Thoughts on Christ and His Word

How is your Greek Mythology? Do you know who Mentor was? In Greek mythology, Mentor was a friend of Odysseus who placed Mentor in charge of his son Telemachus when Odysseus left for the Trojan War. When he returned from the war he found that his boy had grown up to be a man, thanks to his friend Mentor. We use the word “mentor” today to mean a father-like teacher or a wise and trusted counselor. In the early church we could see this type of relationship between Paul and Timothy. Paul wrote: But you know that Timothy has proved himself, because as a son with his father he has served with me in the work of the gospel. Philippians 2:22 Pastor Johnny Hunt encourages pastors and Christian leaders to look for men to mentor. He gives two qualifications to look for: “men who are hungry, men who are teachable.” I wonder sometimes as I am praying for our church how many men do we have in our church that are “hungry” and “teachable”. How many men do we have that are hungry for more of God in the

In the old sitcom Hogan’s Heroes, German Colonel Klink was a very insecure leader. He so lacked confidence in himself and his ability to make right choices, that he often sought after and accepted the advice of his enemy - American Colonel Hogan. Klink distrusted everyone – Sergeant Shultz , the Gestapo, General Bulkarter – except Hogan, which is why we won WW II. But seriously, insecure leaders don’t know how to trust others because they constantly feel inadequate themselves, believing others are out to take away what they have – their position, job, wealth, etc… In his book on leadership, Johnny Hunt writes: A secure leader believes in others…a secure leader only increases in confidence when those around him succeed and become more secure themselves. They derive no pleasure from seeing others going underchallenged or kept under wraps. The secure leader’s desire is to see as many people as possible released for viable and effective ministry. They want for others what they want for

On July 25 th of 2010, an Australian airliner - a Qantas Airbus A380 - made an emergency landing in Manila after part of its fuselage came off at 29,000 feet. Passengers were terrified as they saw flames coming from the engine and airplane part breaking off. The integrity of the plane was was being destroyed. Dictionary.com defines "integrity" as "the state of being whole, entire"... Definitely the integrity of the Qantas airplane was lost as its "wholeness" was disintegrating right before the very eyes of its passengers. Pastor Johnny Hunt writes that one of the ways a leader remains effective in ministry is by living with integrity. He writes: ...integrity is what happens when the tongue in your mouth and the tongue in your shoes are all going the same direction---when what you say and what you do are in perfect alignment. Integrity carries the idea of wholeness, unity, and truthfulness...Part of our high standard as leaders requires living

Pastor Johnny Hunt from First Baptist Woodstock wrote a book called "Building Your Leadership Resume". In it he writes a chapter on the importance of passion in leaders. Here are two quotes: Passionate leaders develp a 'whatever it takes' mentality. They know their life's calling. They know the purpose and direction God has given them...They're willing to face the inevitable challenges of leadership with drive, guts, and get-after-it persisitence. Passion sees no unstopable barriers. It will plow through, jump across, or dig under any obstacles. Where some see a dead end, passion sees a possibility. Where some grow tired from the struggle, passion is energized to see it through. Where some are ready to quit, passion rocks on. Passion is only getting started when others are conceding failure. This is the kind of passion God is looking for in his leaders. Paul wrote: Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. Romans 12:11 Zeal, f

"Loose Lips Sink Ships" was a slogan used by the U.S. government during World War II to encourage people and news organizations not to discuss information about ship and troop movements that could help enemy spies. The Apostle James wrote about loose lips and its correlation to spirituality. If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless. James 1:26 The Bible is saying that a person who does not have self-control over what they say is really a self-deceived, nonspiritual person. What kind of person "does not keep a tight rein on his tongue" ? Gossipers - They share private information about other people to people who are not part of the problem or of the solution. Usually this is done with a critical and condemning spirit of the person they are talking about. James says the are self- deceived . The Rude - They use their mouths to rip into other people, usually being criti

Have you ever asked "Why in the world am I here?" Everyone at one point or another question why they exist. This is God's pre-installed program in each of us to draw us to Him. Paul told the Thessalonians that he was praying for them, that though God's power he may "fulfill every good purpose of yours and every act prompted by your faith. 12 We pray this so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ." 2 Thessalonians 1:11-12 God has a purpose for every one of us. He has a plan for our lives. With God's power we could see his purpose fulfilled in our lives. As we live out God's purpose for us we will dream of "acts prompted by...faith." We will want to do greater things for God. Paul prays that God would fulfill those things in the Thessalonian church. I'm sure Paul would want the same thing for each one of us today. The one thing we must

In 2 Corinthians 6:1 Paul urges us "not to receive God's grace in vain." In other words "grace" should produce something in our lives. Grace is somewhat like eating. Eating is not an end in itself. We don't eat just to eat some more later. We eat to live, and we live to relate to God as our father, do good to others, and build God's kingdom. And so it is with grace. We don't get grace just to get more grace. We get grace to have the power of God to do good to others and expand the kingdom of God. Paul called himself and Timothy "fellow workers" of the saint in Corinth. That is what grace is to make us - "fellow workers" building God's kingdom.

