It is a little past midnight and I am sitting in the living room praying, praising, and worshipping the Alpha and the Omega, The Lord of all creation, the God who came down to earth to live as one of us and to die so we can be reconciled back to Him.  Jesus is just so very amazing.  I love you Lord and am so thankful for your Amazing Grace.

It was the summer of 2007 and it was another first for me in my walk with Christ.  I was down, empty, feeling so very far from God.  I had been in His service for a little over five years and had been pretty much ‘up’ the whole time.  Then, sort of out of the blue, it felt like God was so very far away.  It was nothing I did or did not do and it was not because of anything bad in my life at that time.  Work, home life, church, all of these were fine and even great actually.  I could not explain it then and still can’t.

But I can honestly say that my worship was not exactly how it had been.  I may be different than most, but I have some of my best experiences in His presence while alone with Him.  Like right now after Tammy has gone to bed with our youngest grandchild and I have my headphones on and have been reading the bible and listening to music. Sometimes it is in the truck, just praying or worshiping as I drive alone down the highway.

But maybe that summer I had been just a little too busy.  Work had escalated to a level where it was almost like having three full time jobs.  I believe that maybe it was me and not God that had been too far away.  No matter what or how or who, I felt terrible for a while, at least in spirit.

Then I heard this song on the radio.  It was powerful but I could not find out who did it or its name.  But I did not forget it.

The Church of God held the annual camp meeting at Metro Church of God that year and I wanted to go but was not only too busy but actually not very motivated.  But I finally made myself go on the Friday night service.

I talked to a few people, found a seat and sat waiting, not expecting much.  I had talked to a dear friend and minister for a short time and had told him a little about what I was feeling and he had let me know that God was still good and that maybe He would be there for me that night.  I doubted it really.

Praise and worship started and I stood and I did worship God but it was not as refreshing as it had been at times.  Then the praise team started singing this song.  I am attempting to embed this video for the first time and I hope it works.  Watch it now if you want and I will finish up below.

If that did not wake you up to the awesome reality of God then I don’t honestly know what will.  It did it for me.  I don’t know whether it was me or God but the things this song woke me up to that night changed me once again.  And it was right on time because not long after that the bottom started to fall out.

Work ground to a halt in September 2007 and is still not good.  Every month I have to go into a rapidly dwindling savings to pay the bills.  The kids started getting into more and more trouble and are currently at an all time low or high maybe, which is devastating to me and especially to Tammy, my wife.  And she is also having some mysterious and hard to identify health problems, as some of you know.

Before anyone thinks I need a special song to move me, know that I don’t.  Most of this time that I have served Christ; it has only taken a thought of how He reached out and snatched me from the very gates of hell, to spur me on.  But I now believe He used this powerful song to wake me, humble me, and prepare me for these rather dark days I am in right now.  This song that night had me in tears and totally immersed in His presence in a way that I have not often felt.  It has that effect to varying degrees even now.  And I am at peace with our situation in a way that I might not have been.

As I sit here listening, crying and typing I just want to say to you all, that He is our everything, He is Holy, He is Lord, He was and is and is to come and I can’t speak for you but I ADORE HIM.  We must dare to worship the Holy Lord God Almighty in all situations.  Otherwise we just might not make it.

Love you all

Tags: alpha and the omega, amazing grace, Bible, camp meeting, Creation, Grace, Hell, jesus, lord of all creation, Love, metro church of god, Power, Praise, Self, Service, spirit

I was just sitting here reflecting on this holiday, New Years Day.  I asked some questions about it a couple of days ago and it seems that this day is really not that big of a deal to all the people of faith that I am in contact with.

A small group of us were at our church until a little after midnight and we just saw the New Year start with a little fellowship and fun.  It was good.  But it was not like the world celebrates it.  The world seems to think we should usher in a new year with a bang.  Loud, raucous, drunken parties are what I remember from the past, if I attended any.

What exactly is going on in this holiday celebration anyway?  I really don’t know but have some suspicions.  We say we are welcoming in a new year but what is January first really?

It is all about time.  And time is something I have had on my mind for awhile.  What is it?  How does God exist in relation to it?  Is it something tangible and real or just a method of measuring sequence as my friend Heath wrote about?

I am not sure but I think it is actually the last for most of us.  Even if time is something that can be affected by the speed of light or our proximity to a black hole, I doubt very seriously if any of us will ever experience any of that.  So let’s agree for a few moments that it is just a method to measure and record sequence.

So this day is all about newness.  A new year starts.  But, actually, any individuals real new year starts on their birthday, not January 1.  If we really have any resolutions that we think we need to make, then shouldn’t it be on our birthday?  But for people of faith, we have a new birthday.

We became a new creation the day we accepted Christ as Lord, King and Savior and went into service for and with Him.  So shouldn’t that be the date we use for our new year beginning?  Individually, yes, I believe so.  There is no more important day in our lives than the day we were saved.

