BOOKS!!!!

This last week my brother Rob and I had the opportunity to go and look through my dad's 30+ year library of books. A library filled with commentaries, Bible dictionaries, books on doctrines, books on spiritual growth, books on leadership, books on sex, books to lead studies - let me just say there were a lot of books. So I have been going through the books I chose from the collection and have begun to categorize. I have to admit, all of those books on my shelf do look impressive. But of course in the time of one week I haven't read through all of those books - but I will! That brings me to my point. My dad has spent 30+ years in the ministry. I am rounding 10 and my brother, well he's 5 years older than me so let's give him, 15. Nearly 70 years of ministry is within my immediate family. Looking at my dad's massive collection of books I can imagine thousands of hours he has spent reading and thousands my brother and I will spend reading. But what if this whole Jesus thing isn't what it is? And what I mean by that is, in the Christian faith we believe Jesus was a man who lived and died by the hands of the Jewish leaders and Romans (though this isn't really our faith because historical documents can prove this happened). Our Christian faith doesn't even begin when we claim that Jesus died on the cross (again historical), but oringinate when we claim that Jesus rose 3 days later from the grave by His own power, remained on earth for a period of 40 days where hundreds of witnesses saw Him, touched Him, ate with Him and watched Him ascend into heaven, and that He (Jesus) is going to come back for His followers. Now if all I believe in isn't the Truth - then my life has been worthless. Paul says, "Our faith is futile" or meaningless. All that I will read, all that my brother will read, all that my dad has read and all that we have done in our combined 70+ years of effort has been the biggest waste of our time. That is, if we are wrong. But flip the coin, if we are right, which I am convinced of as Paul declares all Christians should be, then those who don't have the hope of the Gospel of Jesus are in for a big eternal awakening. I don't want to live my life portrahing that I believe the Christian life is meaningless or worthless. I want to live my life and I want people to see that I am confident of this one thing - that I will see His face in glory when He says, "Well done my good and faithful servant!"

Not the remote of control

I love the remote control. I have so many remote controls in my house I’m not sure they all go to something. And of course now you can buy a universal remote to control everything that needs to be controlled – TV, DVD, Theater, Stereo (even car stereos), lights, garage door openers, car door locks, home security systems, and on and on. Remotes give us control and don’t we all love control? I was lying in bed one night, having difficult falling to sleep and this thought came to mind – what is control? Con? Well the first thought that came to mind was a criminal, like we say ‘he was an ex-con.’ Trol? Well I’ve heard a troll which in my mind is a short, ugly mythological creature that hides under bridges or in a cave. So as I put those two thoughts together I came up with my own definition of ‘control’: ‘Control is a fantasy thought in which a person attempts to steal away a certain situation to only come up short.’ Control is a dream and according to the Bible, a bad dream. Jesus never said we are called to lose our lives. The Bible only gives certain things in which we are to control and that is our tongue, thoughts, eyes and heart - yet these things seem to be the least of things that we attempt to control. We allow our tongue to speak whatever garbage, our eyes to gaze on this and that like the world was a museum to be bought – causing our minds to commit adultery and our hearts to covet. And all of these things filter into our hearts, which is called the wellspring of life which is the one thing, above all else, that we are called to guard (Prov. 4:23). I believe we stop controlling these things in our lives, or for some even stop attempting to control, because we are trying to control all of the other things in our life that we are supposed to give up to God: our dreams, money, time, love, family, agendas, opinions, and future plans. These are all things we like to control, or like to believe we have control of, but control is just a fantasy. I find it interesting that the word ‘remote’ actually means ‘far apart, far off, faint’ and that is what happens when we try to control the things of our life like we had a remote control for it – we become ‘far apart and far off’ from God. So I am proud to say I give up my remote of control, the faint hope of control that my sinful heart attempts to tell me I have. Faith gives up control. Jesus calls for His followers to give up control. So will you join me in dropping our remotes of control into the hands of God so He can control our lives. I know this is going to be hard but just read God’s promise in Jeremiah 29:11, after all, I’m sure your ‘pause’ button on your remote gave out a long time ago too.

