How Obedient Are You?

"There is no try; do or do not."

Yoda was right in this. There is ultimately no such thing as "trying" to do something. We either do it or we don't. The same can be said for obedience to God; either we obey him or we don't.

However, Christians so commonly try to push the line of what they can get away with and still be considered a "good Christian." We dismiss disobedience quickly, justifying ourselves with thoughts such as, "It's not that bad" or "Everyone else is even worse" or "But I'm faithful in all these other areas." Thus we create a sliding scale as to what constitutes a good Christian and a bad one. We make it acceptable to fall short in sin and still be ok both in our own lives and the lives of others.

But God does not see it that way. Jesus said, "Why do you call me Lord, and do not do what I say?" The lordship of Christ demands absolute obedience to him.

Thank God there is forgiveness greater than our sinfulness but our standard should be perfection. With the woman caught in adultery, Jesus did not condemn her. However he did leave her with this zinger: Go and sin no more. May everyone in our church aspire to walk as Christ walked and encourage each other to do the same. Not holiness just for holiness' sake, but for the sake of oneness with God and oneness with each other.

Testing the Spirit

I recently came across a YouTube video of a man named Todd Bentley who is a part of a new "ministry" that is unlike any I've ever seen.

While I was initially shocked by the graphic violence he talks about as being inspired by the Holy Spirit, I ultimately did not feel threatened or disturbed by his claims. In the short video below, Bentley describes tackling, punching and even kicking the faces of people he alleges the Holy Spirit asked him to.

Though I personally don't believe the Holy Spirit is behind this new "movement", I don't have a lot of evidence to prove it is unholy. All I have in my defense is the record of what miracles the Spirit has taken part in as described by scriptures and my own gut feeling. Neither of those defenses are particularly strong when held under scrutiny because many of the miracles that were performed in Jesus' time and during the time of the early church were all without precedent. (I'm sure the whole speaking in tongues thing was pretty strange to those observing for the first time!)

But my comfort is found in Paul's exhortation that as mature Christians, "we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming; (Ephesians 4:14)"

New fads of ministry will come and go. Whether they are legitimate or not, we needn't be swayed by what the current crop of popular Christians might be involved in.



Paul says to a young Timothy,

You, however, continue in the things you have learned and become convinced of, knowing from whom you have learned {them,} and that from childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.

All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.

I don't know if the whole Todd Bentley thing is real or not (I suspect it is not) but it doesn't matter to me. According to what Paul says, I am to continue in the things I have learned... things that I am convinced of and have known since childhood. My theology is clear. The scripture that I know is adequate - I don't need a new add-on.

The new trends of the season may be legitimate additions to God's repertoire of ministry techniques, but if all I ever do is hold on to what I already know to be true, then I needn't worry about the latest fads. I don't have to worry I'm missing out on God's "new instructions". I already have His old instructions.

And those will work fine from now until He comes again.

Press on.

Revive Us Again!

In light of the last few years in our church, it is obvious we are in desperate need of revival! We need the Living Waters flowing through us so that we can be refreshed and energized. But in order to be revived, we need to be willing to lay every aspect of our lives before the altar of God. That means there is nothing we will withhold from Jesus. We need to confess our sins and repent.

No longer can we be ok with "it's not that bad" in our lives. No longer can we be ok with, "I know I should but..." in our lives. No longer can we be ok with putting ethnic culture above God's. God and his ways need to come first all the time, every time. At the very least, we need to truly desire that above all else. Until we get to that point, we kid ourselves if we expect God to refresh us. Instead, we will continue to be a stagnating pool as we continue to hold onto the things that block the Living Waters from flowing in.

Let us decide this day as a church that we will not be satisfied with nothing less than God's best in our lives.

Online Resource

As a lay person, I haven't ever had the need to spend hundreds of dollars on Bible resources. Of course I have a Strong's Concordance and various New and Old Testament dictionaries and some other commentaries, but I don't have the comprehensive library like many full-time ministers or seminary students might have.

