tells me I'm not smart enough to choose it, and my heart isn't trustworthy enough to sustain it. My faith lies solely in the blood of Jesus Christ and the love and power of a God that saved me when I never did a thing to deserve it.
Last week we discussed the worth of a soul, and the fact that our souls are worth more than the entire world. If that is what God saved, what do you have to deserve God paying such a high price? Is baptism an act that merits salvation, does mere water have some sort of efficacy that makes it worth God's while? Is church membership worth more than all material gain on the globe, can we do any works that would pay for such a debt? Would God pay the price of His only begotten son dying on a cross, if it took our works to keep that salvation? Obviously the question to all the answers above is a resounding "NO"! Understanding the biblical doctrine of the sovereignty of God in conversion, leads us to an understanding of the fact that we belong to a God that is greater than even our heart. Such a God deserves our all, does he not? Our all will not save us, it will not repay the debt he payed for us, but it is a service we do anyways, out of love and worship for such a God as ours.

A time to get

2008-04-13T15:50:00.000-05:00

Ecc. 3:6 A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep and a time to cast away. June 27, 2007
As stated here there are appropriate times and things to get and lose, however when I read this verse I automatically thought of another verse in scripture that deals with getting and losing. Jesus asks in Matt. 16:26 "For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?" I would venture to say that all of us have to ask ourselves this question, How much is my soul worth? Is it worth the whole world? If you could have all the power and influence over the entire world, if all the kings, emporers, presidents, and prime ministers bowed the knee to you would it be worth an eternity in hell? If all the money, resources, and materials of the world were given to you, would you get that and lose your soul? The majority of this world goes on, so caught up with power, money and material gain, they never take a second to think about eternity. The sad end will be that they die and find out they traded a season of getting for an eternity of loss.
Would you not rather the trade of be the other way around? Wouldn't it be better to trade a season of loss for eternal gain? The bible clearly tells us that a believer ought to spend less time building up treasures on this earth, and more time doing spiritual work. I wonder what would happen to the world's economy if all christians decided they were going to spend less time getting "stuff" and more time pleasing God. If we christians decided that we would rather do without the excess, in order to have more time for God's work. Do you realize that if you have a roof over your head, a car, eat three meals a day, and have some money in your pocket, you are among the top five percent richest people in the world. So why then do we continue to strive to not only have a roof over our head, but also have two extra bedrooms? Instead of being content with a car, we have to have a new one every two years. It's not enough that we have some money in our pockets, we insist on having enough to splurge on all the unnecassary toys, to impress our friends. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm all for comfort and fun, I like having the new toy as well as the next guy. But, when the work for all this starts getting in the way of God, when we can't go to church because we have to work on Sunday, when we don't read our bibles because we're too tired, we've gone too far. We now have other gods in our lives that are coming between us and the one true God. I'm afraid the end result for the modern christian, is that our lives are consumed with the time to get and when we get to heaven we will find out just how much we actually lost.

A time to cast away.

2008-04-13T15:35:00.000-05:00

Ecc. 3:5 "A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together;" June 20,2007

Every good farmer or gardener knows, that one of the first things you have to do when preparing land for agricultural use, is to remove all the stones. All those those hard pieces of rock that will inhibit many plants from growing or at least will keep them from reaching their full potential. It is a hard chore, it requires a lot of work and monotony, but in the end it is worth it, because of the fruit you reap from that ground. In many parts of the country where the ground is especially rocky, the farmers will take all these stones and build a stone wall around the fields.
This principle is true for a christian as well, we have a calling to remove the many "stones" and "rocks" from our hearts, so that God can better use us. Now a christian with "rocks" is still a christian, but if he has a heart with "stones" of sin scattered throughout, he will not be blessed with the work and fruit of a christian with a clean heart. Every christian's earnest desire ought to be that God would make them the purest and cleanest servant fit for the masters service. Sometimes that requires breaking some hard habits, sometimes that includes purifying yourself from ingrained practices, it can be a hard work and one that involves toil and sweat, but the end result will make it all worthwhile. Our call is to be like the master, to do what he would have us do, to be conformed to his image. We will never reach a state of sinlessness on this earth, even Paul struggled with doing the things he should, and not doing the things he shouldn't. That doesn't mean we throw in the towel though, it means we keep casting away those nasty rocks.
Now, we must remember that there is a time to gather these stone together as well, those rocks that at one time seemed so nasty to the farmer, he can use to build himself a guard wall. We too must keep in remembrance those sins that we are casting out, in order to make sure we don't repeat those sins. In essence we are taking the things we have rid our lives of, and using them for the glory of God, we keep the memory of these sins to keep us humble before God and remind us that no man is above sin, we all (but for the grace of God) could fall prey to those sins once again at any time. Sin is an addiction, and when a christian is able to rid himself of a particular sin he needs to keep himself as far away from it as possible, if you start dabbling around in it, it will take you captive again before you realize what happened to you. Then you will have to start the whole "casting away" process over again.
Let's all start being a little more concerned about our heart's purity, let's work to get any sins that we have out, and then let's stay as far away from those sins as we can. Why don't we let those sins become our "stone wall" that protects us from recommitting them.

