I missed all but the last seconds of a news report about the legalization of gambling in my state, Alabama, a couple of hours ago.  What I did see was the statistics proclaiming that 67% of the residents here approved of it.  Gambling, to my knowledge is not addressed specifically in the bible.

I know there are arguments about the addictions and abuses of gambling.  I also know some people are addicted to and abuse other things like cheeseburgers and donuts.  So leaving the ideas about addictions aside I propose the following questions for discussion.

Is all gambling wrong in Gods eyes and why?

How do you justify your views?

If you were in charge would you receive offerings from the winnings of a gambler or lottery player?

What say you?

Love you all

Tags: addictions, cheeseburgers, Discussion, donuts, gambler, God, Knowledge, legalization of gambling, lottery player, offerings, state alabama, town hall, Tuesday

I just realized it was Tuesday again.  Time really does fly sometimes.  I wonder if God feels this way sometimes.  That is for another discussion though.  Things seem to get messy and involved whenever I mention God and either time or foreknowledge.

Since we are still in the “holiday season”, I realize a lot of you are still very busy with friends and family so I want to keep this Tuesday Town Hall discussion light and easy again.  So I will once again focus on the holiday that will arrive in a couple of days.

We call it New Years Day.  There are some traditional ways that people have ushered in the first day on our calendar, but some of them just do not line up with the biblical worldview we should all have.

I know that most of the times that I did celebrate this holiday in the past was by spending half of it in bed with a hangover.  That is not the case now.  So here is what I would like to know:

How important is this holiday to you?

If you celebrate it, how or what do you do?

If you do not, what do you do on this day off?

I just now realized that a lot of us get the first day of the year off from work every year.  That is a good thought, at least.

What say you?

Love you all.

Tags: biblical worldview, Discussion, foreknowledge, God, hangover, Knowledge, Love, new years day, season, Time, Townhall

That sounds like the beginning of a joke. And it usually is, but not this time. Not unless the joke is on me. Just how low am I willing to go to get you to read this stuff?

I did walk into a bar one night nineteen years ago with nothing more than the intention of having a few beers. I was not looking for anything else, especially company. Little did I know that this seemingly insignificant moment in my life would result in one of the determining factors of my eternal destination.

This was the night that I met my wife, Tammy. Before this I had never met a Pentecostal. And believe me, she was not Pentecostal then. But she had been raised attending the very church we are a part of today. There were various reasons she was where she was at that time but that is not the focus of this post.

It did not take her very long after we settled down into marriage to go into service to Christ and the Kingdom. And that is when the change for me started. I had been an avowed atheist since my mid teens and had already argued with many Christians about the non existence of God. I had did it for fun mostly and just because I liked to argue, if I could win.

Now I realize that all the arguments with Christians were with those Christians of the reformed persuasion. These are the ones that hold to a view of God’s sovereignty and foreknowledge that does not allow for anyone to do anything that is not at His whim or with His permission. When faced with the real questions of how a God could be both loving and good, yet allowed or instigated all the evil that surrounds us and has for all time, according to history, most Christians crumbled or fell back to the mysterious, but still wonderful, ways of a God that was not for us to understand, defense.

Needless to say, they did not convince me that I was wrong or that He was real.

But then I met Tammy, married her, and she got saved. What I did notice, even though I did not care at that time, was that she seemed to have a real relationship with something I did not even believe in. My grandmother did too. And if I had been willing to discuss these things with them, I might have had a change of mind a lot sooner. But I never wanted to argue with them. Or maybe the enemy deceived me into keeping my mouth shut so he would not lose me. It was probably both.

The relational and interpersonal method of worship, the interaction with God as a true Father figure, the open view of His attributes, power, and actions shown by the very ways Pentecostals live for the Kingdom, (even if they won’t admit it and their theological speech implies reformed thought), are the true power of being Pentecostal. God is not some distant, egotistical, tyrant like figure that causes all things to happen, whether good or bad, for His glory. Instead He is a loving Father that wants the best for His children and invites us to come to Him, giving ourselves to Him fully, so He can direct our lives in the best possible way.

This is what meeting Tammy caused me to start seeing. That is not the end of the story of my transformation but it was the beginning. Did God set us up to meet? Did He direct all of this? I seriously doubt it but do admit that I don’t know for sure. But as promised, He does work it all out for good, if we allow Him to. Even if we might be in a bar when we shouldn’t be.

So a guy walked into a bar, that guy being me, and looking back, I am so glad I did.

Back then.

Love you all

Tags: atheist, Christ, Christians, Church, Enemy, Evil, Father, foreknowledge, Kingdom, Knowledge, Lie, Love, Marriage, mission, Pentecostal, Personal, relationship, Service, Sovereignty

There are some questions I have been asking myself lately that are very troublesome?  They come unbidden and seem to be designed to move me or coax me into something new or at least out of the comfortable space I currently exist in.  These questions upset me to my core and I don’t really know what or how to answer. 

The thoughts behind my question from Tuesday, for example, are troublesome also.  I am not going to change churches, to my knowledge anytime soon, yet I want to see my church change to some degree.  I want to see us on the frontlines, carrying out the mission, or commission, of our King.  I want to see real fellowship and community in the people that attend.  I want to see an attitude of love that just has to reach out to the community because the confines of our building cannot contain it. 

Now if you think I am knocking my church or the members, you are wrong.  I see love, I feel the worship, I join the praise, and I grow from the food that is presented. There are some good people, some loving people in my church.  There are some ministries that are reaching out and representing the Kingdom in some wonderful ways. 

But these are some of the questions that bother me. They are personal in nature and do not really apply to my church.  The main one is; what am I really accomplishing for the Kingdom?  And following that is; how can I apply what I am teaching and learning every time I go to church?  And finally; how can I really get out there and do something real and life changing in the real world of the lost and unchurched?   

It seems that I am not the only one wondering about what we are doing.  Shannon’s latest blog post touches on this in another way and is worth reading.  And listen to the video he has on the page.  It is worth those five minutes of your life.  And yes, this is just a shameless plug. 

Is this all there is?  Read and write, listen and learn, discuss and debate, attend and receive.  All of these things are satisfying and filling.  But they are not so fulfilling at times.  I am anxious to “do” something.  Maybe I am getting too fat.

Obesity.  Can the body of Christ be overweight?  We do have some great churches and some outstanding preaching and teaching.  I have heard a lot of people say they come or go to church to be fed.  But if all we do is sit and eat and never exercise, we get fat.  The work, the act of actually getting up and doing something for somebody else that Christ loves, is what keeps us lean and strong.  Instead it seems, we may just be getting fat. 

I know that for me personally, it is past time to get some exercise.  That must be what I am feeling.  Almost bloated from lack of movement and too much to eat.  So I think I need to come up with a program, a method to get up and do something.  This whole post is for me and is just something I wanted to say.

But if you have a few extra spiritual pounds you need to get rid of, why don’t you join me and let’s shed them for the advancement of the Kingdom.  What do you think?

Love you all

Tags: Body of Christ, Church, Fellowship, Kingdom, Knowledge, Love, mission, Obesity, Praise, real world, Self, shameless plug