Football season is upon us. The cute pictures of little children in huge uniforms are beginning on Facebook. The sports-casters are pontificating about which team (in either college or pro) will be good this year. I myself cheer for the Wolverines and hope they do well! What intrigues me about football is something that seems similar in all sports - the dedication that good players put into the game. There are always people who show up to practice but seem content where they are and have no desire to get better. These players may even be skilled enough to get playing time, but these are not the players that the coaches commend or the fans love. The players that seem to be the most revered are the ones that regardless of skill show up AND work their tails off to get better. Every practice, every play, they have one goal in mind - to progress and be better than the day before. These players are fun to watch.
It makes me wonder about the similarities between football players and Christians. Sometimes Christians tend to do the same thing. There are a few Christians who eagerly seek after Christ and His likeness with a ferocious tenacity and a strong desire to be more like Him. But many Christians seem to show up for "practice" on Sunday morning but do no conditioning, no strength training, no daily workouts. They may have enough talent naturally to seem normal and even fool many other Christians, but there is no drive, no desire to grow.
The question then is which type of Christian are you?
Tuesday, August 29, 2017
Tuesday, August 22, 2017
The Coming Judgment
I was waiting for it and then the headline came, "The Solar Eclipse is a Sign that America is Evil". While it may not have been a popular headline, it was a headline none-the-less. I expected it. After all, there are some people who take any astrological oddity to mean that the judgment of God is coming.
Let me be clear. I am not saying that we are not deserving of judgment. I am one hundred percent convinced that our world should be anticipating the coming judgment. I am not saying that God will not judge, in fact - quite the opposite. I am certain with the highest level of certainty that God is indeed going to judge. The Scripture are clear that there is a day of coming judgment. What I am concerned about is the fact that it seems to me that when people state that something is definitively going to happen at such and such a time and they are dead wrong it hurts the body of Christ and the reliability of the Scriptures. This is why it is so critical that we let the Bible speak for itself and focus on teaching what the Scriptures teach.
Let me illustrate my concern this way. If I say that I am going to the store right now and I don't go, I lied. If I say I will go to the store shortly, this gives me a little more clarity and if I don't go right away I have not lied (unless it is days before I actually go). If I say that I will go to the store, this gives me immense freedom. As we apply this to the Bible and its discussion of end times, the Scriptures are clear that Christ is returning to save His church and judge the living and the dead. Absolutely it will happen. But it does not tell us when. Ever. In fact, it says that we do not know the day this will happen. It is not going to be known - it will come like a thief in the night. A thief does not announce his arrival. Yes there will be signs that are given, but if you look at the signs that are given they are signs that indicate that it could happen at any time. In fact, every generation from when Christ ascended, including the first generation of Christians thought that Christ was coming in their generation. And He could have. And that is the point. He could come today. And we need to be ready for His coming - and we need to prepare others for His coming. His coming is imminent. It could happen today.
But please do not go around stating that because it could happen today that it will happen today. Or tomorrow. Or the next solar eclipse, or the next major world event. We do not know when Christ will return. We do know that He will. And so we are to proclaim what we know - we know Christ will return, and that we should be ready. Today. Regardless of astrological sign. Regardless of world event. Preach Christ today!
Let me be clear. I am not saying that we are not deserving of judgment. I am one hundred percent convinced that our world should be anticipating the coming judgment. I am not saying that God will not judge, in fact - quite the opposite. I am certain with the highest level of certainty that God is indeed going to judge. The Scripture are clear that there is a day of coming judgment. What I am concerned about is the fact that it seems to me that when people state that something is definitively going to happen at such and such a time and they are dead wrong it hurts the body of Christ and the reliability of the Scriptures. This is why it is so critical that we let the Bible speak for itself and focus on teaching what the Scriptures teach.
Let me illustrate my concern this way. If I say that I am going to the store right now and I don't go, I lied. If I say I will go to the store shortly, this gives me a little more clarity and if I don't go right away I have not lied (unless it is days before I actually go). If I say that I will go to the store, this gives me immense freedom. As we apply this to the Bible and its discussion of end times, the Scriptures are clear that Christ is returning to save His church and judge the living and the dead. Absolutely it will happen. But it does not tell us when. Ever. In fact, it says that we do not know the day this will happen. It is not going to be known - it will come like a thief in the night. A thief does not announce his arrival. Yes there will be signs that are given, but if you look at the signs that are given they are signs that indicate that it could happen at any time. In fact, every generation from when Christ ascended, including the first generation of Christians thought that Christ was coming in their generation. And He could have. And that is the point. He could come today. And we need to be ready for His coming - and we need to prepare others for His coming. His coming is imminent. It could happen today.
But please do not go around stating that because it could happen today that it will happen today. Or tomorrow. Or the next solar eclipse, or the next major world event. We do not know when Christ will return. We do know that He will. And so we are to proclaim what we know - we know Christ will return, and that we should be ready. Today. Regardless of astrological sign. Regardless of world event. Preach Christ today!
