I Have Overcome...

The next several posts are articles that I wrote to be printed in the bulletin at the Palisades church in Brimingham. These were written over a period of 10 weeks or so and are short in thought due to the limited space. But hopefully there is a message for you, wherever you are.

I was sitting in an 8^th grade classroom at Challenger Middle school on this day (Sept 11) 10 years ago. We had an announcement come over the speakers calling for everyone to go to their homeroom classes and wait for further instruction. So everyone anxiously rushed to their respective classes for we had not yet been told what was taking place and we thought maybe a surprise assembly or some special treat. We were sadly mistaken. My teacher turned on the tv and we all sat and watched live as the horror and destruction was very quickly overcoming New York City. To be completely honest I remember not being really sure what to think. I knew this was a very bad thing, a scary thing, but it never really hit me that day. Maybe because of my age at the time and all of the action movies that were always on tv I was desensitized to the massacre taking place. Maybe because it was on the other side of the country I had no immediate fight or flight reaction or emotion. I didn’t realize the implications of what had happened right away. I hadn’t let the gravity of that moment sink in until much time had passed. But here we stand 10 years to the day, roughly 8 years into war, just months into long sought after justice, and only hours into reliving that day all over again. Sadly, for many, their hearts can still feel the sting from 0-hour. Families, friends, and those directly affected tragically suffered losses beyond a magnitude that many will never quite comprehend. These men, women, and children weren’t equipped with rifles, helmets, or combat training, rather with innocence, pride, and freedom. Then at the hand of terror they were blindsided and in half a day; gone. “…God, where are you…?”

 Jesus, to his disciples:

“If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. ¹⁹ If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you….When the Counselor comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father, he will testify about me. ²⁷ And you also must testify, for you have been with me from the beginning. “All this I have told you so that you will not go astray. ² They will put you out of the synagogue; in fact, a time is coming when anyone who kills you will think he is offering a service to God. ³ They will do such things because they have not known the Father or me. ⁴ I have told you this, so that when the time comes you will remember that I warned you…I tell you the truth, you will weep and mourn while the world rejoices. You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy. ²¹ A woman giving birth to a child has pain because her time has come; but when her baby is born she forgets the anguish because of her joy that a child is born into the world. ²² So with you: Now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy. ²³ In that day you will no longer ask me anything. I tell you the truth, my Father will give you whatever you ask in my name…“But a time is coming, and has come, when you will be scattered, each to his own home. You will leave me all alone. Yet I am not alone, for my Father is with me. ³³ “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” John 15 and 16

In times of terror He has promised us peace, in times of pain He has promised us compassion, and in times of death He has promised us life.

Seasons

More articles...

There are many seasons throughout the year. In the South we have four; long summers, short winters, football, and off season. As of yesterday, it’s football season! Probably the most wonderful time of the year! It’s funny, but we spend 365 and 1/4 days (leap year) out of the year talking, thinking, and dreaming about football. We wear our team’s colors and logos. We visit museums and stadiums. We also have much of our homes covered in our team’s paraphernalia. We are fanatics! And there are hundreds of thousands just like us who all assemble and millions who watch around the country as this great season takes place on Saturdays between September and February. Ladies and Gentlemen, it’s football season! Ok, truthfully there are other seasons that happen throughout the year like Spring and Fall. But those don’t really matter to us. We also have the holiday season, but really it’s just football season. What really bothers us is the ‘offseason’. We spend most of the year waiting for our favorite time to come back.

The athletes we watch on tv also experience these things. In-season they spend time practicing and playing so they can win national championships (something the south is really good at, esp. the state of Alabama. In the offseason they spend some time practicing, but mostly physically and mentally training for the next season or healing from the previous season. Either way we all have to go through the in-season and offseason cycle. Luckily we do have something to keep us on our toes year round. You see, Paul describes to Timothy that there is an in-season and offseason dealing with spiritual matters in the world. He says “…preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with great patience and instruct.” 2 Tim. 4:2.  Go there and read that passage in its context. What you will find is that we as Christians have a goal to get as many people to heaven as we can. Our responsibility is to ‘revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect…’ 1 Pet 3:15. Christians must be hard working in-season and out of season. There is not a season for preaching then one for taking a break. There’s no point system or ranking system. There’s no Rose Bowl or Tostitos Bowl. All there will be is an account of our lives. There’s no overtime to attempt one last field goal. What we have, we have now and God wants us to use it. What’s your score looking like? Are you in-season or out of season? It doesn’t matter; God is calling His play now. It’s time to execute. 

