real vision

So I am reading a book by john Piper entited, "Don't Waste Your Life" which I believe should be the driving force in most of our lives. I will admit I feel at times like I am not doing nearly enough, not doing what I am called to do. He states that life is about the greatness of God not the signifigance of man. I like this quote because a lot of times I hear people say things like I am not worthy of God, or, Why would God take any interest in a little speck like me? These are great questions but they focus more on man's signifigance rather than God's greatness.
Piper puts it like this. If we spend our entire life trying to see our signifigance, and see ourselves as important rather than just seeing God as great and wonderful we are missing the picture. He compares it to going to the Grand Canyon. Anyone who has visited the Grand Canyon stands there breathless as they view God's creation. As they view the size, the beauty and the wonder that is the Grand Canyon. The very last thing they do while they are standing there is look at themselves in the mirror. You would stand at the edge of the Grand Canyon and look at yourself in the mirror now would you? Then stop looking for your own signifigance, we everyday have a chance to be awed by God's greatness, yet we still spend time in our own mirror, trying to see ourselves as signifigant.
Psalm 19:1 says, The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims His handiwork."
Everyday we can look and see an example of God's handiwork and His majesty. Especially living in Florida we can drive over to the ocean and look out over a sunrise, or just look at the waves as they repeatedly crash into the sand. Or you can walk outside right now and look at the clouds in the sky and know that God is wonderful. I don't know about you but I don't want to look at myself when I have a chance to look at those things. So we must stop searching for our signifigance and start focusing on God's greatness!
Thanks for reading and have a wonderful New Year!

resolutions step 2

Now that we have done our best to create a short term memory loss we have to move on from that point. We can forget our failures, but there is more to forget about last year than just failures. We must forget our grudges. I know, I know this is a tough one for many people, I for one think I do a great job of it. I prayed about 15 years ago that God would take away my sourness and all my grudges so that I could be used in this city to reach the lost for Christ. That I must say is exactly what God did, I have been done wrong numerous times by people and shook it off and kept on going. People sometimes ask me how I can face someone who did me wrong, Jeff How do you do it? It's simple, I do my best to never harbor any grudges.
My illustraton to our youth ministry many moons ago was one of acid in a cup. I took some acid and poured it into a stirofoam cup, then let it sit there while I was talking. I talked along and made references to the cup several times, then at the end you could see that the bottom and the majority of the sides of the cup were completely eaten up by the acid. That illustrates perfectly how grudges affect us, they eat us up slowly from the inside out and they don't bother anybody but ourselves. You pass that person in the hallway at school, or in the office and your blood pressure goes up a little bit, but not theirs. They are just fine and say hello, meanwhile you are shortening your life with fits of rage inside. It makes no sense to put yourself through this at all.
Colossians 3:13 Bear with one another and forgive each other whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord has forgiven you. Colossians 3:13
There you have it, Paul tells us that God expects us to forgive and forget just as He does. God washes away our sins, our times of faltering and makes them no longer. We, on the other hand, take the transgressions of others and multiply them and announce them by carrying grudges and wanting revenge. If God ever, just for one day decided to start carrying grudges and seeking revenge we would be gone in an instant.
So forgive those who do you wrong, forgive and forget so that you can free yourself from it as well as them.
Thanks for reading and have a great day!

