Pastortimteague's Blog

He thought he was doing God  a favor.  He was murdering Christians.  Those found in “the Way”.  He must’ve sat up nights and planned his intentional attacks on these innocent believers.  Later he would claim ignorance to who God really was and God would forgive him for his violence and use him to spread the gospel throughout Europe.  His name was Paul.  I read something this morning in my devotions that made me stop and think about this man prior to his epiphany of Christ.

Acts 26 is such a powerful chapter for me personally. I have gained such insight to life and reason out of this single chapter of Holy Writ.  In verse nineteen as Paul stands before Agrippa in defense of his actions he says this: “I tried to force them to blaspheme and being furiously enraged at them, I kept pursuing them even to foreign cities” (NASB).  In the NIV Bible the word “obsessed” is used.  When you tear this down the Greek word for obsessed (mainomai) here implies he acted like a maniac.

He acted with strategic knowledge.  His background allowed him the experience to wage a structured war against the New Testament church.  I can’t imagine families being drug into the street and whatever measure he used against them to “force them to blaspheme” and when they would not – what he did at that point.  I can’t imagine the torture, the pain inflicted on the infant church to force it to comply with his wishes.  My mind can’t or won’t go there.  Then I remembered something.  Paul should have known better in the first place.

He had been trained, mentored and educated by Gamaliel.  It was Gamaliel who offered to the Sanhedrin when in Acts 5.38 he proclaimed, “If this plan is of God you can’t overthrow it.”  Somewhere along the line Paul (then Saul) must’ve become bold, cocky and arrogant.  He elevated himself above the advice of his mentor.  He actually stepped on the advice of Gamaliel.  A cold slap in the face would not have been any lesser for Gamaliel.  Paul engaged in rebellion and eventually became obsessed with murdering Christians.

Isn’t that what happens still to this day?  People refuse to accept the advice of those who God has placed in their lives to enhance their faith journey along the way.  I stand amazed at the people who like Saul – refuse to accept what Scripture and God’s anointed attempt to say to them.   This act of passive rebellion is still rebellion – no matter where you place on the chart.  Passive or aggressive – most rebellion is based on the idea that we know more than those giving us advice.  Paul must’ve though early in his life that Gamaliel was missing it somehow.  He moved into obsession.  He acted like a maniac.  His maniacal actions and attitude eventually found him on his rear end as God drew the line.  He had a confrontation with the power of God.  God knows how to stop rebellion.  He knows how to get our attention when we are ignoring Him, His word and those He puts in our path to instruct us and guide us with righteous intent.

My prayer for you today is that you will allow the ministry of the Holy Spirit, the Word and holy men and women God puts in you path to instruct you, lead you and guide you.  Rebellion exists out of an attitude of thinking and believing he lies of the enemy.  He has six thousand years of experience on you.  Adam and Eve were introduced to the same attempt of the enemy to lie and distort the truth.  As with most of us, I am sure Paul justified his actions somehow religiously.  But then righteousness took over.  Grace and mercy were introduced to Paul and God won.  He always does.  Stop fighting advice, counsel and direction from Godly people.  Stop running from the presence of God.  Jonah discovered that’s not a fun place to be.  Settle down.  Listen to the Lord.  Take advice.  Move with forward motion faith.  Life is much more enjoyable my friend.  Much more enjoyable.

Wow!  What a day!  We had two great services!  I was long-winded (go figure) in the second service due to a desire to wrap up a two-part series on Chrislam (the perverted attempt to syncretize Christianity and Islam).  If you were in the second service then please accept my sincerest apologies for keeping you longer than I wanted to and long enough for numbness to settle into your hind-end.  Thank you for your patience.

I attended two funerals in two days this week.  One in Canton, Ohio where we attended the funeral of our denominational state bishops wife who passed away due to cancer.  She was a unique woman of God who truly left a legacy for all who knew her.  On Saturday I attended the funeral of a man I had only met once but whose daughter attended our church.  Our staff did an outstanding job at coordinating this particular service due to my absence.    Pastor Chris Varnell did a superb job in the pulpit.  Her usual very efficient preparedness was once again the icing on the cake for her message.  Pastor Aaron and Pastor Dave joined in to make Saturday’s funeral something I think the family was proud of.  My role was minimal and gave me the opportunity to see our staff in full forward motion.  They did an awesome job at serving this grieving family.

