Monthly Archives: October 2012

More Proof, Please!

31 Wednesday Oct 2012

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Why did John the Baptist request for more proof? He asked, “Are you the Expected One, or should we expect another?” This is a puzzling question at face value, coming from John, because of his earlier statements about Jesus.

The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” John 1:29

Then John gave the testimony: I saw the Spirit of God come down from heaven as a dove and remain on him. John 1:32

I have seen and testify that He is the Son of God.” John 1:34

 

So why did John ask for further evidence of Christ’s credentials as the Promised Messiah if he was previously convinced? Have you ever had such doubts? Do doubts mean we are not men and women of faith?

Some say John became discouraged while he was languishing in prison and needed assurance. In other words…he was experiencing the blues. Others have postulated that Jesus wasn’t carrying out His ministry the way John envisioned the Messiah should have. John’s mission had the distinct characteristic of judgment, while Jesus’ ministry had the distinction of mercy. Perhaps John was perplexed as to why Jesus ministry didn’t complement his ministry.

  • Why hadn’t Jesus called down the wrath of God on sinners?
  • Why hadn’t the King of Kings dethroned the despots of Roman tyranny?
  • Why hadn’t Jesus abolished the hypocritical religious establishment?

If you look closely at the content of John’s preaching and character of his lifestyle… this could be the reason he was having doubts. Everyone else misunderstood Jesus…so why not John. Thankfully, Jesus had an answer for John and he has an answer for us today as well.

Jesus replied, “Go back and report to John what you hear and see: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor. Blessed is the man who does not fall away on account of me.  Luke 7:4-6

 

Why didn’t Jesus just say… “Yes, I am the Messiah. Don’t worry John. Everything is on target.” Jesus didn’t take this approach, but the answer he gave John was even better. Jesus gave John evidence. Jesus gave John the same evidence to prove He was and is the Messiah as we have been given. Jesus reminded John of His mission and how He fulfilled scripture.

Yet still, some won’t believe in Jesus as the one sent from God. They say a skeptic is a person, who, when he sees the handwriting on the wall, claims it’s a forgery. You just have to wonder about some people – they think God is dead and Elvis is alive. The evidences Jesus listed in His answer to John were acts of compassion. It was what John needed to hear and it is what we need to hear some 2000 years later. The miracles of His public ministry were a precursor to His trip to the cross. There He would deal with mankind’s greatest problems – sin and death.

There is one more segment to Christ’s answer. “Blessed is the man who does not fall away on account of me.” (Luke 7:6) The Greek word for “fall away” is “skandalizo”. It literally means “to trip up” or to “stumble“. Jesus is in effect saying to John, “John, don’t stumble over my willingness to heal, forgive, and have compassion on people. There will be a time for judgment, but now is the time for grace.” There are a lot of things we can get offended over in the religious world. People do a lot of crazy things in the name of the Lord. But Jesus Himself is NOT one of those issues we need to get offended over. If there is anything about Jesus’ ministry and life that offends you …change the way you believe.

This passage provides for help to those having doubts. It shows us step by step what to do for those having doubts.

1. Go to Jesus

The first thing John did when in doubt, he sent two disciples straight to talk to Jesus. Jesus didn’t chase them away or discourage them. He took their concerns seriously and gave them the evidence John needed to answer his doubts.

2. Remember The God of Your Youth

After Jesus had performed miracles, He answered and said to them, “Go and tell John the things which you hear and see.” This reminds me of Ecclesiastes 12:1 “Remember now your Creator in the days of your youth.” Sometimes when we are plagued by doubts, we need to think back to the simple days of our youth. This was a time when we knew and believed that God made the Sun, the moon, and the stars. There is nothing wrong with returning back to a time when faith was simple.

3. Remember Your Salvation and Blessings

When we begin to doubt, we need to remember that we were once like the blind man, we were once walking around in darkness, we were as the leper, we were unclean and dead spiritually.

When you doubt, you need to think back to the day when you as a sinner maybe hooked on alcohol or hooked on drugs, living a life of adultery, living a life with no purpose, full of sin….. But you came to an altar and God Almighty delivered you, and cleansed your soul. Back in those days you had no doubt that there was a God because you felt His presence.

