Categories
Worship

Almighty God vs. almighty dollar?

It appears we have hit a crossroads in America. Will we serve Almighty God or the almighty dollar? We need money to live on but without God, we don’t even have the breath to breathe. The answer to the question may seem simple but the outcome is proving that most in this world believe the latter to be more important.

The world at its present is going bonkers over money. Gambling is taking over sports and people are paying big bucks to see their favorite entertainers perform on the stage, the field, or the screen.

It’s said Taylor Swift will soon amass over $1 billion dollars and that she makes $9-13 million every time she performs. Granted, Taylor does give some of her money back for good causes and charities. However, our contributions as Christ-followers could be better spent on other means than that of attending Taylor’s expensive venues.

As Christians, we’re to be in the world but not of it. We should be about advancing God’s kingdom and not the kingdoms of this world. Now, there’s a lot of kingdoms out there in this world. There’s the magic kingdom, the barbie kingdom, and if you’re a Swiftie, I’ll say the Swiftie kingdom.

The problem with promoting the kingdoms of this world is that worldly kingdoms aren’t meant to last and they do not match the values and ideals of God’s Kingdom. For example, one of Swift’s latest new hits is a song that goes by the name Karma. In it, she sings these lyrics:

Cause karma is my boyfriend, Karma is a god, Karma is the breeze in my hair on the weekend, Karma’s a relaxing thought, Aren’t you envious that for you it’s not?, Sweet like honey, karma is a cat, Purring in my lap ‘cause it loves me, Flexing like an acrobat, Me and karma vibe like that.

Now, I left out a couple words in the above lyrics because Swift takes the liberty to use the Lord’s name in vain. What I’m saying is God’s kingdom and the kingdoms of this world don’t mix. They don’t match either.

I’ve been wrestling with the question of how we Christians are going to reach our culture. The other day, I had an epiphany: We’re going to reach our culture in the same way our world reaches the culture. Thus, I would submit that we need more Christian entertainers, artists, comedians, musicians, actors, inventors, and the like, not less. Author Daniel Pink says our world belongs to the right-brained. Seeing what people spend their hard-earned money on, I’d have to agree with him.

Stadiums, theaters, malls, and concerts are packed. The problem is most of these kingdoms are from and are for the world. For example, the new Barbie movie promotes a lot of new-ageism, including karma. When you make idols out of Swift, Barbie, or anything in between, you may end up looking, dressing, and behaving like your idol.

If you’re a young lady, you might say, “that doesn’t sound so bad”. After all, Taylor and Barbie are good-looking ladies that have a good voice—”I want to be like them”. The problem is that neither is bearing good fruit because they’re not of the kingdom of Christ. If Taylor were of God’s kingdom, she wouldn’t take his name in vain. And if Barbie were of God’s kingdom, she wouldn’t take up new-age practices.

Not everything that appears good is good. Remember the fruit in the Garden of Eden? or what the Bible describes as the lust of the eye, the lust of the flesh, or the pride of life?

Money may look good. It may even smell good. However, the Bible says that money is the root of all kinds of evil. Now, money isn’t the root of all evil, but it sure is causing a lot of damage to people’s lives right now. Gambling can destroy a family, but even worse, it can obstruct one’s relationship to Almighty God. Jesus said it best: “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other or you will be devoted to one and hate the other. You can’t serve both God and money.”

Thus I end this post where I started. Will you serve the Almighty God or the almighty dollar? As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD!

Categories
Revitalization

Lord, invade us!

Best alien invasion movies of all time | Space

It seems the longer I live, the more talk I hear of aliens. Do aliens exist? Did God create extraterrestrial beings on a planet we have yet to discover on a galaxy far far away? Will we ever have contact with aliens or if they do exist, will they contact us first?

My best guess is that aliens do not exist. However, I don’t think any of us can rule them out of the equation. If aliens do exist, I believe they would exist for the glory of God. God created all things and all things are to bring him glory and honor. Unfortunately, we men, as best I can tell, are the only creatures on planet earth that don’t do what we were created to do.

God made man to worship him however God also made man with the freedom to choose. We theologians like to call this capacity human responsibility and some like to call it human freewill. Dogs bark, cats meow, and plants transform carbon dioxide into oxygen. Yet man, with all his freedom to choose, chose to rebel against his Creator (sin).

Some are more concerned with aliens than others. Some people fear aliens coming to our world and taking us over (think Independence Day). I think we need to be more concerned about us destroying ourselves. Especially, with the God-given capacity for some human to hit a big red button, causing a cataclysmic event. However, either way, what is being referenced to is what we call an invasion.

