The Fear Of Giants

I heard a quote from the writings of the Chinese Martyr, Watchman Nee yesterday...He stated that: "Giants will never destroy you...the fear of giants is what will destroy you!"

When I heard that quote I immediately felt like it was written for me alone. Sometimes I feel afraid to even face the problems in life and they end up destroying me anyways. Don't be like the Israelites in the desert when they got to the promised land...they were afraid of the huge giants that occupied the land. You know the rest of the story after that.

Life Is Meaningless! Or Is It?

For My 100th post here on my blog I begin a series from the book of Ecclesiastes. I decided to do this because last night during my normal Bible reading time, I was compelled to read through the whole book at one time! Ecclesiastes was the next book in my reading straight through the scriptures and even though I have read it before, studied it in classes, etc. it never has opened my eyes more than it did last night! As we notice the decline of Christianity in our society, evil overtaking our politics and schools, families being destroyed by sinful desires, and the economy declining due to bad decisions...the reasons why are in this book!

Ecclesiastes was written by "The Teacher" who is general considered to be Solomon, the son of David. When you look at his life, his decisions, his sins, you can know he has authority on speaking on making wise decisions and placing the priority of earthly materials in life. Here are a few verses that popped out at me and bit me like a snake last night.

Ecc. 1:18 For with much wisdom comes much sorrow; the more knowledge, the more grief. I can relate to this being in the ministry. It seems it is best not to know everything about everything! The more you know, the more responsibility you have to deal with issues..."the more grief" as Solomon said.

Ecc. 2:24 A man can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in his work. This too I see is from the hand of God. I have often heard about people who once they retired from working after 50+ years have gone into depression and have died! They lost the one thing that kept them going and "satisfied" The key to having satisfaction after retirement is to not stop working for the Lord!

Hard To Get Along With Someone?

We all have that someone at work, school, church, family, etc. that we just have a hard time loving and getting along with! What do you do with them? Click Here for the answer! You may not like it.

Wisdom From A Cracker Jacks Box

I always seem to find significance in the small things in life. I enjoyed a snack of Cracker Jacks yesterday, it had been a while and someone left some in the Fellowship Hall here at church so I grabbed them. Anyways...It was the prize inside that struck my interest. When I was a kid, the prize was actually a toy of some sort or maybe even a temporary tattoo, but all I got was a piece of paper with a picture on it that you are supposed to tape on your pencil as a "topper"

being rather irritated (I mean, who uses pencils anymore?) I was going to toss it all when I noticed some writing on the back of the prize wrapper about pencils. It says:

"Fun Fact" - A typical pencil can write 45,000 words or draw a continuous line for 35 miles! Having that information to me was more valuable than the pencil topper itself. I have a tendency to ponder on the meaning of ordinary things (see the oyster cracker post) so I came up with a spiritual comparisons on the Christian life and pencils.

1. I rarely use pencils...Christians rarely use God, the Bible, Prayer, Faith, etc.

2. Pencils need to be sharpened to work properly...Spiritual disciplines sharpen our lives to

help us fight the battle as is mentioned in Ephesians 6:10-20.

3. A good feature about pencils is that you can erase mistakes...God erases our sins when we

repent and ask forgiveness, bringing us back into right fellowship with Him.

Just as the fact that pencil can draw a line about 35 miles shows...it has to continually be pressed down and moving, keeping it s sharpness, and not quit working. Paul addressed this idea of perseverance in 1 Corinthian 9: 19-27 by using a race illustration. A runner must keep himself in training for the race, run with all the intention of winning the prize, and to win means he must finish. Are you quitting your race? Is your spiritual life dull and need sharpening? Almost all pencils get thrown away before their usefulness is over. We as Christians should not quit running this race in life, "keep on keeping on" as they say!

I'm Up Before the Firing Squad Today!

