Massive Story - The Gospel

An exerpt from Al Mohler's book, He Is Not Silent
When Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 5:21 that "for our sake Hee made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God", he is talking about a cosmological reversal that is beyond anything we can understand. If our people think of the gospel as a small story in which they get to befriend Jesus and walk alone with Him in a garden, if they don't understand what a massive thing their salvation from sin really is, theen we are robbing them of the gospel.

Every time we preach, we need to create dissonance in the minds of our hearers. We need to declare their own wretchedness, our sin, and our powerlessness, and we need to admit frankly that we can't solve this problem. And then we proclaim the gospel. We show our people how God himself did what they were wholly unable to do. We tell them that the problem of sin was only solved when the sinless Son of God died on the cross as a substitute for His people. (page 101)

Massacre at Church

Headlines in many newspapers are recounting the story of a ruthless massacre of a specific group of people in Iraq. Did these people deserve it? Had they broken some laws? What were they doing to provoke such an attack? Nothing but worshiping God. Muslim extremists, terrorist, walked into this church and murdered 58 people simply for being Christian.
Terrible story! What these attackers don't realize is that the "blood of martyrs is the seed of the faith"(Tertullian said that). It just seems to be the way it works. They more they try and stop the spread of the gospel, the more it spreads.

Spend a moment, read this article, and pray for believers in Christ that are being persecuted all over the world.

http://www.star-telegram.com/2010/11/01/2593238/iraqi-christians-mourn-after-church.html

Making a Mormon My Brother

The next two days I will receive extensive training from the Interfaith Evangelism Program sponsored by the SBTC. The emphasis will be learning how to lovingly and effectively share the true gospel with Mormons.

In my life the two most difficult groups to share Christ with are Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses. These two cult-like religions are difficult because they use Christian terminology, but with different meanings. The God, Jesus, and faith that these systems discuss are NOT what is found in the Bible. Most people don't recognize the difference. I have heard statistics that most converts to Mormonism and Jehovah's Witnesses come from Baptist backgrounds. That is extremely troubling and impresses upon me the need to disciple and educate my own church what the Bible actually teaches.

I am also excited to learn some things that can help me in my encounters with people from these groups. The people that I know and have met from these two religions are great people! I have a lot in common with many of them. I also have a responsibility to love them in Christ and share the true gospel with them for the salvation of their souls.

People Need The Lord

A quote from David Platt's book Radical

"A majority of individuals supposedly saved from eternal damnation by the gospel are now sitting back and making excuses for not sharing that gospel with the rest of the world." page 75

Scary Moment

The last part of our trip home from vacation contained one of the scariest moments I have ever had on a plane.
We were on a flight from Tampa to DFW, been in the air for about 15 minutes. Then there was a loud boom, and the plane shuddered. Everyone gasped, but then the plane just kept on course. No one knew what happened.

So, what happened? An engine blew!!!!! The pilots eventually told us that there was an engine failure and we were turning around for Tampa. The fire trucks would be waiting. They had to shut down all air traffic and we actually landed on the takeoff runway because the pilots didn't want to risk circling for the landing strip. Later, while waiting in the terminal, Michelle saw the plane being towed and the back end was charred black.

While in the air, it took me a few minutes to grasp that something was wrong. At that moment I began to pray. I wanted to live, but if God wanted to take me, I was surrendered to His will. Then I thought, should I stand up and shout out the gospel to all these people on the plane? Then I was thankful that my daughters hadn't caught on that something was wrong. They would have panicked.

I thank God for getting us down and home safely. And I also thanked the pilots for doing a great job landing a plane with a blown engine.

At least life is never dull!

Vacation 2010

Last week was vacation time. I intended to blog and stay in touch while on the trip, but was completely unplugged. No phone, no internet. Probably, a blessing in disguise.

We spent 7 days on a cruise through the Caribbean! It was a wonderful trip. While we were only gone 7 days, the travel schedule required me to miss 2 sundays in a row. This is the first time I have ever done that in my pastorate. A break is always a rejuvenating time, but it also reminds me of my love for what God has called me to do, the place the Lord has led me to be, and the people to whom I am called to shepherd. All that to say, I had a great vacation, but I am glad to be back.

The great part about our cruise was the minimal expense. Michelle earned a trip for 2 through her Arbonne business. For minimal cost, we added the girls and turned it into an incredible family vacation. We got to travel the seas, visit a tiny Island called Labadee, Jamaica, Grand Cayman, and Cozumel. There was never a dull moment and we got to spend some incredible time together as a family. What a blessing!

There were many highlights. In the Grand Caymans we got to swim and snorkel with stingrays. The girls absolutely loved it. Petting and feeding these incredible creatures was an awesome experience.

