Permissible but Beneficial?

What a great freedom we have... As disciples of Christ we have been liberated from the shackles that bound us.

Paul in 1 Corinthians 10:23-33 shares with the church at Corinth a powerful concept. in vs 23 & 24 he pens “Everything is permissible,” but not everything is helpful. “Everything is permissible,” but not everything builds up. No one should seek his own good, but the good of the other person.

Paul goes on to argue that while meat sacrificed to idols is perfectly fine for them to consume because as believers they know well and good that there are no other gods for that meat to be sacrificed too but that if their consuming that meat were to cause a non-believer or someone weak in the faith to stumble then they should forsake eating meat all together. 

This is a hard concept for us today because we don't want to give up anything for anyone - our mindset is often if something I am doing bothers you get over it - but that is not what Paul is saying... Paul is saying that our religious freedom is not a weapon for us to wield against those around us - but that we are to go out of our way to share the love of Christ with those who are struggling. 

This does not mean that we are to compromise our morals or our ethics - this doesn't mean that we are to compromise our doctrine and theology - it does mean however that sometimes we need to stop and think about someone else first before we post a snide comment or picture on Facebook - will what I am about to post or share cause someone weaker in the faith or without faith to look poorly on Christ? 

Friends we are called to be a reflection of Christ to the world --- when the world looks at you are they seeing a clear image or is it like they are looking in a carnival mirror, seeing a warped and distorted view of the Gospel? 

Paul closes this chapter out by saying: 
"Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do everything for God’s glory. Give no offense to the Jews or the Greeks or the church of God, just as I also try to please all people in all things, not seeking my own profit, but the profit of many, so that they may be saved."

Think about that today... 

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: 

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?

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! 

A Scandalous Relationship

This week in my preparations for Sunday I've been spending a lot of time in the book of Isaiah. One of the things I like to do as a part of my sermon prep is listen to other Pastor's sermons on the passage so as a result I've heard numerous sermons this week on Isaiah 6 most all have left me inspired and encouraged others have left me pondering why we teach half truths in an effort to make people feel better...

Let me elaborate... David Platt argues both in his book Radical and in a sermon I found on Isaiah 6 (linked at the bottom) that God is in midst of something scandalous. That for more than a generation we have been teaching and preaching that God hates sin but loves the sinner...  But that this isn't the whole truth... While these statements can be true in the right lens they only tell part of the story because as David so aptly brings out sin is not something that we do, it's not something that is detached from us - it is who we are.  Furthermore when we search scriptures we find that not only does God hate sin - God also hates sinners. Notice these two passages:

Psalm 5:4-6
For You are not a God who delights in wickedness;
evil cannot dwell with You.
5 The boastful cannot stand in Your presence;
You hate all evildoers.
6 You destroy those who tell lies;
the Lord abhors a man of bloodshed and treachery.

Psalm 11:4-7

The Lord is in His holy temple;
the Lord’s throne is in heaven.
His eyes watch; He examines everyone.
5 The Lord examines the righteous and the wicked.
He hates the lover of violence.
6 He will rain burning coals and sulfur on the wicked;
a scorching wind will be their portion.
7 For the Lord is righteous; He loves righteous deeds.
The upright will see His face.

God doesn't just hate the sinner he plans to see them destroyed! He's going to rain down burning coals and sulfur on them… This is where the scandal comes in though – stay with me! Because in that same instant that God hates the sin, that God hates the sinner God also loves the sinner.

HOW????

Through the cross…

God hates the sinner and loves the sinner through the cross of Christ. Isaiah 53 is a beautiful picture of this message in that Christ took upon us the payment for our sinfulness and now God can love the sinner – Because He loves the Son.

Yet He Himself bore our sicknesses,
and He carried our pains;
but we in turn regarded Him stricken,
struck down by God, and afflicted.
⁵ But He was pierced because of our transgressions,
crushed because of our iniquities;
punishment for our peace was on Him,
and we are healed by His wounds.
⁶ We all went astray like sheep;
we all have turned to our own way;
and the Lord has punished Him
for the iniquity of us all.

We are nothing but dumb wayward sheep but Christ on the cross has provided a way for us all to be reconciled with God. By Christ’s sacrifice when God looks at those of us who have turned to Christ we are justified. God sees no wrong in us anymore because of the blood of His Son…

In Isaiah 6 we see our prophet in the midst of his vision experience coming to the understanding that he needs more than just a sacrifice to be made right - that he needs to be separated from his sin - it needs to be burned away... the only way that we can experience that today is through the cross of Christ, as Paul so aptly wrote we are to be crucified with Christ! This flesh must be burned away to allow for the righteousness of God to cloth us today! Just my thoughts on the matter... 