A time to weep.

2008-04-12T20:10:00.000-05:00

Ecc. 3:4 A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn and a time to dance; June 13, 2007
If you are a member of the human race, I'm sure you've figured out by now that life is full of ups and downs, highs and lows, mountaintops and valleys. We have all experienced that rush of exhilaration, whether it was because that certain someone had just agreed to marry you, or because your first child was born healthy, or something as simple as winning that football game. On the flip side we've all experienced those moments of nearly overwhelming sadness, the day you got the word one of your parents had died, the day you lost your financial security, the time you made a stupid choice and let somebody close to you down. All of those emotions are okay and natural, every human from Adam to myself has encountered them. Read the book of Job if you think you have it hard, then again not many of us has had the riches and blessings he had either.
dancearound. In this verse the Preacher says there is a time for both, and to miss either is to disregard the mandates of scripture. Have you ever been around a cynic, a pessimist, someone that always sees the glass as half empty? Not only are they missing all the good things around them, they are ruining it for everyone around them. We would do well to remember that none of us are islands, and when we act a certain way it does not just effect us, but in fact directly impacts all those we come in contact with. Of course you can have someone who is the polar opposite of this, the kind of guy that never takes anything seriously, the kind of person that makes a joke out of the fact that someone close to you has died. That kind of person is generally thought of as a jerk. Rightly so, the Bible dictates that we weep with those that weep, not just when we're sad, but when our coworker or neighbor is sad as well. We, as Christians, ought to be the people that not only have a shoulder to cry on, but have a heart that will sincerely weep with them.
A christian will be sincere and tuned in to others feelings, to be always weeping and mourning is completely self centered, to be so caught up in laughing and dancing that we ignore the plights of others, is equally selfish. Christians ought to take it on themselves to be following what Christ said was the second greatest commandment, to love your neighbor as yourself. If we are doing this, honestly loving our neighbor the same way we love and look out for number one, we will be properly balanced in our approach to joy and mourning.

A time to build up.

