What If...

What if I don't want government health care?
What if I go to jail someday for professing my faith openly?
What if we lose the will to win the war in Afghanistan?
What if abortion is really murder, what will happen to us?
What if God really controls the climate?
What if congress actually did something of value?
What if people wouldn't drink and drive?
What if parents spent time with their children?
What if the United States is attacked by terrorists again?
What if we end up plunging into another Great Depression?
What if people really understood what the Bible says?
What if the Bible is right?
What if life is really a vapor?
What if hell is an eternal conscious punishment for rejecting Jesus Christ?

A Friend of the World?

I think we all know what adultery is and the consequences it brings.  Conflict, alienation, shame, consternation, division... just to name a couple.  James uses the term 'adulteresses' as a word picture in James chapter 4.  He says, 'You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God?  Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God."

He equates adultery with being a friend of the world.  So one must ask the question, 'what is it to be a friend of the world'?   It's a good question to ask, because I don't think we want to be guilty of spiritual adultery.    We could start with defining what 'world' is.  It can't be the physical earth... the dirt, ground, mountains, rocks, etc... that wouldn't make any sense.   It can't be the people in the world, because we know in that famous verse in John 3:16, that 'God so loved the world', meaning he loved the people in the world.  So the only thing world can mean here in this context is the 'evil system' that we call the world.   And so I ask myself, 'what then would be considered being a friend of the 'evil system'?

Is it enjoying the trivial, empty humor we find on television?
Is it listening to music that does not glorify God?
Is it reading books and magazines that are full of warped thinking?
Is it participation in sports and other busy activities instead of spending time in prayer?
Is it pushing ourselves so far in our careers to get ahead?
Is it spending money on lavish living instead of supporting missionaries and local ministries?
Is it exercising so much in order to have the perfect body?
Is it relying on our government to fix every problem and provide our every need?
Is it going out every weekend with our friends?

What does it really mean to be a friend of the world?  Am I committing adultery against my real friend, Jesus?

Questions to Ask About Prayer

Biblically Oriented Questions I Need to Ask Myself About “Prayer”

Are my prayers so excessively self-centered and self-serving that God is barely listening?
For whom am I interceding? Am I using prayer to make ME feel better? Is it really about what I want anyway?
Job 1:1-5

Do I bore God with my prayers? Is there any passion in my communication to him that show that I really love him like I say that I do?

Am I attentive and alert when I pray or do I insult the King of the Universe by letting my mind wander?
Colossians 4:2

Am I using my prayer time unwisely? Am I unprepared when I come to prayer? Do I rush in and rush out of the presence of God?
Psalm 5:3

Is there some sin that I am holding onto with a white-knuckle grip and yet I dare approach the God who let his only Son die to save me from the guilt and stain of that sin?
Psalm 66:16-20

More Questions to Ask Myself About Prayer:

When I speak to God, do I speak to Him with infinitely more respect and honor than I would speak to my own earthly father?

The Word tells me to make my requests known to God. When I present my requests to Him, do I ask in a way that makes God my personal bell-hop who should answer at the snap of my fingers? Or am I really asking humbly in faith for things that would be according to His will? Am I expectant? Am I presumptuous?

In corporate prayer, who is my audience? Am I trying to impress someone else with the same old, stale, predictable, flowery language? Or is it really God I am talking to?

What kind of empty and trivial things can I remove from my life that distract me in prayer and cause my mind to be dull? Furthermore, what IMPORTANT things are also distracting me and cloud my thinking when I come to meet God in prayer? Are these things that important that they interrupt my fellowship with God? How will I set these things aside for awhile?

More questions than answers sometimes...

Words

When there are many words, transgression is unavoidable,
But he who restrains his lips is wise. - Proverbs 10:19

He who restrains his words has knowledge,
And he who has a cool spirit is a man of understanding. - Proverbs 17:27

Do you see a man who is hasty in his words?
There is more hope for a fool than for him. - Proverbs 29:20

Its tough to control our tongue. In fact, James says that no man can bridle the tongue. Here are some thought provoking questions though that may help us with our words:
1). Do my words serve my own interests?
2). Do my words acknowledge the interests of others?
3). Are my words calculated to make me look good?
4). Do my words magnify Christ?
5). Are my words characterized by grumbling and complaining?
6). Are my words filled with thanksgiving and praise?
7). Are my words going to tear someone down?
8). Are my words going to build someone up?
9). Do my words adjust the truth?
10). Am I speaking the truth in love?

What is Living?

Is life supposed to consist of strife and discord, or should there be peace and harmony? Are we to argue and fight? Or encourage and build up? Is our life a repetitious act of kicking, scratching and clawing through the day, only to get up again and do it again tomorrow? Or does our life consist of daily thankfulness, contentment and joy? Are we known by our friends and family as being harsh and brutal, or are we known as gentle and loving? Is our life characterized by arrogance or by humility? Does our life exhibit a lack of honesty, integrity and truth? Or does our life display these attributes? What IS life? Is it godLESS or godly? The Apostle Paul knew what life is: "for to me to LIVE is Christ" - Philippians 1:21

Is the Word Alive???

For Christmas, a great friend of mine gave me a CD. On this particular CD, the weak candy lyrics that so much characterizes contemporary Christian music these days were left behind. A couple paragraphs go like this:

The Word is alive
And it cuts like a sword through the darkness
With a message of life to the hopeless and afraid
Breathing life into all who believe

The Word is alive
And the world and its glories will fade
But His truth it will not pass away
It remains yesterday and forever the same
The Word is alive

And so I asked myself - Is the Word REALLY alive? Does it REALLY cut the darkness like a sword? Does it REALLY have a message? A message of life? Does it REALLY remain? Is it REALLY alive? If the answer to any of these questions is 'NO', then we may as well continue the way we are... cold, calloused and indifferent to those who go about us every day. If the answer to any of these questions is 'YES', then how can we continue to be ashamed to share the life-giving truth that we claim it contains.

For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do. - Hebrews 4:12-13

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.

I Pledge Allegiance to What?

Am I the only one that thinks that the Pledge to the Christian flag is odd? There are a couple versions of this pledge, one of which goes like this:

"I pledge allegiance to the Christian Flag, and to the Savior, for whose kingdom it stands. One Savior, crucified, risen and coming again, with life and liberty for all who believe."

It seems iconish or Catholic-esque to me. If we take the 'flag' part out of that paragraph then I could live with it because the rest of the words are mostly biblical (I would change the last phrase to say 'all who repent and believe'). I pledge my allegiance to the Savior alone, not to the recently man-made symbol of him. I read some things on the internet on how this flag came into being and its uses and such... I understand the symbolism that is meant here, but do we really need a 'Christian Flag', to divert our attention? Don't we already have the beauty of Christ to capture our gaze? Don't we already have the cross? Don't we already have biblical symbols that remind us of or point us to the Savior, like the ordinances of Communion and Baptism? Do we find any such pledge in the Bible?

I'm just asking...