If you can carve out an hour of your time I’d encourage you to watch this video as David Platt expresses this truth far more eloquently than I ever could.

Have a blessed week! 

The Living Dead...

As I prepare for Pentecost Sunday, I've been reading and studying the different movements of the Holy Spirit in the Bible. Each story is unique and is important but God laid the story of Ezekiel on my heart as we share some of the same struggles.

In Ezekiel 37:1-14 the Spirit of God lifts Ezekiel up in a vision and takes him to a valley of dead, dry bones... Ezekiel is asked can these bones live? He has the correct answer in responding that only the LORD GOD knows!

Ezekiel then is directed to preach at these bones - so he does what is commanded and in verse 7  while he was yet preaching he heard this noise, a rattling sound (I'm imagining a old horror movie sound of bones clanking and rubbing together) - the bones were coming together... Then tendons began to appear, flesh grew, skin covered them... All the semblance of life yet there was no breath in them... It's as if he were watching an episode of Twilight Zone.... (which by the way does tend to be a reoccurring theme in the book)

These bodies were nothing more than empty shells...

Kinda sounds familiar doesn't it? Every day we get up and go about our lives, our routines become sacred, our time is precious to us, as is our public persona. Living our lives for ourselves we either go out of our way to avoid conflict with the lost world around us or we seek it out and abuse them to make ourselves feel better... The result?

We end up remaining nothing more than empty shells...

 Why??????

Because we haven't allowed the breath of heaven to penetrate us and fill us with the spirit of God...

If you follow the rest of the passage - when Ezekiel calls for the breath of heaven to come those lifeless forms are transformed, they come to life and stand to their feet...

Verse 14 explains is like this to us: "I will put my Spirit in you, and you will live..."

Without the Spirit in us we are dead... Galatians 2:20 says it all... "and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me."

This life that we are "living" is not our own, it has been been bought with a price, Christ paid the ultimate price that we could find restoration into the presence of God... WE need to get with the program and stop trying to dictate God's will and be obedient to his call today... Whose with me?

Lessons from Titus Part 1

Over the next several weeks, I plan to share from my personal readings and study. Currently I am spending my time studying Paul's letter to Titus. While it is a short book (you can sit down and read it in about 10-15 minutes with ease) it has some very important truths for the church today as it carries very important instructions regarding both church organization and Christian conduct. 

Let's look at some of the historical context first before we get any further... 

General consensus here is that Paul wrote this letter after his first imprisonment in Rome in between 1st and 2nd Timothy somewhere between 63-66 A.D.

Like most of Paul's letters Titus starts off with a fairly usual greeting, 

1 Paul, a slave of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to build up the faith of God’s elect and their knowledge of the truth that leads to godliness, 2 in the hope of eternal life that God, who cannot lie, promised before time began. 3 In His own time He has revealed His message in the proclamation that I was entrusted with by the command of God our Savior: 4 To Titus, my true son in our common faith. Grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior.

Paul is setting the table here, he begins by identifying himself as a servant and as an apostle chosen by God and by sharing what that calling means to him in his life; "to build up the faith of God's elect and their knowledge". He then greets Titus --   his "true son in our common faith" -- now what we know about Titus is that he was a Gentile by birth (Ga 2:3) and had traveled with Paul in the past on his missionary journeys, including to Jerusalem during the controversy over circumcision (Acts 15:1-2; Ga 2:1-5) Titus was also Paul's personal emissary to the church at Corinth, carrying the letter that we call 2nd Corinthians to the church. 

Now when Paul is writing this particular letter, Titus had been left on the island of Crete by Paul to "set in order the things that are lacking, and appoint elders in every city" (Titus 1:5)

5 The reason I left you in Crete was to set right what was left undone and, as I directed you, to appoint elders in every town: 6 one who is blameless, the husband of one wife, having faithful children not accused of wildness or rebellion. 7 For an overseer, as God’s administrator, must be blameless, not arrogant, not hot-tempered, not addicted to wine, not a bully, not greedy for money, 8 but hospitable, loving what is good, sensible, righteous, holy, self-controlled, 9 holding to the faithful message as taught, so that he will be able both to encourage with sound teaching and to refute those who contradict it.

This brings us to Titus' ministry in Crete. As mentioned Titus was there to help set the organizational structure of the church in place. Paul now provides Titus a pretty exhaustive listing of both positive and negative qualifications to be an Elder (Leader, Pastor, Bishop, or Overseer) in the church. 

