The Water Log

Gospel Centered Living

2012-01-10T13:02:00.000-08:00

This past Sunday I shared this special message at The Stream from 1 Corinthians 15:1-6 . I want to give credit where credit is do: I adapted this message from Dr. Michael Bullmore (my seminary preaching professor at TEDS), who has shared it more than once at The Gospel Coalition and elsewhere in a message titled The Functional Centrality of the Gospel. You can listen to that message here.

The video from the message this Sunday that I gave is here below; followed by a diagram from the message.

Gospel Centered Living 2012 from The Stream on Vimeo.

Books I'd Like to Read in 2012

2011-12-30T07:59:00.000-08:00

1. Terror of the Autumn Skies: The True Story of Frank Luke, America's Rogue Ace of World War I

I've already started this one and am enjoying it so far. The author provides a biography of Arizona native Frank Luke who was a combat pilot in World War I. So far I am also learning a great deal about what flying was like in those days, especially flying in combat.

2. Leaders Who Last

This is a book for ministry leaders such as pastors, missionaries, Christian counselors, elders/deacons, etc. From the introduction that I've read so far I think this is going to be an excellent and helpful book. As a pastor and a counselor, I want to maintain longevity in ministry, which tends to be much more like a marathon than a sprint. By God's grace, I have "lasted" so far (full-time ministry has been my career since 1994), but desire continued wisdom and help for what I hope will be many more years of effective ministry.

3. The Letters to the Thessalonians (PNTC)

At The Stream (the church I pastor) we are starting a new message/sermon series in 1 Thessalonians in mid-January 2012, and this is one of the resources I plan to use. I've found everything in the Pillar New Testament Commentary series (edited by D.A. Carson) to be immensely helpful!

4. The Epistles to the Thessalonians (NIGTC)

This commentary will also be a resource I plan to use for the 1 Thessalonians series at The Stream.

5. The Serpent's Kiss

This book is the second in a trilogy of fiction novels in the Derek Stillwater series. I read the first in 2011, see my blog post below on my favorite reads in 2011. If you like the TV show 24, you'll probably like these books. Like Jack Bauer does, Derek Stillwater fights the terrorists, and there's plenty of action in the process.

6. The Fallen

This is the third book in the trilogy mentioned above. This one set in Colorado Springs.

7. Team of Rivals

A friend of mine at The Stream lent this book to me and told me he found it fascinating and thought I would as well. It looks like a lengthy read at 944 pages, but I'm eager to start it.

8. In the Garden of Beasts

This book comes highly recommended from a friend I swim with, who read it last summer, and thought I would like it. I noticed it was ranked highly by critics in 2011 as one of the top recommended books to read. The World War II era is a time period I've enjoyed reading and learning about, so I'm looking forward to diving into this one.

9. The Meaning of Marriage

I've enjoyed everything I've read and heard from Tim Keller, and thrilled that he and his wife now have a marriage book. I received this book at the Renewing Life Center's recent Christmas party during a "white elephant" gift exchange. You can imagine a bunch of counselors "stealing" this one back and forth, I just happened to be the one who had the privilege of ending up with it. Looking forward to reading it, growing in my marriage, and using it in my ministry of counseling and teaching.

10. George Whitefield

I had this biography on my reading list for 2011, but never purchased the book in part because the two volume series comes to about $60 (I was also sort of holding out hopes that it would come out on Kindle, and it hasn't yet). I'll likely pull the trigger and purchase this two volume series, because I've been fascinated by Whitefield since first learning about him. This two-volume biography comes highly recommended!

11. George Whitefield (Vol. II)

12. Alcatraz: A Definitive History of the Penitentiary Years

I found this book FREE (that's right FREE!) on Kindle so I downloaded it right away. I visited Alcatraz in 2006 and did the audio tour. Pretty interesting place. Of course I had to see the movie Escape From Alcatraz with Clint Eastwood right after that. Looking forward to reading this.

My Favorite Reads in 2011

2011-12-14T16:10:00.000-08:00

I'm not the most voracious reader, but did do some reading that I thoroughly enjoyed in 2011. Here's my top 20 list, though not necessarily in order of rank, along with a few comments. Thought you might like this list for a few reading ideas over the Christmas/New Year holidays or for the new year in 2012. Enjoy!

1. Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption

This was one of the best books I've ever read. What an amazing story. It is the story of how Louis Zamperini went from being a star track runner who competed at the Olympic Games in 1936 to being involved in WWII, shot down in the Pacific, and then survived for days on the ocean and then years of torment as a POW (Prisoner of War). As the subtitle states, there is a powerful story of redemption that is present here as well.

2. What is the Gospel?

A short concise book, theologically sound, emphasizing what is of first importance - the gospel (1 Corinthians 15:1-6)!

3. The Pursuit of Holiness

I read this book as a devotional supplement to my daily Bible reading, taking in just about 1 chapter a day. This book was so full of rich, challenging, applicable material that taking about a chapter a day and trying to meditate upon it and apply it is the way to go. I was so impressed with this book that I added it to our church-wide discipleship program (called Watershed) as required reading! Every Christian should read this book!

4. T.R.: The Last Romantic

If you like history and biographies, particularly about leaders, this is a very worthwhile read. I was pretty fascinated by various aspects and events of Theodore Roosevelt's life. Well-written, informative, and entertaining.

5. Blind Man's Bluff

I wasn't even aware of how submarines were used for espionage until I read this book. Really found it an amazing read. During the cold war U.S. subs shadowed Russian subs undetected not just for days, but for weeks at a time! They also on occasion entered Soviet waters and even tapped into an underwater phone line to gather info. After reading this book, I was compelled to re-watch the classic movie The Hunt for Red October, and it put that movie in a whole different perspective.

6. Trusting God: Even When Life Hurts

This book (also by Jerry Bridges, who wrote The Pursuit of Holiness) deals with the understandable struggles and questions so many people easily have when facing difficulties, suffering, and trials in life. If you've struggled or suffered in any way and wondered "WHY?" or "Where is God?" this book will be challenging and helpful.

7. The Praying Life: Connecting with God in a Distracting World

Most Christians feel like their prayer lives could be better. This is not just another book on prayer, and you probably won't read this and feel like you just need to pray MORE. In fact Miller even argues focusing too much on prayer itself is like focusing on the windshield when driving a car. The windshield is meant to be looked through to see something else - namely the road/where you're going. In the same way, prayer is like the windshield, not to be a focus in and of itself, but rather to be an important way to connect with God himself.

This book is practical, theological, and helpful. I've read several books on prayer, including Christian classics, and I think this is definitely one of my favorites on the subject. It's worth your time to dig into this book!

8. The Discovery of Yellowstone Park

This book was close behind Unbroken in terms of the most interesting book I read this past year. My enjoyment of this book was significantly supplemented by the fact that I was reading it while I was on vacation with my family this past summer in Yellowstone National Park (our first visit ever).

The book is the true account from the journal Nathanial Langford about his team's expedition into Yellowstone National Park in the 1870s (before it was Yellowstone National Park). It is incredible to read his descriptions of what they witnessed, such as seeing the falls for the first time (see my post in this blog dated August 29, 2011).

If you've ever been to Yellowstone, you'll likely love this book. If you ever plan to go to Yellowstone, you might want to read this while you are there!

(An added note: If you have a Kindle, or a Kindle app, this book is FREE on Amazon Kindle!)

9. King's Cross

At The Stream, the church I pastor in Las Vegas, we spent the last year and 3 months gradually working our way through The Gospel of Mark for our messages in the Sunday morning worship service. Keller's King's Cross was an excellent supplement that I personally enjoyed and encouraged for our congregation. If you read this book, you should do it hand-in-hand with your Bible open to The Gospel of Mark.

As Tim Keller so often does, he draws out excellent gospel-centered insight from the Bible, telling us so much about Jesus and his mission in the process. Regardless of your understanding of Jesus or the Bible, this book will be very informative, encouraging, and spiritually enriching. You'll learn about God, yourself, others, and the world.

I recommend reading about a section or two, or at most a chapter-a-day, so you can gradually work your way through this book and have plenty of time to contemplate and consider the content here.

10. Entrusted with the Gospel

This past summer I taught a college course on The Pastoral Epistles (1 and 2 Timothy, and Titus in the New Testament); and this book was the most helpful book I used in preparation. If you plan to do a study in any of these books in the New Testament, I'd recommend using this as a supplement. It's not a direct verse-by-verse commentary (for that I recommend Mounce, The Pastoral Epistles, WBC, 2000); rather Entrusted With The Gospel, deals with major themes and issues in the Pastoral Epistles (from "top-notch" New Testament scholars).

11. Lone Survivor: The Eyewitness Account of Operation Redwing and the Lost Heroes of Seal Team 10

I actually technically didn't "read" this book, I listened to the audio book with my wife while on a long road trip. We both really liked it. The audio book, made it even more realistic to me, by the animated narrator. The book is about Marcus Luttrell's journey into the Navy Seals, the training program, and then predominantly about one of his Navy Seal team's missions into Afghanistan.

If you liked Black Hawk Down, you'll like this book.

12. The Twelfth Imam

This is a Christian fiction novel, but it has an anti-terrorism and CIA kind of emphasis to it. It sets up the storyline even more for the sequel book below.

13. The Tehran Initiative

This is the sequel to The Twelfth Imam, and I actually liked this one even more, but you still need to read The Twelfth Imam for this follow-up book to make the most sense. This is a Christian fiction novel, dealing with Islamic terrorists, and has a Jack Bauer/24 like feel to it.

14. Church Planter: The Man, The Message, The Mission

I am a church planter (a pastor who started a church) and still serve as the founding pastor of The Stream. This book though isn't (in my opinion) primarily about church planting, rather it is more generally about pastoral and ministry leadership, which obviously applies to church planters! I would recommend it to any man called into full-time ministry.

15. The Confession

I hadn't read a Grisham novel since my all-time favorite The Testament when I was on a mission trip to Africa in 2000. Ten years is a little too long to go without reading a Grisham novel! This one was recommended to me by a friend in our church, and I read it in less than a week. I liked it because one of the main characters is a pastor, but also because like most Grisham books it "hooks you in the first chapter and reels you in the rest of the way." The book, like most Grisham novels is a legal thriller, and this one deals with the death penalty.

16. The Devil's Pitchfork

Speaking of Jack Bauer/24 this one is very much in that genre. Be warned there is plenty of violence and some bad language (it would definitely be rated R if made into a movie) and it has its share of spelling and grammatical errors in the Kindle version of the book I read. But overall I liked the action and the "fight the bad guys/stop the terrorists" medical backdrop plot here. A real page-turner. This book by the way, is the first of a trilogy of books on the main character Derek Stillwater (I'm planning on reading the next two in 2012).

17. The Gospel According to Mark (Pillar New Testament Commentary Series)

As I mentioned above under King's Cross, we did a message series at The Stream this year on The Gospel of Mark, and this excellent commentary was the most helpful for me in preparation. Edwards brings excellent theological conclusions from the text and provides solid application.

18. The Gospel of Mark (NIGTC)

I also used this commentary by France in my message preparation. This commentary is more technical and more detailed than the more concise, but also thorough one by Edwards above. I found it very helpful also though, particularly in using both commentaries together. I would highly recommend to anyone doing a message series or extensive study in Mark to get this commentary and the one by Edwards above and use them both together.

19. Age of Opportunity

Any parent, who still has their children living with them, needs to read this book! The book is specifically addressed to parents of teens, but has plenty that is practical for any parent. As a dad with three kids, one approaching the teen years I knew this would be appropriate for me. I've already recommended it to several people.

Let me stress this again: "PARENTS, PLEASE READ THIS BOOK!"

20. Sufferings in Africa: The Incredible True Story of a Shipwreck, Enslavement, and Survival on the Sahara

The description of this book on Amazon caught my attention:

"Listed, by Abraham Lincoln, alongside the Bible and Pilgrim’s Progress, as one of the books that most influenced his life, few true tales of adventure and survival are as astonishing as this one. Shipwrecked off the western coast of North Africa in August of 1815, James Riley and his crew had no idea of the trials awaiting them as they gathered their beached belongings. They would be captured by a band of nomadic Arabs, herded across the Sahara Desert, beaten, forced to witness astounding brutalities, sold into slavery, and starved. Riley watched most of his crew die one by one, killed off by cruelty or caprice, as his own weight dropped from 240 pounds to a mere 90 at his rescue. First published in 1817, this dramatic saga soon became a national bestseller with over a million copies sold. Even today, it is rare to find a narrative that illuminates the degradations of slave existence with such brutal honesty."

I thought this book was a little slow in places, but it is very good, and true, story.

CCSD Middle School Honors Orchestra at UNLV

2011-11-25T10:25:00.001-08:00

Last weekend my son Jordan played in the Clark County School District Honors Orchestra that performed at UNLV. He's in sixth grade and plays violin and is really improving. Below are videos of 3 of the songs they performed:

Mark 14:66-72

2011-11-13T20:36:00.000-08:00

Denial (Part II) from The Stream on Vimeo.

Jesus on Trial

2011-11-07T18:01:00.000-08:00

Jesus on Trial from The Stream on Vimeo.

You Need a Bigger Tent (Weekend message in Zion National Park)

2011-11-02T13:44:00.000-07:00

This past weekend The Stream took a weekend fall retreat/camping trip up to Zion National Park. We had a fun time and had church up there on Saturday night. For the benefit of those who didn't get to join us and hear the weekend message up there, here is a summary of the message in somewhat of an outline form.

Sermon Title: You Need A Bigger Tent

Tents...

- They give us space to sleep

- Staked STRONGLY in the ground so they won’t blowaway (My little tent a few years ago blew away because it wasn't staked well. Fortunately someone found it later on the other side of this campground!)

- Warmth from the cold, keep the bugs and thecritters out

- Like tents in camping function in these ways andserve us as our dwelling place (for at least a couple of nights here in Zion)God’s people at least at times also took refuge in tents. Tents at times throughout history served asthe home and the dwelling place for people.

- Tonight I want us to look at a passage, believe it or not, where Godtalks to his people ABOUT their tents!!!

What’s he say about their tents?

What’s significant about what he says abouttheir tents?

What, if anything does this have to do with ustoday?

Let’s consider these things, please turn with mein your Bibles to Isaiah chapter 54

Isaiah 54:1-3

“Sing, O barren one, who did not bear;

break forth into singing and cry aloud,

you who have not been in labor!

For the children of the desolate one will be more

than the children of her who is married,” says the LORD.

“Enlarge the place of your tent,

and let the curtains of your habitations be stretched out;

do not hold back; lengthen your cords

and strengthen your stakes.

For you will spread abroad to the right and to the left,

and your offspring will possess the nations

and will people the desolate cities.

(Isaiah 54:1-3 ESV)

Let’s look at 3things this passage tells God’s people to do:

1. Sing!

a. Barrenone, who have not been in labor

b. Thechildren of the desolate one will be more than the children of her who ismarried

c. Genesis 12:1-3 Promise to Abram (later Abraham) that God will make him into a great nation and that in him will all the families of the EARTH be blessed

d. Genesis 15:5 God says: your offspring will be as numerous as the stars in the sky!

e. Genesis 22:17 God says: your offspring will be as numerous as the sand on the seashore!

f. Genesis 16-17, 21 The account of Abram (Abraham) and Sarai (Sarah) having offspring. Sarai was barren, asks Abraham to take Hagar, and Ishmael is born. Eventually, Sarai (Sarah) is no longer barren and gives birth to Isaac (through whom the promise of Genesis 12, 15, and 22 will proceed).

e. Galatians 4:21-31especially Galatians 4:27 (quotes Isaiah 54!)

i. Abraham’s son Ishmael (from the slave womanHagar) represents the law/old covenant

ii. Abraham’s son Isaac (from the barren wife Sarai)represents the new covenant that is brought about through Jesus Christ and a relationship with him through faith

In Isaiah 54 the nation of Israel is depicted as a womanwho is being forsaken by God, and thus is barren, but will then berestored. Scholar Moises Silva discusses how Isaiah 54 verses 5-7refers to God being their husband, and how God has called them, and how afteronce deserting them (because of their sin), will again gather them tohimself.

2. Enlarge the place of your tent

a. Theword used here literally means a tent, dwelling place, or a home

b. Godsays here for them to

i. Lengthen your cords

ii. Strengthen your stakes

Why?

3. Spread abroad and possess the nations

What does this mean to spread abroad and possess the nations?

Is this worldwide domination, like in the board game Risk?

Is this a literal occupation?

WHAT is being referred to here when it talks about them enlarging theirtent, strengthening their stakes, and they (and their offspring) spreadingabroad and possessing the nations?

Furthermore, HOW will thishappen?

Consider the connection of the promises made to Abram/Abraham in Genesis 12,15, 17, and 22 with what is later written in the New Testament in Galatians:

Galatians 3:5-9

Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law, or by hearing with faith—just as Abraham “believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”?

Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham. And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “In you shall all the nations be blessed.” So then, those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.

(Galatians 3:5-9 ESV, emphasis mine)

Now let’s also understand Isaiah 54in the context of all of Isaiah!

- Isaiah 1-39 God’s pronouncements against thesins of people, warnings of judgment, interspersed with some hope, messages offorgiveness, but mostly warnings of judgment

- Isaiah 40:1-3 “Comfort, comfort my people” / 40:3“voice of one in the wilderness/prepare the way of the Lord”

- Isaiah 42:1-7 my servant will bring justice to thenations

- Isaiah 49:6 a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth

- Isaiah 52:7, 10 how beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes salvation, the Lord has bared his holy arm, before the eyes of ALL the nations and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God!

- Isaiah 53 (especially 53:4-6 and 53:10-12) The suffering servant = prophecy about Jesus, pierced for our transgressions / we all like sheep have gone astray, but the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on him, he bore the sin of many

- Then Isaiah 54!!! (notice all the talk about Jesus dying on a cross and forgiving sin, precedes our passage in Isaiah 54 of God telling people to enlarge their "TENTS" and possess the nations

- Isaiah 60:1-4 continues this expansion

- Isaiah 61 (Jesus reads this in Luke 4 when he begins hisministry)

So what does Isaiah54:1-3 ultimately point towards?

- It is a promise and prophecy about how God willmake a worldwide impact through his people with the gospel!

- Through faith in JESUS someone becomes an "offspring" or a "son/daughter" of Abraham!!!

- Isaiah 54 is pointing towards and talking about people coming to Christ, men and women from every tribe, tongue, people, and nation (so also Revelation 5:9-10)

THE Gospel - Jesus Christ died on a cross for our sins and rose again from the dead (1 Corinthians 15:1-6). This is the way to a relationship with God and it comes as a gift that is received by faith.

Applications:

1. Sing! (worship/praise/rejoicing)

Why?

2. You are part of the plan if you’ve received thegospel!

How?

a. Youare part of the plan as a recipient of the gospel / you become one of the "offspring" of Abraham, (like stars in the sky and sand on the seashore). You are brought into "thetent" of the people of God through faith in Christ!!!

b. Youare part of the plan as a messenger / tell people about this gospel and see ifGod uses you to bring them into his "tent."

3. So set up the tents! Enlarge them, lengthen the cords, andstrengthen the stakes!!!

How?

a. Bepraying (Colossians 4:2-6)

b. Beready to give an account of the hope in you (1 Peter 3:15)

c. Besharing the gospel

i. Romans 10/Isaiah 52 how beautiful on the mountains are the feetof him who brings good news

ii. Romans10:14

1. “Howare they to believe in him they have never heard?

2. Howare they to hear without someone preaching?

iii. Romans 10:17 Faith comes by hearing and hearingthrough the word of Christ

d. Peoplewill be impacted by the gospel, even to the ends of the earth and from all the nations!

So set up the tents, and realize you need a bigger a tent! God is impacting people with the gospel, and he can (and likely will) do so through you!!!

Prayer

2011-10-25T11:37:00.000-07:00

I'm reading (and almost finished with) an excellent book on prayer that I highly recommend called A Praying Life: Connecting with God in a Distracting World by Paul Miller.

Below are a couple of quotes I shared from this book at the end of a recent message titled Gethsemane from Mark 14:32-42.

"The gospel, God’s free gift of grace in Jesus, only works when we realize we don’t have it all together. The same is true for prayer. The very thing we are allergic to—our helplessness—is what makes prayer work. It works because we are helpless. We can’t do life on our own. Prayer mirrors the gospel. In the gospel, the Father takes us as we are because of Jesus and gives us his gift of salvation. In prayer, the Father receives us as we are because of Jesus and gives us his gift of help. We look at the inadequacy of our praying and give up, thinking something is wrong with us. God looks at the adequacy of his Son and delights in our sloppy, meandering prayers."

Miller, Paul (2009-05-15). A Praying Life: Connecting with God in a Distracting World (Kindle Locations 796-801). NavPress. Kindle Edition.

"If you know that you, like Jesus, can’t do life on your own, then prayer makes complete sense."

Miller, Paul (2009-05-15). A Praying Life: Connecting with God in a Distracting World (Kindle Locations 649-650). NavPress. Kindle Edition.

