Reflection Of The Past Year

The past year has been a crazy one. With the down economy and the negative job market, it has more and more people going over to the half glass empty side of the argument. Over the past few months, I have been looking at my bank account going down, my bills going up, illness and tension in the family, craziness at work, as well as other overall stresses of life.

At the end of the year, a lot of people and websites do the news of the year in a five minute segment or whatever. It's funny how many of them focus on war, disaster, death, destruction, and other such negativity. In fact, if you turn on the local news here in Saint Louis on any given day, at least one of the first three stories will be about how someone was murdered, or died in a house fire. That may just be a Saint Louis thing, I have no idea. 

With all this negativity around us all, it is easy for us to forget that there actually is good occurring in this world. For example, all those things that I mentioned in the first paragraph of this post, have overshadowed everything that I have been blessed with, and that I truly am blessed. If you have a second, scan over to the right of this page and look at the "About  Me" section. In the first sentence, I have mentioned three of the greatest blessings that I could have ever asked for. The first being my wife, and the second two being my two beautiful children, who all love me with their whole heart. On top of this, even in this economy, I do have a job, as does my wife. We have a house, and even though our bank account is dwindling, it is still there and we do have enough coming in to get by. We each have a car, they have a few problems now and then, but nothing that can't be easily fixed. 

I was thinking about all of this the other day, and it came to me. There are people out there that would kill for this kind of life, there are those who fight and die so others can have this kind of life. The things in my life that I have and take for granted are things that my neighbors long for. And what do I focus on when I go to prayer? "Lord, please give me more of this...." or "Lord, please grant me more of that..." 

It's easy to forget that God has blessed us. I invite you to take the next few minutes, hours, or whatever, to reflect on what you have instead of what you think you may need. Then go to God in a prayer of thanksgiving. If you feel comfortable doing so, you can leave some of your thanksgivings in the comments section of this post.

Lord, we thank you for the blessings that you have bestowed upon us, and ask for your continued grace in all of our lives. We further ask for your guidance in using your gifts given to us to bring the joy that only you can provide into the lives of others. Amen.

Battle

Hello blog. It's been a while.

It's Christmas time. Or the holiday season as some tend to call it. In my own reading across news sites and other internet sources, I've seen a great deal of people trying to change "Christmas" into "the holidays" or something to that effect. Whether it be forcing cities and towns from removing nativity scenes from city property, to even people forcing nativity scenes from private property. And that's just in this country. I read recently in Arab countries that attacks on Christians tend to intensify around Christmas. Not to mention North Korea promising violence in response to South Korea allowing Christmas trees to be put up along the border to where North Koreans can easily see them.

Whether you like it or not, or want to admit it or not, Satan is at work here. He uses people in whatever way possible to water down or completely eradicate the message of the birth of Christ, and the message that He has come in order that your sins may be forgiven.

As you may know, I listen to a lot of Christian radio. One of the more popular songs out there right now is Battle by Chris August. The song basically deals with this topic, but on a more personal level. The devil is after society as a whole. To win society over, he has to start with the individual person, meaning you. 

There's a battle between good and evil

And it's raging inside of me

There's a struggle - It's God and the devil

It's love against the enemy

It seems overwhelming that the devil may be attacking you. The thing is, you don't have to fight the battle alone. Not only is there a community of the faithful willing to help you, but God will come to your aid as well. In fact, if you ask God to help you, the outcome is already determined. 

Life's a fight of wrong and right 

That's tearing me apart

Oh but what the cross has done

Yeah the world will try to battle for my heart

But the war is already won

It may seem impossible to be able to fight against the devil and win. But God has done and will continue to do the impossible. Even the circumstances of the birth of Christ were impossible. That God would be born in human form to a virgin! That this baby would grow up to cure the blind and the deaf, make those who couldn't walk to get up and walk, and also cast demons out. The God who did all of this can extinguish the battle raging inside of you. The world is competing for your heart, but the war is already won, and Christ and those who choose to follow him, are the victors.

Is The Bible Up For Interpretation?

I hear this, and see that a lot. People believe that what is written in the Bible is up for debate, or that it's meaning can change over time, or that it can mean different things to different people. Is any of this true?

I remember back in high school and college when every semester we were given a bunch of short stories, poetry, novels, or whatever, written by classic writers. A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare, Moby Dick by Herman Melville, The Judgment by Franz Kafka, and so on and so forth. The students would read these and other stories and then discuss them in class. Each student would give what they thought the story meant, or at least the ones who read the story and weren't afraid of giving a wrong answer, would speak up. After a discussion, the teacher, who knew the answer from a combination of experience and a teacher's edition textbook, would give the correct answer.


Well, who determines originally what the correct answer is? Well, the answer has already been given in this post. You see, the original author of the work has the correct answer, as it was when he or she wrote the piece. As it is with the Bible, the meaning was determined by the author, at or before the time it was written.


This leads to the biggest question of all. Who wrote the Bible? Ahh, good question, even if I do say so myself. The answer lies in 2 Timothy 3:16. It says "all scripture is God-breathed," meaning that God gave the words, but man wrote it down. Kinda like when a company CEO gives a memo, but the administrative assistant types it, and signs the CEO's name to it. In this way, God is in fact, the author of the Bible.


The common atheist/agnostic/non-Christian/and sometimes Christian argument would be "anybody wanting to fake a religious text would somewhere in the text claim that the book was written by God." Which is true, if I wanted to fake a religious text, I would have in there somewhere that God wrote it. 1 Corinthians 15:1-4 basically says that if you believe something other than the Gospel that has been preached (in the Bible), you have believed in vain. Essentially, if any part of the Bible is false, then the rest of the Bible is baseless, and it is useless to believe any of it.