I received a note from my precious daughter in law after our first service today that broke my heart.  Her uncle Hack (a pastor in West Virginia) has taken a turn for the worse.  In an ICU unit with heart complications the news today wasn’t good.  I can only pray that God through His Spirit enable this family to deal with the ongoing stress of his long-term stay in the intensive care unit.  He has been over eight weeks.  He is in need of a direct miracle in order to survive.  I ask you to join me in praying for him.

In attending these funerals several things came to mind.  I have never done a funeral and I doubt you have ever attended a funeral that we don’t think of our own morality.  Paul the apostle wrote about death and dying when he penned his remarks to the Corinthian church (1 Corinthians 15).

Mortality.  This noun is defined as “the state or condition of being subject to death.”  I have often ridden in the hearse after doing a service and wondered something that may be a bit morbid to some of my readers: “What if that were me?”  Yep!  I know!  Sounds crazy doesn’t it?  But yet we all know that we as mortal beings have an appointment with death.  Oh it won’t pop up in our Blackberry or our iPhone calendars – but its out there – just waiting for us.  Question is this: with this information in hand are we ready for this appointment?   I titled this blog “Determination and Death – A Necessary Combination!”  Let me explain.

Determination is my attempt to prepare for such an appointment – my death.  Lord have mercy it is so weird just writing about it!  Not in legal preparation with a will and insurance policies (isn’t it amazing how that we are all worth more monetarily dead than alive?) and all that other stuff.  Kim and I took care of all that a long time ago.  I’m talking about the personal stuff.  I’t talking about our family.   I’m talking about those interpersonal relationships we have.   I have a determination to leave something more than a fading memory.  I want to leave a legacy – a “life template” I call it.  I want to leave a mark on someone’s life that will enable them to become a better follower of Christ than they currently are.  Yeah!  A “life template.”

I want my wife to know that I have given her my best.  I have loved her unconditionally.  I have given her my all and all.  I have never not given her 100% of me.  I look back at all the times “duty” called me away from home, from her and my two sons and I get red in the face.  Red due anger over my lack of possibly making changes to stop those occasions from being repetitious.  Red due to my embarrassment  in letting it happen so many times.  Her sitting at home by herself while I was out taking care of everyone else’s family.  I can only strive to leave a mark on her life that she can know without a doubt I love her more than anything else in the world. Time nor space will allow me to share with you what a phenomenal woman Kim is!  Amazing!  She is a perfectionist and has an obsessive compulsive personality.  She is a driven woman with unbelievable skills of organization.  How she has put up with me for so many years is only to be considered a miracle.  An absolute miracle!  (To those who know me you can leave your personal comments to yourself!)

I want my two sons to know they are loved as no one else could love them.  As a father I am so proud of both of my sons.  Their work ethic is a rare treasure for most young men their age.  They provide for their family with tender care.  They protect their family with the strength of an army.  They love like their mother modeled for them to love – unconditionally.  They love the woman God gave them to the degree that I stand amazed.  They love the Lord Jesus Christ and know the enabling power of the Holy Spirit in their lives – I could ask for nothing more out of either of them.   I am so very proud of both of them.  They make my day when they call or I call them.   It may be only a few moments of conversation but it makes my day.  Nothing like hearing the voices of my sons.  It is the neatest thing to see their number come up on my cell phone caller ID.

Kim and I were blessed with a young woman who married my youngest son that is awesome!  Josh found in Natalie a woman who still looks at him like she did when they were “courting.”  She is a homemaker, educator, business woman and an awesome mother to my granddaughter.  She is quick to speak her mind, seldom misses her target in relationship to her thoughts and she loves my son and my granddaughter as no one else can.  She is awesome.  I am confident her father in law gets on her nerves once in a while because I am obsessed with their daughter.  They have given Kim and I a granddaughter that God Himself stamped the word “approved” on.  She is the best!  I think of her almost every minute of every day.  I think this may wear down some – but I doubt it.

My oldest son has endured a life challenge that was devastating.  Suffering through an unsolicited divorce he turned the corner by his own admission by hanging tight to his faith and his prayer life.  He learned that from his mother!  His faith and tenacity paid off and he has found a young woman who I believe has been a gift to him.  She is lovely person inside and out.  She loves the Lord and chases after God and I couldn’t ask for more for him at this point in his life.  She takes care of him in such a loving and kind way.  She really has fallen in love with Brad and gave him his smile back.  Brad is hard working and self disciplined.  He loves life, loves God and I trust will soon discover how much he loves Chantiell and locks in on her heart with laser accuracy.  He has discovered that you can find love again – and he is discovering that trust is something that grows out of love itself.  I am proud of him.