Slam the Dam 2011

2011-10-10T20:46:00.000-07:00

Last weekend on Saturday, October 1, I had the privilege of competing in one of my favorite races, the Slam the Dam event here in Las Vegas at Lake Mead. It's a thrill for me to compete locally in Las Vegas. I like swimming at Lake Mead and it's so easy for my wife and kids to be there. I have three kids (11,10, and 6), all swimming for local USA Swim Club Boulder City-Henderson Heat Wave (BCH), and it's simply fun for them (and just as much for me) to see their dad competing. Also a co-worker of mine, my office manager Vickie at Renewing Life Center, also came with her husband Roger to cheer me on. Vickie snapped this picture above.

Last year in the event's inaugural year (2010), I competed in the 2.4 mile event, and to my pleasant surprise won the event in 52:04. A video of that, with "El-Fish" (the Elvis impersonator announcing the race) along with my wife and kids screaming in surprise (almost dropping the camera in the process), can be seen here.

This year I decided to try to do what they call the Super Slam, competing in both the 2.4 mile event, and also the 1.2 mile event (starting about 1 hour after the finish of the 2.4). I had a great race in the 2.4 mile with the eventual winner Jan Tichy, and ended up finishing second to him. Jan (who is from the Czech Republic, was an All-American at Cal-Baptist, and is seeking to make the 2012 Olympic team) was a complete pleasure to meet and was a great sport. He really pushed me in the race, and I hung with him at his feet for awhile, but he simply was too strong. Speaking of strong (and I mean this with complete respect), he reminded me a little of the guy who fights Rocky in Rocky IV (tall and about 220 of solid muscle along with a great accent). Jan never said to me before the race (like the guy in Rocky IV does to Rocky), "I must break you," but once we got going in the water he pretty much did with his swimming.

My 2.4 time this year was 50:03, which is a personal best for me, and is well ahead of my previous non-wetsuit best of 52:04 at Slam the Dam last year. I am eager now to try to get under the 50 minute mark if I get the opportunity to do more races in the future. I hope to do Slam the Dam again next year, and if possible some other open water races as well.

A bit later I did the 1.2, and right before the race was privileged to meet Mallory Mead. I read about her before the race and was impressed with her numerous accomplishments in open water swimming (including the English Channel, Catalina Channel, and Manhattan Island to name a few). I also noticed she was from Indiana, and since I lived in Indiana for 8 years while at Purdue University--both as a student and campus minister--I just had to say "HEY" and mention the "Hoosier-State" connection. She was super nice (even after just finishing an 8k on a few hours of sleep) and seemed to think it was a little funny that I was shivering so vigorously in the 78 degree water (actually quite warm for open water swims) prior to the race (what can I say?! I live here in Vegas in the desert and I guess have acclimated to our 100-plus degree weather).

In the 1.2 I was in the mix at the beginning, but about 1/3 of the way through the race started getting passed by 3-4 folks (including Mallory). I rode in the wake of a few swimmers for awhile, and eventually passed at least one of them, but was just happy to get to the finish line. I was pleased with my time 25:15, particularly having done a hard-fought 2.4 just prior.

Later in the week, I was informed by the race director that I was the Super Slam champion, based on the combined times of the two races. There was a super nice write up about the race by the much respected Steve Munatones in his blog The Daily News of Open Water Swimming. I was thrilled to see my friend and occasional training partner, Bill May get some headlines for winning the 8k for the second year in a row. Bill is simply put, a phenomenal athlete, and if you ever get to see the Cirque du Soleil O! show here in Vegas, I highly recommend it.

Congrats to all the swimmers who did Slam the Dam! A special thanks to Kara Robertson and Paul Fritz, their team Swim Las Vegas, and all the volunteers for putting on this great event. So nice to have open water swimming in Las Vegas!

Yellowstone National Park / Excerpt from 1905 Journal About An Expedition into Yellowstone

2011-08-29T04:19:00.000-07:00

I recently returned from a spectacular two-week family vacation in early August. We went to the Grand Teton National Park, then on to Yellowstone National Park, and then on to Glacier National Park in northern Montana. During vacation I read a fascinating book titled The Discovery of Yellowstone Park that was written in 1905 from the journals of N.P. Langford, a member of the expedition in 1870 that went into the region now known as Yellowstone National Park.

Below is an excerpt from the book that I particularly enjoyed, and a couple photos we took of the falls when we were there:

"We are all overwhelmed with astonishment and wonder at what we have seen, and we feel that we have been near the very presence of the Almighty. General Washburn has just quoted from the psalm: "When I behold the work of Thy hands, what is man that Thou art mindful of him!"

I cannot confine myself to a bare description of the falls of the Yellowstone alone, for these two great cataracts are but one feature in a scene composed of so many of the elements of grandeur and sublimity, that I almost despair of giving to those who on our return home will listen to a recital of our adventures, the faintest conception of it. The immense cañon or gorge of rocks through which the river descends, perhaps more than the falls, is calculated to fill the observer with feelings of mingled awe and terror.

At all points where we approached the edge of the cañon the river was descending with fearful momentum through it, and the rapids and foam from the dizzy summit of the rock overhanging the lower fall, and especially from points farther down the cañon, were so terrible to behold, that none of our company could venture the experiment in any other manner than by lying prone upon the rock, to gaze into its awful depths; depths so amazing that the sound of the rapids in their course over immense boulders, and lashing in fury the base of the rocks on which we were lying, could not be heard. The stillness is horrible, and the solemn grandeur of the scene surpasses conception. You feel the absence of sound--the oppression of absolute silence. Down, down, down, you see the river attenuated to a thread. If you could only hear that gurgling river, lashing with puny strength the massive walls that imprison it and hold it in their dismal shadow, if you could but see a living thing in the depth beneath you, if a bird would but fly past you, if the wind would move any object in that awful chasm, to break for a moment the solemn silence which reigns there, it would relieve that tension of the nerves which the scene has excited, and with a grateful heart you would thank God that he had permitted you to gaze unharmed upon this majestic display of his handiwork. But as it is, the spirit of man sympathizes with the deep gloom of the scene, and the brain reels as you gaze into this profound and solemn solitude.

The place where I obtained the best and most terrible view of the cañon was a narrow projecting point situated two or three miles below the lower fall.[H] Standing there or rather lying there for greater safety, I thought how utterly impossible it would be to describe to another the sensations inspired by such a presence. As I took in this scene, I realized my own littleness, my helplessness, my dread exposure to destruction, my inability to cope with or even comprehend the mighty architecture of nature. More than all this I felt as never before my entire dependence upon that Almighty Power who had wrought these wonders."

Langford, Nathaniel Pitt. The Discovery of Yellowstone Park (p. 43-44). Public Domain Books. Kindle Edition.

Kailua, Hawaii Popoi'a Swim 2011

2011-07-01T21:27:00.000-07:00

I recently returned from visiting my wife's family in Hawaii. We were there for Lauren's mom's wedding, but while we were there I had the privilege of participating in my first ocean open water swim: The Kailua-Popoi'a Swim (a 1.6 mile race from Kailua Beach around Popoi'a or "Flat Island" and back), which was held on Father's Day June 19, 2011.

Here's a photo Lauren took of Flat Island:

Here's a video of the finish.

This was one of the roughest races I've ever done, due to the waves and currents, particularly on the back side of the island. I was pretty wiped out by the end, but pleased to get the win!

The official results are here
Some additional photos of the event are here

Sadly, a tragedy occurred during the race. Something we weren't aware of until the next day. You can read an article here about what happened to one competitor, a Kailua resident, named Dave Mackenzie. My sincere condolences to his family.

Lastly, here's a shot of our family after the race:

Have Mercy On Me!

2011-06-27T11:11:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago I shared this message at The Stream in our Mark series. Since mercy is something relevant to all of us and that we all need, I thought I'd post this:

Have Mercy on Me? Mark 10:46-52 from The Stream on Vimeo.

More On Listening

2011-05-28T05:34:00.000-07:00

This Proverb further confirms what I mentioned in yesterday's post about the importance of listening in communication and relationships:

13] If one gives an answer before he hears,
it is his folly and shame.
(Proverbs 18:13 ESV)

So often we are already formulating our answer or what we are going to say while the other person is speaking. In doing so we miss part, or even all, of what is said. The point here is simple: listen first, speak later. This sure helps the communication process.

This next Proverb is one my seminary counseling professor wrote on the board, on day 1, at the very start of the course:

[5] The purpose in a man's heart is like deep water,
but a man of understanding will draw it out.
(Proverbs 20:5 ESV)

He said that a major role in being a helper to another, a counselor, is to help that person see what is really in their heart. There are things deep in a person's heart, like water deep in a well, and a man of understanding is someone who helps to draw that out.

What's a great way to do that? Listen (empathic/reflective listening as I mentioned in yesterday's post). Let the other person talk. Ask questions. Let them talk some more.

The deep things in their heart tend to start to come to the surface. Once the person sees that or realizes that and those purposes are discovered, some evaluation and consideration of those purposes can be made.

Communication in Marriage/Relationships

2011-05-27T06:52:00.000-07:00

I do a lot of marital counseling in my ministry and this morning as I was reading in Proverbs 18 I realized for the first time that the first two verses of this Proverb make a great application to marital relationships (or to any relationship for that matter).

[18:1] Whoever isolates himself seeks his own desire;
he breaks out against all sound judgment.
[2] A fool takes no pleasure in understanding,
but only in expressing his opinion.
(Proverbs 18:1-2, ESV)

Regarding the first verse, when there's conflict in a relationship one thing that tends to happen almost by default is isolation. That isolation is not necessarily an isolation from all people (though sometimes it can be), but more typically is an isolation from the person (or persons) that someone is having a conflict with. This isolation can be a defense mechanism, a protective mechanism, an "escape" because the person is hurt, frustrated, angry, or disappointed. Or this isolation can be a means of "punishing" the other person by withdrawing and refusing to relate to the other person(s) out of anger, bitterness, or as a ploy to get the other person's attention (sometimes with the hope that they will come and "rescue" you from your pain by apologizing, making up, or doing something for you).

But here's the thing about isolation. Proverbs says that the one who does so seeks his own desire. That means this is actually a selfish response, not a loving one. A loving response would seek the other person's good as well, would seek to remedy the conflict, even initiating towards resolution rather than isolating and withdrawing. So what that means is pursuing the other person to make things right, rather than isolating from them.

God himself had every reason to turn away from us because we sinned against him. But God doesn't isolate himself from us, he initiates towards us in sending Jesus who came to die for our sins. Even after we believe, when we sin, God still convicts us of that sin, initiating towards us through his Holy Spirit to point out our faults and failures. He lovingly continually corrects us, disciplines us, and uses whatever means to continue his work in us (Philippians 1:6). God doesn't isolate, he reaches out to us, to reconcile us to him and continually help us grow in our relationship with him.

Verse 2 also says something significant here on marriage and all relationships: "A fool takes no pleasure in understanding, but only in expressing his opinion." So often in a conflict, what people tend to do is focus on their side of the argument. So it's about making their points, making the other person know how they feel, and what the other person did or didn't do that is the cause of the conflict from their perspective.

An important communication skill is something called empathic listening, or reflective listening. It's when you learn to really listen to the other person and reflect back to them the gist (not necessarily every word) of what they just said to you. What this does is it helps the other person to really feel heard and understood and to receive some empathy, or even validation, regarding what they are saying. It also provides the opportunity to prevent misunderstanding of what is said. If the one listening isn't getting it correctly, when that person says it back to the initial speaker and it's wrong, the speaker can clarify and correct the misunderstanding.

But most people don't do empathic/reflective listening in communication, especially in conflict, and I'm as guilty as anyone at failing at this at times (and I teach the stuff!). Proverbs tells us here though that "a fool takes no pleasure in understanding, but only in expressing his opinion."

Let's not be foolish, let's listen, and try to understand first, rather than just focusing on sharing our point of view. Steven Covey in his classic book Seven Habits of Highly Effective People even argues this in one of his seven habits: "Seek to understand, before being understood." That's practical wisdom, but it's wisdom that was written long ago in Proverbs 18:2.

What's so great about washing some cars?

2011-05-21T21:46:00.000-07:00

This morning some people from The Stream did an outreach/service project to our community in the form of a free car wash. We made it very clear that we were not doing this for donations. Some people still tried to tip us, but we didn't take any money. The whole purpose was to do as one of my former pastors Steve Sjogren says: "Show people God's love in a practical way, no strings attached."

After praying this morning together before we started the car wash, things started off a bit slow. It even crossed my mind for a moment, especially after some rejections to our free service, that perhaps this wasn't going to go so great. But, I sent up some more prayers, waited, kept waving our free car wash sign, and over the next couple of hours the cars pretty much kept coming.

The best part was getting to meet and chat with some people. People tended to be really friendly and appreciative of what we were doing. Some folks in our group had some great conversations. I had a few very memorable ones that could develop into new friendships. Several folks told us that they would see us tomorrow morning at The Stream. How cool is that?

A Tale of Two Houses (Proverbs 9)

2011-05-17T15:24:00.000-07:00

I'm working my way through Proverbs right now, and today in Proverbs 9 we see a contrast between two different ways, or two different houses: the way or house of wisdom and the way or house of folly.

Today I was reminded of these great verses in Proverbs 9 talking about the way or house of wisdom, and the invitation wisdom gives to us to come to "her."

Proverbs 9:1 Wisdom has built her house; ... (wisdom says:) 4 "Whoever is simple, let him turn in here!" ... 5 "Come, eat of my bread and drink of the wine I have mixed. 6 Leave your simple ways and live, and walk in the way of insight." ... 10 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight. (ESV)

Here's a link to a message I gave almost 5 years ago at The Stream from Proverbs 9.

God help us to follow in the way of wisdom, to dwell in the house of wisdom, not in the way or house of folly. May we fear the Lord, for wisdom is found in you!

Does not wisdom call? (Proverbs 8)

2011-05-16T07:42:00.000-07:00

Author Kay Lindahl writes that research indicates that: “we spend about 45% of our waking hours listening.” Though we may spend almost half of our time listening, “we are distracted, preoccupied, or forgetful about 75% of that time.” “When someone finishes speaking we remember about half of what we heard. Within a few hours we can only recall about 20%.”

If these statistics are true, this means that though we listen, we tend to struggle with actually hearing in such a way that we understand and remember what was said. We might listen, but not truly learn, or we might listen, but not truly live it out.

Long ago before listening studies took place, King Solomon recognized that listening was important. Solomon was inspired by God to tell his son; and us today in the book of Proverbs, about the importance of listening. In the book of Proverbs the commands to “hear” and to “listen” to wisdom, instruction, and teaching occur over and over again .

In Proverbs 8, the importance of listening is stressed – specifically in regards to listening to wisdom.

But why are we to listen to wisdom?
What are some good reasons?
What is so great about wisdom that makes listening to wisdom worth our effort?
How can wisdom benefit us?

Let’s read Proverbs 8 and find out.

Before we begin, let me make sure we all understand what listening means as it is used in this chapter. Listening/hearing in the entire book of Proverbs means much more than just intellectual “head” knowledge. Listening in Proverbs also brings out the implication of following through with what we hear and are taught in such a way that we are personally impacted and apply it to our lives. Listening than is not separated from living it out. When Proverbs says to listen, it also means to live it. With that said, Proverbs 8 provides

3 reasons that we should listen to wisdom:

1. We should listen to wisdom because wisdom calls out to us to receive her (8:1-5).

In the last few weeks when we were in Proverbs chapters 5-7, there was a warning about adultery. An example was specifically given of an adulteress woman who seduces young men with her words. Now in contrast to this adulteress woman, we have in chapter 8 the Godly characteristic of wisdom, being described as a woman, for the purpose of illustration, using her words and calling out to people to receive her. Now of course wisdom is not really a woman, it is a quality and characteristic of God, but wisdom is described as a woman for the purpose of illustration – and woman wisdom is a contrast to the adulteress woman.

So we were told to be on guard against the adulteress woman and now we are told in contrast that wisdom, is calling out to us, not quite seducing us, but eagerly urging us to listen to her and receive her.

Verse 1 asks the questions “Does not wisdom call out?” “Does not understanding raise her voice?” Understanding is a further descriptor of wisdom, it is synonymous to it, and the implied answer to both of these rhetorical questions is yes. Wisdom, also known as understanding, is calling out to us.

How does she call out?

For one, she raises her voice. She has a message she is proclaiming and the intention is for her to be heard. Proverbs 7 verse 11 told us that a negative quality of the adulteress woman was that she was loud, but for wisdom she is loud in a different way. Unlike the adulteress woman, wisdom is not obnoxious, inappropriate, or rude with her speech, but rather she calls out to people with eagerness and conviction to receive what she has to offer. She raises her voice so that people will come to know her and receive her.

Another way she calls out is by calling out from places where she will be heard. Look with me at verses 2-3. She goes to the heights along the way – she elevates herself to where people can see her and hear her as they travel along the busy paths. She’s like a billboard on the highway that can be seen as people travel by, and she’s like the video monitors in a stadium that can both be seen and heard.

She calls out by doing so in the public places. She is beside the gates at the entrance to the city. Where people can see her and hear her.

Verse 4 tells us she calls out to all mankind.

Why?

Wisdom invites people. She calls out to them to hear her, to respond to her, and to receive her. Verse 5 she can provide prudence to the simple. Prudence is another descriptor of wisdom and it is defined by Webster’s dictionary as “the ability to govern and discipline yourself, or skill and good judgment.” Wisdom can also give understanding to the foolish. Understanding relates to knowledge and practical living, and is synonymous with wisdom. So wisdom wants people to listen to her because she can enable people to have these qualities – she wants them to listen and become wise.

The point of the illustration here of wisdom as a woman standing and calling out to people, and doing so in the public places, is so that everyone will hear. She wants people to hear her and receive her.

This includes you and me. Verse 4 says she raises her voice to all mankind.

Wisdom wants you to know her and receive her. She wants you to listen to her and become wise.

Do you want her? Do you want what she has to offer? Will you listen to her and receive her?

Well, maybe knowing more about wisdom and who she is will help all of us be more motivated to listen to her. Who is she? In other words, what is wisdom? Let’s see some of wisdom’s qualities as she describes herself to us in verses 6-31. This brings us to the second main point in this chapter:

2. We should listen to wisdom because of wisdom’s many positive qualities and benefits (8:6-31).

What are some of wisdom’s qualities and benefits?

First of all, wisdom speaks what is right, true, and just (8:6-9). Look with me at verses 6-9. Wisdom says “Listen for I have worthy things to say;” then she states that what she speaks is right and true and just. Her words are so right that she detests wickedness, none of her words are crooked or perverse, all of them are just, and they are faultless to those who have knowledge – people with knowledge recognize their truth.

Do you want to know what is right? Do you want to know what is wrong? What choices you should make? How to go about your life? Listen to wisdom and be wise – because everything wisdom says is right, true, and just!!!

Wisdom is more valuable than riches or anything else you might desire (8:10-11). In verse 10, wisdom says that we should choose her instruction rather than silver, and knowledge rather than choice gold. And verse 11 says that wisdom is more precious than rubies. Wisdom makes a claim here that she is more valuable than costly riches, even fine gold. In fact, wisdom is so valuable that there is literally nothing else that we can desire that can compare with her.

What do you desire? Most of us wouldn’t mind a nice car, a nice house, nice clothes, or a trip to the tropics. Perhaps we desire affection from someone, or popularity and praise. Or perhaps we desire to accomplish something, to succeed in a certain way.

Think about that for a moment – like maybe you did when you were a kid and mom and dad said “make a wish before you blow out the candles” on your birthday cake – whatever a wish like that is for you now – think about that desire.

Whatever that desire is you thought of just now, it cannot compare with wisdom! There’s nothing outside of God himself and doing his will that can compare with the value of wisdom. Wisdom is better. Wisdom can offer you even more than your deepest desires.

Wisdom’s qualities and benefits are also described in verse 12:

Wisdom has prudence, knowledge, and discretion (8:12).

We mentioned above that prudence means skill and good judgment. Knowledge is what you have an understanding of, what you have learned. Discretion refers also to good judgment. Prudence, knowledge, and discretion describe wisdom – wisdom has all of these qualities and more.

Do you want to have good judgment, knowledge, and skill? Is there a specific situation or area in your life right now where you especially need to have good judgment? What is something in your life that you would like to learn more about and have more knowledge? Is there a certain area in which you want to gain more skill?

If so, listen to wisdom. Wisdom has these qualities and God tells us to listen and be wise.

Wisdom fears the Lord and hates evil (8:13)

The fear of the Lord means a reverence and awe of God in such a way that wisdom reflects and pursues God’s will and standards. What wisdom communicates here is that she fears the Lord and hates evil. Wisdom means that she loves God and everything that is good and right, and she despises all that is wrong, destructive, and harmful.

Do you love God and love what is good and just and fair? Or do you love what is in opposition to that – what is wrong and evil? Some descriptions of things that wisdom despises, things that further describe evil that is in opposition to the fear of the Lord, include things like:

- pride and arrogance: Pride and arrogance are synonymous, they basically mean thinking of yourself as much better than other people. Pride is an excessive sense of self-importance that elevates yourself above other people.

