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Paul's Prayer in Colossians 4

2012-01-25T16:18:00.001-06:00

One of my convictions that I am writing more and more about is the difference between how we typically pray and what we pray for in our churches. By comparing his prayer in Scripture to our prayer at church, I believe we can see why we are lacking in power and impact.

Prayerof Paul Colossians 4:2-6

“Devote yourselves to prayer; stay alert in it with thanksgiving. 3 At thesame time, pray also for us that God may open a door to us for the message, to speak the •mystery of the •Messiah, for which I am in prison, 4 so that I may reveal it as I am required to speak. 5 Act wisely toward outsiders, making themost of the time. 6 Your speech should always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that youmay know how you should answer each person.”

Sunday1/22/12 we finished looking at this passage in The Pursuit College Class atWestside Baptist Church. In the previouspost, I broke down our discussion for vs. 2.

At thispoint, vs. 3, Paul begins asking for prayer for himself. Considering his circumstances, what he asksfor is unexpected. He is currently inprison in Rome.

If Iwas in prison, especially unjustly or because of persecution, I would be askingpeople to pray for my release. If Iwanted a door to be opened, it would be the door to my cell. I find it odd that he didn’t ask for this.

TheChurch and Paul had seen their share of prison doors being opened. Peter was walked out of a prison cell eventhough he was chained and guarded. Paulwas set free by an earthquake after a night of praising God. If Paul wanted out of prison, he knew his Godcould do it.

But anopen prison door is not what he asked for.

Instead,he wants people to ask God to pray for an open door to the message of Christ. He wants more opportunity to do the verything that put him in prison in the first place: speaking the message of theMystery of Christ.

What isthat Mystery? Paul says it as if heexpects his readers to know. It’s notsupposed to be an unknown. It’s notsupposed to be a secret. He is trying to“speak it clearly” (NIV) or “reveal” this great mystery.

Thisfull disclosure of the mystery is a strong contrast to the heresy he wascombating in this book: an early form of Gnosticism. “Gnosis” is the Greek word forKnowledge. This philosophy taught thatthere was a hidden and secret knowledge that had to be learned from them. They taught that the message of Paul and theapostles was incomplete—you had to join their group, learn the secrethandshakes and go through their rituals in order to learn the real secrets of salvationand the universe. You needed thesesecrets in order to obtain salvation, to please God and truly accomplishanything in this existence.

Paulrejects this, which is why he repeatedly uses words like “all”, “every”, and“fullness” throughout chapter 1, particularly verses 9-10: “… asking Godto FILL you with the knowledge (epignosis) of His will through ALL spiritualwisdom and understanding. And we praythis in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please Him inEVERY way: bearing fruit in EVERY good work, GROWING in the knowledge(epignosis) of God.”

We canbe filled with experiential knowledge without anything held back or keptsecret.

Remember this was the originallie from Genesis 3—that God was holding out on you, He’s keeping someknowledge to Himself because He doesn’t want the competition of others “being like[Him]”. We don’t need the secrets of theGnostics to be able to please God, to bear fruit or grow in our relationshipwith Him.

Whatsecrets or mysteries there are, Paul wants to reveal and bring out into theopen because that is the basis and foundation of the Good News. It is the same thing that Peter identifies assomething even the angels long to look into—the efforts & lengthsthroughout history God has gone to in order to bring about salvation of sinfulpeople & reconciliation--reconciliation between God and man, and Jew &Gentile.

Romans16:25
“Now to Him who has power to strengthen you according to my gospel and theproclamation about Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the •mysterykept silent for long ages 26 but now revealed and made knownthrough the prophetic Scriptures, according to the command of the eternal God toadvance the obedience of faith among all nations — 27 to the only wiseGod, through Jesus Christ —to Him be the glory forever!•Amen.”

TheScriptures have been telling a story of what God is doing –“kept silent forlong ages”—see also Ephesians 3:5 & 3:9 for similar statements ofthings hidden in past generations.

Paul saysthe “Mystery”, what has been unknown to previous generations, what thePatriarchs & Prophets were looking forward to, the Scriptures testifying to;he says this has now been revealed and made known—it is no longer hidden.

It is theMystery of how God could restore all of Creation to it’s true purpose beforethe Corruption, the seemingly impossible task of making sinful humanity a NewCreation, reconciling and restoring relationship between God and humanity (Eph.3: 12—“through faith in Him we may approach God with freedom andconfidence”).

Includedin the Mystery is the reconciliation of the division between Jew & Gentile(Eph. 3:6—“this mystery is that through the gospel the Gentiles areheirs together with Israel, members together of one body…”—see also Romans11:25) all of this is “accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord”.

God hadbeen pointing forward in the Old Testament Scriptures to the Promise and comingof the Messiah—it was a mystery because there was not full disclosure, but itwas also something we could never have imagined.

If Iwas going to plan a way to save the world—sending Jesus to the Cross would nothave been how I pulled it off. It trulyis foolishness and a stumbling block.

Paulwas asking people to pray that he have even more opportunities to explain thismystery. It’s not something that issupposed to be kept secret but proclaimed from the rooftops. He wants prayer for when those moments come,he will express it all clearly, reveal it powerfully in such a way thatconnects to the heart of the hearer(s). This is despite the fact that it’s his efforts at explaining the Mysteryis the very thing that has landed him in jail and got him in so muchtrouble—see 2 Corinthians 11:21-28 for a list of his experiences.

Butthose hardships also opened the door of opportunity. For example see Philippians 1:12-13—“NowI want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served toadvance the gospel. As a result, it hasbecome clear throughout the whole palace guard and to everyone else that I amin chains for Christ.”

Apparently,Paul’s guards were getting an earful; and in an opportune reversal, Paul wasnot the captive audience! This isconsistent with early church and Roman history that Christianity madesignificant advances among people in the military.

Paul isthere being held for trial before Roman authorities, possibly Caesar himselfbecause of his arrest in Jerusalem. Andhe is not asking for justice or leniency but rather that he would be able toexplain his cause, the Gospel, clearly: even to the officials deciding hisfate.

In thatregard, he returns to instructing and praying for his readers to “act wiselytoward outsiders”. He does this for afew reasons. First, some outsiders tothe cause of Christ are dangerous. Tothem, we must follow the command of Jesus to be “wise as serpents and innocentas doves”—Matthew 10:16. Second,while some outsiders are dangerous, not all of them are—do not turn everythinginto an “us v. them” mentality because that effects the third reason:

All Outsidersare Potential Insiders

—andhow you act toward or respond to them can make a difference. If someone is going to reject the Gospel, Paulwants it to be because of the actual claims and teachings of Jesus—he doesn’twant to be the reason. He understands,as we should, that many outsiders judge Jesus based not on Him or Histeachings, but because of what they see out of us—the people who are supposedto be like Him.

Bewise, be discerning and attentive. Makethe most of every opportunity. If yousense an openness to hearing about Jesus—do not let fear of what may happen toyou or embarrassment keep you quiet. IfGod opens a door—be paying attention enough to notice it, then ask for theboldness to step through that door.

Thisalso implies that not every moment, not every encounter, not every conversationis an open door to share the Gospel because that door may be temporarilyshut. Be wise and discerning.

Surelyyou know those people who turn every conversation into something aboutJesus. Many non-believers and even somebelievers find the person frustrating or annoying. Now don’t get me wrong, I can be one of thosepeople. Many conversations can andshould be turned to address spiritual needs or questions and can be done easilywithout feeling forced. But there aretimes when such a transition is forced. Sometimes you and I just need to enjoy a conversation about football orsome other topic and demonstrate that we can be related to.

Butagain, if the Holy Spirit reveals a way to direct the conversation to theGospel, don’t talk yourself out of it! Make the most of the opportunity and the prompting of the Spirit—don’tworry about what you will say but trust the Spirit to give you the words. Don’t worry about the results for truly onlyGod softens hearts. Do not fear your friends’opinions, rather fear the LORD and concern yourself with His opinion. Be a servant of Jesus and not a slave to yourfear.

“Your speech should always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that youmay know how you should answer each person.”

If you wantto make the most of the opportunity, how you talk, what you talk about, eventhe words you use does make a difference. The conversation of a believer needs to be full of grace. If we are constantly complaining, constantlygossiping about others, constantly tearing someone else down or blaming someonefor things that are wrong—then our joy is not on display and we prove ourselvesto be hypocrites. Jesus himself said in Matthew15:18—“but the things that come out of the mouth come from theheart…”. The list that follows showsthat our speech displays our hearts and thoughts of hatred, lust, lying andslander.

Ourconversation must be gracious but also seasoned with “salt”. On one hand, salt makes food and things more“tasty” or appealing & palatable. But I believe in this context, salt represents the Truth. Truth is not always something people want tohear but we as believers should not shy away from it.

It ispossible to be sharing the truth in a harmful or hurtful way. Much has been said of “Bible thumpers” andpeople who are so harsh in their condemnation that the truth of what they aresaying is lost.

An opendoor, an opportunity to share Christ must be met with both Grace &Truth. If you lack either, then you arenot making the most of the opportunity, nor proclaiming the Mysterious GoodNews clearly. Some people are so“gracious” in their conversation that they never confront an uncomfortablesubject or an inconvenient truth for fear of offending. I can understand that.

Iimagine doctors hate having to tell their patients the bad news of theirdiagnosis. However, that doctor would bea failure if out of fear of a hard conversation rather told their patient that“everything was alright.” On the flipside, many doctors can reveal the truth of a diagnosis without any sense of a“bedside manner” and they come across cruel and heartless.

Jesussaid it is not the healthy who need a doctor but the sick. He did not come to call the righteous, butsinners to repentance. The diagnosis isthat a person is a sinner and in need of the cure that comes through Jesus’work on the Cross. If your conversationhas all grace, you may never point out this truth. If your conversation has no grace, the truthof their situation may contribute to them avoiding the needed cure.

Graceand Truth must be a necessary part of making the most of everyopportunity. We as a church need to bepraying and asking God for these things and when we do, we will be able “toanswer everyone.”

God, please open a door ofopportunity for me, our church to share Jesus
God, please help me reveal thetruth of the Good News Clearly
God, help me be wise towardthose who do not yet know You
God, help me recognize thosemoments of opportunity and have boldness to speak
God, fill my conversation withgrace and truth.
God, I know I don’t have all theanswers, but You do. Help me answer andrespond to everyone—always being prepared (see 1 Peter 3:15-16)

Three Lessons on Prayer from Colossians 4

2012-01-16T16:31:00.000-06:00

In thecollege Sunday school class at Westside Baptist Church, we’ve been goingthrough the prayers of Paul. It’s been agood class. As always, I don’t alwaysknow where it’s going to end up. Andseveral of the students made good contributions.

Today wewere going over Paul’s prayer in Colossians4:2—“Devote (diligent or steadfast) yourselves to prayer; stay alert init with thanksgiving.”

We learnthree things about prayer in the passage.

1. Prayerrequires devotion/diligence/steadfastness

2. Prayer requires Watchfulness/Alertness

3. Prayer requires Thankfulness

1. Prayerneeds deliberate attention and a part of our daily existence.

Not to beneglected, taken for granted or ignored. We have the opportunity to approach the throne of grace by God’s invitation.

Prayer canbe easy—there are times when it comes naturally and flows from the heart justlike breathing. Sometimes waking up inthe morning is like that. In manyinstances, difficulty or trouble causes prayer to roll off the tongue becausewe are asking for help.

But prayercan also be hard. There are times when Idon’t want to go to God in prayer. It’susually after I have messed up in some way. Praying when I know I need to repent is difficult. It’s sometimes hard when He is not doing whatI think He should—when I’m angry, confused or upset. It’s hard when

I’ve been asking or prayingabout the same thing for a long time, but not seen any movement or activityfrom Him (that I can tell).

We must bedevoted to Prayer, steadfast and diligent in it—showing commitment andperseverance. We should not quit or giveup because to do so is a sign that you really don’t believe God is going tohear or act—or you do not trust His answer. For example, sometimes I pray like a child asks a parent forpermission—I try to figure out which one will give me the answer I want andI’ll ask them first. Well, if I think Iknow God is not going to answer, or think He’s not going to give the answer Iwant, I won’t want to pray.

Prayerdoesn’t always come easily or naturally, so we must be diligent in it. It should be a part of your nature and who youare, like in the movie

Shadowlands where Anthony Hopkins as C.S. Lewis says ofprayer:

"I pray because I can't help myself. I pray because I'm helpless. I pray because the need flows out of me all the time, waking and sleeping. It doesn't change God. It changes me."

2. Butwhy do we need to be Watchful or Alert in prayer?

How is that possiblesince we typically close our eyes during prayer (at least in our culture)? Maybe it means something more than physicalsight.

One of mycollege students brilliantly pointed out that maybe our prayer time is a momentto be practicing and honing our “ninja senses”. We all laughed at the comment, but maybe it’s not as far off as youmight first think. There are two ways Ithink he is on to something.

First, weneed to be watchful or alert in prayer for the opportunity to pray and bringsomething before God. People are hurtingall around us, people are in need. Moments of ministry and encouragement are there right before us, but ifwe are not paying attention, the door of opportunity will slip by.

We have notbecause we ask not, Jesus said. Paraphrasing…we see not (no answer to prayer) because we do not see the opportunity to prayand ask.

There aremany more things that we should be praying for and bringing before God but wedon’t see them as a need or something that merits praying about.

Maybe we see them as trivial andinsignificant, maybe we’re so caught up in our own life and what’s happening inthat moment, that we don’t allow our mind to move toward prayer.

Nothing istoo trivial. But we are way toodistracted. We don’t like uncomfortablesilences, so we are not comfortable with our own thoughts.

We’ve always got to have noise, the TV on,music playing… while those things are not wrong, they do often prevent our mindfrom thinking and considering its own thoughts and concerns.

And becauseof that, we need to be Watchful and Alert for the Opportunity for Prayer.

Second, weneed to be watchful and alert because Prayer truly is the front lines of theBattle. We do have an enemy that isprowling around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. We do have armor that we are supposed to puton in fighting the battle that is not against flesh and blood.

In thatcontext of the Armor of God from Ephesians 6, Paul brings up the subject ofprayer. Ephesians 6:18—“And prayin the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests.”

Paul urgesus to pray in the Spirit because it doesn’t happen automatically and doesn’tcome naturally. Our mind does wander,our worries do overwhelm us. We don’tnecessarily take the situation or our enemy seriously so we just go through themotions.

That lastpoint is worth hitting a little harder. Think of the experience of our military personnel. When the enemy is openly firing, everybody istense and paying close attention to the battle. When you know the enemy is there and you just haven’t found him yet,you’re listening for any stray sound, watching for any stray movement, carefulfor traps and ambush points.

But thelonger the enemy has been inactive or not a threat, the more relaxed our guardbecomes. We don’t listen as carefully. In essence, we are not taking the enemyseriously and so we are less watchful and alert.

That is thestate of many believers today. We do notdirectly feel threatened by the enemy. Too many of us dismiss the spiritual battle and old superstition frompeople who didn’t know how to explain what’s going on the world. In some cases, that’s true.

But theenemy is very real and demands our full attention. In the moments that we lose that sense ofbattle, when we think everything is fine, we lose the urgency of prayer.

And so weare not devoted to it and we are more likely to be going through the motions ifwe go through them at all.

3. Lastly,we must be Thankful

Thankfulnessrequires recognition: recognition that what you have or where you are is notmerely a product of your own accomplishments and ingenuity.

Thankfulness requires that we acknowledgethat Active involvement of someone greater than ourselves for our existence andcircumstances.

The oldexpression of 2 Certain Truths, comes to mind.

1. There is a God.

2. I’mnot/You’re not Him

If youreally believe that, then you will acknowledge that with Thankfulness. Thankfulness is giving Him credit, honoringHim, acknowledging that He is the greater, the Sovereign Power before whom youhave been granted an audience.

Realize thatGod is not obligated in any way to hear our prayer. He is not obligated to respond in any way toour prayer.

He couldconsider them a nuisance much like Jim Carrey’s character did in BruceAlmighty. In the movie, Jim Carreythinks he can do a better job than God at running the universe. So God gives him a shot at it.

In one brilliantscene, Jim is supposed to answer people’s prayer. When he listens, all the voices overwhelmhim, so he sets up a computer system, like e-mail to respond. He works as fast as he can but the number ofprayers and requests keeps on climbing to which he responds, “What a bunch ofwhiners!”

That couldbe God’s opinion of us. Most otherreligions, especially ancient Babylonian depicted their gods being annoyed bythe noisy humans. But our God does notwant us at a distance. He wants us closeand invites us into His presence (Hebrews 4:16, 10:19-22, 1 John 3:21-22). He considers the prayer of His people a pleasingaroma rising to Him like the burning of incense (Revelation 5:8). Even when we don’t know what to pray for, wehave the Holy Spirit interceding on our behalf with more than we can express (Romans8:26-27).

We have anaudience with the King, the Creator of the Universe. We owe Him our very existence and every dayis a gift. The relationships we havewith family and friends are gifts. Ourpossessions, our opportunities, are all for His Glory.

If we reallyunderstood that, believed that, and lived that… Thankfulness would pour out ofour mouths and prayer wouldn’t really be all that hard. We would be compelled to pray because we knowwe have the audience of the king—

Such momentscannot be squandered or wasted. We musttake seriously that time before Him. Wemust be watchful and alert or risk disrespecting the awesome power andauthority and dignity He possesses. Andwe must be thankful for those precious moments, when the Authority lowers Hisguard and invites us up into His lap as a Father who truly loves us.

May we beevermore Devoted to Prayer

May we beevermore Alert & Watchful through Prayer

May we beevermore Thankful in Prayer

Our lives,our churches and this world would truly be changed.

Pursuing Answers to Questions of Faith & Life

Annual-- "How Well do you Know the First Christmas?" Post

2011-12-16T16:17:00.000-06:00

HowWell Do You Know the First Christmas?

There is so much in these birth narratives that we miss or read over because wethink we know the story already or because our mind has been so cluttered bythe popular depictions that we don’t study carefully what the text actuallysays.

Thebirth narratives of Jesus are found in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke.

1. What is the traditional story of Mary & Joseph's journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem?

The traditional picture has a tired and desperate Mary & Josephtrudging/rushing into Bethlehem.They are all alone, there’s no AAA Roadside Assistance, there’s no hospital,they know no one. All the Inn’s or Motel 6’s have No Vacancy and so thanks tothe backhanded generosity of a sour innkeeper, Mary & Joseph are banishedto the barn where she is already in labor and almost immediately has the babyJesus. Then the Shepherds appear following a star because not far behind themare the 3 Kings bearing gifts. They all form a nice little huddle around theManger and the baby Jesus.

There’s nothing inherently wrong with this picture—it’s the most popular—but isit the most accurate to the biblical texts?

2. Were they traveling alone? What biblical evidence do you have to supportthey were not alone?

We get a few clues to suggest they were not traveling alone.

First, in Luke 2, since everyone had to travel to their own hometown toregister—it’s safe to assume that other people had to do some traveling toregister as well—including their family who also would have to go to Bethlehem.

Second, Bethlehemwas full of travelers—they had to get there somehow—they would have used thesame roads that Mary & Joseph used.

Third has to do with the time of year the events actually occurred which we’llget to later—let’s just say that in order for them to get to Bethlehem, Mary& Joseph had to pass through Jerusalem (Bethlehem is about 5 miles South ofJerusalem whereas Nazareth is considerably north of Jerusalem)—Jerusalem wasthe center of political and religious life in Israel so pilgrims of all sortswere on the roads to Jerusalem all the time.

Fourth, most people traveled in family groups or with friends wheneverpossible. You see evidence of Joseph & Mary doing this just a few verseslater (Luke 2:41-44) when Jesus was 12 years old. Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem when J & Mleft for home. They were traveling in such a large group, they couldn’t seeJesus and assumed He was running around with someone else.

3. When was the baby born?

a. Mary barely made it into town
b. The first night
c. Some time later

Luke 2:6 says “while they were there, the time came for the baby to be born”.The implication of that statement is that M & J arrived in Bethlehem and sometime before they went home,Jesus was born. Luke was a very precise writer—and even though he’s giving aquick summation of some things—if there was a panicked rush to get to Bethlehem, he could havesaid so. The language is of a much slower series of events. So the idea thatshe was in labor as they ran into Bethlehem,desperately pounding on doors is not particularly accurate. So they may have beenthere for a few days or even weeks before she went into labor.

Given the later accounts of the Magi in Matthew—it’s obvious that J & Mstayed in Bethlehemfor a long time.

4. Does that change the nature of the location of Jesus’ birth if ithappened some time later—in other words, couldn’t Joseph had found some otherplace after a while?

If they had been there for a few days at least, then the likelihood that Josephcouldn’t find any place to stay is a stretch. After some time, he would havebeen able to find something and they would not have been cast out to the animalpens. Why would they go there then? We’ll talk about that later.

5. Were Mary & Joseph alone while in Bethlehem? What is the likelihood that theyknew anyone in town?

The traditional picture is them alone and afraid. But why were they going to Bethlehem in the firstplace? It was their family home. They both were of the line of David. Not allof the family would have moved away from Bethlehem.Some of them stuck around—and they would have had some good records ortradition of who is related to who and where they are in the line of potentialsuccessors for David’s throne. Family relationships and connections wereimportant for that culture and Joseph or Mary probably had relatives that stilllived there that they could have gone to and asked for a place to stay or helpwith the pregnancy. With annualpilgrimages, they would have visited family often.
Yet if that were the case, why would they have to go out to the animals? Thatwould be affected by several things one being the nature of the place they werestaying.

First, let’s look at something that isn’t obviously related, but it is.

6. Luke 22:10-12—describes a room... what was this room like?

In this passage, Jesus is preparing for the Passover feast and He sends Peter& John in to find the right place—He says—“He replied, "As you enterthe city, a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him to the housethat he enters, 11 and say to the owner of the house, `The Teacher asks: Whereis the guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?' 12 He willshow you a large upper room, all furnished. Make preparations there."

This “guestroom” was a large room that many houses had for family gatherings,meals, or visiting relatives—it was big, generally open and several familiescould sleep there at the same time.

If you didn’t know, Luke uses some of the best Greek in the New Testament,fitting for his life as a physician. He is precise in his words and this isimportant.

7. Back in Luke 2, the word “Inn” is the same as in Luke 22? How does thischange the picture of the passage?

Interestingly, the word that Luke uses in ch. 22 translated “guestroom” is thesame one used in ch. 2 translated “inn”. The problem is that “inn” carries manydifferent connotations—our mind pictures something like a Motel 6—largebuilding with many small rooms that you can rent for the night. If Joseph wasthere for an extended stay—at least 33 days according to Leviticus 12 forMary’s purification (Luke 2:22) this would quickly become an expensive venture.

As shown by their sacrifice of 2 small doves in the temple and not a lamb—theymay not have been well off financially—much less able to stay in a Bethlehem motel forseveral months.

But if the word is not translated “Inn” but guestroom, then the situationchanges. If they really had family in town, then that would have been the placethey would have gone for lodging. And if the family’s upper room/guest room wasfull—it was probably full of other family. There’s a reason why all thosefamily members would have been there in Bethlehem,which I’ll get to in just a moment. But it’s very likely that these people werenot strangers but cousins, aunts, uncles, and others who would be traveling to Bethlehem.

8. Typically we see Mary & Joseph as being banished to the stable. Howcould going to the stables have been a good thing for them?

The problem wasn’t that they were alone and desperate, or that there werecruel, heartless innkeepers who wouldn’t bother to find them a spot—the greaterproblem was that there was a lot of people—and even a lot of family and friendsis no place to have a baby!

How many women do you know that want to have a baby in a crowded room whereeverybody and their dog could watch. Sure, some have given birth on a plane, inthe mall, but certainly that wasn’t their first choice!

So going to the room for animals—likely something built onto the house itselfor even under the upper room—was a good thing, a helpful thing, a privacything. There, they won’t have to worry about people watching, kids trippingover them or all the other inconveniences a woman in labor would want to avoid.Not to mention all of the ceremonial uncleanness that a birth brings with it (Idon't have time to look it up right now)

Similarly, since the birth didn’t happen the moment of arrival, I’m sure theyhad the opportunity to make sure the place was cleaned up or prepared for Maryto have a baby down there. Going to the stable was a good thing for Mary.

The stable would have given privacy, if they were really around family, thenJoseph would not have been the only attendant Mary had, but other related womenwho had been through the process before themselves. They may even have known alocal mid-wife to assist in the delivery.

9. Was Jesus really born on December 25th?

The likely time that shepherds would be out in the fields at night isspringtime, while the lambs were being born. The shepherds were out to guardand assist their flocks in their deliveries. That would put Jesus’ birth closerto Passover.

In which case—the reason that Bethlehem wascrowded would not have just been because of the census—but because of all thetravelers going to Jerusalemfor Passover. It would have made the roads packed with faithful Jewish men andwomen who were required to go to Jerusalemfor the observance. So the image of the lone travelers is even more unlikely.It also makes the ceremonial uncleanness of the birth all the moresignificant--perhaps even excluding Joseph from assisting her if he intended toparticipate in Passover.

The census was taken over a period of time (even years from its issuing) sothere was not a hard deadline for Joseph to meet—so presumably, he combined hisregistration in Bethlehem with hisregular/annual trip to Jerusalem.

The other interesting imagery is the fact that one of the titles Jesus is givenin Scripture is the “Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world”. Toparticipate in Passover, Jewish family had to sacrifice a year old male lamb.These sacrifices were to Atone for the sins of the family. The sacrifice onlycovered the sin—the unintentional sins. There was no sacrifice for deliberatesins and they certainly didn’t take away sin or it’s consequence. But that iswhat Jesus, the Lamb of God was promised to do.

The very lambs that the shepherds were watching born in front of them would benext year’s offering—but they were able to bear witness to an even better Lamb,that could do even more.