You see I am determined to love my family with the type of love that would leave a “life template” for them to follow.  I want to leave them more than material things and a funeral to arrange along side of their mother.  I want to them to know life.  I want to leave them a legacy – not just a memory.  I am determined to leave no questions unanswered.

Leaving a legacy involves something hinged to law.  Legacies cannot be easily done away with.  They “hang around” due to their significance, impact and almost eternal make up.  The word “legacy” comes from the word “legate” which means “a legal representative.”  In other words when we leave a legacy we are leaving someone to carry on as a representative of our life.  I want my life to be carried on by others in the sense that they follow Christ.  I think this is what Paul meant when he said, “Be followers of me eve as I am of Christ” (1 Corinthians 11.1).

A memory is  the recollection of facts or events.  Here today and gone tomorrow – depending on what provokes the thought.  Not all memories are good ones. I want more than memories about me when I am gone. I want to leave a legacy.  I want to leave a “life template” for others to follow and I want that template to point to Christ.

I have lived and I have loved.  I have loved my family.  I have loved the Lord Jesus Christ.  I have loved my friends and my confidants.  I have loved my church congregations.  I have loved the Word.  I have loved pastoring and shepherding God’s people.  I can only hope that when they shut the casket on my body and place that box in the ground that I will have left a legacy.  I am determined to leave more than memories, monetary value, a few tools, a ton of books and some worn our clothes.  I am determined to leave a life template.  In death my desire will hopefully be revealed.  I can hope that my determination now will leave a legacy then.

Troubled Times

I am a news-monger.  I watch news.  I listen to the news.  I read the news.  I am obsessed with the assimilation of news.   Sometimes I wonder if today will be the day the Lord returns for His bride.  Surely He is getting lonely and wants us by His side!  Surely He knows we are longing for Him!  We want to be with him!  I know why John the revelator said, “Come Lord Jesus!” (Revelation 22.20).

I think we can get caught up with all the news to a dangerous degree.  I mean, I for one love news.  But there are some people who are so caught up in the news that they try to become arm-chair prophets.  Most of us are amateur apocalyptic interpreters.  We attempt to take news and clothe it in the few end time scriptures we know and make conversation about it.  Nothing wrong with any of that except when we become radical with our interpretations.  We attempt to become the neighborhood Jack Van Impe with our end time insights.  We take on the theory of Fox News – “We report.  You decide.”

Our prophetic opinions become rock solid predictions. Sometimes when we really don’t know what we’re talking about or we just repeat what we’ve heard – and pray it’s on target and balanced – we can make a mess of the news and its application to reality.

I am reminded tonight of what Luke recorded in the book of Acts.

Acts 1:6-7

(6)  So when they had come together, they were asking Him, saying, “Lord, is it at this time You are restoring the kingdom to Israel?”  (7)  He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority.

While an interest in end time events and how they relate to Holy Writ is not a bad thing – it is something we can be overwhelmed with and easily forget why God put us here on the earth in the first place – to witness the life of His Son!  Let me give you the next passage of scripture – the one that follows up the statement about not becoming to involved with seasons and prophetic epochs.

Acts 1:8

(8)  but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.”

Here is what God wants us to become “obsessed” with.  He wants us empowered by His Spirit to become martyrs for His kingdom.  The power to become what He has ordained us to become – witnesses.  The Greek for witness here is martyr.  The word implies a “genuineness of faith.”  Think about that for a moment.  In a season of troubling times, hard times of economic turmoil and governments falling and rising – God has empowered us with the ability to live with a genuine faith.  We just witnessed a 7000 year old Pharaohic government fall in eighteen days!  We are watching a domino affect take place in middle eastern nations.  People are rising up against cruel dictatorships.  Liberty and freedom are being pursued with a passion. Those in pursuit of freedom from tyranny have placed the value of their lives on the line.  Thousands have already lost their lives.  How many more?  All in the name of freedom.  They have become martyrs of freedom.  They have become witnesses of freedom.  They are demonstrating their faith in freedom.  Governmental and civil freedom.  They are demonstrating a “genuine faith” in their future of freedom and democracy.

Then there is the church in America. We don’t have to become martyrs for our governmental freedom – at least not yet.  We have been called, empowered and anointed to live out, to demonstrate another witness.  The witness of Christ.  We have been called to live out a genuine faith in the work of Christ for all mankind.  While we absorb the vignettes of news items that have made the world a “village” – we can get so caught up in our pursuit of apocalyptic interpretation that we forget why we are here in the first place – to witness His grace and mercy for all of humanity.