While reading John Piper’s book “Don’t Waste Your Life” I came across the story of America’s first overseas missionary – Adoniram Judson. He was determined to take the gospel to the people of Burma in Asia. Before he went he asked the father of Ann Hasseltine for her hand in marriage. He did through a letter in which not only was he asking to marry his daughter but for her to be his missionary partner in far away Burma. This is what he wrote… “I have now to ask, whether you can consent to part with your daughter early next spring, to see her no more in this world; whether you can consent to her departure, and her subjection to the hardships and sufferings of missionary life; whether you can consent to her exposure to the dangers of the ocean, to the fatal influence of the southern climate of India; to every kind of want and distress; to degradation, insult, persecution, and perhaps a violent death. Can you consent to all this, for the sake of him who left his heavenly home, and died

What are things you like to be full of? Chocolate cake? Fajita steak? Baby-back ribs? The other day I was filled with a California Club Pizza from California Pizza Kitchen . It was great. But now let's get spiritual. God wants us to be filled with His Spirit. God knows we need the Spirit in order to do effective ministry and live our lives the way God wants us to. In Acts 1 Jesus told the apostles to wait until they received the power of the Holy Spirit before they started ministering to the people. "Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. 5 For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit."...you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." Acts 1:4-5, 8 Filling preceded Ministry. Fullness precedes Fruitfulness. Are you filled with the Spirit? If

Perhaps you are wondering, what’s an “ezer”? An “ezer” is the thing (really the person) God created to help Adam. The LORD God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him." Genesis 2:18 “Ezer” is the Hebrew word for “helper”. So when God, out of His love for Adam, decided to create a helper for him He created a woman. Now to call the woman a “helper” was neither a demeaning role nor term. The Bible, using the same Hebrew word “ezer”, calls God our helper: We wait in hope for the LORD; he is our help and our shield. Psalms 33:20 God is our “ezer” – “Helper, one who comes to the aid of another” Far from being a demeaning role, Eve was Adam’s helper (his “ezer”) just as God is our Helper – our “ezer”. Ladies, God has given you a role that He himself bears. The greatest ministry you can do for God is to act as His human agent in helping your husband when he needs you – and HE DOES NEED YOU!

Have you ever quit something? I quit my little league baseball team as a kid years ago. I couldn't see well and I feared getting hit with the ball. So I quit, showing that I was not a baseball person. The Apostle John tells us that not everyone who is among us and looks like a good Christian is really a born again belieliever. They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us. 1 John 2:19 Anyone who runs ahead and does not continue in the teaching of Christ does not have God; whoever continues in the teaching has both the Father and the Son. 2 John 9 The fact that they would leave us (and/or all Christian churches) and reject "the teaching of Christ " -His deity, humanity, payment for sins on the cross, and His ressurection - reveal that they do "not have God " nor ever "belonged " to Christ's body (us). It's not

"I always feel like somebody's watching me" was a big hit in the 80's. It was about a paranoid young man who felt he was being watched and stalked all the time. The Bible discourages us from living a fearful and paranoid life, but it does encourage us to be "watchful". Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. Colossians 4:2 Being watchful for what? Two things pop into my mind --- danger and opportunity. Peter tells us to watch out because the devil is prowling around to see who he can devour. I think Paul's admonition to be watchful follows this line of thinking - to be careful of all the deceitful and harmful doctrine he had written to them about. Additionally, I think Paul meant for them to pray being watchful for opportunities to share Christ with others. In the very next sentence Paul asks the church to pray for him - for an "open door" to share Christ. Then he tells the church to be wise in how they deal with unbelievers

I heard Rick Warren say recently: “All of our human problems come from a failure to understand God’s love.” Rick Warren (Radicalis Conference) If not 100% true, it certainly is close to that. I find that in my life and in dealing with the lives of others, most of our internal struggles (which lead to all kinds of emotional and relational problems) come from not understanding nor grasping the love God has for us. Paul prayed the following for the church in Ephesus: I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18 may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge — that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Ephesians 3:17-19 Follow Paul’s line of thinking and prayer. He prayed that the church would be: · rooted and established in love · may have power… to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ · to know this love that s

Those were the last words of William Wallace (Mel Gibson) in the movie “Braveheart”. An interesting bit of theology is that God gives freedom while Satan loves to take it away. Now that sounds odd because God has rules and laws for us to follow while Satan seems to encourage us to do whatever we want (which sounds a lot like freedom). In the New Testament God talks about us having “freedom” in Christ and through God’s Spirit. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 2 Corinthians 3:17 Phillip Yancey in his book called “Prayer - Does it Make a Difference?” helped me sort out this confusion of God giving freedom and Satan destroying it. He wrote: The Bible draws a strong contrast between the freedom-crushing style of evil and the freedom-respecting style of good. In a vivid scene of possession by an evil spirit, Mark 9 shows a young boy foaming at the mouth, gnashing his teeth, and throwing himself into fire or water... forcibly overwhelming hum

