They always say that confession is good for the soul, so here goes; I hate snakes!  There’s really nothing more to add to that statement, I will be the first to admit I have an unnatural fear of them.  That is really odd since I have lived and grown up in the south in wooded areas.  I have gotten a little better over the past several years, but I still don’t enjoy the thought of my path crossing the path of a snake, and therefore today is not a real good day for me.  Although I did not see it I did get a call from my wife today saying that she and the boys saw a snake outside of our front door.  I was driving back and my only thought is, that thing is going to get away and get bigger and one day I’m going to be its dinner (ok maybe a slight exaggeration there).  But I’m not happy that I wasn’t home to first identify it to know whether or not it is poisonous and to introduce it to my motto about its kind.  My motto regarding snakes is: large or small, kill them all!

However, as a Bible believing disciple of Christ I have to understand something.  An all-knowing, Sovereign God created that nasty little creature.  And because God is a God of order and purpose then I am faced with the reality that God created the snake for a purpose.  In fact as we read the creation account in Genesis (yes I do believe in a literal 24 hour, six days of creation account), God said a curious phrase after the close of each day.  The phrase is “and God saw that it was good.”  In fact God said that phrase six times.  There is only one time in which God did not say “it was good” and no it’s not after creating snakes.  It was the man should not be alone (that is for another post at another time).  Therefore, on the sixth day, the same day that God created Adam, He created snakes and other animals and He said “and it was good.”  Therefore we come to the inescapable conclusion that everything God created was good.  This speaks to its original design and intent, sin and depravity have gravely skewered God’s original design.  Snakes were created for a purpose.  Those of you who enjoy wildlife can and have shared with me the usefulness of snakes.  I agree they do serve a purpose (I just wish they would keep their purpose in the woods and not beside my front door).  But that got me to thinking about how the phrase “and it was good” applies to people.

I watched a video yesterday sent by a church leadership website.  It was about this young lady who has a disease, but one of her high school classmates posted an 8 second video about her and titled it, “The World’s Ugliest Girl.”  If that wasn’t bad enough, by the time the young lady found it, there had been over 4 million views and over 1,000 comments, and none of them were positive.  It was a complete fluke that this young lady found the video about her.  She was actually surfing YouTube listening to music and it appeared over on the right hand column up under suggested videos.  Imagine that you have a disease that has really disfigured your entire body and how that would effect you to begin with.  Now let a bunch of people call you the ugliest person alive and countless others tell you to kill yourself, and even how to do it.  The young lady has an amazing testimony for Christ in spite of all of this.  This video and even the snake today got me to thinking and lead me to ask this question, how many times or how many people have we discredited, discarded, or thought were useless just because we didn’t like something about them?  Has it happened to you?  Kids and adults get picked on and ridiculed for being overweight, having glasses, having braces, talking funny, having a learning disability, having a physical deformity, and many other things.  Many times we listen to satan when he tells us that we are useless.  Many people don’t believe God can use them because satan whispers the lie to them, “I thought you were a Christian, how could a Christian do that?”  Paul speaking to the Ephesian Christians writes, “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.”  I love that verse because it reminds me that when God created me, He had a purpose in mind for my life.  I’m not junk, I am different, I am unique, but all of that is because God created me to work through me to make His name and His greatness known.  We need to realize that we are created in the image of Almighty God, that there is no higher purpose than having a relationship with Him, and through that relationship He is going to use us to do amazing things for His kingdom.

When God made you He was saying “it was good.”  We were created for more than just a mere existence and then death.  We were created by God and for God (Col. 1:16).  The question is, will we live for God and allow Him to do that good through us?

By His grace and through His strength may we live for Him

“Et tu Brute” is supposedly the last words of Julius Caesar (although there is no evidence of it).  Of course the literal translation of that is “Even you, Brutus?”  Caesar was betrayed by his best friend Marcus Brutus and it led to Caesar’s assassination.  Have you ever been betrayed by a friend or felt betrayed?  Have you ever run into a “holier than thou” Christian who expresses frustration with the sins of others, but they themselves don’t struggle with sin (according to them)?  I believe the reality of that last question is two-fold.  First of all, I think we have run into that person and even been hurt by that person.  Secondly, I believe that we have all been that person at one time or another.  I know there is a hesitancy to admit the second part, but this is the way I explain it, when I asked if you ever run into a person like this, if you couldn’t think of someone, someone was probably thinking of you 🙂  All joking aside, I believe this is an issue we need to deal with because being judgmental as Christians is causing us to lose at least part of a generation.  So how do we deal with this problem as it comes up in our life?