I am thankful to the Lord for my family and the bonding time we got to spend together.

Alcohol and Teens

Last night I attended a very informative meeting sponsored by S.P.A.R.K.(Students & Parents Against Risk to our Kids). This group seeks to raise awareness about many issues that pose risk to teens. They are concerned with all kinds of things from Internet danger, eating related illnesses, drugs, and alcohol. Last night was focused on alcohol and drug use issue among teens in Southlake.

Here are some of my notes:
It doesn't matter how good of a parent you are, and how good your child is, the will be tempted to use drugs and alcohol at some point. It's starts in 7th grade, and only gets more intense from there on up.

One local police officer was present who works with teens every day at the schools. He said that teens are exposed to the temptations of drugs and alcohol in some form EVERY DAY!!!!

Other notes:
- From the police officer, "Friends will make you or break you in high school."

- Most popular drugs: alcohol (number 1), inhalants, prescription meds

- Most common place to use these: at home by far, then at parties.

- All types of kids use alcohol, a quote from the police officer, "If you took all the kids out of the National Honor Society who use, there would be no NHS."

- Parents, you have to give your kids an excuse to say NO to their friends and these temptations.

- The cool thing in Southlake is for parents to host a party, and serve all the kids alcohol. Yes, these wonderful parents take up car keys. But, THIS IS ILLEGAL. It is against the law for you to serve any other kids alcohol. And any kid found with alcohol will receive a minor in possession.

- Penalty for a parent hosting this type of party: $4000 fine, up to 6 months jail, 6 months suspended license.

- If a parent does host one of these parties, and then a kid gets hurt, alcohol poisoning, or drives off and kills someone, that parent is liable.

- Minor in possession, or consumption: $500 fine, 8-40 hours community service, loss of drivers license for 30 days.

- A minor cannot go to a party and be the "designated driver". That is against the law, and they will receive a MIP.

- Other problems that are associate with teen parties where alcohol is present: assault, alcohol poisoning, sexual assault, property damage, drug use, rape.

- New fad, "pharmy party" - kids go to a party, swipe a bottle of prescription medication from their parents cabinet, dump them in a huge bowl like jelly beans, and start popping the pills.

- Most parents just don't know or care about teens and alcohol. S.P.A.R.K. held a conference on eating disorders and Internet dangers and had 400 people attend. At the one on alcohol 22 people came. (including me)

- If parents don't educate their kids about these issues at young age, they will be educated by other kids and peer pressure.

Please Accept Me

Have you ever had to plead for something? Have you ever had to really cajole someone into going somewhere with you?
Kids do this all the time, with no shame. "Dad can we please, please, please go to the water park (or fill in the blank with the latest, greatest thing)?"

I think that is how some people present our Lord Jesus. That He is pleading and cajoling people to accept Him. Is Jesus saying, "would you please, please, pretty please, accept me into your heart?"

Listen to this quote from David Platt's book, Radical,

"We have taken the infinitely glorious Son of God, who endured the infinitely terrible wrath of God and who now reigns as the infinitely worthy Lord of all, and we have reduced Him to a poor, puny, Savior who is just begging us to accept Him. Accept Him? Do we really think Jesus needs our acceptance?"

The infinitely worthy Savior doesn't need acceptance, He demands surrender.

Too Common A Converstation

The following is a fictional conversation. It is one that I don't think would go over very well in our church saturated yet passionless Christianity culture. See what you think.

Person 1: So, you are a follower of Christ, a Christian?

Person 2: Yes, I am.

Person 1: Do you pray?

Person 2: Well, not really.

Person 1: Do you read and study the Bible?

Person 2: Well, not really.

Person 1: Have you joined and are you serving in a church?

Person 2: No. Not really?


Commentary:
You can claim to be Christian all you want, but if you don't walk with the Lord in prayer(meals don't count), if you don't walk with the Lord through His word, and if you do not walk with the Lord by serving His church, then are you walking with the Lord? Are you a follower of Christ? Not really.

Church That's Cool vs. Church That's Real

I read a fascinating article in the Wall Street Journal about churches trying to be "cool" to attract young adults.

Here is the link to the article; The Perils of Wannabe Cool Christianity, by Brett McCracken

Here is the bottom line, McCracken says this:

If the evangelical Christian leadership thinks that "cool Christianity" is a sustainable path forward, they are severely mistaken. As a twentysomething, I can say with confidence that when it comes to church, we don't want cool as much as we want real.

If we are interested in Christianity in any sort of serious way, it is not because it's easy or trendy or popular. It's because Jesus himself is appealing, and what he says rings true. It's because the world we inhabit is utterly phony, ephemeral, narcissistic, image-obsessed and sex-drenched—and we want an alternative. It's not because we want more of the same.