I noticed this past week that the 2010 football season has begun. The Saints took down Minnesota 14-9 this past week and so, here we go again! I am not a really big sports follower not like my good friend Bill Williams. He always impresses me with his extensive knowledge of sports trivia, fun facts and names and dates. He's a fun guy to watch games with. I just hang around the living room sidelines and eat the chips and dip! I love how everyone seems to have favorite teams and the bantering and bravado that is displayed for or against said teams. I am a Redskins fan, primarily because of demographic preference.
I'm not the week after week team follower but like most people I get caught up in the mania of the "Super Bowl". I tell folks that I only watch it for the “commercials” but there is more to it than that. I love the drama! There is something almost primal inside of each of us that gets drawn into the contest of champions. I can still hear the quote from the “Highlander” movies in my head even now “There can be only one”.
I always rout for the underdog because in my heart that’s who I am. I love the interceptions because they fill me with hope. I cringe at that 2 minute warning because it tells me that time is running out, my choices are limited and I must perform now! The concept of teamwork is never more evident than when 2 teams line up face to face on an open field of battle. (Excuse me, I mean on a football field)
Then you have the commentators (or Bill) with all the statistics and facts and numbers and history. The instant replays, the missed throws, the fumbles, the tackles and all those stupid referees! No wonder I’m an emotional wreck the following morning.
What we by the millions tap into on Super Bowl Sunday is the dream chaser that lives inside of us all. God, in all His wisdom put that winner’s drive inside the very heart and soul of man and then places us in the stadium of life to watch us play. For a long time I though God was the referee. Now I realize He’s my biggest fan. He’s the great encourager and motivator.
The apostle Paul put it this way - “You've all been to the stadium and seen the athletes race. Everyone runs; one wins. Run to win. 1 Corinthians 9:24 (Message)
We all have those dreams that fill our hearts and minds with desire and anticipation. God says “go for it”, “chase those babies”. Make today your Super Bowl Sunday - just pass me the hot dogs and a Coke!
Monday, September 13, 2010
Friday, September 10, 2010
The Slippery Slope of Truth!
“What is truth?” – Pontus Pilate while interrogating Jesus
“You can’t handle the Truth” - Jack Nicholson in “A Few Good Men”
Most people will give you an opinion as truth. After all, it’s truth to them. So, obviously it should be true for you as well. Hundreds of religions around the world claim a corner on the truth and just as many will tell you why everyone else is wrong!
So, what is truth?
This is the question of all questions. The Truth is that we are most often unprepared for Truth, which is why I believe that Truth is revealed to us progressively. (A little bit at a time)
I’ve been a Christian for many years now and I am amazed at how many things I thought were “true” as a young believer in Christ 30 years ago that I no longer see in the same light.
As a young Christian I believed that anyone who smoked cigarettes was a sinner and going straight to Hell – not so. If someone drank alcohol or had a TV set …BAM! – Straight to Hell. I was absolutely convinced that this was the truth! I shared it with many people in my youthful exuberance and fiery zeal and won some over and turn off a lot more. It didn’t matter if they didn’t see it – I had the truth!
Wow! I shake my heard today at the naiveté I lived in and am very grateful for the love and mercy of God to continually put up with my self-righteousness and to help bring me out of my truth and into His truth.
Jesus said “I am truth”
Truth is a person! not a set of do’s and don’ts.
Truth comes from our relationship with Him and getting to know Him and what he is like The book of Hebrews tells us that God spoke in many different ways in the past but now has relegated all of His speaking to us through His manifesting Himself as a Son!
All that we will ever need to know about “Truth” is in the life example of Jesus Christ!
At one point His disciple said to Him “show us the Father” (What is truth?) He replied “If you see me then you see the Father”
The problem with Christianity today is that we have lost our connection to God. We have embraced creeds and concepts, ideologies and theologies and have created a way to God that has missed the point completely.
Jesus is Truth!
How did He live? How did He love? What was His way towards people?
If we accept that Truth is a person and totally give ourselves to knowing Him (not about Him) then truth will begin to change us.
Jesus put it this way: You shall know the Truth and the Truth shall set you free. The key here is clear. It is not truth (facts and figures) that changes us – it is the truth that we know, we embrace, we accept. That Truth that comes from walking with Him and hearing His voice and learning His ways will set us free.