Resolution prep 101

The first step to setting goals for your new year is to look at the last year. You can't honestly set goals for this year until you take a good look at what you accomplished last year and the year before. You need to know who you are, where you are in your life, and where you are headed before you can set goals for yourself. I remember as a teenager setting goals and making resolutions for myself only to figure out that those goals had nothing to do with me, my life, or where God was taking me. I was shooting air balls all over the place trying so hard to set goals and resolutions that it was as if I didn't know myself at all. Paul learned to set goals for himself by erasing the past. We can't erase it completely but we must forget our failures. So many times we set a goal for ourselves based on one that we failed or fell short of before, and this is not a good process at all.
Philippians 3:13-14 Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
If you truly want to be successful in 2010, you have to forget the shortcomings of 2009. If you are still living in 2009, then 2010 will be a miserable time for you and your goals. In sports there are a lot of athletes that need to have a short memory, quarterbacks and kickers in football need these. If a quarterback throws an interception he has got to forget about that the next time he gets ready to throw a pass. Same with kickers, if he gets ready to kick a field goal thinking about the last one he missed, then he will be in bad shape for sure. In baseball, I think pitchers have it worse. You throw a pitch and the hitter drives it out of the park for a homerun, then you watch him trot around the bases with his chest out and head swelling. You watch the other team celebrate with him at homeplate after he crosses, and then your catcher sets up and you have to throw another pitch, many times the same pitch that you missed location with less than a minute ago. We need to put the past years dealings behind us in order to accomplish big things for God next year. Paul says he forgets what is in teh past, an strains ahead for the goal. Hopefully your goal is to bring glory to God, and with His help you can forget the times that you fell short and move forward with boldness.
Forget yesterday, enjoy today, prepare for tomorrow!
Thanks for reading and have a great day!

Christmast gift #2 from God

The first gift is the obvious, it's salvation. JEsus was the gift of a Savior for our sins and that is the most important part of what Christ did. He bridged the gap between us and God because of our sinfulness. The second gift is the church. Those of us who are actively a part of a church and ministry know exactly what an awesome gift this is, that we can be a part of the Body of Christ. We are teh body of Christ when we become a part of a church. It's about knowing that there are people who love you , care for you and want to see you grow closer to Christ. It's about a group of people who are constantly striving to grow closer to Christ.
Colossians 1:24 "Now I rejoice in what was suffered for you, and I will fill up my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ's afflictions, for the sake of His body, which is the church."
Paul is saying that he rejoices in all that Christ did and is still doing and he will pick up all that he lacks from the church. That is what a body of believers is all about, figuring out what we lack as Christians and surrounding us with people who compliment those shortfalls. We spend our entire lives looking for people who compliment our weaknesses, and in reality God puts them right there in our Sunday School class, on the pew behind us or in front of us, and sometimes behind the pulpit preaching to us on Sundays. There is so much that a church adds to our lives, comfort, caring and nurturing, and hopefully a place where you can be broken and vulnerable. You can walk in let people know you are hurting, or that you have sinned and you will be loved like Jesus would love. After all, you are the body of Christ and His church is where He is doing His greatest work these days.
Thanks for reading and have an awesome Christmas!

Christmas gift #1 from God

Each year we put together a Christmas list for the kids. Tara compiles a list of things that they have asked for, things that they have desired, and things that they have showed interest in. We take that list and decide which things we want to get them, then we pass it on to family and others who want ideas. That list consists of toys, cloths, video games, and so on. Alexa and Peyton don't show a lot of desire for things so we have to pay close attention. We don't walk through Wal-Mart or target hearing I want this, I want that, I like that. They just aren't normal in that sense(I'm not complaining at all).
Think about this, have you ever compiled a list of the major gifts that God gave us through His SOn. Just through Jesus being born there is a list a mile long of gifts we receive from God.
THe first one I think of is a way to God. Through the birth of Christ God in a sense built a bridge from His heart to ours. That is a costly bridge because of our sin, it had to be built.
John 14:6 JEsus says, "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life; no one comes unto the Father except through Me."
There you have it without the birth of Christ, we have no way to God. We continually damage our relationship with God, and He is holy, perfect and unblemished. Sin can have no contact with God, and because our hearts and our minds are so full of sin we cannot communicate directly with Him. We needed the birth of CHrist, we needed the gift of life and a way to God.
So take advantage of this gift, the greatest Christmas gift is salvation, but we can't begin to understand salvation until we can have a way to God.
Thanks for reading and have a great day!