Tuesday, August 15, 2017
Eclipse
There is a great deal of hype that has been building to see a rather unique event in the USA. We are hearing weeks in advance of strategies for how to best view this Great American Eclipse. Even though an eclipse occurs around twice a year, it is unusual in both its visibility across the US and you would have to wait a few years to be able to see another total eclipse. So the buildup and hype continues. There are bus rides you can take, hotels are booked. Traffic is supposed to be terrible in certain areas. And of course there are the warnings to not look at the sun! All of this because of an astrological occurrence.
This got me thinking about the coming of the Son of God. No one hyped his coming. Unless you were the mother and father, or a group of shepherds, you probably did not even hear about it. There was no hype. The most exciting thing was Magi coming two years later that got the King stirred up. He had a fairly normal upbringing and in his adulthood people questioned if anything good could come from Nazareth. He was unhyped. Unpublicized. And at the end of three years of ministry all the hype he had created got Him killed.
I wonder if we as Christians are excited about His return in the way we are excited to see an eclipse. We know it is coming. We know it could be today. And yet what are we doing in our personal lives to prepare? Most of us act as though nothing is happening at all. Many of us fear, wondering perhaps if God is still in control. But most assuredly He is bring about His perfect will, which involves every knee bowing and every tongue confessing. So, if this is even more sure than our ability to see an eclipse, lets get excited about it! Let's tell our neighbors, our friends, anyone who will listen that Jesus is coming back.
And you will not need a pair of special glasses to see Him!
This got me thinking about the coming of the Son of God. No one hyped his coming. Unless you were the mother and father, or a group of shepherds, you probably did not even hear about it. There was no hype. The most exciting thing was Magi coming two years later that got the King stirred up. He had a fairly normal upbringing and in his adulthood people questioned if anything good could come from Nazareth. He was unhyped. Unpublicized. And at the end of three years of ministry all the hype he had created got Him killed.
I wonder if we as Christians are excited about His return in the way we are excited to see an eclipse. We know it is coming. We know it could be today. And yet what are we doing in our personal lives to prepare? Most of us act as though nothing is happening at all. Many of us fear, wondering perhaps if God is still in control. But most assuredly He is bring about His perfect will, which involves every knee bowing and every tongue confessing. So, if this is even more sure than our ability to see an eclipse, lets get excited about it! Let's tell our neighbors, our friends, anyone who will listen that Jesus is coming back.
And you will not need a pair of special glasses to see Him!
Tuesday, August 8, 2017
Crayons on Sale Now at Your Local Retailer
It is that time of year when the center aisle of your local store is crowded with school supplies. When I was a child I always thought it cruel to remind children that school is coming. And now it seems that they begin this cruelty in the middle of July instead of even waiting until August. As a parent I view things a little differently. I thought it would be good to remind us of a few things that we can do as parents to prepare our children for school.
#1 Remind them through word and deed that Jesus comes first.
Your child is uniquely gifted by God to serve Him. That is their number one goal. We need to remind them of this on a regular basis. Good grades are certainly important, but they are not the be-all-end-all of the school experience. Extra-curricular activities can be very beneficial, but they are not the goal of the school experience. Even learning is not the main goal of the educational experience for the follower of Jesus Christ, it is to bring honor and glory to God.
"Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father." Colossians 3:17 (NASB)
Jesus must come first.
#2 Remind them that their value is in their being created in the image of God.
Your child will be tempted to find value in their friends opinions. You child will be tempted to find value in what the media bombards them with. Your child will be tempted to find value in many different places, and it is our job and joy to remind them that they are valuable simply because they are created in God's image, loved by the Almighty and chosen by God to serve. This will aid them greatly in their endeavors.
#3 Remind them to be unique (in the biblical sense) rather than focus on being different.
"Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul. Keep your behavior excellent among the Gentiles so that in the thing in which they slander you as evildoers, they may because of your good deeds, as they observe them, glorify God in the day of visitation." 1 Peter 2:11-12 (NASB)
We are a unique people, chosen by God to bring Him glory. Thus the world will have questions, they may persecute us, they may cause us harm. Our responsibility in this is to do good deeds and show that we are unique.
Basically, remind them they are here for the glory of God and not for anything else! My prayer is that your children will have a blessed school year and that God will truly use them for His honor and glory!
#1 Remind them through word and deed that Jesus comes first.
Your child is uniquely gifted by God to serve Him. That is their number one goal. We need to remind them of this on a regular basis. Good grades are certainly important, but they are not the be-all-end-all of the school experience. Extra-curricular activities can be very beneficial, but they are not the goal of the school experience. Even learning is not the main goal of the educational experience for the follower of Jesus Christ, it is to bring honor and glory to God.
"Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father." Colossians 3:17 (NASB)
Jesus must come first.
#2 Remind them that their value is in their being created in the image of God.
Your child will be tempted to find value in their friends opinions. You child will be tempted to find value in what the media bombards them with. Your child will be tempted to find value in many different places, and it is our job and joy to remind them that they are valuable simply because they are created in God's image, loved by the Almighty and chosen by God to serve. This will aid them greatly in their endeavors.