- evil behavior – which is anything contrary to the will and standards of God, and

- perverse speech – this is a mouth that speaks evil things – examples may include slandering others behind their backs, speaking of inappropriate behavior, or even saying disgusting things in an attempt to be funny.

Wisdom hates evil things like these, because wisdom loves what is good – she fears the Lord and hates evil.

Another quality and benefit of wisdom is that:

Wisdom has counsel and sound judgment, understanding and power (8:14).

When you think back on the decisions you’ve made in your life, especially some of the really big ones, you can probably remember times when you exercised good judgment and other times when maybe your judgment wasn’t so great. You can probably also remember times when you asked other people, such as your friends, or your parents for their advice, and you received some counsel on a certain situation.

The great thing about wisdom is that is can give us sound judgment and the best counsel that we can receive. This word translated as “sound” judgment – in the original Hebrew literally refers to that which profits or gives success.

Wisdom also has understanding and power. Understanding means you know about a concept or how to do something. The word for power here is a word that in the original Hebrew can be used of valor, courage, and strength, and is typically used in references to warfare.

The next time you need some counsel and advice, the next time you need to exercise sound judgment, the next time you need to know how or what to do, or you need the strength and courage for it – seek out and listen to wisdom.

Another thing about wisdom is that:

Wisdom enables kings, rulers, princes, and nobles to rule and govern. (8:15-16).

Look at verses 15 and 16. Kings rule by wisdom, rulers make just laws by wisdom, princes govern, and all nobles who rule – and the implication here is that those who do so should do so in righteousness by utilizing wisdom. Any good leader, any good king or governing official, attained their position by wisdom and will seek to continually utilize wisdom in their leadership and decisions.

Verse 17 tells us that:

Wisdom can be pursued and found (8:17).

Another great quality and benefit about wisdom is that if you seek her you’ll find her. Wisdom is not intentionally elusive, she will be found by those who sincerely seek her.
If your desire is to sincerely seek and receive wisdom, you will find it.

Where is she found? Well ultimately wisdom is a quality that comes from God and is given by God. We will talk more about this in a moment, but for now, let’s look at what the Bible tells us in James chapter 1 verse 5:

James 1:5 If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. (NIV)

So ask God for wisdom, when you need it. Listen to what God says in the Bible, listen not just for intellectual knowledge, but also for living it out. If we ask God and sincerely listen to him, we can receive wisdom and become wise.

Verse 18 tells us another quality of wisdom:

Wisdom possesses material blessing (8:18).

Wisdom has riches and honor, enduring wealth and prosperity. I’ll say more about this when we come to verse 21.

Though wisdom possesses material blessing, wisdom has something better:

Wisdom possesses and provides something better than material blessing – justice and righteousness (8:19-20).

Verses 19 and 20 actually restate the point made in verses 10 and 11. A quality and benefit of wisdom is that it yields, produces, or gives something that is even more valuable than silver and gold. But what is also mentioned here is what makes wisdom more valuable – it walks in the way of justice and righteousness. Wisdom is consistent with justice and righteousness – restating what was found in verses 6 through 8.

Another quality and benefit of wisdom is that:

Wisdom grants material blessing to those who love her (8:21).

Now this benefit leads us to ask the question: Does this mean that everyone who loves wisdom will be rich? Isn’t this promising health, wealth, and prosperity?

Well, on the one hand receiving wisdom and obtaining wisdom as we have seen, relates to fearing God, doing good and not evil, possessing knowledge, understanding, and skill – the kinds of things utilized even by kings and rulers in leading. So on the one hand those who possess these things often do have a measure of success.

On the other hand, you can have wisdom, which leads to walking or living in justice and righteousness, and not necessarily have material blessing. For example, Jesus had perfect wisdom and he was not rich in a material sense when he came here on earth and did his ministry. Paul the apostle who wrote almost half of our New Testament and is one of the greatest missionaries ever also stated that he had times of being in want and material need.

The point here in Proverbs 8 is that those who do love wisdom, and as a result receive wisdom, may also receive material blessing. This is because wisdom possesses riches, honor, wealth, and prosperity as verse 18 mentioned, and because she walks in justice and righteousness she bestows it upon those who love her.

Now remember, wisdom is not a real woman or a real person. This is all an illustration. Wisdom is an attribute or a characteristic of God. So God is actually the one who grants wisdom and grants the blessing, even the material ones that a person may receive.

And so another quality of wisdom is that:

The Lord brought forth wisdom prior to the rest of creation (8:22-29).

In verse 22, wisdom says: “the Lord brought me forth as the first of his works.” Wisdom was brought forth (literally created by God) and has been with him since the beginning, even before the world began. Wisdom was there with God before the creation of the oceans, the springs of water, the mountains, the hills, the heavens, and the foundations of the earth.

Not only was wisdom brought forth prior to the rest of creation, but also:

The Lord utilized wisdom in creation, and wisdom rejoiced in it. (8:30-31).

Verse 30 in the NIV says that wisdom was the craftsman at his side (“his” referring back to the Lord in verse 22). The Lord created wisdom and what is meant in this verse is that the Lord utilized wisdom in his creation of all. God is clearly actually the creator and the craftsman, but he utilized wisdom as the instrument. God used wisdom in the creation of the world. This is confirmed by what we saw in Proverbs 3:19:

Proverbs 3:19 By wisdom the LORD laid the earth's foundations, by understanding he set the heavens in place; (NIV)

The reality that wisdom is used by the creator is also seen in the rest of the context mentioned in verses 30-31. Wisdom is filled with delight day after day, rejoicing in his presence – whose presence? The Lord’s presence! The reference is back to the Lord in verse 22.

Wisdom rejoices in the whole world and delights in mankind. What wisdom is doing is rejoicing in God and in his creation, God is the one who receives the praise because God is the creator.

So we have seen a great number of qualities and benefits of wisdom here in verses 6-30. Wisdom is telling us about herself. It is as if she has taken out a classified ad in the paper in the singles section or written about herself in an online dating agency advertisement. She’s told us the honest truth about her.

Do you like what you hear?
Are you interested?
Will you listen?
These qualities and benefits are a very good reason to be interested in her and to listen to her.

What’s another reason? The third main reason is that:

3. We should listen to wisdom because wisdom leads to life and blessing (8:32-36).

Wisdom says to listen to her! Why?

5 additional reasons:

1. Verse 32 says if we do listen, and listening involves keeping it and living it out - we will be blessed.

2. Verse 33 says if we listen we will be wise. We aren’t to ignore wisdom, she calls out to us, listen and be wise.

Then after repeating in verse 34 that the one who listens continually to wisdom is blessed, a third reason is given in verse 35:

3. We will find life. This is referring ultimately to eternal life. The way of wisdom is the way of life and salvation. Wisdom is an attribute of God. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and so finding true wisdom means finding life.

4. This connection is also brought out as well, when it states in verse 35 that we will receive favor from the Lord. God is pleased, his favor and blessing is upon those who listen to and find wisdom.

And lastly, verse 36, if we find wisdom:

5. We will escape the deadly consequences. The necessity of finding wisdom is brought out in this final verse. There are serious and deadly consequences to failing to find wisdom, rejecting it, or hating it. That’s because rejecting the way of wisdom, is connected with rejecting God.

We must receive wisdom to escape the deadly consequences of rejecting God.

Perhaps as you’ve read these verses in Proverbs 8 and listened to this message you recognize in your heart a desire for wisdom. You want to listen to wisdom and to receive it.

Well there’s a couple of things to recognize.

1.Is that wisdom is not God, but it comes from God, and the way to ultimately receive and live by wisdom is through being in a relationship with Jesus Christ.

If you already are in a relationship with God – grow in that relationship. Continually listen to wisdom and continue to receive it from God.

If you’re not sure if you are in a relationship with God, this is what it means:

A relationship with Jesus Christ means sincerely believing that Jesus died on the cross and rose again from the dead. It means trusting in him to forgive you for all the times in your life when you have not conducted yourself so wisely. It means forgiveness for every evil thing you’ve ever done or thought.

All of us have fallen short of living perfectly in God’s way of wisdom, and so all of us need his forgiveness. Because God loves us, he sent Jesus to live the perfect life by wisdom that we could not, and to die on the cross to take the punishment we deserve for our sins. By doing this, God demonstrates his wisdom and exercises his justice and righteousness, while also showing his love, mercy, and forgiveness.

Related to this, the second thing we need to recognize is that:

2. A relationship with Jesus Christ is necessary and it comes as a gift from God that we receive through faith - a sincere and true belief in Jesus.

You can express you faith in God by telling him in prayer, even right now in your own words, that you want to turn away from living in your own way, or the world’s way, and that you want to follow in his way - this way of wisdom. You can express your faith by asking him to forgive you through what Jesus did in his life, death, and resurrection, and thanking him for his love for you.

Divorce

2011-05-15T21:23:00.000-07:00

This morning I spoke about the complex topic of divorce, which included some related matters regarding remarriage.

To watch or listen to that message you can find it at these links:

Video
Audio

What I also wanted to post here is a link to a position paper from Mars Hill Church in Seattle, WA that also has some detailed and helpful explanations on these issues.

Interesting Podcast titled Unbelievable?

2011-05-08T18:44:00.000-07:00

For some interesting theological discussions I suggest you try listening to the podcast called Unbelievable? on Premier Christian Radio. You can find it on I-tunes, but here's a link to their main page.

Easter Sunday Service This Weekend!

2011-04-21T14:05:00.001-07:00

The Gospel Coalition Conference April 12-14

2011-04-11T20:48:00.000-07:00

If you get a chance I highly recommend watching/listening to the messages from The 2011 Gospel Coalition Conference. To go to the media website where you can look at the conference schedule and watch the live broadcast of the conference, just click here!

Final Instructions

2011-01-21T07:52:00.001-08:00

I've been working my way through 1 Corinthians in my personal devotions/study time in the Bible, and I came this morning to a section in chapter 16 titled in my ESV Study Bible as Final Instructions.

The Apostle Paul concludes this first letter to the Corinthians with some closing comments. Closing comments so often tend to highlight truths that are especially intended to be remembered and applied, and Paul does exactly that here. What I found fascinating this morning is that there are five closing commands in verses 13 and 14:

1. Be watchful
2. Stand firm in the faith
3. Act like men
4. Be strong
5. Let all that you do be done in love

The obvious challenge here is to consider: How can I live these commands out?

In light of 1 Corinthians chapter 15, particularly verses 1-6 where Paul reminds the Corinthians of the gospel, these commands are to be lived out in light of God's grace. For it is in the gospel they and we need to be reminded of (v.1). It is the gospel in which we "stand" (v. 2). It is the gospel in which "we are being saved" (v.2) in the sense of it not just being applied to our justification or right standing with God, but also to our sanctification (our ongoing transformation in God). It is the gospel which is "of first importance" (v. 3).

So to start living those five commands out they need to flow from the gospel for "thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Corinthians 15:57). But this does not mean we just sit back and let God do it all. Our response, to the grace of God in the gospel is to compel us to action. That action includes seeking to live these commands out.

Here are some thoughts I have on each one, and some corresponding application questions:

1. Be watchful: This means to be alert, awake, and having a readiness. Sometimes it is used in the Bible in reference to discerning and guarding against evil. Sometimes to being ready for Christ's return. Sometimes to prayer. Sometimes to the application of God's truth to our lives.

Am I being watchful in this way?
Do I have a readiness and anticipation for the work and will of God, and Christ's return? Am I living like he is going to return and that eternity is what ultimately matters?
Am I prayerful?
Am I discerning of doctrinal error? Discerning of evil? On guard appropriately against it?

2. Stand firm in the faith: This is holding fast to God's word, trusting in and depending on God. It can be applied to not compromising when tempted, when facing trials or discouragement, or when facing criticism or persecution. It is walking by faith not by sight. It is reliance on God not the circumstances, situation, or ultimately upon yourself. Standing firm in the faith is trusting in God, when things might not make sense to you, when they are hard, or when your struggling. Standing firm in the faith is also keeping God first, and not letting even good things become ultimate things. Not letting desires, even legitimate and good desires, become dictating (or ruling) desires in your life. Standing firm in the faith is keeping Christ central, seeking him first, and turning from sin.

Am I standing firm in the faith?
Where am I lacking in faith? In what situations or ways? Where do I need to trust God, where am I presently struggling to trust him?
Am I relying on myself or Christ?
Am I letting something else other than Christ rule and reign in my life?
Are there any areas where I'm giving in, compromising, not standing firm?

3. Act like men: This might not seem to apply to ladies, but I don't think he is limiting the application of this solely to the male gender. Acting like men is a call to courage in faith, obedience, integrity, faithfulness, a call to protect, provide, and serve.

Am I acting like a man?
How am I showing courage? Obedience? Integrity?
Do I look out for others, seeking to care for, protect, serve, and provide?

4. Be strong: This isn't talking here about lifting heavy weights and grunting while you do it. What is being said here is a strength of conviction, courage, faith, obedience, reliance on God, and doing this without compromise. There is a priority and a passion for God that we are to have. We are to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength!

Am I being strong?
Where is strength lacking?
Where, or in what ways, do I need to be stronger in my life?

5. Let all that you do be done in love: This means applying 1 Corinthians 13 where love is defined for us. I find it fascinating that God's word here calls us to all these qualities of strength in the first four commands, but then also to what is an ultimate strength here of loving. Loving might seem to be simply emotional, sensitive, and kind, and not so "manly", but actually it is the most excellent way (1 Corinthians 12:31)! It is the greatest (1 Corinthians 13:13). It is demonstrated ultimately in what Christ endured and suffered for us (Romans 5:8).

Am I living out love towards God and others?
Am I a loving person?
Where am I lacking in love?
In what ways can I love more? How can I demonstrate and show love in more and more ways in my life?

This is a great little passage, may we apply it by God's grace!

Watershed

2011-01-12T12:19:00.000-08:00

This past Sunday I shared a message at The Stream related to our overall mission statement of "Transforming lives by the power of God's Spirit, love, grace, and truth." Watershed relates to our overall philosophy of ministry centered on helping people grow and be transformed in a relationship with God. For the details you can watch and listen below.

Watershed from The Stream on Vimeo.

Something I didn't get to in this message relates to what others who have written books and researched the importance of having a central ministry philosophy and process of transformation like this have said. I thought it would be helpful to include some of that here:

This from the book Simple Church, by Thom Rainer and Eric Gagne:

- Churches with a simple process for reaching and maturing people are expanding the kingdom. (p. 14)
- Church leaders who have designed a simple biblical process to make disciples are effectively advancing the movement of the gospel. (p.14)
- Vibrant and growing churches had a clear process for discipleship – they were streamlined and simple. Conversely… (p. 63)
- Struggling churches had no clear process (p. 63)
-“There is a highly significant relationship between a simple church design and the growth and vitality of a local church.” (p. 67)

This from the book The Trellis and the Vine, by Colin Marshall and Tony Payne:

Paradigm shifts needed in the church today:
- From running programs to building people
- From running events to training people
- From filling gaps to training new workers
- From solving problems to helping people make progress
- From clinging to ordained ministry to developing team leadership
- From engaging in management to engaging in ministry
- From seeking church growth to desiring gospel growth

What we are aiming to do at The Stream is to do our best to pursue helping people truly grow and be transformed by the gospel - that wonderful truth that Jesus Christ has died on the cross to pay the penalty we deserve for our sins and that he rose from the dead (see 1 Corinthians 15:1-6).

We hope that by the grace of God we can accomplish our mission.

Please pray for us at The Stream to have wisdom and for God's blessing and help in this pursuit:

"Transforming lives by the power of God's Spirit, love, grace, and truth."

Passion 2011 - John Piper Message

2011-01-05T11:54:00.000-08:00

I spent some time over the last few days watching the online webcast of Passion 2011 in Atlanta. As always I really enjoyed the worship songs coming from Passion. The new David Crowder song (unsure of title) sung at the end of session 2 was my favorite.

I wanted to post a link for this message by John Piper, which I particularly found to be very powerful.

House

2010-11-21T12:54:00.001-08:00

This morning at The Stream I spoke on a difficult passage Mark 3:20-35 that includes addressing some questions such as:

Is there a sin that God won't forgive?

What is blasphemy of the Holy Spirit?

How do I know if I have or will commit blasphemy of the Holy Spirit?

A video of the message will be up in the next few days here.

I mentioned this morning that Dr. John Piper has an excellent message on this passage, some of which was quoted in my message. To read and/or listen to Dr. Piper's message click here.

Silverman Triathlon

2010-11-10T20:41:00.000-08:00

Last weekend I participated in the Silverman Triathlon on a relay with a couple of guys from our church. We called our relay The Stream Team, and wanted to do this for the challenge of it and for fun. It was definitely both.

I led off the relay doing the 2.4 mile swim, followed by Nathan who did the 112 mile bike over mountainous terrain, and Nick did the marathon 26.2 mile run at the end. Here's a few photos and also some video footage below.

The swim start:

The final meters of the swim after going under the bridge:

The swim transition/finish:

The bike finish (Nathan):

The run finish (Nick):

Ragnar Relay

2010-10-25T15:27:00.000-07:00

Had a great time over the weekend doing something called the Ragnar Relay Las Vegas. It's a 195 mile running race that is done by a team of 12. How it works is you have 12 people and you rotate through all 12 people 3 times, with each leg you run being anywhere between 3 and 10 miles long.

Each relay team has 2 vans with 6 people in each van. One van starts, rotates through all 6 people, then has time to rest, eat, sleep, etc. while the other van does it's round. There are "exchanges" at each point where a leg begins and ends, and some exchanges had live music, food, etc. Over 400 teams participated in Las Vegas this year.

Our team started at 9:30 in the morning Friday and finished Saturday afternoon around around 2:10. Yes, it continues all night long!!! Most of us aren't serious runners, and at least one of us (me!) isn't even much of a recreational runner, but we thought it would be fun and a great challenge.

We ended up having a blast and doing quite well!!! We finished 32nd out of all those teams. Not bad at all. Several of us on our team were from The Stream and enjoyed the chance to hang out together as well as to meet other people.

I was in van number 2 and was runner #10. Compared to the others, I had a pretty moderate distance total. My legs were 3.2 miles (which happened at about 6 PM Friday), 5.0 miles (at about 2:00 in the morning Saturday), and 4.6 miles (at about 12:00 on Saturday).

The Ragnar Relay was a challenge, was extremely fun, and I'd definitely do it again. If there's a Ragnar in your area - I highly recommend it.

Here's a little video, one of our team members Nick made.

Hawaii

2010-10-18T16:13:00.000-07:00

We recently returned from a 10-day trip to Hawaii to see Lauren's mom. We had loads of fun. We did the historical sites at Pearl Harbor, the U.S.S. Arizona Memorial, the submarine the U.S.S. Bowfin, and the U.S.S. Missouri (where the Japanese surrender occurred at the end of WWII). We climbed Diamond Head, swam a lot at the beach, went kayaking, went to the zoo, ate seafood, drank guava juice, had shave ice, and enjoyed the beauty of this tropical island. What a blessing and a huge thanks to Lauren's mom for her generosity in hosting us.

Here are a few pictures below of our time.

Slam the Dam Open Water Swimming Race - Oct. 2nd

2010-10-03T17:16:00.000-07:00

Yesterday morning I did my first swimming race in over three years, an open water race at Lake Mead. It was the inaugural Slam the Dam open water swimming race, and I did the 2.4 mile swim. I had a blast training for it, swimming it yesterday in ideal conditions, and was pleasantly surprised to do really well.

I won the 2.4 race, not just in my age group, but in the overall competition. This was in part because some of the very best swimmers were doing the 8k, but I'll take the victory. I had to hold off a pretty tough high school age-group swimmer, who was right on my tail until about the 1.5 mile mark where I pulled out ahead and fortunately stayed in front coming into the finish on the video below.

They gave the top three finishers these funny Elvis glasses, sideburns and all, so we had fun getting these pictures. Elvis was even there at the race because as everyone knows he's such a regular here in Vegas! He came to do the announcing and the swimmers and spectators loved it. My favorite spectators were my family, who were apparently even more surprised that I won - you'll notice their reaction at the end of the video especially by their cheering and my wife's erratic filming at the end.

Another really cool part of winning the race is that I won a free VIP entry into the 42nd Annual Waikiki Rough Water Swim in Hawaii in 2011! Here's a link to some news about this years race, which is a big-time race that I'd love to do, so we'll see. We have a place to stay there, and a relative who works for the airlines so maybe...

Sunday Sept. 26th Message

2010-10-03T17:02:00.000-07:00

Follow Me Mark 1:16-20 from The Stream on Vimeo.

Mark: The Action-Packed Saga of Following Christ

2010-09-29T14:07:00.000-07:00

At The Stream on Sept. 19th we moved to a larger room at the Scout Center. We're thankful to have grown out of the room where we've been meeting for the last four years. One of our church members recorded the message and you can see it below (the lighting is bad, but will be better in future recorded messages). All of our messages are available at The Stream's sermons page. This message is the first in our new series in the Gospel of Mark.