Passion

Jeremiah 18:11
“Now therefore say to the people of Judah and those living in Jerusalem, ‘This is what the LORD says: Look! I am preparing a disaster for you and devising a plan against you. So turn from your evil ways, each one of you, and reform your ways and your actions.’

2 QUESTIONS: What do we spend our time doing? What do our actions or inabilities to act speak of our hearts? Last Sunday we heard a couple of great lessons on Passion. When I think of passion I often go back to the older times of Romeo and Juliet where two family enemies were so deeply passionately in love they would rather to die together than be forced to live apart. To me, there’s no better fictional picture of passion. We often think of passion just simply being a culmination of various extreme emotions such as love and hate. Whereas this idea is mostly true, for passion to be passion these emotions must be coupled with action.
Passion is defined as any powerful or compelling emotion or feeling. That being said I believe emotions are strong and powerful but only go skin deep. It’s when our emotions compel us into action that we truly experience passion, and this goes heart deep. Think about your first crush on the playground or in the classroom how you were willing to do anything to get their attention. Did that ever change with anyone you felt passionately about? So what are you passionate about? Are you passionately driven to serve your neighbor or just emotionally? Do you passionately engage in daily worship or just emotionally participate? God has called each of us into action, to do everything to the glory of Him.

The passage above has much to do with action. There are many consequences to wrong actions and many rewards to righteous actions. How many times throughout the bible have you seen God warn or condemn His people about their evil and wicked actions? A whole lot! Why? Because people were and still are passionate about things that are not of God, but are passionate about this “crooked and depraved generation.” And just because some of us don’t participate in all of today’s worldly pleasures doesn’t mean we are exempt from this discussion. The act of being idle and having not passion is a way which needs to be reformed.

“Call me but love, and I’ll be new baptized. Henceforth I never will be Romeo-Romeo to Juliet. He basically says; ‘I will change who I am and never be my old self again, just call me yours and that’ll be all that matters. Your love will be my identity.’ Remember when you first said this to God? You bowed before the King of Kings and gave everything to him. You engaged in the act of baptism and you took off your old clothes and put on the new clean garments of Christ. Your passion for God couldn’t keep you away from Him. You gave Him your name, and put on love. You gave Him everything. After all, He gave us his Son, by far the most passionate act in all of mankind. ‘For God so loved… that he gave…that whoever believes…shall not perish but have eternal life.’ John 3:16

Injuries…

Another rewrite..More added/changed thoughts..

