I Alone?

"Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or  what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on.  Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?  Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them.  Are you not of more value than they?  Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?  So  why do you worry about clothing?  Consider the lillies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you that not even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.  Now if God clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?
Matthew 6: 25-30 NKJV

I hear the drumbeat every so often when one christian or another bemoans the fact that their spirit life is stagnant.  "I need to get closer to God, I  need to  pray more, I need to spend more time with God, I need Gods blessing."  Does anyone see a pattern here?  In each and every one of these statments, we begin to remove God from the equation.  For  instead of allowing our Lord to work in and speak directly to us, we fall back upon a decades long playbook.   I cannot blame those who have fallen into this trap, because it's what we've been taught over the years from one pulpit pounder to another.   Is your life at a difficult crossroads?  You just need to pray more.  Are you experiencing the loss of a loved one, then you need to seek Him.  The one common culprit in this thinking is...I, I, I!  Think about it, are not most of our prayers we direct to our Lord based on the singular?  Lord I  want, Lord I need, God I desire.  In Matthew 6, Jesus addresses this in His sermon on the mount.  Indeed, from the clothing that we wear to the food that we eat, Jesus illustrates that it is ALL lovingly provided for by our heavenly Father.  In fact, I would suggest that there is absolutely nothing that we may ask our Lord for that He does not already know about.   Is there anything that God cannot see?  Are His hands so short that He cannot provide for His children?  Is His hearing so dull that He cannot hear our cries?  For He heard the cries of the Isrealites enslaved in Egypt.  Granted, His hand of deliverance came in His fullness of time, but He listened and He heard.

"I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word;  that they may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me.  And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me.  Father, I desire that they also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am, that they may behold my glory which You have given Me; for You loved me before the foundation of the world."
Luke 17: 20-24 NKJV

I think that we make a huge error when we mistakingly believe that it is we ourselves who provide for our own, who hold our own livelihood in our hands.  Yes, this is a popular belief that fits into our narrative, but it is based on a flawed idea.  For if we are indeed responsible for our own well being, as is the popular human belief, why is it that Jesus cautioned us against worrying about those things we desire?  Will not God provide for His children?  Again, this trust that we have in ourselves and in our own abilities may just run against who God truly is.  Has not God provided everything which we have, including our own abilities?  How is it that we can thank our Lord for His creation and in the same breath exalt ourselves for our own talents and abilities?  This thinking that we are independent in some way from our creator is a mistake.  If  this were true, why would Jesus go through the trouble to tell us that our Lord will provide for us?  If there is one who is truly independent, then it is our heavenly Father, who has been there from the very begining.  For He not only created all it is that we see, but that person that we are as well.  The one who is truly independent is He who created all.

~Scott~

The Jesus Man

"If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand.  And if a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand.  And if satan has risen up against himself, and s divided, he cannot stand, but has an end.  No one can enter a strong mans house and plunder his goods, unless he binds the strong man.  And the he will plunder his house."

Mark 3: 24-27 NKJV 

Once again, Jesus delivered the perfect response.  The Jewish Pharisees had once again challanged Him, this time by accusing Him of being possesed by satan.  This was their response to the miracles of Jesus.  Not once did they consider the ones who had experienced the miracles of Christ, they couldn't have cared less.  No, the focus of their anger  laid squarely with Jesus.  For He challanged their authority and exposed their own hypocracy.  In my opinion, by confronting the corrupt Jewish authorities, Jesus had proven Himself more of man than they had ever been.  The Pharisees tried every trick in the book to discredit Jesus, but he rebuffed them at every turn.  Certainly something to behold for anyone who ever dreamed of "Sticking it to the man!"  I look at the life of Jesus and have asked myself, is this the essence of a man?  For Jesus, being fully God and flesh, was certainly capable of exhibiting these traits.  We in America certainly have had our own role models of manhood in the past, from George Washington to John Wayne.  Of course, each generation had their own idea of who exhibited the perfect traits of manhood.  Along with that came just as many ideas of what it really takes to be a man in our own society.

Watch, stand fast in the faith, be brave, be strong.  Let all that you do be done with love.