Those qualifications are:

Positive qualifications

1. Blameless 
2. The husband of one wife
3. Having faithful children not accused of dissipation or insubordination
4. Blameless as a steward of God
5. Hospitable
6. A lover of what is good
7. Sober-minded
8. Just
9. Holy
10. Self-controlled
11. Holding fast the faithful word as he has been taught
12. Able by sound doctrine to exhort and convict those who contradict

Negative qualifications

1. Not self-willed
2. Not quick-tempered
3. Not given to wine
4. Not violent
5. Not greedy for money

Titus was to take this process very seriously, for while there were many Christians on the island the church organization was far from perfect and the Elders occupying such a prominent position  needed to be able to demonstrate that they were capable of leading the flock, evidenced by the way they carried themselves and led their own families. Now blameless is tough because we know that we are all sinners saved in by grace but in context with the rest of the passage we see that the men Titus was to be looking for to lead the church were to be men seeking after God's heart, who demonstrated faithfulness in the small things as well as the big things, being faithful to ones wife being a key part of that.

As a Pastor, Husband, Father, I often find myself looking for the big win and overlooking the small victories. God is satisfied when we give him glory in all things not just the big wins and I think that this plays into this passage.

Another thing that Paul points out is that an elder is to have "faithful children" this means exactly what it says! That as a father it is my responsibility carry out Proverbs 22:6 and train up my children so that they might be faithful believers in Christ now this verse does not mean that we are to hold our children to standards of which they have no concept. You cannot expect a non believer to behave like a believer. This holds true in this passage as well, you cannot expect a young child to have the same understanding as a teen or an adult, nor are their behaviors even comparable. In the case of young children, children that are yet to have the capacity to understand what do you do? You seek to be blameless before God! You be obedient to the word, teaching them, training them, preparing them for that day when they come to know Christ. That is how you find your children faithful... 

In the rest of this list we find (vs 7-8) that  an Elder must possess a high moral character (blameless as a steward of God, hospitable, a lover of what is good, sober-minded, just, holy, self-controlled) and they must be a competent preacher (holding fast the faithful word as he has been taught, able by sound doctrine to exhort and convict)... 

All of these things are important in a man of God! They speak to his character, they speak to his desire to be faithful, and blameless before God, and they speak to his calling. 

There lessons I take away from this passage are this... 

1. Church government is an important duty, not to be taken lightly or frivolously
2. Governors of the church should possess both grave and gifts 
3. Preaching occupies a prominent place in building up and extending the Church. 

Whether you feel God calling you to lead or you are searching for the man God desires to lead, understanding these truths are crucial. 

Dios te Bendiga!

Staying Silent

Sometimes life just seems to throw everything and the kitchen sink at you and you just want to scream... You want to fight it with every bone in your body, you know you shouldn't you know you should just walk away and call it a day but it's like those kung-foo movies from the 80's where the acting is horrid and the fighting is worse but your eyes are glued to the screen...

This is so often my life it seems... 

I can't seem to ever get ahead, and I wonder is there every really a point where I can achieve victory? 

Now don't hear me and think oh he is depressed, he's throwing in the towel or something like that because you couldn't be further from the truth - there are just days that I feel so completely overwhelmed I don't know what direction is up... 

Earlier this week as I was reading preparing my thoughts for my day I read a passage that I wasn't as familiar with, I know I've read it before but it had been a while and as I read those words it was as if I light went on in my head (don't you love it when that happens?) I began in that moment to be reminded of things all be it in a small scope from God's perspective...

The passage I read was Acts chapter 4. In Acts 4 Peter and John had been been speaking in the temple and some 5000 men came to believe in the resurrected Christ. While they were there they were confronted by the temple police - the priests, and the Sadducee's, they seized them and took Peter and John into custody... The next day the rulers, elders, & scribes began to question Peter and John ultimately trying to bully them by forbidding them to preach or teach in the name of Jesus, now they thought they could get away with this because Peter and John were uneducated fishermen and they hoped that the men would be swayed and this budding movement would fade away but their response would be click bait in today's social media driven society... verse 19-20: 

19 But Peter and John answered them, “Whether it’s right in the sight of God for us to listen to you rather than to God, you decide; 20 for we are unable to stop speaking about what we have seen and heard.”

Peter and John knew that whatever came their way God could handle it, they knew that they must keep their eyes on Christ no matter the cost... Sounds a lot like three young men in the Old Testament Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego who got tossed in the furnace or another guy by the name of Daniel who was tossed in the lions den... They had done nothing wrong, they were being obedient to live out what they had seen and heard...

