But if I accept Christ, I'll have to stop doing all the fun stuff ...

We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea.  We are far too easily pleased."   

-- C.S. Lewis

Leave it to C.S. Lewis to tell it exactly as it is.  Here is another great anecdote, taken from John Tolson's and Larry Kreider's book, The Four Priorities:

Ira Yates owned a sheep ranch in West Texas, but wasn't able to make enough on his ranching operation to pay the principal and interest on the mortgage.  As time passed, he risked losing his ranch.  Eventually, he had to live on a government subsidy.  Day after day, as the sheep grazed on the rolling West Texas hills, he wondered how he would pay the bills.  Then a seismographic crew from an oil company came into the area and told him there might be oil on his land.  They asked permission to drill a well and he signed a contract. 

At 1,115 feet they struck oil - big time!  The first well came in at 80,000 barrels a day.  Many subsequent wells produced twice as much.  In fact, 30 years after the discovery, a government test on one of the wells showed that it still had the potential to yield 125,000 barrels of oil a day.  And Yates owned it all!  Actually, he owned it all on the day he purchased the land.  Yet he had been living on government relief.  A multimillionaire living in poverty!  The problem?  He didn't know about the riches lying beneath his feet and he lacked the ability to get to it.  

In the Holy Spirit, you have more energy for living the Christian life than you could possibly imagine.  It's as if you are sitting on an undiscovered oil well.  Sadly, too many followers of Christ are living below the poverty level when they have unbelievable resources available to them.  Just imagine the impact we could have if only we would allow the spirit of God to fill us and flow through us!  

Now that you know about the abundant life available to you (see John 10:10*), don't overlook the huge reservoir of spiritual riches waiting to be tapped.  God stands ready to help you reach the incredible wealth that is yours.

* "... I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly." John 10:10

Look at a banana ...

I'm here on my back porch ... early morning time with God to read his word ... and I'm starting the day with a cup of coffee and a banana.

And I just took a moment to really think about something so simple as a banana ... something we take for granted because it is so commonplace.

But it's pretty miraculous, and is yet another indication the God is good, God is real, that He loves us, and that He is an incredible architect and engineer.

Think about the banana for a sec:
○ It's perfectly engineered, with simplicity and elegance.
○ It is easily manageable and accessible by us and the animal kingdom.
○ It is aesthetically pleasing, with a nice color and texture.
○ It is nutritious.  It is good for us.
○ And it is absolutely delicious! Heck, my favorite candy is banana flavored!

God help me to never be lured in by the silly, basic theories and "educated guesses" of this world about how this all came to be. Let me simply rest in the fact that You are sovereign, that You are the Great Creator, Architect, and Engineer of all of this. 

I am weak, and can be easily swayed. I need Your help. Let me simply rest on Your wisdom, Your logic, and Your reason, and not on the ever-changing sands of this world's thoughts and perspectives. I ask this in Jesus' heavenly and precious and beautiful name. Amen.

How do you view God?

Many in the world today see God as He is not. Many see him as some cruel, controlling dictator waiting for them to mess up.  They see Him as an enforcer of some crazy rules that just don't matter. Those who have this perspective do not know the one true God.

The following inspirational piece by an unknown author illustrates this fact:

At first, I saw God as my observer, my judge keeping track of the things I did wrong, so as to know whether I married in heaven or hell when I die. He was out there so does like a president. I recognize this picture when I saw it, but I really didn't know him. But later on, when I met Christ, it seemed as though life or rather like a bike ride, but it was a tandem bike, & I noticed that Christ was in the back helping me pedal.

I don't know just when it was that he suggested we change places, but life has not been the same since! When I had control, I knew the way. It was rather boring, but predictable ... it was the shortest distance between two points. But when He took the lead, He knew delightful long cuts, up mountains and through rocky places at breakneck speeds. It was all I could do to just hang on! Even though it looked like madness, He said "Pedal!"

I worried and was anxious and asked, "Where are you taking me?" He laughed and didn't answer, and I started to learn to trust. I forgot my boring life and entered into the adventure. And when I'd say, "I'm scared!", He leaned back and touch my hand. He took me to people with gifts that I needed. Gifts of healing, acceptance, enjoy. They gave us gifts to take on my journey, my Lords and mine. And we were off again. He said, "Give the gifts away; there extra baggage, too much weight." So I did, to the people we met; and I found that in giving I received, and still our burden was light.

I did not trust Him, at first, in control of my life. I thought He'd wreck it; but He knows bike secrets, knows how to make it bend to take sharp corners, knows how to jump to clear high rocks, knows how to try to shorten scary passages. And I am learning to shut up and pedal in the strangest places, and I'm beginning to enjoy the view and the cool breeze on my face with my delightful companion, Jesus Christ. And when I'm sure I just can't do anymore, He just smiles and says, "Pedal!"