John 18:37 … and everyone who belongs to the truth knows my voice. CEV
“You can’t handle the Truth” - Jack Nicholson in “A Few Good Men”
Most people will give you an opinion as truth. After all, it’s truth to them. So, obviously it should be true for you as well. Hundreds of religions around the world claim a corner on the truth and just as many will tell you why everyone else is wrong!
So, what is truth?
This is the question of all questions. The Truth is that we are most often unprepared for Truth, which is why I believe that Truth is revealed to us progressively. (A little bit at a time)
I’ve been a Christian for many years now and I am amazed at how many things I thought were “true” as a young believer in Christ 30 years ago that I no longer see in the same light.
As a young Christian I believed that anyone who smoked cigarettes was a sinner and going straight to Hell – not so. If someone drank alcohol or had a TV set …BAM! – Straight to Hell. I was absolutely convinced that this was the truth! I shared it with many people in my youthful exuberance and fiery zeal and won some over and turn off a lot more. It didn’t matter if they didn’t see it – I had the truth!
Wow! I shake my heard today at the naiveté I lived in and am very grateful for the love and mercy of God to continually put up with my self-righteousness and to help bring me out of my truth and into His truth.
Jesus said “I am truth”
Truth is a person! not a set of do’s and don’ts.
Truth comes from our relationship with Him and getting to know Him and what he is like The book of Hebrews tells us that God spoke in many different ways in the past but now has relegated all of His speaking to us through His manifesting Himself as a Son!
All that we will ever need to know about “Truth” is in the life example of Jesus Christ!
At one point His disciple said to Him “show us the Father” (What is truth?) He replied “If you see me then you see the Father”
The problem with Christianity today is that we have lost our connection to God. We have embraced creeds and concepts, ideologies and theologies and have created a way to God that has missed the point completely.
Jesus is Truth!
How did He live? How did He love? What was His way towards people?
If we accept that Truth is a person and totally give ourselves to knowing Him (not about Him) then truth will begin to change us.
Jesus put it this way: You shall know the Truth and the Truth shall set you free. The key here is clear. It is not truth (facts and figures) that changes us – it is the truth that we know, we embrace, we accept. That Truth that comes from walking with Him and hearing His voice and learning His ways will set us free.
John 18:37 … and everyone who belongs to the truth knows my voice. CEV
Thursday, September 9, 2010
Caution: Religious Bigotry at work!
Why is it that we Christians always seem to be against things! It's like we are always focused on the things we hate, dislike, are evil, do harm, cause problems, are bad for you ... etc!
I got hit yesterday by the evils of vampires. Vampires! are you kidding? I am sure that people for the most part are well intentioned and truly believe that cataclysmic damnation is coming upon anyone who reads "____________" you fill in the blank (It changes all the time) but the reality is that we do more harm with our religious hysteria than good.
When did God ever intend for us to become the guard dogs of someone else's personal conscious? Why do we use our own convictions (misguided as they often are) as the standard of righteous living for everyone else? What arrogance! What blind religious bigotry.
Oh, I know the preponderance of scriptures that are used to defend one position over another and then all the cries of "loving the sinner but hating the sin" as justification to put forth your own agenda, interpretation or denominational bias on people!
We expect people to embrace our convictions or else they are wrong, damned, imperiled, deceived or blinded by Satan. The next step is we write them off and have nothing to do with them. Yeah, that’s Christ like!
We use the scriptures as weapons of mass destruction to intimidate, hurt, accuse and attack people and the whole while believe we are doing God's will. (An example of this is the nice people from Westboro Baptist Church spewing forth their hateful venom at Gays and US servicemen) Ah, the Love of God in action!
I thought the Holy Spirit was the one that worked on men's hearts to bring them to Christ.
I thought the ministry gifts were put in the church to help build up and edify people.
I though God would move in my life and circumstances to bring me into a closer walk with Him.
Why are we trying to do God's work - man's way?
Col 2:20-23 If then you have died with Christ to material ways of looking at things and have escaped from the world's crude and elemental notions and teachings of externalism, why do you live as if you still belong to the world? [Why do you submit to rules and regulations?--such as]
21Do not handle [this], Do not taste [that], Do not even touch [them],
22Referring to things all of which perish with being used. To do this is to follow human precepts and doctrines.