Our answer today should be the same... when the world attacks us, when our friends betray us, when the car dies, and nothings seems to go right rather than trying to defend ourselves, rather than trying to be the loudest voice in the room, rather than giving up or getting angry - stop and pray... Stop and pray because God is in control of that situation just as He is in control of every other situation that we find ourselves in each day... 

Peter and John had the right idea, they were going to do what they had to do - be obedient to God's call on their life - they knew that the elders and rulers of the day were going to do what they were going to do, and I am sure that it wasn't easy listening to their threats wondering if they were bluffing...

Peter and John held the course and preached what they had seen and heard - they preached the Gospel of Jesus to the people regardless of what might befall them now or at a later date... 

Can you say that? Are you willing to make yourself hated for the name of Jesus? Are you ready to endure the threats and personal attacks for your faith? I know I am!

Not mouthwash

Call it divine revelation or call it gas doesn't really matter but I think I have stumbled on something with this so hear me out -- the other morning I got up early (for me that is) to drive up to Homestead and have breakfast with Pastor Victor before he was to head back home to Cuba. I'm in the bathroom brushing away that lovely morning breath and I reach for the mouthwash... I take a swig and while I'm swishing this verse comes into my mind -

"But whoever drinks from the water that I will give him will never get thirsty again -- ever! In fact, the water I will give him will become a well of water springing up within him for eternal life."  -- (John 4:14)

Here I am with a mouthful of mouthwash thinking of water that won't make me thirsty. At this point all I want to do is spit out this mouthwash and go get a glass of water and that's when it hits me...

So many people treat Jesus's living water like mouthwash... using him only to freshen up and then spitting Him back out and going about our day...  They come to come to church on Sunday for the social status or because it's what they do every Sunday but at the end of the service they just go home they don't take anything with them, they are not changed, they see church as something to do not who they are...

Folks forgive me but hear me yelling this at my screen right now -- Sunday morning (or when ever you gather as a full body) is a time of corporate worship and prayer it's not church... When you gather on Sunday's you are not gathering at church -- you ARE the church!!!  This also means that when you leave and you go to work - you are still the church! when you go to the grocery store, to the gas station, sitting out in the sand at the beach doesn't matter... where ever you go you are called to be the church!

Being the church is a choice... it is literally a way of life. When you look at the early church, and even the persecuted church around the world today, for these folks church was and is a literal life or death decision because there's a good chance that you could very well not make it back to corporate worship the next week (or even the next day). These folks couldn't afford to treat Jesus like mouthwash, they need to drink in that living water that will bring eternal life not just a momentary freshness... So do we!

Friends American Christianity has become soft and comfortable and is straying from the path - I believe that a time is soon coming in which God will cause us to seek Him out with renewed zeal... and to not treat the living water offered by Christ as meaningless mouthwash!

Now don't go and drink the mouthwash - but I would suggest that you look for how God is moving in your life today! Don't wait till Sunday to hear from Him!

Day(s) of Prayer...

Thursday May 7th marks the 64th annual National Day of Prayer. Christian's all over the country look to this day as a day to pray for our country and our leaders. While there are good reasons that a prayer emphasis such as this is beneficial, I wonder how many people in our churches ONLY pray for our country and leaders on this day… 

Though we were talking about overall spiritual health the children's message last week gave a great of the example of this -The lesson used the illustration that:

"An apple a week isn't going to cut it if you want to stay healthy, especially if you eat burgers and fries and pizza all the other days of the week. We need to eat several servings of fruits, vegetables, and other healthy choices daily.

The same is true of our spiritual health. It’s not enough to get a serving of God’s Word on Sundays. We need to read our Bibles daily. A little Bible every day, seven days a week, 365 days a year, will help us to grow healthy and strong in spirit. And when our spirit is as healthy as our bodies, there’s no limit to how God can use us."

Prayer is a key part of our spiritual health!

We shouldn't ONLY pray once a week, when we need something, or are in crisis. Prayer should be a way of life not a knee jerk response.

Paul’s command in 1 Thessalonians 5:17 to “pray without ceasing,” can be confusing. Obviously, it cannot mean we are to be in a head-bowed, eyes-closed posture all day long. Paul is not referring to non-stop talking, but rather an attitude of God-consciousness and God-surrender that we carry with us all the time. Every waking moment is to be lived in an awareness that God is with us and that He is actively involved and engaged in our thoughts and actions.

For believers, prayer should really should be akin to breathing! You don’t have to think to breathe we are created to breathe, the atmosphere exerts pressure on our lungs and essentially forces us to breathe – in the same way when we are born again, we enter into a spiritual atmosphere where God’s presence and grace exert pressure, or influence, on our lives! Prayer is the normal response to that pressure!