Jesus is not my favorite

Before you yell “Blaspheme” please hear me out. The other day I was driving down the local highway and I pulled to a stop at a four way light. In front of me was a car that had a sticker on its bumper representing, what I assumed, was the passengers favorite band. As I stared at the sticker for a while my mind began to wonder as it normally does and I thought, “How boring it must be to ride in that car if that’s the only band you listen to.” It wasn’t that the band was a bad band to listen to or that I didn’t like the band, but the same band over and over again. While I will assume there are those fanatics who only listen to one band I also began to rationalize it out – just because it is their favorite band that probably doesn’t mean that is the only band they listen to. I know for myself I have favorite restaurants and favorite foods, but I eat other things. I have favorite television shows and favorite sports teams, but much to the grim of my wife I watch other things as well. I have a favorite flavor of ice cream, but I tend to venture away from that favorite every now and again. I have my favorite seat but I sit in other seats. I think you get the idea, just because something is my favorite doesn’t mean that’s all I choose to watch, eat or do with my time. I too could relate to the passengers in front of me with their sticker as I too have a favorite band, but heaven forbid I listen to only that one band – no matter how many good songs they may have. And that got me thinking even more. I love Jesus, but He is not my favorite – HE IS MY ALL. A favorite gets its play the majority of the time or even is picked above other things, but there are times when our favorites aren’t always our only choice. For example, my favorite sports team is the Kansas City Chiefs. If you know anything about football then you would know that the Chiefs are not playing my favorite type of football so I found myself changing the channel this past Sunday. If Jesus is only our favorite I fear we might do the same thing at times. Change the channel. Pick another station that fits our needs. Have a new flavor every now and again. So with this line of thinking I have come to conclude that once again – Jesus is not my favorite, HE IS MY ALL. He is all I need, want and desire. I have made my choice and that choice is Jesus and that way of life is following Him. Favorites aside, Jesus tops them all.

Where Are You?

In the Genesis account of the ‘Fall of Man’ the LORD God is entering the garden to enjoy His relationship with the man and woman. The problem was that upon entering the man and woman had made a drastic decision in disobeying God by falling into temptation. I can imagine that on a typical day, Adam and Eve would run to the LORD God and cry out “Daddy!”, maybe even embrace Him with a hug and continue to show Him all the things that they had been up to. I think it was that way because when I come home from the church or anywhere else, I hear Ethan cry out, “Daddy’s home!” as he runs to me, hugs me, and then catches me up on his daily activities or invites me to play. I’m not saying I’m God to Ethan, but I believe Adam and Eve had a child-to-father relationship with God. Adam after all is called the ‘son of God’ in the Gospel of Luke. But on this day things were different, the LORD God showed up and no one showed up to greet Him. Instead, God’s children were hiding in the bushes and God asked the question that shakes my heart every time I hear it, “Where are you?” I find it amazing that God, knowing all things, first of all asked this question. But I also find it interesting that He didn’t ask, “Where have you been?” or even “Where are you going?” God doesn’t care about those things because He already knows those things, but the question was, “Where are you?” It is a question that deals with the ‘now’. Like I already mentioned, God is all-knowing (it is one of His characteristics), so it wasn’t that He misplaced a part of His creation like we misplace our keys, it was that He knew the relationship, the perfect unity He once held with humanity, had been torn apart in a bite of temptation. Sin had separated God’s perfect creation from their perfect God. So the only question God could ask was, “Where are you?” Too many times I hear God asking me this question as I stick to my own agenda, as I covet things I don’t really need, as I misuse the name of the Lord God by my actions, as I get angry at people in traffic, as I don’t love my wife the way I should, as I look over those who are in need, and as I complain about things that are really of little importance compared to the kingdom of God. And I believe God is asking the same question to us daily as we continue in our habitual sins and we attempt to hide ourselves in the bushes. So, “Where are you?” Are you in the midst of God’s presence or are you allowing sin to separate you from a loving heavenly Father who wants nothing else but a relationship with you.