2008-04-12T20:00:00.000-05:00

Ecc. 3:3 A time to break down, and a time to build up. May 30, 2007
I wasn't always a farm boy. Up until I was eleven I lived in the city, shortly after my eleventh birthday my family moved from a half acre plot (or less), to the 160 acre farm where we now reside. When we lived in the city, we never had any animals except for a few fish in a fish bowl, and at one time a cat. (I still cherish those childhood memories of the adorable four year old me, dragging the cat around by it's tail.) Back to the subject at hand, when we made the drastic move, one of the first things we did was got animals, all sorts of animals. We had cows and horses, dogs and cats, goats and rabbits, and then there was the chickens. All the other animals looked out for their own kind, dogs protected dogs, cows stuck with cows, and if you messed with one rabbit you had a pack on your hands, okay maybe not the rabbits. The chickens were another story entirely, if one chicken got a cut all the rest would mercilessly peck at the cut. All the healthy chickens picked on the hurt one. Unfortunately, I'm a chicken. I'd rather point the finger than lend a hand. I'm ashamed to say it, but the more I look around the more I see everyone else doing the same. The Christians that are supposed to be showing Christ to the world through their love for one another, are all too busy looking out for number one to worry about helping the brother who has been knocked down. Instead we'll climb over him, if it helps us get to the top. Oh, there's a time to break down, a time to break down our pride, a time to break down our walls of prejudice, but we get so caught up in the breaking down we forget that there is a time to be building up.
Paul writes a young minister named Timothy, and we read in his letter, II Tim. 4:2 "Reprove, rebuke, exhort." All three are critical for a healthy relationship with our brothers and sisters in Christ. At times we need to tear down, we need to reprove and rebuke; but so often our problem is that we leave out the exhortation and our relationships crumble. We spend all our time tearing down and not enough building up. Christians would do well to start focusing on building up those around us. Going the extra mile to be kind to those we work with, going out of our way to tell someone they did a good job, getting over our pride and telling our family we appreciate what they do for us every day. If we would start building up those lives we come in contact with every day, I think we would start to notice something, that in building up other we get built up, in encouraging others we get a shot of encouragement ourselves. Let's make this day the time to build up, although that may require a little bit of tearing down for your pride.

A time to kill and a time to heal

2008-04-11T19:03:00.000-05:00

EC. 3:3 A time to kill, and a time to heal. May 23, 2007
Although there are many who would disagree with both me and more importantly the Bible, there is in fact a time to kill. Many people and organization wish to promote peace and pacifism to such an extant it cripples justice. They would tell you wars, capital punishment, and perhaps even self defense needs to be laid down, at the expense of justice and freedom. All this is done they will tell you, in obedience to the sixth commandment, "Thou shalt not kill". So we now have a contradiction in the Bible it would seem, but the commandment is speaking clearly of murder. It is not saying we cannot exact justice, for God said that a man who murders another man shall surely be put to death. It is not saying to never war for God commanded the Israelites to go to war in several places in the Old Testament. To top it all off, Ecclesiastes tells us there is a time to kill. Were it not for capital punishment our prisons would be strained even more than they already are, filled with those who deserve death for their heinous deeds. Were it not for war we would still be a colony of England, or more likely we would be under Nazi rule. There comes a time in every generation that men are asked to give their lives for God and country, and in every generation there are those who rise to the occasion. I hear people all the time saying things like, "How many more of our soldiers will have to die before we get out of this war?" The bible says there is a time to kill and there is a time to die, countless other Americans have killed and been killed in order to throw off tyranny, oppression, and other evils. To quote the Spider man movie, "With great power come great responsibility." The United States is the most powerful country in the world, we have a great responsibility not only to protect ourselves, but use our power and influence to bring freedom to the rest of the world, and sometimes that includes death to both the good guys and the bad.
By the same token we ought not be warmongers constantly looking for a fight or a reason to kill. There have been times down through the ages when one army has put another to flight at much loss to themselves, and a portion of the victorious army wishes to press their advantage, follow the fleeing army and kill them all. Now perhaps there is a time for this, but most wise leaders will allow their men to heal and recuperate before continuing the war. After the shootings at Virginia Tech, nothing could be done to exact justice, the killer was already dead. After so much senseless death not many people wanted to see any more killing, this was their time to heal. A healthy balance is needed, to say killing is always necessary would be completely wrong, but to say it never is would be equally untrue. There is a time for both.