But all of that is personal.  Someone was born and someone was born again on everyday of the year but we can’t have every day off from work, so we have New Years Day.  And it is a good day to be celebrated as a new beginning because it is the first day of the year in our method of marking time.

Our celebrations of this day are as much about saying goodbye to the old as looking forward to the new.  Auld Lang’s Syne is about saying goodbye and we sing it on New Years Eve.  In each of our lives we are always looking ahead, imagining the future and hoping it gets better.  And we should.  Even if the last year was amazingly good, we believe it can only get better.  And for most of us this past year, 2008, decidedly needs to be better and I certainly pray for that.

So we say goodbye to the past and relish the opportunity to move forward into the future.  We reflect on our mistakes and shortcomings and make resolutions and commitments to do it all differently.  We waste our time, in my opinion.

There is a truth that we often overlook and it is that the future never gets here.  Tomorrow will always be tomorrow.  And what we perceived as tomorrow yesterday is in fact today right now.  We need to live in the now.  We should plan and strive to do better, be better but, if we try more to be better right now, tomorrow will reflect that so much more than all the planning about tomorrow.

My resolution for today is to be a better man right now, to be more Christlike right now, to love more right now, and to contend for the faith more right now.  And that will also be my resolution tomorrow and the next day and the next.  No one knows what tomorrow holds, not even God for sure, so we really need to stop dwelling on it.  (I made that statement so most of you could berate me on my wrong theology on purpose, by the way.  But I really believe it is true.)

Just reflect on this.  The past is gone.  Use it for its educational properties.  The future will never get here so stop waiting and get on with it.

Start living and loving and serving right now.

Happy New Year and I Love you all

Tags: Beginning, black hole, celebration, Christlike, Church, drunken parties, Faith, God, Love, Personal, speed of light, Theology, Time

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

The choir in my church sang a song today called, I believe, We Are Not Ashamed.  They have sung this song on many occasions and I am always moved by it.  It is about not being ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ.  This is something we should all take to heart.

But do we?  How often do we keep silent when we should speak up?  How often do we make sure we do not put ourselves in a place or a position where we might have to speak of the gospel?

Some of us, maybe even all of us at times, find ourselves embarrassingly inadequate at sharing our faith.  Are we really ashamed?   Probably not.  I truly doubt, except in certain situations, that most of us are really ashamed of our God and Savior.  That would be like being ashamed of our wives or girlfriends, husbands or boyfriends.  Most of us are really not ashamed of those we really love.

So what is really the problem?

I believe it is probably intimidation.  I do not, entirely, mean intimidation in the sense of being afraid, but instead being under the impression that it will do no good.  That it won’t really matter or make a difference.  Some of us are concerned with others attitudes toward us and opinions of us and some of us just really think we cannot make a difference.

Why bother talking to that guy at work who is bragging about his adulterous affair?  He won’t listen if he is that outspoken about it and I just might be ostracized from the group for my holier than thou attitude.

That Muslim you know is just so devout that you know you will never reach them, and you are a little intimidated by what you know of their religion; so why take the chance of being looked on as one of those hate spewing Christians?  We can all live together in love, if we keep silent.

And that goes for that very outspoken atheist also.  If we keep silent about our faith, we can all get along very well.  And maybe even love each other.  And if we can show enough love, then that will win out in the end.  Right?

Wrong.  What love is this that is willing to keep silent about something so important?  I started thinking about this post after listening to this video the other day.  In this video you will hear Penn Jillette, a very outspoken, oftentimes crude, but very logical and consistent thinker and atheist.  He is the talkative half of the comedian/ magician team known as Penn and Teller.

He is also what I call a true atheist.  I was one for many years myself.  I believe a true atheist is someone who says they do not believe that there is a God and they are not afraid of those who believe.  We seem to be surrounded today by people calling themselves atheist that are intent on silencing us.  They seem afraid of something, or maybe it is Someone.

In the video you will hear Penn say that if we, as believers, really love everyone and we really believe what we say about heaven and hell, then our love demands that we tell everyone about it; in effect, we should proselytize.  Evangelize, if you prefer.

I admire his stance on this and find that this was the way I felt also.  As a Christian we must tell everyone the gospel.  If we do not, do we really love?  I can’t see how.

We can never be ashamed, and as I stated, I doubt many of us really are.  But we must also never be intimidated.  We may be called intolerant, or a holy roller, or hateful, or many other things; but we must still tell the story because for the sake of love, it is necessary.  Those that can’t except this and call us all of these things are running scared and can probably be reached.

And those that are not running scared, like Penn and like I used to be, will be reached through the consistent witness of love and the telling of the good news.

Listen to the video.  And pray for Penn Jillette.  A transformation of someone like him would be a mighty witness for the Kingdom.

And the next time you feel a little timid about sharing, remember that if you really love them, you have to.

Love you all

Tags: atheist, Believe, Christians, Church, Faith, Good, Heaven, Hell, Jesus Christ, Kingdom, Love, muslim, Penn Jillette, religion, Self, Sin, witness, Work