Elijah... the Prophet..

Lets talk about heroes of the bible....

yea.. we all know that Jesus Christ would be everyone's first pick for a dodgeball team, but lets say He's gonna play referee... if you had to choose your favorite personality from the bible, who would it be?

I would have to say Elijah... most would think Elisha, because of the whole “go up you bald head” incident, but i'm sticking to my first round pick..

The life and works of Elijah are so.. awesome.. the power that God showed through him, I guess that's why people like Pastor Albert Kang are so involved with Elijah Challenge Ministries... but i'm done name dropping for now..

I've been paying attention to a sermon series about seeking first the Kingdom of God.. it's based on Jesus Christ speaking of the birds and the flowers.. and not worrying about what we will eat tomorrow.. good theory statements.. He's giving instruction, letting us know that when we put God first, He will sustain and provide for us. I have seen this happening in my life, and I look back to see when it was happening with Elijah..

First, lets take a look at 1 Kings 17... so much good stuff... He predicts a drought, and then goes and stays by a brook... when the brook dries up.. ok.. no water now.. he goes into the village and sees a widow woman gathering sticks.. she says she's going to make some bread for her and her son, and then they will die... all they have is enough for one meal, and then they starve... but Elijah tells her to take a bit of what she has.. make him a snack.. and she'll be good...

does the woman really go about doing this so quickly? Or does she sit here and question why this lunatic wants to take some of HER food that she doesn't even have enough to live on... nonetheless, she follows his instruction, makes the food.. and her and her son never run out of flower and oil.....

she put God first..

Then when the showdown happens.. and Elijah challenges the prophets of baal to pray and cause fire to their sacrifice.. some more of this awesome heroics takes place.. It's now Elijah's turn to pray for fire.. so.. you figure he'd get the best, driest, most flammable .. (maybe a bit of gasoline).. so that when he prays.. the thing lights up like a rocket... instead.. he takes 12 jars of water.... remember.. this is WATER... the brook dried up.. it's been 7 years of drought... they don't have culligan man here... but he takes TWELVE jars of water... and pours it over the wood of the sacrifice... not only will this thing not burn... but these people are now 12 jars short of the only hydration in the nation...

yet.. he does it... and he prays....

and just when everything seems hopeless...

and impossible...

and we're about to fall over and die..

God sends the fire... and consumes our sacrifice.. consumes our lives.. as we are the living sacrifice..

and yea.. Elijah even had a moment of discouragement... but God spoke... not in the mountain.. or in the wind... but in the still small voice...

and He's speaking to everyone reading this … saying...

“Trust in Me.”

Do it yourself

I don't understand society..and to a greater degree, christians.
Somewhere along the way we've lost the idea that we can control how we are..even our situations..
But today everyone has a welfare mentality...they want it handed to them..yes..i am making a broad generalization and saying everyone, when I only mean a select multitude.
society wants the politicians to fix their problems.. Christians want men to fix the problems that they need to take to God. Waiting on a profound word spoken from a man as opposed to opening their hearts to let God change them...
You want a touch from God? Do it yourself... No mediator is needed.. Christ is the mediator.. Hes waiting for US to come to the altar instead of sending religion before us.

End rant

A House Divided

Matthew 12:25 (New American Standard Bible)

25And knowing their thoughts Jesus said to them, "Any kingdom divided against itself is laid waste; and any city or house divided against itself will not stand.

Ya'll might call me crazy, but that's nothing new to me. I have been blessed with the ability to see God in things that you don't often look. It's nothing about me but all about Him. His kingdom is more important to me than this life, and I can't sit back and stay quiet, I guess..

anyway, I have found myself watching TNA Wrestling, lately. I know wrestling is staged, but it can be somewhat entertaining. It takes me back to when I was a kid and Hulk Hogan and Sting were my heroes. Sting and Hogan are still around and so my attention is kept. This one particular Main Event caught my eye and mind about something far beyond just sports entertainment.

Sting is the champion, there are two men that want to battle him for his belt. And then there is a faction run by Hulk Hogan that is trying to break all three of these men. It was announced that Hogan's guys would have to fight a team of Sting and his two contenders.... in a steel cage. When the time came for the battle, Hogan's guys (the bad guys) were unified and Sting and his team could not set their differences aside to defeat their common enemy. They fought amongst each other to a point where they were obliterated by their foes.

This is pretty much what happens EVERY DAY in the Christian world. We are so wrapped up in our petty squabbles, we don't realize we're trapped in the confines of a world that has a unified enemy out to destroy us. Some may think i'm too militant about this faith, but i've seen how these differences turn people away... not because they exist, but because of how we, as Christ followers, handle it. Gone are the days when I am ashamed of being counted among the believers, but some of our actions, I am ashamed. Who will stand up and stand together?