Good News Mark 1:1-15 from The Stream on Vimeo.

The Supremacy of Christ in Suffering

2010-07-20T12:04:00.000-07:00

I recently listened to a message by Pastor John Piper from the reFocus Canada 2010 Conference this past April. The issue of suffering is not an easy one to go through or understand, nor is it easy to address this topic. But, I found this message extremely helpful in articulating a Biblical perspective that is centered upon the gospel itself. To listen, watch, or download this message you can find the links by clicking here.

There is also an interesting Q & A that followed the message, which you can listen to, watch, or download here.

Passions

2010-06-27T13:07:00.001-07:00

In this morning's message at The Stream we talked about the problem of pride that is produced from our passions (our selfish, sinful, desires and pleasures). If you'd like to hear the entire message it can be downloaded from our sermons page here (just click "download audio mp3" across from the message titled "Passions").

In this message I mentioned a helpful "assessment" that was written by Nancy Leigh DeMoss, to help us discern evidences of pride in our lives and I quoted several of the questions she wrote. I said I would post that entire list of 41 questions here (click for link) for your use and for further assessment.

May God give us grace and deliver us from pride!

Taming the Tongue

2010-06-15T07:47:00.000-07:00

This past Sunday I spoke on James 3:1-12, which talks about our speech and the things that we say. Though no human being can tame the tongue and not stumble in some way in what he/she says at times; God can through what Jesus Christ has done in the gospel change a person's heart, which is really the source of the evil that comes out of our mouths at times. For the full message you can listen here.

Something I recommended at the end of the message was studying God's word as a mean's of looking to God for help to train our tongue in his righteousness. Again, though we won't be perfect in what we say, we can exercise self-control, and learn to speak what is edifying and what builds others up, rather than the things that trash them or tear them down. We can learn to speak more consistently with God's will - training our tongues in righteousness.

A specific recommendation I made was to go through the book of Proverbs and gather a collection of all the verses that deal with our speech, such as verses that talk about the tongue, our mouths, our lips, and our speech, which all refer to the things we say.

Here's a sample of some of these verses from Proverbs 17 and 18 from the English Standard Version (ESV):

17:4 An evildoer listens to wicked lips, and a liar gives ear to a mischievous tongue.

17:7 Fine speech is not becoming to a fool; still less is false speech to a prince.

17:10 A rebuke goes deeper into a man of understanding than a hundred blows into a fool.

17:14 The beginning of strife is like letting out water, so quit before the quarrel breaks out.

17:27 Whoever restrains his words has knowledge, and he who has a cool spirit is a man of understanding.

17:28 Even a fool who keeps silent is considered wise; when he closes his lips, he is deemed intelligent.

18:2 A fool takes no pleasure in understanding, but only in expressing his opinion.

18:4 The words of a man's mouth are deep waters; the fountain of wisdom is a bubbling brook.

18:6 A fool's lips walk into a fight, and his mouth invites a beating.

18:7 A fool's mouth is his ruin, and his lips are a snare to his soul.

18:8 The words of a whisperer are like delicious morsels; they go down into the inner parts of the body.

18:13 If one gives an answer before he hears, it is his folly and shame.

18:19 A brother offended is more unyielding than a strong city, and quarreling is like the bars of a castle.

18:20 From the fruit of a man's mouth his stomach is satisfied; he is satisfied by the yield of his lips.

18:21 Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruits.

Interesting isn't it? In just two Proverbs, there is a great deal of verses on this topic of the tongue, our words, and our speech. Try doing this throughout the book of Proverbs, maybe picking one Proverb a day and writing down the verses on this topic. The verses that you find most beneficial or life impacting, start meditating on, or even memorizing, and pray for God's help to apply them.

Message Given at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon

2010-06-01T09:49:00.000-07:00

This past weekend several from The Stream went on a weekend camping trip to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. We had church Sunday morning at the rustic, but ever so nice, amphitheater that is used for ranger programs at night. That morning, I continued our James series that we've been doing at The Stream with the next passage in James 2:1-13. Since we didn't record the message, here's a modified outline / transcript that I used for preparation. The actual message was slightly different because it was given without notes, but the gist of it is here below:

What’s your favorite National Park?

How about your favorite campsite here at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, or your favorite hiking trail, or favorite overlook to take pictures?

We tend to have favorites… which when it comes to national parks, hiking trails, and overlooks at the Grand Canyon to take photos is not wrong. But there is a kind of favoritism that is, and this morning we come to a passage in James that addresses it.

James 2:1 My brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory. 2 For if a man wearing a gold ring and fine clothing comes into your assembly, and a poor man in shabby clothing also comes in, 3 and if you pay attention to the one who wears the fine clothing and say, “You sit here in a good place,” while you say to the poor man, “You stand over there,” or, “Sit down at my feet,” 4 have you not then made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? 5 Listen, my beloved brothers, has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom, which he has promised to those who love him? 6 But you have dishonored the poor man. Are not the rich the ones who oppress you, and the ones who drag you into court? 7 Are they not the ones who blaspheme the honorable name by which you were called?
8 If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing well. 9 But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. 10 For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it. 11 For he who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not murder.” If you do not commit adultery but do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. 12 So speak and so act as those who are to be judged under the law of liberty. 13 For judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment. (ESV)

First of all, what does partiality mean?

Partiality – means to show favoritism or preference towards one group of people over another, it basically means to be biased. In that bias you might give special preference and privileges to one person or group to the neglect or disregard of the other person of group.

James 2:1

James inspired by God as he writes, comes right out in chapter 2 verse 1, and punches us on the nose with another imperative command. Show no partiality.

But as God’s word typically does he connects the command to the gospel as a basis for NOT being biased and showing partiality. He says “as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.”

In other words, if you hold to the faith in our Lord Jesus, meaning that you are a Christian, partiality cannot be a practice of yours.

After making this general command, which governs the next 13 verses, James then gets into the specifics related to this command to not show partiality.

Let’s look at the two specific points in this passage related to this command to not show partiality:
1. We can’t show partiality by giving preference to the rich over the poor (2:2-7).

James 2:2-7
- “IF” in verses -3– hypothetical situation
- Comes into your assembly
o likely the gathering of worship
o first time guests or relatively new attendees come in
- How they are dressed
o gold ring and fine clothing
o poor man with shabby clothing
- How you respond to them
o You pay attention to the one in the fine clothing
 Here’s a place for you to sit in this good place
o You say to the poor man
 Stand over there – likely in the back or to the side, b/c if standing they would block those who are seated
 Sit down at my feet – position of the servant
o You become judges with evil thoughts
 You become judges in the sense that you measure value and significance from a worldly standpoint, of how much money the person has, and how they dress, rather than from a Godly perspective – this is evil.
- What is God’s perspective?
o First of all God’s perspective is that all people are created in the image of God
o But second, and what is mentioned here is, look with me at verse 5:
o Has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom, which he has promised to those who love him?
o God has a heart for people who are poor, does that mean he saves all of them just on the basis of their material and financial poverty? No, the poor here in this context does have a material/financial meaning to it, but it also has a meaning of poverty of spirit as in the Sermon on the Mount when Jesus says “Blessed are the poor in Spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
o The point is this, people who are materially and financially poor, have often been brought by God to be at that place of humility and a recognition of their spiritual desperation and sins that they become followers of Jesus. A reality being stressed here is that often God chooses poor people to be his children, and then makes them rich in faith. Again he’s not saying all poor people are saved, and rich people are not, he’s simply saying these poor folks whom you are showing partiality to, are actually chosen and beloved of God, he’s made them rich in faith, and look what he says next in verses 6
- But you have dishonored the poor man v. 6
- They were actually doing this in their assembly, the hypothetical situation described in verses 2-4, is not far from what was actually happening when they would gather for worship
- James then turns to describing what many of the rich in their day were doing to make an argument from a practical standpoint that it doesn’t make sense that you would favor the rich
o Are not the rich the ones who oppress you, and the ones who drag you into court?
o Are they not the ones who blaspheme the honorable name by which you were called?
 They (rich unbelievers) blaspheme the name of Christ

How do you treat people in the assembly of believers, during the worship service?

- Maybe they don’t look like you, or dress like you
- Maybe they aren’t as educated as you
- Maybe they don’t have much financially or materially
- Or let’s apply this more broadly, towards how we might treat people who think differently than us or have different perspectives
- Maybe they have different political convictions than you
- Maybe they have different personal convictions about how they live, how they spend their free time, or what they do with their kids
- Will you demand outward conformity to your personal convictions before relating to them and loving them?

Are you going to place yourself on the judgment seat and make judgments about them?

What’s your attitude? Do you arrogantly consider yourself and your ways so much better?

Are you going to treat them with partiality?

James tells us here that this is not an option. When people come into the assembly we must not treat them with partiality.

But as we go further in this text, there’s another reason we should not show partiality, and as we will see this command to not show partiality is NOT just limited to the church and the church service.

So the second point here related to this command to not show partiality is:
2. We can’t show partiality because doing so is contrary to the law of love (2:8-13).

First of all let’s talk about the law. If you go back in the near context, just a matter of verses prior to this section, we see in chapter 1 verse 25 mention of the perfect law, the law of liberty, and now here in verse 8 it talks about the royal law.

James 2:8-13

Look with me at verse 8 it says “If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing well.

The royal law, literally means, “law belonging to the king” and what is meant by this is the same thing as chapter 1:25 when it mentions the perfect law and the law of liberty. What this refers to is the OT law, now understood and interpreted, and ultimately fulfilled through Jesus Christ.

Jesus had stated in his ministry, as articulated in Matthew 22:37-40 that the first and greatest commandment is to love the Lord your God, with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and the second is like it to love your neighbor as yourself. Jesus says that on these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets.

This second commandment is mentioned here in James 2:8 to love your neighbor as yourself, and this commandment now interpreted through Christ and his fulfillment of the law, is expanded in its application.

Let’s look at the OT love your neighbor as yourself command. Turn with me to Leviticus 19:15-18.

Leviticus 19:15 …You shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great, but in righteousness shall you judge your neighbor. 16 You shall not go around as a slanderer among your people, and you shall not stand up against the life1 of your neighbor: I am the Lord. 17 “You shall not hate your brother in your heart, but you shall reason frankly with your neighbor, lest you incur sin because of him. 18 You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord. (ESV)

Notice the parallels with in this passage with our passage here.

But this OT love your neighbor commandment was applied, perhaps wrongly, as just to relating to another Israelite. But Jesus takes this commandment, as he does with several others, and expands it to include everyone, not just their application and reduction of the command to Israelites.
- So for example in the parable of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10, addressing the question who is my neighbor, Jesus makes it clear that the neighbor was the Samaritan man who helped the man in need. So the love commandment of loving your neighbor applies to foreigners as well.
- Or how about the example to love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you as Jesus stated in the Sermon on the Mount?

As we come to James 2 verse 9 what James makes clear is that if you partiality, you are committing sin, and are convicted by the law as transgressors.

It’s not OK to show partiality, that’s a violation of loving your neighbor as yourself.

He expands the seriousness of this issue by making the point in verses 10 and following that the law, again referring to the OT law as now interpreted, understood, and fulfilled in Christ, is a whole.

You can’t just pick and choose from it like you can from a Las Vegas buffet line. If you fail in one point, you are accountable to all of it.

Just because someone doesn’t commit adultery, doesn’t mean that it’s ok for them to murder. They are a transgressor of the law. In the same way, it’s not ok for a Christian to show partiality.

So speak and so act, (present tense imperatives) meaning continually, as those who will stand before God someday and be judged by this law of liberty, which remember refers to the OT law as understood and fulfilled through Jesus Christ.

We will all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. Though there is not condemnation for the Christian we will still give an account (2 Cor. 5:9-10).

What is particularly crucial is what is said in verse 13: “For judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy.”

What does this mean?

Douglas Moo in his commentary on James writes that it is as if James is stating the opposite reality of the beatitude Jesus gave in Matthew 5. “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.” It’s as if James is saying, cursed are those who don’t show mercy, for they won’t receive mercy.

But what does it mean in verse 13 that judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy?

Well what it means is that if a person doesn’t show mercy, and is a violator of the law of love, the second commandment, the reality is that such a person likely isn’t someone who actually has received the grace of God through faith in Jesus.

Such a person’s faith isn’t a faith that functions, it’s not a faith that works, it’s a faith that’s dead, which fits the context that follows.

This entire letter has been addressing how we know that a person’s faith really does work, that it’s really there.

We saw in chapter 1 that trials test that and if the person perseveres and is steadfast under trial it shows that the person’s faith is really there. A person asking in faith without doubting shows that their faith is really there. A person who has been brought forth by the word of truth and received the implanted word has a faith that is really there. A person who is quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger, has a faith that is really there. A person who is not just a hearer of the word, but a doer has a faith that is really there. A person who bridles his tongue, cares for those in affliction such as orphans and widows, and keeps oneself unstained by the world, has a faith that is really there.

Now James is saying, similarly a person with a real faith, a faith that is really there, has a faith that works, a faith that functions, in that it doesn’t show partiality, but instead loves one’s neighbor by showing mercy.

In this way mercy triumphs over judgment. What that means is that the mercy we show, shows that we indeed will stand in the judgment, because it shows the reality of our faith!

Do you love your neighbor as yourself?

Do you show mercy?

Do you realize that we will stand before God and be judged?

The great reality is that if we have received mercy from God through what he has done in Christ, this law really is a law of liberty. We really can be freed from our failures to live this out. Forgiven for when we’ve transgressed the law. But if we have really received that grace and mercy from God through what Jesus has done, we will have a transformed life into becoming more and more a person who loves our neighbor and who shows mercy to others, rather than partiality.

Divine election and God's desire for all to be saved

2010-05-27T07:01:00.000-07:00

This morning I reviewed an article by Dr. John Piper that I may have posted here before. Since I haven't blogged in quite some time, I thought I'd post the link for this lengthy, but very helpful article on the topic of divine election and God's desire for all to be saved.

Are the two in contradiction? As you will see, they are not.

Josiah - 2 Chronicles 34

2010-04-16T10:39:00.001-07:00

Because your heart was tender and you humbled yourself before God when you heard his words against this place and its inhabitants, and you have humbled yourself before me and have torn your clothes and wept before me, I also have heard you, declares the LORD.
- 2 Chronicles 34:27 (ESV)

King Josiah makes reforms in the land, seeks God, and then in repairing the temple a book of the law is found, likely including Deuteronomy chapters 27-30 with the blessings and the curses. When Josiah hears the words in the book of the law he tears his clothes (an act of grieving over sin and repentance), recognizing the great wrath of God against them because their fathers have not kept the word of the Lord.

Interestingly the wrath is against them primarily, it seems, because of the sins of the people, particularly the previous generations, for Josiah was making reforms such as tearing down the altars of the Baals, the Asherim, and the other idols. Josiah is humble, repentant, not just for his own sin, but for the sins of his people and their forefathers.

The central application in this passage is the humility and repentance of Josiah. Humility and repentance are to be central to our prayer lives. When we pray, our prayers need to come with a heart of dependence upon God and with willingness, even eagerness, to turn from sin towards God and his will.

Josiah does this, and the Lord hears and responds.

Watershed

2010-04-09T12:49:00.000-07:00

This Sunday at 10 AM at The Stream, during our worship service, we are launching a new program called Watershed. It is going to be a relationally-driven opportunity for people to grow in their faith, learn more about God and His word, and to be transformed. People will be provided with a series of studies and handouts that they will do on their own time, and then they will meet occasionally with a Stream Guide, who can assist them in the process, talk with them about the studies, help with questions they have, and in general be there as an encourager during the process. There's much more to it, come here more and join us in the journey, this Sunday, 10 AM, at the Scouting Center (7220 S. Paradise Rd., Las Vegas, 89119).

Don't Promote a Self-Made Religion

2010-04-06T15:46:00.000-07:00

This weekend for our Easter Sunday Service, I spoke on the Resurrection (no surprise here) from Colossians 3:1-17. The message can be heard here.

Something I didn't mention, but could have is the significance of the passage just before Colossians 3, which is:

Colossians 2:16 Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath.
20 If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations— 21 “Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch” 22 (referring to things that all perish as they are used)—according to human precepts and teachings? 23 These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh. (ESV)

False teachers had been telling people in the Colossian church that they needed to follow certain rules and regulations, which the Apostle Paul says have the appearance of wisdom, but is merely a self-made religion. So Paul, inspired by God, writes in Colossians 3 that they are already raised up with Christ and joined with him. They've died with Christ, in having their sins forgiven, and died to attempting to attain righteousness through man made regulations.

Here's my point: We have to trust in Jesus Christ and what he has done on the cross, in our place, for our sins to be what saves us. It is through Jesus' life, death on the cross, and resurrection alone that makes us righteous. We need to submit to him, not to man-made rules not found in the Bible.

Here's some helpful things from Mark Driscoll (from the Resurgence Blog) warning us further about legalism, and how to spot it.

Parents, You've Got to Read This...

2010-03-21T19:57:00.001-07:00

I just started this book Gospel-Powered Parenting this afternoon, and already I think it's the best book on parenting that I've read. If you're a parent, you've got to read this!

Don't Take to Heart All the Things People Say

2010-02-22T06:30:00.000-08:00

Ecclesiastes 7:19 Wisdom gives strength to the wise man more than ten rulers who are in a city. 20 Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins.
21 Do not take to heart all the things that people say, lest you hear your servant cursing you. 22 Your heart knows that many times you yourself have cursed others. (ESV)

This morning I read this passage above in Ecclesiastes and it reminded me of a helpful reality - sometimes we simply need to not be so sensitive to what people say. Wisdom, which gives strength to us as verse 19 says, when appropriately applied, sometimes simply doesn't take the comments people say so seriously. It's not that we don't consider the things people say at all. It's not that we should continually overlook everything people say and let people constantly walk over us like a doormat. It's just that we don't need to take things so personally.

Why?

Verse 20 tells us that there's not anyone who continually does what is right and who never sins. That includes you and me.

Look also what follows in verse 22, "your heart knows that many times you yourself have cursed others." Every one of us have said some nasty things, things we perhaps didn't mean, and things we hope people don't really take to heart.

So let's not take everything people say to heart, it may not be what they really mean, and even if it is, it doesn't mean it's true. It may be an unjust charge.

For more on dealing with and responding to unjust charges and unfair things people may say to us consider listening to this message that I shared yesterday morning at The Stream from Acts 25 titled Charges, which can be heard here

Theodore Roosevelt - Feb. 13th, 1880

2010-02-14T13:29:00.000-08:00

One hundred and thirty years ago, Theodore Roosevelt made this entry in his diary commenting on his affections for the woman he would eventually marry - Alice Lee. I thought it would be an appropriate thought for Valentine's Day:

"Feb 13... I do not think ever a man loved a woman more than I love her; for a year and a quarter now I have never (even when hunting) gone to sleep or waked up without thinking of her; and I doubt if an hour has passed that I have not thought of her. And now I can scarcely realize that I can hold her in my arms and kiss her and caress her and love her as much as I choose." (quoted in David McCollough's Mornings on Horseback, p. 224.)

Disciple-making

2010-01-27T11:12:00.000-08:00

This morning I started reading an excellent new book titled The Trellis and the Vine: The Ministry Mind-Shift That Changes Everything by Colin Marshall and Tony Payne. In the first chapter, I came across this refreshing quote about the Great Commission Jesus gave in Matthew 28:18-20:

"It’s a commission that makes disciple-making the normal agenda and priority of every church and every Christian disciple." (Marshall and Payne, The Trellis and the Vine, p. 13)

I am under the conviction that disciple-making is the process of helping other believers grow in their relationship with God, to mature in Christ, and to continually be transformed as God wills and works in them for his good pleasure (Philippians 2:12-13). This involves a production of godly character such as the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5), confessing and turning from sin (1 John 1:8-10,2:1-2), and becoming equipped with ministry skills that lead to actually doing ministry in some way (Ephesians 4:11-13).

I have had this conviction for years, it's reflected in the mission statement at The Stream (Transforming lives...),yet I acknowledge that I can do much better in keeping this conviction before me and applying this conviction more and more effectively in my actual practice of ministry. So it was refreshing and challenging to be reminded of this priority this morning!

What's the Bible Say about Lying?

2010-01-19T13:13:00.000-08:00

Recently I was motivated to do a search in the Bible about lying and dishonesty. I found that the Bible speaks quite a bit about lying, liars, and dishonesty. Here are some things I found then and now, which honestly show us just how serious this matter truly is:

1) First of all God is a God of truth who does not lie.

