Posts
All Comments
Have you ever wondered what the word, "Evangelical," means and where the movement came from? Here is a link to an excellent article by eminent historian Mark Noll from Christianity Today magazine's website on that very subject, entitled, "Where We Are and How We Got Here."
Don't worry, I am not going on an extended "rant" about this, but I want to pass on a further link of interest concerning the last item I posted about NBC's decision to not air Veggietales videos without editing out certain references to God. On Rick Warren's Pastors.com website there is this item contrasting NBC's stance on Madonna's mock crucifixtion, their stance on controversial cartoons regarding Islam, and their stance on mentions of God in Veggietales. It is worth reading!
If you have small children, grandchildren, close friends who have small children, or spend any time at all with small children, you have probably heard of the Christian cartoon series called, "Veggietales." In the words of their creator, they blend, "Sunday morning values and Saturday morning fun." While browsing the Men of Legacy website a few moments ago, I noticed that NBC has decided to air thirty minute Veggietale shows on Saturday morning, after editing them for what they consider to be inappropriate references to God.
Having lived in France for a number of years, I have long since stopped expecting commerical media to conform to my spiritual values and convictions, but as a parent of a four year old and a seven year old, for a mainstream media outlet like NBC to regularly air some of the trash they do during prime time, without any concern for its impact upon viewers, including children, but to then remove generic references to God (remember, these are not even references to Jesus...!) from Veggietales shows in order not to offend, strikes me as absolutely insane. CNN's news item on the subject states concerning Veggietales's creator,"Had he known how much he would have to change the show -- including Bob and Larry's tagline, 'Remember kids, God made you special and he loves you very
much,' that concludes each episode -- Vischer said he would not have signed on
for the network deal. 'I would have declined partly because I knew a lot of fans
would feel like it was a sellout or it was done for money,' he said, adding that
'there weren't enough shows that could work well without those (religious) references.'"
This link will take you to the item on the Veggietales website that gives more of their response to the stir this has caused. My frustration, by the way, is not with the creators at Big Idea Productions - I understand why they made this decision and have nothing but respect for their integrity and the great blessing they have been to so many children - but with what I perceive to be a very hypocritical approach and evident bias at NBC.
Now that I've got that off my chest, I feel much better...! (Smile!)
Here is a cute item that was part of a missionary newsletter that I received today from Greg and Cristi Nemer at www.missionswithpurpose.com
Cell Phone vs. Bible
I wonder what would happen if we treated our Bible like we treat our cell phones?
What if we carried it around in our purses or pockets?
What if we turned back to go get it if we forgot it?
What if we flipped through it several times a day?
What if we used it to receive messages?
What if we treated it like we couldn't live without it?
What if we gave it to kids as gifts?
What if we used it as we traveled?
What if we used it in case of an emergency?
What if we upgraded it to get the latest version?
This is something to make you go...hmmm...where is my Bible?
Oh, and one more thing. Unlike our cellphones, we do not ever have to worry about our bible being disconnected because Jesus already paid the bill!
Have a blessed day!
This coming Sunday, I am going to be preaching a message entitled, "Simeon's Song," taken from the prophetic praise uttered by an elderly man who was waiting at the Temple the day Jesus was circumcised. This episode is part of the Gospel of Luke, chapter two. You can listen to this passage online for free by clicking here. This particular version of the audio Bible is my favorite. I find I can actually listen to it and follow it.
You need to download and install the free, Realplayer by clicking here if you have not already done so. Please note that there are two versions of Realplayer, one is free and the other one must be purchased. The link I have just provided you should take you directly to the free player download. For more information, check out Realplayer's website by clicking here.
While preaching this morning, I mentioned in passing six things God did for Gideon in Judges chapter six. Each one corresponds to something God says to us as we respond to His call upon our lives...
