Behold, He Makes All Things New!

Happy New Year!

A time for a fresh start, because frankly we need one.    Last year didn’t go the way we wanted, because it never does and as we look toward the New Year we look at the things in our lives that we feel would make our lives better.  More health, physical and financial typically.  Goals for career advancement or accomplishment, then maybe improving your relationships come in next.  All of it though because the old has gone away, and it wasn’t all we hoped for or dreamed about.  So we start the New Year with a renewed hope for a better year, a better life.  As a result we make New Years resolutions, which is a curious tradition, and just echoes more so that we need a new beginning.  I was talking with someone before Christmas, about how they need to have a better year, 2011 wasn’t that great, and they need 2012 to be their year.  So they were making their New Years Resolutions hoping that they could improve on 2011 in 2012.

Again I think they are funny, New Years resolutions.  I think they are funny because like I said most of them have to do with better finances and better fitness, and yet we just come through Christmas when a large number of people who need to be more fiscally stable have been fiscally irresponsible in an effort to buy the happiness of Christmas.  In addition, those who are needing to make that step towards fitness, myself included, have spent the last week trying to eat all the baking, sweets, chips, and bad food that is in their house.  Doing this in large amounts because there is lots of it and it all has to be gone by January 2, because the first is still a holiday after all!  The best day of a diet is the day before, you know, when you eat like crazy because you are never going to do that again.

New Years resolutions are funny too, because it is pretty well known that you are going to be making the same ones in 2013. Which means you probably made the same ones in 2011, and well that didn’t go so well.  In fact this is such a true phenomena, that the CBC radio had a motivational speaker on the other day to tell people how they could keep their New Years resolutions, lose weight, make more money, quit smoking.  She said to set smaller goals, and to mentally prepare and all of this, and I thought to myself I don’t think I will buy her book.

In fact her advice brought me to an entirely different frame of thought.  Rather than set smaller goals and write it down and all of that.  My thoughts went a little deeper for us this New Years Day.  I started to think how truly every New Years is s reminder of how badly we need the Good News of Jesus.  Because really when we reflect on the year, there were good things and bad, and we want the bad to change.  We want things to be truly new, we want things to be different, brand new, not a tweak on the old, not a slight improvement but actually brand new.  What we are really longing for is for the One who in Revelation 21 says, “Behold, I am making all things New.  Verses 5 and 6 say, And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” And he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment.

That phrase, Behold, I am making all things new was where my mind went when the CBC was trying to service the world with a motivational speaker.  I thought that is so hopeless, trying to change the world on your own.  What you really need world, what you really need Church is the One who not only says, but actually has the power to make all things new!  On your own you are powerless to affect real change, but with Him everything can change.

Even think of the context this is being said in.  This is in the context of what we are really longing for, what our soul craves this year and every year.  Jesus is saying, behold I am making all things new in the context of talking about the New Heaven and the New Earth.  He is talking about eternity, He is talking about what we are really longing for.  In the verses leading up to this John writes, ” Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”

See I think this is what we are really longing for in the New Year.  We are really wanting the good news of what Jesus provides, and for what He provides in eternity, when all of this truly passes away, when this is all truly done with, behind us. That is what we want isn’t it?  And who doesn’t long for what is described here.  The dwelling place of God is with man, we are finally,  completely His people.  Every tear wiped from our eyes, every hurt turned into pleasure, no more death, no more ending, no more sad good byes, no more pain, no more crying.  Now we are talking about what we are really longing for aren’t we!

I was asked last night again by my son, Caleb, what was the big deal about New Years?  His question had to do with why we celebrate it, because all the good holidays have to do with Jesus, how does New Years fit?  There is no obvious answer, it isn’t like Christmas and Easter even though we make a pretty big deal about it.  But for me, and my household, I think it is a perfect time to think about Heaven, to think about the day when the Jesus we worship in all His glory comes down and says, Behold I have made all things new!   We don’t think enough about Heaven, but maybe we should a little more, it is where we are going to spend eternity if we have been saved by Jesus, it is where we want those we love and care about to spend their eternity.  So today I would invite you to go through today and think about Heaven, make your resolutions, but make them in light of Heaven.  It is what we truly long for, it is good news and it will keep you focused where you need to be focused, on Jesus, the One who will make all things ultimately new.