Numbers 23:19 "God is not a man, that He should lie, Nor a son of man, that He should repent; Has He said, and will He not do it? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good? (NASB)

2. What God says is true and his word is true.

Proverbs 30:5 Every word of God proves true; he is a shield to those who take refuge in him. (ESV)

3. God doesn't approve of lying, in fact he hates it.

Proverbs 6:16 There are six things which the LORD hates, Yes, seven which are an abomination to Him: 17 Haughty eyes, a lying tongue, And hands that shed innocent blood, 18 A heart that devises wicked plans, Feet that run rapidly to evil, 19 A false witness who utters lies, And one who spreads strife among brothers. (NASB)

Proverbs 12:22 Lying lips are an abomination to the LORD, But those who deal faithfully are His delight. (NASB)

4. There are serious consequences for people who practice lying (they do it as a pattern of their lifestyle) and they are unrepentant about it. They don't turn to Jesus for forgiveness of their sins, and they continue a lifestyle of lying.

Revelation 21:8 "But for the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and immoral persons and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death." (NASB)

Revelation 21:27 and nothing unclean, and no one who practices abomination and lying, shall ever come into it, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb's book of life.(NASB)

Revelation 22:15 Outside are the dogs and the sorcerers and the immoral persons and the murderers and the idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices lying. (NASB)

As you can see this is pretty serious stuff. The reality is that no one has ever been perfectly honest, except for God himself. Jesus lived the life of perfect honesty that we could not, and a life of perfect righteousness in every way that we could not. Then he became the sacrifice for us for our lying and for our sin when he died on a cross and the penalty for sins (like lying) was poured out on him. Then on the third day he rose from the dead.

Through Jesus Christ we can be made clean from all of our sins. This forgiveness calls us out of lies and into truth, and it forms and shapes us into being people of integrity and honesty. Through God, through Jesus Christ, thankfully there is forgiveness for lying, but there is also a call and a command to live in and to speak the truth.

Elders: Messages from 1 Timothy

2010-01-10T13:08:00.000-08:00

This morning from our series at The Stream in Acts where Paul says farewell to the Ephesian elders, I mentioned I would post a message I did a few years ago about the qualifications for elders from 1 Timothy 3. This message about the qualifications and calling of an elder can be heard by clicking here. Another message from the 1 Timothy series that also addresses elders from 1 Timothy 5 can be heard here.

Unfaithfulness of a Manager vs. Faithfulness to God

2010-01-09T08:08:00.000-08:00

Luke 16:1 Now He was also saying to the disciples, "There was a rich man who had a manager, and this manager was reported to him as squandering his possessions. 2 "And he called him and said to him, 'What is this I hear about you? Give an accounting of your management, for you can no longer be manager.' 3 "The manager said to himself, 'What shall I do, since my master is taking the management away from me? I am not strong enough to dig; I am ashamed to beg. 4 'I know what I shall do, so that when I am removed from the management people will welcome me into their homes.' 5 "And he summoned each one of his master's debtors, and he began saying to the first, 'How much do you owe my master?' 6 "And he said, 'A hundred measures of oil.' And he said to him, 'Take your bill, and sit down quickly and write fifty.' 7 "Then he said to another, 'And how much do you owe?' And he said, 'A hundred measures of wheat.' He said to him, 'Take your bill, and write eighty.' 8 "And his master praised the unrighteous manager because he had acted shrewdly; for the sons of this age are more shrewd in relation to their own kind than the sons of light. 9 "And I say to you, make friends for yourselves by means of the wealth of unrighteousness, so that when it fails, they will receive you into the eternal dwellings. 10 "He who is faithful in a very little thing is faithful also in much; and he who is unrighteous in a very little thing is unrighteous also in much. 11 "Therefore if you have not been faithful in the use of unrighteous wealth, who will entrust the true riches to you? 12 "And if you have not been faithful in the use of that which is another's, who will give you that which is your own? 13 "No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth." (NASB)

Jesus begins the story saying: “There was a rich man who had a manager, and this manager was reported to him as squandering his possessions.” Notice right away that this rich man seems to have a good reason to assume that this was true. He does not question or challenge the report he has heard about his manager, and when he actually goes to the manager and asks for an accounting of the management, he ends up telling the manager that he can no longer be a manager. Furthermore, we don’t see the manager responding to the accusations, he doesn’t deny them or defend himself. The manager in this parable is guilty, his master knows it, he knows it, and others in his community may also start to come to know it – making it harder for him to make a living in his current profession.

So this manager considers to himself in verse 3 what he is going to do now. He knows that the management he has had is being taken away from him. He considers that manual labor such as digging is not a good fit for him, and he doesn’t want to beg. There seems to be an implied realization that he is going to have a hard time finding a job to support himself. Nonetheless he is contemplating and considering his future. He wants to prepare for it.

So, in verse 4 this manager decides what he will do. The intent of what he is going to do serves the purpose of winning favor with people so that they will welcome him into their homes. Without his job, he’s out on the streets!!! So he is hoping that people will care for him in some way, hopefully providing him with another job, perhaps even as a steward or manager of their homes. What this manager is doing is to consider and plan for his future.

So, he proceeds by summoning his master’s debtors. Two debtors are described in the next few verses. He asks the first “how much do you owe my master?” The debtor replies “100 measures of oil.” So he says to him “take your bill, and sit down quickly, and write 50.” He just cut this guy’s debt in half!!!

Imagine, perhaps even dream for a moment, that your mortgage company gives you a call tomorrow morning and says “Hello Mr. or Mrs. So-and-So we’ve decided to cut your mortgage in half at no expense to you whatsoever! Well, after you get over that this sounds too good to be true, or wonder whether or not this is some kind of sales pitch, let’s say you come to terms that this is real, you would be thrilled!!! Your monthly payment goes way down, you’ll be paying less interest, and you’ll be able to pay off the home more quickly. My guess is that you would think very highly of your very generous mortgage lender and that you might even recommend that company to a few friends. The generosity of that mortgage company just might make you a very good friend, and it would probably lead to a few more friends for them.

Now the second debtor is described next in verse 7. Again we see how the manager relieves this debtor’s burden also. He asks the second debtor “how much do you owe?” This guy says: “a hundred measures of wheat.” So the manager says to him “take your bill, and write eighty. Well not bad, doesn’t seem like quite as much as the first guy, but that’s still a 20% cut.

Wouldn’t you be pleased with a 20% cut on your mortgage, or perhaps a car payment, or school loans if you have them? The issue though here isn’t really the exact amount of the cut of the debt, the issue is the fact that this manager did indeed act to relieve the person’s debt. He did this so that the people he relieved the debt from would view him favorably and hopefully welcome him into their homes – providing for him and/or providing him with another job. He is considering and thinking about his future.

Well when we come to verse 8, we come to a part of this parable that has led to a great deal of confusion. What happens? Well, the master PRAISES the unrighteous manager for what he did. The question is, WHY? Why did this master in the parable praise this manager for apparently cheating him out of commodities that were due to him from those who were in debt to him? Why does he affirm this manager for what he does, especially when WHAT he does seems to impact his own interests?

Well, this does seem confusing, and this confusion is accentuated if we consider the master of the parable referring to God. Though the master is sometimes referring to God in the parables Jesus gives, there is no indication in this parable that the master referred to is Jesus or God. So, some of the confusion is cleared up if the master is not God, rather just a person in the story, then God is NOT condoning anything unethical. Doing something unethical would be inconsistent with God’s character. A second issue is whether or not the manager is actually doing anything unethical when he reduces the debts. Is he really acting in an unrighteous way, or an unethical way, by cutting the debts? If he IS acting in an unrighteous or unethical way, it is very difficult to understand why the master would praise the manager if he had squandered his possessions AND cheated him out of what the debtors truly owed him.

So what was the manager doing, and why the praise from the master? It seems most likely that the manager was actually cutting either his own commission from what was owed, or that he had immensely overcharged above the fair market value for his own benefit. It is possible related to this overcharging that he had illegally charged interest with the debt. If any of these situations ARE true, then the master would still get what was owed to him. The master would get the value of what was his due – it would be the manager who would not get his commission and /or what he had overcharged or illegally charged in interest. So the master is able to praise the manager because he still gets what he is owed, but he also sees how the manager’s shrewdness through the use of money to plan for his future and to bring about friends from his use of the money.

So what’s the primary point of the parable?

The second part of verse 8 begins to tell us. Jesus comments here that “the sons of this age are more shrewd in relation to their own kind, than the sons of light.” By “sons of this age” Jesus seems to be referring to people who are not followers of Jesus, and by “sons of light” he is referring to those who ARE followers of him.

The sons of this age act shrewdly in the sense of how they may use money in a way to prepare for their future. In the parable, the manager considered his future and planned for it, and he used money in such a way to plan for his future. The way he used money here was by cutting the debts, which as we have seen likely meant his portion of the debt whether justifiably his portion or not. The sons of light, meaning the followers of Jesus, should just as well in a sense be shrewd, and consider and prepare for their future as well. Sons of light are not to do this in an UNRIGHTEOUS way, but sons of light CAN use money in ways that honor God to prepare for their future as well. The way that sons of light are to use money is by being generous with it, and by not loving it and living for it as we will see in a moment. The point is that sons of light, the followers of Jesus, are to be faithful with what has been given to them. By being faithful with what God gives them they are preparing for their future – they are reflecting the reality of the blessings God will give to them. Followers of Jesus are to be faithful to God and to his will in such a way that considers their future reward of an eternal dwelling. A follower of Jesus needs to consider his or her future, and in light of that future live their lives in faithfulness to God.

So, we can express the primary point in this way:

Followers of Jesus are to live in faithfulness to God in a way that considers their future.

Let’s look at verses 9-13 where we see Jesus explain 5 principles that we learn from this parable:

The first one is that…
1. We should be generous with our money and possessions (16:9).

When Jesus tells us to make friends by means of the wealth of the unrighteous, he is referring to being generous with it. Apparently this is what the manager did that resulted in praise from his master. Being generous means sharing and giving to others, not hoarding money and possessions selfishly, and using what we have in ways that honor God.

The second principle, also found in verse 9, is that
2. Wealth and possessions do not last (16:9).

Verse 9 says that wealth fails. Most of us have probably experienced this reality at least at some point in our lives. Things get tight and financial troubles come. Even business people, musicians, or athletes who have become millionaires have faced times of significant financial troubles – sometimes as you may know even very seriously in a way that led to bankruptcy.

But regardless of the degree to which we may experience wealth failing in this life, it will ultimately fail in the sense that it won’t last in the life to come. Jesus made this clear in Luke 12 verses 15-21 where he warned us about greed. Wealth and possessions do not last into eternity.

When Jesus refers to the wealth of unrighteousness in this verse he seems to be implying how wealth can so easily lead to worldly desires, to focusing on ourselves, and to overly focusing on the cares and concerns of this life, rather than God.

Recognizing that wealth fails and being generous with what we have can help us avoid falling into this trap.

The third principle also found in verse 9 is that…
3. God rewards us for generosity (16:9).

In verse 9 a play on words from the parable is used in the phrase making friends and them receiving you into the eternal dwellings to make the point that God rewards us for generosity. Rather than treasure on earth, generosity leads to treasures in heaven. God ultimately rewards faithfulness and true faithfulness demonstrates the reality that one is a follower of Jesus. Faithfulness shows forth the reality that God has blessed someone with the promise of salvation and entrance into the eternal dwellings.

The fourth principle is…
4. A “little” faithfulness leads to greater faithfulness, and a “little” unrighteousness leads to greater unrighteousness (16:10-12).

This principle is expressed in verse 10 – he who is faithful in a very little thing is faithful also in much; and he who is unrighteous in a very little thing is unrighteous also in much.

Faithfulness in the small things leads to faithfulness in the bigger things.

Don’t you love the true stories about how someone comes into a company and starts with one of the most basic or even menial jobs, but then the employee gradually step by step works his/her way up the company to becoming a CEO. The one who does a good job and is a loyal employee keeps getting promoted because of the employee’s faithfulness.

The principle of little to greater also applies though in the area of unrighteousness and we need to beware of this reality. We cannot think that its ok to be unrighteous in what may seem like just a “little thing” to us. We can’t act like its just “NO big deal” to do something wrong because it seems like a little thing to us. The reason being is because doing anything wrong is just that – it’s wrong. Another reason we need to watch out for this is because it’s also a very very very slippery slope.

A few years ago when I was living in TN I went backpacking with a few guys from church in the Smoky Mountains. Near where we were camping there was a stream going down the mountain and there was a part where the water came down a smooth slope about 100 feet in length and plunged into a pool of water below. We were hot from hiking and decided to give this little natural water slide a try. So I sat in the stream at the top of this slope and I had to give myself a little push to get going, but once I got a little momentum, I slid – no flew almost uncontrollably down that slope of the mountain into the water below. All it took was a decision to get started, a little start, and down I went.

If we start to do something wrong that seems small at first and then we try to justify it, but we know it’s really wrong – it’s easy to start rationalizing and doing wrong on more and more things. We start to do wrong not just on what seems like a little thing, but also on seemingly greater matters and issues. The little thing can lead to sliding right down, even quickly, perhaps even out of control, it can lead to a big slide – but this kind of slide is one that won’t be fun.

The really sad thing that can even happen is that rationalization can become so imbedded that things that really ARE wrong are no longer even considered wrong anymore. Compromise in what seems like a small way – leads to compromising in larger ways.

So we must be faithful – even in the “little” things.

Faithfulness applies to all things, and Jesus includes money and possessions in the application in v. 11. He also applies faithfulness to anything that we have been entrusted with by another.

A follower of Jesus is entrusted with the gift of salvation – the promise of an eternal dwelling, the forgiveness of sins, and the knowledge of God – and in light of that future reality the follower is to be faithful in all things.

The fifth principle is…
5. We must love and live for God not money (16:13).

Verse 13 here sounds very similar to what Jesus said about following him in Luke 14:33. God must be first. We can’t be divided. Wealth – our money and possessions are one of the most tempting things that can draw our hearts away from God. It competes in our minds and our hearts for the focus of our time, our concerns, and our priorities. So often it takes precedent and becomes a priority. Or to put it another way, as Jesus said in the parable of the sower, the concerns and cares of this life, which likely includes money and possessions, choke up the seed as it grows and makes it unfruitful.

According to verse 13 here the reality is that we will either love and live for money and possessions, or we will love and live for God. We can’t do both.

They are like two masters – imagine two bosses, two different teachers, or two different coaches – they have completely different methodologies and approaches, completely different philosophies and goals, completely different purposes and heading in different directions. You can’t serve them both – otherwise you’ll hate one and love the other or be devoted to one and despise the other.

We must love and live for God, not money.

Now keep in mind that this very passage has already stated using wealth in certain ways such as being generous, being faithful, being a good steward. There are numerous passages applicable to money in the Bible – the Bible talks about investing, saving, not going into debt, supporting one’s family, being aware of what you have, and contributing financially to the work of God. WE aren’t to ignore money altogether – we just aren’t to love it and live for it. We are to be faithful with it.

Faithfulness to God starts with and continues with having a relationship with Jesus Christ. He died on a cross for people's unfaithfulness (their sins), and he rose again from the dead to give new life, which leads to a changed life of faithfulness to God. The gospel that Christ died for sins and rose again from the dead is the foundation of faithfulness and of following Jesus.

Idols

2010-01-07T08:41:00.000-08:00

Psalm 135:15 The idols of the nations are silver and gold, the work of human hands. 16 They have mouths, but do not speak; they have eyes, but do not see; 17 they have ears, but do not hear, nor is there any breath in their mouths. 18 Those who make them become like them, so do all who trust in them! (ESV)

In this Psalm quoted above the futility of idols that the nations worship is expressed. The idols that the people worship can't really do anything themselves (speak, see, hear, or breathe), so how can they possibly do anything to help people?

Though we may not make little idol statues today, the reality is that everyone worships something. Dr. Tim Keller writes that an idol is "anything, even a good thing, that becomes an ultimate thing." (Keller, Talking About Idolatry in a Postmodern Age). We have all kinds of God-substitutes that we look to for security, peace, fulfillment, and even significance. Things that really cannot do what only God can for us.

Examples? For some people it's a relationship (girlfriend, boyfriend, spouse, kids, parents), for others it's their job or career, for others it's success, for others it's popularity and praise from people, for others it's money...get the idea?

Sadly, as this Psalm states, those who make these idols become like them. The same could be said of those who look to idols rather than to God. How do they become like their idols? Not seeing, not hearing, not breathing even... a spiritual blindness and deadness sets in because worship is misdirected from God to something or someone else. Jesus said elsewhere that where your treasure is, there your heart will be also (Matthew 6:21, ESV).

What are you prone to put before God? Idols can't really help you or satisfy you. Only the one true, living God is worthy of our worship. So let's seek him first (Matthew 6:33).

For more on this topic let me recommend 3 things:

1. Read Tim Keller's recent and excellent book Counterfeit Gods: The Empty Promises of Money, Sex, and Power and the Only Hope That Matters.

2. Listen to my message from Acts 17 on Idols by clicking here .

3. Listen to my follow-up message from Acts 19 that also addresses these issues by clicking here.

Boasting

2010-01-06T06:47:00.000-08:00

Galatians 6:14 “Far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (ESV)

The Apostle Paul says he boasts in the cross of our Lord Jesus, rather than in what he (Paul) does. The emphasis is on Christ’s substitutionary atonement for our sins, whereby Jesus takes the place and the punishment for us that we deserve for our sins. You had nothing to do with that happening. You didn’t earn it or deserve it, God gave it as a gift, and he accomplished it for you. So there’s nothing to boast in.

A few additional scriptures here are helpful. First, there is the classic passage Ephesians 2:8-9: “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.” (ESV)

There’s also 1 Corinthians 4:7: “…What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it?” (ESV)

It’s not what you do or have done that gives you a right relationship with God, so there’s no place for boasting in anyone but God. If you want to boast, boast on God, and what he’s done.

Sure, you can rejoice in things you know God has done, sharing reports with people of things you prayed about and saw God do as a result. You can and should rejoice, give thanks, and boast in anything God does when you recognize that it’s ultimately God who has done it!!! This is not wrong. Paul himself rejoiced in the people he ministered to and how they were doing, but he emphasized that how they were doing was an evidence ultimately of God’s work in them.

So when Paul provides a powerful example and testimony of boasting in nothing except the cross, he is especially referring to how a person becomes a Christian. This whole letter to Galatians is primarily about just that – how someone becomes justified before God. It’s Jesus, his death on the cross for sins – it’s the gospel. So Paul says here that when it comes to a right relationship with God, he boasts in nothing except the cross. Far be it from him to do otherwise!

What you do or have done to try to make yourself righteous doesn’t count, what does count is faith in Jesus, and what exists with faith – a new creation because of regeneration by the Holy Spirit. God grants regeneration, a person is justified, and a person becomes a new creation in Christ, sins are forgiven, and the old has gone the new has come (2 Corinthians 5:17,21).

The work of Christ on the cross accomplishes this reality!!! So our boasting and emphasis must be on the cross of Christ!!! It must be on the gospel!!!

Wisdom in Relationships

2010-01-05T11:50:00.000-08:00

I'm having a nice planning retreat right now, and this morning before breakfast I read this fantastic article by Winston Smith from CCEF on Wisdom in Relationships.

Instead of making some summary comments, I'm actually posting a link to the 10-page article here. Every so often I'll read something that is so solid, challenging, practical, and helpful to life and ministry that I want everyone I know to read it. This article is one of those solid reads. I'm going to be sending the link out to everyone at The Stream this week!

Hope you'll take the time to read it!

Knockin' on Heaven's Door

2010-01-04T16:21:00.000-08:00

Luke 11:9 And I tell you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 10 For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. (ESV)

Ask, seek, and knock are all verbs that are present tense commands. The idea is – do these things – do them regularly in an ongoing way. Ask, seek, and knock!

Why? Because God will respond, verse 10 “everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.”

God answers prayer – there is a promise here that he does so.

But let’s not take this promise out of context. Rather let’s understand this promise in its context. The context has been dealing with living for God and doing his will. The model prayer in Luke 11 verses 2 through 4 is dealing with asking God in prayer for the help to live for him and to do his will. “Hallowed be your name,” means show yourself holy – even through our lives. “Let your kingdom come” – means let your kingdom reign be in my life and in the lives of others. “Give us our daily bread” applies to physical and spiritual nourishment. “Forgive us our sins, for we ourselves also forgive,” relates to repentance from sin and it relates to being in fellowship with God and other people. “Lead us not into temptation” applies to asking for God’s help to avoid the things that could lead us astray from God and his will – a prayer for God’s help to not fall into sin. All of these things in some way apply to living for God and doing his will.

And we can be persistent in asking God for these things. We don’t have to be ashamed to ask for these things. We can even be bold in doing so. In fact the commands and the promise that Jesus gives in verses 9 and 10 mean that we are to ask, we are to seek, and we are to knock.

God answers prayers according to his will. And it is his will that we live for him.

Ask, seek, and knock today and everyday!

Much Encouragement

2010-01-03T19:48:00.000-08:00

Click here if you'd like to listen in to this morning's message at The Stream on Acts 20:1-16.

