Human Ignorance
9/2/2004 6:40:02 AM
Never underestimate the ignorance of humanity. Politically, blind partisanship prevents Americans from ever reaching any consensus on even the most obvious issues. One side simply could never admit that the other side “got one right.” Socially, demonizing those who are not like us perpetuates racial lines, socio-economic divisions, and blatant bigotry. Spiritually, the vast majority contain so little spiritual content that they can’t discern between good and evil. Evil is celebrated while good is castigated in the guise of humor or entertainment. Humanity seems to be in a race towards helplessness concerning discovery of truth. Soon, we will depend upon “experts” or “heroes” to tell us the truth since we no longer have the ability to discern it for ourselves. Abraham Lincoln said that “you could fool some of the people all of the time, all of the people some of the time, but not all of the people all of the time.” The sad reality is that the number of people you can fool all of the time increases exponentially with each generation. The concept of a people who will turn to a government, a spiritual guru, or a “super-man” to save us from ourselves becomes more believable with each passing day. The Bible tells us that day, indeed, will come when humanity as a whole becomes deceived by such. God help us fight against the ignorance in our own churches, families, and lives.

Suffer The Little Children
9/10/2004 8:21:52 AM
Watching these two young children in my church—two kids who have lost one parent to tragedy and another to indifference—how they have grown from dark, depressed, dreary street urchins into cheery, chummy, children of light, I am humbled by the restorative, resurrecting, replenishing, power of God’s love. I became a minister of the Gospel for precisely these two children—and others just like them. I came to Jesus because, even though my life circumstances were not as horrible as theirs, I was like those two children. I was lost, broken, and directionless, with no hope of escaping the polluting effects of a scarred life. When He allowed His light to dawn upon my soul, like a brand new spray of sunshine on a freshly sprouting spring day, I knew in my heart that I would need to find others with whom I could share this magnificent love. They came to my church, heads down, bodies bent, faces contorted into little visages of pain. Now they jump around with tambourines in their hands and laughter on their lips as they sing praises to the One who taught them how to love and hope again. Of such is theKingdom of God.

Acts 17
9/13/2004 9:43:02 AM
We need more Bereans. We need more people how refuse to listen to the stirrings and troublings of the "religious zealots" who operate with much passion but little knowledge. Our people need to develop a spiritual backbone, challenge the claims of modern day charlatans, and refuse to follow after every religious fad that is perpetrated upon the innocents of the Kingdom. The Bereans were called "noble" because they were not easily swayed by words alone. They studied the scriptures for themselves to see if what was being said was true or not. They remained ready at all times to measure each new claim to the Kingdom by a scriptural yardstick. God, give us such zeal for truth today.

David's Duet
9/16/2004 8:25:19 AM
Praise & Worship is so much more than we imagine. Sure, each of us has experienced the joy…the release…the freedom that comes when God inhabits the praise of His people. I feel like we are missing the deeper truth concerning this encounter with God that comes only in the moment of earnest praise or sincere worship. David wrote his Psalms in moments of extreme passion. Most of the time he was broken, lost, or confused, reaching out to a God who loved him and could deliver him. Some of the time he was simply filled with awe at the Glory of God. I am not sure exactly how he could sing a song about how Saul had encompassed him in an attempt to destroy him, and hundreds of years later it be revealed as a messianic prophesy concerning Jesus. How could the circumstance of David’s life speak prophetically about the circumstance of Jesus’ life? David is called a “type of Christ” by theologians—as is Moses, Aaron, Joseph, Elijah, etc. Partly, we see many correlations in the lives of these men and the life of Jesus due to the offices of Prophet, Priest, and King that these men shadowed and Christ fulfilled. The fact remains that the very psalms we consider to be prophetic concerning Christ were actually relevant to David in his own life as well. What was going on there? How do we get to read a preview of the nature, mission, and ethos of Jesus’ passion through the songs of David? I believe that David took praise and worship to a level unprecedented then and unmatched now. He found that place inside of him, described in Psalm 91:1 like this: He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. The Secret Place! David found a way to freely enter in and out through that door of relationship between his Maker and him that most of us rarely encounter in our lives. Through praise and worship, he invoked the presence of God into every circumstance of his life. I believe that Jesus met him there in that cloud of the presence of God where He inhabits our praise. I believe that David became so familiar with that place, so comfortable in that inner throne-room of God deep down in his heart that his songs took on ever deeper forms. I believe that Jesus began to sing with him there. I believe David’s solo unto the Lord turned into a duet with the Messiah—that David and Jesus began to both share their heart, their circumstances, and their deepest desires. I believe that the reason David’s songs are filled with Messianic prophecy rests in the fact that he got so close to God in these moments that the passion of Christ danced with David’s own passions, overflowing into a chorus of communion: Not only of David’s present but of Christ’s future. That is why we should re-examine the New Testament charge to sing to God in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. How else can we “speak to ourselves” this way as described in Ephesians 5:19? How else can we “teach and admonish” one another this way as described in Colossians 3:16? How else can we both make melody and sing with grace in our heart to the Lord? Praise and Worship goes much deeper than we imagine. My intent is to discover just how much so. I want to sing a duet with my savior, too.