Several years ago a newspaper in Biloxi, Mississippi ran an article about an attempted suicide. A young woman apparently thought her life held no meaning so she jumped off a bridge into the waters of the Mississippi River.

A man nearby saw her jump, and without thinking, jumped in after her. It didn’t occur to him until after he was in the water that he couldn’t swim! Now there were two people in the water facing death. His screams for help and flailing limbs caught the attention of the young woman who pulled the drowning man to safety.

The writer of the newspaper article finished with this thought: “It wasn’t the gentleman who saved that woman’s life that night; it was purpose. No doubt, the man meant well. But what he provided for her was one moment where life offered meaning: the opportunity to save a man’s life. She had a clear purpose and objective… She tapped into the energy that was inside all the time when she finally linked up to a mission.”

Like John the Baptist, like the woman in the river, there will be times in our life when we too forget our purpose and reason for being. It is usually in these dark moments we begin to doubt and question God. If you find yourself in a dark place, return to the Lord and allow Him to restore your life. He loves you.

Blessings,

Pastor

 

Is Jesus Christ Enough?

30 Tuesday Oct 2012

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As a kid, did you ever want something for Christmas so badly, you swore you’d never ask for anything again if you simply received that special gift? Then, when you got what you wanted, you said to yourself, “this is not what I expected.”

As a teenager, you’ve heard so much about the prom or graduating and what it was going to be like. You spent all those years waiting, only to conclude afterward… “This is not what I expected.”

As an adult, you couldn’t wait to get that new car or that home, or even to get married. Then when you finally achieved those goals you thought to yourself, “This is not what I expected.”

Here is the point…. Life is going to be full of situations which are not going to turn out the way we hoped they would. Many times in life we may end up saying… “this is not what I expected.” Not only does this happen to us in the normal flow of life, it occurs in our spiritual lives as well. Anyone who has made a serious commitment to follow God is going to run into situations in which they say, “God, this is not what I expected.”

John the Baptist was sitting in jail one day and began to think these same types of thoughts. “God, this is not what I was expecting to happen to my life. Serving You and introducing the world to Jesus is not what I thought it would be.” Listen to his request.

 John’s disciples told him about all these things. Calling two of them, 19 he sent them to the Lord to ask, “Are You the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?” Luke 7:18-19

 

Maybe John thought he would live a long and prosperous life. Even before he was born, an angel had told his father, “He is going to be a great preacher and will lead many back to the Lord.” As the boy grew, he kept hearing the stories about how his father could not speak from the moment he first received news he would have a son.

I am sure people would look at John and say, “One day that boy is going to be somebody. Do you remember his birth?” But even though his father had been a priest, John did not follow his father’s footsteps. Time passed and people had pretty much forgotten John’s so-called miraculous birth and his alleged mission from God. He was in his twenties now, and now when people saw him they would say, “now there’s one life that did not turn out the way I expected.” John was living in the desert, dressed in clothing made of camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist. His food consisted of locusts and wild honey. All this didn’t sound like the prophecies of old.

BUT, THE DAY CAME –

But then one day, in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, the Bible tells us that the word of God came to John in the desert. God must have said, “John, I’ve heard your prayers time and time again, but the time was not ripe. But now it’s time to do what I promised your parents you would do.” It was about 25 years ago that God had made a promise to his parents.

Let me parenthetically say, part of the reason we do not get what we expect from God is because we think in terms of praying today and getting answers tomorrow. When God gives us a word it may take years for it to come to fruition. Our job is to get ready so God can make it happen… not make it happen ourselves.

People came from all around to hear John preach. They would fall on their knees in repentance before God. After repentance, they were baptized by John and his disciples. The size of the crowds kept getting bigger and bigger. John baptized so many people that they started calling him John the Baptist. Nothing like this had ever happened in Israel. Some were thinking John might be the Messiah. John said “No, I’m not the Messiah. Not me!”
One day John the Baptist saw Jesus, and he said, “There He is! This is the lamb of God. He’s the one I was telling you would come after me.” John’s disciples even began to leave him and follow Jesus.

