General

Read Romans 8:28 here  

What is good?  It is the ultimate spiritual good for each of us who believe.  It must be for those who believe for the verse says for those who love the Lord and are called according to His purpose.  In order to really see and experience the good we must believe and operate in faith.

Good is not defined by what we want. In our immaturity we often want that which is not good. That is not limited to those things that are obviously immoral, but includes anything that we desire out of self-centeredness. To a three year old the shiny object on the table looks like something fun to play with, but as parents we do not give in to their cries when we tell them they cannot have the knife.

Sometimes God brings the things our way and sometimes we bring them on ourselves through our disobedience, selfishness, and\or immaturity.

God will work in all things to bring about good, His good, which is ultimately our good and what we should desire the most. God can even work through things that seem bad. Even more incredible is that He can actually work through things that are bad. God doesn’t cause the bad, but in His unlimited power and grace He can take the bad that we so often give Him and blend it in with His grace and produce a good result.

God specializes in growing flowers in the dunghills of our lives. He takes the ingredients that we provide Him, both good and bad and is able to produce something genuinely good out of them.

Philippians 2:1-4 (Read the passage here)
Being united with Christ is the ultimate goal God has for us as Christians. This union with Christ brings great blessings and joy through a fellowship with the Spirit. Through this union we experience the tenderness and compassion of Christ toward us. Christ recognizes us for who we are, sinners, yet He has tenderness, love and compassion toward us anyway. This is the blessed gift of God.

The real result of being united with Christ, allowing the Spirit of Christ to work in us as we are united with Him, will be like-mindedness and low-mindedness (humility). If we expect or experience the benefit of God’s love and compassion to ourselves we must be loving and compassionate to others. We will care about others as we care about ourselves. That is the result of being united with Christ and allowing that relationship to operate in us. In order to do that effectively we must get the self out of the way.

Imagine Being Noah
A Lighthearted, but Serious Message

Genesis chapter 6 and 7

Noah was selected by God to carry out a critical task. The gist of that task is captured in Genesis 7:23 …Only Noah was left, and those with him in the ark.

How did it all start?
Noah was born the son of Lamech, who died just five years before the flood occurred. Noah’s grandfather Methuselah, it appears, died in the flood.

Noah was born into hard times and what seems to be a neighborhood gone bad. The church folk of the day began to seriously backslide (Gen. 6:2-8). They compromised their values. Those who were raised in the church began to date and hang out with those who didn’t believe. Eventually, because the men liked these good-looking women, they married them.   Thus the compromise is complete and the backsliding continues.

Now Noah was different. He walked with God and God found favor with him (Gen.6:8-9). This means he probably didn’t hang out with the rest of the gang very often. To the crowd that has every inclination of the thoughts of their heart being evil (Gen. 6:5), someone like Noah can be a real downer. Noah probably was not the most popular of guys growing up and it just got worse. He wouldn’t have made the football or basketball team. After all they had the Nephilim in the neighborhood in those days and those guys were men of renown (Gen 6:4). Nobody likes a blameless guy unless he can jump really high or throw a ball really far and even then some folks are still not going to like him. Just ask Tim Tebow.

Now this lack of popularity probably came in handy later in a few different ways. For one, since Noah wasn’t on the football or basketball team, and wasn’t necessarily real popular, he was probably a good student. Those math skills are about to become useful. Maybe too, he took woodworking and that’s going to be handy someday as well.

Somehow Noah found a girl that would marry him in spite of his unpopularity and they had three sons named Shem, Ham, and Japheth. This part works out real well for us since Shem is the father of the Jewish people (think Semites – just drop the h) and the Jewish people were the people from which Jesus came and that’s a good thing for us as we really need Jesus to keep us from having a fate even worse than the folks in the story of Noah.

Now God had become displeased with man and his rebellion and evil ways; so much so that His solution was to wipe mankind from the face of the earth. So God came to Noah with a task.

The conversation went something like this. “Noah”, says God. First of all, let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves. Let’s not act all nonchalant and cool regarding the fact that God is talking to Noah. How often do you hear God calling your name? God says, “Noah, I am going to put an end to all people.” Noah thinks, “well that can’t be good since I’m a people.” God says, “I’m going to destroy both them and the earth. So build yourself an ark.” Noah says, “ok…what’s an ark?” “Noah, build it out of cypress wood; make rooms in it and coat it with pitch inside and out. Make it 450 feet long, 75 feet wide, and 45 feet high.” “That’s a lot of wood, God. Where am I going to get all that wood and where am I going to build it? You know, my neighborhood organization has zoning laws and with all the ‘green’ stuff going on these days folks are not going to be too happy with me clearing out all those trees.”

God continues, “I am going to bring floodwaters on the earth and to destroy all life under the heavens, every creature that has the breath of life in it.” Noah says, “alright, who is this really? Am I on Candid Camera?” God goes on to assure Noah that he and his family will be spared, which undoubtedly makes Noah a little bit relieved and glad.

So what kind of thoughts did Noah deal with in the upcoming days? “Man, God is really mad. I mean to destroy the entire world, wow.” “I must be pretty special for God to spare only me. Now who’s the one that’s too cool for school?” “Those guys that ignored me and picked on me in school are in for it now. Hey, they deserve it.” “Wow God, the whole world? Seriously? Doesn’t that seem a little harsh?”

You see, we always battle with thinking we know better than God. Sure, destroying the whole world seems harsh. It is harsh. But we do not know the hearts of men. We know the heart of an evil man who is not going to repent no better than we do the heart of a sinful man who will eventually repent and turn to God.