When Russia invaded Ukraine, chaos ensued. Some fear something like that or worse would occur if aliens invaded planet earth. To stay on the alien theme, think of movies like Space Jam and Men in Black. The way aliens in these movies attack is not so much by weapon but rather by taking over a human body or by channeling a human spirit.

What we most desperately need in our day and hour is an invasion. But not an invasion by aliens or foreign countries bent on a global takeover. The invasion we need most of all is for the Lord Jesus Christ to invade body, soul, and spirit.

From there, we need the Holy Spirit to invade our families, our churches, our cities, our nation, and our world. In short, we need a revival and a spiritual awakening and short of an invasion like this, our country’s citizens are going to look more like zombies and our church folks are going to remain in a spiritual slumber.

We need the Holy Spirit to wake us up and to shake us up. Some say China is the world’s sleeping giant. That may be true but so is the Church. Will we wake up or will it be too late?

There’s a funny/not so funny account in Acts 20:9–12 whereby Paul is preaching. Like all preachers, Paul goes “on and on” while preaching. The text literally says that. The text also says a young man named Eutychus was sitting by a window and fell into a deep sleep at the same time. Besides preaching falling on deaf ears, what happened to the man?

In those days, the window was wide open (there was no glass in the window). So Eutychus fell from the third floor and died upon impact when he hit the ground. Preacher-man Paul then leaves the room and wraps his arms around the lad and says to the group, “Don’t be alarmed. He’s alive!” Paul then goes back upstairs, has communion with the church, and keeps preaching until daylight

I’m not sure which is more amazing: the fact that God used Paul to do this resurrection miracle or whether its Paul going back inside and having church, like nothing ever happened. The focus was never on the young man. The focus remained on God throughout: God was being worshipped at night before the young man fell out and died and God was being worshipped at light long after the young man had been brought back to life.

When God invades our lives, our churches, our regions, and beyond, the focus will remain on Him. Our lives will be renewed and the walking dead will start walking alive. God will be found at the center of it all and will get all of the glory. If you would like to see a revival like this in our day, Would you pray with me, “Lord, invade us.”

God has often started revivals and or movements with the young. If you lead youth at your church, pray with your group for God to invade it. We need a holy takeover. We need to get back to the Word and prayer. When a revival comes, it may not come in the form we anticipate. Perhaps it comes online. Let’s not limit God. Let’s pray for an invasion and see how he comes down!

 

Categories
Gospel

There’s an app (verse) for that!

The metaverse brings a new breed of threats to challenge privacy and security gatekeepers | CSO Online

According to businessofapps.com, the top 10 most popular apps in the United States in 2022 were TikTok, Instagram, CashApp, WhatsApp, Snapchat, Subway Surfers, Roblox, Amazon, Messenger, and Facebook.

No matter what it is you want to do (dining, directions, dating . . .), there is an app for that. If you were in the dark and needed an app, there’s a flashlight app for that. If you’re lost and in need of a map, there’s an app for that.

The Bible works much the same way. Not only is it a light and a map for life, it works much the same way as a phone with all its apps. No matter what you’re struggling with: Anger, Bitterness, Contentment; there’s a verse for that.

For example, let’s say your struggle is with Worry. Have you read Mat. 6:25-34; Phil. 4:6-7; 1 Peter 5:6-7; Ps. 37:3-7?  With a good topical or life application study Bible, you can find verses that will help you with your issue.

We all have problems, faults, and hang-up’s, it’s only the Pharisees who won’t admit they have them. Until we’re desperate and broken, we cannot be revived. When we’re revived, we’ll hunger and thirst for God’s Word.

You probably know by now that Facebook changed it name to the Meta, turning the word metaverse into a household name. What is the Metaverse? Wikipedia says, “In science fiction, the “metaverse” is a hypothetical iteration of the Internet as a single, universal, and immersive virtual world that is facilitated by the use of virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) headsets.” Boy, we’re not far off, are we (read my last post)?

As cool as the Metaverse could be, it will never compare to the Metanarrative, the great and grand narrative of Scripture that is comprehensive and overarching with its lesser stories of Creation, Fall, Rescue, and Restoration. From Genesis to Revelation, we come across 66 books that present to us a Great Story which includes our own stories (lives). Who or what stands at the center  of The Story? It is none other than Jesus Christ and the redemption that he offers to you and me. When we accept his offer of salvation, his story becomes our story.

