Something Completely Different—Part 3

Earlier this week, I was thinking about C.S. Lewis and some of his works that have influenced my life in profound ways. Not the least of these works is his 7 volume children’s book series, entitled The Chronicles of Narnia in which children discover an alternate realm that mirrors Biblical truths. The first of these books (and my favorite, I might add) is called The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

In this book, a young girl named Lucy stumbles upon Narnia from a magical wardrobe in the home of a professor they have gone to stay with during the Blitz in London in 1940. While there, she meets a fawn (half human, half goat) and befriends him. Going back to the professor’s house, she then tells her two brothers and one sister about the world she found. Not being able to find it themselves, they believe her to be lying.

Later on, however, youngest brother, Edmund stumbles into Narnia as well. While there he meets the White Witch who enchants him with sweets and gets him to promise her that he will bring his brother and two sisters to her when they get back. He then finds Lucy and they return to the professor’s house and Edmund plays as if he’s never been there, but only playing along with Lucy.

To figure this whole thing out, the oldest two children, Peter and Susan, decide to talk to the old professor, who asks them this question: “And your sister, she has a habit of lying?” to which they both reply, “No sir. In fact, quite the opposite. I would think that Ed would be the one to lie more that Lucy.”

The professor then replies, “If you believe your sister to be the more honest of the two, then why are you not believing her?”

“Because it can’t be true,” Susan answers. “I mean, magic, other worlds in the back of a wardrobe? It can’t be true!”

“If your sister is the one who is the most honest, that it must follow that she is the one telling the truth.” The professor’s reply here has much to say to us today. Allow me to reflect on two of them.

The first issue that I want to talk about is integrity. Integrity is the very thing that Edmund had lost and Lucy had gained. How? Simply by being honest in little things. The little things matter greatly in the minds of people when it comes to trust, integrity and believably. Even when the tale is, to our ears, “preposterous,” those with integrity will be believed.

The second is the issue trust. Those who are habitual liars are not to be trusted, but to be shunned. Those who cannot tell the truth are to be cast off, and not listened to. But those who are always faithful, honest, loyal and truthful ought to be followed, listened to and, yes, even obeyed.

There is one who speaks often to our hearts, souls and minds Who has never once lied to us. He is always telling the truth, because He is the Author of Truth. There is one who will never lead us in the wrong direction because He’s been there and knows the way we should be going. That Person is, of course, God Almighty.

So when God tells you something, or asks you to do something, don’t hem and haw…obey…now! He can be trusted, because He has never once lied to you or let you down…AND HE NEVER WILL!

We’ll see you on Sunday!

Celebration Week 26

This week, we will celebrate with two more Christmas songs. If you haven’t noticed the pattern yet, we will be celebrating Christmas for the rest of the month.

Our first selection is from Mannheim Steamroller, and it is their version of God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen.

Our second selection is from Michael W. Smith, and it is called Gloria (Angels We Have Heard on High).

Enjoy! And we’ll see you on Sunday!

Something Completely Different—Part 2

I was watching the snow fall this past Sunday morning, and it got me to thinking about the passage of Scripture that tells us “though your sins are like scarlet, I will make them as white as snow. Though they are red like crimson, I will make them as white as wool.” (Isaiah 1:18—NLT)

Yesterday we talked about praying for people who pop into your mind. Today I want to tell you about a practice that I try and do at least once a day, and most of the time at the end of the day or even throughout the day. It is the practice of repentance.

What I try and do is find a moment or two where there is nothing pressing on my time. No phones to answer, no kids to watch, no sermon to write, no letter to mail, no book to read, no TV to watch, no nothing. I just get alone and I pray this very simple prayer. It goes like this:

“Lord, please reveal to me anything in my life
that is offensive to You. Bring it to my mind that
I may confess it and repent.”

Then I wait. I allow my mind to think back through my day, afternoon, morning, whatever, and think about those things that I have done, said, thought or even considered that might have been offensive to God. If there is nothing, I say “Praise God!” and go about my day. But when there is something (and more often than not there is), I move on with my confession.

Confession of sin is simply agreeing with God that what I have done is offensive to Him. It is stating that I have sinned, and I need to be forgiven. I confess my sins to God because that is what I am commanded to do (1 John 1:9—“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us…”).

Once I have confessed and received God’s forgiveness, I then need to continue on toward repentance. Repentance is turning from those things I have done that offend God and moving toward Him. Obviously, this assumes I know His Word and His will for my life, so that I can move in the right direction. But I must fill the void of sin with holiness.