church as a business

So I am sure most of us have either worked in the business world or known those who do. Everything is about margins, the profit to loss margin, what is our bottom line looking like and so on. You look at stocks, stock market, your target market and competitors and see how you are doing. Many presidents, vice-presidents, board of directors and CEO's of large companies crunch numbers 24/7 all year round. They look for patterns of gain and loss, try to cut out the things that aren't needed and move on. In their minds they are saving a business, but really without realizing it they are putting others first. They are fighting for the prosperity of the company and there are sometimes thousands of employees that depend on their decisions. It's called a business, and it is all about investments.
In church, there are investments, but unfortunately some churches still look at it from a business standpoint. Do not get me wrong, I view the business end of it like paying bills, payroll and offerings as extremely important. But, there is a far greater investment to be made. Sometimes in the business world you have to spend money to make money. You have to invest in new machinery, new employees and such to provide for making more money. The church is the same, sometimes you have to invest in things like vans, buses, new buildings, renovations and such to provide for your future growth. There is no profit to loss formula for the net gain of spending money on something that will assist in leading a lost person to Christ or discipling someone who was formerly unchurched. THere is no way to do it.
Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others" (Phil 2:4).
Here Paul tells us how to look at things. I believe in asking myself when I do things what part of this is helping me reach the kingdom for Christ. Eating lunch at a school, going to basketball games and wrestling matches, visiting the sick in the hospital, making house visits, typing a blog, preaching on Sunday morning. I can honestly say that there is not one of those things I do because it is part of my job, or my pay, but because it opens the doors for reaching the lost. If we can spend money on making something nicer that will attract someone who is unsaved into our flock, I am all for it. If we can take more teenagers on a trip because of an investment, if it is feasible then by all means lets do it.
The interest of others we should look at as a church is the lost, the unchurched and the outstretched arms of CHrist. That is our interest, what is this program, investment, expense going to do to help Freedom Baptist CHurch reach this community for Christ? That is our bottom line, if it can save a soul, then by all means let's go for it.
Thanks for reading and have a great weekend!

The nativity scene

There are so many people in the world who have their little nativity scenes set up in their homes. It's interesting that they have them in their front yards as well. Some time ago it became common practice to put the lights out and not put baby Jesus in the scene until Christmas day. But you always have your usual players, Mary and Joseph, the donkeys, goats, and different animals. They are set up under a make shift awning made to resemble a stable. Some people go ahead and place the shepherds there and some even add the wisemen even though they arrived some time later. But, for me I like to study each of these groups and figure them out and their importance.
I know most of us see that the shepherds are important because it was God's way of showing the world that He sent His Son to all people and all walks of life from rich to poor, from powerful to powerless. That is a great way to look at it, but the interesting thing is that we see the need for evangelism even in the birth story. The shepherds immediately take off to share what they have found.
The true root of evangelism is to reach new people for Christ and to impact the kingdom of God. But, at the root of it all is the need for excitement. Many people have been believers for 50 years or more, in my case I am entering the 25 years or more group. THe excitement and enthusiasm is rarely later in life what it is when it is first experienced. We need to reach the lost, we need new converts in our churches because that is what creates the buzz to reach more of the lost.
Luke 2:16-20 So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shpeherds said to them. BUt Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the thins they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.
The shepherds found Jesus, and they told everyone who would listen. That is the perfect picture of when the lost find Him today. THey tell everyone who will listen, it's new, it's exciting and it is life transforming. We need to remember this every time we have a chance to share Jesus with the lost, a revival great or small will break out every time we reach someone for CHrist.
Thanks for reading and have a great day!

Who's in charge?