BUT THE DAY WENT –

Even after Jesus began His ministry John continued to preach, but the crowds were getting smaller because the people were following after Jesus. One day, one of John’s disciples was a little upset by this and he told John, “You know teacher, that guy you pointed out as the ‘Lamb of God’, well everybody has started going to Him to be baptized. What are we going to do about this? This is not what we expected to happen.” John said, “I didn’t come to compete with Him. I came to prepare the way for Him. I’m glad. ‘He must increase, and I must decrease.‘”

John kept on preaching. He preached a message one day on marriage and divorce. Herod and Phillip came up in the sermon. John was arrested, thrown in jail, and almost forgotten. After being there for a month, I’m sure John was thinking, “This is not what I expected.” There he sat looking at the cold, damp walls of his prison cell. The first month turned into two, the two into four, and the four into eight. The large crowds he had preached to were only a memory now. He kept hearing reports about what Jesus was doing.

It was in this prison cell John began to have doubts. He just had to know…”Was Jesus the Christ, the Expected One?” John had given his entire life to prepare the way for the Messiah. Now, he was in jail for his efforts. The prophecies didn’t mention jail. The prophecies didn’t mention that John would be forgotten. How could John continue to prepare the way for the Lord if he spent the rest of his life in jail? It was here in this dark place that John had to ask and answer the question every follower of Jesus Christ has to ask and answer… Is Christ Enough?

 

 

Is Christ enough for you? Do you have expectations of the Lord which are not being met? I will address this more in the next few blogs, but suffice it to say, there is nothing wrong with asking these types of questions. If we neglect to address our doubts, they will eventually eat us up from the inside out. John took his doubts to the Lord, Himself. If John took this course of action…so should we. The Lord knows exactly what we need to hear.

There is a story of a philosopher who took a stroll one evening to ponder the meaning of life. With disheveled hair and dressed in ragged clothes, he wandered in the rain through dimly lit streets in a state of deep reflection. The police noticed him and thought he looked suspicious.  They abruptly cornered him and asked, “Who are you?” and “Where are you going?” To which the philosopher replied, “Those are the very questions I’m trying to answer. Can you help me?”

We do not have live like this puzzled and bewildered philosopher. Christ is enough. We only need to go to Him and allow Him to speak to the issues of our life.

Blessings,

Pastor

 

When You Have Come to the Edge…

28 Sunday Oct 2012

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If you have ever been at the edge you will appreciate this quote.  Have a blessed weekend.

Blessings,

Pastor

Portraits of the Blessed #4 Negate-the-Hate and Know-Your-Fate!

24 Wednesday Oct 2012

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22 “Blessed are you when men hate you and when they exclude you, And revile you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of Man’s sake.”

26 “Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for their fathers used to treat the false prophets in the same way.”  Luke 6:22,26

 

Believers need to understand there are real causes for persecution. Jesus affirms such reasons in this passage. Unfortunately, the sad truth is that many Christians are persecuted not for their faith or for Christ, but because they are so unpleasant to be around. Some believers are rude, insensitive, thoughtless, and piously obnoxious. Others face rejection because they are thought to be proud and judgmental. These folks are the butt of jokes and constant harassment. I know there is no premium on stupidity… but it is these types of dues we needn’t pay. Peter warned us long ago about this issue.

If you are reproached for the name of Christ, blessed are you, for the Spirit of Glory and of God rests on you. On their part He is blasphemed, but on your part He is glorified. 15 But let none of you suffer as a murderer, a thief, an evildoer, or as a busybody in other people’s matters. 16 Yet if any suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in this matter. 1 Peter 4:14-16

 

According to Peter, there is no intrinsic merit in being rejected and persecuted, but only in being thus mistreated on account of our service for Christ. It is impossible to negate all the hate out in the world. All true professors of Christ will experience some level of persecution. Jesus emphatically stated, “If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you.” (John 15:20) Our call is to expect persecution, not create it.