Back to the original point: Is the Bible up for interpretation? The answer is no. Just like when Kafka wrote his works, he knew what the meaning was going to be about. Just like the words of Shakespeare have no different meaning now than they did when he wrote them. Just like Melville's words do not mean anything different now just because society has changed. The Bible, like God, is constant. The meaning is constant. It does not sway with times, it does not change with the ages. As I think about this when I am typing, it kind of makes me feel good, sort of at peace, that in a world with constant change, it is good to know that something as good as God and His Word, remain the same.

As usual, rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. Amen.

Why Can't I Just Learn About God On My Own?

Ah, yes, the ever popular question. A lot of people I run into refuse to step into a church because 'they prefer to worship on their own' or 'they read the Bible on their own.' Something like that. So what's wrong with that? You may ask.


Well, before I begin, I am not in any way trying to insult anyone's intelligence, but trying to learn something on your own just doesn't work. I'll explain. I took a couple of online classes to get my bachelor's degree. The idea for these classes was that I would read the books, watch their DVD's, and after doing this, take their tests. Yeah, I didn't do it quite that way. I printed out the test ahead of time (not against school policy), typed all the questions into Google (not against school policy), got the answers from Google, then put the correct answers into the test when I actually took it. I didn't score less than 75% on any test, and got as high as a 95%. I wasn't technically cheating, so what's the problem?


First off, I didn't learn anything. Second, and more importantly, I want you to pay attention to the scores on my tests. They ranged from 75% to 95%. There were three reasons for this:


1) Google didn't have the answer,
2) Google had the answer, but whoever wrote the answer gave the wrong answer on accident,
3) Google had the answer, but whoever wrote the answer gave the wrong answer on purpose.


Now, let's apply this to reading and studying the Bible on your own. First off, it is a good thing to read and study the Bible at home. In fact, I recommend it. However, there are bound to be questions that come up when you read, some things may not make sense to you. So what do you do in this situation? Go to Google. What's the problem with going to Google for the answers? They might not have it (which would lead you astray), someone might give the wrong answer accidentally (which would lead you astray), or someone might intentionally be targeting people like you and give you the wrong answer to purposefully lead you astray.


So how does this get fixed? Again, let me stress that reading and studying the Bible on your own is a good idea. However, when questions arise, there is a support structure in place that helps with questions. First off, in my case, the priest of my church is only a phone call away. In some of the larger churches, this may not be the case, but in a good church someone knowledgeable about Scripture is usually easy to reach. 

Online college classes are structured in such a way to facilitate more learning than what I did. They usually have a discussing forum, where you are required to answer a question posted by the teacher, and respond to comments of one or more fellow students. Also, if you have problems, you can e-mail the teacher. I leave you with this: is even this amount of support available when you try to learn the Bible on your own? In addition, a church is a place to go to find help from people other than the pastors, but other people just like you.

As usual, rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. Amen.

What A Shame

I was listening to the radio the other morning and heard a girl call in who was ashamed. She had made a few mistakes, and was now pregnant. For those that are wondering, that is not what I am talking about when I mention the title of this blog post. What is a shame is that she is already attending a church, and is afraid to tell anyone at the church because she is afraid of what they would think.


Now that is a shame, but it does feed into a stereotype of what non-Christians, and even some Christians, think a church is. Some think a church is a place for people that have everything figured out, have all the answers, and have nothing to be ashamed of. 


This cannot be farther from the truth, and we'll look at John 8:2-11 to see why. It starts with Jesus preaching in a temple. A group of people brought a woman to him, saying she had been caught in the act of adultery. They state that the punishment for such an act is to stone her to death, and asked Jesus' opinion on what to do (they were trying to trap him, as they tried before and after, unsuccessfully). Jesus then tells them that the person who has no sin may start throwing rocks at her. Not surprisingly, no one did, and they all left.


This goes to show that the church (or temple in this case) is not a place for perfect people to congregate. In fact, the only person there that day, and any other day before or since, that had no sin was Jesus. The truth is, anyone who attends a church has something in their past that they are ashamed of. Romans 3:23 reinforces this by saying "all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God."


Okay, so you do go to your congregation and admit your faults. What happens next? Jesus picks back up in verse 11 of the first passage. Jesus tells the woman "go now and leave your life of sin." We already know that people need to repent of their past sins, but what does this have to do with the congregation?


When most people unfamiliar with church try to explain a church, they usually say something to the effect that it is a place where you dress up and go to learn about the Bible, pay some money, maybe have some doughnuts and coffee, do some praying, then leave until next week. The church is more than just these things. A local church should be a community, or even like an extended family. Yes, it is a place for learning, but equally important it is a place for gathering, encouragement, and help. Since, as I said earlier, the church is full of not perfect, but broken people, you might be surprised to find that there is someone in your own local congregation who has been through circumstances similar, or even identical to your own.  


As Christians, we like to talk about how God works in our lives, but it is also important to remember that the devil sometimes does as well. He doesn't stop when you commit the sin, he takes it to the next level. A common ploy of the devil is that when you commit a sin, he tries to make it sound like such a big deal and that nothing can undo it, and no one will understand, so you might as well give up. I don't know what happened to this woman when she told the people in her church, or even if she did. What I do know is that after her story was aired, many other women called up the station and said the exact opposite of what the devil was trying to convince her of, the fact that they had been there.


The truth is, if you need help with something, you need to go to God in prayer, and you need to seek the help of others. The ideal place to find help would be to go to a community, or a family, or in other words, a church. If you don't have a church, I would like to invite you to mine (had to put it in there, I hope you understand). If you don't live nearby me, I urge you to find a local church immediately. And as always, pray and keep in the word.


