In the Spring #It'sATrap

We cannot rest on our laurels (we can’t sit on our butts), when things seemed to be going well. We cannot afford to become apathetic or complacent as Christians. We must take our spiritual arms and our spiritual armor daily, because we are in a full-out spiritual war complete with schemes from an enemy that is invisible to us. —- Many look at the great mistake (better yet Great Sin) of King David with Bathsheba, and they blame it on wandering eyes. However, his fall into this horrific chain of events started more subtly. We read: In the spring, at the time when kings go off to war, David sent Joab out with the king's men and the whole Israelite army. They destroyed the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David remained in Jerusalem. —2Sam.11:1 Spring-time is a wonderful time of year. It is full of hope, and refreshing after a hard winter. It was also the time in Israel to get busy. The text is clear that David was not where he was supposed to be. The kingdom was doing well, so he stayed back. He sat this one out. One could argue that this was okay, except the end results prove it was wrong. David had become “fat and happy.” He lost his edge. He was settling into status quo. By doing so, he set himself up for an enemy attack, except this was far worse. This was a spiritual attack by an invisible enemy taking place in the friendly confines of his own home. —- May we learn lessons as a church from our Scripture reading instead of the School of Hard Knocks. When things seem to be going well, we need to step it up! We need to pray harder. We need to love one another by helping and supporting one another. We need to halt any semblance of gossip. We need to forgive one another liberally. We need to love the unlovely. We need to generally cut people a lot of slack. We need to share Jesus with others, remembering that the only thing God can’t use is our silence. —- So today, if you find yourself settling into your spiritual lazy-boy, and committing more time, talent and treasure to “me” stuff, wake up! Don’t get sucked in. It’s a trap! Don’t be satisfied with where you are. Instead, ask God what big or little thing you can do today for His Kingdom agenda. If your eyes are “seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness,” then you will not have wandering eyes.

"...now I urge"---Acts 27:22

Yet now I urge you to take heart, for there will be no loss of life among you, but only of the ship.—-Act 27:22Paul, the prisoner, gave a pep-talk to the sailors, soldiers and fellow-prisoners before they were to be ship-wrecked. He began telling them to be encouraged because there would be no loss of life. He identified his source of this foreknowledge as the God with whom he had a personal relationship. It had been two weeks lost at sea due to a storm. Things looked grim. The men were desperate. No one had eaten in days, and the sailors were plotting to abandon ship. Paul, full of the Spirit of the Lord, took charge by encouraging the men that all would be fine, even though the ship was going to crash. At least it would crash on land. He got the men to eat in order to gain strength for the swim to shore, and he foiled the plot by the sailors to escape. He kept the 276 men together, and they made it safely ashore, although the ship was not so lucky. —- Sometimes things happen to us, because we are hanging around some bad people. However, it would be great if we turned that around, and great things happened to people for hanging around us. You see, God meant for Paul to make it where he was going. Not even a violent storm could stop that! These other folks were spared because God was looking out for Paul. Knowing Paul, God knew this would be an opportunity to bring glory to God as Paul would share the Gospel though all this. —- Not only were the 276 men likely saved spiritually as result of this experience, but God brought the Gospel to this island that was likely forgotten. Listen, God knows how to get the Gospel to faraway places! God cares more than you know.

Why does America protect a destructive religion like Islam?

Someone posed this question, and it made me think. I have often thought about putting these words carefully into context knowing they could sound controversial, yet truthful. First of all, Christianity does not need protection by any government, because truth will stand. Truth will pass the test of time. Those attempting to take truth down, will find themselves on the wrong side of truth on judgment day. Christianity is called a religion in your school books, but it is about a relationship with Jesus, who died for our sin on the cross and was resurrected on the third day. —- If religions like Islam are to have a fighting chance they need to be propped up by governments and other entities. Nevertheless, we have witnessed the attempts by government to destroy Christianity but grant “hall-passes” for religions like Islam who have shown evidence of what they’ll do if they wield the power. On the other hand, there was a once-great nation that was, at a time, heavily influenced by Christianity.They grew strong and looked after the world. We acknowledge that Christians do not always get it right, because we are susceptible to flashbacks to the flesh at times. However, the tenets of the faith direct us to “love one another,” and this attitude has had positive impacts on the world at large (ie. check your hospitals, relief agencies, orphanages, first responders, etc.).—- Here’s my proposal to America and other governments of the world: Don’t protect Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, etc., but rather leave them all alone to stand. However, don’t attack either, because right now it seems like only one of these is under attack. —- On a balanced field, Christianity will stand. Otherwise, you are shooting yourselves in the foot, because Christianity is the only one of these that is prompted to look outwardly in helping others.—-Finally, we continue to pray for the families who lost much during 9/11. And we pray for our “would-be” attackers to come to faith in Christ, because that’s what we do. Jesus is our hope. He has already defeated man's worst enemy, death! Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.—-1John 5:12