The Silent Killer

This last week in the local paper there was an article title “’The Silent Killer’ is something to take seriously”. It was an article explaining the horrendous results of the heat of the summer. It gave a statistic that in 1995 in just Chicago, 500 people died due to the heat. While this surprised me the title is what grabbed my attention: ‘The Silent Killer’. Paul wrote in Ephesians 6:11-12:
Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. (NIV)
I think so many times we forget what we are actually up against. So many times we lose focus on what is exactly going on around us. Jesus told us that “the enemy comes to steal, and to kill and to destroy,” so how do we forget that? Though I found it an alarming number of 500 people dying because of a heat wave, it’s hard to even put a number of people who are heading to an eternal heat wave that doesn’t give up. Yet we allow ourselves to get so distracted so easily about things in the church that really don’t matter when it comes to the big picture of things. There are people who walk by the church every day, people you come into contact with everyday, people who see our church building everyday who have no clue what they are truly heading for. If we are honest with ourselves ‘The Silent Killer’ is doing a great job in keeping God’s people distracted and busy about non-eternal things at times. Jesus said, “Feed my sheep and go and make disciples and baptize and do things for the least of these.” I would like to commit my life to become focused on these sorts of things – eternal things – rather than distractions from ‘the spiritual forces of evil’. How about you? Are you ready to take on ‘The Silent Killer’.

WHY?

It’s a good question. It’s a frustrating question. It denotes purpose and requires thought. It makes one look at reason and motivation. It’s a dangerous question because it really causes you to look at the real underlining idea. It’s not like ‘what’ that drives to a method. A ‘what’ question is easy to answer. “What are you going to do today?” “What are you going to eat for dinner?” “What are you going to say?” ‘What’ questions are all about planning, but the ‘why’ questions are all about motives. “Why are you going to do that today?” “Why are you going to eat that?” “Why are you going to say that?” I believe Jesus was a ‘why’ question guy. He talked about love, and the state of the heart and religious systems always driving to the ‘why’. I’ll admit, when I look at my life I can’t give a good answer to the ‘why’s’ all the time. The ‘why’ question penetrates my very being. It requires a heart-check. “Why do I go to church?” “Why do I dress up?” “Why do I sing songs?” “Why do I like one thing and not another?” I don’t know if you have ever asked yourself this question, maybe in frustration at times or in doubt, but to find an answer to the ‘why’ really reveals the heart. I’ll be honest, I go to church sometimes because I’m expected to be there, and I have to pray for God to forgive me because my expectations should be about deepening my relationships with Him. I dress up again because I feel, again I feel, that some people wouldn’t like for me to show up in shorts, t-shirts and sandals – yet sandals or shorts, God knows the heart. I sing songs because that is what everyone else is doing. I stand and sing because that’s what I’m told to do. I like one style of music because it is my preference. None of these answers to the ‘why’ question though lead me to God nor do they show any sort of desire of intimacy with Him. Am I saying these things are wrong to do? No and yes. No because at some point in time I had to be made aware of how to worship God and how to come before Him. But yes when the heart isn’t about a relationship with God but something else. When the heart searching leads to crowd pleasing instead of God loving – then the ‘why’ is shown by the true motivation. So my question to you is this, “Why do you do what you do?” I challenge you to search your heart for the true reason. Is it about God or is it about something else? The ‘why’ is dangerous, but once you get to the truth understand this: The truth will set you free.

My Diagnosis

I am sick. I have been told by educated professionals that I have a fatal disease. It is a disease that I have been carrying in my body since birth. Though doctors in all fields have tried and searched for an answer and a remedy, there is none to be found. The diagnosis is that ultimately I will die. I have been told that there is no way of knowing when this disease will overtake me. It could be today, it could be tomorrow, it could be years from now. But it is slowly deteriorating my body every day to the point that one day I will take my last breath. At times I forget about such a thing that lives within me, but then there are those moments when the very thought overtakes all of my being and I feel that all hope is lost. The interesting thing is that because of this disease I have come to realize that life and my time here is a precious gift.
Yet to make things worse my disease is a hereditary disease. I received it from my father as he did from his and what breaks my heart is that I have passed it on to my son Ethan. He too has been diagnosed with this disease that doctors can’t figure out and he too has a limited amount of time to live. It is because of this disease I can’t play the game of life. It is because of this game I seek to enjoy life to the fullest and learn to laugh at myself. It is because of this disease I push on to speak of the hope that is found in Christ Jesus.
My diagnosis is not a good one, but neither is yours. For you have the same disease. It is a diagnosis of sin and it is slowly killing us all and everyone we come into contact with. Therefore we must all come to the realization that time is indeed of the essence.
Scripture References: Romans 3:23; Romans 6:23; John 3:16; John 10:10