Fully Following Jesus

2010-01-02T09:03:00.000-08:00

Luke 9:23 And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. 24 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. 25 For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself? (ESV)

In Luke 9:23 we see 3 things: First of all we are to deny ourselves. There is self-denial involved in coming to know Jesus and in living for him. The essence of this self-denial is a recognition that we cannot save ourselves – that we cannot reach God on our own – that we cannot make ourselves perfect – and that we ourselves cannot pay for our sin. This self-denial is also a willingness to put God before ourselves, entrusting our lives to his guidance, care, and protection. It means letting him “steer the ship” so to speak of our lives. Furthermore, this self-denial also implies not living just for ourselves – not overly focusing on ourselves – and not living for the primary purpose of indulging in one’s own pleasures and satisfaction. This is not to say we cannot enjoy things or have pleasure – it is simply saying that our ultimate pleasure needs to be God – and there is a degree of self-denial that is necessary in making God our ultimate pleasure.

Second we need to take up our cross daily. What does this mean? Well this is a phrase that Jesus is using that he exemplified for us to describe the kind of attitude and approach that we should have in “coming after” or living for Jesus. For one, carrying the cross was the road to death. Simply put, Jesus is talking about death to sin in us, death to our own will and desires, and a submission to him.

In Jesus’ day in which the region was under Roman authority when someone was convicted of a very severe crime and sentenced to die – the criminal was not only crucified on a cross – but also had to carry his own cross up to the place of crucifixion. This cross bearing was a public demonstration of the person’s submission to the state. When the individual committed the crime he was in rebellion against the laws of the state. With this punishment and bearing one’s own cross there is submission by that individual to the authority of the state. So, taking up one’s own cross brings out this idea of the person bearing the cross submitting to the authority of another. What Jesus is also getting at is submitting to him – to “come after” Jesus by taking up one’s cross – is to submit to God and to his authority.

The third thing we are told to do is to follow Jesus. When Jesus says “follow me” here in Luke 9:23 – he is implying that this is to be done continually. This verb for follow in Luke 9:23 is a present imperative – or a present tense command. The present tense particularly brings out the reality that we are to follow Jesus in an ongoing and continual way!

What might denying yourself, taking up your cross daily, and following after Jesus look like? There are numerous ways to apply this such as – asking God’s forgiveness for your sins when you recognize you have sinned. Seeking to do what is right rather than what may seem to be so much easier. Doing what God wants you to do even when part of you (your flesh, e.g. Galatians 5:16) wants to do the opposite.

Denying yourself, taking up your cross daily, and following Jesus can also be your intent to seek God and spend time with him – maybe it's getting up 30 minutes earlier so you can pray and read your Bible. It could be putting time in your busy schedule to do some sort of ministry or to help and pray for someone in need. It could be doing something in your church or for someone in your church.

Or how about things around the house? Could denying yourself and taking up your cross daily and following Jesus even apply to stuff with your family or roommates? How about doing the dishes or cleaning the bathroom instead of leaving that for your spouse or your roommate? Or if you have kids could it be applied to listening to them, taking time to play with them, and caring for them even if you’re pretty wiped out at the end of a long day?

Could it apply to being a good steward of your resources, time, and talents? Maybe it means not buying something else, or not doing so right now – especially with money you don’t have. Maybe this applies to doing something that cultivates your relationship with God, or your skills and abilities. Maybe it applies to cultivating your marriage, family, or friendships instead of watching yet another TV show or movie.

Jesus wants to be first place in our lives, and what we are really looking for anyway for fulfillment is only ultimately found in following him. As pastor and author John Piper says: "We are most satisfied when we find our satisfaction in him!"

So “we come after” Jesus, we relate to Jesus and live as a Christian by denying ourselves, taking up our cross daily, and by following him.

Jonathan Edwards' Resolutions

2010-01-01T09:08:00.000-08:00

I thought it would be fun to start 2010 by reading Jonathan Edwards' resolutions. Edwards was a pastor and a prolific writer and theologian who lived from 1703-1758. This list of resolutions comes from volume one of the book The Works of Jonathan Edwards (the two volume set can be read for free online here). Here's Edwards' lengthy and thoughtful list of resolutions - they are challenging and inspiring:

1. Resolved, That I will do whatsoever I think to be most to the glory of God, and my own good, profit, and pleasure, in the whole of my duration; without any consideration of the time, whether now, or never so many myriads of ages hence. Resolved, to do whatever I think to be my duty, and most for the good and advantage of mankind in general. Resolved, so to do, whatever difficulties I meet with, how many soever, and how great soever.

2. Resolved, To be continually endeavouring to find out some new contrivance and invention to promote the forementioned things.

3. Resolved, If ever I shall fall and grow dull, so as to neglect to keep any part of these Resolutions, to repent of all I can remember, when I come to myself again.

4. Resolved, Never to do any manner of thing, whether in soul or body, less or more, but what tends to the glory of God, nor be, nor suffer it, if I can possibly avoid it.

5. Resolved, Never to lose one moment of time, but to improve it in the most profitable way I possibly can.

6. Resolved, To live with all my might, while I do live.

7. Resolved, Never to do any thing, which I should be afraid to do if it were the last hour of my life.

8. Resolved, To act, in all respects, both speaking and doing, as if nobody had been so vile as I, and as if I had committed the same sins, or had the same infirmities or failings, as others; and that I will let the knowledge of their failings promote nothing but shame in myself, and prove only an occasion of my confessing my own sins and misery to God. Vid. July 30.

9. Resolved, To think much, on all occasions, of my dying, and of the common circumstances which attend death.

10. Resolved, when I feel pain, to think of the pains of martyrdom, and of hell.

11. Resolved, When I think of any theorem in divinity to be solved, immediately to do what I can towards solving it, if circumstances do not hinder. xxi

12. Resolved, If I take delight in it as a gratification of pride, or vanity, or on any such account, immediately to throw it by.

13. Resolved, To be endeavouring to find out fit objects of liberality and charity.

14. Resolved, Never to do any thing out of revenge.

15. Resolved, Never to suffer the least motions of anger towards irrational beings.

16. Resolved, Never to speak evil of any one, so that it shall tend to his dishonour, more or less, upon no account except for some real good.

17. Resolved, That I will live so, as I shall wish I had done when I come to die.

18. Resolved, To live so, at all times, as I think is best in my most devout frames, and when I have the clearest notions of the things of the gospel, and another world.

19. Resolved, Never to do any thing, which I should be afraid to do, if I expected it would not be above an hour before I should hear the last trump.

20. Resolved, To maintain the strictest temperance in eating and drinking.

21. Resolved, Never to do any thing, which if I should see in another, I should count a just occasion to despise him for, or to think any way the more meanly of him.

22. Resolved, To endeavour to obtain for myself as much happiness in the other world as I possibly can, with all the power, might, vigour, and vehemence, yea violence, I am capable of, or can bring myself to exert, in any way that can be thought of.

23. Resolved, Frequently to take some deliberate action, which seems most unlikely to be done, for the glory of God, and trace it back to the original intention, designs, and ends of it; and if I find it not to be for God’s glory, to repute it as a breach of the fourth Resolution.

24. Resolved, Whenever I do any conspicuously evil action, to trace it back, till I come to the original cause; and then, both carefully endeavour to do so no more, and to fight and pray with all my might against the original of it.

25. Resolved, To examine carefully and constantly, what that one thing in me is, which causes me in the least to doubt of the love of God; and so direct all my forces against it.

26. Resolved, To cast away such things as I find do abate my assurance.

27. Resolved, Never wilfully to omit any thing, except the omission be for the glory of God; and frequently to examine my omissions.

28. Resolved, To study the Scriptures so steadily, constantly, and frequently, as that I may find, and plainly perceive, myself to grow in the knowledge of the same.

29. Resolved, Never to count that a prayer, nor to let that pass as a prayer, nor that as a petition of a prayer, which is so made, that I cannot hope that God will answer it; nor that as a confession which I cannot hope God will accept.

30. Resolved, To strive every week to be brought higher in religion, and to a higher exercise of grace, than I was the week before.

31. Resolved, Never to say any thing at all against any body, but when it is perfectly agreeable to the highest degree of christian honour, and of love to mankind, agreeable to the lowest humility, and sense of my own faults and failings, and agreeable to the golden rule; often, when I have said any thing against any one, to bring it to, and try it strictly by, the test of this Resolution.

32. Resolved, To be strictly and firmly faithful to my trust, that that, in Prov. xx. 6. ‘A faithful man, who can find?’ may not be partly fulfilled in me.

33. Resolved, To do always what I can towards making, maintaining, and preserving peace, when it can be done without an overbalancing detriment in other respects. Dec. 26, 1722.

34. Resolved, In narrations, never to speak any thing but the pure and simple verity.

35. Resolved, Whenever I so much question whether I have done my duty, as that my quiet and calm is thereby disturbed, to set it down, and also how the question was resolved. Dec. 18, 1722.

36. Resolved, Never to speak evil of any, except I have some particular good call to it. Dec. 19, 1722.

37. Resolved, To inquire every night, as I am going to bed, wherein I have been negligent,—what sin I have committed,—and wherein I have denied myself;—also, at the end of every week, month, and year. Dec. 22 and 26, 1722.

38. Resolved, Never to utter any thing that is sportive, or matter of laughter, on a Lord’s day. Sabbath evening, Dec. 23, 1722.

39. Resolved, Never to do any thing, of which I so much question the lawfulness, as that I intend, at the same time, to consider and examine afterwards, whether it be lawful or not; unless I as much question the lawfulness of the omission.

40. Resolved, To inquire every night before I go to bed, whether I have acted in the best way I possibly could, with respect to eating and drinking. Jan. 7, 1723.

41. Resolved, to ask myself, at the end of every day, week, month, and year, wherein I could possibly, in any respect, have done better. Jan. 11, 1723.

42. Resolved, Frequently to renew the dedication of myself to God, which was made at my baptism, which I solemnly renewed when I was received into the communion of the church, and which I have solemnly re-made this 12th day of January, 1723.

43. Resolved, Never, henceforward, till I die, to act as if I were any way my own, but entirely and altogether God’s; agreeably to what is to be found in Saturday, Jan. 12th. Jan. 12, 1723.

44. Resolved, That no other end but religion shall have any influence at all on any of my actions; and that no action shall be, in the least circumstance, any otherwise than the religious end will carry it. Jan. 12, 1723.

45. Resolved, Never to allow any pleasure or grief, joy or sorrow, nor any affection at all, nor any degree of affection, nor any circumstance relating to it, but what helps religion. Jan. 12 and 13, 1723.

46. Resolved, Never to allow the least measure of any fretting or uneasiness at my father or mother. Resolved, to suffer no effects of it, so much as in the least alteration of speech, or motion of my eye; and to be especially careful of it with respect to any of our family.

47. Resolved, To endeavour, to my utmost, to deny whatever is not most agreeable to a good and universally sweet and benevolent, quiet, peaceable, contented and easy, compassionate and generous, humble and meek, submissive and obliging, diligent and industrious, charitable and even, patient, moderate, forgiving, and sincere, temper; and to do, at all times, what such a temper would xxii lead me to; and to examine strictly, at the end of every week, whether I have so done. Sabbath morning, May 5, 1723.

48. Resolved, Constantly, with the utmost niceness and diligence, and the strictest scrutiny, to be looking into the state of my soul, that I may know whether I have truly an interest in Christ or not; that when I come to die, I may not have any negligence respecting this to repent of. May 26, 1723.

49. Resolved, That this never shall be, if I can help it.

50. Resolved, That I will act so, as I think I shall judge would have been best, and most prudent, when I come into the future world. July 5, 1723.

51. Resolved, That I will act so, in every respect, as I think I shall wish I had done, if I should at last be damned. July 8, 1723.

52. I frequently hear persons in old age say how they would live, if they were to live their lives over again: Resolved, That I will live just so as I can think I shall wish I had done, supposing I live to old age. July 8, 1723.

53. Resolved, To improve every opportunity, when I am in the best and happiest frame of mind, to cast and venture my soul on the Lord Jesus Christ, to trust and confide in him, and consecrate myself wholly to him; that from this I may have assurance of my safety, knowing that I confide in my Redeemer. July 8, 1723.

54. Resolved, Whenever I hear anything spoken in commendation of any person, if I think it would be praiseworthy in me, that I will endeavour to imitate it. July 8, 1723.

55. Resolved, To endeavour, to my utmost, so to act, as I can think I should do, if I had already seen the happiness of heaven and hell torments. July 8, 1723.

56. Resolved, Never to give over, nor in the least to slacken, my fight with my corruptions, however unsuccessful I may be.

57. Resolved, When I fear misfortunes and adversity, to examine whether I have done my duty, and resolve to do it and let the event be just as Providence orders it. I will, as far as I can, be concerned about nothing but my duty and my sin. June 9, and July 13, 1723.

58. Resolved, Not only to refrain from an air of dislike, fretfulness, and anger in conversation, but to exhibit an air of love, cheerfulness, and benignity. May 27, and July 13, 1723.

59. Resolved, When I am most conscious of provocations to ill nature and anger, that I will strive most to feel and act good-naturedly; yea, at such times, to manifest good nature, though I think that in other respects it would be disadvantageous, and so as would be imprudent at other times. May 12, July 11, and July 13.

60. Resolved, Whenever my feelings begin to appear in the least out of order, when I am conscious of the least uneasiness within, or the least irregularity without, I will then subject myself to the strictest examination. July 4 and 13, 1723.

61. Resolved, That I will not give way to that listlessness which I find unbends and relaxes my mind from being fully and fixedly set on religion, whatever excuse I may have for it—that what my listlessness inclines me to do, is best to be done, &c. May 21, and July 13, 1723.

62. Resolved, Never to do any thing but my duty, and then, according to Eph. vi. 6-8. to do it willingly and cheerfully, as unto the Lord, and not to man: knowing that whatever good thing any man doth, the same shall be receive of the Lord. June 25, and July 13, 1723.

63. On the supposition, that there never was to be but one individual in the world, at any one time, who was properly a complete Christian, in all respects of a right stamp, having Christianity always shining in its true lustre, and appearing excellent and lovely, from whatever part and under whatever character viewed: Resolved, To act just as I would do, if I strove with all my might to be that one, who should live in my time. Jan. 14, and July 13, 1723.

64. Resolved, When I find those ”groanings which cannot be uttered,“ of which the apostle speaks, and those ”breathings of soul for the longing it hath,” of which the psalmist speaks, Psalm cxix. 20. that I will promote them to the utmost of my power; and that I will not be weary of earnestly endeavouring to vent my desires, nor of the repetitions of such earnestness. July 23, and Aug. 10, 1723.

65. Resolved, Very much to exercise myself in this, all my life long, viz. with the greatest openness of which I am capable, to declare my ways to God, and lay open my soul to him, all my sins, temptations, difficulties, sorrows, fears, hopes, desires, and every thing, and every circumstance, according to Dr. Manton’s Sermon on the 119th Psalm,. July 26, and Aug. 10, 1723.

66. Resolved, That I will endeavour always to keep a benign aspect, and air of acting and speaking, in all places, and in all companies, except it should so happen that duty requires otherwise.

67. Resolved, After afflictions, to inquire, what I am the better for them; what good I have got by them; and, what I might have got by them.

68. Resolved, To confess frankly to myself, all that which I find in myself, either infirmity or sin; and, if it be what concerns religion, also to confess the whole case to God, and implore needed help. July 23, and August 10, 1723.

69. Resolved, Always to do that, which I shall wish I had done when I see others do it. Aug. 11, 1723.

70. Let there be something of benevolence in all that I speak. Aug. 17, 1723.

(Used by permission from Desiring God Ministries. By John Piper. © Desiring God. Website: desiringGod.org)

Christmas Eve Service

2009-12-21T12:26:00.000-08:00

Scorpions - these kids are champs!!!

2009-12-08T20:31:00.000-08:00

This past Saturday we finished another soccer season, this year in 8-9 year old co-ed soccer. I've been coaching for a few years now, with my two oldest kids on the team, but every season I honestly grow to really love each one of these kids on the team. It's fun to have some kids who have been with me for several seasons.

It's such a joy to see the kids having fun, improving, and competing. We had a great season this fall. We lost a tough game on Saturday to a team we had previously beaten, but we finished the season with a great record at 6-2. I'm immensely thankful to the parents and the kids for their hard work and friendship this season, it was a lot of fun!!!

7 Reasons to Give Thanks

2009-11-29T18:17:00.000-08:00

This morning at The Stream I took a break from our ACTS series to share this message titled Thanksgiving from Psalm 100.

Pastor Clapperton from Bungoma, Kenya

2009-11-22T15:38:00.000-08:00

I have been blessed to have Pastor Clapperton from Bungoma Kenya with my family and our church this last week. He has been here ministering with us for a few days and will be here until next Friday. It is his first time out of Africa, so it has been quite an experience for him, and he's really enjoying it.

I have worked with Bungoma Baptist Church on mission trips since 1996 and first met Pastor Clapperton in 2000 when on a mission trip there. God is using Bungoma Baptist and Pastor Clapperton in many ways. They have a great church with people they are discipling, they have planted 13 other churches, worked with other pastors and churches in the region, and have established an orphanage of 300 orphans.

Pastor Clapperton spoke at The Stream this morning and if you'd like to hear his message titled Press On! from Philippians 3:12-14, click here.

Silverman Triathlon - Inspiring!

2009-11-09T06:08:00.000-08:00

Yesterday morning before church I had a chance to head out to Lake Mead to watch the swim for the Silverman Triathlon. The full triathlon is a 2.4 mile swim, a 112 mile bike, and a 26.2 mile run (Yes, that's a marathon at the end after doing all that!).

A friend of mine, Frank Lowery (here he is before the start of the race), who is also the masters swimming coach in Henderson and has coached me in swimming in the past, is the founder and organizer of this event. He's really done an incredible job, and in terms of someone having a vision for something, starting it up, and seeing it develop into something stellar - Frank ranks up there in my book as one of the best at this.

I wanted to go out to the race to see this event, but especially to cheer on another friend who competed on a relay and did the swim. I met John Huck through swimming at the Henderson Multigenerational Center a few years ago and we've trained a fair amount together with a few folks (the core of which is Bill, Tim, and Daniel) over the last few years.

In the last couple months of swimming with John, I've noticed he's been swimming definitely a level up from in the past. He's done the Silverman swim every year they've had it (this is the 5th year) and his best time had been 1 hour and 5 minutes. I told him this year was going to be his best and sure enough it was! He came in at 54 minutes, which is absolutely flying for a guy in his early 40s! Here he is below after the race. I was completely inspired and told him so more than once yesterday (here he is after the race).

Later in the day, after church, I took my son Jordan to watch the finish of the race. The swim had started at 7 AM that morning, during that time I had helped set up church, had the church service including preaching a 1 hour sermon, come home for lunch with a new couple at The Stream, played catch with Jordan, and then come over to watch. These people had been swimming, biking, or running that entire time! Inspiring!

We stayed and watched the winner, Chris Williams, cross the finish line at 10 hours and 19 minutes. He understandably looked a little wiped out, so he was met by a nurse, water bottles, people placing emergency blankets on him, and they even rushed a wheel chair over to him to give him a seat! He deserved it. Incredible athletic accomplishments. Inspiring!

My youngest daughter's soccer coach, Cheryl, also competed yesterday on a relay with Operation Rebound. This is a spectacular organization for wounded veterans. The swimmer on her relay was partially blind, yet did the whole swim! Other athletes with lost limbs were competing. Inspiring!

Light

2009-11-03T10:21:00.000-08:00

I'm reading John Piper's Finally Alive, which by the way is a spectacular book, and this morning came across this paragraph that is so good I just had to post it here:

"What will it take so that thousands of Christians in our churches
become passionate about telling the gospel to unbelievers? One
of the reasons we don’t do it as much as we should is that life in
America is so entertaining that thoughts about desperate, eternal,
spiritual need are hard for us to feel, let alone talk about. The
world is just too interesting and entertaining. It feels awkward
to make ourselves or others uncomfortable with thoughts about
perishing people. It’s heavy. But life in America is light." (Piper, Finally Alive, p. 171)

I was challenged by this, to assess my heart when it comes to reaching out to people with the gospel. Am I too consumed at times with myself, my comfort, my priorities, my recreation, my pleasure, etc. that I am complacent towards the needs people have for the gospel?

Are you challenged by this? How would you assess your heart when it comes to reaching out to others with the love of Christ?

Campfire Chat in Zion NP

2009-10-22T13:30:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday night we had The Stream's worship service at our campsite in Zion NP around the campfire. Roger Bakke led us in a time of worship with singing then I shared a message from 1 Peter 5:5-9. Since this message was not recorded and hence is not online, I thought I would enclose some quotes and comments in somewhat of a very rough paraphrased outline sort of form from that message here:

Intro: Zion National Park and the beauty of the outdoors (majestic cliffs, clear skies at night seeing countless stars, the mountains, the streams, the beauty) creates in me a sense of awe at the greatness around me, which leads me in a good way to feel a bit less important, less self-absorbed, and less significant. I see my finiteness compared to the greatness, beauty, and glory around me. A sense of awe overcomes me... in a way that I am humbled.