Blessed are the Pure in Heart

preached on march 20, 2011 at Iron City Church www.ironcitychurch.com

Matthew 5:8 Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

This is a difficult verse for me because I know who I am, and I know that I don't always have a pure heart. I'm a sinner. The definition of pure is to be free from anything of a different, inferior, or contaminating kind / untainted with evil; innocent.. so in order to have a pure heart, we have to be untainted by evil, not contaminated by things of this world.

In essence, I would have to say that Jesus is telling us that the only way to see God is to not sin.. to have never sinned, and to not want to sin.

Romans 3:23 says that All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

Without understanding the Christian faith, this looks extremely bleak. Like there's no hope for any of us. We won't see God because we don't have pure hearts, no matter how hard we try. Some parts of the non-christian, and even in some areas of the church world, see Jesus as being a perfect individual, God made flesh, came to the earth to do all sorts of great and wonderful things, miracles, and teaching.. only to not give us any hope for getting to heaven because we're “not good enough.”

in Dr. David Jeremiah's book How To Be Happy According to Jesus, he says there are two types of Purity. The first is Perfect Purity. This is the purity that Christians will experience in the afterlife. When we're in heaven and are given new and perfect bodies. Our flesh will be done away with and we will be pure new creations serving God in His Kingdom. (that kinda gives me goosebumps)

The second is Positional Purity. This is where Christians are right now. Those of us that are striving and desiring to be pure, have accepted Jesus Christ's sacrifice as payment for our sins, yet.. still have our problems of stumbling. The fact is that if we were able to attain Perfect Purity, this side of heaven, than there would have been no reason for Jesus Christ to walk this earth... in perfect purity, and have His blood shed for the forgiveness of our sins.

This positional purity should be a driving force behind us making changes in our lives to fill our hearts with the things of God and not the things of man. It's almost like practicing or preparing ourselves for the day when all sin is finally taken away.

An example I thought of while reading this was that of David. Prior to becoming king, he was a shepherd. The only battle he ever really did was when he would have to kill animals that were looking to steal and kill his sheep. After Saul had lost favor in God's eyes, David was anointed the successor, once Saul was removed from power. Even tho it would be some years before this happened, David began to fight. First was his battle with Goliath that we all should be familiar with. Then as he joined Saul's army, returning from battle the crowds would cheer things like “saul has killed thousands, but David tens of thousands”. Even tho he wasn't a king yet, he was in position to be a king. He acted in more ways that a king would act as opposed to a shepherd.

In our position as sons and daughters of God, we are in position to be perfect and pure. However we aren't there yet, we're a work in progress. It is our duty as God's people to act in more ways that a pure heart would act, as opposed to a sinful heart.

It's not enough to say “i'm saved” and then go about a regular day of lying, cheating, cursing, lusting. You can't claim to be ok because of positional purity. It is our lifestyle that needs to be changed to remove all these things from us.

The best check list to follow would be the very thing we're studying in this sermon series. How can we strive to have a pure heart? We can have a humble spirit. This was the first beatitude. Having a humble spirit will help us to recognize that we ARE sinners and need to walk in the ways of Christ.

As a recap, to mourn is to be broken and focused on God for comfort, and comforting others in their time of need. Understanding the hurts others feel. Two obvious ones are being gentle, and merciful... and of course hungering and thirsting after righteousness. When we do these things, the joy and the peace the surpasses all understanding comes from The Holy Spirit.

We are vessels of the Holy Spirit, and when we sin, it taints part of us. Right? But when we pray and fill our hearts with the things of God, and have the Holy Spirit poured into us, the sin gets washed away. It's like if you took a glass of coca cola, and began pouring water into it. The coke represents a heart filled with sin. The water is the Holy Spirit. Eventually, all the coke is removed and the only thing left is pure, clean water.

In 1 john 1:8-9 it says If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us.

9If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

10If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us.

You see, the confession of our sins, to God, will cleanse us. So if and when something happens and you stumble.. sin gets back into your heart, God is faithful to forgive and cleanse us.

If you find yourself in a situation where sin keeps creeping in, stealing your joy, and making you frustrated that you can't retain the happiness that comes from God, pray and look at the situation. There was a man who had no problems throughout his day, he was able to focus on God and his job, but as he got home, he would have impure thoughts, and they stole his joy away. Looking at his actions, he would walk home from work, and the part of town he had to pass through was more or less a redlight district. It was the quickest way home, yet.. just taking a few extra blocks would be able to keep his mind and his heart from sinning.

Sometimes our lives can change so much for the better, and have such a greater relationship with God if we just make a small directional change. For others it might not be so small a direction, but in all temptation, God gives us ways for escaping.