We need to remember 1 John 1:8, “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.”  It is very easy for us to categorize sin because we justify our actions while condemning the actions of others.  We think that some sins are worse than others.  However, that is not the picture the Bible paints in Romans 3, James 2, and other passages.  The bottom line is it doesn’t matter what your sin is, it is still sin and worthy of God’s judgment.  There is one Judge and we are not Him.  The fact that the world seems to be getting so much worse and sinking further and further into moral depravity gives us as Christians a unique opportunity.  Since the world has gotten so bad and continues to get worse, can you think of a better place to take the Gospel to?  Is it a justification for sin?  Absolutely not!  But it does give us an opportunity to extend the invitation to receive salvation.  We must become burdened for a world that is hopeless without Christ.  One of the best ways to become burdened is to remember what Jesus saved you from and how much He has forgiven you for.  If God can love and forgive someone such as me, then certainly He can do the same for others.

One final note, notice I didn’t address the issue of us dealing with someone who is “holier than thou.”  I refer to back to the previous paragraph.  Is it frustrating?  Absolutely, but remember there are no sins that are worse than others.  The only way to deal with this person is love them and pray for them.

By His grace and through His strength may we live for Him

As many if not all of you know, I’m a slight nerd (it’s ok to laugh here).  I love most things academic (other than math), especially US history.  I was recently re-reading the Declaration of Independence, the founding document of our nation (the US Constitution simply outlines how the republic would work).  In re-reading this document, the writers listed 25 grievances they had against Great Britain.  It was for these 25 reasons these 13 colonies broke from Britain establishing their independence and thus the founding of a new nation.  I highly doubt the majority of you really care much about this (and that’s ok).  But I bring it up for a reason.  The writers of the Declaration of Independence chose unique language in their writing.  One such example is this “That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”  I am not suggesting we overthrow the US government.  But notice in there it says that if something isn’t working, you should alter it or abolish it.  It does go on to say “Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes.”  In other words, don’t just change things for the sake of changing things.  However, change is not always a bad thing.  After all the definition of insanity is “doing the same thing over and over again, the same way, and expecting different results.”  How does this play out in the church?  It becomes necessary from time to time to make changes, never to the message but to the methods.  Let me say that again, never to the message but rather to the methods.  This is where the Christian liberty that Paul and James spoke of.  The major restriction on change as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 8:9, “But take heed lest by any means this liberty of yours become a stumblingblock to them that are weak.”  Paul later adds in Galatians 5:13, “For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another.”  So any change that is made must not keep people from coming to Christ and it must be done so that we are able to serve one another.  We are rapidly coming up on nominating committee time in which you the members of Westlake Baptist will be asked to lend your spiritual gift(s) for the furthering of the Gospel and the building up of the Kingdom of God.  May I ask you to prayerfully consider something?  Are you using the spiritual gift(s) that God has given you?  Do we currently have a ministry that you could employ your gift(s)?  If you are not using your gift, I encourage you to find out how you can and begin doing it, because we are commanded to use what God has given us for His glory.  If there isn’t currently a place where you feel you can serve using your gift(s), please come see me.  Maybe God has brought you here for the purpose of using a new method to reach our community.  A period of stagnant growth can be good if we allow it to be a catalyst for change, and you just may be part of that catalyst.

By His grace and through His strength may we live for Him

I was watching a documentary on baseball pitchers who throw a pitch called the knuckleball.  It is not as it sounds because you do not use your knuckles to throw it, rather you use your finger nails to dig into the ball and push the ball out rather than let it roll off your fingers like other pitches.  Currently there are only two Major League Baseball pitchers who throw a knuckleball, Tim Wakefield and R.A. Dickey.  It is a difficult pitch to throw and even more difficult to control where it is going.  Yet for those guys who can master it, it can extend their career for years.  During this documentary R.A. Dickey was being interviewed by a reporter a day after he didn’t pitch very well.  It turns out that the problem was he broke one of his fingernails during the first inning.  Dickey’s comment to the reporter was “who knew such a small thing could cause such big problems.”  That got me to thinking about what James said about our tongue.