Knowing this, Jesus warns His followers of the persecution which will surely follow the real believer. A paraphrase of verse 26 says, “There’s trouble ahead when you live only for the approval of others, saying what flatters them, doing what indulges them. Popularity contests are not truth contests. Your task is to be true, not popular.” I like being both truthful and popular. How about you? When the world pushes us, and it surely will… we will ultimately have to sacrifice our truth or our popularity. If in the end we find men speaking well of us, then we have sacrificed our truth.

There is an old saying, “Even a dead dog can swim with the tide.” To swim against the tide you have to be alive and kicking. A person who is persecuted because of Christ is the only one truly living. Resistance is not futile…it proves you are alive for the Lord. Persecution becomes the only true gauge of how closely we are walking with Christ. If you find the tide always going the other direction, it is not a curse but simply an indicator. Keep swimming! There is nothing in the world’s waters you need anyway. When we do latch on to worldly items floating round, we stop swimming and thus drift with the tide.

In New York City, there are eight million cats and eleven million dogs. New York City is basically just concrete and steel, so when you have a pet in New York City and it dies, you can’t just go out in the back yard and bury it. A while back the city authorities decided that for $50, they would dispose of your deceased pet for you. (I don’t think this is the case now.)

One lady was enterprising. She thought, I can render a service to people in the city and save them money. She placed an ad in the newspaper that said, “When your pet dies, I will come and take care of the carcass for you for $25.” This lady would go to the local Salvation Army and buy an old suitcase for two dollars. Then when someone would call about his or her pet, she would go to the home and put the deceased pet in the suitcase.

She would then take a ride on the subway, where there were thieves. She would set the suitcase down, and she would act like she wasn’t watching. A thief would come by and steal her suitcase. She’d look up and half-heartedly cry, “Wait. Stop. Thief.” My guess is the people who stole those suitcases got a real surprise when they got home.

A lot of us are like those New York thieves. We’re chasing after anything we think will bring fulfillment. When we get it home… it is not what we thought it would be in the beginning. Life attractions simply fail to deliver. Once we latch on to them, the tides of the world cause us to drift and we lose the ground we had gained.

If you find that your zeal or spiritual hunger is not what it should be, then I give you the same counsel that Jesus gave to the church in Ephesus which had left it’s first love. What Jesus said to them, He is saying to us. “You have forsaken your first love. Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first.” (Revelation 2:4,5)

Blessings,

Pastor

 

Portraits of the Blessed- #3 Learning to Laugh and Cry With God

22 Monday Oct 2012

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“Blessed are you who weep now, For you shall laugh.”

“Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep.” Luke 6:21,25

 

Jesus is not attacking laughter and promoting sadness.  If Jesus was attacking laughter, I would be in deep trouble! I like a little levity. I don’t think Jesus wants His followers to be grim, dull, sad, and joyless. “A cheerful heart is good medicine.” (Proverbs 17:22.)

What Jesus is attacking is the superficial, shallow humor which characterizes most of the world. I believe apart from knowing God we are unable to weep over the right issues and conversely, we laugh about the wrong events. We were designed to both laugh and cry. What, when, and how we express those emotions is the issue. Comedians know the best joke material is found in the serious situations of life. Situations which should make us cry, they turn into funny material. There is nothing inherently wrong with doing this on occasion.  But when every situation becomes a joke and we are unable to discern the sarcasm… something is wrong.

Kent Hughes probably states it best in his book Luke: That You May Know the Truth. Vol. 1.

We are called to weep over lost souls, people who will go into eternal darkness without Christ. We are to weep over the world’s misery, over injustice that falls on so many helpless people, over the unfairness that victimizes the weak, child abuse, battered spouses, over marriages destroyed by adultery, over homes destroyed by divorce, over rejection, over those who laugh now but who, unless they turn to Christ, will suffer an eternity apart from God.

 

It is OK to laugh and make jokes. Jesus did when He called James and John “sons of thunder.” Jesus also cried over unbelief, the lost House of Israel, and the death of a friend. We too need to appropriately express our emotions. If not, we will also explode and eventually burn out.