When his story becomes our story, we then have an obligation to go share The Story. We do this by sharing Jesus with others! We can share the Great Story of Creation, Fall, Rescue, and Restoration or we can share our own story of the aforementioned sub-categories (that’s called a testimony or life-story).

Even when the day comes where we find ourselves in the Metaverse shopping, gaming, and living our lives through a digital avatar while on our virtual headsets, we still need to be sharing the Metanarrative of Scripture.

Some of this may sound like its coming from a land far far away on a galaxy written about in some sci-fi book. It’s not! Over 50 percent of people living on this current universe are active social media users. Technology is not going to slow down. It’s only going to speed up. There’s a verse for that: Daniel 12:4

4 But you, Daniel, roll up and seal the words of the scroll until the time of the end. Many will go here and there to increase knowledge.

 

 

Categories
Creativity

How do you see the world?

As we move beyond the mid-point of this year, we anticipate what is to come early next year. If you haven’t heard yet, the Apple Vision Pro is set to hit the market in 2024. As the iPhone reoriented our lives in and after the year 2007, the Apple Vision Pro will revolutionize our lives even more. The way we view the world and even each other will never be the same.

Of course, the starting price of $3499 will be too high to begin with for most people to afford. However, as the years go by and the price drops at the same time the tech increases, you will see more and more people wearing these virtual reality devices that wrap around one’s head.

In reality, it will be the best of both worlds. The headset will combine virtual reality, augmented reality, and real-world reality all into one. It could totally change the way we compute. Rather than sit at a desk, you can strap this headset on and begin “spatial computing” anywhere. The device may not so much replace our phones as much as replace our monitors.

One will be able to “navigate simply by using their eyes, hands, and voice.” Going to the theaters will continue to be a thing of the past as you will be able to create your own theatre experience, wherever you are. The lens will be a “3D formed laminated glass” screen that acts as an optical camera for its camera and sensors to view the world.

There is a lens already out there, however, that we can view the world through that is even more dynamic and revolutionary. It too changes the way we see the world and each other. It allows us to see our life story through His story. If you haven’t guessed it yet, I’m talking about the Bible.

God’s Word is a light unto our path and lamp unto our feet. It tells us the way we should go and what we should do. We may not be able to spatially compute with the Bible but we can physically and intellectually compute what it is God wants us to do with our lives on this earth.

The Apple Vision Pro will allow people to connect in ways not imagined before. God’s Word does the same thing. Through his Word, we are able to connect with fellow believers across the world. It is through His Word that we can all feast and fellowship at the same table.

The Vision Pro “will seamlessly blend digital content with our physical space.” When you live out the Bible’s teachings, you’re bringing God’s light into a dark world. You’re flavoring it with something that is both needed and new.

Let’s put on our biblical headsets and go out and change the world!

Categories
Parenting Teaching

The Next Revolution

What Is Artificial Intelligence And Future Scope | Chitkara University

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) is set to bring about the next great revolution in Culture. We all remember how the iPhone changed the world in 2007. AI will do much the same, if not more, very soon.

We are already seeing more robots being built that can respond to and interact with human voice command. For the time being, don’t worry, robots are not going to replace humans. The more likely scenario however is that humans and robots will increasingly work side-by-side.

We’ve already heard how chatbots like ChatGPT and Google’s Bard will change our lives . . . And they will. However, AI technology still has a ways to go when it comes to applying itself to specific domains. Yes, industries will be turned upside-down, but not yet. This is because AI has a lot more to learn about itself. In other words, though AI is a reality now, its pervasiveness  across all sectors might not be felt for another decade.

In ten years, we will look back and see how much AI has come to age. By then, specific fields will have been integrated with a developed AI, so much so that perhaps they will be unrecognizable. This won’t be true of all fields, but every niche will be impacted to a certain degree.

AI will not be without its inherent dangers and opportunities. There will be a learning curve for us all. We may not like these changes, but they have arrived. As with any new technology, parents/teachers will need to set boundaries of appropriate use for their kids/students. For example, it will be easy for a child to do a book report if all they have to do is ask their chatbot to come up with one. Instead, kids should be trained to do the hard work of reading a book and writing a report for themselves.

If we allow machines to do all the thinking for us, will we not fail to be human? Some will say, “The world has changed. Why should kids have to do work like this anymore?” I understand that sentiment, but I would say, “Because they’re human.”

We’re thinking things but we’ve also been made with the capacity to feel, touch, say, and do. Yes, robots can take over our jobs. But the question we need to think long and hard about is “Should they?” We need to answer this question before its everlasting too late. Because my fear is that if we don’t, there won’t be any turning back.