Some say that “experience is the best teacher.” But there are two ways to learn from experience. One way is to learn from your own experiences. This is when life pounces on you and you learn what you ought to do and what you should not do. This type of experience can hurt and be very costly. It gives you the test first and then the lesson. The other way is to learn from the experience of others. You observe how life pounces on them due to wrong decisions; you take notes; and apply the wisdom to your life. In his book “Leadership Gold” John Maxwell writes a story that illustrates this point: One day a fox, a wolf, and a bear “went hunting together, and after each of them caught a deer, they discussed how to divide the spoils. The bear asked the wolf how he thought it should be done. The wolf said everyone should get one deer. Suddenly the bear ate the wolf. Then the bear asked the fox how he proposed to divvy things up. The fox offered the bear his deer and then said the bear ought to t

Are you a morning person or a night owl? The people of Jerusalem were so fascinated with Jesus' teachings that regardless of their personal sleep preferences they came out bright and early to hear Him. Each day Jesus was teaching at the temple, and each evening he went out to spend the night on the hill called the Mount of Olives, 38 and all the people came early in the morning to hear him at the temple. Luke 21:37-38 Some of us like to have our time with God in the afternoon or evening, but their is something special about seeking Him in the morning. David sought God through prayer in the morning: In the morning , O LORD, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before youand wait in expectation. Psalms 5:33 Jesus himself would wake up early to spend time with his Heavenly Father: Very early in the morning , while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed. Mark 1:35 OK, maybe it's hard for some people, bu

Have you ever gone fishing? I like fishing. Most of the time the fish don't cooperate with me. They eat my bait, laugh at me, and swim away. Perhaps I should say "I'm going to feed the fish" rather than "I'm going fishing". Some of the apostles were fishermen when Jesus called them into ministry. They used nets to catch fish rather than poles - you can catch many more fish with nets. One day after a bad day of fishing (I know the feeling) Jesus tells Peter to launch the boat again and drop their nets. Peter reluctantly rowed his boat back into the lake. He and his fishing buddies dropped the nets and "When they had done so, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break. So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them, and they came and filled both boats so full that they began to sink." (Luke 5:6-7) Wow! From a bad day fishing to the best fishing day ever? The difference? Jesus. But why did Jes

Hills are harder to walk than flat land, especially the older you get. Old people like to stay on flat land. It's easier on their knees and hearts. Some young people are old mentally, they don't want to climb hills or walk up mountain trails - "it's too hard" they whine; "I'm tired" they cry. They prefer the comfort of a couch than the glory of taking on a hill. Not so for Caleb. He was the leader of his clan and when the Israelites were in the middle of taking over the promised land he wanted the most difficult place to conquer. He asked for the hill country where the Anikites (huge NBA type people) lived. And catch this - he was 85 years old. 10 "Now then, just as the LORD promised, he has kept me alive for forty-five years since the time he said this to Moses, while Israel moved about in the desert. So here I am today, eighty-five years old! 11 I am still as strong today as the day Moses sent me out; I'm just as vigorous to go out to bat

How would you like to receive this command from God? "Go and marry a cheating wife." This is exactly what God told the prophet Hosea to do. The word of the LORD that came to Hosea...the LORD said to him, "Go, take to yourself an adulterous wife Hosea 1:1-2 Why would God ask him to do such a thing? Did God want to ruin his life? Although this was a great sacrifice to ask of his prophet, God wanted to make a point, and a BIG one: That He loves us even though we act like a cheating wife. After Hosea marries Gomer (her name alone should have kept every man away from her) she sells herself into prostitution. And not just any common prostitution, but a shrine prostitute - one who has sex as a worship ritual to other gods (idols). This relationship should have ended right there. But God had other plans. The LORD said to me, "Go, show your love to your wife again, though she is loved by another and is an adulteress. Love her as the LORD loves the Israelites, though they

What do singing love songs and prophesying have in common? People love to hear hear both and then walk away and ignore them. People love the poetry, deep meaning and the great voices in a love song, but few are committed to the hard practices of love. Similarly, people love to go to church and hear a beautiful sermon, but few are willing to put the principles exposed by the preacher into practice. "What a nice sermon" is often heard after a Sunday message, but many people return to their sinful practices and attitudes on Monday. God told Ezekiel that this is what the people were doing after his messages: My people come to you, as they usually do, and sit before you to listen to your words, but they do not put them into practice. With their mouths they express devotion, but their hearts are greedy for unjust gain. 32 Indeed, to them you are nothing more than one who sings love songs with a beautiful voice and plays an instrument well, for they hear your words but do not put th

Ezekiel was a Jewish prophet in Babylon. As a young man of about 25 years old he was uprooted from his homeland in Israel and taken captive to a town by the River Chebar in Babylon. From there God gave him a mission to preach to his fellow captives in Babylon, to send prophetic messages to the Jews that were left in Israel, and to prophecy against other nations for their wicked behavior. One concept rings out throughout the book: That "they will know that I am the Sovereign LORD" Ezekiel 28:24 Over 50 times in his book, Ezekiel writes this phrase or a similar one. God has always wanted the people of the world to know him and to worship Him - the one and only true God. Today, we have been given the same mission as Ezekiel. Our geographic location might be different, our methods are different, but the bottom line is the same - that the people might know that God is "the Sovereign LORD". Our mission is the Great Commission - to preach the gospel to all creation. Let&