Jesus warns of inappropriately expressing the wrong emotions at the wrong time. “Woe to you who laugh now, For you shall mourn and weep.” (25) The type of laughter Luke is referring to is more than a quick chuckle. This type of laughter indicates a satisfaction and a contentment in which we believe life is flowing correctly. Listen to how The Message paraphrases this verse. “It’s trouble ahead if you think life’s all fun and games, There’s suffering to be met and you’re going to meet it.”

Jesus’ call is for all to laugh and weep at the appropriate time. The disciple of Christ is to be sensitive to both good and evil in the world. Sometimes it means we are to weep over what is absent around us, like love, justice, and peace. Praise the Lord, no condition is permanent. Even though sometimes it is difficult to discern if something “good” is happening… the Lord assures us He is in control. Eventually He causes “all things to work together for good.”  I believe the Lord will give us clues to know when we are to laugh and cry. One of the greatest pleasures in life is to be given the opportunities to laugh and cry with the Lord.

The story below demonstrates how desperately we desire to turn bad situations into good. Even at young ages we laugh and weep over the wrong situations.
Alexander M. Sanders, Jr., is the Chief Judge of the South Carolina Court of Appeals. When his daughter Zoe graduated from the University of South Carolina in 1992, he told this story that happened when she was just three years old. Sanders came home from work one day to find his home — and especially his young daughter — in a state of turmoil. Zoe’s pet turtle had died, and she was crying as if her heart would break.

Zoe’s mother had been dealing with the situation all day and declared that it was now Dad’s turn to try and make things better. Although he was successful both as a lawyer and a politician, who confidently faced all kinds of complex issues and problems every day, this seemed out of his league. The mysteries of life and death are difficult, if not impossible for the mature mind to fathom.

The task of explaining them to a three-year-old was completely beyond either his confidence or experience. But he tried. First, he told Zoe that they could go to the pet store and buy another one just like the one who had died. Even at three years old, Zoe was smart enough to know that a turtle is not a toy. There’s really no such thing as getting another one just like the one who died. And so Zoe’s tears continued.

Desperate to quiet his little girl’s tears, he said, ‘I tell you what, we’ll have a funeral for the turtle.’ Being three years old, she didn’t know what a funeral was. Scrambling to come up with an explanation — as well as something that would get her mind off the turtle’s demise, he said, ‘A funeral is like a birthday party. We’ll have ice cream and cake and lemonade and balloons, and all the children in the neighborhood will come over to our house to play. All because the turtle died.’ Well, the prospect of a turtle funeral did the trick. Instantly, Zoe was her happy, smiling self. The turtle’s death was no longer cause for tears, but reason to rejoice. So, with visions of cake and ice cream in their heads, the two beamed down on the deceased turtle lying at their feet. As they did, the turtle began to move. And a few seconds later, he was crawling away as lively as — well, as lively as a turtle, but an undeniably LIVE turtle.

Then an even stranger thing happened. Sanders — a politician and a lawyer — was speechless. Zoe had no such problem. She still wanted her funeral party.   After considering her options, she looked up at her father with her big beautiful eyes and — with all the innocence of her tender years — she said quietly, ‘Daddy, Let’s kill it.’”

Blessings,

Pastor

 

Fourteen Inspirational & Motivational Quotes

20 Saturday Oct 2012

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Have a Blessed Weekend,

Pastor

 

 

 

Portraits of the Blessed #2 Don’t Go Around Hungry!

17 Wednesday Oct 2012

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21 “Blessed are you who hunger now, For you shall be filled…”
25 “Woe to you who are well-fed now, for you shall be hungry.

 

Both the Old and New Testaments reveal it is better to be spiritually hungry than to be physically hungry. Hunger is a driving force in our lives. I often say, “I’m hungry.” What I am really communicating is… “I am ready to eat.” Why all this talk about being hungry for God? One of my favorite verses about this issue is found in Psalms.

“As the deer pants for the water brooks: So pants my soul for You, O God (2) My soul thirsts for God, for the Living God….” “ O God, You are my God; Early will I see You; My soul thirsts for You; My flesh longs for You In a dry and thirsty land Where there is no water.” Psalm 42:1-2

 

I like this verse because it is passionate. Here David equates his soul thirsting to his body aching for water, when water is unavailable. Have you ever been this thirsty or hungry? The better question …. have you ever been this thirsty and hungry for God.

