Hey Joseph! I'm pregnant!

Tonight is Christmas Eve and it is the time we celebrate Christ's birth.  Not to mention, it's the largest sales season for the retail market thanks to all of us for buying stuff.  But let's talk about the real reason for the season, and consider some things we often overlook.

Now the Bible tells us that an angel appeared to Mary and told her that she would become conceive and give birth to a son, whom she was to name, "Jesus".  Then, an angel appeared to Joseph, Mary's fiancee, to tell him that Mary had conceived and that they were to be married.  Now let's be serious for a minute.  Guys, can you imagine having your girlfriend tell you they were expecting and that the baby was going to be the Son of God?  Better yet, can you imagine telling all of your family and friends that your girlfriend was pregnant, but you swear the two of you haven't been doing the, "The Wild Thang"?  "Really, I swear, it's not my baby!"  Kind of give new meaning to the phrase, "My baby's mamma"

During Mary and Joseph's time, the reality is that Joseph could have denied Mary, accused her of having sex with another man, and Mary would have been stoned to death.  And Joseph, well he could have just found him another girl and moved on.  But we all know that's not what happened.  I think it's really easy for all of us to comfort ourselves and say that it was easier for them back then.  I submit that it was much harder and that the people that God chose to use, were people of extreme faith in him. I also think they faced serious persecution and the threat of persecution.  Let's face it, Mary knew she could've been stoned but trusted God to deliver her.

As you hang out with your family this year, let's consider the cost of why we celebrate and remember to honor God in a way that give him all of the credit!!  Merry Christmas!!

Encouragement?

"Edify stupid!! Edify!" When I was in college at North Greenville (at that time it was a College) University, I had a group of friends with whom we used to jokingly use the above statement.  The word "Edify" means to uplift, enlighten, and inform.  For those of you that know me, you can already sense the sarcasm in the phrase.  However, our aim was at, "Church People" and how "Church People" were almost always the first people to kick a brother while he was down!  For the record, there is a huge difference between "Church People" and "Christians" (or as my Pastor Dean Herman calls it, Radical Followers of Christ) which has been explained in previous blogs.

When Paul wrote the first letter to the Church of Thessalonica (1 Thessalonians), we see Paul's heart and passion for encouraging others.  The Church of Thessalonica, was a very young Church and was experiencing sever persecution, confusion about Jesus' return, and many people returning to an evil way of life.  To put it in today's terms, they were victim of politics, rumors, and peer pressure.  The difference between now and then is that Paul chose to encourage and uplift, "Edify", his young brothers and sisters in Christ instead of brow beating them from the pulpit of another Church.  In 1 Thessalonians 5:11, Paul writes, "So speak encouraging words to one another. Build up hope so you'll all be together in this, no one left out, no one left behind.  I know you're already doing this; just keep doing it. (The Message Translation)" 

Many times I find myself wanting to smack somebody in the back of the head and ask, "Do you know how to use your head from more than a helmet rest?!"  But the reality is, if we truely want to reach our community for Christ, we must learn to love like Christ!  And one of the ways Christ loved, was through encouragement.  We must, no I must, learn to encourage others if I am to reach my community!  My challenge to you is that you will make a special effort to encourage somebody today!

"You're Going to Hell if...."

"You're going to hell if....."  Now how many of us have heard that statement before?  If you live in the South, no doubt you've heard that statement many times.  "You're going to hell if you don't quit smoking", "You're going to hell if you don't quit drinking.", and "You're going to hell if you don't go to church on Sunday morning, Sunday evening, and Wednesday night." rank among my favorites.  If you've read my posts prior to this one, you've no doubt read my comments about the differences between "church people" and "Christians".  My Pastor, Dean Herman, speaks of this difference on nearly every service.  There is such a difference, the main stream media even had fun with "Church People" back in the 1990's with the Saturday Night Live sketch, "The Church Lady".  What most Church People choose not to see, is that in God's eyes, sin is sin.  Now don't freak out, because the same God that recognizes that sin is sin, is the same God that loved us enough to send his Son to die for us. 