Infusion and the One Thing

I know several people are currently having infusions or considering having infusions done for their health. These infusions are to fight things like cancer within the body. Most are to keep the disease at bay. These cannot be done daily, but as frequent as possible to help the body fight back. —- I could not help to see the spiritual correlation as I spent time meditating over an important passage of Scripture that I was committing to memory. Like sheep, christians are easily distracted (we’re human). So it is important to try to focus, and narrow things down to one thing to rein us in. I’m going to paraphrase this passage that Paul felt was very important. He wrote a lot of important words that have been vital to the growth of the believer. In Philippians 3:10-14 (heavily paraphrased) “Listen, let’s narrow this thing down. I want to know Christ. That is what is essential. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection. I mean, that is where the power is. It is the power that defeated death. I also want to feel what he went through even becoming like him in his death. He died for sin, but I want to die to sin. I want to feel that. Because, though undeservedly so, I want to somehow attain the resurrection from the dead. Now, hang on! I am not being presumptuous in this. It’s not like I have already obtained this or already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. I am going for it like it depends on me. Listen brothers, I do not think for a second that I have arrived. Do you want to know what makes me tick? Do you want to know what makes me get up in the morning and get after it? There is this one thing I do: I forget what is behind me. I forget my checkered past. I forget where I’ve blown it. I push ahead with all I’ve got . I press on toward the goal to win the prize. I keep putting one foot in front of the other. I’m not falling in line. I’m not following the crowd. I’m running to win the first place trophy for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”—- I need an infusion everyday of this “one thing” to keep the evil within me at bay. Are you hiding God’s Word in your heart? It fights heart decay. And God is after your heart! We are told to guard the heart, because “the heart is the well-spring of life.”(Prov.4:23b)

Revival or Riot

Now some cried out one thing, some another, for the assembly was in confusion, and most of them did not know why they had come together.---Acts 19:32Demetrius, a silver smith, was worried about his idol-making business as more and more people put their faith in Christ. His was a big-business in that part of Asia and employed a lot of people. Give him credit for one thing: he knew that those accepting Christ as their Lord God would have no need for a bunch of man-made gods. He understood that their lifestyles would change upon conversion. Consequently, he stirred up a riot, and we see what is comical and common today. People were screaming and hating on christians, and most of them didn’t even know what they were talking about. —- If the world understood the breadth of christianity, then they would understand that we are FOR people. Consider current events: the abortion business is being exposed. Just watch for the demonizing of christians when they stand up for life. Instead of dealing with those behind this evil business (which includes the silent majority of media and politicians keeping their mouths shut), the initial attack is on the people exposing the dirty business for what it is. —- Yet, there will be a lot of noise from people that have no clue of what is going on. There are two responses to truth in crowded assemblies: Revival or Riot. If we accept the wonderful truth of the Gospel, then we experience a Great Awakening. If we reject the truth of the Gospel, then we continue our rebellion against God. Don’t be like those making a lot of noise, and don’t even know what they’re yelling about. At least listen. Check out the Gospel story for yourself.

#1 Fan

At various and sundry times pastors are under attack. However, God has His ways of letting us know that He is there. It was just another Monday and I was going through some things as I received a call. God spoke to me in only a way that He can do. One of the men in our church called to tell me that he led his first person to Christ last week...it was his Dad! All the small groups, all the men's retreats, all the discipling is worth it when you hear one story like that! He was ecstatic that he stepped out of his comfort zone and was on fire. --- God used this to lift me up too... when I needed it. After hanging up with him, I thought "God, what are you telling me here?" I looked up and saw this foam "#1 Fan" thing sitting above me on a cabinet. I took it as God saying, "Hey, I am your #1 Fan, let's go." --- LORD help me today to strive more to be your #1 Fan. Do not let me put anything or anyone above my attention to you. My worship of You and my service to You should be pure. I love you Jesus.

Premeditated Accident

Things often don't happen the way we planned...especially accidents. So, I have to come clean on an embarrassing moment. My cel phone is currently resting in a bed of rice hoping for resuscitation after it went into the water. The plan was for it to not go into the water, because I was going to be in a boat. The sad part is that the phone didn't go in the water by itself. It was in my pocket. Long story short, we were launching the boat and I fell into the water at the dock. Yeah, I laughed too. Fortunately, a couple of guys were working on the pier next to us and motioned, that as far as fall-ins go, I had a perfect "10." --- It did take me some time to see how this one fit into spiritual application. There are a lot of things in life that we would not have done had we known there was going to be a slip-up in the plan. Before I left the house (twice) I thought about getting a water-proof container for my phone in case of an accident. Even at the dock I almost left it in the truck when I realized some guys had better cameras on board to capture an awesome moment on the Gulf. --- What chances in life are you taking? Is there someone you need to speak to about something before it is too late? Have you thought about something you needed to do a couple to three times, and you still haven't bothered? We don't plan for things to happen that we might regret later. The ultimate question: have you accepted Christ as your Savior or is that something you are putting off. --- My shoes are drying, my wallet has dried, and I am still hoping my phone will come back around; but those are just temporal things. No big deal. Most accidents are preventable. We often get mysterious warnings or just common sense to take precautions. If we ignore the warnings, I guess you could say our accidents are sort of premeditated.