1 Corinthians 16: 13-14 NKJV 

Some years ago, there was a book written by John Eldredge titled "Wild at heart."  This book is still looked upon by many as one of the best pieces of christian literature about becoming a man.  The man, as Eldredge put it, needed adventure, a woman to save and to feel important.  My question to those who adhere to these so called requirements needed by men is this, did Jesus need all of this to be a man?  Did Jesus need adventure?  Did He need a woman to save?   Moreover, did Jesus require the adoration of others to stroke His ego?  No?  Keep in mind that our Jesus was not only fully God, but fully man as well.  Did Jesus desire the adventuresin life that Mr. Eldredge penned in his book?  Perhaps, but we are left with very little information on this from the scriptures.  One thing that I've always longed for in the bible was more details of the early life of Jesus.  In the hollywoood version of  the early life of our Lord in the film Young Messiah, we see a young Jesus who struggles with His deity as He grows.  While I liked this film, I found the rendition of the young Jesus to be a bit timid.  For there was far too little of the rough and tumble play that boys will do portrayed in this film.  Did Jesus play and spar with His brothers and friends?  I'm pretty sure that He did, being fully human that He was.  So, we ask ourselves, what is the true essence of a man?  Is it the hard, tough exterior stereotype we've admired for years?  Or is it the compassionate, soft hearted model that Jesus exhibited so often to those He came across?  Of course, people will say that Jesus exhibited this by trashing the temple.  Yes, but I see that as righteous anger directed at those who were desecrating His Fathers house.  Did the boy Jesus do all the things young boys do, including rough play and adventures?  I tend to believe He did.  I believe He loved to exhibit the exploits of the men of Jewish faith.  The adventures of men such as Joshua, Abraham and King David.  Fully God, yet fully human.  The man Jesus.

~Scott~ 

This Side Of Heaven

And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, "Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people.  God Himself will be with them and will be their God.  And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying.  There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away."  The He who sat on the throne said, "Behold, I make all things new."  And He said to me, "Write, for these words are true and faithful."
Revelation 21: 3-5 NKJV

There is a common thought of the afterlife in christianity, that being that our ultimate destination, our paradise, is somewhere skyward.  Up among the clouds we look, trying to imagine just what heaven and the throne of God will look like.  Sometimes as we pray we lift our eyes to the sky, as if half expecting that this is just where our  Lord resides.  I've done this as well.  It's how we've been taught for generations.  However, what is heaven is not skyward as we've come to expect?  Actually, does it really matter where heaven is as long as we're there in His glory?  Yet, I will suggest that perhaps our perception of heaven may be misguided.   Not from our own belief, but perhaps by how we've been taught.

And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.  The LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there He put the man who He had formed.
Genesis 2: 7-8 NKJV

Notice the creation story in Genesis 2, where God has created man and placed him in the garden of Eden.  Notice also that as God places man in the garden, man has ALREADY been created.  It is after man has been created that our Lord places him in the garden to tend and keep it.  This raises the question, just where was Adam when God created him?  For the earth has already been created at this point.   It is after God has finished the work of His creation that He places Adam in the garden.  Was Adam created in heaven, in Gods presence?   Wherever it was, we have to assume that he was placed in the garden after God breathed life into him.  The fact that he was created out of the dust of the ground is not too important here, for God could have very well used the dust of His creation, which He more than likely did.  And so we are faced with the question, where was Adam formed?  Wherever it was, we know that it was seperate from the newly formed earth.

"Oh, I have slipped the surly bonds of earth, and danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings; sunward I've climbed and joined the tumbling mirth of sun-split clouds-and done a hundred things you have not dreamed of-wheeled and soared and swung high in the sunlit silence.  Hovering there I've chased the shouting wind along and flung my eager craft through footless halls of air.  Up, up the long dilirious burning blue I've topped the wind swept heights with easy grace, where never lark, nor even eagle, flew; and, while with silent, lifting mind I've trod the high untrespassed sanctity of space, put out my hand and touched the face of God."
~High Flight~ Written by John Gillespie Magee Junior

How  does this all tie into our own perception of heaven?  Well, I suggest that what we've called  heaven, the paradise of our heavenly father, is simply another dimension parallel to our own.  Does this mean that heaven is indeed not in the sky as we've been told?  Perhaps, but then it may not be as well.  One thing that is certain, is that our Lords paradise is our ultimate destination for those who know the Lord Jesus.

