Crowded Out 1 of 6

When I think about what really matters in life there is no doubt that God would be the first on the list of “most important things”. After that would be family, then career and so on … though when we compare those things on “the list” with what is actually happening in our lives (or what is getting our time and energy) it’s amiss. I mean we say, “God is the most important thing (person) in my life” and yet He is the first to get crowded out of our lives.

I see this as a pastor of even a wonderful church community. God get’s crowded out by anything and everything. And it’s easy to do … it’s easy to say, “Sunday is the only day I get to relax” and so we skip church. But at the expense of what? What are we teaching our kids?

Believe me, I understand! I really do, though as a pastor I have a responsibility to help people stay focused on what is most important – God; and helping people foster that relationship by keeping it fresh and on top of the list!

My challenge to you is to evaluate your life and see if anything is crowding God out, and if so change it. Don't wait and then have regrets later! Live a life with little or no regrets!

Joshua 24:15 "Choose you this day who you will serve … as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord"

Tomorrow:
I believe to truly have “God” at the top of our list means the following things:

Verbal Abuse

Proverbs 18:6-8
A fool's lips bring him strife,

and his mouth invites a beating.
A fool's mouth is his undoing,

and his lips are a snare to his soul.
The words of a gossip are like choice morsels;

they go down to a man's inmost parts.

What else is there to say … when we open our mouth to speak we should speak well of others and well of ourselves, or don’t speak at all.

Compass

When I reflect on the world, and all that is in it … the not so pretty side of life; sickness, disease, death, pain, sorrow, suffering (which most of us know nothing of here in suburbia) poverty, depression, heartache, hunger, crime, war, hate, deceit, calamity, divorce, racism, evil, etc. Then there is the beautiful side of this life: love, liberty, freedom, flowers, mountains, ocean, friendship, laughter, joy, peace, health, sharing, caring, faith, community, dreams, etc.

I am reminded that, at least in my life, the one constant true north for me is Christ. In Him I find meaning and purpose. For in this world of uncertainty I find Him to be certain.

If I can just spill my heart here for a second; there was a time in my life that I had many questions (still have quite a few … but not the same ones) in regards to the reality of God and the Bible. Is God real? Does He exist? Does He care? (Cause sometimes it seems He doesn’t) On and on I questioned and even doubted what I was taught as a child ... finally landing on a firm foundation. A place I now rest with peace in my heart; God is really real. I have no doubt about that.

Jesus walked this earth 2,000 years ago and then gave His unbroken life as a substitute for my broken one. It’s what we call the great exchange! And because of what Christ did I can have an unbroken relationship with the creator of the universe. What a cool deal! I'm glad I know Him!

Infant Baptism

FYI – I personally have no problem with infant baptism, but I heard something recently that made me want to investigate it further. Enjoy!

A German theologian, Schleiermacher, wrote, "All traces of infant baptism which have been asserted to be found in the New Testament, must first be inserted there."

He’s right. The host of German and front rank "Theologians" and scholars of the Church of England, the Anglican Church, which believes in infant baptism—a host of their scholars have united to affirm not only the absence of infant baptism from the New Testament, but from apostolic and post-apostolic times. It isn’t in the New Testament and it didn’t exist in the earliest church. They believe it arose around the 2nd or 3rd century.

Now, all that said, I personally have no problem with infant baptism and if you have an infant and would like him/her baptized I would do it for you! Though it is not what we typically do here at OLF. We have always felt that it was important that the person being baptized know and understand WHY he/she is being baptized. So what we do for infants and parents is a Baby Dedication. A lot like the other, just without water.

Okay, here is the main reason I am blogging about this; a pastor friend of mine mentioned that he knows a pastor who teaches that unless your child is baptized he/she would go to hell if he/she were to die. That is total hog-wash-bologna-dog-crud-not-in-the-bible-anywhere-heresy!

“You’ve got to be kidding me?” I said to him! He wasn’t kidding me. Here are questions I ask to see if what I hear is indeed truth:

1) Is it supported in scripture? What did Jesus say if anything?
2) Does it produce fear or peace?
3) Does it seem to fit within the overall teaching of scripture?

And that teaching doesn’t pan out well. So, this guy believes if your child dies during birth he/she goes to hell, since you didn’t have a chance to get him baptized? Heresy!! Of course I have not spoken to this person, and I would imagine even he would have some hem-hay way to back out of that scenario. With TRUTH there is no hem-hawing around, it’s either truth or not.