In James 3:5 James said, “Even so the tongue is a little member, and boasteth great things.  Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth.”  In the previous verses James had mentioned that a horse is controlled by the bit in its mouth and a big ship is controlled by a small rudder on the back.  James 3:2 says, “For in many things we offend all.  If any many offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body.”  James said that we would be complete (perfect) and in complete control of all of our body if we are able to control our tongue.  Yet the reality of our situation is given in James 3:7-8, “For ever kind of beasts, and of birds, and of serpents, and of things in the sea, is tamed, and hath been tamed of mankind: But the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.”  We have been able to tame every animal, put a man on the moon, cure many forms of cancer, and yet no one can tame the tongue.  That is amazing to me, amazingly accurate that is.  How many times have we had the dreaded “Foot-in-mouth” disease, where we speak first and then think?  James closes out the section on the tongue in verse 9 and 10 by saying, with our mouth we bless God and then curse men, this should not be so.  Maybe that is why James warned us back in James 1:19, “Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath.”  Whoever came up with the saying “sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me” with all due respect, had no clue what they were talking about.  Words can inflict pain that has lasting effects for weeks, months, and sometimes even years later.  Let us all remember that with our words we can either build someone up or we can tear them down.

By His grace and through His strength may we live for Him

For many years I have heard preachers say and I myself on various occasions have said “we need revival in America.”  And it is possible that this is coming to me at this point because God has led me to begin a series on revival at Westlake beginning this Sunday.  But a question came to my mind as I was praying over various passages to be used in the series.  The question is this, what is revival?  What does it look like?  How will I know if it is happening, will I know?  So I consulted a dictionary to get a working definition.  First I looked in at 1828 Webster’s dictionary and it defined revival as “Return, recall or recovery to life from death or apparent death.”  Then I looked at dictionary.com and the definition listed there is “restoration to life, consciousness, vigor, strength; an awakening, in a church or community, of interest in and care for matters relating to personal religion.”  I find it interesting that in over a century’s time the definition for revival has changed very little, especially when so many words today mean something entirely different than they did even 50 years ago.  What stuck out to me was in the dictionary.com definition it identified where the revival occurs when it says, “an awakening, in a church.” One thing we need to realize is this, the only people who can be revived or those who were alive in the first place.  If you have never been alive, how can you die in order to be revived?  The obvious answer to that is that you can’t.  Therefore, our prayer for America should primarily be that they would be made alive, which is only possible by faith in the Gospel, that is believing in the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ as the only means of forgiveness for sins and the only way into heaven.  However, I believe in order for this to happen the church needs to experience a true revival.

There is a promise from God to the nation of Israel.  Let me say this before I get into it, I believe we must be very careful when applying a promise specific to Israel to the church.  We can learn lessons from it and apply those lessons, but the church itself cannot claim a promise given to Israel, because they are not the same.  Now onto the rest of the story.  It is found in Ezekiel 37, it is known as the vision of the valley of dry bones.  God gives the prophet Ezekiel a vision to encourage Ezekiel on how He is going to deal with Israel and to prove that God has not left Israel.  This was important because at the time of Ezekiel’s writing he was among the Israelite captives in Babylon (Eze. 1:1).  Because of Israel’s sin they were sent into captivity at the hands of the Babylonians for 70 years.  I imagine that the Israelites after many years had given up hope of ever going back to their land.  National moral was probably at an all-time low.  But this vision is given by God to Ezekiel and he is able to share it with the captives.  The vision is of an entire valley filled with dry bones and all of the sudden there was a “whole lot of shaking going on” (a tip of the cap to Jerry Lee Lewis fans).  The bones began to stand up, form back into bodies, then the tendons, ligaments, and muscles reattached.  The final piece was for God to breath life back into their bodies and they became living beings again.  This vision symbolized that God would again restore the nation of Israel one day, they hadn’t been forgotten or left by God.  This sparked great hope for the captives.  The interesting thing is in this vision, God never tells them when it is going to happen, simply that it would happen.  And that was enough to give them hope.