A time to plant

2008-04-11T18:33:00.000-05:00

Ecc. 3:2b "A time to plant and I time to pluck up that which is planted;" May 16, 2007
I work at a feed and seed store, all year long we sell some kind of seasonal seeds, but during the springtime those sales really take a jump. Everyone is getting their gardens, lawns, and pastures planted, more than any other time of the year this is the time to plant. The ground is warm but not hot and cracked, the weather is conducive, both to the plants and to the planter. When I look at a garden I see much new life springing forth from tiny seeds, and with the right balance of light, water, weeding, and care, those plants will grow to bear much fruit and following the course of nature, reproduce themselves.
The bible speaks of planting in another place as well, in Matt. 3 Jesus tells the parable of the man who sowed all his seeds. The seeds fell in many places, some on the path, some on stony ground, others still among thorns, however a few seeds landed on fertile ground. Those that landed on the path, stayed on top of the packed ground and the birds ate them, the ones that landed on stony ground grew quickly but when it got hot their root system was not enough to support them and just as quickly as they had grown they withered away. The ones that fell among thorns quickly grew as well, but with the thorns already firmly established the plants were choked out. On the contrary all those that fell on fertile ground grew and produced fruit. Jesus' explanation of the parable was that we are the planters, the world is our field, the seeds that were eaten by birds are pictures of those who hear the gospel but Satan immediately takes it away before it can gain root. The seeds that grew on stony ground are those who hear the gospel and receive it for what it can give them in this world, as soon as persecution comes and they realize the gospel doesn't give them much physical gain, they fall away. The seeds thrown among thorns are those who hear and receive the gospel but are choked out by the cares of this world, and their love for it is greater than their love for God. The seeds thrown on fertile ground are those that truly receive the gospel for what it is and do that which nature demands, bear fruit, which holds the very thing necessary for it's reproduction.
There is a time to plant and it is now, while we are on this earth and have a chance to make a difference for eternity. The sower did not stop throwing seeds on the rocky and hard and thorny ground he gave the seed to all the ground that was available to him. Likewise we ought not refrain from witnessing strictly because we think the person is not receptive. We are to proclaim the gospel to all people, plant the seeds in all grounds, and let God grow the plants.

Birth and death.

2008-04-06T21:36:00.000-05:00

Ecc 3:2 “A time to be born, and a time to die.” May 9, 2007
The statement here that there is a time to die, has hit me hard in it’s truth this past week. On Monday morning I found out the mother of one of my church members had died, this is the first death I’ve dealt with in my church family. Then on Thursday morning I got the devastating news that a man that had attended the same college I did up until last year when he graduated, had died as well. This man was a motorcycle policeman named David Young. I was honored to know this man for the short period of time that I did, he was always smiling and I can still hear his booming laugh. Not many people in this community have made such an impact on the city of Florence and Northwest Alabama as a whole. He was not only a father, husband, son, friend, etc. but was also the pastor of a church, as well as his job as a policeman.
Death comes to all of us just as sure as birth did, all who were born must one day die. Whether that death comes to a 90 year old woman in a nursing home, or a 46 year man in a motorcycle wreck, it is still a devastating loss to their families. David left behind a shining reputation, both personally and from all the interviews I’ve read he was a “blameless” man. A man that had no handles for the world to grab onto and drag him down with. I hope as I think David would, that through his death we see much new life. I think David would have wanted his death to bring about a recommitment in Christians, and it has in my life. Though older than I, him and me weren’t much different, we both were graduating college within a year of each other, we both had recently taken our first pastorate, we both had dedicated our lives to preaching of the gospel. His death made me wonder if I were to die tomorrow what kind of reputation I would leave behind.
David’s wife Donna quoted him as often saying “There’s no oops with God”, and that has been one of her greatest comforts. God said there is a time to die, David’s time came a little sooner than we were expecting, but God’s in control of that.
The bible says Samson killed more Philistines in his death than in all of his life, though at one time he slew 1,000 with the jawbone of a donkey. I think David might be our modern Samson, although he influenced and impacted hundreds of people in his life, his death just may be even more influential. As people come out of the woodwork to testify what a man of God this officer was, how the other officers would stop their cursing when he walked in the room. The expectation is that this funeral may be the biggest Florence has ever seen. There is a time to die, but I pray that God would use this death to bring all glory and honor to Himself and that new spiritual births would result from the physical death of this man of God.

2008-04-06T21:20:00.000-05:00

It is a man's duty to have books, a library is not a luxury but one of the necessaries of life.