Daddy, why is there New Years?

God Is At Work

As I was reading through the Bible again at the beginning of this year, I was struck by the story of Abimelech. If you recall, Abraham is sojourning in the land, and as is becoming his bad habit, once again he lies about his wife, telling the local king that she is his sister and not his wife. As a result, Abimelech takes Sarah as his own wife. However, what is curious about this, is he doesn’t touch her. He doesn’t consummate the marriage and is totally innocent with her. God shows up in a dream and tells Abimelech that he is a dead man. This is a surprise to Abimelech, as you can imagine. A God who he likely doesn’t really know, shows up in a dream and tells him he is dead. That is a scary dream.
However, at this point Abimelech pleads his innocence. Now Abimelech had not approached her. So he said, “Lord, will you kill an innocent people? Did he not himself say to me, ‘She is my sister’? And she herself said, ‘He is my brother.’ In the integrity of my heart and the innocence of my hands I have done this.”
Then God says, “Yes, I know that you have done this in the integrity of your heart, and it was I who kept you from sinning against me. Therefore I did not let you touch her. Now then, return the man’s wife, for he is a prophet, so that he will pray for you, and you shall live. But if you do not return her, know that you shall surely die, you and all who are yours.”
Now what gets me about this, is how God can work in whoever, however he wants for His purpose and glory. Imagine Abimelech. He is rich, and powerful, and likely hasn’t refrained from anything he has ever wanted. Now he is has this new bride, a woman who he is attracted to, in his house, and I am sure in his mind, should be in his bed. However, for some reason, he is in bed by himself, for reasons he can’t explain. He has no idea why he isn’t having sex with his new wife. Then he has a dream, and it all makes sense.
At first he takes credit for his own innocence. It isn’t too long though and God straightens him out. This has nothing to do with you, I saved you from yourself. Not because of anything you have done, but because of who I am and what I have done. Abimelech is saved from himself, by God.
This is good news, and obviously points to what Jesus does for us. What is amazing to me though is how God intervenes in the life of someone no one would have expected. He saves a pagan king from himself and makes him innocent, even though Abimelech had no idea what was going on or why he was doing what he was doing.
I am encouraged by this to know that the Gospel of Jesus is powerful and that God is at work in places I may not have thought possible. Jesus is doing His work in ways that are surprising, and He will bring the Kingdom, He will build the Church and the gates of Hell will not prevail against it. He is at work, He is speaking, He is healing, He is moving independently of us and preparing the way.
The cool thing is though; He invites us in to work with Him. By His grace, He invites us in. Just the way He invited Abraham into the healing of Abimelech. Abraham has blown it, he is without excuse. This is the second time he has given his wife away, yet God invites Abraham back in to work with Him, so that he could experience the blessing of partnering with God in an amazing miracle. Then Abraham prayed to God, and God healed Abimelech, and also healed his wife and female slaves so that they bore children. For the LORD had closed all the wombs of the house of Abimelech because of Sarah, Abraham’s wife.
God is at work, have you joined in it with Him by His grace for His glory and your joy? What are you asking God for, what are you trusting Jesus for, and this new year are you looking for ways to join God in what He is already doing?