I see a few good lessons for the church in this passage.  First of all, revival only comes in God’s timing.  I don’t know a single pastor who isn’t concerned about the spiritual condition of his church.  It is the source of countless hours of prayer, the source of concern, and the source and at times desperation.  Most pastors want to see the sanctuary full on Sundays, not to boost their ego but rather because we know that church is a place where transformation takes place, and we want to see our people transformed by the power of God.  But we pastors also realize each Sunday that bringing the people to church is not easy.  In a what I would argue is a post-Christian society, people are more skeptical of organized religion than ever before.  The rise of those who do not associate themselves with any organized religion is on the rise.  I do not believe people are “against God” as much as I believe they are against the church for various reasons (I realize we could probably argue this point).  Therefore, we must realize that revival is in God’s time.  We must remain faithful and be obedient in all points, but the results are in God’s hands.

Another lesson I see in this story is that revival will be done God’s way.  Remember, the Israelites were in captivity at the time of this message.  Not only was the captivity part of God’s punishment for their rejection of Him, but it was also for their purification.  The bible tells us in Proverbs 3 that when God disciplines it is always out of love with the intent of restoration.  Much like the journey from Egypt to the Promised Land, Israel had to go through the desert to get to paradise.  If the church is to experience revival, there will first have to be a time of purification.  Simply put the things that shouldn’t be in the church are going to have to be purged from the church.  Then and only then will it be ready for revival.

Finally, if the church is going to experience revival it is going to take God breathing life into the church.  In this day and age too many churches rely on the latest and greatest programs coming from Lifeway, Rick Warren, or whoever else.  I can remember as I was getting into the ministry Rick Warren’s book, “The Purpose Driven Life” had just come out and churches of all denominations were jumping on it and trying to recreate Saddleback in their cities and towns.  More recently there has been “Simple Church” by Thom Rainer and “Transformational Discipleship” by Ed Stetzer ad Philip Nation.  Please don’t misunderstand me, these men and their books/programs are not the problem.  The problem is the church is taking a book or a program and almost in robot fashion implementing the suggestions and expecting the same results. This is dependence of man-made innovation (even well informed research projects) rather than the Spirit of God.  Again, please hear me I am not again the books or even the programs.  In fact I have used principles from Simple Church and Transformational Discipleship and continue to use them.  But they were prayed over, carefully chosen aspects, and adapted to the context God has placed me in to minister.  The bones in Ezekiel 37 were able to stand by themselves, but they didn’t come alive until God breathed into them.  The church building is able to stand and function without God, but the church is not alive and making a difference if God is not breathing His breath into it.  I don’t want a building where people are conformed to certain stereotypes or standards, I want to be where people are being transformed by the power of God.

May we as the church be revived by the Spirit of God so that then we can go out and preach the Gospel to the world and they may be made alive.

This entry is a little different!  It is different because it was written by my wife, Diana, who is a very talented writer.  We hope you enjoy!

My brother has attempted at least twice to give our mother a usable coffee mug.  His first attempt was in elementary school when he bought her a coffee mug from the Santa Store at school as a Christmas gift. When the time came to wrap his purchase he found to his horror that it had broken into several pieces. As you can imagine he was utterly heartbroken. His second attempt came shortly after enlisting in the Navy. My brother returned home on leave for Christmas with a surprise in his sea bag, a coffee mug that sadly did not survive the flight home. Each of these mugs has been lovingly super glued together by our father. Amazingly enough both mugs actually passed the test of holding water.  These mugs despite their visible cracks have a special place in our mother’s heart. These mugs truly validate the statement, “it’s the thought that counts.” According to the world those mugs are worthless but if you ask our mother she will tell you they are her most priceless possessions. These memories came back to me as I was reading Philippians 1:9-10 “ And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment;  That ye may approve things that are excellent; that ye may be sincere and without offence till the day of Christ.” After reading these verses I looked in the footnotes and found that the word sincere actually means “genuine” and more than likely it originally meant “to be tested by sunlight.” It seems that in the ancient world there were pottery salesmen who would sell pottery claiming that it was of the best quality when in truth it was filled with cracks which rendered it completely worthless. How they got away with selling the worthless pottery would be to fill in the cracks with wax before glazing and painting them. Then when the pottery was done you could not tell merely by looking at it that there was anything wrong with it. What these salesmen failed to realize was that if you held the pottery up to the sunlight the wax filled cracks would become visible as the sunlight poured through them.  How many people do you meet and talk to each day that portray themselves as having everything together in life?  How many times do we put up the façade that our life is fine, when in reality we feel like we are cracked and falling apart inside?  We may be able to fool most people some of the time, some people most of the time, but we are never fooling God at anytime.  The key is not to try to cover up the cracks ourselves, but rather to allow God to fix the cracks in our life.  He does that as we live in a right relationship with Him through reading His Word and talking to Him in prayer, then allowing Him to make the necessary changes in our life.  The reality is that we all have cracks, some cracks are just more visible than others.  The great news is that God has the supernatural glue that can fix us and make us new again.

