God and Mankind Reconciled?

A few years ago at Christmastime I was flipping through the channels as I was getting ready for church. There was the heretic Robert Schuller's Crystal Cathedral in all its 'glory' being displayed for all to stand in awe and wonder. But I hesitated to continue through the channel surfing... they were playing Christmas music. I thought to myself, "you really can't mess up a Christmas song", so I left it on and turned it up as I finished getting ready. Let it be known: you CAN mess up a Christmas song. If you are against calling someone a 'sinner' like the Bible-twisters at Crystal Cathedral, you can, and will change the lyrics to fit your damnable heresies. How can you call someone a sinner and still have them maintain their precious self-esteem?

The great hymn 'Hark! The Herald Angels Sing' was the next carol in the program, and I about vomited when I heard the choir sing, 'God and MANKIND reconciled'. When I was growing up, that song always said, 'God and SINNERS reconciled'. Sinners. SINNERS! What in the world was the purpose of Christ coming to earth anyway if it wasn't to save wretched SINNERS?! And so we have an entire movement that is afraid to use the word, and so they re-write the song to fit their goofy theology. Watch out Frosty and Rudolph. Your songs are probably next.

A Calculated, Planned Act of Kindness

A few days ago, I witnessed what I called a 'random act of kindness'. Last night my family was on the receiving end of a 'calculated, planned act of kindness'. A few years ago I met a man who was going through some difficult life struggles. Through many circumstances and Christian friends, he was able to get his feet back on the ground and seems to be enjoying the blessings of God in his life as he walks in obedience to what he is learning from the Word. There is a stability that I see in his life that he seemed to lack when we first met. I don't know exactly how God used us in his life during these last few years... but he showed up on our porch last night and surprised us with a big bowl of spaghetti and meatballs. He'd taken time out of his busy schedule to minister to us and to be a blessing to our family. Of course we welcomed him to come in and join us for dinner. We ate well and had dessert and shared a few laughs and talked about what the Lord is doing in our respective lives. This was no random act of kindness. Our friend carefully planned how he was going to surprise us with a meal. We appreciated this kind of thoughtfulness, and I am reminded of Proverbs 19:22 - What is desired in a man is his kindness...

Christmas Letdown

In a conversation with my mom earlier today, I used a phrase that I hate! After I hung up the phone, I thought 'how did that phrase slip out of my mouth'? The phrase I used in describing the weekend after Christmas: "Christmas letdown".

Are you kidding me? After celebrating the greatest miracle EVER. After celebrating the fact that God became man... Emmanuel, God with us. After celebrating the Jesus left his throne and condescended to a manger to save us wretches... after celebrating the birth of the Christ-child who would eventually be led to the cross to be battered, bruised and wounded for me... and I would even think there could possibly be something such as 'Christmas letdown'? Shame on me for thinking such thoughts! Shame on me for uttering such a nearly blasphemous complaint.

But as I thought about it, I supposed there probably is a sort of Christmas letdown for some people. Placing their affections in things other than the Savior. Not only would that be a letdown, but it would be robbery: robbing themselves of joy and robbing God of glory. May it never be said that lovers of Jesus would experience this kind of Christmas letdown.

Random Acts of Kindness

It's not often when you witness a 'random act of kindness'. Today as my son and I walked into the local grocery store to get some ginger ale for my sick daughter, there was a little boy with his dad at the line-up of bubble gum machines in the entrance. They didn't look like they had much of anything, judging by the way they were dressed. In fact, they looked very poor and somewhat dirty. The dad was unshaven and looked like the kind of guy you would avoid. We did avoid them, because, as usual, we Christians are always in a hurry to get to the next place - it IS the Christmas season after all...

But the old codger didn't avoid them. The old fella who wasn't in such a hurry had noticed that the bearded poor man and his dirty son were fumbling around for some quarters to get some gumballs and couldn't find any. Before the son had a chance to be disappointed, the codger pulled out a dollar bill and gave it to the little boy. Now the son had enough money for FOUR gumballs! That kid was jumping for joy. The dad yelled out, 'HEY THAT WAS REALLY NICE... WOW! THANKS ALOT!!'