Amen

Do Everything

Steven Curtis Chapman - Do Everything


Yes, yes, I am blogging about a Steven Curtis Chapman song. I am ashamed. No matter what you think about him, he does what some "Christian" artists don't, and that is tell the Gospel  straightforward. Anyway, I digress.


Anyway, the second verse is the one I will be talking about. It talks about two people, with two completely different lifestyles. One being at the higher end of white collar, the other at the lower end of the blue collar spectrum. The lyrics are as follows


You may be that guy with a suit and tie
Maybe your shirt says your name
You may be hooking up mergers, cooking up burgers
But at the end of the day 
Little stuff, big stuff, in between stuff 
God sees it all the same
While I may not know you
I bet I know you wonder sometimes, does it matter at all?
Well let me remind you, it matters just as long


As you do everything you do to the glory of the one who made you
'Cause he made you to do 
Every little thing that you do to bring a smile to His face
Tell the story of His grace, with every move that you make
In everything that you do.


Basically, he is saying that it doesn't matter if you are a chemical engineer (you know who you are), a fraud investigator (you know who you are), or just a meat cutter (you know who... nevermind, that's me). You have a place here on Earth to do God's will. Everybody has different gifts that can be used for the glory of God. Some people think that one set of skills is more important or more admirable than another. Isn't it God who grants everybody their gifts? So how can one set of talents that God has granted to someone be better or worse than another set of gifts that God has granted someone?


1 Corinthians 12:12-20 says the same thing:


The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body - whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free - and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.
Now the body is not made up of one part but of many. If the foot should say, "Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. And if the ear should say, "Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body.


We are all called to spread the Gospel of Christ around the world. You may think that because you are not a priest/pastor/minister/whatever, that you cannot tell people about Christ and spread the good news. Not true. In fact, a wise priest (you know who you are) once said that a priest is not above the people in the parish, that he is there to serve the people, just as Christ came to serve us. What are your spiritual gifts? I don't know, but they  sometimes parallel what you are good at normally. Maybe you're good at teaching others, perhaps teaching a Bible study at church or in your home would be up your alley. Perhaps you are good at talking to people you barely know, volunteering at a local nursing home could be a good fit for you. Perhaps you are good at sitting in front of the computer going to various social networking and Anglican related websites for hours on end. START A BLOG!


Regardless of your gifts or your Bible knowledge, God does have a plan for you and the gifts that He has given you. Keep in the word and pray often. Pray that God will help reveal His gifts that He has given you, for His glory. And always, do everything for the glory of God.


Amen.

This Month's Weekly Refresher?

Once you make the decision to become a priest, it automatically puts a target on your back for Satan to attack you.


The above quote is anonymous. By anonymous, it comes from one of two people, and I can't remember which one. For all I know, it may be both. It's also not an exact quote, but pretty close, and the meaning is the same.


Anyway, it leads perfectly into what I want to talk about for this post. For those that don't know, I feel led to becoming a priest in the Anglican church, more specifically, the Anglican Mission in the Americas. I have been pulled towards ministry since about the third grade, and have on two previous occasions halfway seriously followed up on it, but fell short both times. The third time I decided it was time to go full force, and have been being coached along the way.


Then life got in the way. My wife and I had a second child, work picked-up, Heather (my wife, for those that don't know) went back to get her Masters, plus the already existing daily work and life stresses. It got to the point where 24 hours in one day, or seven days in one week, just weren't enough. So things got pushed to the back burner. I started slacking on planning youth group lessons, I totally disregarded this blog, I haven't been reading the Bible as I should, I cut back on the mentoring from once a week, to once every other week, to just not doing it until things slow down. 


Here I am now, and guess what. Things haven't slowed down. If anything, they have sped up even faster. Life had become too much to handle. I became angrier, somewhat depressed, and even a little aggressive. It wasn't fair to my family, or my co-workers.


I had too much on my plate, and I couldn't handle it. I was literally crying one day and asked God why there was too much for me to handle. I asked Him for help, repeatedly. I heard a song not too long after this happened. The song is by Matthew West and it's called Strong Enough. It was basically a song with lyrics ripped straight out of my life. (The album this song comes from is called "Story of Your Life" Coincidence, I think not.)


You must think I'm strong, to give me what I'm going through
Well forgive me if I'm wrong, but this looks like more than I can do, on my own.
I know I'm not strong enough to be
Everything that I'm supposed to be
I give up, I'm not strong enough....


Again, this is the story of my life. It was exactly what I had been thinking for the past month or so. That last line was word for word what I have said, and have felt for some time. I literally felt like giving up. The rest of the refrain kicks in.


Hands of mercy, won't you cover me
Lord right now, I'm asking you to be
Strong enough, for the both of us.


The second verse:
Well maybe that's the point
To reach to point of giving up
Cause when I'm finally at rock bottom
Well that's when I start looking up
And reaching out


My main problem was that I WAS trying to do this all on my own, and didn't have much success. The truth is we can't get through life all on our own. We not only need the help of God, but the help of our family and friends. It has never been easy for me to ask for help, it may have something to do with the Y chromosome. At any rate, I asked God for help, and now I have to ask the people around me for help as well. 


I realize that this isn't an issue that only I struggle with. Chances are you have had or have now similar issues to mine. The important thing that I have learned is not to give up, and not to push the important things aside. It is also important not to keep things bottled up inside. The most important thing is not to forget God. I forgot him, look where it got me. It is okay to ask for help, don't let the Y chromosome, or the X chromosome for those that don't have both, get in your way.


As always, keep in the word, keep praying. It is by God's grace that can save you, not yourself.


Amen.

Mercies in Disguise

Laura Story - Blessings

Well, Hannah has been sleeping pretty good through the night lately, waking up only two or three times between 8:30 pm and 6:00 am. The past couple of nights have been an exception, with her waking up every 30 minutes to an hour. Whenever Hannah wakes up, Heather and I both wake up as well. Heather just stays up the longest out of the three of us though.