~Henry Ward Beecher~

For everything a season

2008-04-06T21:01:00.000-05:00

Ecc. 3:1 To everything there is a season and a time to every purpose under the heaven: May 2, 2007
The preacher (as the writer of Ecclesiastes identifies himself) tells us a profound truth in this verse. Contrary to popular belief there are many things that are either considered bad by our society or are in fact bad under most circumstances, which do in fact have a legitimate time and place. Take illegal drugs for example, when used as most people use them, to bring about a high or some other such loss of physical and mental control is wrong, that is not to say that drugs are wrong across the board. Many people have survived a trauma that their body would not have been able to bear without the help of such drugs. God created those plants and he created them for a reason, we can abuse that privilege or we can use it in a proper manner.
God has given us all things for our enjoyment and His glory, we as humans have been given the responsibility to be stewards of this world, whether it be a thing, an action, an animal, we are to exercise dominion over it, that does not mean use it however we want. That does mean that we ought to use all the resources we have in the manner that would bring the most honor to Him. You hear people talking about litter and pollution; you can swing to either end of the pendulum if you wish. The one side will go to the extent of worshiping the creation more than the creature telling us trees and animals have the same rights we do, the other side would tell you humans can do whatever they wish with the earth since we’ve been given dominion over it. Both sides would be wrong, the biblical answer is that there is a time for everything, there is a time to cut down the tree for the natural resources it provides, there is also a time to refrain from cutting down that tree in order to use the land to it’s fullest capabilities.
It is rare in our day and age to see anyone do something or teach something in moderation, we like to generalize things. Really it doesn’t even have to do with our time, we’re told that in the garden Eve said that God had said not to eat the fruit or touch it lest they die. What God had really said was not to eat the fruit, but we humans like to add to God’s word and say something is wrong in all it’s facets when God didn’t really say that. Now don’t get me wrong a sin is a sin, there is not time for adultery, and idol worship is never condoned in the bible. But as I said all the resources God has given us have a designated place in this world, we can use them or abuse them but in the end we will answer to God for what we do.

Strength through unity

2008-04-06T20:55:00.000-05:00

Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. Psa. 133:1 April 25, 2007
The other evening I was reading a pamphlet about the Puritans. Unbeknownst to most, these were the people who really made this country the Christian country it is, the ones who laid the moral foundation our laws were built on. One of the features that struck me about these men was their emphasis on Christian unity. Now don’t misunderstand me they weren’t ecumenical, they did not promote Atheists, Muslims, and Catholics sitting down together with them to call each other brothers in Christ. However they did encourage those who agreed on the fundamental Christian doctrines, to fellowship with one another. Following the teachings of Jesus, Paul, and James, they taught that we ought to lay down our trivial disagreements, and gladly join hands to further the gospel of Christ. John 13:35 tells us that the world knows we are Christ’s disciples by our love for one another.
Have you ever been in the middle of a warm conversation with someone you just met, things are going along fine, until you mention you're Baptist and they're Pentecostal? The conversation comes to an awkward end and you walk away, without ever finding out what he/she was trusting in for salvation. The manmade names we’ve denominated ourselves into, instantly become a barrier between us and one who might have become a life long friend. We allow trivial theological differences, to bring a friendly conversation to an abrupt halt. Why?
We live in a country with incredible religious freedom, and this plays out to our advantage the vast majority of the time. Like everything though, it has its disadvantages. The most obvious one, (especially for those of us in the Bible belt) is the fact that there are a dozen churches of each denomination in each town. If we don’t like the way so-and-so looked at us, or the way so-and-so didn’t look at us, if we think Ms. Sally was rude to us, or Mr. George slighted us, we just up and move to a different church or drop out of church all together. You know who I’ m talking about, the one that you see in the grocery store and quickly duck into the next aisle, so as to avoid having to talk to them. The person you would walk over hot coals to get away from, before you would confront them with the problem and try to make it right. The Puritans didn’t have this luxury, if they thought something was wrong, the only choice they had was the biblical one. They had to go to that person and work it out. It is easier though, to just switch churches and talk about that person behind their back. A godly man once told me "If you're not the problem or the solution, stay out of it!" That advice has saved me a world of trouble.
What do you think would happen, if we Christians decided to quit bickering about the end times and instead focused on today? What if we could stop majoring on the minors, and start deciding what is really important? What relationships would be restored if we would go the extra mile to make sure that there was nothing between us and our brother or sister? What a revival could break out, if we could agree that the bible alone was going to be our measuring stick, and not tradition or men’s words. Along with the Psalmist we could cry “How good and pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity”, if in fact we started practicing it in our daily lives. If we would purpose in our hearts, to be true disciples of Christ, by honestly loving one another at church, at work, or in the grocery store. If Jesus loved them enough to die for them, ought we not to love them too?