Yes, I am a news-monger.  I am a Fox News-aholic.  I admit it.  I’m not sure I need anybody to lay hands on me to exercise deliverance.  I think I can control my need for news.  WHat I don’t want to do is miss the opportunity to become a witness of His mercy and grace to all of humanity in these last days.  If there ever was a time for us to saddle up the horse of martyrdom – it is now.  May all of us in these last days understand that while we may chase an amateur conclusion to Bible prophecy we cannot overlook our neighbors who are on their way to hell without a Savior.  To think the greatest sign of the end times may live a mere fifty feet from our front door – our unsaved neighbor.  While we take notes on end time scriptures the greatest conclusion we can come to in relationship to the coming of the Lord is that our neighbor may not know the One we are waiting to return.  How shameful is that?

I was driving home today from our weekend at Pigeon Forge and thinking about how our words can make us or break us.  I know I have mentioned this before but it bears repeating.  Our words can either give life or they can release death in others.  Words spoken in criticism and judgment of others don’t identify those we slay with our words – they reveal the hateful agenda in our own heart toward another person.

One thing I have noticed in my research with the succeeding generation and character traits they display is that they are possibly the most critical generation we have ever heard from.  They are not only quick to judge and criticize but they are quick to articulate their judgement and criticism.  I’m not sure why.  I’m not sure if being raised in an entitlement era lends them the license to be so critical or not – but whatever – it is the most difficult generation to speak words of encouragement, praise and promotion of others that we have seen.   In driving today and considering how not only this age group has been given somehow the freedom of speech to slander others behind their backs and be their best friend to their face – but in general, why most people today don’t consider more of what we say and how we say it.   I have asked this question before about those who claim the right to say what they want because “That’s just who I am!” or “I just tell it like it is!”   Where is the production of the fruit of the Holy Spirit?  Where is patience? Kindness? Long suffering?  Why are we so quick to judge others because they don’t fit our litmus test of a perfect personality?  Where is the Holy Spirit’s presence in our life that produces what we can’t in the flesh – words that are influenced more from the Holy Spirit than from carnal man?

I jotted down some words (actually while sitting at a stop light) that came to mind as to what our words can do.  Let me share them with you:

Our words can:

Deny: deny Holy Scripture and the relationship with Christ that the Word produces.

Define: define our character and our personality; our testimony of Christ in our hearts.

Divide: we can divide friendships and families with our words.

Direct: we can give direction and we can receive direction with our words.

Determine: our words will determine our friendships, our testimony, our future.

Destroy: we can literally destroy a life or build one up by our choice of words.

Distract: we can engage conversations with others and distract them from their duty and their life journey.

Words are powerful.  I want to challenge you today to find that one person who “rubs” you the wrong way, doesn’t like you, etc. and pour into their lives words that are meaningful and not critical or judgmental.  Speak to them in a fashion that actually “goes against your grain.”  Let the Holy Spirit lead your mouth and not just your heart.

Judging others because they are different than we, speaking against them, speaking down to them will never satisfy the Holy Spirit in you.  I remember David put together an army of misfits and became a powerful threat to his enemy.  Misfits – yep, those people that others looked down on, judged, laughed at and scorned.  Misfits – those that the church today would not allow to work in the church, serve in the church – when they have done nothing but be different.  They don’t laugh at your jokes, they don’t smile at you very often, they may not act like you, eat what you eat or may not even be as “good” as you are.  David built and army of the worst of the worst.  Misfits.  Today, most churches wouldn’t give them a chance.  Would you?

Again, let the Holy Spirit lead you to speak differently this week.  Speak words that edify instead of disqualify.  Words of encouragement instead of discouragement.  Words that build up instead of tear down.  Words that honor instead of dishonor.  Here’s another challenge. Speak words that should be spoke in the right season.  Just because you know something about someone that’s not “right” or “good” doesn’t give you the license to say it out loud to them or to the public in general.  There is a time and season for everything (Eccl.3). There is even a time to keep your mouth shut instead of allowing it to run like a chain saw at high speed.

One last thing.  Take a quick look at these passages of scripture and realize that what we say is important to others…and the Lord Almighty.

Matthew 7:2

“For in the way you judge, you will be judged; and by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you.

Luke 6:37

“Do not judge, and you will not be judged; and do not condemn, and you will not be condemned; pardon, and you will be pardoned.

James 5:9

Do not complain, brethren, against one another, so that you yourselves may not be judged; behold, the Judge is standing right at the door.