God isn't some all powerful Greek God-like being that is sitting on the high throne with a baseball bat waiting to whack us in the head every time we mess up.  God does have a plan for each us that is designed to prosper us and not to harm us (Jeremiah 29:11).  I know I do my share of messing up; makes me wonder if God looks on me and shakes his head from time to time as if to say, "Dang boy, you really thought that one through didn't you?  But remember, sin is sin.  Any sin in our lives separate us from communication with God since God cannot look on sin (which by the way is why he sent his son to die on the cross for OUR sins).  There is no such thing as big or little sins.  God DOES NOT have a grading scale for sin; it is what it is.  The fact of the matter is, the only thing that will send us straight to Hell, is not accepting Christ as our Lord and Savior (This is what Church people call, "Being Saved"). Everything else are things that, in my words, hurt God's feelings.  Romans 6:23 says, (I like the New Life Translation for this one) "You get what is coming to you when you sin. It is death! But God’s free gift is life that lasts forever. It is given to us by our Lord Jesus Christ."  The God that has so richly blessed us with so many things, only wants to have a relationship with each of us.  And when we sin, WAIT! Let me tell you what sin really is!  Sin is things like lying, cheating, stealing, overeating, overworking, neglect, disrespect, being a dead beat dad or mom, gossip, lust, hate, bad attitudes, and many more! Did I mention GOSSIP?  Anyway, when we sin, it's like slapping God in the face and saying, "Thanks God for letting your son be starved, tortured, and then murdered on public display, but I've got an image to keep..."  I mean, how long would it take us to dump a friend or spouse if they treated us the way we treat God?  Good thing he doesn't measure us with expectation the way we measure others.

If you've managed to read this far, I hope you find my blog useful.and encouraging.  My challenge to myself and all of you, is to work on forgiveness and compassion for the coming year.  My goal is to love everyone around me just as Christ has loved me!  After all, how can we ask God to love and bless us, if we're not willing to do the same?

Revival What?!

I grew up in a culture where Revival was something that happened at least once a year.  Revival is was what the culture we were around called a full week of church services that lasted sometimes two hours a night.  Sometimes they would have guest speakers and music.  As a child, I hated revival because we were expected to sit in the service quietly and listen to what God had to say to us.  Now let's be realistic for a minute...How well do you think that worked out for an ADHD child like me?!?!  "Not too good" is how.  I mean even Jesus had a special way of dealing with children, but the Church of my time didn't see it that way.  As the years went on, the revival sessions became shorter and shorter.  In fairness, the most memorable revival times I remember were the old fashion tent revivals.  In my memory, there were more salvations in those tents than there ever were inside the Church.  Now don't get me wrong, my life changing experience came from a Revival service on February 6th, 2008.  My main point here is that Revival is SO MUCH MORE than a ritual series of services.

So what is Revival?  Our Church, 5Point Church in Easley, SC (http://www.5ptchurch.us/) is currently experiencing "Revival".  Our Pastor, Dean Herman (deanhermanonline.com) is leading the charge for Revival in our area.  Last Sunday, there were 46 Salvations and five salvations this morning during the first service alone!!  God is moving, simply because hearts are broken for the lost.  So what do I mean by Revival?  The "Free Dictionary Online" lists the word "revival" as,
re·viv·al  (r-vvl)

n.

1.

a. The act or an instance of reviving.

b. The condition of being revived.

2. A restoration to use, acceptance, activity, or vigor after a period of obscurity or quiescence.

3. A new presentation of an old play, movie, opera, ballet, or similar vehicle.

4.

a. A time of reawakened interest in religion.

b. A meeting or series of meetings for the purpose of reawakening religious faith, often characterized by impassioned preaching and public testimony.

5. Law Renewal of validity or effect, as of a contract or judicial decision.

I think number two would be most applicable to us.  You see, Revival, in my opinion, is the next closest thing to Salvation.  Revival is a life changing experience that should shaken our very foundation.  It should remind us of how comfortable we've become and how awesome of a God we serve!  It should remind us of the love God has for us and cause us to want to share him with everybody!  Revival should remind us of how blessed we are, how much God has given us, and how much we owe him.  Pastor Dean spent a lot of time this morning talking about Saul's (you may know him better as Paul) salvation and everything leading up to that salvation.  Dean reminded all of us that today is the day we should share Christ with others.  He took it a step further and taught the church how to develop and share your testimony.

I wonder, do people see a good reflection of Christ in me?  I think that is the heart of revival; change my heart o God!!!!

"The Love of God, is greater far..."

Today we visted a new church in our area and had a great time.  The kids immediately asked once in the car leaving church, "Can we move to this church?!"  They were excited to be there and wanted to go back.  Traci and I had a great time as well.  It was great to be around old friends again, even though we are the eldest of our friends.

The Pastor preached from Matthew 21:12-16 where Jesus ran the gamblers and money hounds out of the temple and he specifically related the passage to the "passion" that Jesus had for the Church.  In the message, the pastor encouraged all of us to want to attend church every time the doors were open as this was the passion of Jesus.  I'm not sure that was the point of the passage though.  I think that God was sending a greater message. 