Christmas Message – What’s So Happy About The Holidays

I didn’t start off doing it purposefully, but towards the end of the Season I found myself taking a straw poll to see how many times people said, “Merry Christmas” verses “Happy Holidays”. I was pleasantly surprised to find in our corner of the world people are still saying the much more meaningful, and seasonally appropriate greeting of Merry Christmas.
You see every time I hear a happy holidays, though it might be completely unintentional, the Yule tide Grinch rises up within me, and I have to remind myself not to say to this pleasant and unsuspecting store keep, “What is so happy about the holidays?”
I mean honestly, the “holidays” are marked mostly with terribly unhappy things as far as I am concerned. The intensity of the season I find draining. It is hectic isn’t it. Like just when you think the fall season can’t get any busier, the holidays show up and send everything into a tail spin.
You have to shop with everyone else who is shopping, and wait in lines with people who often have a rather miserable disposition, sometimes like myself.
There is a lot of baking, and decorating, and cooking and don’t get me wrong I obviously love to eat, and will go home for some unbelievably awesome cream bacon on toast, but it is a holiday marked with over indulgence. Over eating and over drinking are the norm.
In addition, don’t raise your hand this Christmas, but how many people over spend each year? I was talking with one fella just last night that works in an electronics retail store who said it wasn’t uncommon for people to drop 5k of Christmas. I wonder how much of that is on a credit card.
Also it isn’t a completely guilt free task is it. As we stress about getting the right gift and making sure we make everyone on the list happy, each year I can’t help but think of the less fortunate who only feel more marginalized on a day like today when there is extra pressure to make others happy through monetary means.
Along with that, the “holidays” are the great intensifier of happiness and also pain. No one wants to get bad news before the holidays, lose a job or worse lose someone around the holidays because it serves to intensify their loss. It’s like bad things can happen but if they happen around the holidays it is ten times worse. You know what I mean.
So when someone says to me, “Happy Holidays”, this year I seriously wondered if they were living on the same planet I am, and if they really meant what they were saying.
Now before you start singing, you’re a mean one mister Grinch, you’re heart is full of holes, you have spiders in your brain and garlic in your soul, let me say this. I do love Christmas, and am always happy to say Merry Christmas in hopes that the person to whom I am wishing this too would fully understand how unbelievably awesome Christmas truly is.
It’s true I love the carols, and the family time and decorating the tree and being with my pretty wife and my beautiful kids. I love it all, but most of all I love the gift exchange. And by gift exchange I don’t mean the presents under the tree that we unwrap. I mean Christmas brings into light for me the greatest gift exchange of them all. The one Paul talks about in II Corinthians 5 which says, “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” Did you get that exchange? My sin for His righteousness, that’s the best gift anyone could ever receive. That only happens because of Christmas my friends.
All of this we celebrate, all of this time of year the focus has to come back to someone who actually makes this life worth living, my hero Jesus. It is His birth we celebrate, because without His birth, we would not have His life and without His life we would not have His death, and without His death we would not have His resurrection and without His resurrection we would have nothing. However, because of his birth, life, death and resurrection we have everything!
Your sins can be forgiven, the Holy Spirit, God Himself can indwell you, lead, guide comfort and convict you. Because of Jesus those times of great loss in your life can still be amplified and intensified to great joy because you don’t grieve as someone without hope! Because Jesus exchanged our sin for His righteousness we have hope, hope beyond the grave, hope that is out of this world. Because Jesus exchanged our sin for His righteousness, we have crossed over from death to life, and friends this all starts with what we celebrate today. Christmas, God with us, the saviour born on this day in Bethlehem, and when I think of what Jesus has done for me, I want to sing with the angels! I want to fall down and worship like the shepherds and I want to pursue Him like the wise men. Glory to God in the Highest, and on earth peace to among those with whom He is pleased.
Friends today you are here to worship Christ, the new born king born of the virgin Mary, and I commend you for that. However, I ask of you two more things this day. In the midst of it all, would you please continue to worship Jesus, remember Jesus and truly celebrate Jesus today, think through again all He has saved you from and all He has saved you to. And secondly as it says early in the passage in II Corinthians that we have been entrusted with this ministry of reconciliation, we have been entrusted with this message that God is reconciling us to Himself through this great gift exchange, and I ask you to think about how you can spread His glory and proclaim His name all throughout Trail, BC, Canada and to the ends of the earth. We have two wonderful Churches represented here with I hope a passion to spread this news about an even more wonderful God, Jesus. People need to know this good news, more of them need to know next year that this isn’t a Happy Holiday, it is Christmas, because it is all about Jesus, and if they will make their life about Jesus, they will know what it is to truly live.
Let’s pray, and then the worship team will come up and sing, Go Tell It On The Mountain, just as I hope indeed we will do as well!