God is good. First and foremost, he is the Creator of all things, but he is also our Father. And a good Father wants what's best for his children, so he creates rules to protect them, and to point them in the direction of where they should be ... what they were created to be. He is also an extremely patient and forgiving Father, knowing that we will continue to mess up along the way. He does not care to count our mess ups. He simply wants a heart that trust Him and loves Him.

Thank God for that. :-)

God, I thank you ...

God I thank you for a list of things too long to mention in one sitting. The list would fill reams of paper, if I really sat and thought about it. 

I thank you for allowing me to wake up this morning and spend another day in your incredible creation.

I thank you for the breath in my lungs. I thank you for a beating heart, eyes that see, ears that hear, fingers that touch, a tongue that tastes.  I thank you for legs that carry me, and arms that can show love through a hug, or a hand up, or an act of service.

I thank you for the beauty of the sky, of clouds, trees, flowers, of fields of wheat, of the reflective nature of a still lake.

I thank you for the inner and outer beauty of my wife, of my kids, of my parents, of my sister, of my cousins, aunts and uncles, of my close friends, of my brothers and sisters in Christ.

I thank you for the opportunity to live a life that praises you, that worships you, that shows your love and your light to this world.

I thank you for waking me up, God, and showing me the light. I thank you that, despite my sin and the fact that I continue to sin, that you loved me so much that you sent your only begotten Son to die for me ... and if I were the only person on earth, in your glorious creation, he still would have died for me. Just me.

God, I pray that I live a life of thanks, of appreciation for the avalanche of blessings that you have showered upon me and my family.

Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good. His love endures forever.

Happy Thanksgiving all.

Just be a good person, right?

"I figure, if you just try to lead a good life and do more good things than bad things in general, you should be okay." -- Many People I Know

David was quoted in Psalm 101 saying, "I will be careful to lead a blameless life ..."  But who has ever led a blameless life?  David certainly didn't. 

Seriously, think about it. Who can say they haven't ever lied, even if it was only a "little white lie"? Who can say they've never gossiped or slandered someone or held a grudge or looked at someone lustfully?  Not even Mother Teresa can say that.  So where do you and I stand?

In our minds, it seems reasonable to think that God would weigh our good and bad, then let us in as long as we have a C average or greater.  But what leads us to believe that?  Seems like a nice thing to believe, but there is no objective reason to believe it at all. In fact, the only objective evidence we have is Scripture, which says something very different.

Scripture says that no one is without sin. Paul was so aware of this that he called himself the chief of sinners. Comparing him to a Hitler or Stalin or a Pol Pot, and you may want to argue with him on that. But what he was pointing out was his hyper-awareness of sin as God sees it. To God, sin is sin, even a little white lie is too much to be near God.

So now what? Should we just stop doing good things, knowing that we have no chance at all?  Perhaps.  I mean, if there was no other hope, perhaps. But there is another, better option for us ... one that God provided for us out of His unending grace and His infinite love for us.

"For God so loved the world that He sent His only begotten Son ..." to die for us and for our sins. You see, Jesus is the only human in all of human history to live a blameless, sinless, perfect life.  His death on the cross was to wipe all of our sins away, past and future. This is why he said "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." He was not being arrogant. He was stating the Truth:  that we, by ourselves and by our actions, aren't enough to be near God and to spend eternity with Him in heaven.  We need to be saved from the repercussions and the slavery of our sins.

Can someone be a good person without believing in God? The answer to that is yes.  But there is absolutely no objective reason for them to be good, and however they define "good" is, frankly, a reflection of the Christian value system. Someone who is being "good", is simply acting like a true Christian (emphasis on the word true there).  Conversely, someone claiming to be a Christian, but then continuing to sin without shame, needs to check their heart as to whether they truly are a Christian.  Christianity is a heart change that results in a behavioral change, not the other way around.

God isn't looking for good works: clean and pretty on the outside, but gross and rotting on the inside. God is looking for a heart change. And that heart change, and nothing else, will result in good fruit. That HEART change will result in a trust and hope in God and his commandments and his promises. A heart change makes a person realize that God's commandments are nothing more then a good father showing his beloved children the way to live life as he designed it. And that is the best, most freeand fulfilling way to live it.

So it burdens me, and saddens me to convey the truth, that a person who is "good" without Jesus is nothing more than an actor.  And that being good most of the time if not virtually all the time is simply not enough.

We need Jesus. NEED Him.