In my Fathers house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you.  I go to prepare a place for you.  And if I go to preapre a place for you, I will come again to receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.
John 14: 2-3 NKJV

Whether it is our belief that heaven is among the stars above, or in another dimension parallel to our own, if Christ indeed dwells within us, then we are on the path to one day enjoying Gods glorious home.

~Scott~

Church Business

Now it happened, as Jesus sat at the table in the house, that behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and sat down with Him and His disciples.  And  when the Pharisees saw it, they said to His disciples, "Why does your Teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?"  When Jesus heard that, He said to them, "Those who are well have no need for a physician, but those who are sick.  "But go and learn what this means: 'I desire mercy and not sacrafice.'  For I did not come to call the righteous , but sinners, to repentance."
Matthew 9: 10-13 NKJV

I had a conversation with a few coworkers recently, one that I've more often heard lately.  It seems they were bemoaning the fact that many a church seemed to be more than aggressive when it comes to the church tithe.  More than a few churches have made tithing a requirement for church membership.  I believe one of the comments made was that the local church was more than comfortable asking people to give to them while outside of their walls there are plenty of people in need.  My response to this comment was, how much money is enough where the church is concerned?  There was a time when I would interpret a negative comment about church as an all out attack on christianity.  Those days are gone.  A google search of the top churches in America will reveal some interesting results.

Lakewood Church~ Located in Houston, Texas and led by flamboyant pupit pounder Joel Osteen with a average attendance of 23, 659

North Point Community Church~ In Alphretta, Georgia is led by Andy Stanley and draws in 22, 557 worshipers.

Saddleback Church~ In Lake Forest, California is the home church of pastor Rick Warren of "Purpose Driven Life" fame, drawing in 19, 414 people.

It is these churches, and those like it, that have given rise to the new Mega Chruch in America and worldwide.  Their influence is far reaching, from Sunday super services featuring popular christian musicians to Television and radio broadcasts.  I look at churches such as these and I can understand why more than a few people would come away with a negative view of church as a whole.  Not only are these congregations large, but they often seem impersonal as well.  It would be easy for someone to become lost in the crowd of one of these holy behemoths.  Meanwhile I think to myself, is it really necessary to have all this glitz and glamour in the name of God?  How many of those in need are being left behind for the sake of a good Sunday morning dog and pony show?


"However, the Most High does not dwell in temples made with hands, as the prophet says: 'Heaven is My throne, and the earth is My footstool.  What house will you build for Me?  Says the LORD, or what is the place of my rest?  Has My hand not made all these things?"
Acts 7: 48-49 NKJV

Of course, along with these Sunday morning sideshows comes one more issue for the church, a huge financial need!  In this instance, in order to fulfill this need, the pastor will ask, plead and/or demand that his congregation step up to the plate and produce a healthy tithe!  And for what?  For the chance to participate in yet another Sunday morning circus sideshow?  Is God honored that much more by this showing of extravagance?  Will His blessings and favor abound the bigger show we put on?  One look at Mattew chapter 9 will lead you to the answer.  Here, as Jesus dined He was joined by more than a few tax collectors and sinners.  Now, of course this raised more than a few eyebrows.  For the Jewish Pharisees were outraged!   How could this so called holy man keep company with scoundrels such as this?  I love Jesus' response to this challange.  As Jesus said, "For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance."  By dining with those who were looked down upon by Jewish society, Jesus was just where He needed to be.  For it was not those who were wealthy and well off who needed his touch, but those who were lost.  Can anyone see a resemblence to our modern mega church here?

