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Showing posts from October, 2010

The problem with evil

"But as for me, my feet came close to stumbling; My steps had almost slipped. For I was envious of the arrogant, As I saw the prosperity of the wicked. For there are no pains in their death; And their body is fat. they are not in trouble as other men; Nor are they plagued like mankind. . " Psalm 73:2-5 ""It was troublesome in my sight. Until I came into the sanctuary of God; Then I perceived their end." Psalm 73:16-b17     Lately, the stories that some of my clients have been telling me are very sad.  Most of the clients I have heard about lately talk about parents who either neglected or abused them.  They talk about times when parents neglected to be watchful, was physically abusive or permissive or sexually abused them.  I told my supervisor that in some cases, I think it would have been better if they had been raised by wolves.  At least wolves would feed and clean their young.     In fact, a look at the world around us would make it seem that if ther

The Church Part 2

    This post is a response to a comment made in a previous post about the church.  I mentioned what my ideal church would be like knowing full well that there is no ideal church.  Because the church is made up of imperfect people.  Many people lead to many different viewpoints and many different places in maturity in the faith.  I also think, that there are probably many people who go to church week in and week out that are not really believers at all, but think that they are.  Jesus said that until the end, the wheat and the tares would grow together.  That is what you have today.     So what needs to change to make the church better?  One thing, is honest to God revival of the true church.  I don't mean meetings and a guest speaker or special music.  I'm not sure that singing is necessary at all.  In fact, singing sometimes seems to me a little like the orchestra playing while the Titanic was sinking.  Rather revival starts with personal acknowledgement of sin and repentan

The Church

    I know people may get sick of hearing my rantings against the church.  I don't want for this post to be a continuation of that.  The church has its problems, but I want to get beyond that.  I want to talk a little about what I wish for and what I want in a church.     I grew up in a church that was in a area that was really growing and during the time of my childhood we saw the church grow from a few dozen members to well over two thousand.  It seems a least from the outside looking in that everyone got along with each other.  Though I am sure that was an illusion now.  But, it is easier to overlook some things and feel good about things when the church is growing and the bills are getting paid.  It seems we have the tendency the most to turn on each other when money is tight and membership is dropping.  Unfortunately for me, both the churches I pastored were in areas of stagnant growth or declining growth.      In my ideal church, it would be nice to see a church where peo

Grieving God

"And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption." Ephesians 4:30     I've spent most of my life until recently in the church.  As someone who has been a part of numerous congregations over the years, I don't think we take the command in Ephesians 4:30 seriously enough.  How can we actually grieve the heart of God?  I believe it is in the way we treat each other.  God's commands to us are firm, love God and love each other.      Typically, it seems most church fights and disagreements don't start over big things.  Most churches fight not over whether or not Jesus is God or some point of theology, but rather what color carpet they are going to buy or something that in the long run is not that important after all.  We'll go 10 rounds with each other over something trivial because it is an issue of control and power, not something spiritual, but carnal.  The world sees that and we end up losing our witness also.

Dark Days for David

1 Samuel 30 tells the story of David and his victory over the Amalekites.  In those days David lived among the Philistines because he had fled from Saul who was seeking to kill him.  But, the Philistines still mistrusted David because he had at one time been in Saul's army and leader of his forces.  So, when they are preparing to go into battle against Israel, they tell David that he cannot go with them. So, it happens that as David returns home he finds that the village that his family lives in has been attacked.  All of his children and wives and those of his army have been taken captive.  In 1 Samuel 30:5-6 it says that the men were in so much distress that they thought of killing David by stoning him.  But, then it goes on to say that "David strengthened himself in the Lord his God." verse 6.  David then took steps to seek God's face by calling for the priest and what is called the ephod. David's question to the Lord at that time was "Shall I pursue t

The Captain of the army

    I was driving by the library a little earlier today in town.  This is where the voting booths usually are and I was wondering if they were doing early voting.  It appeared that many people were in the room that is usually reserved for voting or the ongoing and never ending book sale they have the rest of the time.  It got me to thinking if Jesus were on earth would he vote?  Who would he vote for?  That led me to think about a passage where many think Jesus make a preincarnate visitation to earth to speak with Joshua.  It is found in Joshua 5:13-15 "Now it came about when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, a man was standing opposite him with his sword drawn in his hand and Joshua went to him and said to him, "Are you for us or our adversaries?" "And he said, "No, rather I indeed come now as captain of the host of the Lord."  It response to this Joshua bows down to him.  The captain of the Lord's hosts resp

Water to Wine

"And when the wine gave out, the mother of Jesus, said to Him, "They have no wine." And Jesus said to her, "Woman, what do I have to do with you? My hour has not yet come."  His mother said to the servants, "Whatever He says to you, do it."" John 2:4-5 NASV     I was recently looking at a book by Jack Miles about Jesus.  He talks at length about this exchange from Jesus and Mary.  Jesus has begun to establish his earthly ministry and has started to gather disciples around him and they are invited to a wedding.  Some days in the ceremony, the wine gives out.  Some think that perhaps Mary had some role in the wedding to help provide for the ceremony, but that is not necessary to the story.  Mary realizes that this is a huge embarrasement to the family and in her own way tries to help.  Somewhere along the way, she has realized that it is a good idea to bring these kinds of problems to her eldest son, who happens to be Jesus.    Jesus' words

God is Spirit

    In the gospel of John, Jesus is talking to a woman who came to a well.  It says that Jesus spoke to her asking for water (John 4:7).  Then came a long discussion about where the place was that it was appropriate to worship God.  Jesus replied to her that God is Spirit and those who worship Him, must worship in Spirit and in truth (John 4:24).  I was thinking about what this means that God is spirit.    The last few weeks, there have been a lot of football games on television.  It isn't uncommon for there to be a hundred thousand people gathered for one game.  A lot of times you will see pictures taken from a blimp from the sky looking down on the stadium.  The people simply look like dots on the ground.  When I see a picture like that, I think to myself that all those people and God knows each one of them.  God not only knows them, but knows even how many hairs are on each head (Luke 12:7).  God not only knows those people, but everyone else as well.  God not only sees them,