A couple of weeks ago I wrote on a phrase that many have heard and even claimed that it is in the Bible.  However, it was a phrase that is foreign to Scripture.  There are a few more that I could think of including this one, “God helps those who help themselves.”  I will agree that God does expect us a free-willed, moral agents to take some actions, I would argue that doing those actions in hopes of God helping you will not be rewarded by God.  If the statement “God helps those who help themselves” is true then God is entirely dependent upon man, rather than man being entirely dependent upon God.  The statement is nothing more than humanistic, ego-driven approach to God that is not found in the Bible.  In fact we read in John 15:5, “I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.”  Notice the direct quote from Jesus, “for without me ye can do nothing.”  If it is all about us doing what we can, then how could Jesus make that statement?  The entire context of John 15 is about living in a proper relationship with Christ.  Notice the fact that Christ is the vine, the nutrient carrying, life-giving source.  We are the branches.  For the branches to be healthy, receive proper nutrients to grow, and to bear fruit, we must stay connected to the vine.  We must be careful and resist any and all attempts to bring God down to man’s level.

By His grace and through His strength may we live for Him

It is easy for us to hold to our integrity when life is easy.  After all, when life is going the way we think it should we have no reason to grumble, gripe, or complain.  However, we all know that sooner or later adversity is going to strike our lives.  It is at this moment in which we must decide will we hold to our integrity or not.  Although I would argue that the time to prepare for the storm is before it gets to you rather than when it is right on top of you.  It is like the old saying, “adversity develops character.”  I disagree with that statement because your character is who you are, especially when no one is looking.  You either have good character or your don’t.  I personally believe that adversity reveals our character.  One such example is in the life of Daniel.  God had been preparing Daniel for the lion’s den for years previously.  Daniel was a young man when he was exiled into Babylon.  He was well educated and trained in the Babylonian ways, but he also knew that the Babylonians didn’t know the one, true God.  God placed Daniel in the palace and helped him rise through the ranks.  Of course when a younger person or at least a foreigner comes in to a place of power there is anxiousness and sometimes even feelings of jealousy by those who feel your job should be their job.  This was the case with Daniel.  Some of the people who worked with Daniel didn’t like him and they plotted to get him.  Finally they tricked the king into signing a law that made it illegal to ask anyone but the king for help for 30 days.  The punishment for breaking this law was that you would be thrown into the lions den.

We pick it up at an interesting point in Daniel 6.  Daniel 6:10 says, “Now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went into his house; and his windows being open in his chamber toward Jerusalem, he kneeled upon his knees three times a day, and prayed, and gave thanks before his God, as he did aforetime.”  Three things I want to draw attention to in this verse.  First, Daniel knew the law and he knew the punishment.  Secondly, he gave thanks to God.  Can you imagine giving thanks to God for something that you knew was going to put you in danger or have an adverse affect on your life?  Finally, he continued to do what he normally did in the same manner as he had always done it.  I think many of us if we heard about this law would have still prayed to God, but I doubt we would thank God, and I really doubt we would do it openly.  But this spoke to Daniel’s integrity, he didn’t want to hide what he was doing because he knew what he was doing was right.  Why did the men want the king to sign this law?  Because they knew what Daniel did each day, and they knew they could trap him.  It may be easier to lose your cool or give people a piece of your mind when they treat you unfairly, but in those moments you preach your greatest sermon by how you react and live in front of them.  Daniel could face those lions because he knew he had done what was right in God’s sight.  Taking the high road is not always easy, but it is where you find the grace of God and the blessing of God.

By His grace and through His strength may we live for Him