10. Why is it unusual for shepherds to be witnesses to this event?

Ironically, even though the shepherds provided the most important element ofthe festival, by this time, shepherds were not high on the social ladder inJewish society. They were the fringe elements, not a part of the upscale, citycommunity.
These were the elements called to be the first witnesses and first testifiersto the Messiah. Why them? In many ways, it was a call back to or a reminder oftheir roots. Shepherds may have been outsiders to the community, but they werethe original foundation of the community. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob were allshepherds. As was Moses—as was the great King David.

To reject the shepherds was to reject their roots. The community had not grownpast them, they still needed them and in many ways, needed the simplicity offaith and trust in God they represented, which the Jewish community had oncehad, but had in many ways lost.

11. How did the Shepherds find Mary, Joseph & Jesus?

The traditional nativity scene has M & J, the shepherds and the wise men allgathered around a manger. Often, when you ask this question, many will say theshepherds were guided by the star, just like the wise men. But as we’ll getinto in the next question—they didn’t get there on the same night of the birth(for that to happen, the “star” they saw would have to have appeared monthsbefore Jesus’ actual birth—God could have done this, btw).

The shepherds were just told about the 2 signs—wrapped in cloths & lying ina manger. They didn’t get an address, a street name, or a general vicinity ofwhere they would actually find the baby. There was no star mentioned in Lukethat guided them to the right house.

So, how did they know where to go? At most Bethlehem was a few thousand people—maybethey listened for the cries of a newborn. Maybe they looked for the only oneswith a fire still lit. Maybe God picked them on the side of the town that theywould reach first. Maybe they tried several places before finding the rightone.

Or, speculatively speaking, since this was M & J’s family town—what ifthese shepherds were relatives and merely went home first, or relatives whoalready knew they had a visitor who was expecting a baby. Shepherds returningfrom the fields probably would go into the animal’s room first. Interestingpossibility.

12 How many Magi were there?

We sing, “We Three Kings” so it must be three, right? Tradition even gives usnames. But Scripture never says how many Magi came, just that they brought 3different types of gifts—gold, frankincense and myrrh. Ancient depictions,stained glass and such—teaching tools with limited room depicted one person tohold a gift each representing the different types.

But again, by custom, most traveled in large groups. These were practicallyambassadors and political representatives, as evidenced by the fact that theyfirst went to Jerusalemand sought Herod. A small entourage, would not do for such dignitaries.

The amount of their gifts was not necessarily something one man could carrydespite the many inescapable pictures that suggest otherwise.

I’m of the mind that there wasn’t only 3 representatives, but more.

13. When did the Magi arrive?

As mentioned, unless the star appeared months before Jesus’ actual birth,there’s no way they could have been there the night of. In the east, the wisemen saw a star that pointed them to a King being born to the kingdom of theJews. They would have to see it, interpret it, decide what to do about it,prepare for the journey and then make the trip up the Euphrates river, westalong the fertile crescent, then south through Syria and the coastalterritories—a several month long journey.

This would put Jesus a year old or more by the time of their arrival—they hadto wait for circumcision, they have to wait 30+ days for Mary to be purified sothey could offer their sacrifice. When Herod later gave the orders to kill anyboy under 2 years—you’ve got to figure that this is an effort to cover Hisbases and not miss anyone.

14. Why would Magi from a distant land care what was going on in Jerusalem?

For some reason, these Magi—practicing astrologers, interpreted their signs topoint to the Kingdom of the Jews. But why would that sign have sent them off onsuch a long and uncertain journey? Hey, a new king in Israel… that’snice… somebody hand me the remote. Why would they care so much about the goingson in Israelthat they would go there?

It’s important to remember where they were supposed to be from. It is generallyunderstood that these men from the east were in the Mesopotamian river valleys…between the Tigris & Euphrates rivers. What would have been prominentterritories in the biblical kingdoms of Assyria,Babylonia & Persia. In other words, modern day Iraqand Iran

This is the general area and territory where the Jewish exiles were taken bydifferent governments. Most of the Jews never returned home even after theywere given special permission by King of Persia. They didn’t leave, but stayedwith many keeping their faith, their traditions and even Scriptures. So therewas an Old Testament witness and community where these Magi were from. If I’mnot mistaken, even today some of these countries have a small Jewishpopulation.

So if nothing else, these Magi would have had access or awareness of Jewishteaching and Scripture—making the homeland important. With the influences ofpeople like Daniel or Esther in high government—some may have begun to takethem very seriously.

Of course, another powerful possibility is that these men were themselvesJewish or had some Jewish heritage. In other words, their ancestors had watchedother Jews pack up and go back to Jerusalembecause they had a desire to be restored to God. I’m sure there were many whotalked about it for generations, many who wondered what it would have been likeif they had returned. In reading the scriptures, the psalms, the laments, theprophets and their heart for the land, the Temple, the Promise of God—eventhese Wise Men may have had their hearts wondering about the glory of theTemple.

If they were themselves Jewish—it is an awesome reminder of God’s call to comehome.

Even though most stayed behind and didn’t return with the remnant, God stillfound a way to reach out to them—that hope that they had heard of, the promiseof a Messiah for their people—was still something God would remind them of.

And so their hearts—longing for the fulfillment of God, longing for thehomeland, wondering if God would still be faithful to His promise, wondering ifGod would still allow them to be a part of it—drove their hearts to make such along and uncertain Journey.

15. Why did they go to Herod first?

It’s no wonder they went to Jerusalemfirst. Jerusalemwas the center of religious and political power. A future king would morelikely be born to the current king. But God doesn’t work the way we think Heshould—the obvious is rarely what He uses.

So they went to Jerusalem, alerted King Herod,gained further specifics from scripture—Micah 5:2 that the Messiah would beborn in Bethlehemand continued.
But there’s something else interesting here. It seems the star that startedtheir journey did not guide them all along the way. If so, they would neverhave stopped or turned aside to Jerusalem.Maybe they couldn’t interpret what a stopped guiding star would look like. Butin any event, they were asked by Herod to make a careful search for the child.If they were relying on the star at that point, then why would they have to“search”.

But upon leaving Jerusalem,something changed—now the star was much more specific. In fact it led them andhovered over a specific house. This is no longer something high up in the skyunless it is using a powerful spotlight—but gently hovering over the exactplace where they were staying.

Again, Mary & Joseph had to stay for a while in Bethlehem. This would be an expensive ventureif they had to “rent” or buy a place to stay, but would be easily accommodatedby family. But the star directed them directly to their destination.

This was the guidance of God they had hoped for.

But I’ve always wondered, were they the only ones who could see the “star”?Wouldn’t Herod or his officials seen it and followed it to the baby Jesus?

Which leads me to consider whether, at least this second, localized guidancewas not a literal “star” but a manifestation of the Glory of God, perhaps theHoly Spirit alighting on the place like He did later at Jesus’ baptism, orpossibly an angel. The original sight that started the journey could easily betoo.

Which could mean that only the Magi saw it. They eyes of faith were needed aswell as the choice of God and whom He chooses to reveal it to. There's a commonphrase--some say they have to see it to believe it--but some things have to bebelieved to be seen.

Remember, those on the road to Damascuswith Paul had a vague sense of something happening, but couldn’t really tellyou much about it, whereas Paul’s awareness was very acute and specific.

But the Wise men were called home to Worship just as the Shepherds had beencalled. Both great and small were bowing before Jesus—God drew both theheritage and the remnant back to their Savior, the Messiah.

16. What is the significance of the gifts?

While I have seen several possible meanings of the gifts, I have a preference.This doesn’t mean the others are wrong or should be written off—after all,since the Scripture doesn’t itself assign meaning, it’s all an educated guess.

Remembering also that we don’t know the amounts of the gifts involved—thedepictions of the men carrying a small box doesn’t seem to fit with travelersfrom such a great distance. I’m of the mind that 2 of the gifts declare WHOJesus, and His role is and the third declares What He will do to accomplish thewill of God in those roles.

Gold—a gift fit for a King. Jesus is called the King of Kings and Lordof Lords in the New Testament.

Frankincense—incense in the Old Testament was used in prayer and worshipin the Temple—thesmoke represented the prayers of the people. The one who administered thisincense and smoke was the Priest. This is another aspect of His identity androle in the world. The book of Hebrews tells us Jesus is the Great High Priestin the order of Melchizedek—greater than the Levitical/Aaronic priesthood—andable to enter the very Presence of God and grant us access in His Name.

Myrrh—was a burial spice. Many ancient cultures began preparing fortheir eventual death very quickly. The Pharaohs of Egypt began building theirmonuments immediately. But for this gift to Jesus, it signifies the death andburial that is in Jesus’ future in His role as Messiah—He will lay down Hislife on the Cross, shed His blood, take away our sin, and prepare a place forus in eternity. His death and subsequent resurrection is the fulfillment ofGod’s plan in sending Jesus in the first place.

Again, there is so much in these birth narratives that we miss or read overbecause we think we know the story already or because our mind has been socluttered by the popular depictions that we don’t study carefully what the textactually says. If you’ve made it this far, I hope that you have benefited fromthis breakdown of the text and related cultures.

For some exciting material regarding the Star, try watching the "Star of Bethlehem" video with Rick Larson or check out his website at www.bethlehemstar.net

Ephesians 3:16 - His Glorious Riches v. Riches of His Glory

2011-10-18T13:13:00.001-05:00

Here is a good example of how translation can impact how weunderstand a verse. This came up in ThePursuit College class a couple of Sunday mornings ago.

When you read Ephesians 3:16 in the NIV it says: “I praythat out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through hisSpirit in your inner being”

The NIV is a “dynamic equivalence” translation, which meansit is not a strict word for word but tries to convey the meaning or “thoughtfor thought” concept. But this is anexample where that effort misses the mark.

Many other translations render this phrase: “according tothe riches of his glory”

Now the English grammar nerd comes out to analyze thesentences—and it makes a difference.

· His Glorious Riches

o Modifier: Glorious

o Object: Riches

· Richness of His Glory

o Modifier: richness

o Object: Glory

In the NIV translation the focus is more on riches to whichwe tend to focus more on the value or the wealth connected with the word“riches” since it is the primary noun. Somehave abused this and similar passages to talk about God’s blessing in materialterms—riches here on earth. His blessingis for us here on earth, but it is His Glory that is the blessing—it is Hispresence in our lives that brings an abundance and power to overcome.

But the more literal translation has the focus of thesentence on God’s Glory. God’s glory hasno limits, His glory radiates from Him.

His Glory carries with it a rich understanding fromScripture and in the minds of Paul’s readers. His glory shines from the burning bush—without consuming or destroyingit. His glory descends on to Mt.Sinai in cloud and fire and isawe-inspiring to the point that the Israelites are afraid to set foot on themountain (Exodus 19:16-19, 20:18-21). God’s glory is too much for us to behold (Exodus 33:19-23).

Not even Moses was able to look at God’s glory head-on lessit overwhelm and kill him. Hidden in thecleft of the rock, I’m sure Moses had enough of an awareness to know not topress his luck—I’m sure peeking was not an option. Not even Raiders of the Lost Ark could dothis dangerous glory justice.

Moses was able to see God’s glory as it “passed by” or wasreceding from him. His glory is awesome,inspiring, overwhelming. Just thepresence of God was able to change Moses complexion to the point that itdisturbed people. They requested that hewear a veil until that glory faded (Exodus 34:29-35 & 2 Corinthians 3:7-18)

God’s Glory shines forth—God is light in Him there is nodarkness at all. In the end of time, noteven the Sun or the Moon will be necessary because God’s glory will be enoughto live by—there will be no more night (Revelation 21:22-26)

In our understanding, anything that gives off light (glory)requires some sort of power source or fuel. If the fuel/power runs out, so will the light. But since this is God’s glory—He is thesource—He is the power and it is a power that will never fade or diminish—itwill be forever shining—there is no end to the power that makes it shine—so toothere is no limit or end to the power that is available to you and me asbelievers in Jesus. The strength thatGod desires to pour in our hearts, based on His love, to make us more like Himis limitless.

The power pours out of His Glory, not His Riches. Since His glory is limitless, we have nolimit to the power available to us, thus no real excuse to live as we arecalled to live. This power is out of Hisglory, For His glory.

How firm a foundation—we are rooted and firmlyestablished in love and empowered to live for Him and to Know Him. Though He cannot be measured or quantifiedbeyond our comprehension—He still desires us to Know Him and fill us with Hispresence. His Glory is in our inner being.

Cults, Mormons and Political Correctness

2011-10-10T21:56:00.000-05:00

Much has been said about recent comments from a Dallas pastor about Mormonism.

By labeling Mormonism a“cult” and Mitt Romney a “non-christian”, a firestorm has erupted.

I think much of the problem comesfrom the negative connotations associated with the word “cult”.

When we hear it, we tend tothink of something like a midnight bonfire in the woods with people in blackrobes sacrificing animals or children. Or we think of Jim Jones or David Koresh—a maniacal leader withbrainwashed followers who will commit suicide.

Connotations aside, that isnot what the word really means.

A cult is typically definedor understood as an offshoot of another established religious system.

This typically includes atleast 3 elements (there are a few others but these are the basic:

A newleader—attracting a group of followers from within a system who have many of thesame foundational positions/assumptions but separate out of it
Aredefining of major doctrines— that distinguish the new cult from the oldsystem
A new setof scriptures—that highlight the differences and hold an equal/greater sourceof authority than the previous scriptures. The previous scriptures are still held as valuable but are oftenoverruled by the new revelation

With this basic definition,here are some examples of cults:

Christianity is a cult (derived out of) Judaism
B’Hai is a cult of Islam
Buddhism is a cult of Hinduism
Mormonism is a cult of Christianity--along with others from the 1800’s like Jehovah’s Witnesses, Christian Science

By no means is labelingsomething as a cult intended to imply that the people currently involved areevil or immoral. It is a label thathighlights the fact that this new group is not the same as the old.

This is exactly whatMormonism claims for itself.

To be fair, Mormons wouldprobably prefer terms more like, “restored Christianity” since from the verybeginning, Joseph Smith considered the orthodox Christian church to haveapostatized its beliefs and deviated from the truth.

This is much the same wayChristianity would claim to be “fulfilled Judaism” in the sense that Jesusclaimed to be the Messiah that Judaism was looking for.

But with the basicdefinition of a cult—an offshoot of an established system, Mormonism qualifies.

It has aNew Leader—Joseph Smith – while he points people back to Jesus, the main figureof restoration is through the life and teaching of Joseph Smith—without him,the movement would not exist.
ItRedefines Major Doctrines—Joseph Smith thought the church of his day wasapostate and in error on its doctrines so he proposed to change/restorethem. Major doctrines he changed are notlimited to the following:

The Nature of God – Mormons do not believe in the Trinity in the orthodoxsense but three distinct beings, Elohim/God the Father has a body of flesh andbones while Orth. Xity understands God as Spirit (see John 4:24). Mormons also believe that Elohim was at somepoint a man on a different planet that has been exalted to godhood for ourplanet—He was once like we are now
The Person of Jesus—not co-equal to the Father or co-eternal in aTrinitarian sense but a created being
Future of Salvation—Mormons believe in 3 levels of salvation, the highestof which allows someone (by faithfully following and participating in Mormonlife)to progress to be a god for their own planet

3. NewScriptures—Mormons have 3 books of new Scripture

a. The Book of Mormon

b. The Pearl of Great Price

c. Doctrine & Covenants
Most of the variant theology is found in D&C and PoGP

d. The Bible—theBible is a source of faith but has been corrupted. Some examples:
"We believe the Bible to be theword of God as far as it is translated correctly. . ." (8th Article ofFaith of the Mormon Church).
"Wherefore, thou seest that after the book hath gone forth through thehands of the great and abominable church, that there are many plain andprecious things taken away from the book, which is the book of the Lamb ofGod," (1 Nephi 13:28)

Some people have argued thatthe Protestant Reformation from the 1500’s also fits this definition in itsbreakaway from Roman Catholicism but I do not believe it does.

First, Martin Luther’smotive was first to reform R.C., not leave it.

Second, Luther and thereformation did not propose new scriptures, rather a return to thescripture—getting away from the added layers of church tradition—solascriptura—was one of the highly emphasized tenets.

Third, Protestants andCatholics still share most of the same theology—upwards of 90-95%. The nature of God, of Jesus and the universeare largely held in common.

The elements and gaps thatdivide us are miniscule compared to the gulfs between orthodox Christianity andMormonism. While there are elements withinCatholicism that I believe makes salvation more difficult (veneration ofMary/Saints, emphasis on works, etc.), it is not impossible. I do consider many people within Catholicismto be my brothers & sisters in Christ.

In regards to the currentpolitical debate, I’ve known several Mormons over my life and I have alwaysenjoyed their company and conversation. Typically, they have a greater understanding of their faith and awillingness to talk about it than most Christians (we are far too spirituallylazy). Many of the converts to Mormonismare coming out of orthodox Christian churches, particularly Southern Baptistchurches.

The pastor was right whenspeaking about Mitt Romney’s beliefs being aberrant to orthodoxChristianity. As a pastor, he does needto speak clearly to that and not try to blur the great differences that existbetween them.

Early Mormon history alsodid not try to blur the lines at all b/c they considered what they were leaving to be apostate. I will say this has shifted, since the 1980’s LDS commercials andmissionaries as a public outreach effort have tried to minimize them to appearas just another denomination. Considering this current discourse, they have been successful.

Thankfully, in America, wehave no religious test for public office. Mitt Romney is not prevented from running because he is a Mormon. But any individual considering any candidateshould consider their religious beliefs (among other factors) and how they mayimpact their governing philosophy. I dothis with every candidate.

In the 2008 election thetheology of Barak Obama’s church and pastor Jeremiah Wright became anissue. I believe the media largely failedto investigate and inform the country of those beliefs. I believe this was because the media in largepart favored his candidacy. Had aconservative candidate gone to a church with similarly racially charged beliefsthe media would have been all over it and it would have won the election forthe other guy.

His religious affiliationwas enough for me not to seriously consider him as a candidate forPresident. It was not my only reason,but it would have been enough by itself. I will continue to do that with all of the current candidates.

As for the Pastor from Dallas; a Pastor should be able toanswer a religious question. And if heis a pastor worth anything, he will answer in such a way that is consistentwith his beliefs and not be concerned with whether it is politically correct orpopular.

The discourse in our countryhas for too long tried to pretend as if differences do not exist. It would be a mistake for pastors, Mormon,orthodox Christian or anyone to start pretending and talking as if we were allthe same just to score some political points.

Because I for one am of theopinion that Beliefs matter. If thecandidate does not take his or her beliefs seriously, live by them and allow themto influence their decisions, then any claim to faith is mere window dressingand that kind of hypocrisy is evidence of questionable character. If he or she does take them seriously, thenthose beliefs should be examined and considered.

The Pastor in question recently answered some questions on this issue. He can speak for himself.

The Mormon Puzzle is a good video that gives a basic introduction to Mormon history and theology. While there are some parts I don't like, the best is when LDS representatives from their universities speak very candidly about their beliefs--by far these interviews are the highlight. Wish I could find a hosted video online, but the link gives a sample.

Al Mohler has an excellent blog on this controversy.

Ed Stetzer's is also good.

Another video that is veryinteresting to consider.

DNA v. The Book of Mormon

Mixed Signals - Why Don't We Question Anymore?

2011-09-30T13:10:00.003-05:00

Update 10/12/11 -- I just found this article from The Christian Post regarding the popularity of Vampires, Werewolves & other such stuff. Worth reading and considering.

This was originally a sermon from a few years ago. I've updated a few stats and a couple other things.

Mixed Signals

I am going to make a few proposals to change some of the famous public service ad campaigns you’ve seen in the last decades and I want to ask how many of you think these sound like good ideas? What kind of message do you think they send?

Noting a shift in the youth mindset and America’s value systems, many of the old government, public service announcements have been retooled. Gone are the outdated “Just Say No”, “Don’t Drink & Drive”, “Don’t Play with Matches” campaigns. Maybe you’ve seen some of the new ones.

">Smokey the Bear<"—longtime spokesman for the National Park Service has come out with a new commercial series concerning playing with fire—“Only You can prevent forest fires, but if you really want to start a fire or play with matches—be sure and only start small fires at home.”

On a similar note—the Illinois Department of Transportation is coming out with a new ad campaign, getting rid of the “Designated Driver” idea, instead, they could offer special training classes for the frequent drinker. The new slogan is—“Protect the Streets—Drink and Drive successfully by Practicing Often.” Or better yet, parents, take away the need for driving by providing the beer and alcohol for your underage kids.

“Just Say NO” and other warnings against gateway drugs like alcohol and marijuana have been replaced. Local elementary, middle and high schools can offer after school training and free samples to students so they can find out which drugs they prefer and how to take them correctly. After all, they’re going to do it anyway. “Just say ‘Once’”.

What kind of message do these ads send? Mixed Signals. Mixed Signals in this sense are things that are confusing to our kids. We parents say one thing, then at some point, contradict ourselves and the kids cannot be sure which one they should follow, which one they should believe?

Is it wise for us to say 364 days of the year that something is bad, something is to be avoided, something is dangerous, and 1 day of the year, give them permission to participate in what we’ve been saying is bad all the other days.

This is a month in which many believers will send mixed signals to their kids, their neighbors and friends. Some of it won’t be by design or decision, but by the decision of others. Some may be because you may not have noticed or given it a second thought in some time.

Let me ask you, how many of you, your friends, or your kids have seen more about death, about witchcraft, about evil and murderous and demonic forces lately?

If you haven’t yet, drive by the front of Wal-Mart, watch TV this month, ask the video store what type of videos are most rented this month.

I am concerned how we adults and parents tend to tolerate, even send mixed messages about death, the occult, witchcraft or the demonic during the month of October as we get ready for Halloween.

These messages are inconsistent with our faith the remaining part of the year and typically, we would steer our kids away from such things. But this month adults and parents seem to be leading the mixed signals. We don’t even question our participation anymore.

Here’s some stats from the last couple of years.

This year, the average person plans to spend $66.54 on the holiday, up from $64.82 one year ago. Total Halloween spending for 2008 is estimated to reach $5.77 billion.*

This year, consumers will spend an average of $24.17 on Halloween costumes (including costumes for adults, children, and pets). People will also be buying candy ($20.39 on average), decorations ($18.25) and greeting cards ($3.73).

National Retail Federation

2010 Popular Costumes

Kids:                                                     Adults:
1. Princess                                            Witch
2. Spider-Man                                      Vampire
3. Witch                                                Pirate
4. Pirate                                               Nurse
5. Disney Princess                                Wench/Tart/Vixen
6. Action/Super Hero                           Cat
7. Ghost                                              Zombie
8. Pumpkin/Vampire (tie)                     Fairy
9. Batman                                           Athlete/Batman (tie)
10. Star Wars Character                     Dracula

It’s hard to say how these mixed signals are contributing to the spiritual climate in our country. But let me share this with you.

According to Information collected from 1990 to 2001, The fastest growing religion (in terms of percentage) is Wicca -- a Neopagan religion that is sometimes referred to as Witchcraft. Their numbers of adherents are doubling about every 30 months.

14.1% do not follow any organized religion. This is an unusually rapid increase -- almost a doubling -- from only 8% in 1990.

These beliefs, once largely ignored or dismissed in America are increasing in our population and becoming more and more accepted; real to the point that now the military is required to have wiccan chaplains and burial rites. I'm not saying we have Wicca in America because of Halloween, but many factors contribute to the growing interest and acceptance of it and Halloween is a contributing influence.

When the Israelites began entering the Promised Land, they were given several warnings regarding the religious practices of the surrounding peoples and how they were not to be like them. For them such beliefs were a reality, a competing belief system that was a lure to be unfaithful to God.

Deuteronomy 18:10-14--10 Let no one be found among you who sacrifices his son or daughter in the fire, who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft, 11 or casts spells [notice good/bad, white/black isn’t mentioned], or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead. 12 Anyone who does these things is detestable to the LORD. 13 You must be blameless before the LORD your God. 14 The nations you will dispossess listen to those who practice sorcery or divination. But as for you, the LORD your God has not permitted you to do so.

Isaiah 8:19-20—“When men tell you to consult mediums and spiritists, who whisper and mutter, should not a people inquire of their God? Why consult the dead on behalf of the living? 20 To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, they have no light of dawn.

I believe God knew what He was talking about when he called His people to stay away from those things because they are dangerous to us spiritually.

The other nations practiced these things so they could gain control over or knowledge of the future, they would worship the created thing, rather than the Creator—ultimately these beliefs and practices keep people from an authentic faith in God based on worship in spirit and truth—so these are deceptions intended to prevent us from truly knowing God—so they function as lies and are demonic in their origin.

While many of us dismiss the occult or demonic, I and others can speak from experience—see my testimonies here

I hope you believe the Bible when it talks about the dangers of the demonic and the occult.

I hope you believe that Jesus had very real confrontations with the demonic, as did Peter, Paul, the other Apostles and the church—and you don’t write those accounts off as psychological conditions or some other medical phenomenon.

I hope you are not telling your kids that the occult is wrong, it’s dangerous, and totally opposed to God while at the same time saying, “we’re going to let you dabble with it for a little while, just once a year.

We tell ourselves… “It’s Harmless Fun” – maybe it is most of the time, but are you sure? Are you sure that putting your kid in those circumstances cannot affect them?

We’re going to buy dark, occultic decorations for our house, we’re going to encourage playing with witchcraft by putting the black pot in the lawn, we’re going to trivialize death and the demonic with cute cartoon figures and costumes that desensitize you to the real thing.”

That’s like saying:

Playing with matches is bad and dangerous, but let me show you the right way to strike them, let me give you a few things to burn.

You shouldn’t drink kids, but let me buy you a six pack for your birthday and let you drink it at home.

Hey Kids, there is a real spiritual evil out there trying to corrupt your soul and keep you from God, you must Resist the devil—but let me buy you a 10 horned demon mask, a witch or serial killer costume.

That is not a consistent message. It gives parental permission for something we normally wouldn’t want them playing with.