Unfortunately, many believers figuratively hold their spiritual breathe for extended periods of time thinking that they only need occasional gulps of God to allow them to survive. But when we do that we are submitting to sinful desires… The truth of the matter is we must continually be in the presence of God, “without ceasing” to be fully functional…

When we live out this calling in our lives it means that we are not just praying for ourselves, not just praying for a sick or a lost family member or friend, but that we are praying for God’s presence. Praying that his will would be done not just in our life but also in the life of our nation, in the lives of our leaders, in the lives of our Pastors… Praying that God would open (all) our hearts to receive his presence today…

I love the way John Piper used the image that prayer is a wartime walkie-talkie, not a domestic intercom. It exists for advancing the mission, not for calling the butler to turn up the thermostat. Not that God is opposed to practical, nitty-gritty daily prayers. He simply wants all of them to relate to the mission of your life—that his name be glorified, that people live for fruitful ministry.

Don’t just pray on May 7^th this year but pray daily, pray without ceasing, live in constant communion with the Lord! 

Thought of the Day

The word "believe" is used 270 times in the HCSB - 236 of those are found in 21 of the 27 New Testament books, in the Gospel of John the word "believe" is used 85 times (nearly double the next closest of 43 times in the book of Acts). Why is this important?  

At the end of his gospel John writes: 

"30 Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of His disciples that are not written in this book. 31 But these are written so that you may believe Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and by believing you may have life in His name."

The reason we have the Gospel of John today was so that we might believe, but belief in what?  If you claim to truly believe what is it that you believe? Can you easily express it or explain it? Where do you draw your faith? I love the way the Apostles Creed sums up what we are called to believe: 

"I believe in God, the Father almighty, Creator of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried; he descended into hell; on the third day he rose again from the dead; he ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of God the Father almighty; from there he will come to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy Christian Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting. Amen."

While this was written by man for the most part it echoes scriptures and provides a base for us to expound upon. Today I would challenge you examine your beliefs! Examine your hearts! Do you really believe in God or do you merely believe in the concept of God?

Dios te Bendiga!

Obey = Grow

What do you hear when you hear the term obey? In reference to parents, children, spouses, friends, employers that term obey has almost become a four letter word - we are encouraged to challenge authority at every turn - we are instructed from an early age that independence is vital to our development as human beings and if we simply obey we will be swallowed up by the world and lose our individuality.

I would argue the opposite is true - when we look at obedience not as a punishment, not as a negative, not as something looking to restrict our freedoms - but as a blessing, an assist, as something looking to set us free from our bondage and shackles that we become even more unique even more of an individual than we could ever have become on our own - we become part of the body of Christ and in Christ we each have our own unique function or purpose that we are called to (1 Corinthians 12:12-14)

"Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by[c] one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many."

How is this possible? How is it possible when we surrender our will, submit to His leading that we become more free than before?

There are many  passages throughout the Bible that speak towards "obedience" - the terms obey, obedience, and obedient are used 257 times in various contexts throughout the Old and New Testaments and those are just the times that it is explicitly taught it is implicitly taught far more times through passages such as John 14:15 - "If you love me, keep my commands." Jesus is instructing us that if we love him we will "keep" or obey his teachings. The big struggle comes in when we are faced with the quandary of  do we truly take God's instruction, his advice, or are we simply paying lip service to him?  ― C.S. Lewis puts it this way:

“[To have Faith in Christ] means, of course, trying to do all that He says. There would be no sense in saying you trusted a person if you would not take his advice. Thus if you have really handed yourself over to Him, it must follow that you are trying to obey Him. But trying in a new way, a less worried way. Not doing these things in order to be saved, but because He has begun to save you already. Not hoping to get to Heaven as a reward for your actions, but inevitably wanting to act in a certain way because a first faint gleam of Heaven is already inside you.”

Have you really handed yourself over to God today? Are striving to be obedient in all his ways? Or are you simply paying lip service to God? 1 Samuel 15:22  says

“Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices
    as much as in obeying the Lord?
To obey is better than sacrifice,
    and to heed is better than the fat of rams."

We may not have to sacrifice a ram today but we are still called to obedience - and as a part of that obedience we are called to sacrifice our own plans and desires and submit to the Word of God. Sacrifice is a must when it comes to obedience -

Christ obeyed the Father in laying down his life for us (Luke 22:42), in sacrificing Himself that we might have access to eternal life - John writes in 1 John 3:16

"This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters."

The act of obedience here is not necessarily that we are laying down our lives in physical death but that we put ourselves, our wants and desires, our ambitions down at the foot of the cross and walk with Christ, carry our cross (Luke 9:23)
"Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me."

Will you be obedient today?