Cleansing: Part II

2008-04-05T14:30:00.000-05:00

I John 1:9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
When I wrote my column last week, I was writing from a full heart, my heart that had recently been convicted about my lack of sincerity in my bible reading. However a helpful reader gently pointed out a few flaws in it and challenged me to read it as objectively as possible. When I took their advice I saw what they meant.
The bible is the method of cleansing for a Christian, for those who are lost it does nothing but confuse them. When speaking of salvation, (which is the primary cleansing), nothing but the blood of Jesus Christ is sufficient. Our initial and final wiping away of sins in the eyes of God happens when we call on the name of Jesus Christ the Lord and confess our sins. The bible comes in when I’ve messed up, because even after I’m saved I still continue to sin, as hard as I try not to. When I do end up (paraphrasing Paul) doing the things I would not and not doing the things I would, I am saddened. I hate the feeling of knowing after all God has done for me I’ve failed Him again, I don’t fear losing my salvation any more than I fear being disowned by my dad when I disobey him. What I do fear is falling out of His pleasure, knowing that Jesus died to cover my sins and still somehow I seem to always be wallowing in them.
It is at this time that I go straight to the Word of God, and try to wash my mind and heart in it’s powerful cleansing properties. The reason I rely so heavenly on the bible is not because of it’s inadequacy, but mine. The bible is completely sufficient to remind me how do deal with each and every one of my sins. The problem is, as soon as I get one sin taken care of I seem to commit another one, forcing me to stay in a near constant state of begging for God’s forgiveness and reading His word. I fail so often, it sometimes makes me wonder why it is so hard to stay clean. The conclusion I have come to is that as long as I live in this world surrounded by sin, as long as I am in this frail body I have to lug around, I will not be able to escape sin. That does not stop me from trying though. Every day I strive to become more like my savior and push toward perfection.
I hope I did not cause any confusion in my columns; my goal is to encourage sinners to repentance and believers to righteous living. For a sinner the only way to acceptable repentance is through the blood of Jesus, for a believer the only way to righteous living is a steady diet of spiritual meat, God’s Word. I hope you will all strive with me to start acting more like the savior every day, to fall deeper in love with Him through His word every day, and to encourage our brothers and sisters in Christ to (once again paraphrasing Paul) follow us as we follow Christ.

Cleansing Part I

2008-04-05T14:27:00.000-05:00

Psa 119:9 Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? by taking heed thereto according to thy word.
As a young man myself, this verse has become one of my mainstays in life. I guess all humans stay in an almost constant state of being in need of cleansing, but a young man is open to so many venues of temptation and sin. Who is more likely to be arrogant and full of themselves than a young man? What stage of life does lust occur most often than in the youth? Who has more choices to make concerning the direction of their future than a young man? His occupation, his education, his marriage, where he will settle down, these are all questions that only aid in clouding his mind further. I often stop and wonder what does a young man do that does not make it a habit to read the bible daily? Where does he go to get the answers so desperately needed during this time of life? But, as the verse so clearly states it is not only answers the bible provides but a cleansing. When a man has disobeyed the laws laid out in the word of God, it is only the word of God that can cleanse him from the filth he has gotten himself into. Paul says that Christ uses this same method in the sanctifying and cleansing of His church, Eph. 5:25-27 says “Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.” (Emphasis mine).
Clearly then, the bible does possess spiritual cleansing properties not found in any other thing here on this earth. Why is it then that we try to cleanse ourselves in so many other ways? We somehow think that doing good deeds will cleanse us, as if the good would erase the bad. Or perhaps we are more inclined to think that cleansing occurs by “finding our inner self” and that by taking long periods of time out of the day to sit and clear our minds of all the other things that has clouded them, we can become clean. God on the other hand has designated a much better method of cleansing our minds and spirits, a continual drenching by the scriptures. I once heard a man say that someone had accused him of being brainwashed to which he replied he was glad to be brainwashed by the bible, in fact it was the only way he would want his dirty mind to be washed. We ought to all take up this attitude, that we would give over minds to the truth of scripture. Instead we try to convince ourselves and others that we would read the bible more, if only we had more time. The truth of the matter is we have time for what we make time for. We have time in spades to work, we have plenty of time to take meals thrice daily, we have time to watch the news and ball games, we have time for everything else. How pitiful our excuses sound when laid against reality, how apathetic our lives have become if we can convince ourselves that our time would be better spent working out at the gym than reading the letter God has preserved for 4,000+ years, just for us. I mean not to tirade against watching television or any other such exercise, I only mean to point out what god's we have made unto ourselves. I recently conducted an informal poll, asking the participants how a man could become right in God's eyes. You would be amazed how many people either didn't know, or didn't know “how to explain it”, and we live in the “bible belt”. Unfortunately, our bibles are fast being replaced by TV Guides and newspapers. Why don't we make a resolution to start reading more of the scripture than we currently do, at least a few minutes a day? I attempt to read it for an hour a day and I still don't get the kind of washing this young man daily needs.