Bottom line: Don’t fear for your child’s eternal security in regards to baptism, and just be at peace that all God’s children are in His hands. And if you want to have your baby water baptized, then I would encourage you to do it.

And by the way, it’s Jesus who saves us, not water baptism... and I highly recommend if you are a follower of Christ, to be water baptised!

Truth

"And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free"

What truth sets us free? And what does it set us free from?

I believe any and every thing that is “true” when we LEARN it and then ACT upon it can set us free in particular areas of life. For example; when you learn the TRUTH that it’s an apple a day that keeps the doctor away NOT a Twinkie a day…, then when you exercise this new found truth, you then are liberated, or set free.

Here is something that may shock you coming from me, a pastor; Religion, or Christianity (or whatever you call it) can and often creates the most painful bondages in peoples lives today. Now, before you get mad at me; Religion, or Christianity (or whatever you call it) can and often does liberate people from their bondages too.

How can both be true? Simple, it depends on what your religion/parents taught you about God growing up. I believe there are two gospels being proclaimed today (I am sure there are many more than that, but that makes it easy for me in this blog to say two)

1) Gospel of the LAW – It’s Legalism, it’s based upon your performance (i.e. How long you pray, how many chapters of the Bible you read , how you dress, how many good deeds you do, or how many bad things you don't do, etc. )

2) Gospel of GRACE – It’s freedom; it’s based not on what you or I do, but based on what Jesus already did on the cross. God loves you, period. Whether you pray for 2 hours a day, or pray 1 minute a day, whether you read 3 chapters of the Bible, or non at all, whether you wear a suit or sweats.

The problem with the Gospel of the LAW is that its power based … meaning if you “perform” better then others you have the power. And actually it’s if you ACT as though you “perform” better then others you have the power. If I can make people think I pray an hour a day, when I actually do not, then I am spiritual… in their eyes anyway. It’s not about reality, it’s about a façade. What front I can put up for people to see. It’s what I call living a lie. AND this friend, is HOW religion causes bondage in people’s lives. It causes people to HIDE, LIE, COVER UP … they keep their dark places buried, because if anyone sees who they really are, or what has happened to them or if people see their hurt, their pain then people will know they aren’t perfect. And I am learning that people don’t want people to know they do not have it all together.

Christ came to FREE us with the TRUTH; and the TRUTH is GOD LOVES YOU no matter what!

Does 2 + 2 = 4?

In the world we currently live in there is a prevailing (not a good thing) belief in regards to religion, faith, God, spirituality that there are no absolutes. Relativity; a theory, formulated essentially by Albert Einstein, that all motion must be defined relative to a frame of reference and that space and time are relative, rather than absolute concepts.

In other words they say, “What is true for you might not be true for me. I am cool with your god, and you should be cool with my god. It’s all good.”

The more I have thought about this I liken it to Mathematics (which I flunked out of FYI) and in class I remember many tests where I had the dreaded red pen mark through my answer … communicating that I had got it wrong. Here is how my simple brain grabs a hold of absolute truth (absolute truth meaning true for all people, all the time and all places; if someone were to say to me, “2 + 2 = 5” I would say, in the most humble, loving, non-superior, non-condemning way I could that “no, 2 + 2 = 4”. Wouldn’t you? Especially if they asked you? Right?

Now, as I relate this to religion, faith, God, the Bible … all things “spiritual” I do believe there are absolutes. So, here is my question: How do we handle those who believe or say that “2 + 2 = 5”? I am not saying I have the answers and could even tell you who is believing an untruth … but let’s be honest … we can’t all be believing the truth, can we?

I don’t have any easy answers … I wish I did, though I am convinced that there are absolutes in this world and we must teach them with all the love we can muster. If not, aren’t we doing the world a disservice? Again, I am looking for COMMENTS.

Everything Happens for a Reason 3 of 3

We live in a world that isn’t fair. Let’s just be honest. It’s difficult to make sense of how the world works … children dying of cancer, teenagers falling victim to drive by shootings, college students being shot while sitting in a class by a nut case, or whack out religious zealots flying plans into a building killing thousands of innocent people. Make sense of that.