Tonight I want to talk about something that Dr. John Stott calls "our greatest friend" and something else that he calls "our greatest enemy." Stott says that "humility is our greatest friend, and pride is our greatest enemy" (quoted in CJ Mahaney, Humility). If this is true, let's take a look at a passage that addresses these matters.

Prayer
Reading 1 Peter 5:5-9 (ESV)

The primary point of this passage is that:
When we humble ourselves God gives us grace.

humility defined:"Honestly assessing ourselves in light of God's holiness and our sinfulness" (CJ Mahaney in his book Humility)

grace defined: Unmerited favor, an undeserved gift. We often think of grace regarding salvation and a relationship with God, and it is that, but there is also grace God grants in the here and now, relative to our lives now. An enabling grace, or grace in the sense of being able to be here right now, your heart beating right now, the stars not crashing in on our campsite right now, grace in God sustaining things, providing, etc.

So When we humble ourselves God gives us grace.
Let's take a look at 3 significant areas in which when we humble ourselves we can receive God's grace:

1. Right relationships (1 Peter 5:5-6)

- "clothe yourselves" - with humility towards one another, like clothing yourself for camping we are to prepare ourselves with this perspective towards one another
- Why?
- Because God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble

Pride Defined:
- John Stott "Pride is more than the first of the seven deadly sins, it is itself the essence of all sin." (quoted in Mahaney, Humility) Stott is more or less saying that pride is "the mother of all sins", other sins emanate from or can be traced back to pride. Pride is so often at the root of other sins.
- "Pride is contending for supremacy with God" (Mahaney, Humility) Pride in a sense competes with God, wanting to be in charge, it is "God-playing" functionally in that moment acting as if we are God. Most people don't really believe this cognitively, but functionally we often act/live/operate as if we are "God", as if we are in control, as if it all depends upon us. That is pride.
- "Pride is a blend of self-absorption with an overestimate of one's abilities or worth...personal preeminence" (Cornelius Plantinga, in his book Not the Way it's Supposed to Be: A Breviary on Sin).

Proverbs 16:5 says "Everyone who is proud in heart is an abomination to the Lord" (NASB)

God hates pride.

Pride dangers relationships.
How?
- constant comparisons to other people
- evaluating self based upon others
- thinking one is superior, better than others
- refusal to forgive, holding grudges amidst offenses
- leads to criticism and contempt towards others
- self-sufficiency and isolation towards others "an I'm good on my own" "I don't need others" attitude

Humility though builds relationships and community because it does the opposite:
- doesn't need to compare self with others, compares self to God
- care and concern for others
- serves others
- forgiveness towards others

Humility is best exemplified in Jesus!

2. When we humble ourselves God gives us grace in dealing with anxieties. (1 Peter 5:6-7)

- "humble yourselves" v. 6 is a command here
- "mighty hand of God" - God's hand delivers (so Deuteronomy 9:26 talking about the Exodus event), God's hand disciplines, corrects, convicts us (so Psalm 32:3-4)
- God exalts at the proper time
- humility - going down, exaltation - lifting up
- in God's time, his divinely appointed time, which will ultimately be at the day of salvation

How can we humble ourselves?
- by casting our anxieties on him
- like fishing
- cast it
- wait
- but don't keep reeling it back in, give it to God

Why?
- He cares for us

How much?

Romans 5:8 "But God demonstrates his own love in this, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us" (NASB)
Romans 8:32 "He who did not spare his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how will he not also with him freely give us all things." (NASB)

3. When we humble ourselves God gives us grace for resisting the attacks from the devil (1 Peter 5:8-9)

- be sober-minded: not given to excesses, especially here this means to excesses about ourselves (not given to pride)
- be alert, ready

Why?

Your adversary - we have an enemy - prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour!

We tend to think the devil is just a fictional character, such as in horror movies
But we are well aware of the reality of evil (e.g. Nazi Germany, or the sin we hear about and see regularly in our city so called "Sin City Las Vegas")

We don't worry about lions, they are in zoos now, but in Paul's day they were present
In the same way, we don't seem to think the devil is a threat to us

But did you see what is in our Zion National Park guide? On page 8 it talks about mountain lions. There are mountain lions, plenty of them, here in Zion NP!

It even tells us what to do if we encounter them:
- don't run
- make yourselves look big
- throw rocks or sticks to try to scare the lions away
- my personal favorite: "if attacked, fight back"!!!

But here in our passage it tells us what to do related to the devil who prowls around like a roaring lion:

1 Peter 5:9 "resist him"

How? by "standing firm in your faith"

Faith!!!

Faith in what or whom? Ourselves? Making ourselves look big...?

No, faith in Jesus!!!
We need Jesus, we can't scare away the devil with sticks or stones, we can't just try to make ourselves look big, heck we can't even effectively fight back on our own without God's help.

We need Jesus trusting his work on the cross and his triumph over evil (so Colossians 2:15) to resist the attacks from the devil

Christ models humility in his life, death on the cross for sins, and resurrection from the dead (so Philippians 2:5-11).

The gospel says that Jesus Christ died on the cross for sins, in our place, that he rose from the dead, and that we can be in a relationship with God that comes by the gift of his grace through faith in Jesus.

We need Jesus

1 John 4 says "Greater is he (meaning Jesus) who is in you, than he who is in the world (meaning the devil)" (NASB)

Knowing Jesus through the gift of his grace saves us from our sins, from our pride, from all evil including the devil.

Yet, God also can give grace for the here and now.

When we humble ourselves God gives us grace for...
1. Right relationships
2. Dealing with anxieties
3. Resisting the attacks from the devil

Let's live in humility, our friend, and resist the enemy of pride.

Closing Prayer

Zion National Park Trip 2009

2009-10-19T07:59:00.000-07:00

Just returned yesterday from a fun weekend at Zion National Park with The Stream. This shot is just some of the group after the big breakfast yesterday morning. Some folks from The Stream have been going up to Zion together for probably 6 years at various times, but this October trip seems to be becoming an annual tradition.

We were blessed with incredible weather, probably the best I've experienced in Zion - cool, clear, sunny, almost ideal camping weather. We had a great time around the campfire, a worship service Saturday night, and we did some hiking. Several people did the world famous Narrows hike, which once again was spectacular!

At The Stream we do trips like this from time to time because living in Las Vegas we are so close to so many great national parks: Zion, Death Valley, and the Grand Canyon to name a few. Come join us on our next trip!!!

What is a church?

2009-10-11T06:06:00.000-07:00

It seems today that there is a lot of question about what makes a church, or even why the church is important. This morning after the worship service at The Stream I'm going to be sharing with some UNLV students about these matters. Here's some of what I'll be sharing:

Here's a link to a definition of "What is a church?" by Pastor Mark Driscoll.

Here's the link to a message from 1981 by Pastor John Piper in which he addresses this question, "What is a church?"

Wayne Grudem in his Systematic Theology in chapter 44 lists what he calls Signs of a "More Pure" Church. These are qualities that a church wants to have and should pursue, and characteristics that people should seriously consider in looking for a church home:

1. Biblical doctrine (or right preaching of the Word)
2. Proper use of the sacraments (or ordinances)
3. Right use of church discipline
4. Genuine worship
5. Effective prayer
6. Effective witness
7. Effective fellowship
8. Biblical church government
9. Spiritual power in ministry
10. Personal holiness of life among members
11. Care for the poor
12. Love for Christ

David Crowder Band Concert in Las Vegas

2009-10-09T14:53:00.000-07:00

I was so blessed last night with a night of worship with the David Crowder Band. In fact, took the whole family (we've been listening to Crowder CDs since the kids were little), and since it was first come first serve seating we were able to go right up front in the 3rd row.

Spectacular show - highlights for me for the night were For the Glory of It All, How He Loves Us, You are My Joy, and the finale Rescue is Coming. As David Crowder said last night (I'm paraphrasing) - there were times tonight as we were worshiping God that felt like something transcendent was happening - very true!!! The passion for God in his people last night and the very presence of God as he was worshiped were evident.

The David Crowder Band has so many great songs and the concert last night included several of them such as O Praise Him, Here is Our King, Everything Glorious, No One Like You, Forever and Ever, and some excellent new songs from their recently released CD Church Music.

There were a few songs played I wasn't sure the band would play that were a real thrill that they were on the set list - Rescue is Coming at the end for example, No One Like You, and You Are My Joy.

I was also surprised that a few songs didn't make the set list, lacking were Remedy, You Alone, Never Let Go, Wholly Yours, and Our Love is Loud, as well as greats like All Creatures #2, Stars, Only You, Wonderful King, and For a Thousand Tongues to Sing, but they can't play everything on one night and I wasn't too disappointed. The fact that such great songs weren't played actually reminded me of what great depth of songs this group has and how immensely they have edified the church and given glory to God with great worship.

John Piper on Relevance in Preaching

2009-10-05T04:04:00.000-07:00

I've been reading a spectacular book by John Piper titled Finally Alive, which is also available for download here. I came across this section on page 100 related to relevance in preaching that I found personally extremely reassuring to our philosophy of ministry at The Stream:

"...a sermon is relevant if it feels to the listeners that it will make a significant difference in their lives. Or it might mean that a sermon is relevant if it will make a significant difference in their lives whether they feel it or not.

That second kind of relevance is what guides my sermons and my writing. In other words, I want to say things that are really significant for your life whether you know they are or not. My way of doing that is to stay as close as I can to what God says is important in his word, not what we think is important apart from God’s word."

Reflections on Psalm 103

2009-09-24T17:11:00.001-07:00

We sometimes say: "I was blessed by...."

Can you think of a time, maybe recently, when someone blessed you?

What does it mean to bless?

During our Tuesday Night House Group this week at The Stream we spent some time in Psalm 103. If you haven't looked at this Psalm, or haven't in awhile, let me encourage you to because there is a treasure of truth here about God that is applicable to our lives.

Notice how this Psalm begins AND ends with this phrase, "Bless the Lord, O my soul."

As my wife pointed out Tuesday night in our discussion, the writer of this Psalm (King David), is talking to himself/telling himself (his soul) to do this - to bless the Lord! So this Psalm begins AND ends with this phrase "Bless the Lord, O my soul" and the fact that it begins AND ends this way shows us that blessing the Lord is the theme of the Psalm. The phrase functions like two pieces of bread on a sandwich that packages all the meat in between. What's between "Bless the Lord, O my soul" in this Psalm? Packaged in between this phrase are numerous, numerous reasons to bless the Lord!

Let's look at them. We should bless the Lord because of:

- his holiness (v. 1)
- all of his benefits (v.2)
- his forgiveness of our sins (v. 3)
- his redemption (v. 4)
- his steadfast love and mercy (v. 4)
- satisfying us with good (v. 5)
- his righteousness, and his justice for the oppressed (v. 6)
- making known his ways (v. 7)
- his mercy and grace (v. 8)
- his being slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love (v. 8)
- his not chiding against us, nor holding onto anger, nor dealing with us/nor repaying as we deserve for our sins (v. 9-10)
- his steadfast love that is as high as the heavens are above the earth (v. 11)
- his removing our sins as far as east is from west (v. 12)
- his compassion towards those who fear him (v. 13)
- how he completely knows us (v. 14)
- his everlasting to everlasting steadfast love on those who fear him (v. 17)
- his throne is established in the heavens and his kingdom rules over all (v. 19)

You can see more than a few reasons to bless the Lord! When we focus on who God is and these truths about him, we really have so many reasons to bless the Lord. Regardless of what we may be facing in life, God is on his throne, he is in charge, he is the king, and he is the one ruling over all (v. 19). We're not in charge, nor is anyone else ultimately, the Lord is!

Consider everything else here in this Psalm about him! Notice how high and how steadfast God is in his love, so much so that he forgives sins and removes them from those who fear him as far as east is from west (vs. 11-12). Such love is ultimately shown to us through Jesus who died on the cross for our sins and rose again from the dead (Romans 5:8). Through Jesus we can come to know this great God who is blessed in this Psalm. Through faith in Jesus Christ, we become those who fear him. Through faith in Jesus Christ we can bless the Lord with all that is within us as well.

"Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name." (v. 1, ESV)

John Piper Message at AACC

2009-09-17T14:20:00.000-07:00

Here's a message from John Piper, given last night at the American Association of Christian Counselors World Conference.

Surprise!!!

2009-09-06T16:13:00.000-07:00

Doesn't God love to surprise? He works in ways we don't expect. He even sometimes does the opposite of what we expect.

I was reminded of this reality this week in preparing for the message I gave this morning from Acts 12. In this passage, Peter is imprisoned and many of the believers are gathered praying for him. James, one of the other apostles, has just been put to death with the sword and it's looking like this will soon be Peter's fate as well. The church is praying, but when Peter is miraculously released by the angel of the Lord and actually shows up at the place where the believers are praying, most of the believers don't believe the servant girl Rhoda who reports that Peter is at the door!!! First, they think Rhoda is "riding on the wrong side of the road" in the sense that they think she's out of her mind. But as Rhoda insists that Peter is really at the door, they think it must be Peter's angel (meaning Herod has put Peter to death and that it is Peter's angel then who has come). When Peter actually walks in they are amazed. Surprise!!!

God does things like this. When was the last time God has surprised you???

I was surprised by what God did at The Stream this morning. Worship on a holiday weekend I thought would realistically be a sparsely attended service (surprise: we had a big service for us with lots of guests). The offering as well I expected because of a likely sparse attendance would therefore be small as well (surprise: we had one of our best giving days since last spring, and it was much needed due to a downturn in giving over the summer with people absent from traveling, etc.). The message, well let's just say on Friday I was pretty concerned that it might not be such a great one (surprise: I felt like the message came out empowered by God, faithful to his word, and that God used it in a big way!!!). The worship: with our other worship leaders out of town I would be doing it and we were going to do a stripped back no sound system simple acoustic set to give everyone on our setup team a break. I love the simple w/o sound system worship style and I think most people know it's not about the sound system that makes worship good worship, but I honestly wondered if the congregations would be able to hear the songs and eagerly join in on the worship. (surprise: this too went really well. Much, much better than I even hoped).

Surprise, surprise, surprise!!! More than a few today, these are just some that I chose to mention. There were more, because God did more!

God likes to surprise us! Check out Ephesians 3:20-21!!!

Let's look for God to do more in the days ahead!

False Views of God

2009-08-03T06:28:00.000-07:00

At The Stream several of us are doing a study by WDA titled Knowing God. After doing study #8 in this series and reflecting upon it some, it seems to me that there are a variety of reasons that people develop false views of God. Here are just a few thoughts, some of which are in our study, related to sources of false views about God.

1. The reality of human sin (Romans 1:18, 3:23). Our sinfulness blinds us to the truths about God, or leads to distortions and misconceptions about God.

2. Our ignorance of the truths about God. What I mean by this is sometimes we/others just don't know truths about God because of having not learned them. Often this is a result of our own lack of effort in reading and studying God's word where we receive accurate portrayals of God. But sometimes, it is also because of a lack of good solid Biblical teaching in churches today.

3. Deceptions from the evil one and his servants. The evil one and demonic forces know how to deceive, lie, and even distract us from God. Satan is the "father of lies" and as we saw in this study in Genesis 3 he certainly knows how to twist the truth and he especially tends to do so about God.

4. The world. Typically what the Bible means when it talks about "the world" is that way of thinking, the cultural perspectives, which are in direct contrast to the truths of God and his will. The perspectives of our world and our culture often indeed are in direct contrast to the truths about God, and these things influence us whether we like it or not. So Jesus prays for his followers, including us today in John 17, to be "in the world but not of the world." Romans 12:1-2 also tells us "do not be conformed to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind." 1 John 2:15-17 as well says "Do not love the world, or the things in the world."

5. False interpretations about God from his word and/or from life experiences. Often people make just very poor interpretations of the Bible, taking things out of context, or not understanding proper hermeneutical methods (Biblical interpretation). But sometimes, people misinterpret God's purposes in their life experiences as well. A struggle, challenge, or even suffering in this life for some leads them to conclude God is uncaring, distant, or even evil. Yet, such interpretations miss the larger purposes of God, or assume false things about him and his purposes.

These are just a few sources of false views from my perspective. What do you think?

Now, how do we counter such false views?

1. Be in God's word and learn to study it and understand it.
2. Pray for God's perspective.
3. Don't forget who God is, remind yourself of the truths about him and what he says about you.
4. Confess sins, take them to the cross where Christ paid for them (1 John 1:9).
5. Be in a church community that teaches God's Word through expository (verse by verse) messages that help you accurately learn how to study God's word and correctly apply it to your life.

One Fun Wedding Party

2009-07-26T13:06:00.000-07:00

This has to be one of the most creative wedding entrances that I've ever seen.

The Holy Spirit - Regeneration

2009-07-22T15:09:00.000-07:00

Scholar Wayne Grudem in his Systematic Theology defines regeneration as "a secret act of God in which he imparts new spiritual life to us; sometimes called "being born again." (p. 1253)"

One of the passages in the Bible where this reality is particularly clear is Titus 3:5, which states:

Titus 3:5 He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit (ESV)

When you think about the Holy Spirit, do you think of him as God? Do you think of him playing such a crucial role in salvation?

Sanctification

2009-07-21T09:18:00.001-07:00

Sanctification comes from a word in the Greek that literally means "to be set apart, made holy, sacred to God."

It can be understood in a couple of ways in how it is used in the Bible.

One aspect to sanctification for a believer in Jesus is something called Positional Sanctification. Positional Sanctification is actually very similar in meaning to justification in that it means that for someone who has received God's love and forgiveness by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, that person stands before God (positionally speaking) righteous, holy, and set apart to God. Positionally speaking, because of Jesus taking our sins and giving us his righteousness, the believer stands before God as holy because Jesus has made us holy.

A great example of positional sanctification is how Paul addresses the church in Corinth at the very beginning of 1 Corinthians. Listen to what he writes:

To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Corinthians 1:2-3, ESV)

Paul is referring here definitely to their positional sanctification, for if you know anything about the church in Corinth, practically speaking it was anything but perfectly holy in its practices. Much of this letter in 1 Corinthians addresses the many problems present in the church, and Paul is writing to help correct them. So though the Corinthians practically speaking were not as holy as God wanted them to be, he was reminding them at the beginning of the letter, that positionally (because of Jesus, not their actual practices) in their standing before God they were sanctified. So sanctification, in the positional sense, is similar to justification.

But a more typical way in which the Bible uses sanctification, is in what theologians refer to as progressive sanctification. Progressive sanctification describes the process of our growth in holiness throughout our lives. Though we stand positionally before God as justified and sanctified, practically speaking we all know that because of indwelling sin, we are far from living a perfectly holy life.

Yet God calls us to holiness, and he calls us to continual growth in that holiness. Even the apostle Paul makes clear that he is on a journey of growing more and more in this holiness when he writes in Philippians 3:

Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you. (Philippians 3:12-15, ESV)

Progressive sanctification is growth in godliness, and it involves some effort. In our progressive sanctification we respond to what God has done by his grace and we "work" and play a role in our growth. But as CJ Mahaney states in this wonderful message titled "Who's Really at Work?", which you can listen to by clicking here, he states: Only God's power makes godly effort possible! This is so true, look with me at this wonderful passage, also from the book of Philippians:

Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. (Philippians 2:12-13, ESV)

We grow throughout the Christian life as God ultimately works in us by his grace, but also as we respond in obedience to what God is doing in our lives. What helps our growth in sanctification? Things like prayer, Bible study, listening to messages, reading books, fellowship, doing ministry, repenting and confessing sin, etc. But these things ultimately are effective as they are done with God's grace and empowerment at work in us.

At The Stream we immensely value this important Biblical truth of progressive sanctification, in fact our mission statement emphasizes it: Transforming lives by the power of God's Spirit, love, grace, and truth. We are all called to continually grow in our relationships with God, we are all on a journey of and in need of experiencing a greater and greater transformation in our lives. God is never done with us, and we are to respond to his work in us, working out what he is doing in his power in our lives.

Roger and Kelli's Wedding Saturday

2009-07-20T09:42:00.000-07:00

Rejoicing with Roger and Kelli on their wedding Saturday. Here's a few pictures:

Are Unchurched People Willing to Chat About Their Christian Beliefs?

2009-07-19T17:52:00.001-07:00

According to LifeWay Research, the answer is "YES" for most. Here's an excerpt quoted below from an article by Mark Kelly. For the full article click here.

"...most unchurched people are open to discussing spiritual matters with a friend. The research showed that:

--78 percent of those surveyed said they would be willing to listen to someone who wanted to talk about their Christian beliefs. The number rose to 89 percent among adults 18-29 years of age.

--Only 28 percent of adults 30 years and older said they think Christians they know talk to them too much about their beliefs.

--78 percent of adults 30 years and older said they would enjoy an honest conversation with a friend about religious and spiritual beliefs, even if they disagreed with the friend."

DCB "Twitter Will Kill You"

2009-07-13T17:52:00.000-07:00

This is hilarious. I just joined Twitter about 2 weeks ago, and have found myself "tweeting away" at times...

