Saturday, August 29, 2009

Welcome Back


Hello fellow bloggers! Greetings to those returning to this site, and to those who are visiting for the first time. Hope you stay a while and search around. The next 5 posts have been added since the last time I sent an e-mail notice.

Comments are always welcome. Just remember to keep it clean, even if you don't agree. Otherwise I will have to delete them. As always, thanks for reading - it makes a difference.

Look for this site again soon on Facebook also.

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Wednesday, August 26, 2009

God in Motion


Often when prayers get answered, we don't know how to react. One of my recent prayers was in fact answered. I asked for something, and God granted it through the vehicle of His church. When it comes to the responsibility of keeping the Faith and living out the Bible, we imperfect humans often get it wrong. To borrow from the author Francis Collins, we are a lot like "rusty containers" carrying great spiritual truths. But when we get it right, we get it right - and this bears testimony to the greatest good there is, that which is God.

Thank you Mike & friends (you know who you are). Peace and Grace.

- Jon

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Christian Light Through Music


I have very little (if any) musical talent. With my wife and my wife's family - it is the exact opposite. Her, and all of her siblings can sing and/or play a musical instrument. My kids are exhibiting some talent in this area; I can take no credit.

But hopefully that doesn't mean I am worthless when it comes to recognizing what good music is. When I heard this performance from a contemporary Christian Rock singer I about fell off my chair. His name is Bebo Norman. I hope you enjoy it also...



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Sunday, August 23, 2009

The Promise From Faith

This is a sermon I gave this morning at my church. They were kind enough to entrust me with delivering God's Word that day. Unfortunately the video clip that I used at the beginning of the talk didn't make it into this recording - you will have to see my other post "Fourteen Lights" for that. No biggie though. Hope you enjoy listening to the message, I know I enjoyed presenting it! Thanks again LT:


Fourteen Lights


The video below is a clip from the movie 'Signs', which debuted about 6 years or so ago. I recently used a portion of it in one of my talks at church. Specifically the part where Mel Gibson's character is sitting on the couch talking to his brother about "2 types of people" - the faithful and the unfaithful. This is one of my favorite movies! The context of the scene is such that the characters have just watched fourteen alien lights in the sky being televised around the world on every news station. Enjoy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8ex6-mmCT4&feature=related


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Friday, August 21, 2009

Materialism... But to What End?


Strict materialism is an interesting notion. Loosely defined, it means that everything in the universe is made up of matter only, without anything else conjoined to it. There is no spirit, there is no consciousness (apart from that which derives from matter and neurons in your brain), and there is no God. Everything simply has a natural cause, which is based on a natural cause before it, and so on. In short, the world and our lives are simply the result of lucky, but accidental occurrences of life-giving matter coming together in just the correct way.

This view is popular nowadays, in large part I think because it is merely a reflection of operational science – with which Americans seem obsessed. Now operational science is a wonderful tool. It has allowed the growth of modern medicine. It has helped lay the framework by which we can come to understand chemical interactions, as well as other repeatable scientific events. It cannot, however, help us with regard to historical science. In other words, it cannot help us determined what actually happened thousands or millions of years ago. We can introspect on it and draw inferences from what we understand today, but we cannot say with any degree of certainty that “the universe formed in just such a way”, or that “macro-evolution began like such and such, and will end like thus and such.” It provides no light into the realm of the spiritual, into faith, or into anything other than the closed materialistic system which can be examined in a test tube.

At first glance, this can be a seductive philosophy because it dismisses the need to understand anything other than physical phenomena. The answer a materialist might give to the question “what about God?” may very well be “I don’t know” or “I don’t believe in Him because I can’t see or touch Him.” And that would be that. But we know very well that things exist which we cannot see or touch. Until recently, we had no concept of the atom or the germ – but there they are. Add to this that we can come to know things based on different types of evidences (like history and logic), and strict materialism runs into some snags.

But the greatest shortcoming of materialism I believe comes in the following form. Because if you really believe this way, you must accept that human beings are simply walking bags of chemicals. That the world around us is a lucky accident; when we see a stream or a mountain or a sunrise, these are all accidentally beautiful. You must believe that anything you do in your entire life will eventually come to nothing, and the same with the life of your children, and their children. We are all blips on a cosmic radar screen that are here today, and gone tomorrow… with no greater meaning attached. If you are a moral person that is great, but if you are not – there are no real consequences; because someday our planet and sun will even cease to exist - so what does it matter? In its place will eventually be either something different, or nothing at all. You will not be remembered for anything, you are not special or unique, and you will eventually be forgotten by space and time altogether.

Do you actually believe this? Me neither. Fortunately for us, God does exist. We can and do live on after this life, our actions and accomplishments are remembered, and you and I are an important part of this creation. If you had not been born, there are certain things that would not have been accomplished or brought to fruition in this world in the unique way that only you could do them. We are not a throwaway race. And by grace of God, we do not need to live that way.

Sunday, August 16, 2009

What Is Good?


The following list is courtesy of our interim pastor at Sunday Church, Dave Huskey. During one of his sermons he outlined the Biblical model for how to tell if something is "good." See if whatever the next purchase you are considering meets these qualifications. If not, should you really be spending your money there?