Serve the Lord with gladness.

2008-04-05T14:25:00.000-05:00

Psa. 100:2 Serve the Lord with gladness:
David’s Psalms are some of the most uplifting portions of scripture. His songs are filled with praise and adoration, and in this specific passage he commands us to serve the Lord with gladness.
This verse really is two commands in one; the first is to serve the Lord. In our democratic system we have forgotten what it means to be the servant of a sovereign. Three Hundred years ago, our ancestors were probably the subject to some king. No matter what country they lived in, they knew what it was to serve a monarch. In a monarchy, what a king said was law, period. It didn’t have to go through a senate, or a congress, or a parliament. As Christians we live in a monarchy, what God says goes, with or without our consent. He doesn’t ask our permission or advice for any law he sets down. He says to Job in Job 40:2 “Shall he that contedeth with the almighty instruct him? He that reproveth God let him answer.” Job answers wisely and says “Behold I am vile; what shall I answer thee? I will lay my hand upon my mouth.” He understood how to answer God, which is that man cannot talk back to God, His ways are past finding out. We need to reeducate ourselves with the idea of an all sovereign monarch that doesn’t require our say in how he runs his kingdom.
Secondly, David says we ought to serve Him in a specific way, with gladness. It is one thing to do what you’re told it’s another to do it with a good attitude. Every parent knows this, and we tell our children often “Don’t get an attitude about doing what you’re told”. Yet we teach them just the opposite in our actions. We act like it’s an inconvenience to get up and go to church on Sunday, we do go and then grumble and gripe the whole way home because the services didn’t go the way we thought they should have. We make time to go to all the ball games and cheerleader camps, but we tell people “We just don’t have time to do family devotions”. Do we wonder why our children aren’t serving us with gladness? Maybe it’s because we show them it’s unimportant to serve those who have authority over us with gladness, namely the ultimate authority God.
What if we started serving God as a king instead of a CEO? What if served him with gladness instead of begrudgingly? Do you think it would send a different message to our children, to our coworkers?
What has God done for us his children? He has saved us from eternal damnation, He has promised not to keep us from trouble, but to help us get through it, and He has made us not only servants (which would be privilege enough) but joint heirs with Jesus Christ. Is this not reason for service? Is this not reason enough for joyful service? Let us resolve in our hearts, like Job, to obey God’s orders without question, to lay our hands over our mouths and keep from talking back. Then let’s attempt to show all the world around us that we are happy to serve so great a God as ours. To show them that He has made us a little lower than the angels, though we were worthy of nothing short of death. To show the world that we will serve the Lord with gladness.