Just a thought!  But it may be that one last thought that disengages your mouth from saying something your heart will regret.  Be blessed.

I was reading for my personal devotion tonight and came across this passage of scripture in Acts 21.13-14:

Then Paul answered, “Why are you weeping and breaking my heart?  I am not only ready to be bound, but also to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.”  When he would not be dissuaded we gave up and said, “The Lord’s will be done!”

There is a good reason why Agabus and his friends were attempting to dissuade Paul from going to Jerusalem.  Agabus was a prophet and had been shown that in Jerusalem Paul was going to have trouble.  Opposition with violent intensity!  Paul already had confessed that in every city he entered “prison and hardships” (Acts 20.22-24) awaited him.  Either Paul was a card-carrying moronic religious fanatic or he was extremely dedicated to Christ as His Savior and was committed to fulfilling his purpose on earth.   He wasn’t a lunatic!  What kept this man going when the going got tough? Why didn’t he quit?  Give up?  Wave a white flag of surrender?  We can only hope to have this man’s commitment.  Let me show you something here in Acts 21.

Let me break down what Paul explains in verses 23-24 of Acts 21.

He considered his life worth nothing to himself.  This is important because this is a statement of humility.  I think Paul realized his value to the church and especially his peers.  As an apostolic leader he had to know his value to the kingdom.  But he says he had no “worth to himself.”  Paul always placed those he was called to serve above himself in value.  This is the starting point of great leaders, managers, business owners and even parents – the humility of self.  You have to be willing to surrender your “rights” to become a leader.  Knowing your value is one thing – knowing your sense of not being valued by yourself is quite another.  The second deserves a transparent trophy – one we can’t display or brag about.

He wanted to finish the race and complete the task the Lord had given him.  There are two things Paul is saying here.  1) He was disciplined for the race. Running takes discipline, time, practice, and endurance.  Paul was focused on the end result of his race for the right reason.   2) He was task oriented.  He knew he had to “finish” what the Lord had begun in him.  He knew he could only do it in the strength and power of the Holy Spirit.  He knew he had to finish the specific work assigned to him.  What about you?  Are you committed to running the race and finishing the task?

He identified his task as his testimony of the gospel.  I have shared a lot about the power of testimony in our church lately.  Notice Paul didn’t say his task to finish was to build a certain number of churches or reach a certain number of people.  His goal wasn’t focused on church politics or becoming a high profile preacher.  His focus for his calling?  His testimony!

Today, if we could understand that pleasing God is not about our trophies, receiving accolades, making brownie points or becoming image driven in his calling.  His focus was testimony.  He was wiling to die for his testimony.  It was all that drove him.  Wouldn’t it be awesome if today we could just focus on our testimony and finishing the work God has called all of us into – sharing our personal testimony!

I will say two things here in closing tonight.  If you don’t have a testimony you need to double check your commitment to Christ.  Second, we need to engage in practicing our testimony.  I think Christians at large have left testimony up to the church and a handful of professionals to accomplish reaching the lost.  I will say this one more time – churches don’t reach people – people reach people.

How dedicated are you?  Back to my text mentioned above.  What would you do?  If someone you trusted came to you and said that the Lord had shown them that tomorrow at your office, in the factory or in the grocery store – you would be confronted in a violent manner for your testimony – would you retreat or would you engage forward motion faith?  There is only one right answer to this question.  What would you do?  Just a thought.

OK!  It’s Saturday night and I’m ticked!  Really!  I just received an email about a growing movement called “Chrislam.”  It is an attempt to combine Christianity and Islam.  It is being supported by men that I thought were dedicated followers of Scripture and Jesus – but have turned out to be the biggest morons ever to walk on the earth!  Are you kidding me?

Christianity and Islam are like oil and water – or better yet like gas and fire!  They in no way can be placed on the same table of even cordial discussion.  The only way one can approach a Muslim with any sense of using Christ in the conversation is to attempt to convert the Muslim – which is the core of all Christianity stands for! Remember, converting people to Christ!  Unbelievable!  When you think you’ve heard it all then someone has to create this perverted attempt of joining two opposing religions together.  Excuse me, but this is as perverse as two men or two women attempting to have any sense of physical intimacy.  Pretty clear unless you pervert the truth – they weren’t created to be together!

I guess one has to ask, in its minimal approach, where the gospel is at with this moronic anti-Christ excuse for a movement called Chrislam is at.  How absurd!  How brainless is this junk?  And to think that there are some ministers out there who are joining in the attempt to become neighborly with Muslims.  Bunk!  Absolutely bunk!