1. I will be with you.
"11 The angel of the Lord came and sat down under the oak in Ophrah that belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, where his son Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress to keep it from the Midianites. 12 When the angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon, he said, “The Lord is with you, mighty warrior.”" (Judges 6:11-12, NIV)
Gideon had a hard time believing this because of the very difficult circumstances he found himself in. He responded to the angel's greeting by asking,
"13 "But sir," Gideon replied, "if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all his wonders that our fathers told us about when they said, ‘Did not the Lord bring us up out of Egypt?’ But now the Lord has abandoned us and put us into the hand of Midian."" (Judges 6:13, NIV)
And, yet, the Lord was already with him. Sometimes, God takes us through a difficulty instead of around a difficulty. Jesus made us the promise that He would always be with us, no matter what would come our way.
"20 ... I am with you always, to the very end of the age."" (Matthew 28:20, NIV)
2. I will send you.
"14 The Lord turned to him and said, “Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian’s hand. Am I not sending you?”" (Judges 6:14, NIV)
The angelic visitor turned out to be the Lord Himself, something theologians call a “pre-incarnation Christophany,” i.e., God showing up in the flesh before He was born in a manger at Bethlehem. Rather than agreeing with Gideon’s self-assessment that he had been abandoned by God and was incapable of delivering Israel from the hand of the Midianites, the Lord commanded Gideon to go anyway. Jesus wants to send each of us somewhere to do something for someone in His name.
"21 Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.”" (John 20:21, NIV)
3. I will help you.
"15 “But Lord,” Gideon asked, “how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family.” 16 The Lord answered, “I will be with you, and you will strike down all the Midianites together.”" (Judges 6:15-16, NIV)
"34 Then the Spirit of the Lord came upon Gideon, and he blew a trumpet, summoning the Abiezrites to follow him." (Judges 6:34, NIV)
What God promised, He delivered. The Spirit of the Lord “came upon” Gideon, giving him supernatural power. Jesus promised each one of us the help of the Holy Spirit when we respond to His call.
"8 But 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 1:8, NIV)
4. I will show you.
"17 Gideon replied, “If now I have found favor in your eyes, give me a sign that it is really you talking to me. 18 Please do not go away until I come back and bring my offering and set it before you.” And the Lord said, “I will wait until you return.” 19 Gideon went in, prepared a young goat, and from an ephah of flour he made bread without yeast. Putting the meat in a basket and its broth in a pot, he brought them out and offered them to him under the oak. 20 The angel of God said to him, “Take the meat and the unleavened bread, place them on this rock, and pour out the broth.” And Gideon did so. 21 With the tip of the staff that was in his hand, the angel of the Lord touched the meat and the unleavened bread. Fire flared from the rock, consuming the meat and the bread. And the angel of the Lord disappeared." (Judges 6:17-21, NIV)
Gideon asked God for a supernatural confirmation of His promise, and God graciously granted his request. Later (verses 36-40), Gideon “put out a fleece” before the Lord, but it is interesting to note that his faith continued to grow until he recognized the voice of God so distinctly, and was so entirely persuaded of the Lord’s faithfulness, that he stopped asking for signs.
Sometimes God grants our requests for confirmation when we are unsure of His direction. After all, He wants us to be sure of His will, but we should never “put out fleeces” before the Lord when we already know what God wants us to do. Practices such as opening the Bible at random and taking whatever verse the eye falls upon, etc., are very unwise and can lead us astray. Rather, we should seek to walk so closely with God that we are able to clearly discern His voice.
5. I will speak to you.
"25 That same night the Lord said to him, “Take the second bull from your father’s herd, the one seven years old. Tear down your father’s altar to Baal and cut down the Asherah pole beside it. 26 Then build a proper kind of altar to the Lord your God on the top of this height. Using the wood of the Asherah pole that you cut down, offer the second bull as a burnt offering.”" (Judges 6:25-26, NIV)
That very night, after the angel had disappeared, God spoke directly into Gideon’s spirit. He no longer needed the angel to tell him what God was saying. Supernatural experiences and encounters with God are always intended to draw us into a deeper, ongoing relationship with Him. The word God gave Gideon was a very specific plan of action. He was to take a particular bull (the second one), do a particular thing (tear down his father’s altar and Asherah pole, a occultish fetish meant to resemble a human phallus), and offer a sacrifice in a particular way (use the wood from the altar and the pole to provide the flame that would consume the flesh of the bull.) In a similar way, when God showed Moses on the mount the pattern for the tabernacle, He gave him very detailed instructions.