John tells us that he wrote the book of 1 John to warn us “about those who are trying to lead you astray”—1 John 2:26. John warns us in 4:1 to “not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God”.

It is my conviction that many Bible believing Christians have stopped “testing the spirits” when it comes to how we participate in Halloween.

I’m not saying that that a real Christian will not participate in Halloween. I'm not questioning your salvation.

I’m afraid that we no longer question it or even care whether what we do, or whether how we celebrate is “from God” or not, that we no longer consider the spiritual impact of HOW we participate.

We have already accepted the idea and we’re no longer asking—is this wrong—we have made that decision—we not looking to Scripture to give us guidance.

When challenged, many believers react defensively even with anger regarding Halloween. It’s a very emotional reaction.

I believe people react that way because on some level, people are uncomfortable with Halloween but they talk themselves or justify themselves into doing it anyway—for the sake of the children or some other reason.

To me, that is extremely dangerous for the People of God.

We can reason and justify anything. And I find it inconsistent to “do it for the children” when they are the ones most at risk and dependent on adults to make the Spiritually discerning decision.

The demonic packaged up as “harmless fun” is still demonic and in reality that makes it more dangerous and deceptive.

2 Corinthians 11:14 warns us that, “Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light”. In other words—he puts on a costume trying to convince everyone he is a cute, harmless, misunderstood guy. He wears a costume to hide who he really is and hopes that you’ll invite him in for a visit.

1. Playing with the Occult is Dangerous—Saul in 1 Samuel 28:4- was so afraid of the Philistines, that after trying to ask God what to do about it and getting nothing—more likely b/c his heart wasn’t faithful and his attempts were more insulting to God than inspiring.

He then sought out a “medium” (the title of a recent TV series, BTW) to consult the dead prophet Samuel. He wore a costume to do it— vs. 8 lets us know that he wore a disguise to meet with this woman. And while most biblical scholars disagree on exactly what happened when the spirit of Samuel appeared, was it really him, was it a delusion or a demonic deception, they all agree that something happened. Saul had to take her word for it because he apparently could not see the vision for himself—vs. 14.

Saul is playing with fire—he is doing something God commanded not to do, something he knows is wrong & tried to get rid of at one point by expelling the mediums earlier in his career.

He is dabbling, thinking he is exempt, thinking that it won’t hurt him, thinking that it’s not really a big deal, but he’s about to find out it is a big deal that there are consequences.

2. Playing with the Occult has Consequences—
1 Chron. 10:13-14—“Saul died because he was unfaithful to the LORD; he did not keep the word of the LORD and even consulted a medium for guidance, 14 and did not inquire of the LORD. So the LORD put him to death and turned the kingdom over to David son of Jesse.

a. Even non-Christians are beginning to recognize Halloween related consequences for children.

b. A study conducted of six- and seven-year-olds by Penn State psychologist Cindy Dell Clark found that most parents underestimate just how terrifying the holiday can be for young kids.

c. “Halloween is a holiday when adults assist children in behaviors taboo and out of bounds," Clark writes in the anthropological journal Ethos. "It is striking that on Halloween, death-related themes are intended as entertainment for the very children whom adults routinely protect."

3. Dabbling In The Occult is not Compatible with Biblical Faith

a. Acts 19:13-16—The demonic is real and dangerous. You and I must not dismiss it because there is a very real spiritual battle going on; a real demonic power. While most of what we see in America today, like the astrology, the wicca, the psychic hotlines, is fake—it is not always fake. And the Believer should know better than to try and live in both worlds.

b. Acts 19:17-20—Believers Got rid of their old way of life. Some of them had practiced sorcery in their previous way of life—but Jesus changed all of that. They may not have felt convicted to get rid of it in their lives, but they eventually saw the need, no matter how valuable the items were. Sorcery, witchcraft, the occult, idolizing death are not compatible in the lives of those who love God.

Whether you celebrate or participate in Halloween activities is a decision between you and God.

I’m not questioning your salvation if you have a pumpkin at your house or if you give out candy.

What I do want you to do is question how or why you participate—don’t decide as a parent today, based on the pleasant memories you had as a child.

Examine everything by your faith.

1. Test the Spirits to see whether they are from God.
a. Test the things your kids are exposed to—
Halloween is now more than just one day—many kids are looking forward to it all month just like they do Christmas—it’s hard to walk into Wal-Mart with all the decorations all over the stores.

Books, TV shows & movies, cute cartoonish characters try to convince your kids that witchcraft, magic, monsters and death is all harmless fun—

Through stories they try to teach that we should and that God sees a difference between a bad witch and a good witch, between black magic and white magic—and there is none.

b. Test the costumes they want to wear—

kids, let your faith guide your decision.
Adults, make the decision whether something is appropriate for your kids—offer alternatives because it’s not too late.

c. Test the decorations of your house—

kids open your eyes to what you see at home and ask what message it sends to your friends of your faith.
Parents, re-examine your plans—make your home a place of light and hope that does not glorify dabbling in darkness.

d. Test the decorations of houses as you walk around—don’t go to those houses that glorify the occult

e. Remember that Kids can’t always distinguish between the Real and Unreal.
They don’t think like adults logically, emotionally—as the study I mentioned found—the scary, death, occult themes affect them more than we realize. Make a commitment to Protect them and not Confuse them or send conflicting messages

f. Reclaim the day—don’t let this day be controlled by the dead in your house.

Try to promote life by handing out tracts with your candy, by carving Christian images in your pumpkins, by inviting all you know and recognize to church, or by reminding your house and your guests that Oct. 31st is the day Martin Luther hammered his 95 Theses on the door of the Cathedral back in 1517 that started the Reformation. On Oct. 31st, he began a revolution of faith that we are living in today.

g. Embrace Philippians 4:8—“Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things.”

What is Lacking in Our Prayer

2011-08-27T11:59:00.001-05:00

I believe one of the greatest weaknesses in the church today is our prayer. Many of us lack power in prayer as individuals and as corporate bodies.

That's because too often, our prayer consists of a list of who is sick that week. And that's it--we don't ask God for anything else. We don't go any deeper.

But when we read through Paul's letters--that's not how we see him praying. If we do believe in the Inspiration of Scripture, then the Holy Spirit would have been the One motivating Paul to write them down. That's because there is something even in those prayers that was for more than just his immediate readers. There is something in those prayers for us. Meaning, if Paul was living and writing today, you would see him praying for us in much the same way addressing many of the same issues and needs in our life and the life of the church.

Below are most of the instances where Paul is writing down his prayers, his needs or talking about prayer. I recommend reading through all of them and take notice of the kinds of things he prays for and asks for prayer for himself. Couple what you see in those prayers with the Lord's Model Prayer from Matthew 6:9-13

Romans--8:26-27
Philippians--1:3-11, 4:6-7
1 Thessalonians 1:2-4, 3:11-13, 5:23-25
2 Thessalonians 1:3, 11-12, 3:1-5
Ephesians 1:17-19, 3:14-21, 6:18:20
Colossians 1:9-14, 4:2-6, 12
1 Timothy 2:1-3
Philemon 4-6
Jude 24-25

1. God’s Name to be Exalted & His Kingdom Expanded—Matthew 6:9-13
a. Hallowed Be Your Name
b. On Earth as it is In Heaven
c. In the Church
d. In our hearts
e. Around the World
f. 2 Thessalonians 1:12

2. To Know & Experience God & His Will
a. Eph. 1:17
b. Philippians 1:9-10
c. Colossians 1:9
d. For God's will to be done on earth--His people need to know what His will is since we are often times the agent He uses to accomplish His will. This is also more than just knowing or facts, but also experience and being an active part of. "Not my will but Yours be done."

3. Oneness with God & Love for Each Other
a. Unity with Christ
b. Unity of the Body
c. Oneness in Mind/Purpose
d. Beliefs & Actions out of Belief

4. Full & Mature Awareness of the Grace & the Greatness of Salvation
a. Eph. 1:18, 3:16-19
b. The only way we can half-heartedly live the Christian life is when we don't really understand just how much God has done to redeem us.

5. Raise Up Mature & Empowered Leaders & Workers for the Harvest
a. Luke 10:2
b. Realize that when you are asking God to send workers--He may fill you with the knowledge of His will which may include "You're just who I had in mind" and we are then given the choice of Isaiah to say, "Here am I, send me."

6. Empowerment, Opportunity & Boldness to Fulfill the Mission
a. Eph. 1:19, 3:20-21
b. Colossians 4:2-5
c. 2 Thess. 1:11
d. Ephesians 6:19
e. Remember that when Paul wrote Colossians & Ephesians, he is in prison. In Col. 4 he doesn't ask for doors to open for his release, but doors of opportunity for the Gospel and boldness and wisdom in those opportunities. He would be speaking before judges & officials--who could free him, kill him or even come to faith.

7. Fruitfulness in the Mission
a. Phil 1:11
b. Col. 1:10-11
c. 1 Thessalonians 3:12
d. Philemon 1:6
e. Fruitfulness expands the kingdom--but too often we are doing things in our own strength and power, thus lacking results. We need to ask for God's power to do the hard work of growing the fruit. And if we know His will, we'll be doing what He wants and serving how we should serve.

8. Power & Discernment to Resist Satan & Temptation
a. 1 Thess. 3:13
b. James 4:10
c. Personal Holiness
d. Holiness in the Church
e. Protection
f. Resist Temptation—1 Corinthians 10:13
g. Recognize False Teachers & Teachings—Matthew 24:4-5, 1 Peter 5:6-7, 2 Peter 2
h. This is a big topic. Realize that Ephesians 6 is greatly directed toward the spiritual conflict. And when we are tempted, God will provide a way of escape. But we also need to realize that when we "submit to God" we have the true ability to "resist the devil" and as a result of the power that comes from submitting to God, the devil "flees"--the devil runs from the power of God and the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

9. Confession of Sin & Repentance
a. 1 John 1:9

10. Thanksgiving
a. Phillippians 4:6

11. Specific People for Salvation or Restoration
a. Ephesians 6:18
b. God does not want anyone to perish but all to come to repentance. And this is a major part of the mission we are here for--we are a part of His rescue mission. Even when we as His children wander away--God will discipline (Hebrews 12) but that discipline is always with the hope and intention of restoring relationship and bringing someone home.

12. Specific People for Health & Comfort
a. 2 Corinthians 1:3-6
b. 1 Timothy 2:1
c. This is where our own experience of God's comfort can overflow to serve and minister to someone else.

13. Prayer for Government & Officials
a. 1 Timothy 2:2
b. 1 Peter 2:13
c. Romans 13
d. Whether you like those in the position of power or not. Remember, the gov't these men were dealing with was far worse than any political party we know today. After all, it executed Peter & Paul and blamed the Christians for burning Rome (oh wait, maybe we're getting closer...)

14. Christ’s Return, the Peace of Jerusalem and the Future of this Congregation
a. Revelation 22:20
b. Our future is in His hands and our hope is and should be always looking forward to His return. In all the lessons of the 2nd coming, we need to keep in mind three basic things:

Be Watchful--anticipating and looking for His return

Be Hopeful--not afraid of what may be coming or how "bad" things may get first. "Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see."--Hebrews 11:1 that goes along with 2 Peter 3:3-4-"be aware of this: scoffers will come in the last days... saying, "where is the promise of His coming?"

Be Faithful--be doing what we should be doing in the meantime--seeking His power, doing His will, fulfilling His mission--

This is by no means an exhaustive list--but please add these elements to your prayer--we have not, because we ask not.

8-21-11 The Power of a Changed Name

2011-08-21T23:21:00.000-05:00

In this message, I’ve let Scripture do most of the talking. I interspersed a little bit of commentary form what I shared this morning but most of that is not here. Here’s the message about the Power of a Changed Name.

My son and I sang a song about God and some of the words and phrases used to describe Him and His relationship to us. Some of them are identified as His Name. I AM, YHWH, Alpha & Omega, Savior.

Some people grow up hating their names. I have never hated my name but sometimes it is annoying because not many boys are named Kelly. And for a while, women’s cosmetics or pantyhose companies would send me samples in the mail—assuming that Kelly was a girl.

Anyone here not like their name? Just be glad you’re not named like some of these poor kids…

Apple: Chris Martin and Gwyneth Paltrow
Audio Science: Shannyn Sossamon
Blue Angel: U2's The Edge and Aislinn O'Sullivan
Bluebell Madonna: Geri Halliwell
Fifi Trixibell: Bob Geldof and Paula Yates (also parents to Peaches and Pixie)
Jazz Domino: Joe Strummer
Kal-El Coppola: Nicholas Cage (Kal-El is Superman’s original birth name)
Lark Song: Mia Farrow and André Previn
Moon Unit: Frank Zappa, also father to Dweezil and Diva Muffin
Moxie CrimeFighter: Penn Jillette (also father to Zolten)
Pilot Inspektor: Jason Lee and Beth Riesgraf
Sage Moonblood: Sylvester Stallone and Sasha Czack (also parents to Seargeoh)
Tallulah: Bruce Willis and Demi Moore (also parents to Scout and Rumer)

How many of you are happier with your name now?

In the Bible, names were chosen for their meaning or some characteristic of the person. In many instances, the name is an indicator of their life.
The amazing moments in Scripture is when God intervenes and changes someone’s name—and when God changes the name, He changes their Destiny.

• Abram—Exalted Father (ironic since he didn’t have any children) became Abraham—Father of Nations

• Sarai—My Princess was changed to Sarah—Princess of YHWH

• Jacob—Heel-Grabber, grasping at things not legally his to Israel—Prince of God and as you know, the rightful inheritance is supposed to pass on to the Prince

• Simon—to be heard or listening to Peter—a rock or stone

We tend to think that God only changes the names of the important characters in the world—the ones that really make a difference. But that is not true of only the elite. Whenever you become one of His children, He gives YOU a new name and changes your destiny.

Once, God described the Israelites in a similar way—hear how their future changes with a new name.

• Isaiah 62:1-4
1 I will not keep silent because of Zion, and I will not keep still because of Jerusalem, until her righteousness shines like a bright light and her salvation, like a flaming torch.2 Nations will see your righteousness and all kings, your glory. You will be called by a new name that the Lord’s mouth will announce.3 You will be a glorious crown in the Lord’s hand, and a royal diadem in the palm of your God.4 You will no longer be called Deserted, and your land will not be called Desolate; instead, you will be called My Delight is in Her, and your land Married; for the Lord delights in you, and your land will be married.5 For as a young man marries a young woman, so your Builder will marry you; and as a groom rejoices over his bride, so your God will rejoice over you.

• Revelation 2:17c—“Anyone who has an ear should listen to what the Spirit says to the churches. I will give the I will also give him a white stone, and on the stone a new name is inscribed that no one knows except the one who receives it.”

Revelation 3:12—“To the victor: I will make him a pillar in the sanctuary of My God and he will never go out again. I will write on him the name of My God, and the name of the city of My God—the new Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from My God—and My own new name.”

In Christ, your name is changed, your identity is changed, your eternity is changed. Look at the words used to name and describe your new Identity in Christ.

• New Creation – 2 Corinthians 5:17—“ Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away, and look, new things have come.”

• Adopted into the Family and Co-Heirs with the Rightful Son--
Galatians 4:3-7—“ In the same way we also, when we were children, were in slavery under the elemental forces of the world.4 When the time came to completion, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.6 And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, “•Abba, Father!”7 So you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.”

Romans 8:15-17—“For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry out, “•Abba, Father!”16 The Spirit Himself testifies together with our spirit that we are God’s children, 17 and if children, also heirs —heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ —seeing that we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him.”

• Citizen—Ephesians 2:17-19—“ When the Messiah came, He proclaimed the good news of peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near.18 For through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father.19 So then you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with the saints, and members of God’s household,

Citizenship was not automatic in the Roman Empire. You could be born to it pay for it or serve in the military and if you live long enough, you could get it. Citizenship came with certain protections, rights and responsibilities.

• Friend—John 15:13-15—“No one has greater love than this, that someone would lay down his life for his friends. 14 You are My friends if you do what I command you. 15 I do not call you slaves anymore, because a slave doesn’t know what his master is doing. I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything I have heard from My Father.

• Ambassador—2 Corinthians 5:20—“Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, certain that God is appealing through us. We plead on Christ’s behalf, “Be reconciled to God.”

An ambassador is one who lives in a country but whose citizenship belongs to another. While they are visiting this kingdom, they represent the King and the Kingdom of their true citizenship. But this representation can be positive or negative. An ambassador is supposed to champion the greatness of their home and encourage everyone to see for themselves, but too often loyalties become divided, they love the country they are visiting more than home. Or their bad character gives the home country a bad name. Too often that is how we as Christians have lived.

• Body of Christ—1 Cor. 12:27—“Now you are the body of Christ, and individual members of it.”

Eph. 4:11-13—“And He personally gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, 12 for the training of the saints in the work of ministry, to build up the body of Christ,13 until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of God’s Son, growing into a mature man with a stature measured by Christ’s fullness.”

• Royal Priesthood—Holy Nation—Belonging to God
1 Peter 2:9-10—“But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

• Sanctuary or Temple
1CO 3:16 Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit lives in you? 17 If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him; for God's temple is sacred, and you are that temple.

• Bride of Christ –
John 3:29—“The bride belongs to the bridegroom. The friend who attends the bridegroom waits and listens for him, and is full of joy when he hears the bridegroom's voice. That joy is mine, and it is now complete. 30 He must become greater; I must become less.

Ephesians 5:25-27—“Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her 26 to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, 27 and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.”

Revelation 19:7-9—“Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready.8 Fine linen, bright and clean, was given her to wear." (Fine linen stands for the righteous acts of the saints.)9 Then the angel said to me, "Write: `Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb!' "

Revelation 21:1-Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea no longer existed.2 I also saw the Holy City, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared like a bride adorned for her husband.3 Then I heard a loud voice from the throne:Look! God’s dwelling is with humanity, and He will live with them. They will be His people, and God Himself will be with them and be their God.4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Death will no longer exist; grief, crying, and pain will exist no longer, because the previous things have passed away.5 Then the One seated on the throne said, “Look! I am making everything new.” He also said, “Write, because these words are faithful and true.”

Rev. 21: 9-11—“Then one of the seven angels, who had held the seven bowls filled with the seven last plagues, came and spoke with me: “Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.” 10 He then carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain and showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, 11 arrayed with God’s glory. Her radiance was like a very precious stone, like a jasper stone, bright as crystal.

All of this ties back in to Isaiah and how we are being built and married to our Builder

Isaiah 62:1-4
You will be called by a new name that the Lord’s mouth will announce.3 You will be a glorious crown in the Lord’s hand, …you will be called My Delight is in Her, and your land Married; for the Lord delights in you, and your land will be married.5 For as a young man marries a young woman, so your Builder will marry you; and as a groom rejoices over his bride, so your God will rejoice over you.
Revelation 3:12—“I will write on him the name of My God, and the name of the city of My God—the new Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from My God—and My own new name.”

Never forget who you are and who you are called to be. In Christ, your name has been changed. A change that redefines your Destiny, your Purpose and your Mission. That destiny comes with rights and also responsibilities.

Movie Reviews - Captain America, Thor, Green Lanter, X-Men

2011-07-28T10:13:00.001-05:00

So far this year, I have seen 6 movies. Four of them have been of the comic-superhero genre: X-Men First Class, Thor, Green Lantern & most recently Captain America. King’s Speech and Kung-Fu Panda 2 were the others.

I have two kids; a 10 yr old son and a 6 yr old daughter. My son is the bigger superhero fan—big surprise. Because of this, my wife and I typically preview a movie together to determine whether it is appropriate to take one or more of our kids to see.

With this in mind, I’ll list the order that I liked these superhero movies.

1. Captain America
2. Thor
3. Green Lantern
4. X-Men

Now my reviews—in reverse order

4. X-Men
—I liked much of the story of this movie set in and around the Cuban Missile Crisis/Cold War tensions between the Soviets & the US. I enjoyed seeing the growth of some characters we’re only used to seeing as mature, fully powered mutants. I thought there was a great distinction between good/evil and the importance of each person to choose what is right, along with the emphasis that a life motivated by revenge will only engage in its own justified violence.

I didn’t like the fact that there seemed to be little desire for continuity with the other movies as characters were moved and placed in times they do not belong. Things the characters don’t know in the “later” movies are shown.

With that said, I did not take my son to see this movie. Some of the brutality was too much, especially in regard to Magneto’s character—brutality acted upon him and by him. I also thought there was too much given to women in lingerie and a fantasy sex scene. Neither of these really added to the story and each scene could have been done well without them. While I laughed at Wolverine’s cameo and thought the behavior was consistent with the character, the F-Word was too strong and unnecessary.

There were several things I liked about this movie but more things I did not. It’s one of those “I could have liked it more if…” kind of movies. I may let my son watch some scenes on the DVD provided we fast forward others, but we will not be buying this one.

3. Green Lantern
—I must admit I have been a GL fan since I was a kid. For me, his status and power was always the most misunderstood and poorly represented in the cartoons I grew up with. I never spent money on comics but the occasional one I found seemed to have a different set up than other standard heroes. So with that, I’ve been looking forward to this attempt.

When I saw the first trailer, I thought it was going to be a disaster. They made it look like a comedy routine. It was certainly better than that. Some of the special effects were excellent and I’ve been told were very good on the 3-D level which I did not get to see.

This movie was OK, it was entertaining and had some good discussions again about the choice of doing what is right and courage in the face of great adversity. It makes the great point—one that I’ve tried to teach my kids—that courage is not the absence of fear, but rather it is the ability to act and do what is right/necessary in the face of fear. There was also the emphasis of the impact that fathers can have on their children both positively and negatively.

In many ways, the story dragged too much. Hal Jordan really only used his ring a couple of times in the whole movie and for too long he was the reluctant hero. This is a tired motif, imho and does not understand Hal Jordan’s character or why the ring would select him.

Being a GL fan, I thought this was the wrong way to portray Hal Jordan. He could be a rule breaker, but not because he was irresponsible, rather because he pushed the limits. As a test pilot, I always thought of him wanting to be the best, but unable to prove it in the “real world” of air combat—where he could make a difference. Kind of like the frustration many police officers feel when they move to a desk job and no longer go out in the field. There is a desire to get out there do something and prove that they are still capable. It is from this thought that I always pictured Hal Jordan as longing for something greater and a true desire to be a hero. He just needed the opportunity. The ring chose him in part b/c of this desire and his courage.

Overall, I was not impressed with the movie enough to want to take my kids to see it and pay that money. I’ll wait for the DVD and decide later if I’ll actually purchase it.

2. Thor
—I really enjoyed this movie and in many ways is closer to a 1b than it is a genuine 2. I did take my son to see this one.

Fortunately, the movie did not spend a whole lot of time on the Norse Mythology angle as a set of beliefs. But if I remember correctly, it did intro the movie with the thought that there was a time when humans did not believe they were alone in the universe. I thought that a good intro considering most people do not equate belief in extraterrestrials on the same level as belief in God or gods. These beings from Asgard are not really gods, but just advanced aliens who have a connection to our planet. It implies that all gods really fall into this category but doesn’t make it overbearing or insulting to those who have a belief. This was appreciated.

There was minor language and no real nudity. The humor was appropriate and not crude. I thought the story moved well and introduced a character that most people don’t know a whole lot about.

I thought the contrast of Thor at the beginning of the movie—prideful & arrogant—to how he was at the end was a compelling story. A good hero/warrior/king cannot hold to the idea of always being right or that because he’s the strongest he should get his way. I thought the look of Asgard was good as well as the various armor people wore.

In many ways, this movie portrays biblical concepts like “pride comes before a fall” or “ God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble”. It was the intent of Odin that Thor would learn and grow through a period of discipline and humiliation. Thor was a great warrior, but he was not a great leader or a great man (a theme that comes again in Captain America). And this is true in my life as well as how God works in our world today, particularly with those who claim the name of Jesus—God disciplines those He loves and if He is not disciplining you, you are illegitimate and not truly His (see Hebrews 12).

I thought the action was good and well paced—good fight scenes that weren’t gory. One thing I feared in this movie was the depiction of the Rainbow Bridge that connects the worlds together. I always thought it looked stupid in the cartoon versions—I liked this one.

Overall, I thought this was a great movie and was pretty comfortable taking my son to see it. I expect to purchase a copy when it comes out on DVD.

1. Captain America
—This was a great, entertaining movie. It’s not intended to win Oscars, but entertain. I just saw this movie over the weekend so my review has more details and a few spoilers.

Once again there was not any nudity and only minimal language. Even the action violence was not bloody or extreme. I felt comfortable taking my son to see the movie and considered taking my daughter, but she was not interested.

I was concerned that they wouldn’t be able to make the movie interesting considering even my son was already familiar with Captain America’s story. I thought they did a great job setting up the Steve Rogers character as the 90 pound weakling but who still had courage. To paraphrase another movie line, “his heart was writing checks his body couldn’t cash.”

Steve had a heart to serve his country and fight alongside other men laying down their lives. He wanted to be a hero and lived with a sense of courage and responsibility; as well as a sense of obligation. Love of country & true patriotism is actually an increasingly rare perspective coming out of Hollywood—and this movie was full of it. When a character in a movie disrespected the war effort and the news, Steve was the one who had the strength of character to confront him—resulting in his own beating.

Steve failed several times to pass the entrance exam into the army but he didn’t want to give up. Other ways of serving his country was not enough. He wanted to fight even though he knew he didn’t have the physical tools to survive long. This caught the eye of a scientist developing the super soldier formula. When asked, Steve’s motivation was not killing Nazi’s or a hatred for the enemy, rather it was because he didn’t like bullies—an experience he was familiar with.

When Steve made it to basic training, he was clearly not qualified or able to be a soldier. Tommy Lee Jones played his character of the General very well. And here enters one of the great aspects of the movie and what makes a good hero. One candidate looked the part, had all of the measurables they were looking for, but his character was not.

Tommy Lee says, “it takes more than guts to be a hero (soldier, not sure)” and he throws a dummy grenade into the exercising men. All of them, even the preferred candidate, scatter except Steve who without hesitation jumps on it to save others. “He’s still skinny” is the response from the impressed general.