This is the day

2008-04-04T15:31:00.000-05:00

Psa 118:24 "This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it."
With springtime upon us, we all enjoy getting outdoors and getting busy in the warm sunlight. It seems like everyone has caught a case of cabin fever and since we can finally get outdoors, we are all a bustle with our spring cleaning, (or any other excuse we can come up with to get outside). We bask in the sun, listen to the birds chirping, and watch the flowers bud all around us. It’s easy to rejoice in this day that the Lord has made, and rightly so, we should rejoice and thank God for these days. But what about the days when the sun is not shining so brightly? Or perhaps it is a nice day outside, but inside ourselves our spirit is darkened. Something as simple as a change in the weather or as complex as an unexpected financial burden comes our way, it is on those days that it is hardest to rejoice in the day that the Lord has made, instead we become so focused on the things we are going through, that we forget to take time to rejoice in these times as well.
James said that we should “Count it all joy” when we are confronted with temptations, “Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.” (Jam. 1:2, 3) We too know that when we make it through a trial we are often stronger because of it, but as the old saying goes, “Hindsight is 20-20”. We can say that when a couple goes through a trying time it only serves to strengthen their marriage, but when they are actually going through it that’s a small consolation. Life is never a smooth and easy road for long, no one said it would be, but if we can have the foresight to make the best of our bad times, it will make it an easier road altogether.
There is a lot to be said for rejoicing, I know personally that when something bad happens, I have two choices. I can
A. Complain to those around me about what is happening.
B. Take it, deal with it and make the best of it.
When I choose A. I do nothing to make the situation better; I only drag everyone else into it with me. Unfortunately, that is what we normally choose, because misery loves company. However, if I should choose B. the situation can only be improved. Interestingly enough, it is a scientific fact that if you force yourself to react positively on the outside, when inside you feel like shooting somebody, it will change the way you feel after a while. Go ahead and try it one time, when you really feel rotten, smile and start whistling, as much as you’ll hate the feeling. See if after two or three minutes you’re not laughing at yourself.
Whatever the situation, let’s all try to be a little more optimistic about our lives. Let’s try to be cheerful even when we don’t feel like it, and rejoice in the day that the Lord has given us. Because whether we like the way the day is going or not, it is still the day the Lord has made and He is worthy of praise for it.

Puritan Prayers

2008-04-04T15:11:00.000-05:00

“The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.” Jam 5:16
I recently taught a Christian Biography class on one John Flavel. Flavel believed that James 5:16 was the answer to a Christian’ s troubles, not to take a deep breath and count to ten, or to start exercising, or take a nap; but to honestly get alone with God and talk it out with Him. Flavel did not just talk the talk, he actually walked the walk. On one occasion he publicly agonized with God, that God would watch over a number of sailors that were about to sail from Dartmouth to engage in a great sea battle. Every man that sailed from thence returned home safe! There was no small stir among the people in the town, that God had miraculously answered John Flavel’s prayer. In today's society the reaction is about the same. You will hear people say things like “What a coincidence”, or other such remarks, that try to give the glory to anything but God. In our scientifically enlightened age, we blindly assume that God could not actually have intervened in the lives of men. We have been indoctrinated since youth with the idea that Science and God do not mix, when the truth is they are inextricably entwined. Can the painter and the painting coexist? The Author and the book, the carpenter and the building? Of course, without a creator there would be no creation.
So why are we so determined to believe that God couldn't actually answer the prayers of His children? We're told in James, “Ye have not, because ye ask not. Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts” (Jam. 4:2,3) I’m afraid the answer is that we pray for the things we lust for, instead of praying for those things that put us in mean estate and elevate God. We’ve been praying according to our lusts and when God doesn't give us what we asked for we begin to think that maybe God doesn’t really hear us. Praying as a righteous man entails praying for righteous things. God is not our genie in a bottle that will come out to grant all our wishes, every time we rub him the right way. Instead He is a holy God that does all His holy will, when we pray inside His will He will grant our requests. Think of a father, if his son were to ask for a candy bar every night before dinner, the father would probably regularly deny his son’s petition, even though the child thinks it is in their best interest. Now if the same son were in tune to what his father’s wishes were, he might ask for an opportunity to set the table, not that that would be instantly gratifying, but because in the long run it would be in sync with what the father had planned.
Let’s commit in our hearts that we will renew our relationship with the Father. That we will regularly talk with God about all aspects of our lives, and if He doesn’t always give us what we think we need, we can rest assured that His way is always better than ours. Let’s be so in sync with His will, by reading His word every day that we would know what it is He wants for us. Let's pray not for our own lusts, but that God's will would always be done.