Please seek Him. I beg you. I do not want anyone to be away from God, nor does God himself want to lose any of His creations. But He does love us enough to give us free will, to choose to love Him or reject Him.  This is the only way a relationship can work, where buy both choose to love one another.

It's up to you.  And you do not have plenty of time on this. Please be urgent.

Much love, and God bless.

One Church, please!

I spent a wonderful weekend with my Dad at a Catholic Men's Retreat called ACTS.  Catholics will know what I'm talking about - if you haven't taken part in an ACTS retreat, get on it.  Life changing and - as my Dad said:

"It was a very humbling experience.  One of the highlights of my entire Christian life."

This from a Catholic of 70+ years.  Incredible.  I saw young men with hyper-bravado and a certain swagger of over-confidence speak humbly of how the Holy Spirit had affected them throughout the retreat weekend.  And no, I can't tell you anything about it.  That's the rule.  You don't talk about Fight Club ;).

Here's the thing:  I'm not a "Catholic".  I am a part of the holy catholic church - the body of Christ - but I don't label myself a Catholic (note the big C).  Technically, I go to a "Protestant" church.  More specifically, a Baptist church.  Although I don't consider myself a Protestant or a Baptist necessarily either.

Question:  Who cares?  Answer:  Apparently hundreds of years of Christians on both sides.  Oy.

Consider this:  Do you think Jesus is sitting at the right hand of God the Father Almighty, looking upon us thinking, "I'm so glad they've divided themselves into 758 denominations.  That's exactly what I was going for."?  I'm guessing ... no?  In fact, Paul spoke about this tendency we have to "take our ball and go home".  The Christians in Corinth were arguing about whether to follow Paul's teachings or Apollos' teachings or some other source of teachings ...

"NO!  For the love of Pete!  Christ's teachings and Christ's alone!"  -- Paul (I might be paraphrasing just a tad)

In any church there will be disagreements, some quite substantial.  We need to talk about them humbly and align them with what God seems to be saying through His Word.

Note to Catholics:  I sometimes hear a sentiment of "Why don't they just get over it and come back to the one universal church ... the Catholic church, of course."  Jesus never used the word Catholic, nor is it used anywhere in scripture.  So, let's drop that and humble ourselves.

Note to Protestants:  The Catholics believe in the same triune God, in Jesus' salvation and Lordship,  and in the entire Apostle's Creed ... just like you.  There are some differences in belief that are admittedly substantial, but you need to be willing to hear them out, explain your points, get it out on the table for discussion, and join forces again (just like the Wonder Twins - "Form of ... an Eagle!").

We are called to love our Brothers and Sisters.  We are ALL the body of Christ, and currently we have an arm and a leg over there, and a torso and an ear over there.

Let's come together as one Body as Christ calls us to.  Amen?

So hopeful and anxious for the life of the world to come.  Love you all.

Christianity vs Christians ...

I'm no longer surprised by the random individual who says, "I'm not a Christian, nor will I look further into Christianity because all Christians are hypocrites."  Two reasons why this is a ridiculous statement to make:

1. In any True/False question, you know it's false when you see words like ALL or NEVER.
2. Christians do not have a monopoly on hypocrisy.  Being a hypocrite is nice and evenly spread across humanity, regardless if one is a Christian or not.  It's a human flaw, not a Christian thing.

Next time someone says, "I don't believe in God" or "I don't believe in Jesus", ask "Who do you think God is?"  Upon explanation of who or what they THINK He is, agree with them that you don't believe in the God they just explained either.  

Bottom line, people who don't believe in God have the wrong "god" in mind.  They simply don't understand, otherwise they would run after Him at a sprint.  More than likely, their mind has been branded with a view of God or Jesus from a less than stellar experience with some flawed people (who may or may not be actual Christians, but perhaps claim to be), through an upbringing where they were presented with a false impression of Christianity and God, or from indoctrination into an ideology that is simply false.

Here's a pop quiz for the non-believer reading this:

• Christians are bigots who hate [FILL IN THE BLANK (e.g. homosexuals, muslims ...].  T/F
• Christians and Republicans ... same thing.  T/F
• Churches just want your money.  T/F
• Christians believe what they believe with a blind faith.  T/F
• There is more evidence for the theory of evolution than for the claims of Christ's deity.  T/F
• Islam, Hinduism, Christianity, etc. ... all pretty much the same.  T/F

If you answered T (True) to any of these, you have it wrong.  I recommend you look deeper than sound bites and broad generalizations, and seek the actual truth.  You will be surprised what you'll find and be forever thankful for humbling yourself long enough to seek Him.

God bless you and - regardless of your current position - I love you and so does God (only infinitely  greater than I ever could).

A. God is good.  

B. God is love.  

C. God is just.  

D. All of the above.

(Hint:  It's D.)