Whenever Hannah wakes up, it's my job to get her out of her crib, and back into our bedroom. Meanwhile, Heather is mixing a bottle for Hannah, then feeds her until she goes back to sleep. The past few nights, I have had a particular section of the song linked above stuck in my head.


What if Your blessings come through raindrops?
What if Your healing comes through tears?
What if a thousand sleepless nights are what it takes to know You're near? 

That last line is what really rings in. I've been wondering how not sleeping for going on three days now could be considered a blessing. Then it came to me. Fairly often Heather will ask if I can remember when Ethan was this little. The answer is usually no. In fact, a friend of ours had a baby a few weeks back, and we went to see little baby Alli before she was a whole day old. When we got there and I saw this tiny baby, I thought to myself, "holy moly, was Hannah ever this little, I don't think she was this tiny." In fact, Hannah was actually smaller at birth than Alli was, but I don't remember her ever being as small as Alli, and Hannah is five months old!


As I said earlier, I've realistically only slept about seven or eight hours in the past three days, and my wife has slept significantly less than that. Both of these things are a bummer. But even at 4:00am rocking Hannah in the living room, I look down at her, as she closes her eyes and drifts off to sleep. I see her in her true beauty, and am able to just look at her, and remember her in this stage of life. I look at this and realize that even though this may be an inconvenient time, it truly is a gift from God, a mercy in disguise.


Above and beyond this, we really do need to take a look at the negative things in our lives, and see how they could be used to fill God's purpose. One example would be one of my previous blogs, Missing Car Keys. I invite you to take a look at the things happening around you in order to find God working, and how to spread his love.


Amen.

Be Glorified

I was making a delivery for work earlier and was exiting off the highway and pulled behind one of those seven or eleven passenger vans. You see them a lot, the kind that belong to churches or large families. Anyway, across the back door of this van was approximately a two foot by two foot decal that said "The vehicle donated by Ministries." On the drivers side of the vehicle was the same decal in the same size. I was not able to catch the passenger side of the vehicle, but I can assume it was there as well. 


When I saw this, I didn't know quite what to think. After the event had some time to sink into my head, I came to the conclusion that the reason for this donation was to make the ministry look good. People will no doubt drive by this vehicle numerous times, and some will think 'how nice it was of this church to donate this vehicle.' The church has put its' name out, and has gotten the attention that they think they deserve. They want people to see what they are doing for charity, and maybe then drop on by the church, or send a donation.


I thought about this for a while and Matthew 6:1-4 came to mind. Jesus says:
"Be careful not to do your 'acts of righteousness' before men, to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven. So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites to in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you."  (Emphasis added)


There is an even greater principle at work here. This passage does not just apply to how we give, but how we live. If you haven't noticed before, I can get on a tangent about the way people worship. So here I go again. When I get on the topic, I say that it is not so much about the what but about the why.The what can be pretty much anything: When to stand, sit or kneel, what to say, how to dress, etc. The question needs to be why? You need to ask yourself: Is this for the glory of God, or is this for the glory of man? 


Practical example #1: Habitat for Humanity is a very well known charity that helps provide housing for lower income families. They rely mainly on volunteers for labor and donations for materials. To this end, a church group decides they are going to help Habitat for Humanity build a house or two in the community that the church serves. They all agree that Christ says that we need to help the needy and the homeless. They show up with matching T-Shirts that say "First Church of Marketing: Habitat for Humanity Project." They decide to put up a banner with their church logo on it.


Practical example #2: In the past two years, Unassuming Local Church has grown from an average Sunday attendance of 150 to 500. It has gotten to the point of having two services to five every weekend. The only problem is that the sanctuary is not large enough to grow the membership any further, and people are actually reluctant to attend regularly because they feel crammed. The leadership of the church has decided it needs to expand, but doesn't have the funds to do so. They get some bids, and figure they need $100,000 to build a larger sanctuary and expand the parking lot. The church goes on a fundraising campaign, including asking for special donations during church services, and even holding a barbecue in the parking lot with signs saying "proceeds will help benefit our new sanctuary and parking lot." After the $100,000 is raised, the fundraising stops, and the building begins.


Now, which one of these situations is for the glory of God? The first one helped out the community at large, while the second one seemed to help the church. The first one built homes for low income families, and the second one raised money for their own church. With this all being said, It is the second congregation that showed glory to God. It is true that the first church helped others and the second church helped themselves, we need to not only remember the what, but the why. The first church helped out with the intention of getting their name out there, much like the ministry mentioned in the first paragraph of this blog. You might even say 'they announced it with trumpets'. The second church expanded their own building to suit the needs of the community. Yes, it dealt with a touchy subject for churches, raising money, but did it tastefully and without overdoing it. 


Now, the question I leave you with: What are you doing? And are you doing it to glorify God, or glorify yourself?


Amen.

So what are you doing for Lent?

Well, it's Lent. For those that don't know, Lent is the forty days from Ash Wednesday, leading up to Easter. It is a time of personal reflection, and remembering the sacrifice that Christ made for you, and for all. 

Traditionally, people have sacrificed something from their daily lives in order to remember the sacrifice that Christ made for us on the cross. Because Christ was beaten, bruised, cut, whipped, and executed so that we may have the promise of eternal life, we give up things like coffee, soda, cigarettes, alcohol, Facebook and other internet things, and meat on Fridays. Last year, I gave up soda. It was the longest and most tiring forty days of my life.


All things aside, no sacrifice we make will ever amount to the sacrifice that Christ made, and no one in Heaven or on Earth has a reasonable expectation that you do so. What we need to do is give up the things that separate us from God. All the things listed above have the capacity to do that, but we need to keep the focus on God.