One Sunday afternoon, a few years ago, on exactly January 13th I was pumped because I was about to play the coolest game ever with some of the coolest guys ever. A game called Berzerker. It's a combination between football, rugby, soccer, and basketball. Awesome! Right!? YA! It was the first play of the game, I got the ball, took one step, and POP!! I was down. I tore a calf muscle and the next 2 weeks of life were the most agonizingly dreadful, exhausting experience ever...crutches. Now some of you may think, "oh, crutches, those look easy." or "I've been on crutches before and they weren't that bad" well I hated them! But of course, I learned something as we all should from each experience. Crutches really made it difficult to get around, especially since I had to get around UAB. For the most part, I just tried as much as I could to suck it up and be tough about traveling multiple blocks. I think what helped out a lot was the fact that people were very thoughtful. They held open doors and were always offering to help carry things for me; however, I nicely rejected the help. I’m not sure why, I just wanted to do everything for myself, even something as simple as carry something up stairs. So I did. I never fell down the stairs or was unable to perform my day to day tasks. I made it! While I crutched from place to place I did have a lot of time to just think. I thought mostly about how tired and sore I was, and I often asked myself what the root of my hard headedness was in not accepting help. But mostly I thought of how all of us want to do everything ourselves when it comes to Christianity. Let’s take a poll (raise your hand if this applies, I will too)....How many of you want to do everything you can each day to ensure a spot in Heaven? How many of you spend time each day reading the Bible and praying because you want to be saved? How many of you think that you will be saved because of your deeds, faith, or because you have committed less sin then someone else? I’m pretty sure we all know that we can’t earn our way to heaven, but don’t we usually revert back to that kind of lifestyle? Things begin to get a little rocky and all the sudden we are at church 24/7, we are constantly praying, looking up scriptures, and trying our hardest to walk the straight and narrow as if our works and efforts are going to save us, or bring us back to a comfortable place. These are things we should be striving to do always, not to earn a spot in heaven, but because we already have obtained that spot and are beginning the heavenly lifestyle here on earth. Jesus prayed “Your will be done, on EARTH as it IS IN HEAVEN.” For the duration of my injury, I had a very hard time moving around. Without my crutches, I would have never been able to move. I couldn’t do it by myself. We can’t do it by ourselves. We need the aid of Jesus and his blood, we need the grace of God, and we need to give up and surrender to Him. Sometimes we need that “injury” to bring us down before God so that we can view Him in the right perspective and see that there’s nothing we can possibly do to get where He sits. All we can do is accept His invitation. It took months to recover from that injury, and I still have a deformation in that muscle. But I’m physically back to full speed thanks to the doctors and therapists. Most of all thanks be to God. I’m imperfect, unworthy, and injured, but His gift of grace allows me to run full speed after Him. “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast” Ephesians 2:8-9. 

Where is God? Part 1.5

Another article based on a past post..rewritten with new thoughts.

Many people like to ask the question, "Where is God?" There are so many times in which we hurt and suffer. There are other times in which life seems so unfair. God has promised us many things, but He has not promised us that life would always be fair, pain free, or conflict free; however, many people still get the illusion that because they become a Christian life is all downhill from there. Well, yes and no. No, just because you become a Christian doesn't mean that you get one of those "easy buttons" from staples. There’s no button you can just push to speed past conflict and find another comfortable area. You will go through a hard time whether it be struggling with sin or the various trials in life that kick you in the butt and you wonder "God where are you in all of this?" Then there's the "yes" aspect of this. Because you become a Christian and accept Jesus into your life, you no longer have to let sin run your life. You now have a savior who rescued you from death, from eternal suffering. The bible says in 2 Corinthians 5 that God has given us his Spirit as a deposit to guarantee that eternal life, our heavenly dwelling is coming. We receive a God who loves us, who has loved us, and will love us forever. With a God of this magnitude comes an all knowing God who knows your every need, thought, passion, struggle, and pain.     O LORD, you have searched me and you know me. 2 You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. 3 You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. 4 Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O LORD. 5 You hem me in—behind and before; you have laid your hand upon me. 6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain. 7 Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? 8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. 9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, 10 even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.11 If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,” 12 even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you. 13 For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. 15 My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, 16 your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.17 How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! 18 Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand. When I awake, I am still with you. Psalm139:1-18   I love this psalm, especially vs 17 because it shows the psalmists surrender to the wisdom and knowledge of God. Instead of taking a stand of pride and self-reliance, he acknowledges God’s thoughts, plans, and will as being supreme to anything we could ever think of. So where is God? From what we have read, He is everywhere and in everything. To feel His presence you must first be aware of His presence. My challenge for you is to go out and find Him. Where in the world is He? But most importantly, is He in you?  ¹ Not to us, O LORD, not to us but to your name be the glory, because of your love and faithfulness.² Why do the nations say, “Where is their God?” ³ Our God is in heaven; he does whatever pleases him. Psalm 115:1-3           

Thoughts on Eternity: Ephesians 2:1-10

These thoughts often had to be short due to the limited amount of space I had to print them on. Each article also was directed to the church I was working for. We were full steam ahead on starting over and putting on a new face. Our old ways had set us back and the journey to becoming a bit more open minded as a church was in the forefront. These articles were meant to educate as well as push us as a church to take a step towards living as the Bible has instructed us.