Sometimes, God initially gives us only general direction, but other times when He speaks a word to us it is very specific. He told Elijah, for instance, first to go to a particular brook, and then to a particular widow’s house in 1 Kings 17. If we feel called by God to a particular thing and are carrying a word from Him in our hearts, but all we have is a dream and not a plan, then we may just be a dreamer and not a leader!
6. I will protect you.
"27 So Gideon took ten of his servants and did as the Lord told him. But because he was afraid of his family and the men of the town, he did it at night rather than in the daytime. 28 In the morning when the men of the town got up, there was Baal’s altar, demolished, with the Asherah pole beside it cut down and the second bull sacrificed on the newly built altar! 29 They asked each other, “Who did this?” When they carefully investigated, they were told, “Gideon son of Joash did it.” 30 The men of the town demanded of Joash, “Bring out your son. He must die, because he has broken down Baal’s altar and cut down the Asherah pole beside it.” 31 But Joash replied to the hostile crowd around him, “Are you going to plead Baal’s cause? Are you trying to save him? Whoever fights for him shall be put to death by morning! If Baal really is a god, he can defend himself when someone breaks down his altar.” 32 So that day they called Gideon “Jerub-Baal,” saying, “Let Baal contend with him,” because he broke down Baal’s altar." (Judges 6:27-32, NIV)
When Gideon stepped out to obey God, he knew he was undertaking a very dangerous assignment. His faith was not yet strong, but he acted upon a very important principle enunciated by the angel, “Go in the strength you have.” (verse 14) Gideon was too afraid of his family and the men of the town to confront the forces of darkness in broad daylight, as Elijah would do in 1 Kings 18, so he did it under cover of darkness.
When an angry mob surrounded his home demanding retaliation, it was his own father who protected him by speaking a word of wisdom! Because Gideon obeyed the Lord’s command with what faith he had, God protected him through granting him favor with his father, the owner of the altar and pole he had destroyed! It does not matter how few friends or allies we may feel that we have in a given circumstance, when God commands us to do something, He will take care of us as we do it.
Most of the time, my posts on this blog have something to do with the life of our church or my personal spiritual journey or the life of my family, etc. After posting the comment below about the new photo my team chose, I thought you might enjoy seeing a few links to a couple of my favorite paintings.
In the National Gallery of Art is one of Rembrandt's renderings of the Apostle Paul. (Click here to view it.) Although Rembrandt painted Paul more than once (click here and here and his self-portrait as the Apostle here), my favorite is the one in Washington, perhaps because I once had the opportunity to view it in person. If you want to know more about some of Rembrandt's other depictions of Biblical scenes without having to surf museum websites from around the world, check out the following downloadable pda file from the Getty Museum's website. (Click here).
Rembrandt depicted many common, everyday scenes with tremendous grace and beauty. I believe this was in part due to the influence of the Protestant Reformation upon his perception of truth and spirituality. During the Middle Ages, a false conception of spirituality had arisen that included a false dichotomy between the material and the spiritual, with "holy" people portrayed only in "other worldly" ways including such things as halos around their heads, etc. The Reformers understood that we should live all of our lives under the lordship of Christ and that "secular" activities such as baking bread or trading in commerce could bring Him glory when done as acts of worship to Him.
