Enjoy …

******

Just because you can’t see or imagine a good reason why God might allow something to happen doesn’t mean there can’t be one. Again we see lurking within supposedly hard-nosed skepticism an enormous faith in one’s own cognitive faculties. If our minds can’t plumb the depths of the universe for the good answers to suffering, well, then, there can’t be any! This is blind faith of a high order.

Many people have to admit that most of what they really needed for success in life came to them through their most difficult and painful experiences.

Though none of these people are grateful for the tragedies themselves, they would not trace the insight, character, and strength they had gotten from them for anything.

********

If you try to explain away all assertions of truth as one or the other or something else you find yourself in an untenable position. C.S. Lewis writes in The Abolition of Man:

But you cannot go on “explaining away” for ever: you will find that you have explained explanation itself away. You cannot go on “seeing through” things for ever. The whole point of seeing through something is to see something through it. It is good that the window should be transparent, because the street or garden beyond it is opaque. How if you saw through the garden too?…a wholly transparent world is an invisible world. To “see through” all things is the same as not see.

“I’m trying to figure out God’s will for my life.”

Have you ever said that?

I’m sure you have. We all have!

But what is God’s will? Should we think in terms of specific blueprint that we are to find and follow? And, if so, if we were to step out of God’s will, can we get back into it or is it too late? How detailed is the will of God for our lives?  What’s the difference between God’s Sovereign Will and God’s Moral Will? Are there some decisions in life that God leaves to us? Is God a micro-manager or a Shepherd-King? Aahh only some of the questions we’ll be answering!

As you know, we’re studying the book of James on Sunday morning (fast becoming one of my most favorite books!). And, now, we’re entering chapter four of James that specifically addresses the will of God. Is there a more important subject?

I really encourage you to study with us as we grow in the subject of God’s will for our life — and invite some friends too! Let them know that we’re beginning a series on “How Can I know The Will Of God For My Life!” You never know – for them, experiencing God’s will for their life may begin by turning to Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord!

God wants you to experience His will! He’s not keeping it a mystery.

See you Sunday!

JOIN ME

I’d love for you to join in a discussion on the book “The Reason For God” written by Timothy Keller!

I read the book a few month’s ago but I am excited about going through it again and I’d love to read it through with you in the next few months.

As I mentioned Sunday morning, I thought it would be a good idea to read a few chapters each week and open it up for comments and perhaps even some dialogue here on the blog.

If your unable to read through the book at this time, that’s ok – you are still welcome to join in the conversation and it would be great to hear from you!

I’ll be posting some of excerpts from Keller’s book that I have found particularly interesting and insightful that I hope you enjoy (see below the first excerpt from the Introduction to, “The Reason For God”).

Enjoy.

FIRST EXCERPT FROM “INTRODUCTION”

I want to make a proposal that I have seen bear much fruit in the lives of young New Yorkers over the years. I recommend that each side look at doubt in a radically new way.

Let’s begin with believers. A faith without some doubts is like a human body without any antibodies in it. People who blithely go through life too busy or indifferent to ask hard  questions about why they believe as they do will find themselves defenseless against either the experience of tragedy or the probing questions of a smart skeptic. A person’s faith can collapse almost overnight if she has failed over the years to listen patiently to her own doubts, which should only be discarded after long reflection.

Believers should acknowledge and wrestle with doubts—not only their own but their friends’ and neighbors’.  It is no longer sufficient to hold beliefs just because you inherited them.   Only if you struggle long and hard with objections to your faith will you be able to provide grounds for your beliefs to skeptics, including yourself, that are plausible rather than ridiculous or offensive. And, just as important for our current situation, such a process will lead you, even after you come to a position of strong faith, to respect and understand those who doubt.

But even as believers should learn to look for reasons behind their faith, skeptics must learn to look for a type of faith hidden within their reasoning. All doubts, however skeptical and cynical they may seem, are really a set of alternate beliefs. You cannot doubt Belief A except from a position of faith in Belief B. For example, if you doubt Christianity because “There can’t be just one true religion,” you must recognize that this statement is itself an act of faith. No one can prove it empirically, and it is not a universal truth that everyone accepts.  If you went to the Middle East and said, “There can’t be just one true religion,” nearly everyone would say, “Why not?”  The reason you doubt Christianity’s Belief A is because you hold unprovable Belief B. Every doubt therefore, is based on a leap of faith.