In talking with the scientist, Steve learns that the formula takes who you are and amplifies it. A good man becomes great, a bad man becomes worse (which is what happened to the bad guy in the movie, Red Skull). Steve is reminded that power and strength that is not coupled with humility and compassion is dangerous—which is why he as a 90 pound weakling was the ideal candidate. A good man is better than a good soldier.

Once he becomes the hero, rather than be given the opportunity to live it out, he has the humiliating task of peddling War Bonds as an actor in a hokey costume. They really had fun with this part and did it well. But what Steve was unwilling to do before (not put his life on the line by collecting scrap metal), he finds himself essentially doing—living in safety when others are being injured and dying.

Steve is a hero, but has not been given the opportunity. Despite the fact that he could whip any soldier in the military, when he is put in front of them, they blow him off as “just an actor”—he has not proven himself to them or even himself. He knows he is made for something more and is dissatisfied with life as he waits for the opportunity.

When the opportunity presents itself—he has to take it.

He was looking for the moment.
He was willing in the moment.
He made the most of the moment.

In so doing, he rescued 400 prisoners of war from the bad guys.

Now everyone knows he’s a hero, he is Captain America.

The rest of the movie details the exploits of Captain America against the bad guys. There’s a good difference between what CA wants to do with his power vs. what Red Skull wants to do with his. Red Skull wants to rise above the rules of society and nation—no longer living in Hitler’s shadow and criticizes CA for wearing the “flag on your chest”. I would have appreciated a response from Cap on this statement.

Red Skull personifies Nietzsche’s “Uberman” in many ways—thinking that he has risen above the constraints and morals of the lesser men. And because he has no moral foundation himself, he was not a good man before, he is worse when given power and thus tries to subject everyone to serve him even if it means killing most everyone else.

Cap thwarts the plan and sacrifices himself to save numerous cities in America. In so doing, he is frozen in arctic ice and reawakened some 70+ years later. Everyone he knows has died, the nation has moved on and in future movies he’ll have to figure out how to serve his country and the world.

It’s a nice lead in to The Avengers movie coming out next year which will partner Cap with Ironman, Thor, Hulk and several others. Be sure and stay to the end of the credits to see the preview.

I will definitely be getting this one on DVD when it comes out.

Vicky's New Blog

2011-07-05T16:50:00.000-05:00

Hey everyone! I just wanted to let you know that my wife has started her own blog. Please visit, bookmark and participate with her on this journey of faith.

Esther's Legacy

Knowing my wife, I know it will be thoughtful and challenging.

Prayer - Why is it Necessary? Ephesians 6:18

2011-06-09T17:42:00.001-05:00

Why is Prayer even necessary?

There are many possible directions to go in answering this question but one implied reason that I would like to look at can be found in Ephesians 6:18-20.

10 Finally, be strengthened by the Lord and by His vast strength. 11 Put on u the full armor v of God so that you can stand against the tactics w of the Devil. 12 For our battle is not against flesh x and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities,y against the world powers of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil z in the heavens.a

13 This is why you must take up the full armor b of God, so that you may be able to resist c in the evil day, and having prepared everything, to take your stand. 14 Stand,d therefore,

with truth e like a belt around your waist, righteousness f like armor on your chest,

15 and your feet sandaled with readiness for the gospel of peace.

16 In every situation take the shield i of faith,j and with it you will be able to extinguish all the

flaming arrows of the evil one.

17 Take the helmet l of salvation, and the sword m of the Spirit,n which is God’s word.

18 Pray o at all times in the Spirit p with every prayer and request, and stay alert q in this with all perseverance and intercession for all the saintsr.
19 Pray also for me, that the message may be given to me when I open my mouth to make known with boldness s the mysterytof the gospel. 20 For this I am an ambassador u in chains. Pray that I might be bold enough in Him to speak as I should.

Many of the translations include this passage as part of the larger section starting in vs. 10 reminding us that we need empowering by the limitless strength of God. But why is this necessary?

Because we are at war.

We have an enemy that is against us who uses many methods and tactics to accomplish his goals and victories. It is coordinated and comes against us on many fronts at various levels. The primary enemy is not the physical that we can see but the spiritual and the entities of control, influence and corruption that Satan has set up.

And Believers are called to stand against these tactics—to resist them, to oppose them. And through the strength that God provides, to overcome them.

Prayer then becomes a vital part of this effort.

Ask any military commander what is are the most important elements of victory in battle and they will likely say, intelligence and communication. The army that can get an accurate picture of the battlefield conditions and then direct and adjust their troops or tactics the fastest gives itself the best opportunity to achieve victory.

The troops are supposed to relay the conditions on the ground up the chain to their commanding officers. These officers are typically given a higher vantage point of the battle so they can see the bigger picture—this is especially true in modern life with aerial and satellite imagery/video. Those commanding officers in turn send orders and tactics back down to the troops and they are expected to act on those orders.

An effective strategy in warfare, especially modern, is to disrupt these lines of communication. If the troops cannot relay their situation and/or the commanding officers cannot get their orders through, then the opposing army cannot act in a coordinated and effective way against your strategy and tactics.

Satan cannot prevent God from hearing our prayer. But he can interfere with the orders coming to us—he can distract us, tempt us to the point that we do not listen.

But really, he doesn’t have to try all that hard. We disrupt our own lines of communication all too willingly. Believers are great at relaying battleground updates—we call it prayer requests. We list out those who have ailments, health concerns, job issues—in most cases we are praying for other people—especially when we are in a public or corporate setting. We don’t pray for ourselves very well and we’re uncomfortable asking for prayer for ourselves.

But what’s more, we do all the talking—we give the battleground updates then hang up—turning off the lines of communication. It’s like we’re not really interested in listening for the orders from our Commanding Officer.

It’s no wonder that the Church is so often so powerless and ineffective. The enemy is coordinated, they have a strategy.

So does God, but His troops are often not listening. Many times He works in spite of us.

No force can work effectively if they are not getting orders from their commanding officer.

To fight these battles, we need Truth that holds us together—the truth of Jesus and the Word. We need not our own righteousness but His protecting our heart, we need to have our shoes on ready to respond to the orders to Go with the message of the Gospel in much the same way the Israelites were supposed to have their shoes on when observing the Passover. We need the shield of faith because our enemy is constantly shooting deadly arrows and testing our defenses. We need the helmet of salvation that changes even the way we think with the transforming of our mind so we know the truth and are not deceived by fine sounding arguments.

The weapons at our disposal in fighting these battles are the Sword of the Spirit (God’s Word) and Prayer. In prayer we engage in the battle and can receive our orders.

Because prayer is part of the front lines of the spiritual battle is why it is so important to “pray at all times in the Spirit”. This implies that it is possible to not “pray in the Spirit”. This works in the same way as worship from John 4.

Jesus clearly states that the Father is seeking those who will worship Him in Spirit and in Truth—meaning there are many people engaged in worship of something but are lacking those important elements—Spirit & Truth.

We can pray things not in accord with the Spirit. We can pray with the wrong motives, we can pray for things not in God’s will, we can pray our wants, we can pray with sin in our lives. Men, even how you treat your wife can hinder your prayer (1 Peter 3:7). This requires staying “alert” and “persevering” in this type of prayer—meaning that Prayer in the Spirit is not easy nor automatic. It can be hard to focus during prayer, we can fall asleep (“Alert” more literally is not asleep), our mind can drift on to other things and issues. It takes effort and perseverance to continue praying at all times in the Spirit.

When we are in the Spirit, we have the best opportunity to hear clearly from God. We can receive our marching orders of what is the best course of action, what God wants to do next, His love for us, how we can serve Him and others.

God provides the Armor, the orders and the weapons in order for His Church to stand against the tactics of the Devil—to resist him and be prepared for the battle.

Prayer is part of that preparation—it is where we get our orders. It is a way in which we draw from His strength.

Sermon - Calming the Storms of Life & The Call Out of Normal - Mark 35-41

2011-05-17T08:44:00.000-05:00

Calming the Storms of Life—Mark 4:35-41

There has been a lot of storms in the last few weeks—not everyone has recovered from them. Many people went to work one morning and didn’t have a home to go to at the end of the day.

It reminded me of the theme song to Gilligan’s Island talks about a group of people taking a Three Hour Tour—a short boat ride around Hawaii, when the weather started getting rough. They ended up stranded for several seasons.

We can be sailing along with everything going great, and all of a sudden, a storm hits that can shipwreck our life, or at least throw us off course.

Have you ever experienced storms in your life? Those times where things just didn’t make sense. Times where your problems seemed so big and your faith seemed so small. Times where you felt so swamped and so afraid that you were going to be taken over by the storm.

Turn to Mark 4:35

After a long day of teaching crowds on the shores of the Sea of Galilee, Jesus asks to be taken to the other side of the lake. The disciples obey his directions, as do several other boats.

Did Jesus know the storm was coming? And He asked them to get out on the lake anyway? He must be doing it on purpose.

Along the way, He decides to rest and sleep, yes He’s physically tired, but I believe He also wants to see how they will respond.

During this time, when the Disciples have a few moments “to themselves” a storm erupts which they cannot control. It is beyond their power to do anything about it despite the fact that they are experienced boatmen. Nothing in their experience could save them from the power of the storm.

It seems as if they tried to do everything they could before going to Jesus. We’ll let Jesus sleep and try to take care of this ourselves. “Let’s not bother Him. It’s not that big of a deal. I/We can handle this.”

Too often, when the storms of life come, the last place we turn for help is Jesus. We only go to Him after we’ve tried all we can. “We’re all going to die!!” Jesus, if you just get us out of this I’ll do anything you want.

1. The Normal Life

a. The disciples weren’t really all that different from us. They had lives, families, jobs. They had friends, hardships and joys. And then the met Jesus and He began changing their life.

b. Understand, up to this point, it had been fairly easy for the disciples to follow Jesus. He called, they followed—Jesus was still growing in popularity—people liked Him.

c. They listened to what Jesus said as He spoke and taught. They had watched Jesus heal people. They had witnessed Him raising the dead. They had seen Him cast out demons, and do other mighty works in the context of that preaching and teaching.

d. But all this activity never really required anything of them until Jesus said, "Let us cross over to the other side." Those men had no idea what was coming next. Their faith had to move up to the next level. These men had to cross over in their hearts from having control over their own lives to placing their lives into the hands of Almighty God.

e. Being a disciple was going to get harder to the point that their lives were in danger. And Jesus was leading them to that point. Following God’s directions, His will for your life is not a guarantee of Safety & or Prosperity.

f. Our walk with Jesus is NOT going to be all sunshine and rainbows. And there are times for that—necessary times of green pastures and still waters—so your soul can be refreshed.

g. But so many times when our lives are going along good and easy, we rely more on ourselves than we do God. We pretend that life is going to continue on like this—we become content, comfortable and complacent.

h. The Normal Life is often a great danger to the life of Faith.

i. If you were here one Sunday night last month, we went over Psalm 23. According to that Psalm, we are not designed to stay in the green pastures and by the still waters—those moments are Pit Stops on the Paths of Righteousness that our Shepherd wants to take us on. And in many cases, those paths of righteousness lead us directly into the Valley of the Shadow of Death—where our very lives are on the line.

j. God upsets our Normal Life so we can Live the Life of Faith.

2. Storms Hit us Unexpectedly & Shake our Complacency

a. This passage talks about a “furious squall” hitting them. That was life on the Sea of Galilee, the mountains all around, the cool Mediterranean Sea, with the hot deserts caused storms to hit hard and fast. They are unexpected and even the experts can get caught in them.

b. Life throws a lot of curves. Many of which are beyond our control or ability. Despite all our skills, and experience, we are often unable to deal with the problems of life.

c. And God wants you to know that. He doesn’t want you to forget that you need Him. Wants you to look to Him—wants you to Walk by Faith & Not by Sight--

There are various types of storms in life.

• Literal Storms – we’ve seen this recently—the power is knocked out, the house is damaged, the house and property is destroyed. Your normal life is suddenly altered.

• Situational storms. This is when circumstances seem to plot against you and everything seems to go wrong at once. Murphy’s law is in full force.

Financial Storms Health Storms

• Relational storms. These are when you have tension between people. When a relationship is strained to the breaking point - parent and child, husband and wife, friends. These are the cause of many storms in life.

• Emotional storms. These are often hidden under the surface. We have a nice smile, but inside we’re seething and boiling in distress. People pass us by without realizing that a storm is raging within. You might become Paralyzed by fear. Overcome by guilt. Raging with anger. Consumed with worry or jealousy.

One or more of these storms might describe you this morning. The Bible says three things about the storms of life that I want to discuss before we continue.

• Storms in life are inevitable. Everyone will experience them. If you’re not in a storm right now, just wait. You will be in a storm. They are a part of life. In James 1:2 it says "When you face trials..." It does not say “If you face trials.” So you can Count on it!

• Storms are unpredictable. They come suddenly. They come unexpectedly. They are unpredictable. Matthew’s account uses the word “suddenly” that, "Without warning a furious storm came up". Try as we may, we cannot predict the things that will happen to us. None of us can predict when a simple test at the doctor’s office can bring life-changing news. We experience storms that are very short and ones that last for weeks, months, even years. They are unpredictable.

• Storms are impartial. They happen to good people, they happen to bad people. They happen to believers, they happen to unbelievers. They happen to all of us. Matthew 5:45 says, "He sends the rain on the just and the unjust." Being a Christian does not exempt us from being in storms.

• In many cases, Storms are Intentional

There is a misconception that people have, that the only time they have tough times is when they’re disobeying God. Sometimes that’s true… bad choices have consequences.

But it’s not always true.

In the passage we’re looking at today, Did the disciples get into a storm because Obeyed or Disobeyed Jesus? They were in the center of His will. And they were right in the middle of a storm. When you’re going through a tough time, don’t automatically assume, “I must be out of the will of God.” You may be exactly where God wants you to be

3. Jesus challenged the Disciples in an area of strength. How many of these disciples were fishermen used to working the Sea of Galilee? Many of them were skilled boatmen.

4. Unfortunately, just like the disciples, we often try to fix everything ourselves first, we try everything we can think of to solve the problem. We rely on our own abilities. Most of the time such efforts only bring anxiety and worry.

a. The message that Jesus presents to us in this Gospel account today is borne out in a recent stress management survey. Experts say that only 2 % of our "worrying time" is spent on things that might actually be helped by worrying. The other

98% of our "worrying time" is spent as follows:

40% is spent worrying about things that never happen

35% is spent worrying about things that can not be changed

15% is spent worrying about things that turn out better than expected

8% is spent worrying about things that are so petty that they don’t matter at all.

b. While we are trying to solve all the problems ourselves we like to carry Jesus with us without making Him an active part. We let Him sleep while we do all the work ourselves. We know Jesus is there “sleeping” waiting to be called upon but we do not until we know we can’t handle the storm.

c. As a last resort we go to God and we ask Him to help us. Sadly however, we often come with an attitude that the Disciples had… “Don’t you care if we drown?” “Aren’t you paying attention God, don’t you care what happens to me? Why haven’t you taken care of this already?” We act surprised and hurt by the fact that God hasn’t fixed everything for us already. We cry out and blame God for all that is going wrong. “Do something, ANYTHING” we complain.

This attitude is wrong. This is the Normalcy Jesus wants to Shake us from! God is waiting for the opportunity, waiting for us to do things His way and in ways that will glorify His name.

5. Step out of the Normal Life into the Life of Power

a. When we go to Jesus, we can witness Amazing things!

b. He had the authority to rebuke the storm and tell it to be quiet. Lot’s of people have tried to pit their wills against the forces of nature and we’ve considered them foolish. Not this time.

c. The storm obeyed Him. As the words came out of Jesus’ mouth, the “winds died down and it was completely calm”.

d. Storms may be short term or long lived, but they respond to the command of God. This demonstrates that…

e. All situations are under His control. Nothing takes Him by surprise. Even the created world was under His authority. He restores peace and calmness. This is the hard thing for us to understand…

f. Sometimes we cry out to God and the storms do not disappear. God, we know You can do it, so why aren’t you?

But let me tell you with absolute truth….

g. Whether or not the storms disappear, He is still in control. He is more than enough of what you need.

h. In all these things that He does and allows—the intent of all of it is to draw you closer to Him and grow your Trust & Reliance on Him.

i. Perseverance means nothing if it has never been put through a trial. People endure and persevere through hardship—when someone says, “I persevered when I was captured in Vietnam and made it through my time as a Prisoner of War”—we know that means something.

When they say, “I persevered my trip to Disneyland”—we know that—for the most part—that’s a joke.

The normal life is not always the Friend of the Life of Faith.

j. It’s the unexpected, the disruptions, the storms that reveal our faith and our character.

k. Why does it take a crisis to get us to keep our faith in the forefront?

l. Why do we repeatedly exhaust ourselves, thinking we have the power to Control our Lives? To overcome the Storms of Life? That if we can just work harder, we can do it ourselves?

m. He Promises to be Faithful in our hardships—gives peace to each of us in spite of our troubles. Do not let your hearts be troubled… cast all your cares upon Him… take my yoke upon you…

n. The peace of God can transcend all understanding, all circumstances, all storms. The winds may be blowing around you, the rain may be falling, the floodwaters rising. You may feel that you are in the deepest, darkest valley away from God. But in reality, that is when He is closest—it may not always feel that way, but it is true.

But you cannot escape Him. LYRICS—Valleys Fill First

This is the valley that i'm walking through

And if fells like forever since

I've been close to you

My friends up above me don't

understand why i struggle like i do

My shadow's my only,only companion

and at night he leaves too

Down in the valley, dying of thirst

Down in the valley, it seems that i'm at my worst

My consolation is that you baptize this earth

When I'm down in the valley, valleys fill first

6. Questioning the Disciples

a. When Jesus comes and brings peace, He usually has some questions for us. As I said earlier, the disciples needed to be taken to the other side, they needed to move their understanding of Christ to the next level—to get their life out of the Normal and into the Supernatural. Changing how they know Jesus and Who they think He is

b. Their understanding of Jesus had to get bigger than the storm. Our understanding needs to Grow!

We need to change From seeing Him as a powerful teacher and healer, to one who is truly God Incarnate, One into whose hands we can trust our everyday, normal life and our Storms.

c. Jesus asks you and me the same questions that He asks them. Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith? Do you not really trust me? Do you not really know who I AM?

d. After all that you have seen in me, all that we have been through, do you still not believe that I AM the one in control?

e. When we go through storms, do you know what He so often asks us?

What took you so long to come to me? Why am I your last resort?

f. Come to me first, and let me give you rest, then, though the storm is raging, the winds will be calm and still in your heart and mind.

g. Peace in the Storm , Strength to endure it…is just as big a miracle as Calming the Storm.

h. In each case… we are often surprised. We respond with awe to who Jesus really is—Terrified—Who is this? We always seem to be amazed when God does something. Each time, we come back and say, “I don’t believe what just happened”. The “Mountains often look so big, but [our] faith just seems so small”. If you truly have faith in an awesome God, we can rejoice at His miracles without being surprised by them.

7. He wants us to come to Him, He wants to calm the storms in our lives. He may do it on the outside—changing the situation, He may only do it on the inside—calming your heart while the wind continues blowing.

• Both are miracles.

8. Jesus wants to move you out of Normal—it causes you to seek Him, to rely on Him and makes opportunities to See & Experience His Mighty Hand.

9. Are you ready to go Sailing in the Storm with Him?

Psalm 107:28 Then they cried out to the LORD in their trouble, and he brought them out of their distress.

107:29 He stilled the storm to a whisper; the waves of the sea were hushed.

107:30 They were glad when it grew calm, and he guided them to their desired haven.

107:31 Let them give thanks to the LORD for his unfailing love and his wonderful deeds for men.

The Importance of the Christian Heritage of the United States

2011-05-05T15:17:00.001-05:00

I was recently sent a video by David Barton pointing out some of the religious influences of that can be seen in a simple tour of the Capitol Building in Washington DC. To some degree, the video was promotional and trying to increase awareness of the group producing it—a video commercial. But the video itself was highlighting a greater program of the evidences of our Christian history that even our Federal Government was not unwilling to hide in the past.

The email with the video was sent out to a large email list. One person chose to “reply to all” with a criticism. His main points were that our country has not always lived up that faith and therefore attempts to “restore” this heritage are misguided and impractical considering modern America and how we have progressed beyond the intentions of the Founders.

I took the “reply to all” response, rather than a private email to the sender, as an invitation to discussion and replied. I realize that I’m only showing my response and that may be considered unfair, but I have not asked for permission to print his words.

I responded with the following (and yes, it’s long). My point is not arguing contemporary issues of Church & State but rather the foundation of our freedoms and how the erosion of that foundation jeopardizes every freedom we have today.

There’s a lot to respond to.

I think the overall point of the video is sadly lost. Whether or not efforts are made to “return” to our Christian roots is presumed by the watcher and he is presuming the motives and goals of those who would agree with the perspectives. No one is proposing turning America into a Theocratic state with mandatory church attendance or state sponsored church—that too is a straw man used to denigrate the opposing view.

Rather, the greater point is how the history and influence of Christianity in America has been systematically removed from public knowledge. Influence enough to be beautifully painted and hung in the halls at great expense, which, until the last century was taught as part of our collective national identity.

Without that heritage, the freedoms we now enjoy have lost their context and make no sense as to how and why they were derived. The effort to secularize our history and downplay that influence is perpetuating ignorance at best and disingenuous at worst. I do not believe it is done innocently, nor without some malicious intent.

In my opinion, the removal of this history from the public knowledge is just as dangerous (if not as revolting) as those who dismiss and deny the Holocaust. People like the Iranian President deny the Holocaust for one primary reason; their own perspectives are discredited and impugned if the true history is known and accepted.

In the case of our national freedom, a people’s rights can be systematically removed if the basis for making them “inalienable” is undermined. These rights were considered inalienable because they are derived from a source that is greater than the government itself and are imparted as part of the design and image of God. Governments do well to recognize those inherent rights, they do not merely grant them. If they are merely granted or tolerated, then they can be removed when the mood suits them or public opinion changes.

The foundation of our rights and freedoms which are for all people, is God. That is how they understood and argued them. That is the source of authority which gave them confidence to oppose the greatest nation of the day. We are “endowed by our Creator with certain inalienable rights”: rights that are irremovable, rights that are inseparable, rights that are inherent regardless of what government is in place. If the knowledge of the source of our rights is ever removed from our public conscience and awareness, then the government has greater ability to manipulate, distort and remove the rights we enjoy and many men and women fought and died for.

Here is an example of the systematic removal of religious influence. In searching for “Who wrote the Bill of Rights?” many of the returns echo an answer like the following:

Who Wrote the Bill of Rights?

James Madison, is the one who has written the bill of rights. However, it is George Mason who is known as the 'Father of the Bill of Rights' as his ideas in the Virginia Declaration of Rights had a great influence on James Madison, the one who wrote the bill of rights.

It is true that James Madison has written the bill of rights, but there are a few factors which make his status as the writer, a little complicated. Firstly, James Madison was never in support of a bill of rights and wanted the constitution to be ratified without any such amendment. This is because he believed that the federal government was not strong enough to become a powerful government and would fall in some time. It was Thomas Jefferson who tried hard and eventually succeeded in convincing Madison to support the formation of a bill of rights. Certain rights mentioned in the First amendment were considered to be heavily influenced by Thomas Jefferson's ideas and thoughts. It is also believed that George Mason's thoughts in the Virginia Declaration of Rights formed the base for the bill of rights. These thoughts were mainly influenced by the works of John Locke, a European philosopher. The free speech protections written in various state constitutions, are also considered to have inspired the language of the bill of rights.

While this description is not inherently inaccurate, it is historically misleading. There is no mention of a religious influence at all in this answer. I expect that most school textbooks and history museums reflect this “religion free” history. It is true that Madison first opposed the necessity of a BoR and that Jefferson was an influence. However, it was not until Madison was opposed in an election process by a Baptist minister, John Leland, that Madison relented. Leland was a third party candidate opposed to the Constitution that had no guarantee of freedom of religion. Leland’s presence in the race siphoned votes away from Madison that made him vulnerable to defeat. It was not until the two candidates met and Madison conceded to add a Bill of Rights that Leland dropped out of the race and Madison won. Leland’s religious convictions compelled him to move in the political arena—something considered abhorrent by today’s secular society.

An Abstract from the Penn State and Pepperdine University School of Law (April 2009) titled John Leland and James Madison: Religious Influence on the Ratification of the Constitution and on the Proposal of the Bill of Rights says this:

Abstract:

Itinerant Baptist preacher John Leland (and Baptists generally) strongly influenced James Madison's elections to the Virginia ratifying convention and to the First Congress, with possibly substantial effects on American history. New insights include evidence making it seem nearly certain Madison had a key letter concerning Leland in hand at a critical time and evidence showing that George Eve's famous defense of Madison at a Baptist church meeting was in pivotal Culpeper County, rather than Orange County. The paper also notes Leland's relationship with Thomas Jefferson; Leland's consistent advocacy of religious liberty for all persons; his criticism of slavery; and the unusual accessibility of his straightforward and humorous prose. Leland deserves more attention, especially now that his works are very easily accessible on Google Books. As L.H. Butterfield (an editor of the papers of both Thomas Jefferson and John Adams) put it, Leland "was as courageous and resourceful a champion of the rights of conscience as America has produced." Leland (in Philip Hamburger's phrase, "Jefferson's friend and ally, the irrepressible John Leland") is worth getting to know.

Regarding the first amendment, I had always wondered why so many topics: religion, speech, press, assembly; were all lumped into one amendment. Could they not make up their mind which was the most important and just take the “we’re all winners” approach?