It is my prayer for all of us that we can find our hearts purified by God and His Holy Spirit. This doesn't just happen, it is a way of life. Fixing our heart on Him and His ways, praising Him instead of cursing our situation, seeing how He works in all things rather than seeing everything as just another obstacle, these are traits of growing and maturing Christians. Practicing in the position of purity that we will achieve when we pass from this life into the next.

Blessed are those Who Mourn

this is the written prompting of my latest sermon at Iron City Church from the Sermon on the Mount series. www.ironcitychurch.com

Blessed are those that Mourn.. for they will be comforted...

How many here have mourned? I don't know anyone who hasn't had an experience of mourning. Even the kids upstairs. It's a fact of life. And as I prepared for this message, I wanted to see what the actual definition of mourning was. We're all familiar of how it surrounds death, but it goes a little bit farther than that.

To mourn is

1.

to feel or express sorrow or grief.

2.

to grieve or lament for the dead.

3.

to show the conventional or usual signs of sorrow over a person's death.

In today's culture.. everyone is looking for ways to be happy. It was written in the declaration of independence about a God given right to pursue happiness. When you look everywhere, the pursuit is forgotten about and the right to be happy is being sold on street corners, news stands, and infomercials. Send money to some guy covered in question marks and you're going to be happy. You will live in comfort. Get rich quick and everything will be fine.

If happiness was really a God given right, would we all feel short changed currently? When we look at the definition of mourning, sorrow.. grief.. even regrets. I've been feeling sorrow for some of the choices in my life. The loss of my marriage and music career. Sure it was five years ago, but it's an event that took a piece of my life away. Some people in different churches have told me, “you can't mourn over things. Praise God in all things. Be happy, God's gonna take care of you.”

this is all good advice, but not entirely healthy. Yes.. we should always praise God in in the good times AND the bad times. But Jesus says it's ok to mourn. In fact, if we're familiar with the life of Christ.. we'll remember that His good friend lazarus died.

Jesus Christ is GOD.. that is a fact that we all agree on, or I hope. And if we don't.. I hope you can find agreeance with us soon. But the fact is, in John 11:35 Jesus Wept.

Lazarus was dead. The people were mourning. And JESUS who knew that in just 3 minutes, lazarus would be exiting the tomb, raised from the dead, and all glory to God.. was weeping. God almighty felt compassion and sorrow for the people and for His friend. And yes.. God made things better when He said “lazarus.. come forward”..

Mourning isn't a sign of a lack of faith. But a sign of brokeness and lost control.

Ever notice that when something tragic happens, a death, a loss, a breakup, our instinct is to change something.. our regular routines aren't the same at that point and we need to do something to feel in control. Some people go about trying to run from reality through drugs or alcohol. Others try to change an aspect in their life.

Throughout the old testament, when israel lost a battle, or someone died, the people would fast. This was because whatever the tragedy, it has disrupted life as we know it. What is the basic necessity for life? Food. And one of the best ways to get in tune with God is through prayer and fasting.

When we mourn, we have decisions to make. Let God comfort us, or run into the arms of satan. Yes, some people let their lives fall to pieces through tragedy. Others take steps to make things better. So that the same loss or regret isn't experienced. About 6 years ago, when I was in my band, I had a friend. He was younger than me. His name was Jeff. I was his boss at office depot, and he was a good kid that made bad decisions. He drank way too much for a 19 year old. One night he called me and woke me up at 3am.. he was drunk as a skunk and saying some really hurtful stuff. I hung up and turned my phone off. Never really talked to him for a few months, and I felt bad. I missed him. He was like a little brother to me, tho I never told him. It was may 22^nd when I received a phone call and booked a show to open for a rather popular band.. and it was going to be in detroit. We never played detroit. I saw this as a perfect opportunity to call Jeff and invite him to a show. He'd wanted to see us and this was local. Instead of calling him right then, inviting him to the show and burying the hatchet, I said “nah, i'll just call him tomorrow after work.”

the next morning I got a phone call at work from a friend. Jeff died that morning. 19 year old kid never gonna see his 20^th birthday. And I never got the chance to tell him what he meant. I've grieved over this for 5 years.. this is probably the first time i've told the story without breaking down in tears. I've finally let go of the grief and mourning.. because I made a decision afterward.. I would never hold back from telling someone what they mean to me. I would never hold back my emotions. For the most part, it's been successful. I've relied on God numerous times to let me do this, and it has comforted me.

Something similar happened in the bible.

John 18:25-27

Meanwhile, Simon Peter was still standing there warming himself. So they asked him, “You aren’t one of his disciples too, are you?”

He denied it, saying, “I am not.”

26 One of the high priest’s servants, a relative of the man whose ear Peter had cut off, challenged him, “Didn’t I see you with him in the garden?” 27 Again Peter denied it, and at that moment a rooster began to crow.