Jesus blesses spiritual hunger and a person’s quest to know more of the Lord. “Blessed are you who hunger now for you will be satisfied.”

Here is the crux of the matter… If you are not hungry for God, then you are to create a hunger for God. Hunger is something you can jump-start. You can’t fill yourself with God, but you can generate a hunger for God. God is in the business of satisfying the hungry seeker.

When I was in college there was a snack machine in the lobby of the our dorm. The sign on the front was most titillating. It read, “Don’t go around hungry!” Like who purposely wants to go around hungry. Most college students I know are in a perpetual state of hunger. You can’t feed them enough or ever fill them up.  Snacks from a machine are like hor’dourves. They fail to fill an empty belly. Hunger is not merely a word, but a condition. Just like we get hungry at times because we don’t eat… So should there be times when we find ourselves spiritually hungry… which God fills. Spiritual food is unlike physical food. When we eat physical food, our sugar level goes up and eventually our bodies tell us to stop eating. Spiritual food operates differently. The more we eat from God’s table…the more we want to eat from His endless bounty. His food is satisfying, but it also causes our inner man to crave more of God!

This is why Jesus gives His listeners a “woe” in verse twenty-five. If we continue to gormandize ourselves with the food of this world, we will never desire real spiritual nourishment. Jesus warns, “Woe to you who are full, For you shall hunger,” Listen again to the paraphrase of this verse from The Message. “It’s trouble ahead if you’re satisfied with yourself, Your ‘self’ will not satisfy you for long.” Ouch!

Jesus is warning us that just because everything is OK now, both physically and spiritually, the day always arrives when we find ourselves empty. In that day we will need more than the junk food we have been eating… we need God’s filling, God’s supply, and God’s food.

Blessings,

Pastor

Four Portraits of the Blessed #1 Beware of Getting It All Now!

12 Friday Oct 2012

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I am going to spend the next four blogs on the Beatitudes as recorded from Dr. Luke’s account. The good doctor only mentions four of these beatitudes, whereas Matthew records nine. Most believe both men were writing about the same sermon. It sounds like some of the people who have taken notes during my messages. I believe Luke was not simply abbreviating the sermon, but highlighting what he believed to be the four most important traits a disciple of Christ needs to possess. According to Luke, those who follow Jesus must operate under a set of values different from and often opposite of that of the world. Thus, the blessed life is not found in “getting” or from “doing”, but from “being.”

In Luke’s portrait of the blessed life he wants his readers to notice the good and bad, the right from the wrong. For each of the blessings there is a corresponding woe. These four woes all share a common truth … beware of what you take from life, you will pay for it in the long run. So these are not simply commands, but descriptions of what the life of the righteous should look like.

Imagine for a moment that I tell you “the righteous only drive 35 miles per hour.” “What!” You say, “I have the capability to cruise 70 mph and do so all the time.” I retort, “Yep, I know… but the righteous only go 35 mph.” I am not telling you that you have to always operate at 35 mph. I am telling you that the righteous only travel at 35 mph. You are simply given the choice to learn, listen from the Lord, and operate as He instructs. You don’t have to travel at His speed, but righteous people do.

 

Beware of Getting It All Now

 

20 “… Blessed are you poor For yours is the Kingdom of God”
24 “But woe to you who are rich, for you are receiving your comfort in full.”

 

A Sunday school teacher was telling her class the story of the Good Samaritan, in which a man was beaten, robbed, and left for dead. She described the situation in vivid detail so her students would catch the drama. Then she asked the class: “If you saw a person lying on the roadside, all wounded and bleeding, what would you do?”
A thoughtful little girl broke the hushed silence, “I think I’d throw up.”

You never know how someone is going to respond in any given situation until you are actually walking it out. The same is true of life. We really don’t know what it means to be “poor” or “rich” until we experience it. There is nothing innately righteous about being poor, nor is there any automatic evil in being rich. The poor are not automatically spiritual and the rich are not automatically evil. The writer of Proverbs states it perfectly.