Not at all. The Establishment and Freedom clauses are separated from the remaining subjects by a “;”. This minor punctuation signifies that what follows is a list of abuses that have been enacted at various times by various governments to stifle religious expression. Speech in the form of preaching was denied to minority ministers, many of which were thrown in jail. Press is referring to more than newspapers. Rather, it is referring to individuals (often ministers) going to the local Kinko’s (Printing press) and printing flyers expressing their beliefs or invitations to an event. If these were not approved by the local or ecclesiastical authorities then those pages could warrant arrest and confiscation. The British had prohibited English Bibles to be printed in America and allowed only imports from England (from which they could tax), which is why it is significant that one of the first acts of our Congress was to order the printing of Bibles here in America as mentioned in the video. The peaceable assembly is not only referring to protests, marches or clubs, but church gatherings that were meeting without licenses from or payment of fees to the local government.

In other words, the entirety of the First Amendment deals with religion and limits the power of the government to silence and repress its expression. Now it has been expanded to other issues of speech, assembly and press, and rightfully so, let us not teach a false history that they have no connection to religion. Sadly, I would guess that 90% or more of the public sees the issues raised in the first amendment as separate from religion and in many cases excluding religion (e.g. – “freedom from religion” is not the government’s job).

A strong, historical argument can be made that the climate of revolution in our pre-independence was shaped in the hearts of the people by the preaching in the churches. While not perfect in its expression, the moral foundation of Christianity upon the Founders and the general population is what made the revolution a success in stark contrast to the Libertarian philosophy dominant in France. Their revolution was bloody & corrupt, the people spiraled into anarchy and the revolution failed quickly. France returned to the dictatorship of Napoleon who promised a return to order.

Many saw the revolution not just as means to political freedom but to a religious freedom as well. “No taxation without representation” also meant a freedom from a mandatory state/church tax for which one did not claim membership. They did discuss religious freedom in terms which included Jews, Hindoos (as spelled then) and Mohammedans or Turks (as called then). You can see that in samples like “The Rights of Conscience Inalienable” – by John Leland.

Many people were recruited to fight the British from the pulpit. Many ministers led the men of their congregation with their rifles. The Presbyterian, Rev. James Caldwell, took part in the Battle of Springfield, NJ by passing out hymnals so his soldiers would have wadding for their muskets—portrayed in the painting of the battle and the phrase, “Give ‘em Watts” (in reference to the hymn writer Isaac Waats). Of the signers of the Bill of Rights, the top was the first Speaker of the House of Representatives, Frederick Augustus Muhlenberg, himself a Lutheran minister

The case for freedom of conscience and the separation of church and state is clearly there in our early history. Separation in the understanding of that day is necessary and vital for a free people. Today’s understanding of Separation is wholly different: that being the removal of public expressions of faith. Many levels of our governments have moved from creating a climate of freedom to a stifling and suffocating climate. In doing so, they are trampling on the “prohibition” line of the First Amendment. There are now serious discussions regarding people who hold to serious religious conviction being unfit for public office or appointment as a federal judge or tenure as a professor in a public university.

The new favored religion has become a secular, non-religious one. Under the guise of tolerance and progressivism, the foundations of our freedom has been eroded to the point that we do not even recognize when they are being trampled upon.

The primary goal of this particular video is to awaken an awareness of where our freedoms came from, where that evidence can still be seen, and the danger of losing that knowledge.

To paraphrase a famous line about history:

Those who forget the foundation of their freedom are doomed to be deprived of it.

The Death of Bin Laden and the Spirit of Celebration

2011-05-03T18:43:00.002-05:00

I remember where I was on 9/11. My family and I had driven to Mt. Home, AR for my grandmother-in-law’s birthday. It was a tiring drive into the late night. That morning, I was in bed. My wife came in and told me that a plane had crashed into the first tower. My thought was, something like a Cessna—single engine plane. Not good, but not really worth getting out of bed for—I turned over and tried to go back to sleep. A frustratingly few minutes later (when you’re tired constant interruptions make you irritable) she came back in loud and fast. A second plane flew into the other tower, “We’re under attack!” That cleared the cobwebs and I jumped up quickly. We spent the rest of the day in the room watching the news. My son, then 1 yr old, kept trying to get us to play and not many of us adults were in the mood for it.

Like many of you, I’ve long wondered why it was taking so long to catch Bin Laden. I’ve wondered what kind of help he’d been getting, where he would be hiding, and wondering if he died would we ever know.

I looked forward to the idea of justice catching up to him at the hands of the US Military. Now that Bin Laden has been killed in an assault by our military, I must say I have mixed feelings. There is a great relief and satisfaction that a guilty person (self-confessed) who is responsible for killing thousands of Americans and even Muslims around the world has not escaped.

The Bible is full of moments in Psalms and Proverbs of the people of God calling out for Justice, calling out for the evildoers to be held accountable. There are numerous questions why the wicked go unpunished or even prosper and then the pleading with God to set things right. There is relief and a sense of joy at the thought (Proverbs 21:15 "When justice is done, it brings joy to the righteous but terror to evildoers." & Proverbs 11:10 "When the righteous prosper, the city rejoices; when the wicked perish, there are shouts of joy."—these are observations more than commands).

I also experience a sense of sadness in the sense that by all evidence, Bin Laden is now in a Christ-less eternity where he will have no Advocate on his behalf before an Almighty & Holy God. Because even a monster like Bin Laden also bears the Image of God and Hell was not created for him but for Satan and his demons. The way Satan hurts the heart of God is by deceiving those whom God loves and died for and keeping them from a saving faith. The wages of sin is death, and death has found him. God does not want anyone to perish but all to come to repentance.

As much as Bin Laden was an enemy to America and to believers in Jesus (and even his own faith), he was a pawn for our true enemy. Jesus died even to save murderers like him. Is not the Blood of Christ powerful enough to Atone and cover over sins as great as Bin Laden’s? Scripture says yes, but this power is a gift that must be received. The Blood of Christ is Available for all, even if not taken advantage of. I truly believe there is no sin too powerful to overpower the Blood of Jesus—rejection of that saving power is the cause of that.

It is always tragic when a sinner dies in their sin, no matter who it is. That does not mean the person is not deserving, nor that justice or death is not warranted.

When someone is a killer and sheds the blood of men, Genesis says by men his blood will be shed. I’ve read somewhere recently that the idea of the death penalty within a deliberate system of justice does not diminish the image of God in humanity, it defends and upholds it. The New Testament in Romans 13 reminds us that the government does not bear the sword for nothing. As imperfect as human governments can be, they are instituted by God to be a calming influence on the human population and also at times as an instrument of God’s judgment.

What has disturbed me (and others) in the whole death of Bin Laden affair has been the celebratory attitude many of us have exhibited. I was similarly disturbed when after coming out of a movie (Transformers 2--the movie was bad enough) I heard people rejoicing at the news of Michael Jackson’s death.

With Bin Laden, many are throwing a party, in essence “dancing on his grave”. I can understand on some levels, but it reminds me too much of how I was offended at seeing the celebrations in the Middle East when the tower fell. To me, the people celebrating exemplify a spirit of vengeance and not a spirit of justice. Justice is necessary because it means that something terrible has happened. But justice does not take pleasure in it. Vengeance revels and takes pleasure from the suffering of the person in question especially when they are guilty.

This difference between vengeance and justice is especially dangerous for the victims of heinous crimes, and yes we as Americans, as a people, were victims of this man to some degree, some more than others. But when we cross the line into vengeance and take pleasure in the suffering of the perpetrator—we become more like them. We become more capable of doing something heinous because our own sense of pleasure has been corrupted by enjoying someone else suffer.

That is why one of the signs of psychopathic behavior is the mutilating of animals. It can be seen as a cry for intervention in children at a young age. It is a symptom of a greater problem—a lack of empathy for the suffering of others.

I am afraid that Bin Laden’s death reveals the lack of our humanity. When we are corrupted by sin inflicted on us—the more it corrupts us and we give in to vengeance, the more influence over our heart, mind and spirit we really give to the perpetrator—in essence increasing our victimhood.

The power of forgiveness breaks the power of our victimhood—breaks the power of the evil done to us and prevents that person from continuing to inflict hurt upon us.

Make no mistake what I’m saying—justice was served—as best as we could make it. In some sense I would have preferred a capture and trial, but I can understand the mess that would be and the years that would drag on (especially considering how the lawyers got involved with prisoners in Guantanamo—can you imagine the anguish and fighting going on over people who would want to give O.B.L our Constitutional rights?).

But let us remember several verses from the Bible on such issues:

Proverbs 24:17-18 "Do not gloat when your enemy falls; when they stumble, do not let your heart rejoice, or the LORD will see and disapprove and turn his wrath away from them."

Ezekiel 33:11 "Say to them, 'As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign LORD, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live. Turn! Turn from your evil ways!

Ezekiel 18:23 "Do I take any pleasure in the death of the wicked? declares the Sovereign LORD. Rather, am I not pleased when they turn from their ways and live?"

Ezekiel 18:32 "For I take no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Sovereign LORD. Repent and live!"

All of these passages speak to the desire of God for even the wicked to repent. He does not shy away from Judgment of sin, but He would rather see them turn, would rather give Grace.

Remember: Justice is getting what we Deserve. Mercy is not getting what we deserve. Grace is getting above and beyond what you don’t deserve.

When Jesus approached Jerusalem, He looked over the city and wept, knowing full well there were wicked people in the city, some people who would kill him just a few days later. He wept because people were unwilling to come to Him. He longed to gather them together under His wings, but their unbelief and hard hearts would keep them from doing so. It broke his heart.

Bin Laden was similarly unwilling. And though we may think BL was undeserving of God’s grace, it still breaks His heart that OBL held out to the end in the deception of the enemy.

God is OBL’s judge, let us leave that to Him. Let us also follow His leadership and not rejoice over the death of the wicked let us through the power of the Holy Spirit, love our enemies and pray for them above what they deserve. Because that says more about us.

It's Friday... Sunday's Coming

2011-04-22T15:02:00.000-05:00

Sermon by E.M Lockridge

Passover and the events of Good Friday - Partial

2011-04-22T07:51:00.000-05:00

Many people are confused by the events of the Last Supper and the night that Jesus was arrested.

What cups are they talking about and what do they mean?

Why is Jesus so hard on His disciples who are tired?

Why did they come to arrest Him at night?

How did the leaders get so many people together for a rowdy crowd during the trials?

Why would they conduct a trial at night and violate normal judicial procedure?

Much of these can be understood if you take into account the practices during the Jewish Passover.

The Jewish days start at 6 PM, so the day the Passover meal is eaten continues through the night until 6 PM the following day. All of the events of Jesus’ arrest and crucifixion happen on the same “day” in the Jewish mind.

I’ve always wondered about these questions until my wife and I found something to explain the custom of the Jewish people on the day of Passover. It stems from Exodus 12:42—“If was a night of vigil in honor of the LORD, because He would bring them out of the land of Egypt. This same night is in honor of the LORD, a night vigil for all the Israelites throughout their generations.”

After the Passover meal, they were supposed to stay awake all night. So when Jesus comes back from prayer and finds the disciples sleeping, they are supposed to be awake, not just because He had asked them to, but because of the Passover. Incidentally, Peter and John were the ones sent ahead to prepare the Passover meal so they had been working through the day to get it ready—I’m sure they were wiped out.

The fact that they were supposed to be awake explains in part why the guards were there to arrest Jesus and they expected to find him awake. It explains how the Jewish leaders were able to rouse a sympathetic crowd at such unusual hours since they were supposed to eat the meal, not in their pajamas, not ready for bed but with their clothes on, their belt tightened, their shoes on. They were symbolically ready to move out and leave, but it also meant they could go and be anywhere at a moment’s notice.

It explains why the leadership would be able to hold a trial at night—all of the people necessary would be awake and available. Normally, it would not be proper to conduct such a trial at night, many people unavailable, many others still sleepy and not ready for the day, but this was not an ordinary night. Enough people were awake and present to conduct these events—the normal routine beginning at dawn—all giving enough time to have Jesus up on the Cross by 9 am. He was taken down off the Cross not long after the 9th hour (according to Mark) which is 3 pm. That makes all these events of Messiah occurring on the same day as the Passover (by Jewish reckoning).

The Jewish Passover ceremony with it’s four cups is also why Jesus was praying about “cups” in the Garden of Gethsemane. The cup of Sin & Judgment and Wrath was the cup that was about to be poured out on Him. It was this cup that makes the next cup of the feast, the Cup of Redemption possible. Jesus’ blood was poured out to cover over, to atone for our sin. The wrath passes over us when the Blood is seen.

There are several other points that I may make about the Passover at in a later post

Reflections on James 1:23-24 - Man in the Mirror

2011-04-07T08:59:00.001-05:00

James 1:23-24—“Because if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man looking at his own face in a mirror; for he looks at himself, goes away, and right away forgets what kind of man he was.”

I think I like this translation even better than “immediately forgets what he looks like”. James is speaking very practically and not hypothetically so I realize this is probably not exactly how James meant it. With that disclaimer, I think this is still accurate.

When we look into a mirror, we are not just looking for the physical traits—is my shirt wrinkly, my hair brushed. We are also really looking at the kind of image or persona we want to convey.

Professional, clean cut, confident.

Tough guy with the unshaven look and muscle shirt.

How we look also says something about the kind of man we want to be and the message we want to convey to the people we meet.

In this sense, when James says we are looking in the mirror, we are supposed to be putting on the persona of the person of faith. But if this persona stays in the mirror and does not exist anywhere but in the mirror—in other words does not go with us into our life as defined by our actions, then our faith is no more real and tangible than the man in the mirror.

Why bother putting on the costume of faith and spend time trying to make things look right if as soon as you step away from the mirror—that costume and appearance you don’t try to live?

It’s like having a part in a play—say, you are Quasimodo—the Hunchback of Notre Dame. You spend weeks on your costume, over an hour on your makeup. You’re supposed to walk with a limp, bent over at the waist. You’re supposed to speak with a heavy lisp which you’ve practiced since you got the part. Then on the night of your first performance, you leave your dressing room

Here’s another level that is amazing:

2 Corinthians 3:18—“We all, with unveiled faces, are reflecting the glory of the Lord and are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory (progressive glorification); this is from the Lord who is the Spirit. (from the Spirit of the Lord).

We are supposed to be in the process of transformation—from looking like ourselves to looking like Jesus. We are to Reflect Him. In our mirror, our reflection is to look more and more like Jesus.

So do you look in the mirror and see Jesus at all?

Do you look in the mirror, see Jesus, then walk away and forget who He is? Is that even possible?

In your mirror, you need to see more of Jesus and not forget that He is who the world is supposed to see everywhere we go. Our image, our reputation is not nearly as important as His. Our lives not only reflect on our reputation but His.

Who do you see in your mirror? Are you putting on Christ even more than a clean shirt? Have you forgotten what kind of man He was… or do you remember and so live in such a way that changes your life and impacts the world?

Is God Your Co-Pilot?

2011-03-29T10:18:00.000-05:00

We like the phrase: “God is my Co-Pilot” because it means that we’re the ones still driving, still the ones in control.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but the Co-Pilot is usually not as good or less experienced than the Pilot. And for God to take that role of Co-Pilot really means that:

• We own the car—it’s our car to drive—i.o.w.—it’s my life…

• We are the better Pilot for our car—i.o.w.—we know better than God

We want God in our car only so long as we’re the ones still driving—we don’t want to consider ourselves as the passenger to our own life. If there’s an emergency, then we’ll let God take the wheel for a while. But in many ways, He’s more like our Chauffeur until we can get back in the driver’s seat.

I hate to break this to you, but God shouldn’t be your Co-Pilot, He needs to be your Pilot. And He is not your Chauffeur taking you where you want to go, He is the one who determines the destination and the speed. And He doesn’t always fly around the turbulence.

Oh and in case you’re wondering, He gets frustrated with Back-Seat Drivers just as much as you do!

Feeling Like Peter - Movie Review of Prince Caspian

2011-03-18T10:40:00.000-05:00

Originally Written 7/2009

I’m beginning to feel a lot like Peter. And I’m not talking about Peter, the Apostle.

I’m talking about Peter in the movie Prince Caspian.

I never did a review of the movie so much of that will be covered here. Overall, I liked the movie, though the moral was not as clear as in The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe. I know that many people did not like the movie, particularly for its focus on fighting and its portrayal of Peter.

I really like the portrayal of Peter for several reasons. In the book, the Pevensie children transition back and forth from Narnia without much emotional exploration. Given that Lewis was writing children’s stories, it’s not surprising nor is it a failure that he does not go into this emotional depth. As an adult reading the story, however, it always felt lacking. What reason could there be for the older children not seeing Aslan when Lucy did? How do you go from a 30+ year old High King to a nobody teenager again, man that’s gotta be tough.

In the movie, this is explored, especially in Peter’s character. Starting out, he is angry, even bitter towards Aslan because he does not understand what Aslan is doing. “It’s been nearly a year…” complains Peter as he wonders why they haven’t been taken back into Narnia. He preferred Narnia to this world, preferred being King. He resented being thrust back into a boy’s role with no power or influence.

In many ways, he believed it was a mistake that they ever stumbled out of Narnia. But for reasons he didn’t understand, Aslan had not fixed the problem. A year later, Peter is confused and angry, hence his willingness to fight anyone. Susan had seen it all before and Edmond was instantly in support of his brother.

Back in Narnia, Peter is back in his element. Immediately he resorts to his command authority and it often conflicts with Caspian’s leadership. But something is different—he’s not all that interested in Aslan—he is fighting to restore what he sees as his kingdom—early on, Peter fights only “for Narnia”. You hear his battle cries during the castle onslaught. He’s trying to “do it on his own”, something which the White Witch tempts him with later on after his failure—“you know you can’t do this on your own.”

I believe Peter doesn’t see Aslan when Lucy does because—one, he is angry and resentful towards him, and two, he no longer trusts Aslan nor relies on him—Peter’s reassertion of command authority brings with it an “I can only depend on myself”. Because Peter didn’t understand Aslan, he stopped looking for him—stopped waiting for him. Despite his experience with Aslan, Peter lives and acts much more like Trumpkin, who doesn’t believe in Alsan at all—Peter has become a functional atheist.

Peter’s situation influenced those around him who followed his lead. Edmond didn’t see Aslan in part b/c he was taking his cues from Peter and falling back into that role. Susan didn’t see Aslan in part b/c she really didn’t want to be there at all. At the end of the Narnia stories, she is the only one who doesn’t come back b/c she is no longer a ‘friend of Narnia”.

Peter even influences Lucy, who did see Aslan—she follows Peter anyway—in this way, the blind was leading the seeing. Lucy still had a childlike faith and a love for Aslan—but she let the pressures of others stop her from going to him. This is something that Aslan mildly rebukes her for when he says, “and why did that stop you from coming to me”, after Lucy had said the others didn’t believe her.

Peter is like many Christians. Time elapses in our walk with Jesus and we forget. We build up certain expectations of what we think God is doing or should do—we assume we know His will—and then it doesn’t happen like we think it should. Prayers seem unanswered—we step out on faith and it feels like God isn’t holding up His side of the venture. And so we get frustrated, confused, resentful and sometimes angry. We’re tempted to lose hope, we’re tempted to become functional atheists who try to do it all on their own strength. We pray less often, we read the Word less and don’t get as much out of times of fellowship and worship. It saps the strength out of us. Our spiritual vitality drains away.

This is why, in many ways, I feel like Peter. Last year, about this time, my family and I stepped out on faith, jumped off the high dive, in stepping down from my pastoral position in Macomb, IL. We didn’t have a position already lined up, we didn’t know where we were going. We believed God would provide. Provide a short-term job; provide a buyer for our house, provide a new pastoral position.

Early on, it looked like God would do it all. I got a temp. job for $10/hour that very week. We had some early showings of the house. Our search was up and rolling. We thought we knew the will of God and were seeing it played out. Then, things began to change—He wasn’t working on our timetable anymore. I was laid off from that job on Dec. 23rd and couldn’t find another one until March. The house has yet to sell and has become like a rope holding us back. We feel led into church planting and He gave us a location and a vision but there have been delays and frustrations.

I still believe we correctly discerned God’s will in stepping down from my pastoral position. But now we are asking the questions… “how long Lord?” When will these steps of faith we’ve taken come to pass? For me, like Peter, “It’s been a year” how long are we going to have to wait? Have we missed something in His will? Are we not listening?

I honestly don’t have an easy answer for this type of question.

Unfortunately we are strained, emotionally, spiritually, physically. My current job is overnights at Wal-Mart. While I am thankful to have it, it doesn’t come near to supporting our family, especially with the house payment. If not for the love and generosity of family and a good couple of friends, we would not be making it.

God may very well use the Wal-Mart position as a blessing as I should be able to transfer up to a local store in Shorewood. However, the longer it takes, the less likely as they are in a hiring crunch. We are now trying to sell our house “By Owner” and we’ve dropped our price. Hopefully it will move soon.

It’s hard not to get frustrated. It’s hard to keep the lines of communication open when you begin to sound more like a complaining record that keeps skipping back over the same material over and over again.

But here is where I believe faith is proved genuine. When you don’t know. When you don’t have all the answers. When things are not easy. The light shines in and through the darkness. His word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. In times like this, He is more like a flashlight than the sun. He is lighting the next step or two ahead, not a mile ahead. We may see the destination or the horizon, but not all the twists, turns and valleys in between. We must walk with Him and trust Him. We must yearn and seek after Him in spite of the uncertainties. And be honest with Him about what you’re thinking and feeling (He knows it anyway). But trust Him anyway—trust what He has shown you and who He is and keep walking.

To quote Caedmon’s Call—we have to realize that when we are down in the valley and the flood of God’s grace and presence comes, it’s the valleys that fill first.

Update: 3/18/11

Wow, I never finished this or posted it that I can find. It’s been almost two years and things have not resolved. The house never sold in our possession. We moved onsite to Shorewood, IL to plant The Pursuit. A month later our funding was pulled. A month after that, we had to move to Murray, KY with family where we’ve been for over a year.

Jobs have been hard to find. The first job I found was serving at a brand new restaurant—wasn’t making much money… and then it burned to the ground not even 6 months into its opening. I have been recently hired on permanently at Collegebookrenter.com doing customer service. This has proven a great blessing.

My search for a new Ministry position has also proven challenging. I’ve made it to several churches’ last cut, but never been the one called. Many times the enemy likes to use that against me and my confidence.

Not even supply preaching is happening like I thought it would. Last fall, my wife and I took on the college ministry at our church, using our church plant material to provide some identity.

In any event, it’s been almost 3 years since my family and I stepped out on faith and very little has gone “according to plan”. There are days I feel more like Peter than ever. But there are many others in which I am compelled to trust and wait that His plans have always been better than mine and that there are things I must be faithful at doing in the meantime.

I have certainly had opportunities for the Kingdom of God that I never would have had if things worked out my way. I’ve met and hopefully influenced people in a way that honors my Savior.

I have had the opportunity to do some writing that I have been led to do but never had the time to do. I’ve made good progress into a book on the life of Jacob.

I’m reminded reading this again—Who’s Kingdom am I fighting for? Mine or His?

Have I been acting like a Functional Atheist trying to do everything by my own strength, power and wits?

Is my confusion and struggle in this walk steadfast through the struggle? Am I leading my family accordingly, my wife and kids, to see God as Lucy did even in the midst of the uncertainty?

Lord, I want to confess my confusion. My expectations have not been met because my understanding of You is too small and limited.

I know You are here with me wherever I go for You have promised never to leave or forsake me.

I call out to You for resolution, a light for my path. Help me be faithful wherever the path goes. Help me discern Your voice and leading. Help me depend on You and not my own strength or wisdom.

Help me to be a light especially to my family. I pray that my wife is not discouraged. I pray my children do not lose heart because of our uncertainty. I pray this experience strengthens their ability to trust You even when nothing makes sense. Even when things don’t “work out” when we’re trying to be faithful.

Help me not to relate to You with the attitude, “I’ll do this for You so You will do this for me.”

You are my portion and great reward—if I have nothing else but You, I have all I will ever need.

Help me to live this way every day—drive away despair from me. Give me a renewed hope and strength.

Thank you for sustaining me in all this experience.

Help me be more like Peter from the Bible. Help me be like Peter from the movie in that I have courage to fight and trust in Your deliverance.

May You be exalted.

The Art of Storytelling and Mark's Gospel

2011-03-16T13:51:00.000-05:00

How would the story be changed? How differently would the story be told if…

Once upon a time, Sleeping Beauty was awakened by a kiss from Prince Charming.

A Long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, Luke Skywalker destroyed the Death Star.

Knowing how the story ends takes away a lot of the tension. You don’t have to worry as much about the characters or the success of the heroes. When they are in danger, you know they will make it through because you already know how it ends.

Not knowing how something resolves or how it ends creates a tension and uncertainty. It makes you want to know more, keeps your attention until it resolves. Will the heroes survive and make it out of the tough situation? It is the unknown, the unexpected that keeps you hanging on the edge of your seat.

One of the best devices to aid in creating audience tension is the Cliffhanger. You put the main character in some precarious setting and then stop the show before the moment resolves. Then you have to tune in at the “Same Bat Time, Same Bat Channel” in order to see what happens next.

Today, many TV shows have a season finale that involves a cliffhanger. People then have to frustratingly wait until next season. One of the most famous cliffhangers spawned a whole national discussion that gave the nation an escape from the news of a presidential election, an ongoing hostage crisis, and a gas shortage.

The characterizing phrase from this moment was, “Who Shot JR?” back in 1980.

One of the Gospels about Jesus does this same thing; the Gospel of Mark.

It is the shortest of the gospels but tells the story in the best way. It is actually meant to be read in one sitting.

It moves very quickly using words like “immediately” or “suddenly”. It is filled with movement, displays of power, emotional responses.

Jesus is the main character and you as the audience learn who is He is in chapter 1 verse 1. The demons that Jesus encounters also know who He is. The only ones who don’t really know are the Disciples, the twelve men selected to follow Him.

Of the disciples, the story focuses on Peter, the second most important person in the story. He is the first disciple mentioned by name (Simon), he is the last disciple mentioned.

The question becomes for the audience… will the disciples, will Peter, ever figure it out? Will they ever see Jesus for who He really is?