The only way to doubt Christianity rightly and fairly is to discern the alternate belief under each of your doubts and then to ask yourself what reason you have for believing it. How do you know your belief is true?”  It would be inconsistent to require more justification for Christian belief than you do for your own, but that is frequently what happens. In fairness you must doubt your doubts. My thesis is that if you come to recognize the beliefs on which your doubts about Christianity are based, and if you seek as much proof for those beliefs as you seek from Christians for theirs—you will discover that your doubts are not as solid as they first appeared. 

Have you ever heard the expression, “It’s a blessed subtraction?” It’s an expression that has taken a life of it’s own over the years among Christians. The reason for it is because believers have experienced that in God’s economy, He subtracts in order to ADD!

On Wednesday nights we’re studying the book of Acts. Presently we’re in Acts chapter 16.

Paul is just beginning his 2nd missionary journey but it began bitter-sweet. His faithful companion Barnabus has set out in another direction and has taken along John Mark. So, there has been a subtraction in Paul’s life. However, when he arrives in the city of Lystra he finds a young disciple named Timothy who will become like a “son” to him and will join him in his 2nd missionary journey – ultimately becoming a great leader in the church. In addition, when the team ends up in Troas, there is strong indication that Luke, a medical doctor, joins the team. This is the same Luke who will later pen the book of Luke and the book of Acts.

So, while there had been some “subtractions” in Paul’s life, there had also been some blessed additions as well!

I want to encourage you. Often the Lord will subtract in order to add to your life. It’s not always a comfortable process though. Sometimes there is pain like when the surgeon removes a cancerous growth in order to add health. The apostle Paul spoke of a painful “thorn” that hurt him for years. However, although there was a subtraction of comfort, God added POWER in Paul’s life promising that His strength is “perfected in weakness” and it was.

Be encouraged.

Keep your eyes on Jesus!

Chances are what you’re going through is a “BLESSED SUBTRACTION!”

This is MY Bible …

I am who it says I am. Matthew 5:16
I can do what it says I can do. Philippians 4:13
I am going where it says I will go. John 14:3

God’s Word is milk for my soul. 1 Peter 2:2
God’s Word is seed for my faith. Luke 8:11
God’s Word is light for my path. Psalm 119:105
God’s Word is power for my victory. Hebrews 4:12
God’s Word is freedom for my life. John 8:32

When I read God’s Word it brings me joy.  Jeremiah 15:16
When I study God’s Word, it keeps me from shame.  2 Timothy 2:15
When I memorize God’s Word, it purifies my heart.  Psalm 119:11
When I quote God’s Word, it defeats my enemies.  Ephesians 6:10, 17
When I meditate on God’s Word, it brings me success.  Joshua 1:8
When I abide in God’s Word, it gives me confidence.  John 15:7

AMEN!

If you needed anything else, God would give it to you.

What a liberating thought!

So, if you are struggling with contentment at this time, the source of the problem is not the Lord. The reason is because He’s given you everything you need for this very moment. He’s given you the GRACE you need!

And, remember, the GREATEST NEED we have is the Lord and He will never leave us.

The Bible says, “…be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” So we may boldly say: “The Lord is my helper; I will not fear. What can man do to me?” (Heb 13:5)

What is interesting to me is the focus on the attention of seizing the NOW, the DAY – to the glory of God!

Be encouraged and blessed:)

#1 Resolve never to do any manner of thing, whether in soul or body, less or more, but what tends for the glory of God.

#2 Resolve never to lose one moment of time; but improve it the most profitable way I possibly can.

#3 Resolve to live with all my might, while I do live.

#4 Resolve never to do anything, which I should be afraid to do, if it were the last hour of my life.

#5 Resolve to think much on all occasions of my own dying, and of the common circumstances which attend death.

Onward …

21 Day Fast And Prayer

“Ask” “Seek” “Knock”

Luke 11:9-13

January 25^th thru February 14th

As we begin the new year of 2010, I would like to invite you to join me in these next 21 days for a time of prayer and fasting that we’re calling “Bringing It To The Father!” Jesus promised that if we “Ask”, “Seek” and “Knock” the Father will give to us the help, comfort and gifting of the Holy Spirit. Let’s begin the year giving our Father our attention, and giving room to the Holy Spirit in our lives!

What is fasting?