Jesus put it this way in Matthew 12:43-45:

“When an evil spirit leaves a person, it goes into the desert, seeking rest but finding none. Then it says, ‘I will return to the person I came from.’ So it returns and finds its former home empty, swept, and in order. Then the spirit finds seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they all enter the person and live there. And so that person is worse off than before.” (Emphasis added)

Notice that this “evil spirit” left the person for a time, but when it came back, there was nothing there to replace it. I think that Jesus is telling us that when we seek forgiveness through confession of sin, we are truly cleansed. That’s the promise of God in 1 John 1:9. But the problem is that we don’t replace that sin with something holy. So repentance is replacing the sin in our lives with something else that is holy and righteous.

Now please don’t misunderstand. I am not saying that the things that we replace our sin with must necessarily be spiritual things. They could be things like hobbies, crafts, etc. that are wholesome and bring us a connection to God. If you noticed in the discourse that Jesus was giving to His disciples in Matthew 12, the life of the person was empty, leaving room for the evil spirit (or what I might call “besetting sin” or “habitual sin”) to come back.

So when you do this, ask God to show you your failures, confess them, then repent of them and fill that void with something that will honor God in your life.

If you do that every day (or even multiple times a day), you’ll find that your “sin accounts” with God will be kept very short…and joy will fill your life!

Have a great Tuesday, and we’ll see you on Sunday!

Something Completely Different

This week, I thought I’d take a break from the normal routine of how we do things here and just write about a few random thoughts that have been bouncing around in my noggin. I know that most of you are thinking right now, “There must be a lot of room in there for those thoughts to be bouncing around,” and you’d be right. But the truth of the matter is that there is nothing like having an opportunity to share some concerns, encouragements, challenges and (hopefully) blessings with all of you.

So now for something completely different!

Have you ever woken up in the morning (or evening, depending on your sleeping habits) and had someone totally random come to your mind? Perhaps you dreamed about that person and now you’re thinking about them and their face, name or whatever just will not leave your mind. I have had that happen often (again, it may be the consequence of having such an empty mind J).

What do you do when that happens? Do you laugh and just write it off as a weird coincidence? Or do you (like me) believe that there is no such thing as coincidence? Perhaps there is a reason that this person whom you haven’t thought about for ages, seemingly randomly pops into your mind. Let me share a story, and then a challenge:

There was a missionary in Africa who worked inland with a tribe of natives who were constantly at war with another tribe. When the missionary was low on supplies, he decided to go to the nearest town (a two day journey) and stock up. Those in the tribe urged him not go out because there had been threats on the tribe from their rivals and they feared that the missionary would be killed on his return trip and the supplies stolen.

The supplies were needed and so the missionary decided to put his trust in God and make the journey anyway. He made it to town without incident and bought the needed supplies. On the return trip, he made camp where he had on the way in, and proceeded to go to sleep. The next morning, we was still alive and headed back to the village.

When he arrived, the tribespeople were excited to see him, for they thought that he would certainly be killed. But later that day, a group of men from the rival tribe came into the village unarmed (a rarity) and sought out the missionary. They then asked him, “Who were the men who were protecting you last night?” The missionary was confused. “I was all alone last night as I was on the way into the town. There was no one with me.”

“No!” answered the men. “There were eight men with torches standing around you, and they would not allow us to get near you. We intended to kill you and take your supplies, but they would not allow it.”

The missionary rejoiced in the protection of God and used that incident to reach to the enemy tribe of the tribe he was working with and as a result, peace between the two tribes ensued and there was much work done for the Gospel.

Later, when that missionary went home on furlough, he was sharing the story in one of his supporting churches. After he told that story, a man came up to him and said, “What was the date that this incident occurred?”

The missionary thought it a strange question, and after some thought he shared the date on which it happened. The man who had asked the question began to smile broadly and he said, “That very night, I was awakened and your name was on my mind. I tried to go back to sleep, but I could not. I just kept thinking about you. So I got out of bed, and said a prayer for you and went back to sleep. The next day, your name was still on my mind. I tried to work, but I couldn’t. You were all I could think about. So I called the men in my prayer group at about 3 PM and said to them, ‘I have no idea why, but we need to be praying for this missionary.’ So we got together at 4 at my house and we prayed through the night until about midnight, when we finally felt that all was well.”

Flabbergasted, the missionary inquired how many men were in his prayer group. “There are 10 of us,” he replied. The missionary thought that maybe the number of men praying might have been the same as the number of men seen by those who had meant him harm that night, but that was not the case…until the other man said, “but only 8 of us were able to make it that night.”

When God places seemingly random people on your heart, pray for them. Pray hard and make sure you keep praying until the Spirit says it is time to stop. You may never know the power of your prayers!

So keep on praying, and we’ll see you on Sunday!

Ascent Week 26

Psalm 130

Out of the depths I cry to you, O LORD;

   O Lord, hear my voice.