Tomorrow Evening at 6:00 p.m. I will be taking the next step in my ministry and becoming ordained. Many have chosen to be ordained before entering college and their first "jobs" at a church but I chose to wait. I had never been approached with being ordained by any of the churches I had been a part of and I feel it is the duty of the church to recognize, nominate and ordain someone. I've always felt that if I was the one to bring it up or ask to be ordained it would be selfish.
Today is my ordination counsel here at church. I'll be sharing with other pastors, deacons of the church, and others about my testimony, call to ministry, education goals, theological beliefs (which is the part I'm worried about answering...I know what I believe, but some of my views aren't the traditional Southern Baptist's), and whatever else they decide to hurl my way.
When someone gets ordained there is a orientation of praise, recognition of achievement, etc. and I don't want that. Yes I will have the "REV." before my name from now on, but it's a prefix I don't want to flaunt around like some in the media light do. Anyways...I hope I come out alive!

Can You Get "Moon-Burned"?

As I am writing this, the moon is very bright and full outside! For those of you actually got to see the lunar eclipse last night you are lucky (too cloudy in Florida to see) I was out enjoying life and walking around my apartment complex which I do when I want to think about things...I noticed the moon. Have you ever just stopped and stared at that thing? I ended up laying on the hood of my car and did nothing but stare into the brightness of the full moon. It's amazing that you can actually see the craters and spots from earth with the naked eye. I'm no expert on the moon but I do know that we only see one side of the moon ever due to its rotation timing with the earth's. This idea got me thinking about how Christians show only one side of their lives to people around them.

Christians seem to always get stereotyped as being hypocrites and such by society and there are many many many of them that deserve that title. Christians try to only show their better side when they are with people...who wants to show their dark side anyways right? It's easy to hide our problems, sins, and ugliness deep inside ourselves and act as if everything were perfect and bright, like the moon is right now. The truth is, we are human and we all have a dark side which we hide from others. Is this being genuine? There are so many passages in the Bible that deal with this kind of thing...what are your favorites?

God and Politics

Now that I am back from Orlando I have much to share with you readers in the next few days about The Florida Renewal Project Conference I attended. Let me start off by saying that this was an eye-opening, jaw-dropping experience for me as the Christian morality of this country in the realms of politics has been steeply decreasing. It seems that most Christians feel that they should leave politics out of the church and their lives. Wrong! It is our God-given duty to elect the right leaders for our government. To not care (not vote) in my opinion is an absolute sin in God's eyes! We must vote based on our Christian values, not on a party preference or getting one candidate in over another one.

Also, the Florida Marriage Amendment is falling short of petitions due to and audit (I feel it was corrupted by the ACLU) and If you have not signed it, are registered to vote in Florida, and feel that marriage is between one man and one woman, then click here...sign the form and mail it now. It must be in by Tuesday the 29th in Orlando. Get as many as you can and sign it now!

Looking forward to sharing with you some thoughts from the speakers like David Barton, Newt Gingrich, Tim Lahaye, John Hagee, Bob Mcewen, Mike Huckabee, and others. Do not forget to vote on Tuesday!

Rediscovering God in America Tour

I am looking forward to Monday and Tuesday the 21st-22nd as I am going to be in Orlando, Fl. with about 600 other pastors meeting with former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich about the current status of America and its losing faith of God. There will be other guest politicians and speakers like Tim Lahaye, Charles Stanley, and David Burton there as well. They are paying for our hotel and meals too which makes it more enjoyable to me also! I look forward to sharing with all of you about this time upon my return.

This Sunday morning's worship service was centered around the theme of Holiness. The music emphasized the holiness and purity in God and the message by pastor Ron dealt with being holy and pure because God is Holy. I'm convinced that the lack of understanding on what being holy is has been causing the church in whole to decline in morals, relevance, status among the community, and even attendance.

Today Jessica and I will be bringing home a new addition to the family! Penny, a beagle-mix was rescued from an abusive home and we are going to be its new LOVING family. Look for pictures of her shortly. Have a great week everyone!

FBS

Are you suffering from F-B-S? Foggy Brain Syndrome has affected many of us. To find out what Foggy Brain Syndrome is click here!

Prayer Resolution

Hey Everyone...check out Desert Thirst by Christian Gowen. I have enjoyed reading it lately and he had this very challenging New Year's Resolution about praying for people.