There was one happy kid... and one happy dad... and one happy codger. And there I was - missing the blessing of giving.

Theological Political Correctness

We live in an age of 'political correctness' - speaking or acting in such a way as to make sure no one people group is offended. Everyone is so sensitive these days! Of course, we Christians do not want to offend a brother or sister, but sometimes we avoid offense at the expense of truth. We need to confront sin and we need to confront bad theology... we need to speak the truth, and we need to speak it in love.

Listen to these words from Bishop J.C. Ryle on 'sin'. It is amazing that he wrote these more than 100 years ago. If I didn't know that, I would have thought he wrote them yesterday. How timely they are:

A scriptural view of sin is one of the best antidotes to the extravagantly broad and liberal theology which is so much in vogue at the present time. The tendency of modern thought is to reject dogmas, creeds, and every kind of bounds in religion. It is thought grand and wise to condemn no opinion whatsoever, and to pronounce all earnest and clever teachers to be trustworthy, however heterogeneous and mutually destructive their opinions may be. Everything…is true, and nothing is false! Everybody is right, and nobody is wrong! Everybody is likely to be saved, and nobody is to be lost! The atonement and substitution of Christ, the personality of the devil, the miraculous element in the Scripture, the reality and eternity of future punishment, all these mighty foundation-stones are coolly tossed overboard, like lumber, in order to lighten the ship of Christianity, and enable it to keep pace with modern science. Stand up for these great verities, and you are called narrow, illiberal, old-fashioned, and a theological fossil! I know nothing so likely to counteract this modern plague as constant clear statements about the nature, reality, vileness, power and guilt of sin.

Walking Away From the Truth?

A couple days ago I heard of a pretty well-known Christian music artist who left his wife and 'came out of the closet'. Nothing surprises me anymore. How does someone get to the place where he has spent his whole life writing and singing profound songs of faith and then announces he's gay. He's a gay Christian! (according to his own description of himself). Is this hypocrisy to the highest extent? Or is this just the sin he's got to deal with in his life. After all, don't we all have something we're dealing with?

Lest anyone think I am a homophobe, let me be clear. I know homosexual people. Some of them have been, and are friends of mine. I don't hate them. I care about them. I just don't agree with their lifestyle. I know at least one person who was miraculously delivered from that destructive life of sin and got married to a beautiful Christian woman and he is now a father of a pretty little girl.

But this is the problem I have with this whole deal: Yes, Christians stumble. We're sinners! But when someone makes a choice to ignore God's Word and enter into a habitual lifestyle and practice of sin, then I have got to question whether they are saved at all. My Bible tells me that God 'hates those who practice iniquity' (Psalm 5:5). Did this man throw in the towel? Did he decide to quit the battle? Did he give up fighting the good fight? Did he decide perseverance was not for him? Was his sexual urges more important to him than God's commands?

Who am I to cast stones? Who am I to judge? There are no stones being thrown here. There is no final judgment call coming from this blogger. I will only hasten make mention that God's Word does not equivocate on the issue of homosexuality. God calls it a sin... and He hates those who practice sin. Just the same as someone practicing adultery, hatred, stealing or lying.

The issue is self-control. It is a fruit of the Spirit, you know. We shouldn't be practicing murder because we have self-control. We shouldn't be practicing rape or incest, because we have self-control. We shouldn't gorge ourselves with a dozen donuts or drink a keg of beer because... say it all together now kids... we have self-control. Self-control is evidence that we are indwelt by the Holy Spirit. A lack of self-control - in any area of our lives - may not indicate that we are not Christians, but it should make us question where we really are. A lack of self-control is a serious character flaw, and I might suggest that it could be eternally fatal. Someone who claims to be a Christian who cannot control their sexual urges had better do some serious soul searching and self examination. They might be deluded.

