There was a man all alone;
       he had neither son nor brother.
       There was no end to his toil,
       yet his eyes were not content with his wealth.
       “For whom am I toiling,” he asked,
       “and why am I depriving myself of enjoyment?”  ECCL:4:8

There is a lot of people losing jobs and lowering there expectations. Some not so much. I happen to be in the group that is doing OK. I am and will continue to help others close to me. It is a natural extension of love to be there for your family, just as God is to His children. That of course is initially and eternally an emotional relationship, but must also be displayed in real acts of support where it is needed.

May a brother or sister be there to help you in your need.

The fool has said in his heart,
         “There is no God.”  Psalm 14:1

There is a joke email going around about a Judge in the Florida that recently ruled April Fool’s Day as the National Holiday for Atheists.

In short, an atheist filed a discrimination case saying there is no national holiday for athiests as there are for religious people. The judge dismissed the case and said “The scripture says that The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God.”  Therefore you do have a day to celebrate your religion. It is April 1st.”

This is NOT a true story… but it is humorous!

Daily quote:To do what is right and just is more acceptable to the LORD than sacrifice. Proverbs 21:3�One possible way to look at this:It can be very hard to do the right thing. But this is more loved by God then giving up something you love. However, if you find yourself in a hard position to do the right thing, pray to the Lord and he will help you through your struggle.

 The Barna Group is a Christian group that has done research on the attitudes of both Christians and non-Christians. Both groups are becoming less supportive of the church. Here is a quote from their website;

“The research discovered that people are reframing not just faith in general, but Christianity in particular. While slightly fewer adults – and many fewer teens – are identifying themselves as Christians these days, the image of the Christian faith has taken a beating. This battered image is the result of a combination of factors: harsh media criticism, “unchristian” behavior by church people, bad personal experiences with churches, ineffective Christian leadership amid social crises, and the like.” – The Barna Group

Some of the things seen as detrimental to the image of the church by the Barna Group are (percentages noted will be non-Christian/Christian);

The anti-gay message – 91/80%, Viewed as Judgmental – 87/52%, Viewed as Hypocritical – 85/47%

So, the vast majority, church-goers included, disagree with the anti-gay mesage of the church. Most outside the church and about half of the church-goers see the church as judgmental and hypocritical. So why is this institution not simply falling apart completely? I think it is only because church-goers cannot see anywhere else to go.

For the time being, the church has a captive audience because of the way they have taught the people to be “pew-sitters“. This will not last forever though. The young people coming up in the faith are the most discouraged group. They are going to want a change and let’s pray that they are drawn to doing more for the community rather than just sitting in a pew.

“There is one fundamental question about which I often am asked. What do I believe about Jesus Christ? I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and the Savior of mankind. My church’s beliefs about Christ may not all be the same as those of other faiths. Each religion has its own unique doctrines and history. These are not bases for criticism but rather a test of our tolerance. Religious tolerance would be a shallow principle indeed if it were reserved only for faiths with which we agree.

There are some who would have a presidential candidate describe and explain his church’s distinctive doctrines. To do so would enable the very religious test the founders prohibited in the Constitution. No candidate should become the spokesman for his faith. For if he becomes President he will need the prayers of the people of all faiths.”

- Gov. Mitt Romney

Read the whole article here: http://www.mittromney.com/News/Speeches/Faith_In_America

Gov. Mitt Romney, a presidential candidate, is Mormon. While I have serious issues with Mormonism, I do like what he believes about not mixing church and state. I have no idea if this guy is sincere but we need more of this kind of influence in politics. Politicians are elected to run the city, province, or country. They are not elected to push morals on society. If a domocratic society wants legal abortions then so be it. Let the churches be a light to the world, if their morals are so valuable, society will see the wisdom in it.

Of course, the influence that the church has on society is not so great but that is not because we don’t have enough Christian Politicians, but because the churches are sick and wayward. There is but one way the church should be attempting to exert influence and that is by helping the poor, sick and needy. That is what we were asked to do. If the church would stop condemning the world and trying to run the country, maybe they could get down to the task that God has assigned them.

I was just watching Downhill Ski Racing and here is the banter:

#1 “He (the skier) is a Morman.”

#2 “A real Morman?”

#1 “I don’t know if he is the real deal, but he is a downhiller so I am sure there are some things he does that are bad.”

I have struggled when ever I have tried to define what a “Real Christian” is. Have you ever tried to put it down on paper. No matter what you write, someone is going to say, What about this text that seems to say otherwise?

Jesus was never fully understood during His ministry on earth and remains a bit elusive today. Why is that? There are a variety of doctrines out there that reflect who Jesus is and what a Christian is called to be. Why is there such a variety?

Here are my thoughts;

- Jesus is many things to those who have put their trust and faith in Him alone for salvation. He is first their Savior. He is also their King, Lord, Provider, Teacher, and Judge. Many forget the Judge part. Many don’t even know Him as anything but Savior. His salvation is most significant to what He is to us, but the rest is crucial to knowing Jesus. How can we follow who we don’t know?