Let your ears be attentive

   to my cry for mercy.

If you, O LORD, kept a record of sins,

   O Lord, who could stand?

But with you there is forgiveness;

   therefore you are feared.

I wait for the LORD, my soul waits;

   and in his word I put my hope.

My soul waits for the Lord

   more than watchmen wait for the morning,

   more than watchmen wait for the morning.

O Israel, put your hope in the LORD,

   for with the LORD is unfailing love

   and with him is full redemption.

He himself will redeem Israel

   from all their sins.

Trust

We are a nation that has very little in the way of trust of those who are in authority over us. We feel that most people are looking out for themselves and that whenever they react with us, it is always for their advantage and not ours.

But the sad part is that many times we wind up equating that same thought process to God. When He breaks through our defenses, we tend to think, “He’s after something.” I think that’s why so many people in our culture have a hard time coming to God and giving over their lives to Jesus…they simply do not trust Him (or anyone for that matter).

But Jesus came into this world for no other reason but to give His life as a ransom. PLEASE keep reading, because what I’m about to say here might very well change the course of your life.

You see, you and I and every other person who has ever lived had a huge problem. That problem is that we were born into sin. Because of what Adam did when disobeyed God in the Garden of Eden, the nature of sin has been passed on to each and every one of Adam’s descendants…including you and me. And so, we are sinners because that is the inheritance that we receive.

It has nothing to do with whether we’re good enough or not, because we aren’t. We are born into sin, and we are plagued with it until the day we die. But Jesus came into the world as a ransom…a payment for our sin. That baby that we celebrate in the stable went on to grow up over the course of 33 years and become a man who would lay down His life on the cross. And on that cross, He took the punishment for your sin and mine.

Paul said that “the wages of sin is death.” That means that we deserve death because that’s what we have earned through our sinful nature. But he also went on to say that “the gift of God is eternal life.” That means that God wants to give us eternal life as a gift…not because we have earned it or because we are good enough (because we’re not), but simply because He wanted to.

But like all gifts, it had to be paid for. And the payment for our eternal life was eternal death. So Jesus, the God-Man, allowed Himself to be crucified so that the eternal death and separation of a man from God the Father could be born out in Him. God the Father turned His back on God the Son so that in that moment when Jesus cried out, “My God! My God! Why have you forsaken me?!” He experienced a separation of Himself with the Father. It boggles the mind, actually, but that’s what was necessary for you and me to be able to have that gift.

Now, there is no other who could have purchased this gift, and because of that fact, there is no other who can offer it. Mohammad cannot offer you eternal life because he did not pay the price for it. Buddha cannot offer you eternal life because he did not pay the price for it. New Age cannot offer you eternal life because it did not pay the price for it. L. Ron Hubbard (the author and founder of Dianetics) cannot offer you eternal life because he did not pay for it. Satan cannot offer you eternal life because he did not pay for it. There is only One who paid that price, and that is Jesus Christ our Lord. That’s why Paul says at the end of that verse that the gift only comes “through Jesus Christ”.

So, my friend, as you read this, have you been moved to think about your life and your eternal soul? There is no better time than now to make that decision to give your life to Christ, to trust in Him, and to allow Him to have full rule and reign in your life. Do it today!

And we’ll see you on Sunday!

Boldness

In a world where most people just want you to be quiet if you don’t agree, or aren’t like them, boldness can seem pretty scary. But the truth of the matter is that we have been called to boldness a part of living out our Christian lives. Boldness is a trait that was found in almost every one of the apostles, and Jesus was also incredibly bold.

Boldness has kind of lost its luster today because, let’s face it, Christianity has come under tremendous fire as of late. We are called bigots (as people in the world seem to think of us as mostly white), homophobes (as people in the world seem to think that we hate those in LGTBQ community), sexist (as people in the world seem to think that Christianity subjugates women), and all around bullies (as people in the world seem to think that we all want people to accept our belief system or die). So we are faced with a huge task of being relevant, but at the same time staying true to what we believe, and that takes some boldness.

We’ll talk more on this tomorrow, but suffice it to say that if we are not being bold in the conversations that we have with the people around us, chances are they are not going to hear the Gospel from anyone else. The truth of the matter is that God has strategically placed you in the lives of the people around you to help them know Jesus. This takes boldness, because it is hard to speak up for Christ sometimes. But as a Christ follower in the 21^st century, we need to be clear, true to the Scriptures, and bold in our proclamation of who we are and who Christ is.

So be bold today in your dealings with people, and be true to the Word of God. Be careful to do the things that demonstrate the goodness of God, and find yourself reaching those around you with the Gospel!

Be bold, and we’ll see you on Sunday!