Chapter 8 is the pivotal point. Jesus chastises the disciples by saying, “Do you not yet understand or comprehend? Is your heart hardened? ‘Do you have eyes, and not see, and do you have ears, and not hear?’” 8:17-18

After this, Jesus heals a blind man by touching him twice. The first time, the man’s sight is partially restored, he sees things blurry, like wearing someone else’s glasses. Then after the second touch, the man sees Jesus clearly.

Jesus then asks the disciples the most important question: “Who do people say that I am?” He wants to know how well they see Him. Are they seeing things blurry or clearly? The people are a bit confused about His identity, but Peter says boldly, “You are the Messiah!” 8:29

Peter and the disciples see clearly for one moment. But then Jesus changes course and begins to teach about His eventual crucifixion and death. And Peter, who just 3 verses earlier proclaimed Jesus the Messiah begins to rebuke Jesus and Jesus calls Peter “Satan” for not seeing clearly.

Chapter 9 lets Peter see Jesus in His glory, called the Transfiguration, but they still don’t keep the focus very long.

The fast moving story covering several months slows down when they reach Jerusalem. Now the story goes day by day. In these days, Jesus promises a betrayer to which Peter says he never will but is willing to die for Jesus.

The last time a disciple is active in the story is when Peter denies even knowing Jesus in 14:66-72. He can no longer see Jesus clearly, he is afraid.

Now if you were in the first century, this story would have been read to you. Mark, the writer of the story is historically tied to Peter, traveling with him and attending him.

I believe this gospel was written while Peter was still alive. People would have come to the church gathering to hear the great Peter speak. While Mark or someone is reading this story, Peter would be on the front row listening to all his stories of failure with Jesus. Really? The man who denied Jesus isn’t the legend we’ve been hearing about.

Then the last day of Jesus’ life, when He is crucified goes hour by agonizing hour; starting at the 3rd , then the 6th, finally dying at the 9th hour at the beginning of a lunar eclipse.

This is an unexpected ending for the hero of the story if this was the first time you’ve ever heard it. A true tragedy.

None of the disciples are mentioned in the rest of Mark. On the day of Resurrection, it is the women who go to the tomb. The scene is disturbed, the women are getting more and more concerned when they are given a message: “Don’t be alarmed. You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene who was crucified. He has been resurrected! He is not here! See the place where they put Him. But go, tell His disciples and Peter, ‘He is going ahead of you to Galilee; you will see Him there just as He told you.’”

Notice how Peter’s name is specifically mentioned again, to bring him back into the story. Then the story ends with the greatest cliffhanger possible. The women are afraid, afraid to tell anyone. THE END

That’s where Mark ends. In the various manuscripts that have survived from antiquity there is evidence of 4 different lengths of endings, the one preserved in many Bibles today is the longest. But it has a different style, different vocabulary and some questionable statements. It is not from the same source.

But the cliffhanger ending, I believe is intentional. As a storyteller, the audience (who’s been sitting for an hour) is now primed and ready to hear the “Rest of the Story” as Paul Harvey says. It serves as an introduction for Peter who can then stand up and share his eyewitness testimony, how he now sees Jesus clearly and how Jesus has forever changed his life.

This follows closely his own descriptions in the books he wrote for the New Testament.

Some of my favorite verses 1 Peter 3:15-16, I believe reminisces from his own experiences of denial and unwillingness to answer when asked about Jesus. 15-16—“set apart Christ as Lord in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense (an answer) to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you. However, do this with gentleness and respect.”

He says in 2 Peter 1:16—“For we did not follow cleverly contrived myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ; instead, we were eyewitnesses of His majesty.”

Mark’s missing ending is a classic literary cliffhanger to introduce the eyewitness Peter. When Peter died in Rome (traditionally crucified upside down), this closure of the story was lost.

The problem is that the cliffhanger is unsettling until it is resolved. So the endings are attempts to finish the story.

Nothing is more frustrating for a modern TV show to end a season with a cliffhanger, but have the next season cancelled before that story is completed. That’s what is happening here.

The Shame we Try to Hide

2011-03-04T07:49:00.002-06:00

At the BCM here in Murray last night, the topic was shame and how that can paralyze us.

It’s amazing to think that ever since the days of Adam & Eve, we have responded the same way to our shame—we try to cover it up, or we try to hide.

That’s what they did in Genesis 3. They tried to cover up their nakedness and when God did show up, rather than rush to meet Him, they hid from Him.

One of the joys of my day is when I come home and the kids are excited to see me home. They often rush to meet me.

But there are days I can tell when one or both has gotten in trouble. They’re not too enthused to welcome Dad home because I’m going to find out about it.

I believe that’s a lot of what was going on with them in the Garden, but we still act very much the same way.

We put on a public mask, we try to hide and pretend everything is alright. Our greatest fear becomes being discovered and we go to great lenghts to keep our shame from becoming known.

We may know and it eats us up inside, but we try to keep it in the dark—hide it in the depths where the light of day cannot penetrate.

But God does not want us to stay in the darkness. It is why He sent us the Light of the World.

But when it comes to our shame, we are more comfortable with our darkness than we are with the light. Shame keeps us afraid. But God knows that Victory never comes in shame and secret, but only when the light exposes what we try so hard to hide.

John 3:19-20—“This, then, is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil. For everyone who practices wicked things hates the light and avoids it, so that his deeds may not be exposed.”

Our shame will keep us from the light and from the only source of victory and power over it. We love our sin more than we love the redemption.

But Jesus came on a rescue mission to deliver us from darkness and shame.

Colossians 1:13-14—“He has rescued us from the dominion (power) of darkness (shame) and transferred us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption (victory), the forgiveness of sins.”

The last thing our shame wants to do is be exposed, but it is the thing we need the most. Jesus will cover your sin with His righteousness. Do not love your darkness but let the Light of Christ rescue you.

How Well do you know the First Christmas

2010-11-23T16:36:00.000-06:00

Not meaning to skip past Thanksgiving but since I'll be starting with Christmas stuff this Sunday, I thought I would get this discussion started.

Starting this weekend, The Pursuit College class at Westside Baptist Church will be taking a closer look at the story of Jesus' birth.

Here's a few questions to think about. Send some answers back here if you know or come on Sunday prepared to talk about it--9:30 AM.

Be ready to explain the traditional Christmas story—

stories found in Matthew 1&2 & Luke 1&2

1. Why did Mary and Joseph even need to go to Bethlehem?

2. What time of year was it?

3. Were Joseph and Mary alone traveling to Bethlehem?

4. How long of a trip was it from Nazareth to Bethlehem?

5. Did Mary give birth to Jesus the night they arrived?

6. Did Mary & Joseph know anyone in Bethlehem?

7. Which Inn had No Vacancy? Ramada Inn or Red Roof Inn?

8. What verse mentions the “inn”? Could it be anything other than a motel type business?

9. Was it a good or bad thing that Mary and Joseph went to the stables with the animals? How?

10. Why did the angel go to shepherds and not people more important?

11. Why were the shepherds afraid of the angel?

12. How do you think Joseph reacted when strange men showed up at the door in the middle of the night?

13. When did the Wise Men notice the star: before Jesus was born, the night Jesus was born, after Jesus was born?

14. Why would the Magi first go to the King’s palace?

15. When did they arrive in Bethlehem? The night Jesus was born or after? If after, by how much?

16. How long did Mary & Joseph stay in Bethlehem after Jesus was born?

17. Why would the king want to kill all the boys in Bethlehem?

Before the Journey & Other Questions

1. How big of an issue was it for Mary to be pregnant before getting married?

2. How do you think Joseph felt about the situation? What was he doing to do when he found out? (see Matthew’s gospel)

3. How do you think Mary & Joseph were treated during her pregnancy?

4. Why did Mary rush off to her cousin’s house? How long was she there?

5. Why is the concept of the Virgin birth/conception so important?

6. Did other people have questions about Jesus’ “questionable” birth situation? See John 8, particularly 8:19

7. Are there any passages from the Old Testament that speak about Jesus’ birth?

The Mission - Burden or Privilege

2010-11-12T14:11:00.000-06:00

Imagine that you wake up in the morning to the United States in a time of great need (a big stretch over the last 10 years I know!). You turn on the news to see the President addressing the nation before cameras and reporters. "And now," he says, "I'm going to call the one person I need to help accomplish and fulfill the mission before us--the task of saving the people of our great nation."

From off camera, one of his staffers hands him a phone. He starts dialing. He puts it to his ear.

And your phone starts ringing.

Caller ID says: Washington D.C.

It's him. He's calling you.

What is going through your mind in this moment?

OK, here's the deal--If the President were ever to call me, I would first think it was a joke. Then I would be stunned and flabergasted that the President would call me for anything. Then I would consider myself totally unqualified and I ...would try to find a way out of it.

Among other things. I would be intimidated, I might be tempted to avoid answering the phone, but I would neverbe rude to the President, never hang up on him or pretend I can't hear him because of a bad cell connection (whether I like the current guy or not). Would you have the nerve to hang up on the President? I wouldn't.

Above all, I hope I would have the courage to do what was asked of me.

The connection in this scenario is that we have someone who has called us that is far bigger and more important than the President: the Creator of the Universe. He has a Mission to be accomplished and it is very important to Him. He wants to save people and give them an eternity with Him.

When God wants to save someone, He SENDS someone. The best example of that is Jesus. Read John 3:17 (everyone knows 3:16). When God wanted to save us, He SENT His Son. God is a Mission Sending God.

And He wants to include us as a vital part of His Mission. God wants to save people now by Sending You. He calls you, maybe not on the phone, but He is calling you to fulfill a great need.

Is this a burden or a Privilege? Do you think God only calls a few select people to this mission? Would you rather God call someone else to do it? Do you want to be left out of it?

Too many believers in Jesus see this mission as a burden and not a responsibility much less a Privilege and a joy. They don't want God to include them--when He calls they refuse to answer the phone or even hang up on the Creator of the Universe.

If it is wrong to do so to the President, how much more to our Creator?

When you become a believer, you given a Mission. How big is your mission? Do you really want the most menial, insignificant and least satisfying mission? Do you really want to go AWOL to the One you call Savior?

You will never understand your faith as well until you become someone who is fulfilling your mission and actively sharing your faith--Philemon 1:6 (NIV especially)

This is more than Smokey the Bear saying, "Only You can prevent forest fires." It's more than just a suggestion--it is a command and a privilege.

Begin seeing your mission as a Privilege and not a burden.

Sermon - 2 Timothy 1:6 - God's Fire - Lighter Fluid or Fire Extinguisher

2010-10-25T09:10:00.000-05:00

Now that summer is winding down—a debate rages every weekend—

“To Grill or Not to Grill? That is the question.”

And within that debate rages another one—Propane or Charcoal?

How many Propane advocates do we have? Charcoal?

Those of you who love Charcoal should listen carefully—because today, we’re talking about a fire.

In order to offer up sacrifices and fellowship offerings to God, the Israelites were commanded to set up a big fire. When God’s presence came down on the Tent of Meeting, He was the one who started the fire (Lev. 9:24). Later, in 2 Chronicles 7 when Solomon was dedicating the temple and the altar, again it was God who started the fire that consumed the first sacrifice.

They had some instructions to go along with this fire—they were supposed to maintain it and not let it go out.

Leviticus 6:12-13--12 The fire on the altar must be kept burning; it must not go out. Every morning the priest is to add firewood and arrange the burnt offering on the fire and burn the fat of the fellowship offerings on it. 13 The fire must be kept burning on the altar continuously; it must not go out.

Even things like the lamps had to be maintained and kept burning.

Lev. 24:1-4--The LORD said to Moses, 2 "Command the Israelites to bring you clear oil of pressed olives for the light so that the lamps may be kept burning continually. 3 Outside the curtain of the Testimony in the Tent of Meeting, Aaron is to tend the lamps before the LORD from evening till morning, continually. This is to be a lasting ordinance for the generations to come. 4 The lamps on the pure gold lampstand before the LORD must be tended continually.

How do you think they would respond if someone came running up to the fire with a large bucket of water to put it out? That person would be stopped at all costs. It would be an act of blasphemy—and spiritual terrorism.

This was not an obligation that they took lightly? I would hate to be that guy who didn’t take it seriously.

Picture it like someone leading a tour group through the temple grounds and they introduce everyone to an important person—“And next I’d like to introduce you to Jason—his job is to make sure that the fire of the altar remains burning at all times. That’s because this fire which has been burning continuously for the last 50 years after originally being started by God Himself. “

A small kid tugs on their parent’s sleeve and says, “I don’t see any fire”

Southwest Airlines has an ad campaign that expresses this moment: “Wanna get away?”

I would not want to be that guy who let the fire go out. Would you?

And yet you and I are capable of it—not just passively letting it go out, but actively putting out the Fire of God in your life, in the life of those around you, and even your church.

In 2 Timothy, Paul gives a great encouragement to his son in the faith. “For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands. 7 For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline.

Keep this gift ablaze in your life—keep the fires burning, keep the altar burning in your heart, in your life that God started because you are charged with keeping it lit.

How else are you to offer yourself as a Living Sacrifice as Romans 12 calls us to do?

If you neglect, ignore, stop using your gift—if you ignore, don’t listen to, put off the prompting and leading of the Holy Spirit, then that fire which was started in you will die down, the light and heat that it gives off will diminish and weaken and eventually your passion and your effectiveness as a believer in Jesus Christ will wane.

Paul says that you cannot let that happen. Instead you must deliberately and attentively keep that fire alive—more than that—you must “fan” that fire into flame.

Have you seen anyone do that? Get a roaring fire going from a few smoldering embers? You stir up the coals a bit, add a little more fuel and start to blow.

Maybe you even have one of those fancy Fireplace Bellows that give a great directed air to get a fire going again.

Or maybe for those die hard grillers, you just pull out the Lighter Fluid and spray it on to get the biggest flame possible.

Who here has done that in the last month? Sprayed lighter fluid directly on a fire? The last week? Yesterday?

God started a fire in you when you believed—the gift of the Holy Spirit is described as coming down on the early church in Acts 2 as a fire—filling the people of God—filling those who are His Temple. He is taking up residence, not in a building—but this time a people.

God does not want your gift that He has given you to use… He does not want the fire the Spirit inside you to be a mere flicker—a smoldering pile of ash that does nothing but give evidence that something once was happening here.

But Paul feels the need to say that you must, MUST, MUST keep this fire ablaze—your very life depends on it

When we talk about grilling on the weekend—it’s optional—our life is not on the line—our next meal may come from it—but fire wasn’t so easy to come by and start like it is today.

you must fan it into flame again because I’m sure that he had seen many people’s fire for life, for ministry, for serving, for worship, for praying fizzle out.

As tragic as it is to let the fire go out, you’ve got to realize that it more tragic to sabotage and to deliberately put the fire out.

Instead of grabbing the lighter fluid—you pull out the FIRE EXTINGUISHER.

Do you think you would be capable of taking a Fire Extinguisher to the Temple and putting out the fire of the Altar?

Then why would you be willing to do that in Your Life? In Someone else’s Life? In the life of your church?

When the Spirit of God moves in your heart? How do you respond?

When an opportunity arises to use your gift? Do you follow through? Talk yourself out of it?

There are 2 ways you can respond to the leading of the Spirit—Lighter Fluid or Fire Extinguisher

You Can be an Extinguisher in Your Own Life

When you refuse to use your gift and it is neglected—it loses its power and effectiveness. You lose your light and heat and your power. You’re an extinguisher.

When you Ignore or Put Off or Explain away the leading of God—your fire dies down-- love for Him goes cold, your responsiveness to Him is lessened and your usefulness Him. You’re an extinguisher to your own altar

There are so many more I could think of here—I’m sure you can think of a few that you’ve used—a few fires that you’ve put out.

You Can be an Extinguisher in the Lives of Others

When someone comes to you seeking answers and you set up an appointment with someone else so because you’re uncomfortable—that’s an extinguisher.

When someone with a rough past has given their life to Jesus and in their enthusiasm they want to serve and you tell them—“I don’t think we have anything right now.”—that’s an extinguisher

When someone thinks they might be called into the ministry and you tell them that’s a bad career move b/c they’ll never make any money—that’s an extinguisher.

You Can Be An Extinguisher In Your Church

We can have Extinguishers In the church

When you Oppose Everything

When You Gossip or Complain

Hold on to Bitterness

When you are not Welcoming to new or different people

When you are not Praying

A church that has no vision—vision for the lost, for the Mission and Kingdom of God—that’s an extinguisher

A church that is more concerned about what people are wearing or how they look is an extinguisher

A church that refuses to grow, refuses to adapt, refuses to reach out is an extinguisher—rightly standing on the unchanging message but inflexible with methods

Such a church is in danger of what happened to the church in Ephesus—losing your first love—your fire going out and your lampstand removed.

Most churches safety reasons have lots of fire extinguishers at strategically placed locations in order to put out any fires that may pop up—and rightly so.

But what we also need is lighter fluid in strategic places where we can make the movements of God even bigger.

As great as it is to have Firefighters like Justin in our church—who’s job it is to put out fires—we need more men and women willing to start spiritual fires and fan them in to a great flame.

The People Extinguished -- The Church Extinguished

The People on Fire -- The Church On Fire

The church needs people who are not carrying around fire extinguishers but lighter fluid

We need more Power Plants not more Surge Protectors

What purpose for the gift?

No fear—boldness

Power in witness

Love and compassion for the lost

Self- Control

Sound judgment—discernment—opportunity of how and when

How do you Fan into Flame or Keep Ablaze this gift?

• Fuel

o Word of God—this is your spiritual food—if you’re going out to eat after church today—how crazy would it be to have all this food placed before you, but never eat it—

o Worship—praise God in your life—not just on Sundays or when someone else is leading you

o Fellowship with other Believers—we strengthen each other

o Serve—you build muscles by working them—you add fuel to your fire in serving the church

o Don’t get burned out

• Wind or Breath

o God breathed onto the dust He had formed and the man became a living being. Jesus breathed on His disciples and said, “receive the Holy Spirit”

o Jesus said, “the wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear it’s sound but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.” – John 3:8

o When the Spirit moves—you must hear Him, Recognize Him and Respond to Him in faith and obedience

o Learn His Voice, Recognize His Leading

Opportunity to respond—how is the fire of your altar? Are you an extinguisher in your own life? Can you offer yourself as a living sacrifice with the fire and passion in your heart?

Maybe you need God to start your fire today.

Core Beliefs - Part 1 - Creative God

2010-09-06T18:24:00.000-05:00

These Core Beliefs are intended to help tell the story of God's work in history.

Today I'm writing about the first, but I want to start by listing all of them.

1. Creative God

2. Damaged Humanity

3. Restoring Jesus

4. Transforming Holy Spirit

5. Privileged Mission

6. Infallible Word

7. Glorious Future

With that list, here's the discussion from this past Sunday on our Creative God

1. Creative God

a. God is creative and has a great imagination. Just look at the diversity of creatures and wonders of nature. From deep sea creatures to nebulae in deep space—all of it finds their origin in the creativity of God.

b. “In the Beginning, God created” is one of the most debated and controversial topics in today’s culture and philosophy. Many times, science begins with Carl Sagan’s axiom, “the universe is all there is or ever will be”. This is a total materialistic universe according to them and God is not even a necessary concept as Stephen Hawking has published recently

c. This is partially in response to the fact that the Big Bang Theory as it is popularly known, in the minds of many, supports the biblical concept of creation because based on observation, the universe as we know it had a definitive beginning and is not a static, eternal universe with no beginning as argued in the previous theory.

d. This universe and all the heavens “declare the glory of God”—in other words—the complexity and design of everything points to a designer. Paul goes further to say in Romans 1 that just by the testimony of creation itself, human beings are without excuse in acknowledging God’s existence. Instead of worshipping the Creator, we would rather, in our sin, worship the created thing—but which is greater? By far, the Creator.

e. God is THE creative Creator with an amazing imagination for diversity, complexity and beauty. Genesis 1 records the systematic way He builds layers upon layers in order to make His work of art. Starting in Day 3, He begins stepping back and taking a look at what He has just done and He sees that it is “good”. Good in the artist’s sense of—“that part is done and I like it, I’m ready to move on to the next part of my work of art.”

f. The last step that God adds to His creation is Adam & Eve—the only part of creation that is described as made in the image of God--It is not until God creates Adam & Eve—as the crowning achievement of what He is doing that we see Him step back and declare that it is all “very good”.

g. We have a special and unique place in God’s creation—and in relationship with out Creator. No other part of creation can claim the stature of human beings—all the previous creative work was building a background canvas for His masterpiece. That’s how we are described in Ephesians 2:10—we are God’s “worskmanship”—the word there is Poema—similar to poem—it can also be translated, “masterpiece”.

h. God is creative and He has poured His creativity into creating a world for those made in His image. And this creativity is something that God has designed and built into the very fabric of our being. Because He is creative we too are creative.

i. You can see that pointed out in various places in Scripture. In Exodus 31 God says of a man named Bezalel “4-- I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with skill, ability and knowledge in all kinds of crafts-- 4 to make artistic designs for work in gold, silver and bronze, 5 to cut and set stones, to work in wood, and to engage in all kinds of craftsmanship.”—Bezalel was given these gifts for the building of the first Tabernacle—the housing of the Ark of the Covenant and the Tent of Meeting with God. God does not want things shoddy or cheap—He understands beauty and how things that please the eye often please or soften the heart. Bezalel’s gifting improved the worship of God’s people and strengthened them as a community.

j. Later in 1 Corinthians 12, you see—“ There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit. 5 There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. 6 There are different kinds of working, but the same God works all of them in all men. 1CO 12:7 Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good.”

k. The continuing discussion of spiritual gifts come with this understanding—God now gives gifts to His people, His church for the building up and magnification of His name and the strengthening of His people. Each person has a different set of gifts and a different calling of service. We are not uniform, exchangeable cogs in some great wheel—but specially created and gifted to serve His Kingdom in a uniquely creative way.

l. Just as Bezalel was beautifying the Tabernacle, what would become the future Temple of God, so too our gifts build up His Temple that is the Church

m. God has ingrained His creativity in our design—too often growing up I used my creativity to discover ways to get myself in trouble—but God wants us to use our creativity for His glory and to strengthen the worship of His people. As a believer, God has given you a gift for you to use—do not let it sit idle but instead fan that gift into flame by use. Also, given you are uniquely gifted, don’t just do anything and plug yourself into something for the sake of doing what someone else needs or wants (though that may very well be necessary for a season) but instead cultivate your gift and use your creativity to find new ways of bridging the ancient faith to modern life.

Lesson From Nature - Full or New Moon?

2010-07-25T14:16:00.000-05:00

Last night was impressive. Vicky and I came back from the store and were commenting about how bright it was. We walked out to the street and noticed that there were shadows on the driveway from the trees across the street. We turned around and saw our own shadows. All coming from the Full Moon at 9:30 at night.

It's amazing to think how the moon can cast a shadow because it is so bright. The moon is not the source of the light, it merely is reflecting light from a greater source... the sun. The moon is functioning as a giant mirror in the sky reflecting the brightness of the sun that is shining on the other side of the world.

However, as you can see above--the moon is not always full. It waxes and wanes depending on the time of the month and it's position around the earth.

Sometimes the moon will be so bright it can cast a shadow. Other times, you'll barely be able to see it at all.

All of that got me to thinking. Which would I rather be? The Full moon or the New moon?

As believers in Jesus, we are supposed to be more like the Full moon--fully reflecting a glory that is not our own. We are not a source of the light, we merely reflect the glory that belongs to and comes from God.

2 Corinthians 3:18-- "And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit."

We reflect a glory that is ours through faith in Jesus Christ.

Hebrews 1:3 - "The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word."

The more we are like Christ, the more we reflect His glory. The more we allow ourselves to be conformed into the image of Jesus, the greater light that shines from us--or more accurately reflects from us.

My problem is that some days, I am more like the New moon than I am the Full moon. I am like one of the phases--I reflect some light, but am darkened in other areas.

The world is covered in a darkness and it needs the light of our Savior reflected in our lives.

How about you? What kind of moon are you?

Blessing & Beattitudes - A New Thought

2010-06-14T00:12:00.001-05:00

In church tonight, we heard thoughts from Scott Douglas on the Beattitudes found in Matthew’s Gospel.

As I already shared on this blog, my understanding of these passages has radically changed by considering the Culture of Blessing that existed in Israel and the early church—the bringing someone close and placing hands on their head and speaking good things over them and invoking God’s benefits and presence. Blessing someone required closeness and touch—it was a hands on enactment.

So I believe the “Blessed” of the beatitudes should be understood as the Hand of God being on someone and the Presence of God being near/with someone. Something even passes from the one to the other—ex., inheritance, Abraham’s blessing, and even appears in the sacrificial system of passing guilt to the sacrifice (Leviticus 3:2)

That gets me to my new thought. As Scott talked about and Mark Driscoll has been talking about lately, there is a difference between the ethic of Religion/religious people and the Kingdom. The ethic of religion likes to judge and determine the evidence of God’s favor—typically wealth, power, success—and contrast that to the evidence of God’s disfavor—the opposite—lack of wealth, power or success.

The Bible often describes that as God’s hand being against someone.

Exodus 7:5--And the Egyptians will know that I am the LORD when I stretch out my hand against Egypt and bring the Israelites out of it."

Duet. 2:15--The LORD's hand was against them until he had completely eliminated them from the camp.

Ruth 1:13--No, my daughters. It is more bitter for me than for you, because the LORD's hand has gone out against me!"

1 Samuel 12:15--But if you do not obey the LORD, and if you rebel against his commands, his hand will be against you, as it was against your fathers.

Acts 13:11--Now the hand of the Lord is against you. You are going to be blind, and for a time you will be unable to see the light of the sun. Immediately mist and darkness came over him, and he groped about, seeking someone to lead him by the hand.

Jesus addresses the question several times—“who sinned, this man or his parents that he would be born blind?”—John 9:2--Luke 13:1 Now there were some present at that time who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices.

