Big crowds at funerals

I used to think that when I died they would hold my funeral in a gymnasium so that they could have those mourning on one side and those cheering on the other.

That was before I knew Christ.  Now I still think that they will have it in the gym… but the sides will be different…

Because I promised I would… euchē

A few years ago my daughter bought me this amazing mug to drink coffee out of.  I looked at her and told her that I promised her I would never drink coffee out of any other mug but this one when I was home.

In essence… I took a vow…  an euchē

In the Old Testament we know that if you took a vow you could not break it…

Apologia

If apologia means "to make a defense" and in 1 Peter 3:15 we read, "always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you" (bold mine) it stands to reason that apologetics is meant for both those within the church as well as those without.  Why? 

The change that brings His presence.

“And after six days Jesus taketh Peter, James, and John his brother, and bringeth them up into an high mountain apart, And was transfigured before them: and his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light. And, behold, there appeared unto them Moses and Elias talking with him... While he yet spake, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them: and behold a voice out of the cloud, which said, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him.” Matt 17:2-3,5

Before Moses and Elias… before the cloud of Glory… there was a change.

Vain Worship

“But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. God [is] a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship [him] in spirit and in truth.”  John 4:23-24

Our God is a God who desires our worship.  And more importantly… He DESERVES our worship.

The only difference between work and worship is WHO you do it for.  Do whatever you do as unto the Lord and it becomes worship. Do it for yourself, for others, for recognition… and it is work.  It is all about who you want to get the glory and the honor.

So then… what is vain worship?

When God doesn't give an answer...

Do you think God’s cell phone in a dead zone?

This was a comment that was made to me when we were discussing the answer to a specific prayer.  Comical… but also a very real cry of people’s hearts.

Sometimes it would seem that God doesn’t hear.  And sometimes… we would prefer to believe that He doesn’t hear… rather than thinking that He doesn’t care.

But God hears us.  Always.  And He always answers.

Some people say that sometimes God says, “No.”  I would like to offer a different answer.

When we pray and we don’t receive that which we asked for we should consider this…

Right idea… wrong guy.

Herod sometimes gets a bad rap.  I think it was because he was very politically correct and, at times, lacked the backbone to stand on his own, lest he offend someone.

But I have to give credit where credit is due.  Herod was more in tune with what was going on than most of the Jewish religious rulers.

We know that Herod made the trip to Jerusalem for Passover since he was in town for Jesus’ crucifixion.   So he was showing some signs of both understanding what was required, as well as what would please people. 

And, apparently he had done some reading.

The man of the hour.

“There’s the man of the hour!”  These are words you would expect to be said about someone who made the game winning shot, rescued the cat from the tree, landed the big business deal…

These are words of victory.

Funny… in the Kingdom of Heaven things really do happen in a sort of backward way. 

 Initially Jesus had said, “mine hour is not yet come.” John 2:4b  And then He went about His three and a half year ministry of healing, power, miracles, and truth. 

But what His most victorious moment?  When was He “the Man of the hour?”

Go to the sea…

“Notwithstanding, lest we should offend them, go thou to the sea, and cast an hook, and take up the fish that first cometh up; and when thou hast opened his mouth, thou shalt find a piece of money: that take, and give unto them for me and thee. “ Matt 17:27

The first time I read something I usually miss one of the most important lessons. 

This story was no different.  But after looking at it again it hit me right between the eyes.

You see, I am all for asking Jesus to send me to the sea to catch a fish with money its mouth.  However…

The Touch of Revival

What do we need to have revival in the Body of Christ?  The same thing we have always needed.

But to understand it, we need to know what revival is.  We cannot put expectations on how we think revival will look or how it will go down.  We cannot determine how God will move.

We just know this one thing.  It will only come when…

To have eternal life.

Jesus was approached by a young who wanted to know, “what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life?” (Matt 19:16)

Oddly enough the Lord had an answer, “but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.” (v17)

If we read this quickly we might think that Jesus was telling the young man to keep the law.  Not so. 

When the enemy just seems to keep getting in…

Have you ever found yourself in spiritual warfare… experience victory in some area of your life… and then that dirty snake, the devil, rears his ugly head and causes pain and frustration in your life?

You cry out to God as to why, when you have bound and cast out these demons, they seem to still be around?  For all of your effort, there is a breach somewhere in your line of defense.

Perhaps you missed one of the rules of engagement in spiritual warfare…

Avoiding disappointment

Is there a biblical strategy for avoiding disappointment?  Other than setting expectations very low?

I think that there is.  And we receive it from the pen of the wisest man whoever lived.

Solomon.

Where do we learn the path of life?

I have always had a love for the English language.  I may not show it… or particularly know it… but I do love it.  I think I love words so much because Jesus called Himself the Word.

But one thing I often do is take liberty in my grammar.  I use the … maybe when I shouldn’t.  Or ignore common grammatical rules and use italics instead of quotes.

But this liberty can be eye opening.

Especially when trying to answer the question, “Where do we learn the path of life?”

The enemy of my enemy…

You may have heard this statement… that “the enemy of my enemy is my friend.”  Perhaps just in passing, perhaps from some movie.  But did you know that we see it in the Bible?

When heaven calls

When I realized that prayer is more than speaking… that it is hearing; that it is not a monologue… but a dialogue with Christ… my life changed.

Every prayer is a call FROM heaven...

Man’s pursuit to find himself

So many times we hear stories of people getting all the world defines as success and still not knowing who they are.

It seems that to get to that point they all take the same general path.

It is three tiered… but the third is always elusive.  And it is the opposite of the way it works in the kingdom of heaven.

