CAN WE COEXIST WITH WHAT CONTRADICTS?

    
 It seems Biblical Christianity is under attack everywhere, from pop culture to the very institutions of the mainline Church.  Entertainment icons such as Oprah Winfrey who declared "Jesus can't possibly be the only way." speak as authorities on the subject of faith.  Religious authorities such as Pope Francis recklessly declare such inanities as, " The issue for those who do not believe in God is to obey their conscience. Sin, even for those who have no faith, exists when people disobey their conscience."

     Winfrey and Francis both tout a multipath journey to God and redemption.  Jesus told us He is the only way to the Father. We cannot coexist with something that contradicts!  Either Winfrey, Francis and all the other multipath voices clamoring for a say are wrong or Jesus is a liar.  

     Culturally, we are inundated with the idea that good people go to heaven. Liberal adherents to most major religions believe the heart of every religious system is loving others.  Surely you have seen the Coexist bumper sticker touting the cohesion of all the major world religions.  The now defunct Coexist Foundation's  stated goal was to Promote, encourage, and support engagement between Jews, Christians and Muslims both individually and through their respective communities through dialogue, education and research.   All of this sounds wonderful.  Rodney King said it better than any, "Can't we all just get along?"  Well...

     If you listen to the those who promote this theology of sorts, you will come to the conclusion that Utopia is just around the corner.  Who hasn't listened to the words of John Lennon's  Imagine and whimsically imagined the world actually living as one.  The only problem with Lennon's vision is it requires we suspend believe in heaven, hell and religion.  Hmm... so a world with no moral absolute truth and no expectation of consequence for bad behavior will actually promote peace and love...  I imagine a world more closely resembling Mad Max than the Garden Of Eden!

    So, what do we do?  Do we go on the offensive and stand on the street corner shouting about the coming Judgment of God?  Do we quietly disagree amongst ourselves and try to teach our children better without engaging the culture?  As in all things, let scripture be our guide:  2Timothy 4:2  preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.  Matthew 5:44  But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,.  We have to love those who oppose God but love them enough to share the truth.  

    God is not weak nor powerless, in needs of us to defend Him.  We are not God's law team dispatched to defend God against defamation or libel. We are called to demonstrate God's love and goodness.  Matthwe 5:16  In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.  Make no mistake, there is a culture war. There is a war for the hearts and minds of every person on planet earth. We do not battle with conventional warfare, we must understand the battle is directed by dark spiritual forces and our warfare must take place on that plane.  2Corinthians 10:4  (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) 

     Know what you believe, study the Word, be vigilant in prayer and love people enough to tell them the truth.  Above all remember: Zechariah 4:6  Then he answered and spake unto me, saying, This is the word of the LORD unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the LORD of hosts. 

Now, go live as Christ.... and give the devil hell!

PUBLISHING MY SHORT STORY ON KINDLE

 Today, I published my first short story and chose to use Kindle self publishing.  I weighed out my options and this seemed to be the best way to ease into the world of writing for profit. I am not expecting to get rich or sell a ton of copies, but I am expecting to learn from the experience.  I am now a published author! check out my first short story on Kindle and Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B079WR45BC

The whole project is over 3,000 words, about right for a short story, and took about two months from start to finish.  I do not have much spare time, so writing was done in 10-20 minute increments. This caused me to have to re-read my work constantly in order to keep continuity.  After several edits, I sat on the completed manuscript for a week or so, praying about a publishing platform. 

I spoke to a co-worker who published his first novel on Kindle, about a year ago. He earned enough to purchase a new car.  I will be happy to earn enough to motivate me to write another story!  

I looked at some of the big Christian publishers and was quickly discouraged with the process.  Unless you are writing a text book or commentary, you pretty much have to hire an agent to shop publishers for you.  Hiring an agent for a short story did not seem to be very wise, so I took my co-worker's advice and self published on Kindle.

The process was easy and relatively quick, from setting up a new account to submitting the manuscript, I spent maybe 3 hours.  In less than  24 hours, my story was up for sale.  

Whether you are a new writer, or have some completed manuscripts, I encourage you to try this platform.  As far as promotion goes, hit social media. I posted on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and LinkedIn.  This is all free publicity and if you can get a few people to like and share your link, all the better.

Well, if you get the chance, go check out my story on Kindle, it's only 99 cents!  https://www.amazon.com/dp/B079WR45BC

If you are an aspiring writer, you have nothing to lose, head over to Kindle and get published!

WHEN PERCEPTION MEETS REALITY - WHO WINS?

 

  I am amazed when I read  how clueless the first followers of Christ were! How could they, the 12 disciples, miss the point so often?  Their perception did not often match reality. Then I think about it a little more and realize I am no better.  

What happens when what I think the Bible teaches conflicts with what the Bible actually teaches?  Like most people, I may simply pass over the parts I feel contradict my theology, without even thinking about them.   Even the disciples ignored the parts they did not understand according to their theology.