So the first question would be: Do I need to sacrifice something for Lent in order to be a good Christian. The answer is no. However, as I will demonstrate in future posts (so stay tuned for those), there is a spiritual benefit to doing so, even if it is not explicitly Biblically required. What I suggest we all do for Lent is not give something up per se, but to do something that will bring us closer to God.


Confusing? I'll give an example. A certain blog writer who shall remain nameless (me) has a very hectic life. Between working forty plus hours a week, helping raise a three year old son and a five month old daughter, trying his best to make a weekly blog post (sorry about last week by the way), attend worship services, attend mentoring sessions, lead a youth group, and spend what little time I have left with my family, my days are booked solid from when I wake up at around 5:45 - 6:00, until I go to bed about twenty minutes after my daughter does. Notice anything missing? I did: prayer. I need that one on one time with God. Prayer is important, even Jesus prayed here, here, here, and here. So what I'm doing is finding time for intentional prayer. 


To avoid just laying down in bed about to go to sleep and saying "oh yeah, and God I pray for...." I have decided to follow a format that can be found here. I usually only do either the morning or evening prayer, but am working towards doing both. What these formats allow me to do is intentionally pray for protection throughout the day, pray for others, pray for myself, and especially pray that I am given the words to speak in order to minister to others. Also, it gives me the opportunity to ask the inevitable forgiveness for when I mess all that up, along with many other sins. 


But that's just an idea, you don't have to use it. If you choose to steal it, that's cool too. As always, I'll end by saying keep your head in the word. I'll also end with this: What are you doing for Lent? But more importantly, Why are you doing it for Lent? Feel free to leave a comment so other people can get other ideas. I'm also kinda curious.


Amen

Does Anybody Hear Her?

Yes, it's another music inspired post. Like the first one, this one deals with a Casting Crowns song. Before I give the link, I would like everyone to watch it, even if you have heard the song or seen the video before. When you do, I want you to be thinking about the following points:


1) Do I know of anyone who fits the description of the woman in the video? It doesn't have to be a physical description, just similar behaviors. 


2) What are my reactions toward these behaviors? For example: Do you feel sorry for this person? Are you disgusted? Do you wonder why they do these things? Do you hate this person?


Now, with those thoughts in mind, watch the official video: Casting Crowns: Does Anybody Hear Her?  


Casting Crowns is one of my favorite bands (I go back and forth between them and Third Day for who has the number one spot). A great deal of the Christian bands out there paint a picture of a perfect relationship between you and God. While this is good, and that music needs to be out there, Casting Crowns goes further by pointing out that there are people out there searching for something greater than themselves, and the people that have this knowledge already aren't always very good about showing it.


True confessions time. I am one of these Christians that aren't very good about spreading the gospel. Sure I take time out of my schedule to write these blogs every week, but I have a feeling that the people who read them are very similar to me. To demonstrate, I will answer the questions I have posed.


1) Do I know of anyone who fits the description of the woman in the video? Absolutely. In fact, I know of more than one person. People fighting addictions, people who have addictions who have stopped fighting. People who have been left behind by someone along in their lives and try to fill the void with things like alcohol, sex, and drugs.


2) What are my reactions towards these behaviors? For the most part I am disgusted. I look at these behaviors and think to myself "What are they doing to themselves! Can't they see that they are ruining their lives! Are they so blind that they can't see that they are taking others down with them!


I am a Christian. Like every other Christian, I am not perfect. I have practiced what I preached and have tried to share what I know with them. But I get so much tunnel vision that I expect for them to have some Aha! moment where they turn from what they are doing and follow Christ, and when they don't I get frustrated and give up. That's when I go into critical mode. I've been told in the past that if I don't have anything nice to say, to say nothing at all. So I give up even trying to talk to these people.


I've learned something from this video, and would like to pass this on to you. Christians do a lot of stupid things in the name of spreading the gospel. One of the things we do is leave little cards and comic books on tables, under windshield wipers, or thrown on the ground in the hopes that someone will pick them up, read them, and then fall on their knees and accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior. While it may happen this way, I have yet to meet anyone who found God from a comic book they found laying on the ground in a grocery store. 


Another thing we do is form groups and isolate ourselves to just people in that group. It's sometimes a church small group that got the wrong idea. For those that don't have a lot of experience with small groups, I'll explain. Sometimes a congregation will form little clubs called small groups with the idea that people with like interests (the over 60 group, the single women group, the men's group, etc.) will meet outside of church for a Bible study, coffee, a baseball game, whatever. There are two ideas for these groups: The first is that it brings people within a congregation together, which is good. The second idea is that it may be easier for someone who doesn't know God to attend a men's group than make the leap into attending church every Sunday. Also good.


I's like to say that I am in favor of the small groups, however, we often forget about that second part. What happens sometimes is that the small group becomes the only group worth worrying about. We've got the right amount that the pastor says we need for our small group, so we're done trying to get more people. If the isolation gets bad enough, all these small groups will stick together in the worship service, not even talking with the people outside of their small group. 


What we need to do as Christians is to quit isolating ourselves. It will be uncomfortable at times, but just imagine the alternative. I'm not telling you to shove the gospel down people's throats, because all that does is make them choke. The things that should be done are:


1) Pray: Ask God to give you the words to speak and the strength to speak them, as well as the knowledge of when to speak them.

2) Live a Christian life publicly and privately. Your private life affects your public life, and vice versa. Make sure God is at the center in both circumstances.


3) Talk to people. It doesn't have to be about anything specific. If you don't know when to start talking about Jesus, the opportunity will arise when you least expect it, and the words will come to you. Especially if you follow step one.


Amen.