When bad seed takes root in the church

Many of us may be familiar with the parable of the wheat and the tares, where a man plants good seed but while he sleeps an enemy comes in and sows weeds.  When the servants see what has happened they ask what they are to do.

“The servants said unto him, Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up? But he said, Nay; lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn.” Matt 13:28-30

The whole parable is found in Matthew 13:24-30.

Jesus says that the harvesters are the angels at the end of the world. 

So my question is this?

What are we supposed to do when the enemy gets some bad seed into our churches?

My daughter’s sermon… she didn’t know she gave.

“My ear hears the note, my mind tunes it, and my voice sings it.  I have to get so that I sing what I hear.”

This is what my daughter said to me when she came out of her voice lesson.  She may not have thought I was really listening since I was driving and it was raining.  But I heard every word.  And it really struck a chord within me. (no pun intended)

Isn’t this exactly what the Bible teaches?

Do you "perceive?"

“And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive:” Matt 13:14

I can understand not understanding if I didn’t hear.  I can even understand hearing and still not understanding… ‘cause some stuff is just tough.

But to see and not perceive… what does that mean?

Serve up the "new and old"

“Then said he unto them, Therefore every scribe [which is] instructed unto the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man [that is] an householder, which bringeth forth out of his treasure [things] new and old.”  Matt 13:52

Grammateus

That is the word translated as “scribe.”  We get the word “grammar” from it.  You get the sense that someone who was grammateus was pretty exact in how they wrote or said things.

So how could a scribe be a householder? 

Loving with a rod.

 “He that spareth his rod hateth his son: but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes.” Proverbs 13:24

As a father I could never see myself using a rod to punish my children.  Of course, as a child, I would have read the above verse to mean just that.  Why?  Because often our fears are imposed upon our understanding and we look at everything in terms of how it could hurt us… not help us.

But the deep truth of the scripture hear is one that truly comforts us… fathers and children alike… when we realize what it is saying.

Three ways to see it.

To prophesy is to speak on behalf of…

When someone reads from the Word of God they are prophesying… in that they are repeating what has been said by God and therefore speaking on behalf of Him to His people.

And everything within the Bible is God-breathed.  Therefore, everything in the Bible is good for three things…

When God keeps a secret.

“[It is] the glory of God to conceal a thing:” Proverbs 25:2a

So many times in my life I just wish God would show me what’s up.  I just want Him to pull back the curtain and say, “This is EXACTLY what I am doing.”  Or, “This is exactly WHY I am doing it.”

But He doesn’t always do that.

Because it is His Glory.

Why?

Where we started…

We were just blessed with the most beautiful little granddaughter.  She is so incredible.  So perfect.

As we were talking with our son and our daughter-in-law about how the Lord fashions us in the womb, how He is so intricately involved in every little detail of who we are it occurred to me.

Have we ever really stopped to think about where a child comes from…

Burnt Lips

“Then said I, Woe [is] me! for I am undone; because I [am] a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts. Then flew one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand, [which] he had taken with the tongs from off the altar: And he laid [it] upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged. Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here [am] I; send me.” Isaiah 6:5-8 bold mine

Isaiah had a revelation we all need.  We stand in a place where the confession of the world… the thing that they say along with the spirit of the world … is altogether against God.

The devil would have man exalt himself above God.  He would have man say things that go against the Word of God.

Hot coffee + a bump in the road

The enemy has been hard pressed against my family lately… particularly my wife and I.  We know that the Lord has great plans ahead and can feel that we are on the cusp, so it doesn’t surprise us that the devil is getting more active in his deliberate, overt, easy to spot acts.

But still… we know this and continue on.

There are times when I believe we are to ignore the enemy, to not give him the time of day, to basically blow him off.

And there are times when I think we are meant to engage.

Keep Staring

They say that people who have been married for a long time begin to resemble one another.  It used to be one of those things that were observed but never given a real explanation for.

Then they did some studies that showed that one form of non-verbal communication is to mimic the facial expression of the other person.  When we do that we use facial muscles.  In essence we are exercising out faces and developing similar muscles and therefore, we begin to resemble one another.  Just as if we were both lifting the same weight with the same arm in the same way… are arms would both become muscular and therefore resemble each other.

Ok… enough of that. What does it mean for us as Christians, and why have I named this post “Keep Staring”…

The Singular First Person Plural “I”

When God revealed Himself to Moses He said, “I AM.”  The Father, the Son, the Spirit have always been.  Three Persons… One.

So when God says, “I” He is speaking in the singular-first person-plural. 

“And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.” Exodus 3:14

And in Christ, we should be doing the same.

Are you a dreamer?

I was always called a “dreamer.”  But it hasn’t always been (and often still isn’t) given as a compliment.  Too often people tag someone with “big ideas” or “overly optimistic” as being a “dreamer.”

The implication is that a dreamer is not grounded in reality.  They aren’t “do-ers.”

Well, I want to challenge, and break the curse that so many speak over dreamers like me.

God never goes bankrupt

“For every beast of the forest [is] mine, [and] the cattle upon a thousand hills. I know all the fowls of the mountains: and the wild beasts of the field [are] mine. If I were hungry, I would not tell thee: for the world [is] mine, and the fulness thereof”. Psalm 50:10-12

“O LORD, how manifold are thy works! in wisdom hast thou made them all: the earth is full of thy riches.” Psalm 104:24

Whenever we have a need… we must remember that God owns everything.

He will never go bankrupt.  He will never be in want.  He will never need a line of credit.

Only THE credit.