I obviously don't know where this man stands in regard to his self-proclaimed relation with his creator. But I do know that his experiences do not validate whether the Word of God is true or not. God's Word stands no matter what - and according to this Word, this man is in sin and needs to repent. He is in a dangerous position, appearing to have walked away from the truth. God forbid that I would ever walk away from the truth. The older I get, the more I see it all around me. And it scares me to death.

An Eternal Investment

This past week my first-grade Sunday School teacher went to heaven. She was 85 years old. Her obituary said she taught Sunday School for 46 years. It also went on to say that she loved the kids as her own. I believe that... I remember sitting around that classroom table in the basement of the church, learning all those Bible stories of Noah, Abraham, Moses, Samson and David. For me, it was 38 years ago but it seemed like yesterday that I was the recipient of her patience, kindness and commitment. Forty-six years she did that, and for countless other little kids. Did June play a role in God's grand scheme to bring me to where I am today? When I get to the other side, I'll be hunting her down to give her a big hug and tell her thanks. Those years of hard work and labor of love for the kids paid off, at least for me. Every ounce of energy she invested into teaching us is, and will be, paying eternal dividends. Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His godly ones...

On Sabbatical...

To say I am a little frustrated would be a gross understatement. Even with a firewall on my computer, I tend to get viruses from time to time. During the past week, I have been trying to eradicate whatever virus, spyware or trojan horse is plaguing me this time. It frustrates me that someone else has all that spare time to write malicious software and I have to spend hours on end trying to fix it on my computer. I don't have time for it obviously. So for now, no online banking, no online ordering (which is nice at Christmas time), and I probably won't be putting any blog entries out here until I can either get it fixed or get a new computer. So... stay tuned... I'll be back. Keep checking.

Sugar?

I guess you could draw a spiritual parallel with everything in life. Eating sugar is no exception. I have had acid reflux for several years now (I’ll spare you all the gory details). The doctor had prescribed the purple pill for me and it worked really great. No heartburn whatsoever. The problem with the purple pill was that it masked the real reason for my excessive acid in my stomach. Knowing that one can never take a pill without some side effect, my goal has been to get off of taking medication for my ailment. I quit cold turkey and then decided it was time to experiment with my diet to figure out what was causing the acid reflux.

It was not ‘fatty foods’ like the doctor had suggested (like peanut butter, cheese, etc). My next logical guess was sugar. So I quit eating sweets – candy, cake, cookies, anything high in sugar. Cold turkey. The results? Drastic improvement! I still get heartburn on an occasion, but nothing that a good ol’ Tums wouldn’t take care of.

What is the spiritual lesson here? Filling my mind with junk is much like filling my stomach full of junk. What am I reading, listening to and looking at? Am I reading spiritually candy-coated books and magazines, or am I diving into thick and deep and heavy Biblical doctrines? Is Christian radio taking the place of my own hard work of diligent study? Am I watching too much CSI Miami and Monday Night Football instead of pouring over the Word of God? I would suggest there is too much sugar in our walk with Christ and no amount of Nexium is going to cure that. It’s time to get healthy in our diets… or get burned with a serious spiritual health problem.

Living a Life Preparing for Death

Our neighbor three doors down fell down a set of steps on Saturday. She died yesterday. Several years ago, in a different neighborhood, our next door neighbors were in a fatal car accident. He died immediately; she went into a 5 year long coma that ended in her death. All of these people were 'young'. When the reality of death literally hits so close to home, it makes me ponder the fact that we need to be getting ready for our own death. You just never know when your number is up.

Death is the intruder. Death is not natural. Sin and death are the invaders. But nonetheless, death is a fact and reality. Should we ignore death? Should we ignore the afterlife and pretend it doesn't exist? Many people do. As Christians, we need to prepare. I don't mean getting the plot paid for and the will ready... although those things are important. We need to leave a godly legacy for our children. We need to study God. We need to study His one and only Son. We need to cultivate that relationship with our Father and our Savior... we're going to be face to face with them in a blink of an eye (life is a vapor you know). So we need to prepare to see them.
Am I ready?
Are you ready?