Can you imagine the sorrow and grief peter felt after denying his relationship with Jesus.. not once, but THREE times? I'm sure he must have mourned because of his poor decision. How can anyone be comforted through this?

After the resurrection, Jesus met with Peter and some of the other disciples on the shore, while they were fishing.

John 21:15-17
15 When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?”

“Yes, Lord,” he said, “you know that I love you.”

Jesus said, “Feed my lambs.”

16 Again Jesus said, “Simon son of John, do you love me?”

He answered, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.”

Jesus said, “Take care of my sheep.”

17 The third time he said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?”

Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, “Do you love me?” He said, “Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you.”

Jesus said, “Feed my sheep.

Jesus comforted Peter by reinstating him into the fold. His denial had surely made him feel distant from everyone, and through Christ's love, he was reconciled. Comforted... and how comforted would he be a few days later when the day of pentecost came.

Who was it that preached the truth of Christ and converted 5,000 people into Christ's kingdom? Peter... how comforting is that? Even when our lives are turned upside down and we lose track of what we stand for.. God can STILL restore us to an effectual relationship with Him.

{selection deleted because it was church specific}

Ecclesiastes 3:4 says there is a time to dance.. and a time to mourn..

John 14:1 states Do not let your heart be troubled.. believe in God.. and believe also in Jesus.

When we mourn.. we learn who our true friends are. The ones that come to comfort. The ones that make sure our lives are provided for, during the rough parts. We have an amazing friend in Jesus.. and amazing friends in each other.

Selling some Souls

Working in retail sales for the past ten years, I have learned a thing or two about selling.. even selling to people that don't really want what i've sold them. There's really nothing difficult in selling, or sharing.. its all about empathy. Feeling for people will gain access. People love to buy things when it was his or her idea to buy it rather than a pushy salesperson...

and then you get people that can't even sell something that is free. I was at an event and we were to hand out free samples of a product. The person I charged with distribution was having a hard time giving away MINTS!!. I kept telling him, just give it to them.. if they don't want it, they'll throw it away. Don't ask them.. don't explain it to them. Just give it!

This can be adapted to lives as a christian. Instead of trying to give people the gospel; telling them how much they need it. Why can't we live it and give it? It's a FREE gift. Live a life without shame, put it out there for people to receive.. they'll either take it or throw it away, however its THEIR choice. How many have been pushed away because we, as a church, suck at selling free things?

Life Sucks... so?

Life Sucks

25"For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink; nor for your body, as to what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?
26" Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they?
27"And who of you by being worried can add a single hour to his life?
28"And why are you worried about clothing? Observe how the lilies of the field grow; they do not toil nor do they spin,
29yet I say to you that not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these.
30"But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more clothe you? You of little faith!
31"Do not worry then, saying, 'What will we eat?' or 'What will we drink?' or 'What will we wear for clothing?'
32"For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.
33"But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
34"So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Suck is pretty much the going rate for life, nowadays. Everyone is saving up their jellybeans for the big jar at the end of this ride, but what is it getting us? Why do we do what we do? Are we going to follow the “he who dies with the most toys wins” logic?
There is a particular idea/truth I like to remember… God is on the throne. Some might not see this as truth, but for those with faith in Jesus Christ.. this should be an understanding beyond just an idea. He created the world. He created us, and the last thing He’s going to do is sit back and let us just waste away. There are plans for us. We have to step out in faith… and perform every task as if it were an act of worship..
This may sound odd.. “how is taking the trash out an act of worship?” it is in our attitude. At Iron City, we were challenged to give God the first 15 minutes of the day in prayer. Some may wonder how you can pray for 15 minutes… most can vent to a friend for longer than that… so why not vent to the One that has the power to change things? We’ve gotten stagnant in our prayer… we pray for someone to be healed and then are shocked when it actually happens. This is not how it should be.
I don’t know what will happen with my job.. or with my future.. but one thing I do know is that God is on the throne.. Jesus Christ died for me…. And as long as I remain obedient, He’s gonna get me through whatever. Life won’t be easy.. but keeping our eyes fixed on Him (Hebrews 12:2) we will find the ability to sing and praise through adversity.. just as the apostles did while in jail in the book of Acts 16
23When they had struck them with many blows, they threw them into prison, commanding the jailer to guard them securely;
24and he, having received such a command, threw them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks.
25But about midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns of praise to God, and the prisoners were listening to them;
It’s a new form of discipline to sing through adversity.. but sports teams have talked about “playing through the pain”… why can’t we when our leader is the Great Physician?

an intro...

How far must a man go before he fully understands his world and the ones that fill it? Somewhere, between Heaven and Hell, lies man's existence and the struggles he faces to accept or deny the fates that surround him. To each is a justification; to each is a curse. Beneath the skin and bone, a spirit resides; a soul. Some are in tune with their soul while others allow it to be manipulated and controlled.