Jesus answered, "Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way? I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish. Or those eighteen who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them--do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem? I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish.

The Prevailing attitude being that bad things happening to you is a sign that God’s hand is against you.

How many in the early church were confused and carried this same attitude with them? They were embracing Christ, believing in the resurrection and forgiveness and grace and yet their lives by all evaluating evidence was probably worse than before. Many had lost whatever they did have, they were being persecuted, they were mourning, was God’s hand on them in blessing or in cursing?

Jesus is teaching, through the idea and culture of blessing, that God’s hand of favor was upon them—the blessing of the Kingdom was theirs—despite what the world would interpret as signs of God’s disapproval—in fact the exact opposite was true. God’s hand of favor, His blessed presence was theirs—they would see and are seeing God—His presence is close to them because their hearts have been purified by the washing of the blood of Christ.

God’s sure sign of blessing is not “health & wealth” but His presence and assurance in the midst of suffering. Bad things happen to good people so often because the kingdom of this world is diametrically opposed to the Kingdom of God.

The Proposal - Election & Freewill

2010-05-31T08:43:00.000-05:00

In the movie “Princess Bride” there is a wedding. I greatly fear that during a wedding I conduct someday, I will uncontrollably break out with:

“Mawwage. Mawwage, is what bwings us togevvvah today. Mawwage, that bwessed awangement. That dweam, wiffin a dweam.”

What’s also bad is the thought that I may not do it, but I may think about it and start laughing!

During Sunday School this past week, an analogy came to mind to describe the concepts of Election and Freewill and this movie provided some insight.

After the wedding, Princess Buttercup (come on guys, don’t stop reading—I promise you won’t lose your Man-Card) finds her true love, Westley, in her chamber. She asks why he didn’t stop her wedding and stop her from getting married. When he replies that she didn’t really get married, Buttercup is confused and says, “Yes I did. This old man said ‘man and wife’!”

Westley responds, “Did you say ‘I do’?”

“Well, we sort of skipped that part.”

“Then you’re not married. You didn’t say it. You didn’t do it.” Then there is a confrontation with the evil Prince, who wants to remedy the technicality by killing the Princess.

But there is something so important about that moment. For a real wedding to take place—both the husband and the wife have to give their assent, give their “I do” to the relationship, the marriage bond, the future.

Freewill and choice are necessary. That’s why forced marriages are a sham and cultures who do not allow women to freely choose or allow them to speak at their wedding are so damaging in the long run.

But this is so much how our relationship with Christ works. He is our Bridegroom and we are His Bride.

He makes all the arrangements for the wedding. No part of the ceremony is left undone or unprepared. Everything is set up beforehand, even the house is prepared for us. And we are waiting for the Father to pronounce that all is prepared that Jesus can come and receive His Bride.

Jesus has done all the work, made all the preparations, and has Chosen His Bride and done everything to entice her. He makes a proposal—but for a true wedding to take place, the Bride must give her assent. She must say “Yes” to the proposal from the Bridegroom.

When the Bride says “Yes”, all she has to do is show up and say it publicly before the gathered witnesses. We say “yes” at our conversion, we show it publicly at out baptism—it is our “pledge (or answer) of a good conscience toward God”

Imagine if a man were to propose to a woman and she did not have the freedom to say “no”.

God has chosen His Bride—but so many are refusing His proposal. He has made all the arrangements, taken care of everything—provided the best and yet we still say “no”.

Another issue to discuss is the fact that so many have not even heard the Proposal—because we as His ambassadors and representatives have not brought the message to them

Still another topic—what if a man proposes to a woman and she says “yes”, but then refuses to wear the engagement ring because she’s embarrassed. If she only puts in on when he’s around but takes it off as soon as possible.

That’s how so many of us are with Jesus—baptism is like putting on our engagement ring and wearing it for all the world to see. But the danger is that even after we put on the engagement ring—some people live as if they only wear it on Sundays but take it off Monday through Saturday. That’s not an engagement or a marriage either.

Legalism & Painting by Numbers - Mark Driscoll Clip

2010-04-07T17:57:00.002-05:00

This same subject came up last week. This is a great analogy to how legalism can control your life. Enjoy

That's My King!

2010-04-07T17:47:00.000-05:00

I can't believe I forgot to post this on Sunday!

It's Friday... but Sunday's Comin'

2010-04-01T21:37:00.001-05:00

Story of Love

2010-03-11T18:46:00.000-06:00

Peter and his wife Jesse were walking up the walkway to a large house full of people. Music could be heard from the street and every light was on. The party looked well on its way.

Despite trying to look her best and wearing her nicest blue dress, Jesse was still nervous.

“Are you sure you want to go to this thing?” she asked.

“Hon,” he said, “the boss throws this party every year. It’s about time we went. Besides, they’ve never met you and some of the guys are starting to think I’ve just made you up.”

“OK, just remember I don’t know them either, so don’t you leave me.”

“Don’t worry,” Peter said reassuringly as he took her hand. “I love you and I won’t leave your side. Even if Conan the Barbarian asks if he can dance with you, I’ll whip him,” he said with a wink.

She laughed as they walked up the steps to the front door and let him know that fighting wouldn’t be necessary. “Besides, what would the boss think?”

“What if it is the boss?” he said in shock. She laughed again; he could always make her laugh.

“Stop making me laugh, you know I need to go to the bathroom when we get in there.”

The front door was opened by Peter’s co-worker, Steve and the two of them were quickly surrounded by the ongoing festivities.

“Hon, the bathroom’s over there. I’ll get us something to drink out by the pool.”

Peter goes and gets something to drink over at the punchbowl in the backyard when suddenly a voice calls his name. “Peter! Glad you could make it,” said his boss.

“Walk with me a minute would you.”

“Uh, sure thing.”

A few minutes later Jesse came outside looking for Peter and she couldn’t see him. Where is he, she thought to herself. Just as she turned to look somewhere else, she slipped in her new shoes and fell. Jesse’s knee took the brunt of the fall and it started to bleed. She fought back a few tears and looked around hoping no one had noticed. She saw a few stares and glances from some of the other women at the party. As Jesse started to get up, a man stepping away from the drinks didn’t see her and bumped her so hard that she fell into the pool.

Across the way, Peter’s boss heard the ruckus and turned to see what had happened. Seeing a woman getting helped out of the pool, he turned to Peter and shook his head. “That didn’t take long… every year someone has too much to drink and falls into the pool.”

When Peter turned to look the first thing he noticed was a blue dress. “Oh no.”
“Do you recognize that woman Peter?” his boss asked.

“No sir I don’t. I have no idea who she is. Excuse me though, I need to go find my wife.”

“Oh she’s here? Well, be sure and introduce me to her later.”

“Sure thing,” Peter said hurrying away.

By the time Peter made it back around to the punch bowl, Jesse was nowhere to be found. This evening was not going like he had planned. A few high fashioned ladies had been eyeing Peter as he came up. “Are you looking for that woman who fell in the pool?”, one of them asked. “How embarrassing,” said another.

“No, no, no. What makes you think I know who that was?”

As Peter was trying to push his way through the party and into the house, all he could think of was getting away. If only we could make a quiet exit.
But before he could make it to the house, he was grabbed on the shoulder by his co-worker Steve. “Well, it looks like you won the office pool after all… literally, right Peter! This guy is a genius—first he bets that someone would fall into the pool before 9, but the really great part,” Steve said turning to more of their friends, “it was Peter’s wife who did it!” Laughter began to ring out from his friends.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about Steve,” said Peter.

“Dude, I opened the door to let you in remember? I saw you with her.”

Peter turned around and put his finger into Steve’s face. “Hey look, just give me the money I won and drop it. Whoever that crazy lady was, she isn’t my wife” he said, raising his voice.

Hoping to get away from his co-workers, Peter spun around to go back to the house. Less than a step later, Peter jerked backwards to avoid running into his boss, who was helping Jesse find her husband. Jesse looked straight into Peter’s eyes and he knew she had heard every word.

Peter hurried out of the party and drove away crying.

Peter did not see Jesse for 3 days. He was too embarrassed to go home and he was convinced she had left him. I know I would, he thought to himself. I must be the worst man on the planet.

Finally, Peter got a call. He recognized Jesse’s number, but he was afraid to answer it. When the voicemail came through, Peter told Steve, “I can’t listen to it. What if she tells me it’s over? What if she never wants to see me again?”

“Let me see your phone,” said Steve. “It says that she’s home.”

Immediately Peter jumped into his car and started making his way back to their house at full speed. Running up to the door, Peter fumbled with the keys, then stopped, suddenly fearful—would she take him back? How could he know for sure. But when he arrived, she was gone again. The only thing he found was the dress Jesse was wearing hanging on the back of the couch.

“What do I do now? How can she ever trust me or love me again?”

Over the next several days, Peter and Jesse ran into each other—but usually when
other people were around. They were never alone to talk about what had happened.
Peter’s anxiety grew and grew. Over a week later, they finally had a chance to talk alone.

Questions:
How do you think that conversation went?

How would you feel if you were Jesse, hearing your husband deny he even knew you?

Do you think Jesse should “take Peter back”? Why or why not?

If she did take him back, how would you describe Jesse’s love for her husband?

What would it take for Peter to be right with Jesse again?

What kind of marriage would they have?

If you were Peter’s boss, what would you think of him after hearing this story?

New Version Luke 15 - What if Jesus and the Lost Sheep was more like 1 Samuel 17:34

2010-02-28T14:30:00.001-06:00

When I was a kid—I loved watching nature shows—videos of the plains of Africa—particularly when it came to the Hunt—a pride of lions attacking a herd—a crocodile sneaking up on a zebra—it’s amazing the different ways that predators capture their prey. Some of them lie in wait and just ambush—some of them have a lure that draws them closer for the strike. Some watch and wait—pick the weakest, the youngest, the oldest, the boldest—the one who wanders out just a little to far from everyone else. Some just start chasing—running down the prey until they are so exhausted they can’t fight back or escape. Some predators work alone, some work in teams. There are so many different kinds of predators and different kinds of tactics—all with the same goal—capturing, killing and consuming the prey.

I’m always amazed at the herdsmen who operate around such predators.

The Life of a Shepherd is so often glamorized and softened.

Tending, Feeding, Guiding, Protecting

But there are many times when it is more like what David described to Saul before facing Goliath
1 Samuel 17:34-36a
“And David said unto Saul, Thy servant kept his father's sheep, and there came a lion, and a bear, and took a lamb out of the flock: And I went out after him, and smote him, and delivered [it] out of his mouth: and when he arose against me, I caught [him] by his beard, and smote him, and slew him. Thy servant slew both the lion and the bear:”

Those moments of facing down the lion and bear—knowing that God was with him and had his back—it was in those moments that David knew he could defeat Goliath.

So a predator like a lion is an enemy of the shepherd.
Then I turned to 1 Peter 5—Paul is giving instructions to the elders of the church to “Be shepherds of God’s flock under your care.—NIV” He then says in vs. 4—“And when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that will never fade away.”

It makes sense then that in v. 8—Peter brings up the subject of a lion. 1 Peter 5:8—“Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.”

From that line of thinking, my mind went to another familiar story: the Parable of the Lost Sheep—Luke 15:3-7.

Then Jesus told them this parable: 4 "Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Does he not leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? 5 And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders 6 and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, `Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.' 7 I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.

Matthew makes the point that the sheep wandered away, but Luke never gives us the reason. I want to focus on that element in the story because I believe it is significant.

I’ve always thought of it in terms of the poor little guy just wandered off and wasn’t paying attention. Suddenly he looks up and realizes that he’s all alone, or maybe he’s fallen down a ledge and can’t get back up. The Jesus, the Good Shepherd comes and lowers His hand or His staff and lifts the sheep to safety and carries the sheep home.

In the artist renditions of this, I’ve seen pictures of a smiling Jesus, casually carrying the lost sheep on His shoulders—looking like he’s having a conversation along the lines of:

“You silly little sheep! What were you thinking wandering off like that?” Kind of like this.

But what if the circumstances of why the sheep is missing is more like David’s experience as a shepherd?

Maybe the reason why the sheep is lost is because a lion or a bear. What if the reason that the sheep is lost is not because it is just wandering around not paying attention but instead because it is carried off by a hungry predator?

Does that change the mental image of this picture? It does for me. A predator was one of the greatest enemies of a shepherd. And once a predator began to see the flock as an easy meal—it would continue to pick them off until it is killed.

When we apply David’s description of the life of a shepherd we realize that to be a Good Shepherd sometimes means, to paraphrase the minister in The Patriot—“Fighting off the wolves”. Thieves will come to steal, kill and destroy. Predators will come and carry off the flock.

Applying that perspective to the story of the lost sheep changes its tone. In this scenario, the Good Shepherd is not just thinking, “the poor little guy has wandered off again” but instead sees signs that the sheep has been attacked and carried off. He picks up his staff and begins to follow the trail of blood, looking for footprints to let him know what He’s dealing with, hoping that He’ll find his sheep in time before the predator kills it.

This is not a casual moment. This is serious. Much like David—the Shepherd has to be ready for a fight—he’s not laughing, not joking around, not taking it easy—he’s running, he’s searching, he’s purposed. The shepherd’s body is charged with adrenaline and is now focusing on the endangered and probably injured sheep. His face is stern and ready for a fight.

Think of the difference in your tension level in regards to your children. Consider how you feel when you child is or was playing outside and when you check, he’s unaccounted for. You step outside, you call his name—you get a little irritated. You may be a little concerned, “where is he” but he’s probably close by—your tension level is a 5 or a 6—it may be higher depending on how many times you told your child not to wander off and disappear.

But then consider what would happen to your irritation, what would happen to your tension level if when you go outside, you see signs of a struggle—you see one of those vans with no windows just turning the corner—you find a ransom note on the porch.

Your tension level jumps up to a 10 real quick—all those irritations and frustrations toward your child that went through your head are quickly out the window.

Time is of the essence. You have to act and you have to act fast if you want to have the best chance of getting them back. There is urgency.

But what if you have 2 other kids in the house? Does it mean that you don’t love them if you jump in your car and start driving after the van? No, you call your neighbor or someone to get them and watch out for them—no one will blame you for going after your child.

That is the kind of urgency that Jesus has in going after the Lost—His children—we have been captured—Colossians 1

Colossians 1:13—“For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves”
Jesus Values Every Sheep—that would be you and me—as well as the people who aren’t here—the undesireables, the ones who make you uncomfortable—He wants them here, hearing the Word—receiving the healing that that our Great Physician can bring.
When We are Missing, Jesus Notices—don’t ever think that Jesus doesn’t care whether you are here or not.

Imagine your Youth minister leaving on a mission Trip with 20 leave 19 come back—“but hey, these are teenagers—19 out of 20 isn’t bad”! Would you have a problem with that?

He Searches until He finds—He will do whatever it takes to bring you back into the fold—chase you down, fight off the enemy—make you uncomfortable—wait until you are weakened.

With this perspective--When He finds the sheep, He first has to fight and kill the predator, a daunting task for a single shepherd with a staff and His bare hands—
Jesus Is Willing to Give His Life to Save Yours

He lays down His life for His Sheep—he will take on the worlds greatest predator to bring you home alive. He doesn’t guarantee you won’t be injured, but you’ll be alive.

So now, when I think of this parable and the description of the Good Shepherd carrying the sheep on his shoulders—I can’t just see it where Jesus has this casual, smiling face—it’s the stern face of someone who has just come out of a fight. There is blood on his hands and there is a dead lion a short distance behind Him.

That doesn’t mean he’s not rejoicing in His heart—it doesn’t mean He is not celebrating—He is rejoicing because He has rescued His sheep from certain death. But it was not easy—it was not a walk in the park—
I hope you realize the great lengths our Shepherd went to, to fight for your freedom and your return to His Flock—at some point—you were that person.
That may be you right now—just because you’ve been here a while, doesn’t mean you aren’t vulnerable to wandering off.

Wandering Off—Satan will help you Wander off--
Too busy
Just need to sleep
Don’t like the music
Dragged off by the Enemy
Temptation
False teaching
Curiosity
Marriage/family troubles
Where are you? Do you feel like you have wandered away? Lost and alone, injured? Then Jesus is pursuing after you to bring you home.
Once again, we are rescued from the dominion of darkness by our Shepherd who is also a Warrior

When We’re Together—We’re Safer—Church Attendance—He leaves the 99 together--

Maybe it’s been a long time since you were brought back into the fold—our danger is to be harsh towards the one who has wandered off—towards those who are farther away from the fold—Why is the Shepherd spending so much time with them and not with us?
How Does your enemy the devil seek to isolate you?

If we’ve just casually wandered away—we’re treated differently—it’s more of a discipline issue—than if we are dragged off by a predator.

Ravi Zacharias - The Trinity and Non-Contradiction - Penn State 2005

2010-02-21T00:27:00.000-06:00

This is a very interesting discussion of the Trinity - once it gets started, that is. There are some very good points and lines from it. I'm wondering what stands out to you in it?

I especially like the point about Love. If God is love, then how could He "BE" love apart from the creation of other things? In all other religious systems, Ravi claims, Created Life must exist before God or the divine could Love--however, in the majesty of the Trinity--love is made possible in God Himself totally independent of Life or any created thing.

What do you think?

Who do we Talk to?

2010-02-17T11:24:00.001-06:00

Listening to a sermon this past Sunday reminded me of something.

John chapters 3 & 4 records two conversations that Jesus engages in. One between a well to do, religious leader and the other between a poorer, morally corrupted woman from another racial background. He was even willing to risk offending her.

It is amazing to see how Jesus handled each person in such different ways. He addressed each one according to their place and situation. He didn't use an outlined Gospel presentation.

One thing I was convicted on was the fact that if I were confronted with these two, I would be most comfortable talking with Nicodemus. I would be more tempted to avoid the conversation with the woman at the well in the same way that the rest of the disciples did.

What I find interesting is that it seems to have taken longer for the "learned" man to respond to Jesus in faith, while Jesus continued talking with the woman until a "decision" was made on her part.

Also, there's no record that Nicodemus went back to his colleagues and immediately began telling them about how great Jesus was, but the woman, the outcast, went and did just that with those who had outcast her.

So why do you think that is?

Who would you be most comfortable talking to? Are you willing to go beyond comfort to share the greatest truths?

Check out our New Blog!

2010-02-09T10:29:00.001-06:00

Hey I've got a new blog set up for our herbal nutrition store.

Here it is.

www.2yourhealthamerica.blogspot.com

Check out an article on the amount of caffeine you're getting in most drinks.

Or you could go straight to our store, HERE.

Missional v. Typical Church

2010-02-04T10:23:00.000-06:00

Ed Stetzer had this video posted on his site and I wanted to share it. It describes the Missional Church and how it has a different mindset than what we have been doing in recent church history in America. I'd love to hear your thoughts and ask "what if anything is missing?"

So Long Moses by Andrew Peterson

2010-01-26T22:13:00.002-06:00

I know it's not Christmas anymore, but I just found this video tonight and it really moved me. It's by Andrew Peterson and called, "So Long Moses".

In my opinion, AP has taken up the mantle of Rich Mullins as one of the best songwriters of the day. Both of them had/have a skill of what I call music-telling or song-telling in which a story is told through the course of the music.

Here's another one of my favorites called "Holy Is the Lord"

Depression from Avatar - Reactions to the Movie

2010-01-13T15:26:00.003-06:00

I decided this topic needed it's own post and not just one lost in the commentary.

Apparently some people are reacting with depression after watching the movie Avatar. Their reasons given are strangely similar to the arguments I made in my review of the film in the previous post.

Here is the original article. Below are some of the excerpts.

"I wasn't depressed myself. In fact the movie made me happy ," Baghdassarian said. "But I can understand why it made people depressed. The movie was so beautiful and it showed something we don't have here on Earth. I think people saw we could be living in a completely different world and that caused them to be depressed."

A post by a user called Elequin expresses an almost obsessive relationship with the film.

"That's all I have been doing as of late, searching the Internet for more info about 'Avatar.' I guess that helps. It's so hard I can't force myself to think that it's just a movie, and to get over it, that living like the Na'vi will never happen. I think I need a rebound movie," Elequin posted.

A user named Mike wrote on the fan Web site "Naviblue" that he contemplated suicide after seeing the movie.

"Ever since I went to see 'Avatar' I have been depressed. Watching the wonderful world of Pandora and all the Na'vi made me want to be one of them. I can't stop thinking about all the things that happened in the film and all of the tears and shivers I got from it," Mike posted. "I even contemplate suicide thinking that if I do it I will be rebirthed in a world similar to Pandora and the everything is the same as in 'Avatar.' "

Other fans have expressed feelings of disgust with the human race and disengagement with reality.

Ivar Hill posts to the "Avatar" forum page under the name Eltu. He wrote about his post-"Avatar" depression after he first saw the film earlier this month.

"When I woke up this morning after watching Avatar for the first time yesterday, the world seemed ... gray. It was like my whole life, everything I've done and worked for, lost its meaning," Hill wrote on the forum. "It just seems so ... meaningless. I still don't really see any reason to keep ... doing things at all. I live in a dying world."

Reached via e-mail in Sweden where he is studying game design, Hill, 17, explained that his feelings of despair made him desperately want to escape reality.

"One can say my depression was twofold: I was depressed because I really wanted to live in Pandora, which seemed like such a perfect place, but I was also depressed and disgusted with the sight of our world, what we have done to Earth. I so much wanted to escape reality," Hill said.

From Me:

I believe this longing a part of the human spirit put there by God so we will have a hunger for Him and His future. What are your thoughts?

Movie Review - Avatar

2010-01-09T00:35:00.005-06:00

Movie Review
Avatar

I’ve actually seen the movie twice now. Both times in 3-D. I first saw it with my good friend Sergio in Nashville. The second time was with my wife Vicky on our anniversary. I wanted to be able to talk about it with her and hear her thoughts and impressions.

There may be spoilers below so if you haven’t seen it yet, read at your own risk.

1. First let me say that Avatar was one of the most visually Stunning movies ever.
a. This was truly one of the most stunning visual movies I’ve ever seen. This would be true with or without the 3-D, but the 3-D takes it to a whole new level. It was awesome to see the depth of character’s faces which is missing in other movies. The visuals of the floating seeds, the buzzing flies and other creatures of the forest were amazing. After a while, you forget about the glasses—definitely recommend that if you’re going to go see it, do so in 3-D

b. I loved the night shots of the forest and the bioluminescence of everything. I noticed that this really didn’t click in until the character of Jake got into the water after a fight with a pack of “dogs”. I didn’t think to take notice of it until afterwards, but did he get a drink of the water? Did Jake slip and fall into the water? I honestly can’t remember so if you do, please tell me.

c. The creature designs were excellent. Very unique physiologies and patterns. I especially liked the flying sequences as they were riding. Related notes, the 3D really made the heights more intimidating.

2. Yes, there was a lot of Contemporary Politics & Environmentalism
a. Yeah, there were several lines that went there. The main character Jake Sully had a fixable injury but couldn’t pay for it—health care debate.

b. “Fight Terror with Terror” and “Shock and Awe” along with the ex-soldiers getting paid by greedy corporations for “security” like what we see in Iraq with some of our US contracts.

c. “Unobtanium” (a really dumb name in my opinion) could be replaced for concepts related to oil or other natural resources or precious materials like gold or diamonds.

d. “There’s no green there. They killed their Mother” brought up environmental issues. Apparently even the future has no way of doing anything other than strip mining or clear cutting—no improvement over modern techniques that already can do it better than that.

e. Exploitation/Forced Relocation/Broken Treaties in relation to “uncivilized” populations when a superpower wants something of theirs but we have nothing they really want. Refers to the moral bankruptcy of our greedy capitalist system. This follows a Dances With Wolves model of American or colonial expansion.

f. Many of these issues raised are legitimate criticisms and should cause us to pause and reflect on our role and actions in the world. We are far from perfect and we have a tendency to justify our actions because they happen to serve our interests. I don’t think anyone would disagree that there are times in our history when we have crossed the line. Does that mean that everything in recent history has crossed that line, no it doesn’t. Are we capable of it… yes, we are.

This “commentary” doesn’t bother me all that much as “war” movies over the years have always used contemporary/historical statements as lines in their movies—from John Wayne, to the Vietnam era, to Top Gun and Rambo, to this. Ironically, I remember when Star Wars III: Revenge of the Sith came out. Many people saw George Lucas as ripping George W. Bush and his administration’s policies. Rewatching recently and watching some of the commentaries—it fits just as nicely with the Obama administration too—which means Lucas really has a good grasp of how power tempts and corrupts politicians and societies.

g. One way of understanding Avatar would be to look at it as a Reverse Independence Day or V (since a remake is currently airing). Instead of being the unsuspecting planet who wakes up to a powerful invading alien race that seeks to harvest our planet and we valiantly rise up in defense of our planet; this time we are the invading aliens and the native population must rise up against our harvesters.

OK, so if you haven’t figured it out already, elements of faith are very important to me. Those issues are the calling of my life. So I’m going to see them in everything and analyze them. I love analyzing the messages of movies or shows--it’s what I love doing and have done for years. So you’ll have to deal with my analysis of the spiritual themes of the movie.

3. Pagan/Animistic Theology
a. Some people are really bothered by this aspect of the movie, but honestly I was not. It was a pretty accurate depiction of an animistic belief system that is typical of many tribal cultures, particularly African or Native American. They do have a “brotherhood” to the natural world. They do say certain phrases at the hunt—they do see spirits in animals and trees and places. They do interpret moments as more than mere coincidences. They do see many of their deities as male and female.

b. I actually thought their belief system was pretty consistent and not overbearing. Perhaps the moment that was overbearing, especially considering Cameron’s rejection of Christianity was Sigourney Weaver’s “She’s real!” moment as she blissfully becomes one with the “Mother”

c. Imagine how much more awkward and inappropriate and insulting it would have been if the religion depicted for the alien culture light years away from my own would have been a Messianic faith similar to Christianity. There would be significant differences of course and those would be more pronounced—Jesus as one of the Navi’—but like Cameron would argue—show his tomb—show his wife and descendants. That would have been totally insulting and inconsistent to the story he was trying to tell.