If you look at verse 14, the bible tells us that once he had run the thieves out of the temple, the blind and the lame came to him and he healed them.  But, the "Religious Leaders" (according to The Message translation; the King James calls them, "Chief Priests") were upset when the children began running around shouting about the great things Jesus had done for those blind and lame.  In fact, the bible says, "they were indignant", or they were "Feeling or showing anger or annoyance" (according to a google search).  Now, why didn't the religious leaders get upset about the gambling and other deeds going on in the temple?  Why did they feel it was ok to "defile the temple" but not ok for Jesus to heal people?  Did you know that the Jewish culture of that day beleived that if you were blind, cripple, or had any other disability that you or your family had obviously committed a major sin against God and that was your punishment?  The blind and cripple were outcasts!  They did not meet the standard of the Jewish Church of that day!  How fat have we come in today's church following the example of Christ?  Or, are we leaning more toward the example of the Jewish culture of Christ's day?

I think the real message of that passage was the love of God!  "How rich and pure!  How measureless, and Strong!!!!"  Such a love that God would send his son to heal the crippled, give the blind their sight, and heal our broken hearts!  Jesus didn't care about what the Church of that day thought, rather he was much more concerned about sharing God's love anyway he could.  Are we sending the same message?  Are we helping people heal, or are we adding to the wounds?

What do you think about Church?

Recently, I conducted an online survey with simple questions about church and asked friends on Facebook to take the survey.  Only 22 people responded to the survey, but I think it gives us a clear picture of the status of several things.  See below;

1. What age group do you fall into?  36.4% of those responding were between the ages of 27 and 35.
2. Which type of music do you like best? This was a tie between "Modern rock/Contemporary" and "Gospel" both having 36.4%
3. Where do you feel most relaxed?  An overwhelming 45.5% responded "Home" while only 4.5% responded "Church".
4. Do you attend church at least once a week? 81.8% responded "Yes"
5. What denomination best describes you? An overwhelming 77.3% responded, "Southern Baptist"
6.  Do you enjoy your time at church? (Be honest) 72.7% responded yes
7.  What do you like most about church? 68.2% said they like the "Message/sermon" best
8. What do you dislike most about church?  This is one that is interesting to me.  Above, we so many things that participants like about church, but the number one thing they dislike the most about church is, "The lack of sincerity with 56.3% of the vote.
9. If you could change anything about church, what would it be?  This was a short essay response with only 11 out of 22 participant responding.  See below for what they had to say;

1.	First off, am I really middle age? :-) #8 is the hardest question to answer. I really enjoy my church (Brushy Creek, Easley). While it is not perfect i believe most are sincere, the music is uplifting and glorifying. The preaching is by the Book. Dislike the most about church... let the lost see Christ's love in us. Keep the rules/regulations (dress right, look right, smell right, etc) in the middle school.	Fri, Oct 15, 2010 3:45 AM	Find...
2.	That I could go everynight, or at anytime I needed to just go in and pray at the alter. Open doors 24-7 but I understand why we can't...thiefs & vandels. And NO I am NOT catholic.	Thu, Oct 14, 2010 10:27 PM	Find...
3.	the pastor	Mon, Oct 11, 2010 11:00 PM	Find...
4.	The way some people act like they are better than others but then again i guess you find that everywhere!	Mon, Oct 11, 2010 6:32 PM	Find...
5.	Staet earlier on Sunday.	Mon, Oct 11, 2010 5:53 PM	Find...
6.	Matthew I can not answer #8. There is nothing that I dislike about church and being there. Dont know that I would change anything, I do wish more people would yield to the Holy Spirit and His call.	Mon, Oct 11, 2010 5:23 PM	Find...
7.	Nothing	Sun, Oct 10, 2010 7:12 PM	Find...
8.	i would change the messages the pastor preaches. sometimes it seems like the preacher is just talking and not really preaching from the bible.	Sun, Oct 10, 2010 6:05 PM	Find...
9.	the church as an institution instead of as a place for healing,salvation,and worship	Sun, Oct 10, 2010 4:37 PM	Find...
10.	To stop worrying about the small thing, God will take care of those.	Sun, Oct 10, 2010 11:17 AM	Find...
11.	Get more people in the church, have the people already in church be there for God, not for appearance.

It appears to me that we are not successful in our presentation of the modern day church.  It's clear to me that most people don't feel like their needs are met by the church as indicated in Questions # 8 identifying the lack of sincerity.  How do we fix such a problem?  We know now that what one of our major problems as the church is, now let's work to fix it.

What Changed?

What Changed?