When was the last time you prayed with someone else?
When was the last time you prayed with your husband/wife?
When was the last time you prayed with your best friend?
When was the last time you prayed with your son/daughters?
When was the last time you prayed with someone @ work?
When was the last time you prayed beyond the dinner table?
When was the last time you prayed for the person who passed you on the street?
When was the last time you went out of your way to ask if there was anything you could pray for in any one of those peoplese lives?
When was the last time you prayed with that person @ church?
Let me be blunt. I need to stop telling people I will pray for them and PRAY for them- let them HEAR my prayers. WE NEED TO PRAY TOGETHER, non-Christians, Christians alike. How are you with this?
My New Years Resolution: Pray for more people, and let my prayers be HEARD by those people…and then celebrate the victories in knowing the Lord WILL provide. His Faith is good enough for me.

Working or Waiting for the Return?

I posted about being idle in our worship last week. The next question is are we idle in our anticipation of Christ's return? This is not the time for me to share my eschatological views or anything because that's pointless (Matthew 24:36) The Bible does warn us not to be idle in anticipation.

The Gospel of Matthew deals with this theme. Jesus warns us to be alert and ready (24:42,44) If we know that a guest is coming to stay with us at our house, would we not prepare for his or her coming? Cleaning the house, getting groceries, setting up guest rooms are all preparations that must take place. Why is it that when it comes to Christians, many of us live lives not preparing for his coming? Do you prepare by just coming to church or participating in such and such event? I don't think that's all there is to it! Jesus continues this idea with the parable of the talents in Matthew 25:14-30. We see that the first two servants WORKED (they left immediately) for their master anticipating his return, the other one WORRIED and hid his money. On the master's return, those who worked were rewarded and the one who didn't was cursed.
It's like the farmer who was lazy...Lightning struck his old barn down and he thought that it was good that he didn't have to tear it down himself, then rain came and washed his truck so he didn't have to. A friend asked him what he was waiting on next...he replied, an earthquake to come and shake these potatoes up from the ground! Christian should stop waiting for others to do the work of bringing in the harvest. Jesus said the harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few. We are to be anticipating his return by bringing the lost to him, not sitting in a pew wondering what the music or the sermon will be like!

Inspiration & Spirituality Aisle

I was shopping recently in a certain Bookstore that is Noble and reminds you of a farm yesterday when I happened to notice that the "New Age" books are now on the "Spirituality" aisle! Interesting...what do they call "Christian" books? It's on the "Inspiration" aisle. Why is this? Have you noticed the squatting of this crap having the same terminology and relevance to be placed on the same aisle? Your thoughts?

Excuses! Excuses!

As I'm writing this I am recooping from a energy-draining night at church...a good kind of energy drain though! I was asked to fill in for the pastor tonight which means leading the singing and then going right into a sermon. (all this after an hour-long budget discussion meeting) The subject of my sermon was "Stop making excuses to God"

We have all made excuses for not doing something God told us to do. We give excuses like:

1. Too Tired

2. Too Busy

3. Not enough money

4. No time

5. Someone else will do it!

That last excuse is what I focused on tonight as I illustrated the point with the account of Moses and the burning bush in Exodus 3-4. Moses was told by God to go to Egypt and tell Pharaoh to let the Israelites free from slavery! To make a long story short...Moses told God to send somebody else because he didn't feel adequate enough to do it. Quit making excuses to God, get of your butt, and do what God wants you to do!!!

I had each person tonight write down an excuse that they have personally gave God before. I then had them come forward and rip it up and throw it in a trash can I had placed on the altar! The response was amazing! who would have thought that throwing away garbage was an act of worship but it was! Our excuses belong in the trash! God is bigger than any excuse we come up with so start believing it people!!!

Who Am I?

Who are we really? Do you ever feel like you don't know what your identity is? It's like someone who changes clothes multiple times a day to fit into what they are doing. They might be in sports wear, preppy style, formal, or naked! Sometimes we can get confused about who we are. Moses asked God "Who Am I?" when he was instructed to go to Egypt. (Exodus 3:11) God calls us to do mighty works on earth and we always give Him excuses. We tell Him we are not adequate enough just like Moses did.