- Jesus followers are not all going to be called to the same things in life. While there will be a common good spirit about someone who knows and follows Jesus, there will be differences. Leaders in the faith need to uphold certain doctrine while allowing those who are learning some space.

- Is Jesus to be worshipped? I haven’t solved this completely, but I am leaning to the understanding that Jesus is not to be worshipped. I don’t see where He asked for us to worship Him. I do see Jesus worshipping God and telling us to do the same. Jesus is so many things to us, but is He God? I don’t think so. I will do as He did and worship “the One God.“

- Jesus if freedom. Freedom from being controlled by sinful desires. Freedom from selfishness. Freedom from the expectations of others. Freedom to do good. The working ingredient of Christ is the Holy Spirit. Be guided by the HS in all you do. Do good whre you can but do not feel you have to be everything to everybody. You are not Jesus.

Churches do far too little to advance people along in their faith. Actually, they do too much for them. They spoon-feed doctrine instead of encourage Bible Study. Oh yeah, a lot have a Bible Study, but they are quite controlled and do not cover near enough material.

What is a “Real Christian”? 

I really don’t know. I think the real question is; Who is the real Jesus? If we work toward a common uderstanding of who Jesus is then we wil have the right focus and will be more like Him.

Most churches will teach a little on how to interpret the Bible, but they don’t do a very good job of it. It is not in their best interest that you learn how to see the wickedness of their ways. And they get away with plenty! They know that most will not do the research required and if anyone challenges them they are rarely affected. Well actually there are a lot of defections but the leaders just groom a few more into their ways of deceipt.

The way to not get duped, whether it be in church, on the internet, or someone on TV, is to know how to interpret the Bible. Below are 10 rules of biblical interpretation, taken from Tekton Apologetics Ministries.

1. Pray! Pray! Pray! The Holy Spirit knows better then you do!
2. Always know what the verse actually says, not what you think you remember it saying
3. Take the verse in literary context, don’t just read what you want to read to prove your point and don’t forget the Bible is a mosaic of different kinds of literature meant to be read different ways.
4. Take the verse in cultural context, just like you saying “it’s raining cats and dogs” is not what you literally meant
5. Remember the Bible is a whole 66 books! Interpret all verses in relation the other 1000’s of verses
6. Check the other translations, The variations are complimentary and show the whole picture
7. The Bible was not originally written in English, go back to the sources
8. Theological presuppositions are bad, scripture determines doctrine, not the other way around
9. Check the Theologians’ opinions, The Ph.D, professor of heart surgery of Harvard is better then your uncle Ted’s heart removal service. Professional opinions matter! (but don’t assume they’re always right)
10. Assume nothing, be ready to learn, don’t give up. Remember, only God knows everything.

Deuteronomy 6:5 Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.

This is something that gets lip service in sermons and I have seen it exampled by some, but it deserves a lot more attention. Can you say that God is number one in your life? Is He alone worthy of your praise? Do you love your God more than you love your wife and family? Does God ask us to put Him above everything else in our life? Is that selfish of Him?

This is a tough one, it really is. I don’t claim to have all the answers, and I know I fail to put God first in my life at times. But I do believe that it is right to do so. I believe God expects this of us for our own good. First let us examine what can happen when we do not put God first;

A wife devotes herself to her childen so completely that her husband feels neglected. The marriage fails and the children she wanted to give everything suffer big time.

A husband devotes himself to his career to the point that he is unable to give proper attention to his wife and kids. Again the marriage fails and everyone pays the price.

A man is devoted to a certain cause of justice or charity. It is all he speaks about. Friends who have other priorities start falling by the wayside. He finds himself all alone in his quest.

I could go on and on, but you see what I am getting at. Life is about priorities. Here are some of the priorities that we must juggle with in life aside from God; spouse/partner, children, family, friends, charity, leisure, justice, politics, environment, equality, etc. There are many more things we must deal with on a day to day basis and these don’t even touch on the whole career, money and trying to provide for our family thing. It is no wonder that people are stressed and confused. How do we deal with all of this? And now you tell me we should put God first?

Yes! Emphatically I say yes! Putting God first is the best way to handle all of these other priorities in life. I have found that I am one of the worst for zoning on on one thing in my life, allowing all other things to suffer. Maybe you are good at setting priorities and managing your life, but even so, putting God first in all things can only help.

What does “putting God first” mean? Does that mean that we must talk about God all day long? Do we have to pray so much we wear holes in our jeans before they need a washing? Do we have to stop and research every decision we make? No. Putting God as number one does not relieve us of our other worldly priorites. Going to an extreme on this is not healthy either, except in the case of a sabbatical or a time of mourning.

 Here are my thoughts on this;

(1) There should be (at the least) a time of prayer and preparation at the start of each day, and a time of reflection near the end. This may be short or long depending on what is going on in your life, but it is a great practice to get into.

(2) Once a week (at the least) we should set a time to study His word and spend some personal time with God in prayer or meditation. You may not be into meditation, but at least there should be nothing distracting you. If others are watching TV, ask them to turn it down, go into a room and close the door.

