Friday, June 26, 2015

Response to Marriage Rights

Let me preface this by saying personal opinions are like armpits most everyone has two and they usually stink. That said here is my opinion followed by a 2 min reaction by Russell Moore the of The Ethics & Religious Liberties Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention to the Supreme Courts ruling. 

I don't agree with the ruling by the SCOTUS today, but it doesn't change anything in my life nor does it change the way I live for Jesus. I love how Russel Moore put it in his response that the Supreme Court cannot put Jesus back in the grave!

It is up to us as followers of Christ to continue to stand for what we believe and to not compromise our morals. As a follower of Christ we must still show love to all people and we must still call sin what it is, an abomination before the One True God. 


All are welcomed and loved by God and should be by us, His children. However, we should give the same answer to all those who are accused of sin that Jesus gave the woman found in adultery (this includes all of us). Neither do I condemn you. Go and sin no more. Telling someone that their behavior is sin is not condemnation of the individual, only the sin. We are all guilty of sin and many refuse to admit they are sinning, but that doesn't change the facts in God's eyes. 

Marriage will not make the people in the gay and lesbian community happy anymore than it has for straight people who have had marriages that ended in divorce. Not all of them will end in divorce. Some will last a lifetime until death do they part, but they will not be blessed by God. 

The only thing that will make us truly happy is complete reliance on a most Holy God! 

D.A. Carson penned in his work The Cross and Christian Ministry, "The only thing of transcendent importance to human beings is the knowledge of God. This knowledge does not belong to those who endlessly focus on themselves. Those who truly come to know God delight just to know him." 

Where is your delight? Where is your happiness? 

If you haven't already seen it take a moment and watch Russel Moore's reaction to the Supreme Courts Decision: 


Thursday, June 11, 2015

Calming the Storm

Mark 4:35-41 has an account of one of the most incredible feats outside of raising the dead that Jesus did during his ministry here on earth.

If you have ever been on a boat in a storm you can understand the sheer terror that had arisen in the disciples as they crossed over the Sea of Galilee... While the storms I've endured on the water pale in comparison to most I can echo the trauma that they were enduring it is a terrorizing feeling to climb a wave larger than your boat then to crest and be sitting there with the bow and stern out of the water at the same time...

And there is Jesus... sound asleep...

Terror, wind, water all around, and then there is Jesus, calmly sleeping...

Disciples are panicked! They think they are all about to die... They are probably think ok if I jump ship now maybe I can make it shore -- but then drowning in the sea was no way to go and there is Jesus resting...

This is an important lesson for us.

When we think the world is coming to an end.. when we think that there is no hope... We need to look to Jesus - we are called to follow his example are we not? Rather than panicking, rather than stressing, rather than trying to control a situation that is beyond our control why don't we just model Jesus and stop take a respite and let God handle the situation?

What storm of life are you enduring today that you need to let God handle?

On Mission

By the time most of you will be reading this our team will be set up and hard at work at Las Brisas Baptist Church in El Cotorro de Cuba. This trip is only part of what it means to be "On Mission"

When you read the various commissioning statements in the Bible we find a very common theme - that they were not to be used as single points of action rather as lifestyle changes. The command is that as we live our lives we are to be working for the completion of God's mission for our lives - in that sense we are all called to be "On Mission" 24/7/365...

We don't get to take a vacation from being "On Mission" either! When we take a vacation from the stress of our jobs or to visit family, go to Disney World, spend a day on the water fishing... we are still called to be on mission! That mission will adapt and change with our location and purposes but we should always be seeking God's face and to be obedient to His plans and will for our lives!

This week ten of us are following God's leading to help rebuild and church and to share the Gospel message with those less fortunate in Cuba - next week we may be called to share the Gospel with the lady behind us in line at Winn Dixie - or to call a friend who is struggling and take them out to lunch or out on the boat for a day of relaxation...

The point is we are to always be seeking new ways to serve - there is no retirement age in the Bible not one of the prophets or disciples ever stopped working until they were in their grave or in Elijah's case carried up to heaven... What makes us so special that we can say we've done our part when there is so much work yet to be done?

Friday, June 05, 2015

Fire and Forgiveness from Heaven

This week I've been reading about another prophet by the name of Elijah. Quite an interesting story of faith and fear. Elijah was a prophet in the days of King Ahab. Ahab was a wicked king (1 Kings 16:30), controlled by his wife Jezebel who was even worse than her husband - still to this day calling someone a Jezebel is a major insult to their character... 1 Kings 16:33 actually says Ahab did more to provoke the Lord than ALL the kings of Israel who were before him. 

God saw the wickedness in the land and called on Elijah to take a stand.  Elijah went before Ahab and told him that it wouldn't rain again in the lands until Elijah called to the heavens for it - God kept his promise and the lands went 3 years without rain... When the time came for God to reveal himself Elijah went up to Mt Caramel and faced off vs 850 prophets of Baal and Asherah in a showdown of whose God is better...

This is the part of the story I love!  The 450 prophets of Baal danced about for hours, they wailed, cried, tore their cloths, put on sackcloth... but alas all that didn't seem to be able to wake up their "sleeping" god... All day from morning till evening they begged and pleaded with their god to show...

Then comes Elijah... He built the alter to the Lord, then dug a trench around it deep enough for about 4 gallons of water... When he had placed the bull on the alter he called on the people to bring 4 jugs of water 3 times they did this till even the trench was full... (keep in mind this was in the midst of a 3 year drought water was scarce to be pouring it out on the ground like this would have seem mad!)

 Then Elijah started praying -- when Elijah called out for God he answered in a mighty way and revealed his might to the crowds.... Fire fell from heaven, it consumed the bull, it consumed the wood, the stones, the dust, it even licked up the water from the trench....

God was not mocked - Elijah had faith that the God he served was the One True God, and while the rest of the people of Israel may have turned from God He (God) did not abandon them completely rather he let them suffer the fate of their own hand, Ahab ultimately suffered the fate of his own hand but we find something shocking! For all of his wickedness, for all the atrocities that he committed as King in 1 Kings 21 God pronounces that He would eliminate all the males from Ahab's line both slave and free... The dogs would lap his blood and prostitutes would bath in it... God wasn't kidding around.

But then something shocking happened something that we need to keep in mind even today (1 Kings 21:27-29) - When Ahab realized his wickedness he repented. Sackcloth, ashes, the whole bit - he humbled himself before the Lord! and God saw it and gave him a reprieve, there would still be consequences for a lifetime of wickedness but Ahab was forgiven.

This is important for us to recognize as well -- no matter how bad our lives have been God will still forgive us! We will still have to face the consequences of those sins - Ahab still had to die and his line removed but he was forgiven and so can you...

The same God who caused the fire to fall in righteous judgment also showers us with his forgiveness and mercy on those who are willing and able to recognize their failings and repent!

What a great promise for us today!