Unsettled? Ask The Spirit

The difference between Jr. Novice and Sr. Novice hockey is amazingly vast.  In Jr. the kids all congregate like bees to honey around the puck.  Together they follow it all ten of them, falling down and taking others with them.  In Sr. they are learning positions, learning where best to be to help their team, and they learn their role rather than just chasing the puck.  It is far more fun for a dad to watch, and I can tell that my man Caleb is gaining a better understanding of the game as a result.

Recently I have been giving a lot of thought to this unsettled concept.  The idea that maybe we have settled too soon in our Christian walk, and as a result have missed out on what God has called us to.  Another example of this could easily be Moses.  In Exodus 2 we see that Moses after running away from Pharaoh for killing an Egyptian, settles in the land of his father in law.  It says he became content in the land.  So much so, that when God shows up in a burning bush to call Moses to the heart pounding, exhilarating mission to lead the people of Israel out of Egypt and into the promised land, Moses argues and doesn’t want to leave.

He was willing to trade a revolutionary leading, sea splitting, mountain top rumbling, law proclaiming, GLORY OF GOD observing life for one that smelled of sheep.  He would have spent the rest of his life bored.  Waiting for vacation, longing for retirement, and wondering what could have been.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t want a life wasted wondering what could have been.  I want to be a follower of Jesus that responds to the call to take up your cross and follow Him, with, “Maybe, when I feel like it.”  I don’t want to say I am a follower of Jesus, but go away sad because He says, sell everything you have and give it to the poor.  I want to follow Jesus into the life He has risen for me to have.

Now the question that this raises for me is, how do I know if I am the one called to

That raises the question though, how do I know if God is asking me to sell my house and give it all away, or just think more strategically about how to give sacrificially to the poor?  Sometimes calls from the pulpit, put out one need and everyone feels like Jr. Novice players chasing a puck.  We feel like we all have to do the same thing.  How do we know what it is we are called to do?

One of the most encouraging parts of Moses’ story is that the LORD directs him.  Moses though reluctant at times still heard the voice of God.  God told him where to spend his life and how, all Moses had to do was follow in faith.

Thanks to Jesus, and the work He completed, we know what position to play, we don’t all have to just flock to whatever need the preacher proclaims.  God is speaking, the Holy Spirit has descended and is willing to tell us how to spend our lives.  We need to learn to ask.

You see Jesus promised He wouldn’t leave His followers alone.  He went to send the Holy Spirit, to comfort, to teach and to bring to remembrance all that He taught.  The same Spirit that is in Jesus is in those of us who are true disciples of Jesus Christ (John 14:15-31).  The same God that spoke to Moses resides in the believer in the Holy Spirit.

God has a plan for you, He has a will for your life, and He has sent the guide, the comforter, not just to direct and bring comfort, but to be the direction and the comfort within us.

You can be sure God will speak, just be sure to check with Scripture to make sure it is the Holy Spirit and not something else.

Are you unsettled in your Christian life, but not sure what that looks like?  Ask the Spirit of God to direct you and He will.

Unsettled – Stuck In Haran

Terah took Abram his son and Lot the son of Haran, his grandson, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, his son Abram’s wife, and they went forth together from Ur of the Chaldeans to go into the land of Canaan, but when they came to Haran, they settled there. The days of Terah were 205 years, and Terah died in Haran.
(Genesis 11:31-32 ESV)

Recently if there was a word to describe how I feel about my own Christian walk, and the discipleship stage of the people I lead, the word would be unsettled.  I have been this way for a while.  I have had a sense like there is more to this Christian life than showing up at Church for Sunday morning services, singing, preaching, offering collecting, hand shaking and heading home for lunch and then giving my week to meetings.  Is this what Jesus meant when He said, “I have come that you would have life?”  I don’t think so.