    In Matthew 20, Jesus very clearly explains to the Disciples, as they traveled to Jerusalem for the last time, how He is about to die: Matthew 20:17  And as Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took the twelve disciples aside, and on the way he said to them,   "See, we are going up to Jerusalem. And the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn him to death and deliver him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified, and he will be raised on the third day."
I do not think Jesus could have made this any clearer.  Minutes later, completely ignoring everything Jesus just said, James and John apply for the jobs of sitting at Christ's right and left side in the Kingdom!  Imagine this scene, "I am about to go die for the sins of the world."  "yeah, yeah, ok, whatever, oh by the way, can we have the top positions when you set up the Kingdom?"  

     How can this happen?  The worst trap we can fall into when studying the Bible is thinking we know what it will say before it says it.  The disciples believed Jesus was the Messiah, but they also believed the Messiah had come to establish the Kingdom, period.  When Jesus spoke about dying and going away, it did not match their theology.  Rather than adjusting their theology, the disciples ignored the parts they did not understand or which conflicted with their belief system.

     I have a friend who is a skeptic.  His biggest beef with Christianity is how so many different groups of "Christians" interpret the Bible so many different ways.  I explained to him, the Bible is pretty self explanatory and pretty simple to understand if taken literally. The problem is, people choose to make the Bible fit their beliefs rather than making their beliefs fit the Bible.  Another problem, which is a topic for another blog, is many false teachers count on the Biblical ignorance of their audience in order to exercise control by twisting scripture.  

     Mostly, we hold a false belief because we were taught it, either in a Sunday School class or from the pulpit.  Some false doctrine is hundreds of years old and lingers because the source is so well respected, no on thinks to question.  

Here is a small example, most people in my generation imagine the Baptism of Christ like this: Jesus walks up to where John is Baptizing, John says "behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world" then John, after a brief discussion, baptizes Jesus. Guess what, John did not say the whole "behold the Lamb of God" thing until over 40 days after Jesus was baptized.  How did we get this confused?  Every year, around Resurrection Sunday, the Greatest Story Ever Told aired on television and depicted these two events as one.  

    Yes, this is a very minor thing, but it causes you to question what else you may be holding falsely.  What else may we have been taught wrong and just ran with.  The Bible is not some puzzle that needs to be deciphered.  

   Past all my rambling, my point is we have to read the Bible at face value.  Lay aside your preconceived ideas and let the Bible teach you.  If you come to a difficult passage, ask questions.  If you know someone with the gift of teaching, that person lives for tough Bible questions!  Usually, you will find the answer in another part of scripture as the Bible teaches the Bible.  

    The Bible is God's direct message to you. If your true love wrote you a letter, would you trust someone else to keep that letter and tell you what it said? Of course not!  You would want to read it for yourself and probably re read it over and over.  Sermons and books are good, but these should compliment your own personal study, not replace it.  God actually tells us to learn His Word for ourselves: 2Timothy 2:15  Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. 

Now, go live as Christ... and give the devil hell!

EVANGELISM - YES ME!

     

 I love evangelism!  True evangelism, evangelism that takes place naturally.  I hate evangelism as most people understand it.  Many of us have been taught evangelism is walking up to strangers and asking if they know Jesus. I would rather eat a bug!  Think of any other scenario in which this would be appropriate.  "Hello sir, ah, I was uh wondering if you, uh, like vanilla ice cream?"  

    The funniest Super Bowl advertisement this year, in my opinion, was when the red M&M turned into Danny Devito and he ran up to strangers asking if they wanted to eat him.  The shear ridiculousness of this scenario made it hilarious. 

Why is it any less ridiculous for us to walk up to a complete stranger and ask such a personal question about their faith?  Is it never ok to engage a stranger about matters of faith?  Of course we need to be open to the leading of the Holy Spirit.  There may be times when we are prompted to do this, such as Phillip with the Ethiopian eunuch.  

Mostly, evangelism needs to happen naturally through established relationship.  This does not mean we have to wait weeks, months or years, a relationship can be established in a matter of minutes, under the right circumstances.

   Jesus met needs, establishing trust and opening the door to conversation.  Jesus did not meet needs in order to fulfill some quota of conversions, He met needs because He loved. Jesus met perceived needs so He could get to the real need, the often hidden or unrecognized need, freedom from the wages of sin. 

     Evangelism must be born out of love for God and others, empowered by the Holy Spirit and sincere.  If it is forced or canned everyone will be uncomfortable.  Look for opportunities to share love by meeting the needs of others, follow the leading of the Spirit of God and share your faith by your lifestyle first and words later.

     Nothing is more satisfying than seeing God transform a life and getting to be part of that!

Now, go live as Christ... and give the devil hell!!