There is so much talk these days about our leadership. So many people said that the United States would lose it's morals, beliefs and so on when Obama became president. SO many people claimed so many things would go down, would be destroyed and our great nation would crumble. There are those who are against so many things that he is doing, and his plans to do more. I stand opposed to many of his beliefs, but still he is my president, the leader of our great nation. We are told from God's word to respect and submit to the authority, especially because God has chosen them to be that authority. GOd's word tells us that there is no one in power anywhere by surprise or that can go opposed to His plans for His people.
Think for a minute about the birth of Christ. Jesus was prophecied in so many different ways, by so many different people. All these prophecies had to be fullfilled by His birth, His life and eventually His death and resurrection. These were all a part of God's plans from the very beginning. God started mapping this all out before He had even created the heavens and the earth or anything on it. Joseph and Mary were in Nazareth, Jesus was prophecied to be born in a manger in Bethlehem. There would be no reason for Joseph or Mary to be in Bethlehem when they were all settled in Nazareth. But, what happened?
Luke 2:1 In those days Ceasar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world.And everyone went to his own home town to register.
THere you have it, God was using a leader of a nation that was slipping away from Christianity to make His plans come true. God used Augustus to move his little family to where they needed to be. So don't think for a moment that the leadership of any nation or group of people will have any bearing whatsoever on God's plans.
Thanks for reading and have a great day!

one link to rebuilding

Have you ever been wrongly accused of something? Have you ever either as a child or as an adult had a group of people, or even one person accuse you of something that wasn't true? Well, odds are almost everyone has. We can all honestly say there has been a time when we stood wrongfully accused, and it hurts. It is painful when people believe something about you that is completely untrue. When you realize that they are questioning your integrity and character it stings a little, okay a lot. You carry around the anger and the grief that comes with wrongful accusations until the day you decide to forgive those who were accusing. Most people believe that you start getting over it when you prove yourself to be innocent or when you prove yourself to have more integrity than what is showing in that accusation. That isn't true, you start putting things back together when you start forgiving. THat's it, I can tell you that I put my broken heart back together the day I forgave those who were at the forfront of my accusations. Each time, I have taken the high road and not faught it at all. Each time I have felt good about taken the high road but worse as time went by. That is, until I started forgiving, and I started forgiving in my prayer life, and then followed it up in life itself.
Job 42:10 After Job had prayed for his friends, the LORD made him prosperous again and gave him twice as much as he had before"
For over 40 chapters we had read of Job's losses from loved ones, to cattle to homes to everything under the sun. The whole time a few of Job's closest friends were accusing him of some hanous sin. They believed there was no way God would let all this happen unless he had committed some great sin. That wasn't true, and it wasn't until Job prayed this prayer in chapter 42 that things started rebuilding in his life. As a matter of fact, it tells us that he had twice as much as he had before. What event triggered it? Forgiveness in his prayer life led to a forgiving heart and all his riches in life were restored in double.
So think about that next time you are accused of wrongs, pray for the person doing the accusing and let God be in complete control of it all. Forgiveness is the first step to recovery.
Thanks for reading and have an awesome day!

Faith tested

Ken Davis was a young youth pastor working on his college degree. In one of his college courses he had to share a speech and demonstrate his beliefs on the subject. He had to prove that the theory was true and sell his teacher and classmates on it. He chose the law of the pendulum.
The law of the pendulum states that because of energy if a pendulum is raised to a certain height and allowed to swing freely to the other side and back it would not return to the previous spot and each time it would swing a slightly lower height.
Well, he came to class that day with his lesson in place, ready to share with the class. He shared his speech and then took a ball bearing tied to a string and fastened it to teh middle of the board with a thumb tack. He raised to ball to one side and let it go, each time it swung to his side he made a mark on the board and each time it was slightly lower than the one before, this proved the law of the pendulum to be true. But, just to have a little fun he knew some of the guys doing the construction on a new building outside just accross the parking lot. He had them take some 500lb test parachute ropes and tie them to a large steel beam in the building. Then, he took about 200lb of weights and tied them to the end of the ropes and left them. He invited his professor and the class over to the new building and had his professor stand up against the wall, then he had several classmates help him swing pull the weights over against the professor's chest. Then he asked the class do you believe the law of the pendulum to be true? "Yes" they all responded. Then he asked his professor the same thing with a yes as a response. They let the weights go, they swung down accross the room and over to the other side and as they began their return swing the professor jumped about 20 feet over to the side and out of the path of the weights. Then, young Davis asked how many believed the law of the pendulum, the class was completely unsure.
Job 2:7-9 says, "So Satan went out from the presence of the LORD and afflicted Job with painful sores from the soles of his feet to the top of his head. Then Job took a piece of broken pottery and scraped himself with it as he sat among the ashes. His wife said to him, 'Are you still holding on to your integrity? Curse God and die!'"
Job was backed up against the wall, and his faith and beliefs were being tested. In life we will face the same tests, and it's only when our faith is tested that it is truly faith. Everyone believes when things are great, when there are not trials or tribulations, faith kicks in when everyone else gives up. Like that professor we have 2 choices when truly tested.
1. We can run away and let our faith look weak to teh world, or 2. we can stand firm knowing that God is allowing our faith to be strengthened by the test in front of us. Well. Job chose to sit quietly for the end of his faith testing, even when his wife gave up he clung to the one thing he knew would never fail him. His personal relationship with God.
Thanks for reading and have an awesome weekend!