But I recently discovered another alternative; an online resource called Blue Letter Bible (http://www.blueletterbible.com/) This wonderful free online resources puts the bible at the tip of your fingers and allows for in-depth research that's all just a click away.

The Blue Letter Bible allows you to search bible verses in 14 different translations and cross-reference the original Greek or Hebrew lexicon with just one mouse click. Written commentaries from DOZENS of sources are just a pull-down menu away. Even audio commentaries from renown theologians and radio personalities are available. (Dr. Vernon McGee is an old favorite of mine! His clarity and sincerity has always made me feel like he was an old wise uncle that I could depend on.)
Visual aids like historical artwork, photographs, maps; study guides like charts, graphs, and timelines; devotionals by Spurgeon, Oswald Chambers, and more are all there for you. For each verse, you can even find corresponding/relevant hyms, dictionary aids, and more!

Check out blueletterbible.com the next time you need some answers!

Dismantling the Bomb

Many non-Christians are resistant to Christianity and God because they can't wrap their heads around the idea that a Good God could allow bad things to happen. In other words, they often ask, "How can your God be all-powerful and good at the same time if he allows evil to exist?" This is a sincere but mistaken worldview that has many non-Christians standing on the sidelines, living a confused, non-directional life.

When approached about God and spiritual things, they often drop the "Problem of Evil" philosophical bomb on their unsuspecting Christian friends. Well, this "bomb" needn't shake us or confuse us. Here is an easy way to dismantle that spiritual blockage for your unbelieving friend. Before starting, pray for your friend - either in preparation for this conversation or silently right before it happens...

1) Should we have the choice? When your friends challenge you with the problem of evil, you must first set the stage. Assuming they will answer in the negative, ask them a hot-topic question like, "do you think the government should impose laws forbidding homosexual behavior?" or "do you think abortion should be outlawed?" We want to ask a question to which they will answer, "No. Because I think people should be able to choose for themselves."

2) Choice is good. Confirm with them that you are on the same page. Ask, "so you agree that being able to make moral choices for oneself is a good thing?""Yes, of course!" they will respond.

3) Drive the point. Ask your friend to clarify. Reaffirm your common ground by asking, "Would you agree that it is inherently a good thing to be free to make moral choices? That being morally free is good and having the choice to select either good or evil is part of being morally free?" They will agree that it is good to be able to make moral choices without the dictate of some other authority.

4) The paradox. Challenge your friend's worldview by asking, "if you could do anything you wanted, would it be possible to eliminate evil but still allow people the moral freedom to make their own choices between good and evil?" The answer there, of course, is 'no'. Based on your agreement of the third point, you could not have moral freedom AND no evil because people will have the choice to choose evil. Evil isn't good, but the ABILITY TO CHOOSE good or evil is good because moral freedom is good.

Summarize this logical worldview so your friend can better understand the nature of God.- God is a good God and gives us something good; moral freedom - the ability to choose good or evil.- God doesn't like evil but if he eliminated all evil, that would deprive us from the ability to choose good or evil.- Regardless of how powerful God is, the removal of evil doesn't prove his power or goodness. In fact, the removal of evil only deprives us of a good thing; the ability to choose.

Most importantly, relay the fact that God, in His infinite goodness and wisdom, has not only given us the choice between good and evil, but has given us a way from which we can escape the judgment of our evil choices and presents an alternative to our penchant to choose the evil thing; Jesus Christ.

So with just a few simple talking points, you are able to dismantle your friend's "bomb" and hopefully remove the blockage that caused him to resit God.

Cardboard Testimonies

See how a Living God can change the lives of ordinary people...

Pray for Steven Curtis Chapman

Grammy-winning Christian music artist, Steven Curtis Chapman's adopted Chinese daughter was killed in a car accident when playing in her driveway Wednesday afternoon.

Tragically, she was only five years old. Even more tragically, it was her brother who accidentally hit her with the family SUV when he didn't see her playing in the driveway.

You can read more about the story here. But for now, pray for the Chapman family.

You can visit Maria Sue's official site here.