But this I say: He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap boutifully.  So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver.
2 Corinthians 9: 6-7 NKJV

Are we to believe that the entire congregations of the mega church are cheerful givers?  They must be, for the show must go on!   It is my opinion that such churches bleed money like a sieve.  With all the financial obligations of the large church and its staff, what funds are therefore available for Gods true work?  While people in the communities surounding these cash cows are in need, each Sunday the show goes on!  Is this ministry?  But do we need such large facilities?  One look at Acts 7 will give you the answer you need.  For what need does the creator of all that we see have for a large, elaborate building?  Has God not created all things?  Trust me, our Lord would be just as pleased, if not more, with our simple act of worship.  To add to this, I present to you the net worth of the pastors of the mega churches listed above.

Joel Osteen ~ 40 Million
Rick Warren ~ 25 Million
Andy Stanley~ 40 Million

In a world surrounded by poverty and those in desperate need of the gospel of Jesus, what need does a church pastor need with a net worth of 40 million dollars?  These churches have ceased to be houses of worship and instead have become big business!

~Scott~

From Anger To Faith

Then his wife said to him, "Do you still hold fast to your integrity?  Curse God and die!"  But he said  to  her, "You speak as one of the foolish women speaks.  Shall we indeed accept good from from God, and shall we not accept adversity?"  In all this Job did not sin with his lips.
Job 2: 9-10 NKJV

Whenever I am having those feelings that my Lord has somehow forgotten me, I turn to the story of Job.  Here was a man who most certainly had reason to lift a complaint to God.  For satan had taken his wealth, possesions and family.  Indeed, he was a broken man.  Yet, it was out of Jobs afflictions that I have learned a very important lesson for my own life.  I may have a bad day.  I may lose someone close to me.  I may have financial difficulties.  However, despite all of my setbacks, I can rest assured of one very important truth.   God has never left me.  No, for how can a God who loved me enough to send His only son to take on my sin leave me?  How could one who has promised to never leave me or forsake me suddenly break that promise and depart from my life?

And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope.  Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.  For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.  For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhps for a good man someone would  even dare to die.  But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Romans 5: 4-8 NKJV

In Romans 5, the apostle Paul gives what some may call a impossible task.  That being to glory in our tribulations!  Did Job glory in his afflictions?  No, but Job also knew in his heart that God would provide for him.  And so it is with Pauls message here.  Yes, I may be afflicted by lifes circumstances, but I can be assured that God has not abandoned me.  Not only that, but those very same afflictions that trouble me for a season in my life, produce something inside of me that is of greater value.  That being character and hope.  Was it not Martin Luther King Junior who longed for the day when men would be judged for the content of their character?  The trials I endure, while they may seem unbearable for a time, are never guaranteed to last.

"I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me."
Galations 2:20 NKJV

What of those times where I've felt as if my Lord had abandoned me?   Well, not only has He never left my side, but Christ now dwells in me.  Whatever it is that I am experiencing, I am experiencing it through Christ who is in me!   There is nothing that I do that Jesus is not intimately involved in.  Whatever it is I see, hear or experience, I do as Christ who is in me.  There is no longer any need for me to worry that God has abandoned me in any way.  Far from abandoning me, God loved me enough for Jesus to share Himself in me.

~Scott~

Out Of The Darkness

This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all.  If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in dakrness, we lie and do not practice the truth.  But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.  If we say we have no  sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.  If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive our sins and to cleanse us  from all unrighteousness.
1 John 1: 5-9 NKJV

There is a common fact of life that many people know, and yet many don't.  This is the truth that one cannot know the extent of something unless they have experienced the opposite of what it is they are seeking.  From light and darkness to bitter and sweet, we cannot truly see something without first experiencing its opposite.  Can we not more fully appreciate kindness after being exposed to wickedness?  Will we not much more appreciate warmth after being exposed to the cold?  Growing up on the shores of Lake Superior in northern Minnesota I am pretty darn familiar with cold weather.  So much so that to  this day I consider any Oregon winter temperature above 40 degrees to be a heat wave!  Of course, it wasn't until I moved to Oregon and it's moderate climates that I fullt appreciated just how cold my former home state was.  I had seen the opposite of warmth.  It is in 1 John 1 where we see this truth applied to our heavenly Father.  Here the apostle John relates to us two extremes, light and darkness.  For we know that our Lord is indeed light, and in Him is no darkness.  However, John also mentions those who "Walk in darkness."  Of those who walk in the darkness he claims to "Lie and do  not practice the truth."  If God is the light, then what is the darkness that John speaks of?  Well, going by the law of opposites, if our Lord is the light, then Gods direct opposite would be satan.