As I was reading through the Bible again, I was struck by a man I had never before given much thought to, Terah.  Terah is Abraham’s dad.  Abraham get’s lots of attention and is one of the most influential men of all time.  Three major religions trace their roots to him Christians, Muslims and Jews.  Terah however is like a side note to the story.  Just a guy who fathered an important guy.

What strikes me about Terah though is this, I wonder if God had more for him, but he settled too soon. “they went forth together from Ur of the Chaldeans to go into the land of Canaan, but when they came to Haran, they settled there.” They were under Terah’s leadership on route to the promised land, but when they got to Haran they got stuck.  The next you see of Terah is he lives 205 years and then he died.

He settled in Haran, and he died.  I am sure that Haran was a great place.  Terah likely made a good living, probably had a good life.  He raised a family, ran a business and set the kids up for the future.  He was content, happy with the way things were, he was in all ways settled.  Unfortunately he settled too soon.  The land of promise was before him and he stopped short of what could have been and he died there never knowing how full a life he could have had.  He settled in Haran, and he died.

It made me wonder how many of us are stuck in Haran.

How many of us are settled in our lives, settled with our jobs, our houses, our vacations, and because we have all of these things that bring us a measure of comfort, we stop the journey to the promise land, we stop seeking what God would have us seek?

What if God calls us to so much more?  How many of us have said, “I will serve you LORD, just on my terms.  Don’t move me, don’t disrupt me, don’t ask me to give up anything.  Just ask me to do the odd comfortable thing here when I have time, and then because I did such a great service sprinkle my life with all kinds of blessing.”

Here we find ourselves in a dilemma, because on one hand we say, “There has to be more to this Christian life than this.” and on the other hand we say, “But don’t move me or change my life.”

I think God is calling us to be unsettled.  I don’t think His mission or His gospel or His life demanded anything less than a total abandonment to our lives for the sake of following Him into real life.

Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.  (Matthew 16:24-25 ESV)

Jesus tells us that is we want to find true life, we have to lay down the trappings of this life for the one He gives.  This means we must take a look at our lives, our stuff, our money, our opportunities and start asking unsettling questions.  It means we have to start talking to God and asking the Holy Spirit to give us direction so we can follow Jesus into life.

We have to ask questions like – How would God have me use my money? Do I really need this house? Do I need this vehicle? Am I supposed to be doing something different with my vacation time? How am I involved in sports, is it robbing me from what Jesus has a real life?  Have I made any sacrifices on behalf of the poor?  Does God want me to stay here, and would I be willing to go if He asked me?  These are just a few to get you started.

We must ask these questions if we don’t want to be stuck in Haran.  We must ask these questions if we want to live the life Jesus said we could live.  Jesus said that He came to bring us life, and He also knew we would have to give up our inferior life in order to have it.  Jesus is supreme, Jesus is the satisfaction you are looking for, Jesus is of such value, He is worth trading everything in for.

We will be always stuck in Haran if we don’t see Jesus for who He is.  If we don’t truly believe that He is enough, if we don’t truly pursue Him to His fullest and see Him as the one where all satisfaction is found, where all life is found.

Are you dissatisfied with the Christian life you are leading?  Maybe it’s time to leave Haran.

Bearing Fruit In Keeping With The Gospel

Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother,  To the saints and faithful brothers in Christ at Colossae:  Grace to you and peace from God our Father.  We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. Of this you have heard before in the word of the truth, the gospel, which has come to you, as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and growing—as it also does among you, since the day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth, just as you learned it from Epaphras our beloved fellow servant. He is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf and has made known to us your love in the Spirit. (Colossians 1:1-8 ESV)

 

I am getting ready to start preaching through the book of Colossians, and as I prepare I have one convicting thought that keeps rolling through my head and that is the question, am I bearing fruit in keeping with the Gospel of Jesus Christ?

In the first 8 verses of Colossians Paul is so thankful for what has happened in the lives of those who are a part of the Church there.  He says,

We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. Of this you have heard before in the word of the truth, the gospel, which has come to you, as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and growing—as it also does among you, since the day you heard it.