Some other things Noah probably dealt with – “God this is a lot of work for an old man. Can’t you help me out here? I mean I just get started this morning and my saw blade breaks. I’m just trying to do your work. You could have kept that blade from breaking.” “How am I supposed to get all those animals? And how do I know which one is male and female for all of them?” There’s no way this is going to work.” “How am I supposed to keep the lions from eating all the rabbits?” Don’t worry they’ll multiply.

Yet in spite of whatever doubts he had, “Noah did everything just as God commanded Him.” (Gen 6:22) The time came. The animals started to come. Imagine if one couple came and both were males. “Noah, I told you one of each, male and female;” “Why can’t you just change one of them God?” Actually, an interesting miracle that is sometimes overlooked is found in Genesis 7:8. It states that the animals came to Noah and entered the ark – God drew them.

What an incredible amount of faith was required for Noah to build that ark. He undertook a giant task with nothing more than what he thought God was saying to him. When God speaks to us how do we respond? We probably question whether it is really God speaking. Don’t you think Noah must have done the same? I’ve heard the question, “how do I know it is God speaking?”, so many times. How did Noah know? That would have been quite an investment for him to undertake without knowing it was God speaking. Perhaps we can find a clue in the verse that says, “Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked with God.” (Gen 6:9)

We might also question and debate with God regarding what He is saying. I don’t believe this is a bad thing to do. God is willing to work with us to get it to sink in. Noah may have very well done the same thing. Moses questioned God’s orders and things worked out well there. He didn’t see himself as the one to talk to Pharoah. It is hard for us in these vessels to comprehend and absorb what God has for us. The problem is not in the questioning but rather when the questioning becomes permanent or turns into rebellion. Quite often when God first speaks to us it doesn’t make sense, but He will patiently persevere and if we do as well it can become clear.

Notice in the story that Noah never questions why. I don’t mean why build the ark. The reason for that was that it was going to flood. I’m referring to the “why destroy the world?” Now we do not know for certainty that the question did not enter Noah’s mind, but it would certainly seem plausible that if he had asked God such a question it would have been included because of its significance. We don’t need to know the ‘why’ in order to obey. Our obedience is not conditional upon knowing the why. That implies that we are withholding our acceptance and obedience based on our opinion of the merits of God’s motives.

God found Noah trustworthy enough to give this enormous task to him. How trustworthy does God find you? What task can he give you?

The rightness or wrongness of a religion is not determined by examining its adherents but rather what they are supposed to be adhering to.

Most of us have probably heard the phrase “Don’t shoot the messenger.”   It is usually spoken when we have some bad news to tell someone that didn’t originate with us. 

Often the message of Christ gets a bad wrap because of those who claim to believe in and even bring the message.  Many of us have lamented about it before.  How we live our lives impacts the effectiveness of our message.  Certainly throughout history imperfect, even corrupt Christians have done harm to the message of Christ.  But we must understand that a corrupt Christian does not equate to a corrupt or even non-existent God.

Yes, organized religion, like every other organization that has ever existed has some corrupt people in it.  Does that make the entire organization corrupt?   More importantly does it change in any way the truthfulness of the foundation upon which the organization is built?  Does it mean the message itself is corrupt?  I think the words of Jesus himself say it and ask the question best:
Jesus answered, “I did tell you, but you do not believe. The miracles I do in my Father’s name speak for me,… (snip)
… but Jesus said to them, “I have shown you many great miracles from the Father.   For which of these do you stone me?”(consider ‘condemn me’ or ‘reject me’ in place of ‘stone me’). John 10:25,32

Our lives here on earth will last for a generation.  Our legacy and memory can last much longer.

There is a line in the movie “Gladiator”, spoken by General Maximus that states, “What we do in life echoes in eternity.”  This is true on a couple of levels.  How will you be remembered?  What will people think of when they remember you.  More importantly, what footsteps will you leave behind that others can follow?  You could change the course of someones life.

This statement is also true in regard to how we will spend eternity.  We are created as eternal beings.   What we do in life will not only determine our legacy, but will also determine how we spend our eternity.   The grace of God through Jesus Christ provides for an eternity spent with God in His wondrous glory, but you must accept it.  You must surrender yourself to it.  

How will you be thought of here on earth after you are gone?  How will you be known in eternity once you move on?  “What we do in life echoes in eternity.”

Credit to:

Gladiator, written by David Franzoni

I’ve heard this statement more times than I care to remember, “Religion is a very personal subject and is best left for the privacy of your home.”   Why? Jefferson didn’t leave it at home.   Washington didn’t leave it at home. Madison didn’t leave it at home.   Lincoln didn’t leave it at home.  Isaac Newton didn’t leave it at home.  

If religion is a personal thing that means it is a part of who we are as a person.  How then can we leave it at home?  It goes with us wherever we are.  It is who we are.   If we practice faith that means the One in which we have faith in guides all of our decisions.  

If we believe our religion is a good thing then how can we remain sincere and keep it private.  Would we not then be selfish by keeping it to ourselves?  Our very act and attitude of selfishness then goes against what we say we believe.  So we cannot practice our belief, which teaches and guides us to not be self-centered, and keep our religion to ourselves.   Love not shared is not really love.  Faith not shared is not really faith.

I do not believe we need to force our belief on someone.  Actually I don’t believe we can.  Rather than force our belief we demonstrate our belief and thereby offer it up to any and all that would wish to share it.

 Some argue that we should not offend others by sharing or practicing our faith.  Why have we promoted offending someone to the level of ‘high crimes’.  Believe me, Christians have been offended plenty of times. We get over it.  I don’t promote offending someone for the sake of offending them, but we could all be a little more thick-skinned.

Would you not be much more offended if I had just been given more brownies than I could eat but I didn’t offer any to you?  We have been given more love from God than we could ever consume – offer it up.