A sad condition

As a teenager I went through very few trials that I can place my finger on. Other than trying to make sports teams and make good grades there was very little that bothered me. There was, however, one time I can recall quite clearly for several reasons. My mom went to the doctor with some issues related to her arthritus and it turned out to be a short stay in the hospital. They found out that she was anemic. Anemia is the lack of red blood cells, hemoglobin or total volume of blood in the body. The body obviously needs a certain amount of blood to function, but it also needs a certain amount of red blood cells and hemoglobin to energize the heart and the body. She was often weak and tired and now we knew why. She spent a few nights in the hospital(seemed like a few months) as at that time my dad nor I could cook, do laundry or anything. We had to learn on the fly(we managed to do laundry, but Burger King and Wendy's did most of the cooking haha)how to do those things and it was not fun. Mom was always the one who cooked, and cleaned because at that time she stayed at home while dad went to work. It was a great working situation until this episode where our rythmn was taken out. We survived it, she got medicine and ate ceratin things that helped get rid of this problem and she was back to strength in no time at all.
Hebrews 4:2-3 "For we also have had the gospel preached to us, just as they did; but the message they heard was of no value to them, because those who heard did not combine it with faith"
We as Christians can get quite anemic in our faith. We have faith, we believe but it has little or no substance. People don't see our faith, they don't see our actions matching up so our faith is weak to them. It lacks substance, it lacks trips to church and Bible studies to grow. It lacks action to the messages that we do hear and read. Our faith becomes something with very little substance, it should be full of substance. Faith means a strong belief and a growing relationship with Christ. Faith means acting out the things that we read in God's word and especially the things that God calls us to do.
So act out your faith, watch it grow and let it have substance other wise you are an anemic believer.
Thanks for reading and have a great day!

finding security

We find safety and security in a lot of different places today don't we. We look at stocks, bonds, bank accounts and investments for financial security. We make wise investments and try to buy things that will hold their value rather than lose value. We do research before making these purchases to make sure we get as much bang for our buck as possible. We do all this as a means of finding financial security.
Then there is physical security, Alexa likes to have Champ sleep with her and she is more of a stickler for getting the doors locked at night than Tara is. Each night if I come in after she is in bed and she hears me, Alexa will get up and go make sure I locked the back door and the deadbolt. We purchase alarm systems and deadbolts that are sure to stop intruders. We do all of this for safety and security.
It's sad, but so many people today put all their stock in things, cars that will rust, houses that will collapse and money that will lose its value eventually. They walk around assured of their possessions and find their pleasure at its peak when they can look at their possessions and know that those things are there.
Isaiah 31:1 Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help, who rely on horses, who trust in the multitude of their chariots and in the great strength of their horsemen, but do not look to the Holy One of Israel, or seek help from the LORD"
Isaiah is addressing these things, people who rely on things rather than God. We can find full security and reassurance in the fact that God is God, He is in control, and with a personal relationship with Him nothing has value beyond knowing Him. We have eternal life awaiting us the moment we believe, we have an opportunity to put our whole and complete trust in God, who will never let us down.
After all we can't take it with us can we? I heard a joke about a wealthy millionaire who continually told his wife when he died he wanted to take all of his money with him. He told her to bury him with all of his money, so when that day came and they closed the casket she granted him his wish. Later, one of the man's brothers came by and told the widow he would help her out financially in every way he could because he knew of the request. She told him she would be fine and he figured she had betrayed him. He asked, "what about my brother's wish?", to which she responded, "It's all taken care of, I wrote him a check."
All the things we work to acquire will be left behind the day our lives end. But, our personal relationship with Christ will only grow.
Thanks for reading and have a great day!