On a lighter note, as a lover of good books, I always chuckle and admit I see a bit of myself in a painting hanging in the rare book room of the Milwaukee Public Library entitled, "The Bookworm." (Click here or here) I do not know much about the artist, Carl Spitzweg, but while looking for a link to point you to, I also came across his humorous, "The Poor Poet." (Click here)
In my sermon this morning, I referred to a statement the prophet Isaiah made:
" 1 Listen to me, you islands; hear this, you distant nations: Before I was born the Lord called me; from my birth he has made mention of my name. 2 He made my mouth like a sharpened sword, in the shadow of his hand he hid me; he made me into a polished arrow and concealed me in his quiver. " (Isaiah 49:1-2, NIV)
After service, a young man in our church named Gabriel Lazaro was talking with me and said something like this, “God is the archer, the church is the bow, and the members are the arrows.”
What a beautiful image...! God creates us for a special calling and then sends us forth to fulfill that destiny through our local church after working in our lives like an archer straightening the shaft of his arrows so they will fly strait and true toward the target.
This is what took place in Acts chapter thirteen:
" 1 In the church at Antioch there were prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen (who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch) and Saul. 2 While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” 3 So after they had fasted and prayed, they placed their hands on them and sent them off. 4 The two of them, sent on their way by the Holy Spirit, went down to Seleucia and sailed from there to Cyprus." (Acts 13:1-4, NIV)
Saul had already been sovereignly called by God on the road to Damascus while he was still a persecutor of the church. No church leader of that time would have chosen Saul, later known as Paul, to become an apostle and one of the world’s first cross-cultural missionaries, but God called Saul anyway, without consulting with church leadership. Writing about spiritual gifts later on, Paul declared, “All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he gives them to each one, just as he determines.” (1 Corinthians 12:11) God reserves the right to call who He wants to, when He wants to, where He wants to, to whatever ministry He wants to, without asking anyone’s permission or needing anyone’s advice.
Having called Paul, God then took several years in Tarsus and the deserts of Arabia to fashion Paul into an arrow He could use. Notice the clear biblical pattern. Having called Paul through a direct, Holy Spirit encounter, the Lord then sends him out into the ministry He called Him to through a local church. God calls people directly but He wants to send them through a local church. This is the biblical pattern and this is the vision of Hillcrest Church:
“To BRING everyone we can into a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, HEAL them everywhere they hurt, and TRAIN them to live according to biblical principles so they can LEAD by serving others as we SEND them to make disciples of all people everywhere.”
Sometimes the process of being fashioned into an arrow God can use is painful, but it is also extremely important. God calls some of us to go across an ocean, He calls others to go across town or across the street or across the backyard fence, but He wants to send all of us somewhere to do something for someone. Our local church leadership is committed to helping you walk through the BRING/HEAL/TRAIN/LEAD/SEND discipleship cycle so you can find your place in God’s plan and fulfill your destiny.
There are three simple things you must do in order for that to happen. First, you need to get into God’s manifest presence through regular times of prayer and worship. Second, you need to get into God’s Word through your personal devotions and our public worship services. Third, you need to get into God’s harvest by reaching out to those who do not know Jesus. It will amaze you how quickly God’s plan for your life will begin to unfold as you consistently take those three important steps.
Let’s go for the goal...!
Blessings!
Pastor Mark
Last summer, I felt impressed to take this motto for this school year as a Christian and as the Senior Pastor of our church, "No reserves, no retreats, no regrets!" Those phrases were made famous by one of the 20th century's Christian heros, William Whiting Borden. While I was preparing for my sermon this morning, I came across the following links that tell more about this amazing man:
Short synopsis: http://thetask.org/thETASK/Heroes/Aug03/default.asp
Photo from Cairo, Egypt: http://www.wheaton.edu/bgc/archives/bulletin/bu0308.htm
Other photos from around the world trip: http://www.wheaton.edu/bgc/archives/bulletin/bu0506.htm and
Evangelistic tract Borden wrote, entitled, "What does it mean to be a Christian?": http://www.wheaton.edu/bgc/archives/bulletin/bordentract.htm
Short book on his life: William Borden
Blogger Template: Minima White (Douglas Bowman) | 3-column - width 960px (Thur Broeders)