4. Best Lies are Closest to the Truth
a. This movie is another example of Deception being effective because it is so close to the Truth.

b. This is a lesson I learned hard when I was 18. The easiest lie to believe is the one that is closest to the truth. A great movie example would be Pleasantville—by using an effective visual tool it retells and reinterprets the first few chapters of Genesis with the Garden of Eden and how the concept of the “Fall” was really a good thing.

c. Avatar closely appeals to the Truth but twists it in such a way that our conclusions go in a different direction. Here’s what I mean.

d. Avatar effectively plays off of a deep seated desire and dream within the human heart and spirit. We know our world is broken and it is somehow our fault. As a result, we have a longing for a perfect world—a return to an Eden state of living.

e. In fact, the movie starts off with the main character Jake talking about his dream of flying. While I’ve heard of some false teachers claim humans could fly in the Garden of Eden, I see no reason to think we could, but in some way there is some kind of imprint on our spirit in the way we watch eagles soar. Perhaps we have memories of angels and their flight—always depicted with wings.

f. We also have a longing for a connection to nature and the animals. In the Garden, Adam & Eve were vegetarians, everything was provided for them by the trees and plants. Animals were not something to be feared but were approachable. They were named by Adam which demonstrated our position in authority over them.

g. We feel a disconnection with nature. Other movies have played with this theme—
especially ones like Dances With Wolves (a storyline Avatar heavily borrows from). The natural world of Pandora is poisonous to humans. Avatar gives Jake a new body with which he can reconnect with the natural world—a world that has physical and measurable connections. The Navi (sp?) can literally connect to other animals through their ponytail thing and even to trees and other biological systems. They essentially have a direct link to their ecosystem and other animals that never lets them lose sight of the bond they have.

h. It’s this link or bond that allows them to control various animals. As a result, everything the humans do with technology, the Navi do it with a natural equivalent. We have helicopters, they have the flying dragon things. We have transports, trucks and such, they have “horses”. We use cables and chambers to transfer consciousness, they use their ponytail and organic fibers to bridge the consciousness from one body to another.

i. Jake’s character begins to “see” the world again and especially his place in it. Before due to injury and disillusionment, he had little passion and purpose in life. Once reconnected as a member of the People, he regains his sense of identity. The bonding is so powerful that Jake begins to see the forest world as more “real” than the other.

j. James Cameron is by no means a friend of Christianity as evidenced by his efforts to prove that he had discovered family burial cave of Jesus. See these articles here, here with Christian responses here and here and here. He, like many see the Western world and particularly Christianity as responsible for the destruction of our connection to nature. They blame interpretations of Genesis 1 & 2 and human’s superior place in creation for the willingness to clear cut, strip mine etc. Christianity is thus responsible for clear cutting, strip mining, environmental subjugation and sacrifice for the sake of humans. Have those been used to justify… yes, wrongly so. We were given a responsibility to be stewards and caretakers, however Cameron and others so often see humanity as the plague of nature—and human life as no different and even less valuable than nature. We do have a special place in God’s creation—unique in our relationship with Him—uniquely made in His image—uniquely responsible for our actions.

k. These accusations against Christianity destroying our connection to nature are common, but if you really understood the future Christianity looks forward to—the hope of Christ is the only way that connection will be restored—our connection with our Creator will be restored—creation’s decay caused by our sin will be fixed and the lion will again lay down with the lamb. The river of life will flow and the tree will once again bear fruit every month for the healing of the nations.

l. This longing deep in Jake’s heart to be connected to his surrounding world is the hope that the Bible highlights in the future Kingdom of God because it harkens back to the way it originally was and points to the way it one day will be. Like I said, the error comes so close to getting it right—there is nothing wrong with the desire—but there is something wrong with the means Avatar proposes—a reconnection to “mother” nature and our spirit brothers by rejecting the culture which Jake came from which has at its heart a Christian base.

5. Wild at Heart
a. Many of the themes of this movie, especially the longing of Jake’s character are touched on in the book Wild At Heart by John Eldredge.

b. When you see Jake at the beginning—in trying to live the life and fight the fight his culture had for him—he had his legs cut out from under him. And of course that culture’s callousness abounds b/c it wouldn’t even fix his legs b/c he wasn’t wealthy enough (and yes, that was commentary on the contemporary health care debate). In many ways, he wanted to be in his brother’s place—dead. He had nothing to live for, no light in his eyes, no joy, no hope. He was empty as a man, both physically and spiritually. He had no adventure to live—in fact he couldn’t really see any prospects to do anything stuck in a wheelchair. He had no battle to fight—his culture had taken his ability and he didn’t really believe in the battle he was going to participate in, he was only doing it for the money. There was no love in his life—no wife, no prospect (in his mind) of finding any.

c. Only the possibility of walking, of fighting again, of being useful, of having the life that his brother had, of ending life as he new it and starting over in a “new body”, reborn essentially, gave Jake any sense of purpose and reason for living.

d. Those are the things that Wild at Heart propose lie at the heart and spirit of men, something that our culture and even our faith has failed to truly tap the strength of. At the heart of every man, placed there by God, proposes Eldredge is a longing for 3 things:

i. An Adventure to Live
ii. A Battle to fight
iii. A Beauty to Rescue

e. Each of these elements are played out in Jake Sully’s life. He has a new adventure in a strange land, full of new experiences, from climbing trees, to riding horses, to flying on amazing creatures. He finally has a battle to fight that he believes in and one that is truly noble and worth sacrificing his life for. He also finds that there is a woman to “rescue” and a whole people/community to be a part of.

f. There was a whole element of “rite of passage” that Wild at Heart points out our culture has largely lost. We don’t have anything that particularly tells us when we’re a man or what a man is supposed to do and the role he is supposed to fulfill. Jake had to prove he could hunt, ride, and climb up a floating mountain to subdue a flying dragon. In doing those things, he could join the people, have a voice of leadership, take a wife. It was clearly something Jake came to desire and look forward to; even to the point he would forgo a guaranteed operation to restore his “real legs”.

g. In doing all of these things, Jake found his “real” identity. He found an adventure to live for, a battle worth fighting and a woman to rescue. And he was willing to die for it. In finding this Jake was able to truly become a great leader and fulfill a great purpose and destiny.

h. In many ways, this is the kind of men, the kind of leadership that is sorely lacking in the church today. We have not encouraged nor demonstrated that a true faith in Christ gives us the greatest adventure to live, gives us the greatest thing worth fighting for, and makes us men truly capable of “rescuing” and leading and being the men that the women in our lives truly needs. We also come to understand that as the Bride of Christ, we were the one needing rescuing all along.

i. Avatar would have us abandon all that Christ is and return to a spiritized, pagan form of nature/goddess worship. The picture Cameron paints is stunning and beautiful—it resonates with our hearts and makes us say “yeah, I wish it were like that.” That’s why it’s so deceptive—it’s so close to God’s real plan that it sounds good. It is a lie that appeals to the very hope that God has placed in our hearts, but it takes us away from His solution.

6. The Truth
a. Yes, the world is broken. Yes, it is our fault. The Fall of Adam and Even in the Garden of Eden was and continues to be the greatest environmental disaster in history. That one moment introduced death, decay, exploitation, and things against nature. Our role as stewards was tarnished. Now the world would produce thorns and thistles for our labor rather than the generous provision of God. The appeal of environmentalism is based on a spiritual truth, however environmentalism is mistaken about what to do.

b. We cannot fix it in our own strength and power. Fundamentally the problem has a spiritual cause. The impact of sin has a physical manifestation not just on humans, but on all of creation—The apostle Paul puts it like this in Romans 8:19-22

19 The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. 20 For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.
22 We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.

c. Creation is broken—we cannot fix it. This is by no means a “I give up” position that says we should do nothing to care for the environment. I believe we should take up our original role of stewards as much as possible—but not b/c the earth is sacred and not to the extent that some do who see the natural world as equal to or more valuable than human life. We do have a special place in God’s creation—we are His masterpiece, the crowning moment of His creative work—Ephesians 2:10—“ For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” Workmanship is the word “poema”, where we get poem. It can also be translated masterpiece.

d. The only fix for this environmental catastrophe is the coming of Messiah, who will restore and fix what is broken. The whole of the Old Testament points to that coming and anticipates it, prophecies it. The Gospels describe it in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. The temptations of Jesus are a reversal of the fall of Adam—where Adam failed, Jesus overcame. The miracles of Jesus at each level demonstrate an ability to overcome the effect of the fall and even command nature itself—walking on water, calming the storm, healing disease, abundant feeding, overcoming death. Jesus said, “It is finished” from the cross because the work necessary to fix the spiritual problem/cause and thus all of creation, was accomplished. The truth of it was demonstrated by Hi s resurrection and the final conquering of death. Our hope in His return is when faith becomes sight—when the “garden” state is restored and we are once again able to take walks in the coolness of the day with our Creator—when the tree of life is restored and it’s abundance provides all we need. When there will be no more tears, no more crying, no more dying, no more night—because He is our Light.

e. Avatar’s ideal is so close… that makes it compelling. But it rejects the real source of that reality because of how we as followers of Jesus have so often messed it up. Jesus is the only way that ideal world will ever be the same—accepting Cameron’s vision in Avatar will only keep you farther away from ever living it.

Overall, I enjoyed the movie. I enjoyed seeing it, thinking about it's messages and talking about it. Yeah, I guess I'm weird that way.

Pursuing Answers to Questions of Faith & Life,

How Well Do You Know the First Christmas?

2009-12-09T18:30:00.002-06:00

How Well Do You Know the First Christmas?

There is so much in these birth narratives of Jesus that we miss or read over because we think we know the story already or because our mind has been so cluttered by the popular depictions that we don’t study carefully what the text actually says. These questions show my thinking behind the non-traditional elements described in the Joseph Monologue from the previous post.

1. What is the traditional biblical story of the journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem?

The traditional picture has a tired and desperate Mary & Joseph trudging/rushing into Bethlehem. They are all alone, there’s no AAA Roadside Assistance, there’s no hospital, they know no one. All the Inn’s or Motel 6’s have No Vacancy and so thanks to the backhanded generosity of a sour innkeeper, Mary & Joseph are banished to the barn where she is already in labor and almost immediately has the baby Jesus. Then the Shepherds appear following a star because not far behind them are the 3 Kings bearing gifts. They all form a nice little huddle around the Manger and the baby Jesus.

There’s nothing inherently wrong with this picture—it’s the most popular—but is it the most accurate to the biblical texts?

2. Were they traveling alone? What biblical evidence do you have to support this?

We get a few clues to suggest they were not traveling alone.

First, in Luke 2, since everyone had to travel to their own hometown to register—it’s safe to assume that other people had to do some traveling to register as well—including their family who also would have to go to Bethlehem.

Second, Bethlehem was full of travelers—they had to get there somehow—they would have used the same roads that Mary & Joseph used.

Third has to do with the time of year the events actually occurred which we’ll get to later—let’s just say that in order for them to get to Bethlehem, Mary & Joseph had to pass through Jerusalem (Bethlehem is about 5 miles South of Jerusalem whereas Nazareth is considerably north of Jerusalem)—Jerusalem was the center of political and religious life in Israel so pilgrims of all sorts were on the roads to Jerusalem all the time.

Fourth, most people traveled in family groups or with friends whenever possible. You see evidence of Joseph & Mary doing this just a few verses later (Luke 2:41-44) when Jesus was 12 years old. Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem when J & M left for home. They were traveling in such a large group, they couldn’t see Jesus and assumed He was running around with someone else.

3. When was the baby born?

a. Mary barely made it into town
b. The first night
c. Some time later

Luke 2:6 says “while they were there, the time came for the baby to be born”. The implication of that statement is that M & J arrived in Bethlehem and sometime before they went home, Jesus was born. Luke was a very precise writer—and even though he’s giving a quick summation of some things—if there was a panicked rush to get to Bethlehem, he could have said so. The language is of a much slower series of events. So the idea that she was in labor as they ran into Bethlehem, desperately pounding on doors is not particularly accurate. So they may have been there for a few days or even weeks before she went into labor.

Given the later accounts of the Magi in Matthew—it’s obvious that J & M stayed in Bethlehem for a long time.

4. Does that change the nature of the location of Jesus’ birth if it happened some time later—in other words, couldn’t Joseph had found some other place after a while?

If they had been there for a few days at least, then the likelihood that Joseph couldn’t find any place to stay is a stretch. After some time, he would have been able to find something and they would not have been cast out to the animal pens. Why would they go there then? We’ll talk about that later.

5. Were Mary & Joseph alone while in Bethlehem? What is the likelihood that they knew anyone in town?

The traditional picture is them alone and afraid. But why were they going to Bethlehem in the first place? It was their family home. They both were of the line of David. Not all of the family would have moved away from Bethlehem. Some of them stuck around—and they would have had some good records or tradition of who is related to who and where they are in the line of potential successors for David’s throne. Family relationships and connections were important for that culture and Joseph or Mary probably had relatives that still lived there that they could have gone to and asked for a place to stay or help with the pregnancy. With annual pilgrimages, they would have visited family often.
Yet if that were the case, why would they have to go out to the animals? That would be affected by several things one being the nature of the place they were staying.

First, let’s look at something that isn’t obviously related, but it is.

6. Luke 22:10-12—What was this room like?

In this passage, Jesus is preparing for the Passover feast and He sends Peter & John in to find the right place—He says—“He replied, "As you enter the city, a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him to the house that he enters, 11 and say to the owner of the house, `The Teacher asks: Where is the guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?' 12 He will show you a large upper room, all furnished. Make preparations there."

This “guestroom” was a large room that many houses had for family gatherings, meals, or visiting relatives—it was big, generally open and several families could sleep there at the same time.

If you didn’t know, Luke uses some of the best Greek in the New Testament, fitting for his life as a physician. He is precise in his words and this is important.

7. Back in Luke 2, what is meant by the word “Inn”? Is there any other possible meaning?

Interestingly, the word that Luke uses in ch. 22 translated “guestroom” is the same one used in ch. 2 translated “inn”. The problem is that “inn” carries many different connotations—our mind pictures something like a Motel 6—large building with many small rooms that you can rent for the night. If Joseph was there for an extended stay—at least 33 days according to Leviticus 12 for Mary’s purification (Luke 2:22) this would quickly become an expensive venture.

As shown by their sacrifice of 2 small doves in the temple and not a lamb—they may not have been well off financially—much less able to stay in a Bethlehem motel for several months.

But if the word is not translated “Inn” but guestroom, then the situation changes. If they really had family in town, then that would have been the place they would have gone for lodging. And if the family’s upper room/guest room was full—it was probably full of other family. There’s a reason why all those family members would have been there in Bethlehem, which I’ll get to in just a moment. But it’s very likely that these people were not strangers but cousins, aunts, uncles, and others who would be traveling to Bethlehem.

8. Typically we see Mary & Joseph as being banished to the stable. How could it have been a good thing for them?

The problem wasn’t that they were alone and desperate, or that there were cruel, heartless innkeepers who wouldn’t bother to find them a spot—the greater problem was that there was a lot of people—and even a lot of family and friends is no place to have a baby!

How many women do you know that want to have a baby in a crowded room where everybody and their dog could watch. Sure, some have given birth on a plane, in the mall, but certainly that wasn’t their first choice!

So going to the room for animals—likely something built onto the house itself or even under the upper room—was a good thing, a helpful thing, a privacy thing. There, they won’t have to worry about people watching, kids tripping over them or all the other inconveniences a woman in labor would want to avoid. Not to mention all of the ceremonial uncleanness that a birth brings with it (I don't have time to look it up right now)

Similarly, since the birth didn’t happen the moment of arrival, I’m sure they had the opportunity to make sure the place was cleaned up or prepared for Mary to have a baby down there. Going to the stable was a good thing for Mary.

The stable would have given privacy, if they were really around family, then Joseph would not have been the only attendant Mary had, but other related women who had been through the process before themselves. They may even have known a local mid-wife to assist in the delivery.

9. Was Jesus really born on December 25th?

The likely time that shepherds would be out in the fields at night is springtime, while the lambs were being born. The shepherds were out to guard and assist their flocks in their deliveries. That would put Jesus’ birth closer to Passover.

In which case—the reason that Bethlehem was crowded would not have just been because of the census—but because of all the travelers going to Jerusalem for Passover. It would have made the roads packed with faithful Jewish men and women who were required to go to Jerusalem for the observance. So the image of the lone travelers is even more unlikely. It also makes the ceremonial uncleanness of the birth all the more significant--perhaps even excluding Joseph from assisting her if he intended to participate in Passover.

The census was taken over a period of time (even years from its issuing) so there was not a hard deadline for Joseph to meet—so presumably, he combined his registration in Bethlehem with his regular/annual trip to Jerusalem.

The other interesting imagery is the fact that one of the titles Jesus is given in Scripture is the “Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world”. To participate in Passover, Jewish family had to sacrifice a year old male lamb. These sacrifices were to Atone for the sins of the family. The sacrifice only covered the sin—the unintentional sins. There was no sacrifice for deliberate sins and they certainly didn’t take away sin or it’s consequence. But that is what Jesus, the Lamb of God was promised to do.

The very lambs that the shepherds were watching born in front of them would be next year’s offering—but they were able to bear witness to an even better Lamb, that could do even more.

10. Why is it unusual for shepherds to be witnesses to this event?

Ironically, even though the shepherds provided the most important element of the festival, by this time, shepherds were not high on the social ladder in Jewish society. They were the fringe elements, not a part of the upscale, city community.
These were the elements called to be the first witnesses and first testifiers to the Messiah. Why them? In many ways, it was a call back to or a reminder of their roots. Shepherds may have been outsiders to the community, but they were the original foundation of the community. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob were all shepherds. As was Moses—as was the great King David.

To reject the shepherds was to reject their roots. The community had not grown past them, they still needed them and in many ways, needed the simplicity of faith and trust in God they represented, which the Jewish community had once had, but had in many ways lost.

11. How did the Shepherds find Mary, Joseph & Jesus?

The traditional nativity scene has M & J, the shepherds and the wise men all gathered around a manger. Often, when you ask this question, many will say the shepherds were guided by the star, just like the wise men. But as we’ll get into in the next question—they didn’t get there on the same night of the birth (for that to happen, the “star” they saw would have to have appeared months before Jesus’ actual birth—God could have done this, btw).

The shepherds were just told about the 2 signs—wrapped in cloths & lying in a manger. They didn’t get an address, a street name, or a general vicinity of where they would actually find the baby. There was no star mentioned in Luke that guided them to the right house.

So, how did they know where to go? At most Bethlehem was a few thousand people—maybe they listened for the cries of a newborn. Maybe they looked for the only ones with a fire still lit. Maybe God picked them on the side of the town that they would reach first. Maybe they tried several places before finding the right one.

Or, speculatively speaking, since this was M & J’s family town—what if these shepherds were relatives and merely went home first, or relatives who already knew they had a visitor who was expecting a baby. Shepherds returning from the fields probably would go into the animal’s room first. Interesting possibility.

12 How many Magi were there?

We sing, “We Three Kings” so it must be three, right? Tradition even gives us names. But Scripture never says how many Magi came, just that they brought 3 different types of gifts—gold, frankincense and myrrh. Ancient depictions, stained glass and such—teaching tools with limited room depicted one person to hold a gift each representing the different types.

But again, by custom, most traveled in large groups. These were practically ambassadors and political representatives, as evidenced by the fact that they first went to Jerusalem and sought Herod. A small entourage, would not do for such dignitaries.

The amount of their gifts was not necessarily something one man could carry despite the many inescapable pictures that suggest otherwise.

I’m of the mind that there wasn’t only 3 representatives, but more.

13. When did the Magi arrive?

As mentioned, unless the star appeared months before Jesus’ actual birth, there’s no way they could have been there the night of. In the east, the wise men saw a star that pointed them to a King being born to the kingdom of the Jews. They would have to see it, interpret it, decide what to do about it, prepare for the journey and then make the trip up the Euphrates river, west along the fertile crescent, then south through Syria and the coastal territories—a several month long journey.

This would put Jesus a year old or more by the time of their arrival—they had to wait for circumcision, they have to wait 30+ days for Mary to be purified so they could offer their sacrifice. When Herod later gave the orders to kill any boy under 2 years—you’ve got to figure that this is an effort to cover His bases and not miss anyone.

14. Why Magi and why would they care what was going on in Jerusalem?

For some reason, these Magi—practicing astrologers, interpreted their signs to point to the Kingdom of the Jews. But why would that sign have sent them off on such a long and uncertain journey? Hey, a new king in Israel… that’s nice… somebody hand me the remote. Why would they care so much about the goings on in Israel that they would go there?

It’s important to remember where they were supposed to be from. It is generally understood that these men from the east were in the Mesopotamian river valleys… between the Tigris & Euphrates rivers. What would have been prominent territories in the biblical kingdoms of Assyria, Babylonia & Persia. In other words, modern day Iraq and Iran

This is the general area and territory where the Jewish exiles were taken by different governments. Most of the Jews never returned home even after they were given special permission by King of Persia. They didn’t leave, but stayed with many keeping their faith, their traditions and even Scriptures. So there was an Old Testament witness and community where these Magi were from. If I’m not mistaken, even today some of these countries have a small Jewish population.

So if nothing else, these Magi would have had access or awareness of Jewish teaching and Scripture—making the homeland important. With the influences of people like Daniel or Esther in high government—some may have begun to take them very seriously.

Of course, another powerful possibility is that these men were themselves Jewish or had some Jewish heritage. In other words, their ancestors had watched other Jews pack up and go back to Jerusalem because they had a desire to be restored to God. I’m sure there were many who talked about it for generations, many who wondered what it would have been like if they had returned. In reading the scriptures, the psalms, the laments, the prophets and their heart for the land, the Temple, the Promise of God—even these Wise Men may have had their hearts wondering about the glory of the Temple.

If they were themselves Jewish—it is an awesome reminder of God’s call to come home.

Even though most stayed behind and didn’t return with the remnant, God still found a way to reach out to them—that hope that they had heard of, the promise of a Messiah for their people—was still something God would remind them of.

And so their hearts—longing for the fulfillment of God, longing for the homeland, wondering if God would still be faithful to His promise, wondering if God would still allow them to be a part of it—drove their hearts to make such a long and uncertain Journey.

15. Why did they go to Herod first?

It’s no wonder they went to Jerusalem first. Jerusalem was the center of religious and political power. A future king would more likely be born to the current king. But God doesn’t work the way we think He should—the obvious is rarely what He uses.

So they went to Jerusalem, alerted King Herod, gained further specifics from scripture—Micah 5:2 that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem and continued.
But there’s something else interesting here. It seems the star that started their journey did not guide them all along the way. If so, they would never have stopped or turned aside to Jerusalem. Maybe they couldn’t interpret what a stopped guiding star would look like. But in any event, they were asked by Herod to make a careful search for the child. If they were relying on the star at that point, then why would they have to “search”.

But upon leaving Jerusalem, something changed—now the star was much more specific. In fact it led them and hovered over a specific house. This is no longer something high up in the sky unless it is using a powerful spotlight—but gently hovering over the exact place where they were staying.

Again, Mary & Joseph had to stay for a while in Bethlehem. This would be an expensive venture if they had to “rent” or buy a place to stay, but would be easily accommodated by family. But the star directed them directly to their destination.

This was the guidance of God they had hoped for.

But I’ve always wondered, were they the only ones who could see the “star”? Wouldn’t Herod or his officials seen it and followed it to the baby Jesus?

Which leads me to consider whether, at least this second, localized guidance was not a literal “star” but a manifestation of the Glory of God, perhaps the Holy Spirit alighting on the place like He did later at Jesus’ baptism, or possibly an angel. The original sight that started the journey could easily be too.

Which could mean that only the Magi saw it. They eyes of faith were needed as well as the choice of God and whom He chooses to reveal it to. There's a common phrase--some say they have to see it to believe it--but some things have to be believed to be seen.

Remember, those on the road to Damascus with Paul had a vague sense of something happening, but couldn’t really tell you much about it, whereas Paul’s awareness was very acute and specific.

But the Wise men were called home to Worship just as the Shepherds had been called. Both great and small were bowing before Jesus—God drew both the heritage and the remnant back to their Savior, the Messiah.

16. What is the significance of the gifts?

While I have seen several possible meanings of the gifts, I have a preference. This doesn’t mean the others are wrong or should be written off—after all, since the Scripture doesn’t itself assign meaning, it’s all an educated guess.

Remembering also that we don’t know the amounts of the gifts involved—the depictions of the men carrying a small box doesn’t seem to fit with travelers from such a great distance. I’m of the mind that 2 of the gifts declare WHO Jesus, and His role is and the third declares What He will do to accomplish the will of God in those roles.

Gold—a gift fit for a King. Jesus is called the King of Kings and Lord of Lords in the New Testament.

Frankincense—incense in the Old Testament was used in prayer and worship in the Temple—the smoke represented the prayers of the people. The one who administered this incense and smoke was the Priest. This is another aspect of His identity and role in the world. The book of Hebrews tells us Jesus is the Great High Priest in the order of Melchizedek—greater than the Levitical/Aaronic priesthood—and able to enter the very Presence of God and grant us access in His Name.

Myrrh—was a burial spice. Many ancient cultures began preparing for their eventual death very quickly. The Pharaohs of Egypt began building their monuments immediately. But for this gift to Jesus, it signifies the death and burial that is in Jesus’ future in His role as Messiah—He will lay down His life on the Cross, shed His blood, take away our sin, and prepare a place for us in eternity. His death and subsequent resurrection is the fulfillment of God’s plan in sending Jesus in the first place.

Again, there is so much in these birth narratives that we miss or read over because we think we know the story already or because our mind has been so cluttered by the popular depictions that we don’t study carefully what the text actually says. If you’ve made it this far, I hope that you have benefited from this breakdown of the text and related cultures.