What Love Really Means

What Love Really Means - J.J. Heller


Have you ever heard anyone ask if it was too late for them to go to Heaven? Have you ever asked that question yourself? Do you think that you have past the point of no return? J.J. Heller in the above song gave the answer to that question, although I admit that it may have not been the aim or motivation for writing her song. For those who have never heard the song, or just don't wanna click the provided link, I'll explain. This song is about people who are left behind, abandoned, or forgotten, who are searching for true love. The first one a child, the second one a wife who's husband has left her, and the third an inmate on death row awaiting his execution. The death row inmate in this song does as follows:


He utters a cry from the depths of his soul
'Oh Lord forgive me! I wanna go home!'


The song then continues on


The he heard a voice, somewhere deep inside.
It said: 'I know you've murdered, and I know you've lied.
I've watched you suffer all of your life.
And now that you'll listen, I'll tell you that I...
I will love you for you
Not for what you have done or what you will become.
I will love you for you
I will give you the love,
The love that you never knew.


Heller demonstrates here what is essentially a deathbed conversion. This is where someone accepts Jesus Christ either at the point of death, or faced with the serious possibility of death. Believe me, I am not under the impression that what is said in music, even Christian music, is necessarily true. The Bible tells us to check the claims of others against what is in the scripture.


When Jesus was crucified, he was crucified with two robbers, one on each side (Luke 23:32). When they were at the point of death, one of the robbers shouted at Christ saying "Aren't you the Christ? Save yourself and us" (Luke 23:39). The other one responded telling him that they were criminals being punished as they deserved. However, Christ was being executed and He had done nothing wrong. At this point, the second robber looks over at Christ and says "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom." To which Christ replies "I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise" (Luke 23:40-43).


The man next to Jesus who turned to Him (both literally and spiritually) was a robber, and the man in the song was a murderer. Both of them at the point of execution. Both of them living a life without Christ. Both of them saved by Christ in the last minutes of their lives. However, they had an advantage over the rest of us. They knew they were about to die. For those of you not reading this blog from a cell on death row, you are probably sitting in a comfy chair at home or at work in relative safety with no rational fear of immediate death. In other words, you don't know when or how you will die. Most people hang on to the fact that they will die peacefully at a ripe old age surrounded by loved ones. While death may happen then, it didn't happen like that for my 17 year old brother who got into a car accident on his way home with dinner. It didn't happen that way for my 19 year old neighbor who was the target of a roadside bomb in Afghanistan. 


The point of it all is this: It is not too late for you. You can accept Christ at any point of your life and be saved. Be you a death row inmate, or sitting in your kitchen, or even at your office. If you have a genuine conversion, you are saved.


Amen.

Obligatory Valentine's Day Post

This past week, our deacon/soon to be priest gave the sermon. He was talking about the relationship between husband and wife as it applies in Ephesians 5:21-32. He did a very good job, and I thought I would add my own little comments.

Ever since this was written, it has been hotly debated. If I had it my way, there would be view after view and comment after comment on this blog about it. Well, one can only dream. Anyway, I digress.

Part of the first section (22-24) deals with how wives should treat their husbands. It says that wives should submit to their husbands, just as they would to Christ, because the husband is the head of the wife. This passage has been used to justify many different things. I get the image in my head of the guy sitting in a recliner, drinking a beer, watching football, and demanding that his wife make him a sandwich. This is not what the passage is instructing us (husbands) to do. 

Some people use this passage to say that wives should blindly follow their husbands, as in get them the sandwich without any delay. This would only be true if we were to blindly follow Christ, which we are not. We're not? You ask. We are not called to blindly follow Christ, in a sense that we are slaves. Slaves, by definition, serve and Christ did not come to be served, but to serve. What Christ did for us, was out of love, and not a desire for us to blindly serve Him.

Funny I should say that. The people that use the above passage to justify clearly unbiblical actions did not read on. Verse 25 says that we (husbands) are to love our wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her. Verse 28 goes on to say that husbands are to love their wives, and that he who loves his wife, loves himself. In the same manner, it could also be said that he who disrespects, mistreats, abuses, or otherwise neglects his wife, does the same to himself. Verses 29 and 30 go on to say that a man feeds and cares for himself, just as Christ does for the church (church meaning us, as in people, not just husbands), for we are part of his body. Meaning, if husbands disrespect their wives, then we too are disrespecting Christ.

Ephesians goes even further saying that when two people are married, they are no longer two people, but one. Verse 31 says "a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh." This means that what was said in verse 28, that he who loves his wife, loves himself, is not meant to be taken figuratively, but literally.

What does all this boil down to? People are only reading certain parts of this passage, and justifying their actions based on that. What is truly being said is that we, as husbands and wives, are to submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. This is verse 21, the first verse of this passage. Kind of hard to ignore the truth of this passage, when you read other parts of the Bible as well.

Amen.

Immitiation is the Highest Form Of Flattery (More Learning From Ethan)

That up there is me and Ethan. I'm the taller one on the right. Other than that I have a goatee now, we both look pretty much the same. This is a common occurrence at our house, the two of us doing the exact same thing. If I sit, Ethan has to sit next to me. He follows me wherever I go.

A side story is that I always have five items on my person: A watch, my wallet, my keys, my cell phone, and a cross and chain my wife gave me as a wedding gift that I wear around my neck. I now have no excuse to forget my anniversary, or my initials for that matter.

The other day I was playing around with Ethan, and all these items were sitting on the footstool in our living room. He takes my necklace, puts it around his neck, and tucks it into his shirt just like I do. He took my watch, handed it to me, said "Help!" and held out his wrist. Because I love him dearly, I put my watch on him. I also clipped my wallet, keys, and cell phone to the elastic band of his pajama pants. (Side note: Yes, he did make a phone call on my cell phone, to his mommy.)

