My Most Popular Blog Post

Yikes! I never knew I would hit on a topic so popular when I blogged about whether it's a sin to get tatooed or pierced. Just over the past 9 days, I've had 18 hits on that topic alone! (That's a lot for me.)

It's interesting to me, what things I anticipate being popular topics that I'm right about, and what things I think will be popular, that I'm wrong about. It's also interesting when I think something will have no great appeal, but it hits a lot of people's hearts.

Sermons are that way, too--when I think I've bombed a sermon and someone tells me that God spoke to them through it, or when I think I've really hit one out of the park, and nobody seems to have listened.

Mark 4:26-28 Again Jesus said:
God's kingdom is like what happens when a farmer scatters seed in a field. The farmer sleeps at night and is up and around during the day. Yet the seeds keep sprouting and growing, and he doesn't understand how. It is the ground that makes the seeds sprout and grow into plants that produce grain.

I love this passage, because it reminds us that we don't understand how the seed we sow sprouts and grows. Just as the farmer must be faithful to plant his seed, so we must be faithful to plant the truth in people's hearts. We don't understand how they will receive it--but God understands it.

Interesting that the scripture says that it's the ground that makes the seeds sprout and grow. In other words, the person who receives the word determines whether the word is going to grow in them. You can't make someone listen to you, or hear what they need to hear. You just have to plant the seed, and trust God to water it.

So--how do you think you're impacting the lives of those around you? Maybe you're impacting them--but not in the ways that you think. It's ok--God gives the increase. Just keep planting your seed!

A Video Tribute to My Dad

Ok--it took me a few hours of wrestling with the computer to get this to load to YouTube and then get Blogger to accept it...but here it is--my video tribute to my Dad.

I love you, Dad! Hope you had a great Father's Day.

Anointing the Future

Now the LORD said to Samuel, “How long will you mourn for Saul, seeing I have rejected him from reigning over Israel? Fill your horn with oil, and go; I am sending you to Jesse the Bethlehemite. For I have provided Myself a king among his sons.”
(1 Samuel 16:1 HCSB )

The people of Israel had once again rejected God’s perfect will for their future. Wanting to be just like all the other nations around them, they asked Samuel to anoint a king over them. As prophesied, what started out well ended miserably. Because of Saul’s disobedience, God rejected him as king

This grieved Samuel, because he knew that every human being is a mixed bag. None of us is all good, or all evil. Samuel grieved the loss of that which was good in Saul. Also, Samuel felt a certain degree of responsibility for Saul’s failure, since he had been the one to anoint Saul as king. So God asked him, “How long will you mourn for Saul, seeing I have rejected him from reigning over Israel?”

Often, we find ourselves mourning the passing of the past. Either we regret doing things we shouldn’t have done, or we regret not doing what we should have done. Or, we grieve the past by looking nostalgically back to “the good old days” rather than embracing what God is doing in the present. Those good old days can keep us from pressing on to the future that God has planned for us. How often the past holds us bound—unable to be effective in God’s kingdom! God asks us the same thing He asked Samuel: “How long will you mourn for (you fill in the blank)?”

“Fill your horn with oil and go,” God says. In the Bible, anointing oil always represents the presence of the Holy Spirit. God was sending Samuel to anoint a new king. God tells you, “Fill your life with the presence of My Holy Spirit. Go, and anoint the future.”

You anoint the future by getting past the past. You anoint the future by embracing healing, restoration, and peace. You embrace the future by refusing to wallow in either past glory or sins that are forgiven and gone.

In Isaiah 43:18-19 (HCSB) God says, “Do not remember the past events, pay no attention to things of old. Look, I am about to do something new; even now it is coming. Do you not see it? Indeed, I will make a way in the wilderness, rivers in the desert.”

Jeremiah 29:11 (NIV) says, “’For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the LORD, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.’”
As it was with Samuel, the choice is up to you. Will you wallow, or will you arise? Will you fill your life with the presence of the Holy Spirit, and go to anoint the future?

The Spirit Meets Our Needs

“I will pour out my spirit on all humanity (Acts 2:17 HCSB)."

When I was in college, I had a friend named Mike. Due to severe Cerebral Palsy, Mike was confined to a wheelchair. I remember helping Mike feed himself, and even go to the bathroom. Mike’s speech was unclear, but if you took the time to listen to him, you discovered that Mike was working on yet another college degree, and that he was an ordained minister. Mike was what many people called “disabled,” but God had a purpose for his life.

Truthfully, every one of us has special needs. You may have an emotional disorder, a physical impairment, or a mental disability, or just plain old Spiritual Deficit Disorder. Yes, each one of us is a sinner in need of a savior. Each one of us has special needs, and we need God’s Spirit to meet our needs.

On the day of Pentecost, Jewish worshippers from around the world were gathered in Jerusalem for a religious festival. Due to disuse, many of them no longer had Hebrew as a language that unified them with their people. Think of the linguistic and social special needs that these people had! They were alienated, even among their own people. And they needed God’s Spirit to meet their needs.

As the Christian believers were praying, the Holy Spirit filled the apostles with Divine presence, miraculously gifting them with the ability to preach in languages they themselves had never learned (Acts 2:1-4). If we are going to minister to people with special needs, we are going to need to be similarly filled with God’s Holy Spirit. We need to be open to do things that seem strange, so God can work through us.