In other words ever since they heard the Gospel, and understood the Gospel, they have been bearing fruit and growing!  Additionally this is how what is supposed to happen!  It is happening throughout the whole world.  People are turning from their sin to their savior, they are hearing it, they are understanding it and they are bearing fruit as a result.

Is that happening in me?  Is that happening in us?

There are many people who I know have heard the gospel, and they claim to understand the gospel, but they aren’t showing any signs of fruit in their lives.  It makes me wonder, do we really get it?

I think it is time to reflect on our lives, it is time to take another look and ask ourselves if Paul wrote us a letter would he be thankful that the Gospel preached has been understood and there is evidence of growth in our lives?

It’s worth a thought.

Easy To Read, Hard To Follow

Lately I have been looking again at some of the more radical words of Jesus.  Words that have become too easy to read, and too easy to overlook.  Words like, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.  Or words like if anyone would be first, he must be last of all and a servant of all.  In Church words like this roll like water off a ducks back, but if you stop a moment and think of what these simple phrases require in our cultural context, it is absolutely earth shattering.

Think about it.  Think about the one who grates you the most, the one who drives you around the bend the quickest, the one who at the very thought brings you anger, frustration and provokes in you literally a physical response.  If you are like me it isn’t that hard and it doesn’t take that long to think of that person.  Now think of loving that person.  Remember love is a choice not a feeling.  What would it look like for you to love that person?  Initially the thought is repulsive isn’t it?  But what difference would it make?

Is it possible that it would make all the difference in the world?  Maybe just maybe loving your enemy, serving your enemy, not jockeying for first place, but letting them be first would change everything.  Perhaps it wouldn’t change the circumstances, but maybe it would change your heart.  It is reasonable to think that even if you started to serve your enemy and love your enemy, that they would think they had won, that you had seen it there way, and maybe they would even get worse.  But maybe by loving them you would be set free.

When you have an enemy, to some degree they own you.  I mean you knew who it was right away didn’t you.  The thought of enemy and that persons face caused a reaction in you without them even being in the room didn’t it.  No matter how you try the dream of their demise it is only ever a dream, because they are still there.  In the world we live in, the only way to be free from our enemies is to see them obliterated.  As a result we pray they move, or get sick, or are hit by a  bus.  Whatever it takes to take them out of the picture.  But what if the world is wrong? What if that is actually the wrong way to get rid of an enemy, I mean has it worked yet?

What if Jesus is right?  What if He knows what He is talking about?  What if He has actually done it and can prove it to you?  Well He is, He does, and He has.  Romans tells us, For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation. (Romans 5:6-11 ESV).  We were enemies of God, and yet so loved by Jesus that He died for us.  He loved His enemies, and because He did, we have life in Christ!  Amazing.

Why not try it?  Love your enemy as Christ loved you.  Lay down your life for them in faith following Jesus, and maybe just maybe you will find you have been set free.  What have you got to lose?  The world’s way doesn’t work.  Jesus knows, because Jesus has done it, follow Him.

The Abortion Issue

I have attached a video from the Resurgence.com of Pastor Mark Driscoll interviewing Randy Alcorn.  They are discussing the issue of abortion, an issue that isn’t addressed as often as it once was.  It is very interesting and worth a look.  Watch, think, enjoy.

A Herd Mentality

It is going on two years since I last even attempted a post on this blog.  Brutal.  However, it feels like it is time to think critically again, and I find if I have to write things in a way that are somewhat understandable, then I am forced to think more deeply than I otherwise would.

The title of my blog is, The Wandering Thoughts of a Madd Pastor, and today that is certainly true.  In my devotional time I have been reading through the book of Mark.  In chapter 5, Mark recounts the time when Jesus went to the country of the Garasenes and delivers the demoniac from a legion of demons.  In the story, the demons asked to be sent into a herd of pigs.  Mark goes on to tell us they went into the pigs, and 2000 pigs rushed down the hill and drown in the sea (Mark 5: 1-20).