Here is what I think; this is called FREE WILL. God has given each of us the freedom to choose. And the bad part of it is that our choices affect others, and we are affected by what others choose as well. Sometimes this is a good thing, and sometimes it is not a good thing. What a beautiful world it would be if we all made the right choice in every situation... but we don't.

There are some people who feel that everything is predestined (the choice is already made for you), I am sorry I am not so sure of that line of thinking… because if so, then we are merely puppets moved by strings … no freedoms. And honestly if this is how God “laid it out” (who else would have laid it out but God?) He did a bad job, in my opinion. I would think He would have laid it out to go a little bit better then this, don’t you think?

Now, I do feel there can be some overlapping of the two extremes (total free will vs. predestination) … a middle ground so to speak… where both may be working at different times.

I think God can and does from time to time step in (in response to prayers and our faith) to our world, especially when we ask Him. “Ask and it will be given you, seek and ye shall find…” … you don’t want to hear this anymore than I do BUT … many times we ask God at the moment we need something … “emergency prayers” I call them, when we should be having regular visits with Him because we love Him, not because we need something from Him.

If you want to live God’s plan, then become a God fan.

Peace!

Everything Happens for a Reason 2 of 3

Ephesians 5:17 “Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is.”

I think sometimes we complicate God’s will, please understand I would not be ignorant enough to think we can fully understand God in all His greatness, BUT I do believe that God has made some things fairly clear in the Bible about Him and His will (found in the person of Jesus Christ) I think the real issue is just our obedience or lack thereof. I know we do not like to hear that … “personal responsibility” … we loathe taking responsibility for our decisions, we’d rather blame others… and God is typically the “other person” we blame, unfortunately.

Here is what I have learned in my studies about God’s will… this is simply a way that has help me to make sense of it … 3 parts to His will:

1.) The intentional Will of God - God’s ideal plan for man
2.) The circumstantial Will of God - God’s plan within certain circumstances

3.) The ultimate Will of God - God’s final realization of His purposes

Here is my best attempt at making this practical:

My Intentional/Ultimate Will for my daughter is that one day she find true love, get married, then have children. Let’s say she gets pregnant at 16 … now what? Now my Circumstantial Will is that the young man who is responsible dies a terrible slow death… lol … Seriously, now my will has changed as a result of her choice… Now I want her to “have a healthy baby at 16, and be a wonderful mother” … AND BE HAPPY ABOUT IT!

Do you see how because of her choice my will now must work within the circumstances given?
Just as it is with us, being made in the image of God, I believe it is with God as well! Because we HAVE FREE WILL … we make our own choices, which is great, but it is also what gets us in trouble.

Everything Happens for a Reason 1 of 3

I am teaching a 2 week series on Trying to Figure God Out, and the one curvy phrase I am attempting to straighten out is; Everything Happens for a Reason. This ever-so-popular phrase is what many people say in hindsight to some tragic or ill suffered event that has occurred and has somewhat work out in their favor … or at least has worked out.

Now, the reality is that YES everything does indeed happen for a reason; this is called cause and effect. But when people say it that is not usually what they mean. What they mean is that “God made me get in a car crash so that I would meet so-n-so in the hospital and marry him”. No, actually you got in a car crash because you were texting while you were driving therefore you did not see the car in front of you come to a sudden stop, and just so happens that someone that you were compatible with was there also because he was texting and driving… this is why you make a good couple. Lol! Or “God sent me to prison to straighten my life out”. No, you went to prison because you knocked off a Quick Trip, but while in prison reality struck you in the face and you now realize that stealing is bad (Bible talks about this) and will cause much grief.

I am a little tongue in cheek … but I think you get the point. God is not in heaven causing people to break their legs, get into car crashes, or lose their jobs. This is what we call life! Life happens, to all of us.

Though I will say that I have noticed that many of the “not so positive” stuff that happens in our life is a result of something stupid we’ve done, and in God’s love and wisdom He USES those times to teach us … and hopefully we learn!

Save Lives - Don’t Text and Drive!

Right Where You Are

Change the World right where you are… I think sometimes we think that opportunity lies just over the rainbow … over there. Well I am here to tell you that you can change the world Right Where You Are!

1) Give your best to those closest to you
2) Stay True to the vision and/or dream God gave you
3) Keep learning and growing
4) Never ever Quit, no matter how difficult it gets … keep pressing forward!

Do something great with your one and only life!