Many thought the apostles were drunken babblers, but Peter’s response was to correct their misconceptions, and declare that what they were seeing was the fulfillment of prophecy (Acts 2:15). This is our job as believers, to correct misconceptions regarding people with special needs, so that everyone can understand them clearly.

We must recognize that God has a plan for everybody. Acts 2:21 says that whoever (read that “anybody at all who”) calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. Beyond salvation is service. Verses 17-18 say that nobody is disqualified, whether they’re young or old, male or female, slave or free. Regardless of your special need, or your status in life, if you’re saved, you’re useful to God. Nobody can claim to be useless in God’s kingdom.

Finally, verses 19-20 show that God is a wonder-working God. “I will display wonders,” God says. The same can be true in your life, if you allow God to work in your heart. No matter what your special need is, the Spirit can meet your needs. Then God can use you to meet the needs of others.

Ever feel lost and useless? Disqualified? Never fear. God saves you, qualifies you, and makes you useful, no matter your special needs.

Beach Theology

Photo by Micah A. Ponce.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mappix/1116804526/


Today, on vacation at Nags Head, God showed me a truth.

I was at the beach with all four kids. The older three had gone out into the ocean and were playing in the surf. The youngest, at 7 years old, is still a bit afraid and unsure of going into the deep water. At this beach, the sand and shells are pretty rough, and sometimes even sharp, right where the breakers hit. But if you go out past the breakers, the sand turns smooth and comfortable.

I told my son that while he was enjoying the beach, he would enjoy it a lot more if he would follow me further out into the water. But, being afraid of the deeper water, he shook his head, pulled away from me, and refused. "I've got you," I told him. "Just take my hand and you'll be alright. It's even better out there, even though the water is deeper. And I'll be with you the whole time."

Then God said to me, "Do you hear yourself? That's what I've been trying to tell you for a long time. Just take my hand and trust me."

In Ezekiel 47:1-5, the prophet writes:

1 In my vision, the man brought me back to the entrance of the Temple. There I saw a stream flowing east from beneath the door of the Temple and passing to the right of the altar on its south side. 2 The man brought me outside the wall through the north gateway and led me around to the eastern entrance. There I could see the water flowing out through the south side of the east gateway.

3 Measuring as he went, he took me along the stream for 1,750 feet[a] and then led me across. The water was up to my ankles. 4 He measured off another 1,750 feet and led me across again. This time the water was up to my knees. After another 1,750 feet, it was up to my waist. 5 Then he measured another 1,750 feet, and the river was too deep to walk across. It was deep enough to swim in, but too deep to walk through.
God desires to lead us into greater things, deeper spirituality, and increased blessing in our lives. Ezekiel found that the deeper he went with God, the more he experienced God’s best. My son showed me the same thing today. He never did trust me enough to go into the deeper water today. It's all right. We've got plenty of time to work on that. I wonder—how much time do I have for God to work with me?

Many Convincing Proofs

“During the forty days after his crucifixion, he appeared to the apostles from time to time, and he proved to them in many ways that he was actually alive. And he talked to them about the Kingdom of God (Acts 1:3 NLT).”

Churches around the world just celebrated the Feast of the Ascension, when Jesus ascended into Heaven forty days after the resurrection. Acts 1:3 says that Jesus gave many convincing proofs that he was actually alive. But some skeptics doubt that the resurrection could possibly be true. What are some of the proofs for the outrageous claim that Christians make, that Jesus rose from the dead?

One proof is the Bible itself. Skeptics would say, “You can’t use that. It’s circular reasoning to say, ‘The Bible is true because it says it is.’” But remember that the Bible isn’t just one book. It’s a library of 66 different books. The New Testament is 27 books whose authors all point to the same thing. We have 24,000 copies of these ancient manuscripts—the greatest collection of manuscripts of any other ancient book in world. These are reliable accounts that were written by eyewitnesses within a short time of Jesus’ resurrection. Their testimony would stand up in a court of law.

Another proof is secular historians. No Jewish or Roman historians deny the empty tomb. If you wanted to squash infant Christianity, all you’d have to do is deny the empty tomb. Yet none of them did. They took it as fact.

The Roman seal affixed to Jesus’ tomb was broken, and the guards fled the scene. This bears witness to the reality of the resurrection, for it was death to break a Roman seal without authority, and it was death for a Roman soldier to abandon his post. Who would risk such a thing to perform a hoax?

1 Corinthians 15:5-6 (NLT) says, “He was seen by Peter and then by the Twelve. After that, he was seen by more than 500 of his followers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died.” What if 500 people today saw something newsworthy, and all attested to it? Could anybody deny it? Absolutely not!

It wasn’t only Jesus’ followers who witnessed the resurrection. James and Jude, the brothers of Jesus, were both skeptics until they witnessed the resurrection. Saul of Tarsus was a persecutor of the church until he saw Jesus. The experience changed their lives, and they became Christians—even leaders in the church.

To me, the most convincing proof of the resurrection is that the disciples were willing to die horrifying, gruesome, torturous deaths for the sake of the truth. Of course, many people die for their beliefs. But I ask you, would you or anybody willingly die for a lie? Nobody would! They were eyewitnesses, and would never die just to perform a hoax. They died because they themselves knew it to be true, for they had seen it with their own eyes.

Have you had your doubts about the resurrection? Employ a little logic—the favorite tool of skeptics—and logic will prove the impossible to be true.

Evidence for Jesus

This is a good, intelligent video, even though it is no frills, and apparently produced in a hotel room. I encourage you to watch.