I guess we will have to throw out passages like this one:

‘Do not be bound together with unbelievers; for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness? Or what harmony has Christ with Belial, or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever?’ (2 Corinthians 6:14-15).

This unity mess and ecumenical stuff that lends itself to a washed down gospel and pushes toward holding hands with a Muslim and singing a love song is ridiculous.  The idea here is to be “neighborly” with the Muslims.  I guess the next thing is to allow a pervert who lives next door to molest our families – since the idea is to be neighborly.  Excuse me while I go vomit….alright I’m back.

Let me remind you that the neighborly approach to ministry found in Holy Writ is to pick someone up out of the road who has been abused, robbed, beaten and left for dead.  The idea is to take oil and wine and our resources to aid those in need of a Savior!  I guess we could do a movie about a Muslim laying in the road and call it “Saving Private Muslim.”  Give me a break!

I am being ridiculous I know.  Don’t comment about my being over zealous here.  I know when I am and I am tonight because I am an angry at those who would call themselves Christian and attempt to join Christianity with the Muslim faith.  How in the world could Mohammad and Jesus be equals?  They are not and never can be. There is only one God and His name isn’t Allah.  Muslim’s abhor America by calling us the “Big Satan” and you expect them to somehow join us in a pluralistic form of worship?  Maybe some of the proponents of Chrislam should do some research on Sharia law and discover where they fit in a Muslim’s faith.  Get a life.  Better yet, get a right life by committing to Jesus Christ your life and becoming righteous through His grace and mercy.

Chrislam may be a popular faith attempt among morons – but it is far from having any sense of truth within its perverted borders of doctrine.  Those who would attempt to be part of a Chrislam movement will fit with the blind leading the blind – let me know and I will help you out of the ditch, if you even realize you’ve fallen into one.  Hard to distinguish the putrid odor in the ditch from the one associated with false doctrine outside the ditch.  I’ll bring the Lysol.  I will be writing more on this issue.  Trust me on this one!

The Cult of Self

I was reading this months Leadership Journal magazine and came upon an article in the  Currents [Counter Culture] section titled, “Matching – making Ministry?” by Brandon O’Brien.   It introduced to the reader to a short interview with Mark Regnerus (author of Forbidden Fruit: Sex and Religion in the Lives of American Teenagers [Oxford, 2007]).  Cool article on marriage and advocating getting married young.  The article itself didn’t really tweak my interest but a statement that Regnerus used did.  In the interview he used the phrase “the cult of individual freedom” and referenced how it has subtly cloaked the church in our current trend of faith.  Interesting statement to say the least.

As a pastor I have wondered if what we do really impacts the listener sitting in our pews – more so recently than ever before.  I know it does so the question is somewhat rhetorical in nature.  I’m not really looking for an answer as much as I am making a statement by asking the question.  It could be summed up in Regnerus’s statement about personal freedom.  Let me take a stab at it and you let me know.

In the article about marriage Regnerus implies that premarital sex is not “the” problem when it comes to young people and expressing their faith.  He informs the reader that “41 percent of churchgoing, conservative Protestant men’s relationships become sexual within one month, barely lower than the national average of 48 percent.”   He goes on to say that we “spend so much energy to generate so little difference”.  In his mind, we should spend more time on the virtues of marriage instead of attempting to deter premarital sex because our efforts are not successful.  And therein lies the monster that growled at me when reading the article.  It’s the lack of success in the church when addressing an issue that is black and white in scripture.  It’s like teaching simple arithmetic.  Almost anyone can teach the simple principle of one plus one equals two.  Teaching the precepts of scripture on something as simple as adultery and fornication is relatively easy.  It is so black and white.  There is absolutely no middle ground.  If all of what I have just eluded to is true then what is the problem?

Regnerus nailed it with that little phrase he used – “the cult of individual freedom.” We have imposed our own rules and interpretation of scripture and in some cases we have eliminated absolute truth and the conviction it creates.  We have allowed the culture of the world to impose itself on not the doctrines of the church – they haven’t changed (except in liberal circles where rule changing is allowed).  It’s not the truth that has changed but rather our hearing and applying the rules to our daily life.  I am appalled at the ease of which we engage sexual sins in the church.  It’s as if there is no line of demarcation in the kingdom in relationship to the world.  We have perverted grace and in doing so allowed a minority of people to engage in sin and believe that God’s grace will continue to wink at their lack of discipline and desire for purity.  I stand appalled and sickened.  A minority of people who claim to be followers of Christ seem to find no conviction in sexual impurity.