1.) Does it make you holier?
2.) Does it bring people closer together?
3.) Does it help get you closer to reaching your full potential in the Body of Christ?
4.) Does it increase your commitment to loving others?

If none of the items on this list applies, then I bet the thing in question may just be another worldly distraction: that new video game, a new car, that must-have leather jacket, etc. This list was humbling for me, but also eye opening. May it serve you well also!
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Coming Soon.... 6 Questions About God


Debating the finer points of evolution and breaking down the evidence behind cosmological theory is fun and all, but what do "normal people" think? What do real people think when it comes to the question of whether or not God exists? Soon I will pose 6 questions to two different people. One is a believer, the other a non-believer. They will not be philosophers or New Testament scholars - just normal people, like you and I. We will be able to compare their answers to these questions, and begin to get a feel for what perceptions or cultural influences are going on regarding these issues.

Watch for this article in the near future. I look forward to hearing what they have to say. Hopefully you will look forward to reading it!


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Saturday, August 15, 2009

Does Everyone Go to Heaven?


A month or so ago, I posted a question at the top of this blog: 'Does Everyone Go to Heaven?' From the minute I added this poll, people began to vote. The possible answers were 1.) Yes, everyone goes to Heaven when they die, 2.) Yes, but only the good people, 3.) No, Heaven doesn't exist, and finally 4.) No, only saved/forgiven people go to Heaven. 67 people in all voted.

I am happy to say that the "correct answer" got the majority vote - 52% of pollers answered that only saved/forgiven people go to Heaven. One of my friends told me that he was about to vote, but then second guessed himself because the question was far too judgemental. He may be right, if the being doing the judging was you or I. In fact the Bible is clear that we are not judged according to how good or bad we are as compared to other people. But rather how good or bad we are as compared to God. Jesus Christ Himself will render the final judgement, and it will be just and irrefutable. Christ may be many things, but He can never be "wrong." If any of us are held against God's law (essentially the 10 commandments), it becomes clear that we have failed in at least 1 or 2 areas - usually a lot more if we are being honest. See an earlier post of mine for a review of the Big 10. If you can get through the list unscathed, then I would humbly offer that your particular sin just may be Pride.

If we want to get into Heaven then we must follow God's roadmap. Salvation is open to anyone, but the Bible tells us that not everyone is going. Many will unfortunately choose the wide gate to destruction because they have rejected the saving Grace of the Holy Spirit through Jesus Christ. How then can we be saved, and know it? Keep reading, and follow the steps below:

1.) Confess your sins. This involves first identifying the problem. No one goes to the doctor unless they know that they are sick. Realizing we fall short of God's glory is the first step. We will then have a heart humble enough to ask God for forgiveness from these sins through Jesus Christ.

2.) Accepting God's gift. Now it's time to accept God's gift of salvation. Pray these words, “Dear God, I understand that I am a sinner and in need of your forgiveness. I accept your son Jesus into my heart and into my home. Please come into my life, and save me into Heaven.”

3.) Turn away from sin. This is called repentance, it means literally to 'turn away' from your sins. This is difficult, but don't worry and keep 2 things in mind: 1.) you will have supernatural help, and 2.) you don't have to be perfect. If the same stupid sin keeps rearing it's ugly head in your life, you must try to defeat it. If you fail, pick yourself up again, ask for forgiveness, and keep on going.

Congratulations, you have done the most important first step. You have let God into your life. The key now is don't stop learning. Read the Bible, ask questions, find a church. Learn about baptism and then do it! And don't be afraid, because as God tells us through the Bible, "you have crossed from death to life." What a wonderful reality Heaven will be.

Monday, August 10, 2009

Faith Matters


John 15:19 tells us, “If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you.” But what does this really mean? For Americans we can sometimes have a hard time getting a handle on what faith persecution is. With the New Atheist today becoming more and more fashionable, we exist for a large portion in the mind set where it is fun to participate in an academic debate where one person believes in God, and one does not. But what would it look like to live in a country where you could be rounded up and literally thrown into prison for a belief in Jesus Christ?

Majed El Shafie was an Egyptian Muslim who was introduced to the Gospels, and finally became a Christian. After his conversion, he formed a small group that helped distribute the life changing news of the Gospel. Soon the “small group” became 24,000 members! As you could have guessed, once the group was big enough, the authorities came looking for Majed. The link below contains his interview with Sid Roth, it is maybe 30 minutes or so long. He was tortured and beaten for his belief system, and all he had to do to avoid this was give up the names of some of his key associates. He didn’t budge. Could you have withstood this? Could I? When asked about how much one person can endure, he responds, “one person?…or one person with God?” Point taken.

There is one point I think we can take away from this (and other similar stories). What allows normal, everyday people to be able to stand up under this type of extreme persecution? Is it religion or is it Jesus? Remember the two are not interchangeable. It seems to me that this alone would give credit to the fact that something big is going on here. Something that only an intellectual devotion would not account for. No, I’m afraid it must go deeper than that. The question then, is “what is all the fuss about relating to God and Jesus?” Dig around on this website for a while, and see if you can find the answer.




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Interesting Quote


"If there were no God, there would be no Atheists."


- G.K. Chesterton


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Resurrection Sunday Still Matters

The literal, bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ is the linchpin of the Christian faith.  It doesn't matter which denomination or slant ...