(3) In all our personal time with God we should recogize His importance. The prayer Jesus gave us starts out this way; Our father, who art in Heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Recognizing God as most important in our lives should be the start of all prayer, but we do not stop at that;

(4) Loving and worshipping God is not just something we say. Our praise must result in action. We can say we love God all we want, but if we do not love and serve others we miss the whole point of life here on earth. Reading His word and praying should result in a knowledge of what God wants us to do with our life. We are here for a reason. The Bible and the Holy Spirit are tools to help us discover that purpose. If you are not sure what that is yet, do something and continue to ask for guidance. Believe that He will show you what you are to do.

Putting God first does not mean we love our wife or husband any less. It does not mean we do our job with any less effort. It does not mean that we serve and love our neighbor any less. In fact, we will be able to do all these things with more love and effort. God is the source of all love and the more we go to Him to receive His love, the more we will be able to love others as we should. The more we read His book of life instructions, the more we will be able to keep our priorities in life.

Yes, God does require that we put Him above everything else here on earth. You may say that is selfish of Him, but I do not believe that. I believe He asks this of us because He loves us more than all of creation. He put so much love and care into His creation; what a wonder it is! Yet He loves us so much He sacrificed His only Son that we might be with Him always.

Praise be to God and to God alone!

Psalm 62:1 My soul finds rest in God alone

I was approached by a person handing out Jesus pamphlets a while back and was asked if I knew Jesus. I just said yes, refused his pamphlet and kept walking. This has stuck with me and I think I am finally sure of what I think about this kind of witnessing. It is a bad witness.

I spent three years training on how to witness. It was a course called Evangelism Explosion (EE). We learned a script that was designed to bring someone to face where they were spiritually. The object of course was to get them to accept Christ as Lord. This was practiced on anyone who came to the church and was willing to have visit by our team (of course the person making the appointment wouldn’t be totally upfront about the true purpose of the visit). Anyway, we were totally prepared, having memorized the presentation, how to handle almost any response, and of course a lot of praying for this poor person who needs what we have.

But when I compare what I did in EE to the street evangelist there really isn’t much difference. Neither are very personal, nor are they very effective. Yes, you might just get lucky and the person is just at the point where they are looking for what you are selling, but how many people do you turn from the Lord to reach that one?

I have imagined my next encounter and it went something like this;

Witness (handing me a pamphlet): Do you know Jesus Christ?
Me: Yes, but do you?
Witness: Well, umm, yes! And I am telling others about him. Who would you say that Jesus is?
Me: Jesus is my Lord and the Savior of the world, but why do you reduce Him to this?
Witness: What do you mean?
Me: I mean you make Him out to be some sort of snake oil salesman with a miracle cure for whatever ails you.
Witness: I am sharing the gospel! Why would that offend you?
Me: It offends me because I know just how shallow your witness is. I used to be doing just what you are doing now. I realized it was wrong.
Witness: If this is wrong what is right?
Me: You must know that this is not working! Be of service to someone. Be a friend to someone. People don’t care what you know until they know that you care.

Anyway, I really don’t like this kind of witnessing. I have repented of all the wasted time I spent learning how to say the right things instead of doing something for somebody. Actually, if we find ourselves in front of someone who is ready to accept Christ, I don’t think we will have to say much more that “God loves you”. There is nothing we can do anyway, only the Holy Spirit can change the heart.

Three times Jesus told Peter to feed His sheep, not once did He say to hand out pamphlets.

1 Chronicles 16:25 For great is the LORD and most worthy of praise; he is to be feared above all gods. (See also Psalm 96:4)

Proverbs 2:5 then you will understand the fear of the LORD and find the knowledge of God.

Dozens of OT scriptures give us this message that we are to fear God. Is this somehow changed by what Jesus did on the cross? Many will tell you that, but I must disagree. I think there is and always will be an element of fear required to fully understand our relationship with God.

1 John 4:18 There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.

I was challenged to examine the above text. The assertion being that there must be something wrong with our understanding if we fear God, even if that fear is what brings us to love Him.

It took a while but then I remembered one basic rule when studying scripture. Always take note of “who is talking to whom”. In this chapter, we see John talking to his “Dear Friends”. He is talking about our relationship within the body of Christ, those who are growing in the knowledge of who God is. He is not saying that we should not fear God but that we should not fear each other. There should be no jealousy among us. We should let the spirit work in each other and not be afraid.

1 Peter 2:17
Show proper respect to everyone: Love the brotherhood of believers, fear God, honor the king.

Peter shows us here, as do other NT scriptures, that we are to still fear the Lord. But surely this is not a fear that overcomes us, it is a respectful fear. It is a fear that enhances our relationship because it keeps us on the straight and narrow. The more we can walk in the light the closer we come to knowing God. It is a good fear.

Deuteronomy 10:12 And now, O Israel, what does the LORD your God ask of you but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul

Luke 12:4,5 I tell you, my friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that can do no more. But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear him who, after the killing of the body, has power to throw you into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him.

There is much more to be said on this. It is a deep topic. But my suggestion is that it is wise to fear the Lord. True love conquers fear, but without a healthy fear of God you may never know true love.