"And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.  For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed.  But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God."
John 3: 18-21 NKJV

Here in John 3, Jesus explains the concept of light and darkness.  Jesus associates those who do good as being in the light.  Of course, the opposite of light is darkness, and this is reserved for those who  practice evil.  Again we see, God is light while satan, his opposite, is darkness.  So, how can one appreciate the light without first experiencing the darkness?  Of course, this is just the point where all who  know Christ once were.  Therefore, we can also assume that those who have not known Jesus have known that darkness.  We know the light, for scripture tells us that God is the light.  If Christ is in us, therefore, we know the light.  Of course, we can say that the darkness came upon us at tthe fall.  For until that point, all that Gods creation had known was the light that was God.  This was all good, in fact I would have prefered that we perhaps never would have had that darkness introduced into our lives.  However, as is usually the case, God had a prefect reason for all He did.  As I've mentioned, how could one appreciate the light without first experiencing the darkness?   Would we not have better appreciated our Lords love, grace and mercy without experiencing the darkness which came at the fall?  If we had never known sin, how much less would Gods love seem to us?  For if all we knew was our Lords love and fellowship, as Adam and Eve did, then would we fully appreciate that love which sent Jesus to the cross for us?

But God demonstates His own love toward us, in  that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Romans 5:8 NKJV

We should know, that is due to Gods love for us that Jesus came and gave His life for us.  We, who at one time had chosen the darkness over the light, were loved so dearly by our Lord that he went to great lengths to bring us once again into the light.  Gods intention was never to keep us in the darkness of sin, but that we should know the light.  Gods love overcame the darkness.

~Scott~

The Revealing

But when it pleased God, who seperated me from my mothers womb and called me through His grace, to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately confer with flesh and blood, nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me; but I went to Arabia, and returned again to Damascus.
Galations 1: 15-17 NKJV

It's not neccessarily a magic moment in anyones life, but it is indeed life changing nonetheless.  In Galations 1 we see that moment described by the apostle Paul.  Pauls moment came one day on the road to Damascus.  One minute he was on his way to Damascus on yet another mission to persecute the early followers of Jesus, the next he was struck blind when confronted with the very one he was persecuting.  This was that moment in which Paul would recognize as when God revealed His own son in him.  Now, for most of us it isn't really that easy to recognize.  For there is no immediate recognotion of that life changing transition which has taken place in us.  However, from that moment on, we are definately a changed person.  We cease from being one who is conformed to the world around us to someone who has a new realization of Jesus in them.  That in itself is a tough concept to comprehend, being later referred to by Paul as "The great mystery among the gentiles."

The mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations, but now has been revealed to His saints.  To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
Colossions 1: 26-27 NKJV

There is but one who will make this revelation known to us in His timing.  For "When it pleased God," He revealed this revelation in the life of the man Saul of Tarsus.  What followed was the reformation of the "Chief of sinners" to one of the worlds greatest teachers of the gospel of Jesus Christ.  Notice that Paul refers to this mystery having been "Hidden from ages and from generations."  Therefore, it is God and God only who will reveal this mystery to those whom he chooses in His own time.  Yes, He could have revealed His Son in Paul sooner, but who are we to question Gods motives?  That being said, He could have revealed Christ in me sooner as well.  There are times I wish He had, but I rejoice now in the revelation He has given me in the fullness of His timing.  For it is the end result here that matters, not how long it took us to get there.  I am not one to step aside and thank my Lord for revealing His Son in me and in the same breath ask Him why it took so long.  There's an old saying about never looking a gift horse in the mouth that may apply here.  What of this mystery among the Gentiles?  What of this revelation God has given us?  At that moment when our Lord reveals His one and only Son in us, our lives will never be the same.  We cease from acting on our own to acting as Christ who is in us.  Each and every step we now take we take as Jesus.  Having the reveleation of Christ within us, how can we not now live as Jesus?

~Scott~