Tuesday, May 31, 2016

Idols of our Minds


To see many Christians crawfish (backup) on certain biblical beliefs ask them if they believe in an actual and historical Adam, Noah, Moses, or Jonah.  You often can then step back and watch a mental banana split happen close up.  “Well it does not matter…, it’s the meaning…, it’s a faith story…, science …, in those times…, maybe sorta.”  I think another banana split is happening in their mind as the defense of biblical and gospel integrity is pulling against the defense of their most cherished idol. Their great idol has a little nymph  – their point of view which proceeds from their mega idol - their mind.   Many once great churches and seminaries have put in the museum the terms INERRANCY and INFALLIBILITY. And in their duty spot where these terms were once seated were left inadequate and misleading definitions of old pillars of the faith.  So we have people of the church who give up belief in Scripture over not being perceived as having a modern mind.
INERRANCY means simply in the original autographs that the message

Saturday, May 7, 2016

Judgement - a homeless shelter - a football game






Matthew 20:28 just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Driving home today from Good News at Noon I considered the vast array of people a person meets in a short time. I have served as the pastor of this ministry going on four years.   While working at this ministry you meet volunteers from all the downtown churches, street people, great citizens of our community that are of all ages, wealthy, poor, Christian, non-Christians, homeless people and the working poor. Good News at Noon is an almost thirty year old ministry that serves as a gospel centered homeless shelter, food kitchen, children’s ministry and a gospel preaching and teaching ministry.
Make no mistake this is a place where many people and myself love to serve.  People who visit almost always come back. But there is a problem there like all places – People!  People like me can be frustrating to work with. I have to remind myself not to look with reactionary eyes.  I need to look through the lens of grace and look to Jesus.  Many times I have been wrong in life by wanting a quick read and decision on people.  This made me reflect on a football game from almost twenty years ago.
For the 1987 Fiesta Bowl Football game for the national college football championship, the nation saw the Penn State Nittany Lions as good guys versus the Miami Hurricanes the bad guys . The good citizens at Penn State with their legendary republican head coach wore plain uniforms with no flashy decals on their helmets, stripes on their pants or names on the back of their jerseys. Penn State did it the “old school” right way. They were understated and respectfully polite. The Miami Hurricanes came to town wearing military camouflage outfits, walked out on a bowl game dinner for the teams, talked smack and brought WWE type flavor to the game. If the Hurricanes were not hoods they wanted to be seen as such. The “new school” did it wrong in the nation’s media view.
Penn State upset the very talented Miami team 14-10 in a nail biter.  The “good guys” won and the “bad guys” lost – so it seemed.  But as Paul Harvey used to say, now we know “the rest of the story”.
Penn State has great people but a respected defensive coach was committing crimes of sexual abuse on young boys while leading a charity for youth. This was going on for years and has scared this great university’s history.  Miami is known for great and eye popping football. Now we know many of the camo wearing players have done great things for individuals and charities.
So who are the bad people here? EVERYBODY.  That is why we need Jesus Christ.
Christ Jesus will not grade on your average of good deeds or on the curve.  He came to help the helpless which is us.  He grades on his blood which is pure and spotless and was shed to cover your sins. Are your sins covered?
Christ the King is coming back in judgment someday. This is overlooked too much by the church.  We will talk about Christmas(Advent), His death and Resurrection (Easter), and his Ascension.  His return will happen one day. Then their is a Judgement.  We worship the LORD Jesus Christ because of GRACE we  instead of our deserved judgement when we believe! Thank you Jesus.

Romans 5:8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.