The grace factor is a card those involved in the cult of individual freedom cannot play.  I am reminded of a passage of scripture in Titus:

Titus 2:11-12 (New American Standard Bible)

11 For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men,

12 instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age.

Grace is a teacher that teaches us the value of denying ungodliness and worldly desires.  Grace is not something we use to our advantage and then race to seek forgiveness.  Let me remind you that forgiveness is God’s response to our repentance.  Repentance is a change of direction, turning from sin not running to cover it up with bed sheets and condoms!   Grace is not to be abused!

Romans 6:1-7 (NASB)

(1)  What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase?

(2)  May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?

(3)  Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death?

(4)  Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.

(5) For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection,

(6)  knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin;

(7) for he who has died is freed from sin.

Herein lies the problem to some degree.  When we nail this activity down those engaged in sexual sin will immediately say their sin is no worse than others in the church who are guilty of committing sins also.  Sin is not about comparing one life to another.  Never has been and never will be.  It’s about the sin in your life – not necessarily mine or anybody else’s.  Hard to get the splinter out of another’s eye when there is a two-by-four in your own.

The question here is about salvation period.  At what point in ones personal experience with faith in Christ as Savior does he/she deny the worldly pleasures – inclusive of adultery and fornication?  Paul seems to indicate that it is in the bridge between spiritual death and resurrection.  He says that in resurrection life there is newness of life.  So then my question is this: if this is all spiritual analogy and we believe the those sitting in our churches have actually become followers of Christ – are they still stuck on a spiritual bridge between spiritual death and spiritual resurrection?  I think I found a title for this bridge – thanks to Regnerus and his statement mentioned above.  I am going to call this bridge the bridge of “the cult of individual freedom”.  This is a politically correct way of calling the bridge the bridge of the worship of self – worshiping the creature more than the creator as mentioned in Romans 1.  God calls this “bridge” I mentioned something else but it wouldn’t be politically correct to probably use the His terminology.  Or would it?  It could get nasty because scripture also declares that those who refuse the discipline of the Father in relationship with Him are called “bastards”.  Illegitimate members in the faith family.  Pretty tough terminology.  I guess someone needs to school God in how to speak with political correctness.  What do you think?

When God Disappoints Us!

We so want someone to blame for our broken hearts and our life moments that are discouraging.  Martha and Mary were two such people.  Their story is found in John 11.  If you are a Bible student you have heard this story before.  Lazarus, their brother and very close friend of Jesus was not expected to live.  He was in serious physical trouble and Martha and Mary did what they only knew to do – send for Jesus.  He could help.  They knew He loved Lazarus and would get to him as soon as He got the word.

This is where they ran into trouble. Not because they did not have faith – they did.  They honestly believed that if Jesus could get to Lazarus He could raise him off his death-bed.  That my friend is faith in action!  They believed in Jesus!  They believed He could heal their brother!  They prayed – ie: they requested the help of Jesus.  They did everything right.  When Jesus got word that Lazarus was ill and close to death – He didn’t drop what He was doing and respond immediately.  He didn’t even send and team ahead to prepare an atmosphere of faith prior to His being with Lazarus personally.  Matter of fact – the only thing Jesus did do was extremely controversial – He waited two more days.  Unbelievable!  Can you imagine?

You see I have sat with families who have lost their loved ones to a disease.  I have held the hands of family members who had faith, prayed and did everything spiritually right only to see a loved one die or a crisis prayer go seemingly unanswered.  It is very difficult to have the right words to say.

I have heard the remarks of Martha and Mary repeated in a moment of disappointment and even expressed anger with God.  Why?  If you “had been here” is as good as “where was He” or “why did’t He answer?”  You see God has and will disappoint us from time to time.

I have discovered that there is a little Martha and Mary in all of us.  We have had those moments where we find the boldness to question God’s motives.  I have those troubling days when like John the Baptist from his prison cell questioned, “Are you the One or should I look for another?”  These life challenging and faith challenging moments are not easy.

I believe the Lord hesitates in answering our way sometimes to prove the picture to us.  The greater purpose in the delay for Lazarus was obviously resurrection life.  The greater miracle was resurrection life – not healing.  Jesus was giving us evidence to say that the “greater healing” was to allow death to finish its earthly course so that He could perform His heavenly and Kingdom purpose.  Sometimes we just don’t get what God is up to.