The truth is that if we are sons and daughter of God, then our identity, power, authority, etc. is in Jesus. Philippians 4:13 says "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me!" Stop giving God excuses, find who you are in Christ, get involved in the Body of Christ as it says in Ephesians 4:1-16

I Couldn't Help But Listen # 1

Every now and then I sit outside Starbucks (for tea only...there coffee sucks) or I'm at the finest coffee establishment in the world, JavaMoon Coffee just enjoying myself when it happens....There is always some person who is oblivious to their surroundings and blares out a conversation for the whole place to listen in on. Most of these conversations aren't worth listening to but a few can be quite interesting. I do not make a habit of eavesdropping, but we all have been in situations where we couldn't help but listen. Thus this post series I will start today and continue till eternity upon hearing something enlightening by someone who thinks their conversation was private and meaningless. I now take you back to Saturday night Nov. 24th, 2007. I was sipping on hot tea at Starbucks outside and a couple of friends who hadn't seen each other in a while sat in the next table. My ear tuned in when they started talking about going to Bible School and becoming a Young Life Director. If you don't know what Young Life is consider yourself blessed because it has always reeked havoc on youth ministries here in my county. Young Life is a "Youth Group" that travels from church to church in a region. Having attended them and talked with leaders, I can say that my opinion of them is nothing more of a glorified popular, rich-kid social hangout that focuses on events and having fun instead of getting in the word of God and worshipping him. Listening to this wannabee leader I heard him say that while he was in training, he went on "mission" to this one high scool, he then said that he played basketball with some of the kids later and then bought them beer and drank that night at his house!!!!! Wow!!! I wanted ever so badly to throw my boiling hot English brew in his face for doing that. My views on drinking are not that it is necessarily wrong or unbiblical, but to give it to minors while trying to be their spiritual mentor is absolutely appalling to me.

On to Psalms

For my normal readers, I have been going through the Bible from cover to cover and a few weeks ago I posted how I was struggling to get through the book of Job. Well I did finally finish it. I don't know why I get so weird when I read that book. The problem is not the length or anything but the content. Everytime I read about Job I am reminded of the foolishness I have when I worry about things like money, friends, work, the future, etc. Job never cursed God in his sorrow and pain. I have done it way too much. This past week I was in Daytona, Fl. and thought it very ironic that the same day I finished Job, I heard a sermon from Job by one of the speakers! It brought a fresh insight into how to read it the next time I venture into it. Well now it's on to Psalms and Proverbs! (wow...I'm half-way there!!!)

Moving Forward

This is what the ladies in my Bible study went over this Monday:

Remember the song that said "Oh be careful little mouth what you say"? Well, Proverbs 18:21 reminded me of this section of the song because it says: "Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit." Are the fruits of your tongue bringing death or life?

That was the big question. We are going to look at three areas of doubt and see what we can do to yield fruits of life.

1. Sickness. There are so many people with ailments and I cannot explain why one has cancer and the next guy is seemingly healthy. What have come to know, though, is that my God is greater than any sickness. Matthew 8:17b says "He took our illnesses and bore our diseases". Also, the Lord's prayer was recently brought to my attention in a new light. It says: : "Our Father who art in Heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on Earth as it is in heaven." Jesus said on Earth as it is in heaven. Well, in heaven we are physically and spiritually restored, right? We cannot let the enemy taint our minds anymore. God is bigger and stronger than our infirmities!!

2. Do you think that you lack faith? Romans 12:3 says that God has given each of us a measure of faith. Stop doubting your abilities to be who God wants you to be. You are already there. We all need growth, but God wants your willing heart. I believe that our mind can be our biggest obstacle in life. I know that it is one of mine. I am always trying to understand/figure out what God is doing. I really must stop and spend more time on who He is. He is sooo much bigger, stronger, and loving than we could ever imagine. He has already given you faith, just rest in knowing who He is.