I automatically assumed that he does this because he wants to be just like his daddy, which is true. But the reason that he wants to be just like me is because he loves me. If you have been reading my posts, most notably Like A Child, you will know that Ethan has everything figured out, and that I have a lot to learn from him. From his example, I have learned a little bit more about how I should imitate my Heavenly Father.

It says in Ephesians 5:1-2 for us to "be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us." No, that doesn't mean we go around making commandments and turning water into wine. We are here to spread the message of the Gospel, just as the life of Jesus IS the gospel. In fact, one of the last things Jesus says before his ascension is telling us to spread the gospel, teaching all the world to obey what he has commanded us. Some people can do this globally. For the rest of us, it might just be a local thing.

My son imitates me, and someday his children will imitate him, and their children will imitate them. If I imitate Christ, then Ethan will grow up to imitate Christ as well. If you imitate Christ, and teach others to do the same, then they will learn to imitate Christ as well. In turn, they will teach others, who will teach others, and so on. The little local thing can turn into something larger pretty quickly.

So I leave you with this question: Who, or what, are you imitating?

Amen

The End Is Near

Well, if you live in the Midwestern United States like I do, then the apocalypse is upon you. The sky is falling, the streets are empty, and the stores have had record sales on bread, milk, and eggs. I too visited the local grocery store Sunday evening to get the essentials for surviving the storm of the century, which is a bold statement to make considering that the we are only eleven years into this century.

For those of you that don't live in the Saint Louis metropolitan area, I will explain what happens before a snow storm. Some weather person on the radio or TV says the word snow. At that time, the city goes into a panic and descends upon the local grocery stores to stock up for the end of the world. It doesn't matter how much snow is predicted, could be a foot, could be an inch. When snow falls, we prepare to be shut in for weeks.

Well, right now, the weather people have predicted two and a half inches of ice, and up to 20 inches of snow on top of that (I'll leave a comment with the actual totals, seeing as how this should post before all the snow falls). With this forecast, the good and bad people of Saint Louis have emptied the grocery stores, Home Depots, gas stations, and Wal-Marts, of bread, milk, eggs, salt, gasoline, and various odds and ends. The blizzard that is coming has been dubbed as the snowpocalypse, or snowmageddon. 

Fun names aside, what people are doing is just preparing themselves. Getting the things they need in case they can't get to the store, or anywhere else. We have been told pretty clearly that something is going to happen. 

Imagine constantly preparing for a snowstorm when you don't have any idea when the snowstorm is coming. Make sure you keep enough milk, eggs, bread, or whatever on hand. Don't stockpile, but have enough to last you for a while. Don't be like everyone else who tries to grab up all they can at the last minute. You never know, the stores may run out of what you need before you can get it, and it will be too late for you.

This reminds me of the Parable of the Ten Virgins. This is a cautionary story about not being prepared. It tells of ten women waiting for a groom during the night, and have lamps to light the way. Five of them race off with not enough oil, and the other five had plenty of oil. When the time came for the groom to arrive, the five who didn't bring enough oil asked the other five for some of theirs. They didn't get any because they're wasn't enough to go around. So they left and found more oil. While they were gone, the groom arrived, they went into the wedding feast, and the doors were locked. When the women arrived, they were not allowed into the feast.

The parable ends with Jesus warning "keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour." We have been told that Jesus will come again. The problem is, that we don't know when He's coming. It could be tonight, could be next week, could be 500 years from now. We just don't know. If Jesus comes 500 years from now, the death of those living will come long before that, but we still don't know when our time on Earth will expire.

I know I've talked on this topic before, but it is not beneath me to make constant reminders. The fact is we need to keep prepared. If you don't know how to do this, please let me know. On top of that, please read your Bible. If you don't have one, Biblegateway.com, which is where I link all my scriptural references to, had the complete Bible online, in various different English and foreign language translations. Some things might not make sense, so ask about them. Keep going, I urge you. 

Make sure to pray constantly. Keep yourself in the Word.

Amen.

A Hand Chopping Eye Gouging Good Time For The Family

Catchy title, huh.


I was watching something on TV the other night, and a pastor was talking about the dangers of taking the Bible too literally. She asked the person she was talking to if he had ever looked at a woman when he shouldn't have. He responded that he had. She made the claim that since he looked at that woman in such a way, that Jesus commanded that he now take his eye out, because his eye had caused him to sin.


The passage that this pastor was most likely referring to was Matthew 18:8-9. In these verses, Jesus does indeed state that if our eye causes us to sin, to gouge it out and throw it away. Unfortunately this pastor on TV, along with many others, miss the point of what Jesus is saying entirely.


What this pastor is assuming is that this man's eye was the guilty party that caused him to look at this woman. To quote the famous philosopher, Larry the Cable Guy, "it's like blaming spelling errors on my pencil." It is something deeper that caused him to look at that woman.


Physically, the impulse was the woman passing by that caught his eye. This sent a signal to the brain, in which the brain then said back to the eye "LOOK AGAIN! LOOK AGAIN!" Since we look at things everyday without getting that response, the eye is not the guilty party, so it therefore must be the brain. 


Using this logic people who don't understand what the above passage is about would therefore think that we would have to cut out our brain. I'm not a doctor, but I think it safe to assume that you would die in the process, or at least shortly after removal of your own brain. 


Some people claim that it isn't your brain that really controls that sort of response, but your heart. Okay, so is Jesus now commanding us to rip out our hearts Aztec style because our heart causes us to sin? I think it would be kinda cool to rip out your own heart and look at it while it's still beating, unless of course you have ripped out your eyes already. 