The Throne of Grace

2009-07-11T08:49:00.001-07:00

Hebrews 4:14 Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. 15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. 16 Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. (ESV)

Jesus is the Son of God, being fully God, he has passed through the heavens and is exalted to heaven. Yet, being fully man, he was made like we are in every way yet without sin. Therefore, he is able to help us and be our high priest (see Hebrews 2:17-18).

This gives us great confidence that we can draw near, or as the NASB translation says "boldly come", before the throne of grace to find mercy and grace to help in time of need.

Are you coming to the throne of grace or trying to deal with life and situations you're facing in life on your own? Anxiety comes in when we rely too much upon ourselves, depend too much upon ourselves, and fall into a perspective that we are in control. Put differently, without realizing it sometimes we function as if we are God in the sense that at certain moments we function as if we are in control. We're not!!! We need help. So we are to boldly come to the throne of grace where we can and do find help in time of need.

Let's repent of self-sufficiency, neglect of prayer, and of worrying about things that we can't control. Certainly we are to act, to be diligent, and to persevere, not just sit back and do nothing, but we are to rest in the Lord as we do. What we are to do most importantly is to come to the throne of grace, giving the cares, concerns, struggles, fears, anxieties, and ultimately ourselves to the Lord in worship, trust, and dependence.

Here we are Lord, how we need you, thank you that you make it possible through Jesus our great high priest to come into your holy presence, to come to your throne of grace, where indeed you extend your grace to us to help us in our need!!! Help us in our needs, yet show us that ultimately what we need is you!!!

Systematic Theology Podcast

2009-07-10T14:29:00.000-07:00

Just discovered this today, but I-Tunes has a new podcast of lectures by Dr. Wayne Grudem on his Systematic Theology. Dr. Grudem was one of my professors at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School and is now at Phoenix Seminary. His Systematic Theology is one of my all-time favorite books, and I encourage you to take advantage of these lectures!

Worship Disorders

2009-07-07T11:12:00.000-07:00

I'm watching and listening to this excellent message by Pastor Mark Driscoll that was from the Advance 09 conference last month. Check it out:

An Answer to Prayer at Panera Bread

2009-06-26T15:12:00.000-07:00

This morning I was doing my Knowing God #3 study (a study from Worldwide Discipleship Association) titled The Attributes of God - II at Panera Bread before meeting with Lenny Smith, a member of our church.

The study was about the crucifixion of Christ from Luke 23:32-49 and what this demonstrates to us about God's character/attributes. At the end of the study I was answering the application questions in which there were some choices given related to responding to God's love, God's mercy, and God's forgiveness. Here's what I selected:
In Responding to God's Love, I selected the statement that said, Love your neighbor through an act of service, and in Responding to God's Mercy I selected the statement that said, Do good to someone in need who can't help themselves.

Literally as I was finishing this study, I noticed a lady who had been sitting near me eating breakfast and who had left a few minutes earlier, walk back into Panera Bread and ask the people working there what the address was because her car had broken down. Then I overheard her on the phone trying to arrange for a roadside assistance crew to help her, and to arrange for a friend to pick her up and take her to her 8AM appointment. As she was on the phone, I felt compelled, largely inspired by my study that I had just completed, to walk right over to her and ask her if I could help.

I'm really not a handy man, car mechanic-type at all, but I suggested maybe it was just her battery. I shared that I had some jumper cables in my car, so would she like me to give that a try. She seemed enthusiastically appreciative and said sure. While this was all going on Lenny, who had just arrived and was getting coffee came back. Not finding me there, he also came out to the parking lot when he saw us to lend a hand.

I actually needed Lenny's help to get the latch open to get to her car's battery (like I said really not too gifted here on the car stuff!). Then I hooked up the jumper cables, we cranked the ignitions, and "vroom, vroom" her car started right up!!!

Right when this happened her friend arrived, but now she didn't need a lift!!! She could take her own car to her appointment. We suggested getting the battery checked in case it needed replaced, but she was well on her way to her appointment, and it was super fun to lend a helping hand!

Literally within seconds of finishing my Knowing God study for this week, I was given the opportunity to apply IN EXACT DETAIL the answers that I selected in the options given for the applications to the study: to love my neighbor through an act of service, and to do good to someone in need.

I prayed about this (as the study suggested at the end) and God answered in seconds. My faith grew today from this experience and it was a thrill to see God work.

To God be the glory!!!

Mark's interview

2009-06-22T11:18:00.001-07:00

Mark shares about his time in the Cascades in this video

More on Mark's safe arrival

2009-06-22T07:10:00.000-07:00

Here's a video on Mark's safe arrival at the ranger station

Here's an article with more details about what happened

Out of the woods - Mark Albrecht walks out OK!!!

2009-06-21T17:33:00.000-07:00

Great news and a real answer to prayer - after a few days lost in the wilderness in Washington, Mark Albrecht, is ok!!!

For a news story reporting this click here

Still searching

2009-06-21T14:03:00.000-07:00

Here's what I know as of now. The search is continuing for Mark, an overnight crew stayed and searched last night to no avail. The poor visibility and cloud cover with snow expected at 5500 feet is limiting the search, though crews are out over a wider area today and reportedly at least one helicopter is going up.

Please keep praying - here's a recent article.

Final update for today on Mark

2009-06-20T20:29:00.000-07:00

This article shares some more detailed info about the situation with Mark Albrecht. Click here

Another update from a friend who has had contact with Mark's cousin is that the search is over for today, helicopters never made it off the ground (weather apparently) and that the search will continue in the morning.

Updates on search for Mark

2009-06-20T16:43:00.000-07:00

Search continues for Mark, a recent report from a friend is that they have found footprints in the area.

Here are a couple more news reports.

News report
News report

A Friend Lost in the Wilderness

2009-06-20T07:54:00.000-07:00

One of my dear friend's sons, Mark Albrecht, is lost in the wilderness in Washington. To see a news article please click this link.

An update I received this morning indicated that his car was found along with a hiking permit so the general area has been located. Search parties are going to be searching the area today, though aerial searches are unable to be done prior to noon PST due to cloud, fog cover. Mark is an Eagle Scout and an experienced hiker, so hopefully he's just lost or injured.

Please pray.

P.S. Mark's father, Everette Albrecht, has been a mentor and friend to me for over 15 years, we still speak monthly over the phone.

Thankful for a Thursday Morning Study Time

2009-06-18T11:55:00.000-07:00

This morning I carved out some extra time to do some studying. Enroute to my office at Renewing Life Center I started listening to a podcast from Dr. David Calhoun on the Puritans (Lecture 15 in the free online seminary lectures on I-tunes from Covenant Seminary titled "Reformation and Modern Church History"). When I arrived in my office I spent some time working through Psalm 51:1-6 as part of a Knowing God discipleship study series from Worldwide Discipleship Association that we are doing at The Stream.

Later in the morning I read some in a book that I'm reading for my counseling ministry titled Uprooting Anger by Robert Jones. That was followed by chapter VI in Calvin's Institutes vol. 1, titled Redemption for Lost Man to Be Sought in Christ. Then just now I searched through Augustine's City of God, here in our library at Renewing Life Center, to read a portion of a section about miracles in 22.8. We are blessed to have a seminary level library donated by the former dean of Fuller Dr. Robert Meye, here at Renewing Life Center. Last week I spoke on Signs and Wonders, at The Stream, so the topic is still fresh on my thoughts.

So what a blessed morning, a chance to read, learn, study, and be refreshed!

Good Samaritans

2009-06-05T10:21:00.000-07:00

Memorial weekend a group of us from The Stream went to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon for a weekend of camping, fellowship, hiking, and fun. We enjoyed the complete beauty of this place together, and had a wonderful church service in the campground amphitheater on Sunday morning.

Here's my family at the North Rim:

On Memorial Day we broke camp, packed up the car, and started making the 5-hour journey home. We stopped for lunch in Hurricane, Utah a place not too far from one of my favorite places in the world Zion National Park. Well, after the kids finished their "Happy Meals" (now you know where we had lunch), my youngest perhaps from a bit too much excitement at the indoor play center, had a little accident. So I grabbed an extra set of clothes for my daughter, and my wife took her into the restroom to change her.

Well, Lauren had also paid for lunch, because she ordered food while I was filling up the car at the gas station outside. So she carried her wallet into the bathroom, placed it down to change my daughter, then with our other daughter left the bathroom making a simple mistake of forgetting her wallet.

We didn't make any more stops on the way home, and basically Lauren was asleep most of the way home being tired from a weekend of camping, cookouts, hiking, etc. We arrive home (about 3 hours from Hurricane, UT) and while unpacking Lauren becomes concerned. She realized she didn't have her wallet.

So we contacted the gas station and the restaurant attached where we had stopped for lunch. Nothing found. So the afternoon and into the early evening was spent checking our accounts to make sure no charges had been made and either placing holds on the cards or even canceling them all together. The next day we made additional calls to the place of the lost wallet to see if anything had been turned in - nothing.

So that night (Tuesday) we had house group. We shared the story and prayed about it. I honestly though, being the spiritual leader and man of faith that I am (yes, this is not boasting, I'm making fun of myself), had pretty much written off and resolved that the wallet was long gone and grabbed by someone who intended to take the 100 bucks of cash inside, and possibly attempt something worse with the information inside (we live in a day and age of identity theft).

So Thursday comes and I arrive straight from work for my daughter's preschool graduation ceremony. I sit down next to my two oldest kids, Lauren was with my youngest getting her ready for lineup, and my middle daughter says. "Daddy, the mailman brought mommy her wallet today! She was so happy she started crying!"

A Christian couple from Georgia while vacationing in the area had returned Lauren's wallet. A wonderful woman found the wallet in the bathroom, tried to find a phone number which unfortunately we did not have in the wallet, and went to the police with it to confirm the address and had it sent right away.

Thank you Jim and Linda from Georgia, you are truly modern day "Good Samaritans" (Luke 10:25-37). May God bless you for your integrity and generosity!

"I have been, and always will be, your friend"

2009-06-01T05:52:00.000-07:00

That's one of my favorite lines from Spock. Though perhaps more dramatically shared by Spock to Captain James T. Kirk in previous Star Trek movies, it was great to hear it spoken again by the original Spock, Leonard Nimoy, in the recent movie.

While not considering myself a "Trekky" per se, I've been wanting to see the new Star Trek since the moment I heard it was coming out. I grew up watching the original Star Trek so I was definitely interested to see the new casting, was curious about the new story of how it all began for the crew of the USS Enterprise, and of course I was eager to see the 21st century special effects.

My wife found a grocery store deal that in buying a few items was rewarded with free tickets, and if that's not cool enough, she used the free tickets to take me to Star Trek!

The casting, action, special effects, and the story-line were excellent. I thought the casting was especially great for "Bones" (the Doctor), Scotty, Chekov, and for Spock. Scotty and Chekov's comments with their accents were classic.

This was a great movie, and I'm thrilled the writers left it open for more. Maybe the next one will have a visit by the original Kirk this time? Would be great to see Shatner and Nimoy as the original Kirk and Spock one or two more times.

The Mark of a Christian

2009-04-28T21:10:00.001-07:00

Tonight at our Tuesday night house group at The Stream we were discussing the passage in 1 John 3:11-24 that talks about loving one another. We looked at a parallel passage in John 15:12 and following where Jesus similarly states that we are to love one another. In our discussion I mentioned a wonderful little book I read years ago that challenged me about this important topic. It is a book by the late Francis Schaeffer titled The Mark of the Christian (click on title to read it). I highly recommend it!

The Gospel Coalition Conference

2009-04-28T11:41:00.000-07:00

Last week, I had the wonderful privilege of attending The Gospel Coalition Conference. It was a wonderful week of listening to inspiring and challenging messages. Most of the conference involved going straight through 2 Timothy, and by conference end we had heard a variety of speakers take us systematically through the book. I also had a chance to see some old friends and seminary professors, and to make some new friends.

Let me recommend watching or listening to some or all of the conference. You can find all the media for it by clicking here. All the messages are great, but let me especially recommend the messages from Day 1: Tim Keller's message on idols from Acts 19, as well as Piper, Ryken, and Driscoll. Highlights for me on Wednesday were the message by Edward Copeland, and the two great workshops by Joshua Harris and CJ Mahaney. On Thursday I really enjoyed the final message on finishing well by Ligon Duncan, and the 1 Corinthians 9 message by D. A. Carson.

Acts

2009-04-04T17:10:00.001-07:00

Tomorrow morning at The Stream we're starting a new sermon series in Acts that will go for the next several months. Come join us - it's going to be informative and fun!!! 10 AM at the Scouting Resource Center (7220 S. Paradise Rd. Las Vegas, 89119).

A Better Word

2009-03-30T07:36:00.000-07:00

At The Stream we just finished a 10-week message series on Genesis 1-4. In Genesis 4 there is the account of Cain and Abel with the terrible crime of Cain killing his own brother. When the Lord speaks to Cain about this he says "the voice of your brother's blood is crying to me from the ground." (Genesis 4:10)

Within the first generation after Adam and Eve, we see the decline into deeper depths of depravity. Sin corrupted Adam and Eve in Genesis 3, and as we come to Genesis 4 it's crystal clear that sin didn't stop with Adam and Eve. It's alive and well in the next generation. Cain kills his own brother Abel, and Abel's blood cries out to the Lord from the ground.

As Genesis 4 continues we see deeper depths of depravity with one of Cain's kids (a descendant generations later) named Lamech. Lamech demonstrates depravity in Genesis 4:23-24 in taking two wives (a violation of Genesis 2:24 where marriage is established as something between one man and one woman); and we see demonstrations of depravity in Lamech's pride and revenge. Lamech kills a man for simply wounding him (you think Lamech has some pride and anger issues?) and then he boasts of taking revenge seventy-seven fold.

Jesus later in Matthew 18:21-22 contrasts Lamech's depravity, pride, and revenge by countering this perspective with forgiveness. How many times are we to forgive? Seven times? No Jesus says: seventy times seven, and he didn't mean keep count and stop at four hundred and ninety - he meant continually!!!

You see because of Jesus, his death on the cross for sins, and his resurrection from the dead there is a way to be delivered from depravity and death. It is a gift of God's grace that is to be received through faith in Jesus. When we receive this ourselves, it's a whole lot easier to forgive others. Why? Because if we've received God's love and forgiveness, we've been forgiven ourselves, so rather than revenge we extend forgiveness.

Jesus makes this possible, for Jesus' blood speaks a better word:

Hebrews 12:24 and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. (ESV)

Abel's blood cried out for justice, Jesus' blood brings both justice and mercy. It brings justice because a punishment is made for sin, but that punishment is taken by Jesus. It brings mercy and forgiveness because by grace through faith in Christ sin can be forgiven - not just some sin, and not just once, or twice, or seven-fold, or even seventy-seven fold, but continually. Jesus blood speaks a better word.

Death Valley National Park

2009-03-20T09:49:00.000-07:00

Last weekend a small group of us from The Stream headed over to Death Valley National Park. We camped for a night, then explored an area of the park I've always wanted to see: The Racetrack Playa. This is the place where the rocks move and leave a trail behind them. Scientists have not been able to figure out HOW the rocks actually move. We were tempted to make a funny video, with someone mentioning the mystery of the moving rocks and then having people in the background pushing them. But we resisted disturbing the beauty of this natural environment. Here's a few photos my wife Lauren took. The black and white one looks a bit Ansel Adams-like to me.

The Christian Ministry and Prayer

2009-03-18T09:49:00.000-07:00

I've been reading Charles Bridges (1794-1869) classic book The Christian Ministry, something I heard pastor CJ Mahaney recommend. In this book I recently read some challenging comments related to the Christian ministry and prayer:

"Without prayer, a Minister is of no use to the church, nor of any advantage to mankind. He sows; and God gives no increase. He preaches; and his words are only like "sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal." He recites the praises of God; while "his heart is far from Him." It is prayer alone, then, that gives the whole strength and efficacy to our different administrations: and that man ceases, if I may use the expression, to be a public Minister from the time he ceases to pray. It is prayer, which supplies him with consolation in all his labours; and he celebrates the ordinances of religion, as the hireling performs his work - he considers them a heavy task, or a severe imposition, if prayer doth not assuage his troubles, or console him for want of success... The most eminent Minister will be most ready to cry out - "Give Thy servant an understanding heart." For of how little avail are the most splendid talents, the most mighty eloquence, and the most devoted diligence, except the unction be brought down from heaven by frequent and fervent supplication!"
(Charles Bridges, The Christian Ministry, pp. 147-148.)

Vegas Myths

2009-03-16T17:21:00.000-07:00

The Las Vegas Review - Journal carried this article in yesterday's Sunday paper about Vegas Myths. One of particular interest to me as a pastor and church planter here in Vegas is the myth that Las Vegas has more churches per capita than any other U.S. city. Such a statement tends to carry a substantial amount of shock value, after all this is "Sin City" right? So the thought of more churches per capita here than anywhere else in the U.S. - most people go "no way!"

But the reality is according to the LVRJ is there is one house of worship per every 3,000 residents. That means at least 3 things: 1) "Sin City" certainly has "plenty of room" (i.e. need) for more churches that preach the gospel and teach the Bible 2) Existing churches have plenty of people they can reach with the gospel 3) There's no need for a perspective of competition among churches in reaching people because there's plenty of people to be reached (we are a city of 1.8 million according to the article!).

Proverbs 24:11

2009-03-11T21:17:00.000-07:00

Rescue those who are being taken away to death; hold back those who are stumbling to the slaughter. (Proverbs 24:11,ESV)

I was reminded of this verse this morning as I drove to work. I first heard this verse from Pastor Luis Centeno in North Philadelphia while on a mission project there in the summer of 1994. He preached a whole sermon on this one verse to our medical mission team (The Summer Medical Institute) during our training time for the work we were doing that summer. It struck me afresh and anew this morning when another friend shared it in one of his sermons that I was listening to on my mp3 player. Something was stirred up in my soul when I first heard this verse years ago, and I think it was stirred again today.

Strong words, a vivid image, disturbing, challenging, yet also indicative that rescue can be a reality.

The Fall of Man

2009-03-08T19:30:00.000-07:00

This morning's message at The Stream was on the extremely relevant passage of Genesis 3. Part one was this morning, part two will be next weekend. To listen click here.

God's Provision

2009-02-23T07:51:00.001-08:00

Las Vegas, perhaps even more than other places, has been hit by the economic downturn. Just yesterday for example the Las Vegas Review-Journal mentioned the decline in the median home prices in the last year by zip code. Throughout all but one of the zip codes across the valley there was a drop in the median price of a home. In most zip codes this drop was between 25-40% - and that is just in the last year! FYI, you can check this out here.

Despite the economic downturn, one thing doesn't change. God is a good God who provides for his people. Yesterday, at The Stream, as I shared from Genesis 2:4-17, I mentioned that God shows us this right from the very beginning of creation.

A little helpful reminder for this in addition to thinking about Philippians 4:19 is to reflect upon your life, specifically with this question in mind: "How has God shown his faithfulness to provide for me in the past?" My guess is that doing this for even 5-10 minutes will help you recall numerous ways God has provided - such as time, friends, a job, guidance in a decision, or resources!

From this time of reflecting upon God's provision what will probably spring up in your heart is thankfulness, appreciation, and greater trust and hope in God for whatever is ahead.

Made in God's Image

2009-02-09T14:12:00.000-08:00

Yesterday at The Stream I spoke on this immensely important issue ... to listen in just click here.

Happy New Year!

2009-01-01T08:04:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year! I don't know if you're the reflective type, but a lot of people tend to do that this time of year. Reflecting back on the past year, considering the year before them. I think that this in general is a great thing, and resolutions that people make in conjunction with such reflection can motivate, give direction, and help people accomplish things they might not if they had no vision to accomplish them.

Our family celebrated the end of 2008 with a matinee in the late afternoon by seeing Marley & Me. It was recommended to me by our office manager Gina and was a downright good movie that ended up being much, much better than I expected. The movie made me much more appreciative of our fairly new bichon puppy, who really is an "Angel" compared to the dog in the movie. On a deeper level, the movie moved me to thankfulness for the blessings in life, especially my family.

When we got home our family did some reflection upon the last year while eating dinner together. We went around the table, each person looking back on the past year and commenting on favorite parts, worse parts, that sort of thing. In this time what inevitably came forward were several things to be thankful about, huge blessings actually.

Then just a few minutes ago I read this from Calvin's Institutes which very appropriately fits as you, your family, or my family reflects on life and any blessings found therein.

By piety I mean that union of reverence and love to God which the knowledge of his benefits inspires. For, until men feel that they owe everything to God, that they are cherished by his paternal care, and that he is the author of all their blessings, so that nought is to be looked for away from him, they will never submit to him in voluntary obedience; nay, unless they place their entire happiness in him, they will never yield up their whole selves to him in truth and sincerity.

(Calvin's Institutes, vol. 1, Book First, ch. 2, electronic version)

Thought that these were good thoughts for the New Year!

Let it be so, Lord, that we recognize that we owe everything to You and may we place our entire happiness in You, yielding our whole selves to You in truth and sincerity!

God Bless and Happpy New Year 2009!