Biblical fasting is refraining from food for a spiritual purpose. It is denying bodily hunger to focus on hungering after the Lord. Jesus spoke of “prayer and fasting” (Mark 9:29). And there are different types of “fasts!”

For example …

#1 There is the “Full Fast” – which is drink only.

#2 There is the “Daniel Fast” – which is: no meat, no sweets, no bread (only water, juice and vegetables).

#3 There is the “Partial Fast” – from 6:00 am to 3:00 pm (or from sunrise to sundown) – which can be a “Full Fast”, “Daniel Fast” or where you give up at least one type of food.

The type of fast that you choose, the length of the fast, and whether or not you choose to fast at all, is entirely up to you. The Bible does not command that we fast; and if you choose not to fast, no problem, you can still pray! However, before beginning any fast, be sure to consult your physician.

God Bless you as you go vertical in prayer and fasting with the Father!

C.S. Lewis, the great Oxford professor, was at one time a hardened atheist. Interestingly, what began the process that ultimately revolutionized Lewis’ life in becoming a Christian was an idea that came from, an unlikely source, an even more hardened atheist than Lewis who remarked to him, “the historicity of the gospels were really surprisingly good!” This same atheist then referred to pagan mythology of a “dying god” who rose again, then mused, “It almost looks as if it really happened once.”

Did it really happen, once?

The popular talk show host LARRY KING was once asked whom he would choose to interview if he had one person to choose from throughout history.  King answered that it would be Jesus and he would ask only one question: “Are you indeed VIRGIN BORN?” “The Answer to that Question,” said King, “would explain history to me”.

Why did King say this?

Because if Jesus was not virgin born, everything begins to break down! If Jesus was not supernaturally conceived in the womb of Mary then He was not God. And if He was not God then His death on the Cross really meant nothing at all. Even more, He was a fraud giving “False Hope” by claiming to be God in human form!

Some say that the Gospel’s were written by individuals inspired by imagination not historical realities. But if the Gospel’s are not true, if the Bible is a con, an attempt to CREATE a reality in the readers mind(inspired by an agenda and the imagination of man), the information used by the writer’s would have been counterproductive to their attempt to persuade a public that Jesus is the Son of God!

No one who would try to make up the story of the Lord Jesus, pawning it off as fact/credible, and write into the story shepherds being the first to hear of the news of Christ’s birth, why? Because shepherds were despised in this culture, regarded as thieves and not even allowed to stand trial as a witness. In addition, why would the leaders of the early Christian movement have made up the story of the crucifixion if it didn’t happen? As New York Times best selling author Timothy Keller concisely put it, “Any listener of the gospel in either Greek or Jewish culture would have automatically suspected that anyone who had been crucified was a criminal, whatever the speaker said to the contrary.” Keller continues, “Why would the Gospel’s depict the apostles – the eventual leaders of the early church – as petty and jealous, almost impossibly slow-witted, and in the end as cowards who either actively or passively failed their master? Why would anyone in the early church want to play up the terrible failures of their most prominent leader, Peter?”

The shepherds, the cross, the failings of the apostles… they are all mentioned in the Gospel narratives … BECAUSE they ARE a part of historical reality! Because the Gospel’s are ACCURATE historical accounts!

C.S. Lewis made an insightful observation that ancient fiction was nothing like modern fiction. In ancient times the details for epics and legends were sparse. He noted that the genre of fiction had developed only in the last 300 years! He said, “I have been reading poems, romances, vision literature, legends, and myths all my life. I know what they are like. I know none of them are like this. Of this (gospel) test there are only two possible views. Either this is reportage ….or else, some unknown (ancient) writer …without known predecessor or successor, suddenly anticipated the whole technique of modern novelistic, realistic narrative …”

So, MERRY CHRISTMAS!

And, enjoy reading the “Christmas Story” of the birth of the Savior, Christ the Lord. A story mixed with the natural and supernatural.

Because…

“It REALLY Happened, Once!”

I, believe, it all began two years ago at the start of 2008, when by prayer and fasting we sought the Lord for personal REVIVAL! I believe the Lord began a process of renewal in our lives and in the life of the church.

In the better part of this year, we have witnessed passion and public expression of praise and adoration for the Lord unparallel at Calvary, along with an excitement and buzz among the church family hanging together and fellowshipping long after services.

Simply, there is Joy!

And, the church has become a beautiful, REFUGE!