3.Do you have bondage/defeat in areas of your life? 2 Cor. 3:17 says"Now the Lord is the spirit, and where the spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom." and 1Cor. 6:19 says that our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit, therefore we have freedom. Don't you doubt it either because John 8:36 says "So if the son sets you free, you will be free indeed." Are you going to argue with God?

All of this is for a point. We spend so much of our time focusing on our problems instead of focusing on God!!

I heard the analogy recently that speaks of a man who was driving his car while only looking through the rear view mirror. If someone was doing this, what would happen? It would probably lead to death or serious injury, right? Well, now that we know that there is freedom from sickness, lack of faith, and bondage, we cannot go on living like we do not know this. It will lead to our destruction. We must look out onto the road ahead and move forward. Don't live your life looking in the rear view mirror only seeing your past defeats, sins, and anything else that is holding you back. Look to the Lord to guide you.

I leave you with one last statement: "Stop telling God about your problems, and start telling your problems about your God"!!!! (read John 14:8-15 it is full of truths that relate)

I hope this makes sense to all!! LoVe -JeSsIcA =) Ps-Grammy and Mom, that picture is for you. I cannot wait to see my mommy on her birthday!!

The Not So Popular Bible Characters #6

Onesimus - The book of Philemon

I hope you read the whole book of Philemon (it's only 25 verses) because if you did, you will notice a real life prodigal son story! Onesimus was a slave\servant of Philemon who was a close friend to Paul. Onesimus ran away from his bondage and took refuge under Paul while he was in prison. Paul counsels Onisemus to return to his master and face his discipline.

Relevance: Some thoughts I gather on this man are that he had great courage to first flee his slavery, and then return to his master. Also, Onesimus ministered to his "fellow brother" Paul (v.16). Do we help build each other up or spend our life tearing each one down? Do we care about the past life of a believer, or help them deal with the future? Do we have the boldness as Onesimus had in facing his past in order to make things right? Something to think about!

The Not So Popular Bible Characters #5

Moving on to the New Testament, An interesting story comes from the account of :

Simeon - Luke 2:21-35 read it here!

Simeon was a very righteous and devout man (v.25) and what must of been awesome in his life was knowing that he would get to see the Messiah before he died. I can imagine everyday was filled with wonder and expectation for the coming King of Kings. One day while he was in the Temple, it says the Holy Spirit moved him (v.27) and he knew the Christ was there! Simeon then blessed the child and gave a message to his parents about Jesus' future (v.34-35).

The relevance: Why did God give Simeon the honor of prolonging life until the Christ came? Perhaps it was because he was righteous, holy, a true worshipper of God. Simeon had to have daily anticipated the Lord's coming! Do we? Does the Holy Spirit move us in ways He moved Simeon in the Temple? The Holy Spirit is always trying to move us...we don't always yield to Him! I'm not prophesying on the return of our Lord in our lifetime or anything like that, but are you anticipating it? Think about it.

The Not So Popular Bible Characters #4

Ashpenaz - (Daniel Chapter 1)

In the book of Daniel, we see the capturing of Jerusalem by King Nebuchadnezzar (cool names huh?) anyways, Ashpenaz was the chief of all the king's officials. He was ordered to bring some of the Israelite men to be royal servants and such. Daniel was one of them. Daniel and his close friends Hananiah (Shadrach) Mishael (Meshach) and Azariah (Abednego) did not want to defile themselves with the unclean food at the palace. Ashpenaz was afraid he would be killed if they didn't follow the orders but Daniel gained trust in Ashpenaz (v.9). Ashpenaz allowed Daniel to test the diet for 10 days and they were more healthy and nourished than all the others!

The relevance here is that Ashpenaz was not a believer but gained compassion, trust, and liking towards these men. What was it that made him change? I think that Daniel and his buddies were very respectful, obedient, etc. and Ashpenaz remembered that. We as Christians are constantly being watched by unbelievers. They want to see if we really live the way we believe. Ashpenaz saw the truth in these men, do others change their way of thinking based on your life? Think about it!