a tough part of being a pastor

In every ministry, in every church there is that person or maybe those people. The ones that tell you they are going to do things and don't. The ones who tell you they will oversee projects and ministries and get things accomplished for you and time and time again they burn you. There are those who even talk bad about you, undermind the things you are attempting to do and hurt you.
THere's nothing in the Bible that tells you that you have to let them be in charge, let them burn you again or even put them in the position to do it. There is however, a mathematical formula for your forgiveness. It's 70 X 7. THat's right, you are to forgive those who do you wrong repeatedly until you can't even keep track any more, and when you get to that point, keep on forgiving.
Matthew 18:21 Then Peter came up and said to him, Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?
In this passage Peter was looking for a scape clause. A loophole or some formula for Jesus to give him letting him know that forgiveness had run out. We all know the human reasoning, "You hurt me once your bad, hurt me twice my bad." THat just doesn't work with God, now He doesn't want us to put ourselves into a situation where we are hurt repeatedly, He just asks us to forgive. We are to forgive those who do us wrong over and over and over again. This is a hard task, and as a pastor I am called to be set apart and do an even greater job of forgiving those who have done me wrong in any way. It's up to us to not just take the high road once, but to stay on the high road throughout our interactions with those who have wronged us.
So think about the people that make you the maddest, have you stopped pouring out forgiveness on them? Have you come to the point where you aren't forgiving them at all, that isn't what Jesus wants us to do. Keep forgiving(not liking or thanking) them for their transgressions because I know you keep asking God to forgive yours!
Thanks for reading and have a great day!

where should we be?

The question arrises where should believers spend their time? WHere should we go, what should we do? I say, the best place for us to go and the best thing for us to do is to go anywhere we are invited. If you are invited, you should make an appearance unless there is something immoral about what is planned or what will be going on. If you get invited to a get together, go. If invited to someone's house, go. Jesus never turned down an invitation once. If someone invited Him to have dinner or lunch with them He was ready right then to go. He never questioned what would go on, He never looked through His daily planner and made excuses. That's the cool thing about looking at the life of Christ, He did not hang out with the saints all the time or in the temple all the time. He was constantly out rubbing elbows with the lost and sinners all over the place. In Luke 5:31 He pleads His case, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but the sinners to repentance."
Those are powerful words from Christ. He says, basically hanging out with other Christians is nice, but when you're invited into an opportunity to reach the lost, go do it.
WWJD was a popular thing when I was in early highschool. What would Jesus do? You were suppposed to wear the bracelet and ask yourself that very question any time you came to a tough decision. WHat would He do, where would He go, how would He handle the situation? Those are all questions that stem from a life of living to please God. The bottom line is, no one pleased God with their life more than Christ. And no one spent more time out in the world with sinners than Christ.
So I ask you again, where should we be? We should be in the world, loving on sinners and sharing our story with them. Not hulled up in some place with other Christians all day every day hiding from the world.
Thanks for reading and have a great day!