Let's get serious now. Ask any middle school student what the heart does, they will tell you it pumps blood through your body. So therefore it was not this young man's heart that caused him to sin. The brain sends signals to all parts of your body, causing your heart to beat, hands to move, and eyes to look. For voluntary reactions like the latter two, there has to be some sort of stimulus for the brain to send that signal. So now the brain, along with the heart, and the eyes, are not causing anybody to sin. And you went and performed major surgery on yourself for no reason at all. Good luck getting your insurance to pay for any of it.


On the other hand, you have people who claim it was just in his nature to look at women in this way. And they're right. Some claim that we just can't help it. Well, that they're wrong about. Romans 8:6-8 says that our sinful nature is contrary to to the will of God. It also says that if we allow the Holy Spirit to live in us, it will give us peace. It also speaks of those "still under" the control of their sinful nature, meaning that a change could be made. It is the sinful nature of that man that causes him to sin. Using the words of Jesus in the way He intended, we could have to cast out our sinful nature, because that is what causes us to sin. 


Amen.

What's In A Name

I go by the first name Matt, but my full name is Matthew. To my knowledge, there are no other people in my family that are named Matthew, so it's not a family name. My middle name as well as my son's middle name, David, is a family name.

This leads people to ask why I got the name Matthew. I tell them I was named after an evil tax collector that had a change of heart. This part is true, I was named after Matthew, an apostle of Jesus Christ. For my little blog post this week, I'm going to talk about this evil tax collector with the change of heart.

Matthew, was born Levi, and was a tax collector for Herod Antipas, tetrarch of Galilee. Tax collectors in Matthew's day are much like tax collectors today, very disliked by the masses. The difference is how taxes were collected back in the day. The Roman government collected a tax on catches that fisherman made. It was the tax collector's job to first value the catch, then tax it accordingly. For example, a fisherman catches fifty dollars worth of fish, he would have to pay a tax of five dollars (arbitrary amounts used in modern day terminology). Now what Matthew, as well as many of the tax collectors of the day, would do was to say that a fifty dollar catch was actually worth $100 and then take $10 instead of the five. Then only give the five to the Roman tetrarch. This was generally accepted by the Roman government, as long as they got the money they asked for. Furthermore, the Jewish population treated their Roman occupants with disdain, and for a Jew to work for the Romans and steal from fellow Jews was a grave sin.


This all changed one day when Jesus came to him. Even though Matthew was despised by the people as a sinner, Jesus chose him to be one of his apostles. Later that day, Matthew invited Jesus in for supper. The Pharisees didn't like this one bit, as it was a faux pas to associate with someone of Matthew's ilk. Jesus responded by saying "I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners." This is exactly what Jesus did, he gave Matthew a calling. This calling was to follow Jesus during his life. After the death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus, Matthew still followed Jesus by taking the Gospel all around the known world.

Okay, I have never been a tax collector, I'm not one of the twelve apostles, and I never wrote anything bigger than a fifteen page undergraduate paper, much less a Gospel account. Not to mention that Matthew was born under the name Levi and changed his name after his conversion. Even with these glaring differences, when you boil it down, we are very similar. We both lived sinful lives apart from Christ. Even though we were both sinners, we were saved by the love of Christ. In addition, Christ has called us both to take His Gospel all over the world. The circumstances may be different, the mission is the same.

I guess there is something in a name after all. I just hope I'm not martyred. That would suck.

Holy Communion

I've had many conversations with different people about the nature of Holy Communion. Who should take it, who shouldn't, what does it mean. For the most part, the explanations that are given are as varied as the amount of people with opinions. Some people have spent the length of professional careers trying to determine the answers to these questions, and are no further to finding it out than the person who has spent a day.

If one wants the answer to these questions, they usually look to people with letters in front or behind their name, other experts, or the ever-knowing internet. However, I found one of the best answers from a high school senior who has accepted Jesus under a year ago.

This past Sunday, my wife had a cold and decided to stay home with our daughter, so I took my son to church, just the two of us. Instead of sitting alone, I decided to sit with our resident high school senior. I don't want to give away too much of his name, so I'll just call him Brent. Brent is a very new Christian, and was never brought up in church. After taking communion, I noticed that he walked slowly around our small sanctuary, looking at all the different pictures of the stations of the cross. For those that don't know, the stations of the cross are different pictures representing the final hours of the life of Jesus Christ, including the cross being placed on His back, Christ carrying the cross, and the death of Christ. When we sat down, I realized that Brent had most likely never been to a Good Friday service at our church, or anywhere for that matter, and quietly mentioned that on Good Friday, we go through each picture and explain what they each mean.

What he said caught me a little off guard. He told me he understood what they are. What he does is every time he takes communion, he looks at each picture in the station of the cross, which helps him keep perspective on just exactly what it means when he takes communion. He later went on to explain that he does not swallow the elements until after he looks at all the different stations of the cross. Often times his lips chap, and the wine remains in his mouth, stinging the inside of his mouth, bringing a little bit of pain.

You see, Brent realized what some people who have been in the church all their lives fail to realize. Communion is not something we do once every (insert time period of your choice here) because it means 'something important'. Communion is something we partake in because of the most awesome and horrifying gift ever given. When Brent goes from station to station, he sees depictions of one of the most brutal forms of execution known to man. Crucifixion was so brutal in fact, that the Romans made it illegal to crucify a Roman citizen, no matter the crime. Christ went through this, full knowing ahead of time that this would be the way He dies. But He did it anyway. He lived a sinless life, yet died in the same way as low-life murderers and thieves. He did this so that those who do not deserve to pass on to Heaven after death, may do so. His body was broken, His blood was shed, and He died a gruesome death, that you and I may have eternal life.

No matter how you take communion, with wine or grape juice. With a loaf of bread, wafer, or cracker. These things should not be the focus when you take communion. Our worship of Christ should always be at the center, and the remembrance of the ugly death yet beautiful sacrifice of Christ should be with you as well.

Amen.