23Such [practices] have indeed the outward appearance [that popularly passes] for wisdom, in promoting self-imposed rigor of devotion and delight in self-humiliation and severity of discipline of the body, but they are of no value in checking the indulgence of the flesh (the lower nature). [Instead, they do not honor God but serve only to indulge the flesh.] (AMP)
I love this scripture! Why are we trying to make other people serve God by imposing rules and regulations and even what movies to see or not see? This is only religious man trying to satisfy his own sense of "moral uprightness" and it is a sham, a joke and a dishonor to God!
Stop trying to be someones conscious! We have the word of God and the Holy Spirit to do that. People answer to Him not to you. Stop judging other's lives and actions and accept people and love them where they are at!
If you don’t agree with me - pray for me and entrust me into the hand of the one who started the work in my life and He claims that He is faithful to finish it.
I really believe that in reaching out to the world and in my everyday relationships we should live by the Moravian principle "In essentials, unity; in nonessentials, liberty; and in all things, love."
Essentials: God loves us and Jesus died for our sins and if I receive Him as my savior I am a child of God
Nonessentials: Everything else!
Try it - you might see a big difference in the way people react to you when you love them instead of always trying to control them or change them!
I got hit yesterday by the evils of vampires. Vampires! are you kidding? I am sure that people for the most part are well intentioned and truly believe that cataclysmic damnation is coming upon anyone who reads "____________" you fill in the blank (It changes all the time) but the reality is that we do more harm with our religious hysteria than good.
When did God ever intend for us to become the guard dogs of someone else's personal conscious? Why do we use our own convictions (misguided as they often are) as the standard of righteous living for everyone else? What arrogance! What blind religious bigotry.
Oh, I know the preponderance of scriptures that are used to defend one position over another and then all the cries of "loving the sinner but hating the sin" as justification to put forth your own agenda, interpretation or denominational bias on people!
We expect people to embrace our convictions or else they are wrong, damned, imperiled, deceived or blinded by Satan. The next step is we write them off and have nothing to do with them. Yeah, that’s Christ like!
We use the scriptures as weapons of mass destruction to intimidate, hurt, accuse and attack people and the whole while believe we are doing God's will. (An example of this is the nice people from Westboro Baptist Church spewing forth their hateful venom at Gays and US servicemen) Ah, the Love of God in action!
I thought the Holy Spirit was the one that worked on men's hearts to bring them to Christ.
I thought the ministry gifts were put in the church to help build up and edify people.
I though God would move in my life and circumstances to bring me into a closer walk with Him.
Why are we trying to do God's work - man's way?
Col 2:20-23 If then you have died with Christ to material ways of looking at things and have escaped from the world's crude and elemental notions and teachings of externalism, why do you live as if you still belong to the world? [Why do you submit to rules and regulations?--such as]
21Do not handle [this], Do not taste [that], Do not even touch [them],
22Referring to things all of which perish with being used. To do this is to follow human precepts and doctrines.
23Such [practices] have indeed the outward appearance [that popularly passes] for wisdom, in promoting self-imposed rigor of devotion and delight in self-humiliation and severity of discipline of the body, but they are of no value in checking the indulgence of the flesh (the lower nature). [Instead, they do not honor God but serve only to indulge the flesh.] (AMP)
I love this scripture! Why are we trying to make other people serve God by imposing rules and regulations and even what movies to see or not see? This is only religious man trying to satisfy his own sense of "moral uprightness" and it is a sham, a joke and a dishonor to God!
Stop trying to be someones conscious! We have the word of God and the Holy Spirit to do that. People answer to Him not to you. Stop judging other's lives and actions and accept people and love them where they are at!
If you don’t agree with me - pray for me and entrust me into the hand of the one who started the work in my life and He claims that He is faithful to finish it.
I really believe that in reaching out to the world and in my everyday relationships we should live by the Moravian principle "In essentials, unity; in nonessentials, liberty; and in all things, love."
Essentials: God loves us and Jesus died for our sins and if I receive Him as my savior I am a child of God
Nonessentials: Everything else!
Try it - you might see a big difference in the way people react to you when you love them instead of always trying to control them or change them!
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