A bad rap

Wally was big for his age--seven years old. Everyone wondered what role the teacher would give him in the annual Christmas play. Especially considering the fact that he was also a slow learner. Perhaps he could pull the curtain.But, too everyone's surprise the teacher gave Wally the role of the innkeeper. The boy of course was delighted. After all, all he had to learn was one line:
"There is no room in the inn." He had that down in no time.
Then came the night for the program. The parents took their places. Every seat in the auditorium was filled. The children entered singing "Oh come all ye faithful." The lights dimmed. A hush moved over the audience. The curtain opened on Scene One. Mary and Joseph entered the stage and walked up to the inn. "Please sir, my wife is not well. Could we have a room for the night?"
Wally was ready for his line. He had rehearsed it all night. He began, there is.and he hesitated. He started over again. There is. . .and again his mind went completely blank. Everyone was embarrassed for him but poor Wally just didn't know what to do. Joseph thought he would improvise and started walking away toward the stable on stage left. Seeing him walking away Wally in desperation called out: "Look, there's plenty of room at my house, just come on home with me."
That seems a rather delightful twist on a familiar story. Over the years the characters in the Christmas story have become clearly defined for us. The issues all seem so clear cut. Herod was a villain and the wise men were heroes. The shepherds were heroes and the Innkeeper--well, the poor innkeeper has gone down as one of the heavies in the story. In our minds eye, we envision him as a crotchety old man with a night cap on his head sticking his head out a second story window and rudely and harshly shouting: Take the stable and leave me alone.
But perhaps the innkeeper has received bad press. Preachers over the centuries have had a field day with the poor guy. But was it his fault that the inn was built with twelve rooms instead of thirteen? Was it his fault that Caesar Augustus had issued a decree that the entire world should be taxed? Was it his fault that Mary and Joseph were so late in arriving?
But you know something; this simple little statement about there being no room in the Inn becomes a symbol for Luke. As he writes his gospel it almost becomes a theme. Luke takes this one line, "There is no room in the inn," and shows us how this phrase was recurrent throughout Jesus' ministry. The question that Luke leaves for us is--will there ever be any room for him?
Today's world still leaves very little room for Jesus. From Happy Holidays to signs reading Merry X-Mas there is still seemingly very little room for Jesus. So next time you want to bash the inn keeper, think about your friends, neighbors and even loved ones who are making little or no room for Jesus this Christmas. They really are the same, it's about space, it's about a Savior, It's about time we helped others make room for Him.
Thanks for reading and have an awesome weekend!

Staying busy

I know most of us have at some point had an event that we just could not wait for. Whether it was Christmas as a child, a birthday part, or something of that sort you can recall it vividly. For me the one thing that I absolutely could not wait for was the birth of my first child. I recall being nuts waiting for it, they set the date and the date came and went. A few weeks later we're still waiting and I am bordering on getting a little testy with my wife(baby hog)! I was fine so long as I was at work, or at a youth event, or at a school hanging out with the kids. It was the slow times when I was laying in bed at night, or studying in the mornings that drove me crazy. I'm sure you can relate to some point in your life feeling this way.
Well, I have met a lot of people that like to study over and over the book of Revelation. They take that book and the Olivet Discourse and study them evaluating what is going to happen in the end times. Many of these people live their entire lives focused on the ending and the way they think Jesus will come back rather than focusing on life itself.
Jesus calls us to do so much more and be far more productive than someone who just sits around in anticipation. Those who are afraid of the end times, those who are excited about the end times, regardless of your millenial stance pre or post they find themselves "ate up" with the end times prophecies. I for one don't like to teach the book of Revelation, and I certainly don't like to live with that in the fr ont of my mind.
Praise be to the LORD my Rock, who trains my hands for war, my fingers for battle" (Ps 144:1).
David says, look regardless of what lies ahead I am going to praise God. He gives me all I need to be prepared for anything this world throws at me. God gave us His word to know how to live and face life's challenges. He gave us His Son to save us from an eternity in Hell. Through a right relationship with God and through His Son we can live victorious lives, but not sitting around in a bunker or stocking our shelves and sitting in expectancy.
True, we should live as though He is coming back tomorrow, but we should be more concerned about those who do not know Him, than our own safety. That is my view and I hope that you can apply it to the way you view the end times. Don't sit in fear, don't sit period. Get out and tell your loved ones and friends that God sent His Son to die for them so that they can experience freedom in life from sin and eternal life in Heaven.
Thanks for reading and have a great day!