Avoiding Road Rage
9/20/2004 1:46:29 PM
The masses of people in this world. The sheer number of people...of souls...out there, always moving forward, like salmon swimming upstream, in search of a place each heart can call home, but not very likely to find it. I traveled to Dallas, Texas, this week. To avoid the creeping road rage as I battled the highways that were overflowing with man and machine, I attempted to pray for my fellow-passengers on this little ship we call "Earth." It is amazing to me to witness the angry, frustrated faces perched in the cars and trucks that line up for miles on these freeways. I meditated upon the spiritual condition of these thousands, if not hundreds of thousands. Like ants in some huge cosmic colony, the vehicles inched forward; stopped suddenly; then inched forward again. It dawned on me that this generation is so spiritually illiterate. Spiritually disconnected. Without our CD players, tape decks, radio dials, and cell phones, I wonder where we'd turn for a connection with something outside of ourselves. Perhaps we'd have no choice but to turn to God. To cry out to him, as we inched our way to our various places of work, play, and rest. Perhaps we'd grow to understand the things of God...of the spirit. But for now, I guess our disc jockeys and cell phones will have to do. So many people crying out. What an overwhelming thought!

Going To Prepare A Place
9/22/2004 8:28:44 AM
At the end of John Chapter 13, Jesus tells Peter that he cannot go where He, Jesus, is about to go. The assumption is that Jesus is going to the cross, and that Peter isn't willing to lay down his life to stop it. That assumption isn't entirely true. Remember, Peter actually did lay down his life to protect Jesus. He cut the ear off a temple guard. That's not a very wise move for a man who doesn't want to die: attacking armed guards like that. Peter was true to his word in that moment; of course, later, out of frustration, he denied Jesus just as was prophesied by our Lord. The deeper point we tend to miss that Jesus was speaking to Peter that day in that upper room is that the time had come for our Savior to accomplish what He had been sent here to do. Where is the one place that neither Peter nor any other man was able to go until that moment: Heaven. Jesus is telling Peter that the time had come for Him to shed his own blood, take it to the holy place in heaven itself, and sprinkle it upon the eternal altar above, once and for all. This act would set free the captives of history and open a door for future generations of Kingdom Dwellers like you and me. From that moment on, access to heaven was cut out by our trailblazer, Jesus Christ. Peter would one day go where the Lord was going. In fact, he was even crucified, though upside down at his own humble request; yet the place he would desire to follow Christ more than all is to heaven itself. Jesus was telling Peter more than we think in that passage. In fact, the verses at the beginning of Chapter 14 clear up his message to Peter that night. "I'm going to prepare a place for you." Where Jesus was going, only He could go. And forever after, we all would have access in His Holy Name.

Steady Eddie
9/27/2004 10:03:44 AM
Discouragement is difficult to shake. In those valleys where I struggle to find value in my ministry—where I attempt to justify my existence on this planet and my worth in the Kingdom of God—I am forced to trust in God that somewhere among these whipping winds, stifling deserts, and darkening skies is a table prepared for me in the presence of my enemies. The reoccurring days of emptiness and fruitlessness will soon be replaced with times of refreshing and abundance of spirit. The long, harsh summer of digging, weeding, and watering will soon be replaced with fall’s harvest. If I really try, on days when nothing seems to matter much, I can almost hear the voice of God somewhere up ahead of me: “Steady…..steady…..steady….”