My daughter had her first accident this evening.  While driving the speed limit on the interstate in the drizzling rain she somehow lost control and hit a guard rail which sent her back across the two lanes and off the other side.  According to the word I received the car is probably totaled.  The airbags did not engage but, God is good and He is merciful; she was not seriously hurt.

I was reminded of an accident many years ago where the state trooper, on arrival at the scene, declared his surprise that I was able to stand and address him.  The paramedics told my daughter something similar.  Even though I lived for many years in opposition to God, sometimes actively fighting for the enemy of us all, I can look back and see the many instances where it seems the protective arms of our Creator were wrapped around me.

I believe this is true for my daughter, and my other children and grandchildren.  I believe it to be true because no matter what we are doing or where we are in life, God loves us.  He loves us before we love Him and He loves us even if we never love Him.  I also believe it to be true because I am praying for them all.  My wife is praying for them all.  In fact, there are a lot of us praying for them all.

It is an amazing thing to realize that the Creator of all things cares enough for every one of us that He protects us even if we do not deserve it.

I praise God tonight.  Not for what He does or has done.  Not even for His part in saving my daughter from harm.

I praise Him for who He is.  Because who He is, is the answer to all we need.

Pray for your loved ones tonight.

Love you all

Tags: Creator, God, grandchildren, Love, Praise

A couple of days ago I asked some questions about alcohol and whether the bible condemns all consumption of it as sin.  On the face of this it seems pretty certain that it is not.  Any casual reader of the stories of Jesus would recognize the fact that His first recorded miracle was turning water into wine.  And there are other direct references of His very own consumption of it.  Yet I have read and heard many arguments about it being sin.

There are those that will use all kind of pretty far out excuses to say that this is not really saying what we think.  The scripture is not saying what it seems to say.  Grape juice?  Really?  Are we to believe that God is just trying His best to confuse us?

There are those that, in the past and probably still today, say that it is even wrong for a Christian to serve or sell alcohol.  Again, I point to Christ’s first miracle.  If I should not serve or sell it then why in the world would Jesus turn water into it?  We seem to still have tremendous problems with self-righteousness.

These thoughts and questions are not really the reason I raised this question though.  For some very thoughtful, adult insights about the consumption argument in general, please read Tuesdays post and comments.  Everyone who responded made points I not only believe to be correct but I hold to them myself.  And I especially think that when you vow or commit to something as Heath and Jason did as ministers, then you should adhere to those commitments like they pointed out that they did.

If the organization you join says you have to stand on one foot for 30 seconds and face east at 8:00 am every third Tuesday and you agree, then you must do it whether it makes sense or not, if you are a person of integrity.  The health and danger issues are also valid reasons why not drinking makes sense, and the witness in a culture that definitely glorifies alcohol as the means to get drunk is not one the Kingdom really needs.  I don’t drink myself for some of these reasons.

As I stated though, I brought it all up for the same reason I have brought up other things recently.  If we spent as much time as some do on defending these obviously unbiblical beliefs such as drinking being sin, with as much zeal and commitment, in reaching out to those outside the Kingdom, we could really glorify God. Instead we waste tremendous amounts of time on our own legalistic views and arguments.

Alcohol is only one small part of a whole host of things that some Christians seem to want to focus on in spite of the fact that they have a mission to do.  Appearances are important as some believe when talking about drinking, but what about the appearance of condemnation we portray that is not even biblically justified.  When the lost of this world see us bickering and fighting and even bringing the charge of heresy against a minister that obviously is not heretical, what do they think?  I will tell you what they think because it was not that long ago that I thought it.  They think that there is no God.  And if there is He is not that big, not that great, and not that powerful because His whole family is so hypocritical and unloving of even each other.

We must reach out in love to a lost and dying world and to do that we have got to stop adding our own lists of sins to Gods.  That is what Jesus condemned about the Pharisees and the bible even warns us about adding to His word, but we just don’t seem to get it.  This world of lost souls is not concerned about our petty arguments and disagreements about alcohol, about divorce, about creation, about (dare I say it) initial evidence.  What this worlds lost souls are concerned about, whether they even know it or not, is the eternal destination of their very being.  And even if they are not concerned, we must be.

As I said on my post about creation recently, let’s stop all the arguing about pet doctrines and interpretations in front of the kids, so to speak, and wait until we get behind closed doors.