“… Give me neither poverty nor riches—Feed me with the food allotted to me; (9) Lest I be full and deny You, And say, “Who is the LORD?” Or lest I be poor and steal, And profane the name of my God.” Proverbs 30:8-9

 

Riches and poverty can be a blessing or a curse. Jesus taught…. when a choice must be made between money and God, God must always come first.  “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.” Matthew 6:24 When we fail to have our priorities in order… our circumstances, whether we are rich or poor, dictate our response. Money is not evil, unless it takes the place of God. This is why Jesus said, “It is the love of money which is at the root of all evil.“

Jesus follows this teaching of blessings on the poor a few verses later with a corresponding “woe” in verse twenty-four, “But woe to you who are rich, For you have received your consolation.” The word “woe” is an expression of dismay and regret, rather than a threat. Woe is meant to serve as a road sign like “yield” or “stop” what you’re doing. Jesus is expressing disappointment for the actions and attitudes of those who do not accept what the Kingdom of God offers. Listen to this modern paraphrase of this verse. (The Message) “It’s trouble ahead for those who think they have it made, What you have is all you’ll ever get.”

The Lord doesn’t want us to spend all of our resources totally on ourselves. This would be a waste or our time, talents, money, and abilities. This is what actually makes people poor…wasting their God-given resources on selfish pursuits.

Jesus is not blessing economic poverty or raising one social class above another. Matthew spiritualized the word “poor” by saying “poor in spirit”. This is how we usually quote this verse. “Poor” is actually “pious“, a religious term, not an economic word. The word for “pious” means, “those who depend absolutely on God.” Being pious has gotten a bad rap here in the modern era. But being pious is a good thing, especially as it relates to the Lord.

Luke wants his readers to compare these two words. Being pious stands in a juxtaposition to being rich, which means “self-sufficient.” Rich doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with amounts of money or accumulation of wealth. You are either (pious) God dependent or (rich) self-sufficient. If you are poor, you are trusting the Lord to reward you later. If you are rich, you are getting all your rewards now. It is usually easier to move towards God when you are poor, rather than when you are rich, because you don’t have to battle having riches or self-sufficiency.

The big blessing here… “the Kingdom of God is yours!” The meaning of “is” is always two-dimensional when speaking from the eternal point of view. It means “is now” and “will be” even more so in eternity. Jesus is saying that if one has this attitude now, he or she already is enjoying life in the kingdom or realm or atmosphere of God.

Shizo Kanakuri disappeared while running the marathon in the 1912 Summer Olympics in Stockholm. He was listed as a missing person in Sweden for 50 years — until a journalist found him living quietly in southern Japan.

Overcome with heat during the race, he had stopped at a garden party to drink orange juice, stayed for an hour, then took a train to a hotel and sailed home the next day, too ashamed to tell anyone he was leaving.

There’s a happy ending: In 1966, Kanakuri accepted an invitation to return to Stockholm and complete his run. His final time was 54 years, 8 months, 6 days, 8 hours, 32 minutes and 20.3 seconds — surely a record that will last forever.

I know a lot of believers who run from being “pious” and totally dismiss any assertion they are “rich”. They honestly look at this beatitude and struggle to apply it. The truth is the Lord wants to give us His Kingdom right now! The only way to discover the deeper joys of Kingdom life is to become God dependent and less self-sufficient. If we choose to disappear from the race like our friend from Japan and blend into crowd of mediocrity, we will lose our identity. The call is always to “seek His face while He can be found and call upon Him while He is near, because He cares for us.”

Blessings,

Pastor

 

Twelve Things Happy People Do Differently

09 Tuesday Oct 2012

Posted by in Quotes

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If you like quotes on life, happiness and what it means to grow into a decent human being, then you might want to drop by and visit A Tribute to Stephen Covey.  It is on The Facebook as my wife calls it.  There you will discover a great resource for quotes and other positive affirmations about life.  Check it out!