One mis-step

So all the buzz in sports land right now is about Tiger Woods. He seemingly did something, or had something happen and none of us know what, why or how. The media is not going to rest until something is found out and it's so funny that way. The interesting thing is that he has the power to tell them it is none of their business and never answer one single question about it. He can do that, but still the media will attack him repeatedly from every angle until they get what they want. That is the way the media is and it is a proper perspective of the world.
As a believer in Christ, when you make a mistake you go from living in teh open to under the microscope. You spend your time under the microscope of the world and they really want you to mess up bad so they can attack your relationship with Christ.
You only get one reputation, and one shot at it. If you have a good reputation and you live the way God is calling you to then you will not fall quite so hard when you do make mistakes. But if your reputation is repeatedly tarnished then it will be very hard to keep it in good standing enough to impact people for Christ.
Think about it this way, you only have to lie once to be a lyar, you only have to steal once to be a thief, and you only have to cheat once to be a cheater. You are forever tarnished with that title. But if you live your life in an upright manner those little mistakes and sins that you do commit don't destroy you.

On the flip side you can't put everything you have in your reputation. You can't control your reputation, you can only control your actions. So focus on what God thinks of you rather than what the world thinks of you. Focus on the things that are important to God rather than the world. They cannot and will not be able to destroy a reputation that is in GOd's possession. They can attack it, they can hurt it but never destroy it unless you let them. JEsus said himself that only in his own hometown is a prophet's name not powerful. He had problems with his reputation and He lived a perfect life. He worried that He couldn't accomplish all that He wanted because of His reputation even though He lived a perfect life.
Live your life for Christ, worry about what God thinks of you and your actions and all those other things will filter in. Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you. Matthew 5:3

Thanks for reading and have a great day!

A right attitude

As a pastor it is so easy to get caught up in who is in your corner. You pick out those people in the congregation that seem to be on your side and in your corner. They are always there, always on your side and have got your back no matter what. At times they are what we refer to as "yes men", many times those are the actual people who ruin your ministry. You lose your heart and soul for ministry and that should be to reach the lost. TO reach out to those who are unchurched, unsaved, or maybe even those who used to be in church but have wandered off. The ones who back you, who are most faithful are already growing in their relationship if you are feeding them each week with the Word of God. So where should our focus be, where should we be hungriest, for numbers? For a large group on Sunday mornings? For our regulars to be there to stroke our egos? No, I think Matthew 18 says it all.
"What do you think? If a man owns a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders away, will he not leave the 99 on the hills and go to look for the one that wandered off? And if he finds it, I tell you the truth, he is happier about that one sheep than about the 99 that did not wander off. In the same way your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should be lost."
The most interesting thing about Jesus' words here is that he is actually talking about children. He is sharing with his disciples about how to deal with children. He's talking directly to leaders about their flocks. Reach out to the ones who are lost, to the ones who are wavering and fallen. Reach out for the people in your life who do not know Christ, who do not have a clue what it is like to know Christ and His love. Now is the best time to do it, Christmas is a gift in so many ways. It is in this context a gift in the way that it is an open opportunity to share the Gospel. Everyone is into Christmas, decorating and singing, and eating, and buying gifts so why not tell them what it is really about.
Jesus warns us not to get wrapped up in who is there, but rather to worry about those who arent. As a Pastor it is my job to feed all those who come through the doors each Sunday, it's even more important to pray for, and reach out to those who aren't there. Leaving the 99 is a perfect illustration of leaving your flock for eachc and every lost soul you can find.
Thanks for reading and have a great day!