Category Archives: Life

A Very Personal Blessing

Posted on by
Reply

Bad news about the global financial system is pouring out of our news media as if from a fire hose.  For anyone out there who has been tempted to trust in Mammon, I offer my condolences.  This is no doubt a very tragic and stressful time for you.

I would also offer the encouragement that trusting in Jesus and Him alone is not so bad.  It can even be kind of fun once we have the right perspective.  For example, take this experience from a week or so ago. 

The Lord had been speaking to my heart through recent Bible studies about giving.  After talking and praying it through with Ginger, when I recently received my paycheck, we decided to give most all of it back to the church.  It seemed like the right thing to do.  How surprising it was to then receive a check in the mail for $1000 a few days later from some out-of-state friends. 

Now let’s be clear, our donating large sums of money to our church is not very common.  Even more unusual is our receiving large unexpected cash gifts.  I wouldn’t have mentioned either except that I felt this was a story that needed to be shared.  It makes the reality of serving a Living God just that much more real to us right now.

“And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus. Now to our God and Father be glory forever and ever. Amen.” – Philippians 4:19-20 (NKJV)

No Intelligence Allowed

Posted on by
Reply

Remember Ben Stein – the excruciatingly dull teacher from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off?  He’s also a former presidential speech writer (Nixon!! and Ford), an economist, author and an attorney (Yale Law School valedictorian 1970).  He writes regularly for NYTimes and Yahoo! Finance.  I want to recommend his recent controversial movie Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed.  It’s about to come out on DVD and you can advance order it.  By the way, Ben adamantly denies writing the line “I am not a crook” for R.N.

Expelled is a humorous, maybe even sarcastic, documentary examining the exclusion of intelligent design from the mainstream academic world, despite some reasonably intelligent advocates.  The film is extremely polarizing – because the subject is exptemely polarizing.  You will like it if you put your faith in an intelligent Creator who is behind all that exists.  You will hate it if you put all your faith in Darwin.  Amazon rates it at right about 2 1/2 stars – probably the average of lots of 5s and 1s.  Again, I recommend the movie, though I’m sure it’s made a Ben Stein a lot of enemies.

If you want to check it out here’s a website:

http://www.expelledthemovie.com/

If you want to go so far as to advance order it, here’s a link to Amazon.com:

Order Expelled on Amazon.com

If you want to read an interview with Ben in the Toronto Star here it is:

Toronto Star Interview June 2008

 And then there’s Ben’s own website:

http://www.benstein.com/

Guard Your Heart

Posted on by
1

Sin begins in the heart.  The lust, the greed, the envy, the anger and every other evil thing starts there – deep within.   The words of Jesus don’t leave much room for interpretation:

“For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. These are the things which defile a man, …” – Matthew 15:19-20 (NKJV)

Therefore, how crucial it is that we protect our hearts from the junk that naturally forms there, collects there and then begins to rot.  Consider the wisdom of Proverbs 4:23:

“Keep your heart with all diligence,
     For out of it spring the issues of life.” (NKJV)

Or, as the New Living Translation puts it:

“Above all else, guard your heart, for it affects everything you do.”

Let’s be careful what we think about, what we meditate upon and in what directions our hearts might tend to go when we aren’t keeping them under control.  The psalms reveal how prayer and the application of the Scriptures contain the remedies discovered by ancient men of God:

“Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart
          Be acceptable in Your sight,
          O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer.”
                                        – Psalms 19:14 (NKJV)

“Your word I have hidden in my heart,
          That I might not sin against You.”
                                        – Psalms 119:11 (NKJV)

Keeping our hearts in the right place takes effort, but the Lord is right there to help us in guarding them if we avail ourselves of His strength.  The Holy Spirit in the heart of every believer in Jesus is more that sufficient for the task.

Paul’s Faithful Sayings #5

Posted on by
Reply

This is the last of five faithful sayings, which all appear in the pastoral epistles.  This is the only one not given to Timothy, but rather to Titus.

“This is a faithful saying, and these things I want you to affirm constantly, that those who have believed in God should be careful to maintain good works.These things are good and profitable to men.” – Titus 3:8 (NKJV)

The people of God are to be known for doing good.  A righteous life, a life of charity and blessing to others, is the essential outcome of a life-changing faith.  Somewhere I’ve heard it said that “Faith that does not change your lifestyle cannot change your destiny.” 

O how true that is.  Consider the woman I spoke with at an Indianapolis bus stop the other day while handing out gospel tracts.  In an apparent effort to positively identify with my faith in Christ, she smilingly told me, “My baby’s daddy is a preacher.  And he’s trying to get a divorce right now so that we can get married.”  I’m ashamed to say I was so astonished that I was nearly struck dumb at that point.  In disbelief I think I blurted out a “What!?” only to have her repeat herself and cheerfully reinforce the gloomy truth.  No coherent response even entered my befuddled mind.  Where’s Paul the apostle when you need him?  Suffice it to say his counsel is still needed:

“These things I want you to affirm constantly, that those who have believed in God should be careful to maintain good works.”