Love you all

Tags: alcohol, Appearance, Belief, Bible, consumption, Creation, Culture, God, Interpretation, Kingdom, Love, Righteousness, Self, Sin, witness

I asked a question a couple of days ago and invited all of you to participate.  The response was not overwhelming and I kind of expected that.  The question, while simple, was a decidedly hard one to answer.  Not because most of us do not know the answer but because we are not that willing to share it.  The question was, “What is wrong with you?”

The simple facts surrounding the answer to this question is that most of us are unwilling to share with others what we feel are our deficiencies, flaws or defects.  And there are some who do not even recognize that they have any.  I know that I do and I also believe when we wake up to the fact that we have these shortcomings, we can begin to deal with them.  Further, I believe when we are transparent about them, when we share them with others in our Kingdom family, we can not only find help in dealing with them but we will find out we can help someone also.  A lot of us might think we are the only ones dealing with a certain flaw.  That is not so.  We all have them and there are a lot more of us than there are flaws.  So someone out there has the same problem that you and I have.

I am going to share one of my own here.  I am at times too confrontational.  I sometimes feel that I do not come across as the loving person that I want to become known as.  I teach a couple of classes a week at my church and I am sometimes too direct and always very plain spoken.  I might occasionally use a “big” word but it is usually because I am trying to incorporate it into my speech.  It is not to impress and definitely not to confuse.  If there is one thing I want it is that I want everyone to understand or “get” what I am saying.

I am also passionate about the things of God.  I get loud and even heated sometimes even when there is no one arguing, disagreeing, or even talking for that matter.  And I have told my class many times that I don’t care.

When I say those words, I don’t care, my wife hates it.  She is the one that cares about me the most and she does not ever want anyone to think less of me or see me in a negative light.  And I just don’t care.  She has scolded me and offered suggestions for better ways to say what I mean such as “it doesn’t matter.”  And believe me, I have tried.  But it doesn’t matter because I don’t care.

No one has to say anything to me to get me to declare this and it is not what you may think.  I blurt out those words when I think that some might have an objection to what I am saying.  I also use them when I am describing something a well known theologian or an early church father has said and I believe they are wrong.  An example would be; I don’t care what John Calvin concluded, God is not some sovereign, unloving toymaker in the sky remotely causing every act that people perpetrate on this planet.

Sure, it doesn’t matter might sound better in this instance but is there really any difference.  I don’t think so and I don’t really care if there is.  I am blunt sometimes, to the point and even a little hurtful.  I wish I wasn’t.  I have a friend, Shannon, that seems to be able to respond in a way that is not confrontational to everything and everyone.  He can comment about things that I know are directly opposite of what he believes in a way that lets you know he disagrees but you still come away with a smile.  With me it is probably a frown.

One of my flaws that I am working on is to be less confrontational and to not be quite as blunt as I am.  I am not overly concerned about this though because of one thing.  That is that my Lord and King could be blunt at times to.  I believe Jesus did not really care about Peter’s feelings when He said, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.” in Mark 8:33.  Or at least it didn’t matter.

Even if this is a flaw that I have, a defect in my speaking technique, it is something that I can live with while I try to change.  And as Jesus demonstrates, sometimes we just have to not care whether feelings are hurt when eternity is at stake.

When I am teaching or discussing the things that pertain to the Kingdom and I say that I don’t care it is actually because I do care.

Love you all

Tags: Calvin, deficiencies, Eternity, God, Kingdom, Love, shortcomings, Work

Today’s discussion concerns a famous statement that is in the United States Declaration of Independence.  The statement is…

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

If we were to unpack this statement we could find many things in it but the focus here will be on Rights.  Three of the Rights that supposedly were self evident to the framers of the document are the right to Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.  These Rights are also supposedly given to us by our creator.

The questions for today that I would like to know your answers to are these.

• As Christians, do you believe our creator, God, has given us these rights?
• Do you believe we have any rights at all?
• What are they?

The focus here is what is given to us by God, not the USA.  The Government of this nation has decided we do have certain rights and I am all for and do not deny that.  I am also thankful for these rights.

But I want to know if you think the statement in the Declaration is in alignment with what you perceive about God.

Love you all

Tags: Believe, certain unalienable rights, Creator, Discussion, God, Government, Happiness, Life, life liberty and the pursuit of happiness, town hall, Tuesday, united states declaration of independence, USA