I watched my mother take her las breath and leave her and arrive at her celestial home.  Her heavenly home.  It wasn’t easy.  As a pastor I have watched quite a few saints pass from here to eternity.  But when you stand there helpless and watch your mother die it is a different sense, a different feeling.  Mom was 83.  She was a woman of faith.  She was a fighter.  She was tired, worn and weary.  I spoke with her on the phone the evening she died.  As a matter of fact I was talking to her when she was in the beginning stage of the massive stroke which took her life.   Why didn’t God answer our prayers?  Why didn’t He heal her?  Why?  The hidden agenda of Martha and Mary surfaced.  It was just about as ugly as it was nearly 2000 years ago when Martha and Mary confronted Jesus.  They were angry.  Mary was so upset she didn’t want to leave the house.  They both spoke sharply to the Lord.  I have had mixed emotions over their questions for some time.  Did they make their “if you had been” statements out of a limited faith?  Did they make the statement because they were ticked off at Christ?  Did they make the statement to bring some sense of guilt to Christ?  Make him feel bad about himself?  I can’t see Jesus with an identify crisis – can you?

He hesitated to teach them about the bigger picture. He sees what we can’t see and He knows what we don’t know.  He is the Bigger Picture!  He was resurrection and life.  He didn’t just show up late to be a healer – He showed up to prove He was THE resurrection and the life.  He raised Lazarus from the dead to prove Himself to these two sisters and the onlookers.  His point in not answering their prayer to heal Lazarus? Easy.  The greater healing is resurrection life.  This is not a “cop out” on faith.  This is reality.  My mom received her ultimate healing – resurrection life.  She went from the reception of the promise of eternal life when she got saved as a little girl to the manifestation of celestial life when she died.  Faith was present for both.

When you have questions about the whereabouts of God just be reminded that He is the ultimate Provider.  He IS the resurrection and the life.  He may not show up to heal our way because the bigger picture is the awesomeness of resurrection life.  He himself is life.  He himself is resurrection.  When you know Him you know the ultimate healer.  Lazarus was raised to die again.  We will be raised in eternal life to never die again.  The next time Lazarus faced death Jesus would have already died and ascended to the throne.  But because Lazarus experienced resurrection life  he was well ready for eternal life.  Resurrection life.  He is life.  He is our resurrection hope.  Disappointed with God?  Grab hold of the bigger picture and know that He is working all things to our good.  He really is.

Absentee Blogger

I apologize.  I failed to write a blog last night.  To be honest I was down for the count!  It just didn’t work out and it didn’t get done.  I am sorry.

What they don’t know WILL hurt them!

On to tonight’s blog.  Years ago I was preparing a sermon and when I read this passage of scripture – I stopped in my tracks because I saw something I had not seen before.  Here is the passage:

Matthew 9:36-38 (New American Standard Bible)

36 Seeing the people, He felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and dispirited like sheep without a shepherd.

37 Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.

38 “Therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest.”

Did you catch the phrase in verse 38?  Jesus is the “Lord” of the harvest.  That means that He is Lord of the lost – they just don’t know it yet!   That’s where you and I come in – we are the ones to inform them!  Yes, in this case what they DON’T know will hurt them!  Those who don’t find Christ as their Savior will spend eternity in hell.  Pure and simple.  Regardless of what all the PC people say out there in the worldly and antichrist arena – there is only one way to heaven – that is to accept Jesus Christ as your personal Savior.

Acts 4:12 (NASV) Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.”

There is a movement out there that teaches that you have a right to choose any religion you want to.   I agree – choose away my friend. There is a movement that entitles you to choose whatever God you want to choose to serve.  I agree – choose away my friend.  Problem is in your right to choose.  Because you have a right to serve a false God doesn’t make your choice a righteous one.  Again, there is only one God, one Lord and one Savior!

Proverbs 14:12 (NASB) There is a way which seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.

Yep!  One way!  One way to heaven!  In an age where pluralism is so popular and where hybrid gods are being created – it’s not popular to announce that Jesus is the only way to heaven and He is the ONLY God.

I want to challenge you to find the person that you personally know is not saved and share your testimony with them.  Don’t beat them up with an aggressive message.  Let the testimony itself do the work.   You don’t have to save them – you can’t!  But what we have to do is share our faith.  Simple.  God didn’t make this process complicated.

There is power in your testimony.  Share it.  Don’t keep it inside of you.  You don’t have to have a theology degree to share what Christ has done for you.  In order to be an effective witness of Christ you only need two things: 1) an experience with Christ and 2) you need courage to speak.  Come on – go for it.  Share your faith and make a difference in someone’s life.  Remember, what they don’t know will hurt them.