I have never really given too much thought to the pigs before.  I know the Jewish people won’t eat them because of Old Testament law, and I always figured this was a really bad day for a pig farmer, but 2000 pigs?  One of two things happened in this whole possessed pig ordeal.  One, there were 2000 demons all in one man who then each took a pig and drove them into the sea killing all the pigs, or two, there were a number of demons that possessed the bacon on legs, and by their running they started a stamped of swine all careening to their death as they basically just responded to the demon possessed pork running ahead of them.  The Bible doesn’t say what exactly happened here, it just tells us that they ran to their death.

It got me thinking though, I wonder how many people involved in North American Christianity (and in other places for that matter) have a herd mentality?  How many Christians are running hard with the crowd not realizing they are following demon possessed pigs to their graves?  I don’t have an actual number on that, and I would hesitate to list those I think are selling counterfeit gods, but I would say it is becoming increasingly important as Christians that we pick up our Bibles and allow the Holy Spirit to guide our thoughts, hearts and minds.  Today, thanks to the information highway you are on right now, we have access to many of the so called Christian movements driven by the Christian celebrities of our time.  We have access to their sermons, articles, blogs, videos etc. and at the rate in which they gain popularity by their ear tickling messages it seems to me that it is possible many are running in the herd, and not everyone is looking for the truth. The sad reality is we have become a lazy society, content to trust the so-called experts and blindly follow them to their graves instead of picking up the readily available word of God(check out www.esvonline.org)  and see for themselves if the teachings of certain men or women are accurate and in line with the Bible.  For many the Bible seems too big, and too much for them to handle. They have never studied any theology systematically, and as a result feel compelled to just listen in to what the most popular purveyors of religious goods are selling and run the risk that they are running with the wrong herd.  If that is you allow me to give you some warning signs of potentially dangerous teachers.

1. Is Jesus the hero of their story?  Do they lift up Jesus as God, as the only savior, or do they point you to yourself, and try to fix you apart from Christ? Acts 4:12

2. Do they call you to repentance?  Jesus started His ministry by calling people to repent.  He confronted sin and made no bones about it.  Matthew 4:17

3. Do you always feel good after you listen to them, or does the honest proclamation of Scripture and the work of the Holy Spirit bring you to conviction from time to time? 2 Timothy 4:3

4. Do they ever direct you to the Bible? 2 Timothy 3:16

There would be other tell tale signs that you are following the wrong herd I am sure, but if these are continually violated it might be worth checking further into who exactly is leading this herd and where it is going.  You might want to get out like the pig in the picture because it would be awful to be the two thousandth pig to drown in the sea of a frightened mob.

The Fight of Their Life

I know, I know, I finally am posting something on my blog. 

In the wake of the US Presidential Election there has been much speculation as to who President Elect Obama will handle the war in Iraq, and the war on terrorism in general.  Of course most average citizens would like the war to end and the loss of lives to stop.  In particular the parents of soldiers, though proud of their brave sons and daughters, pray that violence stops, that the troops will be safe, and soon they will be reunited with their loved one.

I imagine if my son or daughter were sent off with a machine gun into enemy territories and the constant threat of enemy attack, I would be relentless in prayer for their safety.  I would hit my knees as many parents of soldiers have so that I could once again hold my kid.  This would be a constant on my mind, and because the stakes are so high, I would not need a reminder to call out to God.  Likely neither would you.

Sadly we deceive ourselves in thinking our kids are any more safe.  Sure they are in less mortal danger, and after school today they will probably bound home to tell you about all that went on.  Yet, we seldom think of the war that is daily going on for their souls, and the damage that could be done at a spiritual level, an eternal level.  There is a reality that every day no matter where our kids are, they are in a war for their soul.  They are in a war against an evil attacker who would love nothing more than to derail their faith, take them away from Christ and destroy them completely.  If only we would remember that our kids are in the fight of their lives, and only Jesus can sustain them.  It is in Christ alone that they can find safety.  The attacks of the enemy are only going to intensify as the grow older.  Why not start praying now, that at the end of it all, we can rejoice together in the victory Jesus won as it pertains to the lives of us and our Children.  Why not pray for the war they are in.  Something to think about.  Something to pray about