Blessings,

Pastor

 

 

 

Striving for Excellence

06 Saturday Oct 2012

Posted by in Daniel - No Compromise

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During dark and difficult times some people like to lower standards and lower expectations. Daniel and his buddies didn’t follow that course. The question is why? Because they knew if their trials and tribulations were going to be more difficult, then they needed to be better prepared to meet them… head on! This is why in football the better offenses are on the same team with the better defenses. These offenses have to practice everyday against an elite opposition. The world in general has lowered their standards, especially concerning children. Instead of encouraging children to study harder, tests have been made easier. Instead of reaffirming moral standards, which have been the norm for centuries, the moral bar has simply been lowered. Instead of reaffirming the richness each religion has to offer, the common truths of faith have been stripped away and given no value.

Daniel’s faith and tradition were tossed aside like week old bread. Even though he was given a new name and new belief system, he didn’t neglect the God of his forefathers. So, just because the world has lost its moral compass  doesn’t mean the believer has to lose his way. Our call is to always be on the increase, both spiritually and physically. The Lord doesn’t want His children to be the “tail” but the “head”. We can follow Jesus’ example as He grew in hostile territory.

 

And Jesus kept increasing in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men. (Luke 2:52)

 

What is interesting is the worldly culture didn’t notice Daniel and his friends because of their faithfulness to God, but it was their submissive spirit, strong bodies, and scholarly minds which gained the world’s attention. Even back 5000 years ago people were only interested in the bottom-line performance. Nebuchadnezzar chose Daniel and his friends in spite of their religious scruples, not because of them. Little did the King know those same religious principles would save his kingdom.

 

17 As for these four youths, God gave them knowledge and intelligence in every branch of literature and wisdom; Daniel even understood all kinds of visions and dreams.

19 The king talked with them, and out of them all not one was found like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah; so they entered the king’s personal service. 20 As for every matter of wisdom and understanding about which the king consulted them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and conjurers who were in all his realm. 21 And Daniel continued until the first year of Cyrus the king. Daniel 1:17,19-21

 

It is little wonder that many Christians have a poor testimony with their employers and co-workers. They think of their work as secular and non-spiritual. Unfortunately, they do not seek to excel or even try to do their jobs well. Like the world, they do as little as possible. The truth is there is a higher calling resting upon every believer. If they would simply seek to excel in order to glorify God, the world would take notice. Only then would the unbelieving world be more interested to hear what they have to share. Spiritual slobs lose their message and lose their way. Listen to what Proverbs has to say about work.

Do you see a man skilled in his work? He will stand before kings; He will not stand before obscure men. (Proverbs 22:29)

 

Our calling is to stand before kings. Like cream we are to rise to the top. A few years ago, this poem was passed around the internet numerous times. It still speaks about our calling to be sold out for the Lord and to be different.

The Fellowship of the Unashamed

 

I am a part of the Fellowship of the Unashamed. I have Holy Spirit Power. The die has been cast. I have stepped over the line. The decision has been made. I am a disciple of Jesus Christ. I won’t look back, let up, slow down, back away, or be still.

My past is redeemed, my present makes sense, and my future is secure. I am finished and done with low living, sight walking, small planning, smooth knees, colorless dreams, tame visions, worldly talking, cheap giving, and dwarfed goals.

I no longer need preeminence, prosperity, position, promotions, or popularity. I don’t have to be right, first, tops, recognized, praised, regarded, or rewarded. I now live by faith, lean on His presence, love by patience, lift by prayer and labor by power.
My pace is set, my gait is fast, my goal is Heaven, my road is narrow, my way is rough, my companions few, my Guide is reliable, my mission clear. I cannot be bought, compromised, detoured, lured away, turned back, deluded or delayed.

I will not flinch in the face of sacrifice, hesitate in the presence of adversity, negotiate at the table of the enemy, ponder at the pool of popularity, or meander in the maze of mediocrity. I won’t give up, back up, let up, or shut up until I’ve preached up, prayed up, paid up, stored up, and spoken up for the cause of Christ.

I am a disciple of Jesus Christ. I must go until He returns, give until I drop, preach until all know, and work until He stops me. And when He comes to get His own, He will have no problem recognizing me.

This is the big question… Who do you want to be recognized by when it is all said and done…. the Lord or the world?

Blessings,

Pastor