So what changed for me?  Well, after my life changing experience with Christ (church people call it salvation, or being saved), God granted me a passion to see lives changed for him.  I wanted people to see that God loves them no matter what they look like, how much money they have, what they wear, or what color their skin is.  I wanted people to know that God loves them even when they've played Church their entire life.

God had blessed our church with an abundance of youth and children on Wednesday nights.  In fact, we ran three and four buses multiple trips just to keep the kids coming.  Many of the kids came from abusive homes, most came from broken homes, and some were convicted juvenile offenders.   I mean, if you wanted a target rich environment for sharing the love of God, this was it!!  But you see, the Devil isn’t really open to God’s people sharing the gospel with people that need to hear it; especially our youth and children.  In fact, he will do whatever he has to do to stop such a good thing, even if he has to use other Church members to do it.  You see, most Christians fail to realize just how significant Jesus’ life on Earth was.  They fail to see that Christ changed an entire culture.  Just look in the bible (if you don’t have one, visit www.biblegateway.com) at the book of John, Chapter 4, beginning in verse 4 through verse 9.   You see, Jesus and the disciples were Jews, and according to the Bible, the Jews despised the Samaritans.  In fact, if a Jew were to be discovered talking to a Samaritan, criminal charges could be brought against the Jew.  But Jesus knew that the Love of God had no limitations and that same love was much greater than man made traditions.   In this passage, Jesus met the Woman at the Well and asked her for water and ultimately proceeded to witness to her.  In that time, no self respecting Jewish man would be caught dead with a Samaritan prostitute.  But again, Jesus knew her need to hear about the love of God.  Compare this passage with what goes on in most churches today.  Seems like we’ve become modern day Jews looking down on the Samaritans.

In my case, most of the leadership of the Church I was in at the time, decided that the youth and children needed a written dress code in order to attend our church.  Simply put, the leadership of the church wasn’t willing to accept the youth and children as they were.  They failed to see, like the Jews failed to see, that the love of God didn’t put limitations on the clothes the kids wore.  In fact, Jesus is quoted as saying in Matthew 19:14 Jesus said, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these."  The leadership of our Church felt they weren’t seeing a “Change” in the youth thus the need for a dress code.  Many of us stood our ground and protested the policy with numerous scriptural references with little biblical reference to substantiate the actions of the leadership.  I felt at this time as though God was leading my family and I to move on.  I realized shortly thereafter that I was extremely Spiritually Wounded.  In fact, my whole family was wounded and in desperate need of healing.  My sister had invited us to visit with her and her husband at their church, Golden Corner Church, which met on Sunday mornings in the Walhalla High School.  She insisted that we come as we are and that we not dress up.  As I write this blog, we have been attending Golden Corner ever since and below are some of the things God has revealed to me.

1.       God created the family before he created the church- This is obvious if we begin in Genesis when God created Adam and Eve.  In fact, the Church didn’t come about until many years later, and when it did, the Church was not indicative of a building or structure. I wonder if Moses built a church building every time they camped while in the wilderness?  Many Christians believe that church attendance is essential to Godliness and while important, it does not rank as high as our family.  After all, what church was Jesus a member of while on Earth?  What if, we spent more time with our kids than we did arguing about the paint on the walls?  What would society be like when their generation is in charge?

2.       God could really care less about what we wear to Church on Sunday morning- This became evident to me one Sunday after church.  We went to Ryan’s in Seneca after the service for lunch.  Golden Corner’s service began at 10:00am and was usually over by 11:30 so we beat the typical Baptist crowd by about 30 minutes.  As the usual church crowd began filtering in, I noticed many of the people wearing suits and dresses kept giving me mean looks because I was wearing a tee shirt, shorts, and flip flops.  I wonder if those people have ever read, 1 Samuel 16:7
But the LORD said to Samuel, "Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart."

3.       God wants us to enjoy worshipping him- Why would God want somebody to worship him out of obligation?  Would you want somebody to go out with you or marry you out of obligation?  Of course not and neither does God.  Contrary to popular belief, it is not biblical that we sing three hymns, take the offering, have a message, and an invitation in that order.  God desperately longs for a relationship with us and wants to have meaningful communication with us.  One of the many ways we communicate with God is through worship.

Now, I don’t mean to lump all Baptist’ in the same wagon.  There are many Baptist churches that come to mind how are actively engaged in community outreach.  I think it is more appropriate that I should equate my opinions to, “traditional church goers”.  I’ll admit, it’s tough to minister to people of different cultures, races, upbringings, and backgrounds, but what exactly do we think Jesus did?  Jesus didn’t care about the Jewish law forbidding contact with Samaritans!  I’ve learned that God’s love is greater far than an old “traditional church goer” like me…