#3 Remind them to be unique (in the biblical sense) rather than focus on being different.
"Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul. Keep your behavior excellent among the Gentiles so that in the thing in which they slander you as evildoers, they may because of your good deeds, as they observe them, glorify God in the day of visitation." 1 Peter 2:11-12 (NASB)
We are a unique people, chosen by God to bring Him glory. Thus the world will have questions, they may persecute us, they may cause us harm. Our responsibility in this is to do good deeds and show that we are unique.
Basically, remind them they are here for the glory of God and not for anything else! My prayer is that your children will have a blessed school year and that God will truly use them for His honor and glory!
Tuesday, August 1, 2017
Proverbs 3:5-6
"Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your paths straight." Proverbs 3:5-6 (NASB)
These are typically pretty familiar verses. The theme of trusting God is a common one in the Scriptures and one that I think we would all agree that we need to do. We know that we need to trust God. We know that we need to acknowledge that He is supreme ruler. One big problem is how we view ourselves. We think that God is the supreme ruler but that He has made us slightly less than supreme but rulers none-the-less. We think that we should have control and say over our own life. And so I thought it would be prudent (a good word in Proverbs) to examine the phrases of these verses in more detail.
"with all your heart" - I am not going to address the phrase trust in the Lord as I think that most people know what that means at least on a basic level. But this phrase gives us the extent we are to trust God. We are to trust God with all. Everything. Nothing held back that we trust in other than God. No part of our heart that we keep or give to anything except for God Himself. God wants all of us. The heart in the ancient near east was symbolic of the whole of life. Without the heart there was no life, and so life is synonymous with heart. The muscle that pumps blood is everything to us and so we are to give our everything to God in trust. That is challenging on its own, but then the author strengthens his position in two ways.
"lean not on your own understanding" - this gives us the opposite of what it looks like to trust. Note that for this text the opposite of trust is not distrust, but trusting in yourself. This is where I find the most challenge. God does not simply want me to trust Him when I am at the end of myself. He calls for my trust at the beginning, the middle, the end, and in all of who I am. I am not at any moment to trust what I think, what my experience is, or what I believe. In all of it I am to trust God. I am to live for His glory and not my own. My WHOLE LIFE belongs to Him and I am trust Him with all of it! Despite this challenge there is a further clarification.
"In all your ways" - every path that we take. Do you get the idea of what is being said? In all of us, we are to trust none of us but all of God and everywhere we go and everything we do should exemplify our deep abiding trust in God and our complete surrender to Him. When we do this the text tells us that He will make our paths straight. So many people want direction, they want guidance, but they are unwilling to surrender. We want a God who tells us what we want to hear and spend little time listening through His Word to what He would have us do. When we trust and obey (there is no other way) we will find the joy that we seek. But we have to submit and surrender to find this kind of serenity!
These are typically pretty familiar verses. The theme of trusting God is a common one in the Scriptures and one that I think we would all agree that we need to do. We know that we need to trust God. We know that we need to acknowledge that He is supreme ruler. One big problem is how we view ourselves. We think that God is the supreme ruler but that He has made us slightly less than supreme but rulers none-the-less. We think that we should have control and say over our own life. And so I thought it would be prudent (a good word in Proverbs) to examine the phrases of these verses in more detail.
"with all your heart" - I am not going to address the phrase trust in the Lord as I think that most people know what that means at least on a basic level. But this phrase gives us the extent we are to trust God. We are to trust God with all. Everything. Nothing held back that we trust in other than God. No part of our heart that we keep or give to anything except for God Himself. God wants all of us. The heart in the ancient near east was symbolic of the whole of life. Without the heart there was no life, and so life is synonymous with heart. The muscle that pumps blood is everything to us and so we are to give our everything to God in trust. That is challenging on its own, but then the author strengthens his position in two ways.
"lean not on your own understanding" - this gives us the opposite of what it looks like to trust. Note that for this text the opposite of trust is not distrust, but trusting in yourself. This is where I find the most challenge. God does not simply want me to trust Him when I am at the end of myself. He calls for my trust at the beginning, the middle, the end, and in all of who I am. I am not at any moment to trust what I think, what my experience is, or what I believe. In all of it I am to trust God. I am to live for His glory and not my own. My WHOLE LIFE belongs to Him and I am trust Him with all of it! Despite this challenge there is a further clarification.
"In all your ways" - every path that we take. Do you get the idea of what is being said? In all of us, we are to trust none of us but all of God and everywhere we go and everything we do should exemplify our deep abiding trust in God and our complete surrender to Him. When we do this the text tells us that He will make our paths straight. So many people want direction, they want guidance, but they are unwilling to surrender. We want a God who tells us what we want to hear and spend little time listening through His Word to what He would have us do. When we trust and obey (there is no other way) we will find the joy that we seek. But we have to submit and surrender to find this kind of serenity!
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