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16 Most all of us should have been able to finish this verse without having to read it. If you’ve spent any time in church, spent time around people who go to church, or watch sporting events on tv hopefully you know about “John 3:16.” I remember when I first read this verse I thought, “how easy is that?! Just believe and gain eternal life!” It kind of makes you wonder why other people don’t believe. I mean we are talking about eternal life here! God has given us a gift, we simply take that gift, and then boom; eternal life! Now, we do know that eternal life is a gift. We did nothing at all to receive it. Well, ok, we did confess our belief that Jesus Christ is the Son of the living God and that he died for our sins and that he conquered death by raising himself from the grave 3 days after entering. We then put Christ on in baptism, spiritually demonstrating our own death, burial, and resurrection. We then rose from the water as a new creation with no condemnation having received the Holy Spirit and the gift of eternal life. Not that these are works to be done by us to gain entrance into the Kingdom, but acts of faith. You see, no one is cut out to live righteously. No one can stand alone before God and say, “I’m good enough, I make the cut.” We are all broken and incomplete before entering into God’s grace. Even upon entering that grace we sometimes fall short, but the atoning blood of Jesus covers our sins, and God’s grace is made new in us. So why is it that more people are not making a decision to accept God’s grace and live for him? Logically and spiritually it makes so much sense! Live for the world and die to God reaps eternal death. Live for God and die to the world reaps eternal life. I think if more people knew the pure gospel message, they’d make a positive eternity changing decision. But many churches have clouded up that message, and so many “church goers” have missed their important missions to evangelize to the lost. So now what? How do we teach this message? What can we do as “church goers” to change this? I believe God is calling for us to step out of the title of “church goer,” and put on the clothes of “Christ follower.” Then people will be able to see Christ outside the walls of the church and witness the grace of God. The thing about eternity is that we think of it as something far off in the future when we die or when time ends. I believe it begins the moment you confess with your lips, believe with your heart that Jesus is the Son of God, and then put on Christ in baptism. That is when your eternity begins; an eternal walk with God.   

GREATER > THAN

Palisades article...

 

This week’s message is going to be very simple; Greater Than.  “More of you and less of me, oh my Father, I want to be”, these lyrics I’ve heard sung by an a capella worship group called “Glad”. How simple are those words? We sing similar songs such as; “More Precious Than Silver”, “More Love to Thee, O Christ”, and “More Like Jesus”. What’s the theme here? More, more, more! Sound familiar? More is the world we currently live in. I don’t have to go into much detail about how much the world salivates over new stuff, more stuff, and better stuff. I don’t need to elaborate on how much people of the world run after the world and seek more for their own wealth and self-satisfaction. It’s unnecessary to spend much time expounding upon the darkness of this world and those who choose to stay in that darkness, because we all know of that pain, loneliness, shame, and defeat. You see, we view that dark place as such because as followers of our Lord Jesus Christ we have stepped into His eternal light. We can look back and see the darkness in which we once treaded all alone. We can even go as far as seeing how enticing and pleasurable that place once was. But there was still something missing, out of order…empty. I heard a man on tv the other night say that the world is an intense place, its message is intense, its people are intense, and Christianity is falling behind because Christians are losing their intensity for the message of the cross. Is that true? Are we falling behind? Is it impossible to keep our same soul saving gospel message and communicate it in a way the world understands? Speaking to Nicodemus in John 3, Jesus says, “we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen but still you people do not accept our testimony.” Why doesn’t he accept Jesus’ message? I think he had a “more” problem. In fact I think most of the people who came face to face with Jesus had a “more” problem. But all of those who came face down to Jesus, they were on to something. You know, those people who recognized who Jesus was. It’s like they got the answers to the test, the tip on how to get their promotion, the extra bonus, the secret to life… they got more. They simply stood before Jesus with their hearts bowed. They reached out only to touch his cloak. They exclaimed, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world”; “He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me”; “He is the one who comes after me, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie.”They had it, and John the Baptist really knew his place. He goes on to say in John 3:30, “he must become greater; I must become less.” How different is that? How intense? When the whole world is running to increase itself, to bring honor to itself, and glory to itself, there were people like John who lived out a message exclaiming that “He is greater.” Is it time to take a step back and examine who is greater in your life? Do you live as if God is greater than…everything? John 3:31a- “The one who comes from above is above all…”