Categories
Parenting

Let’s Play ???

Members of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence attend a Gay Pride event in Paris in June 2021.

Last week was very enlightening. North Face showed its face. Target was targeted. And the LA Dodgers got as far away from baseball as the organization could get. Along with Bud Light, much of the controversy around these corporations relate to their affiliation with drag queens, the trans-movement, and satanism.

It is the satanism that some of these organizations are promoting that I would like to address in this post. Last week was kind of a watershed moment in that now, corporations are taking their satanism and throwing it “in your face.”

The Dodgers invited the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence (SPI), a trans and queer nun group out to its ballpark to honor the group in “Pride Month.” Of course, the Catholics took offense because they have real nuns. Apparently the meaning of “nun” is being redefined today. With the rise of religious nones, I’m not sure how many people are even paying attention.

Then Target’s clothing partner company Abprallen produced an apparel collection to celebrate pride month which had satanic and occult images and themes attached to them. The owner of Abprallen is openly satanic. There are member(s) of the SPI that attend the Church of Satan. The point  is this: Satanism is in our face now.

Things like these are really nothing new. They’ve been happening all along. Just a casual observance on any form of media and you can walk away feeling something isn’t right. What these events do however, is put feet to the fire. You’re not just feeling something hellish is happening. Now, you’re seeing it with your own eyes.

Today is Memorial Day. Traditionally, this has been a day where the ideals of faith, family, and values were upheld. Of course, the Day was originally created to honor those in the Armed Services who died to give us the freedoms we enjoy. Because of their sacrifice, all churches and corporations currently have the freedom to promote that which they choose.

I’m just one who thinks it would be best if baseball teams stuck to playing baseball, if soft drink companies stuck to selling soft drinks. During Covid, many a corporation showed their true colors. Woke companies decided to politicize their products. For example, one couldn’t down a Coke without wondering if it was “socially just” to do so.

Here’s the bottom line: What we have today is not a black and white issue. It’s not even what we humans, left to ourselves, would classify as “right vs. wrong”. This is because left to ourselves, we humans often misdefine that which is right and wrong. Only God’s Word, the Bible, can rightly define that which is right and wrong. No, what we have today is a battle of “Good versus Evil”.

Underneath much of what surfaces as wokeism, socialism, marxism, totalitarianism, and many other ism’s is satanism. The SPI is an organization that holds annual Easter events which mock the crucifixion of Christ. They’re openly anti-Christian and they’re not the type of nuns you want your children hanging around.

After some backlash, the Dodgers decided to cancel their invitation to the SPI. But, you know what they decided to do next? That’s right — after a few days, they rescinded and re-invited the SPI.

According to the LA Times, “The Los Angeles Sisters say they’ve accepted the apology from Dodgers leadership over the decision Wednesday to dump them from Pride Night under pressure from conservative Catholic groups. The Sisters said they will indeed be honored with the Community Hero Award they originally were to receive.”

This is the world our next generation of Christ-followers is growing up in. It’s not a playground. It’s a battleground. And it’s only going to get worse. What’s in our face now will one day be . . . well, I won’t go there . . . We need to do something now and that something is to stand up, pray, and to raise our children in a godly way where they can understand the culture that is around them and how to navigate it in a way that honors Jesus.

Categories
Jesus

Great vs great

NOTE: My title above should really be “Great vs. great.” However, my current theme will not allow lowercase letters in the title. Below is my post:

There has been a lot of recent talk about revivals and spiritual awakenings. Revivals are for the church! They wake up sleeping saints and get us back to doing what we should have been doing all along. Spiritual awakenings are for the community. Cities change, cultures are impacted, and wide-scale repentance is involved. Though church members and others can get saved in a revival, spiritual awakenings are what occur when large segments of society find new life.

Revivals lead to spiritual awakenings. Until the church is revived, spiritual awakenings in communities cannot occur. Though both revivals and awakenings come from God, I think more often, God is waiting on us for them to get started. When we, His people, apply 2 Chronicles 7:14 to our lives and to our church, we will begin to see God move.

Historians and scholars differ as to how many Great Awakenings the United States of America has had. The First and the Second Great Awakening are undisputed. What some term as the Third and Fourth Great Awakenings are questionable. It is the “Fourth Great Awakening” that is the talk of the town today. The Jesus Revolution movie captured well “The Jesus Movement” that occurred in and around the year 1970. 

I, for one, don’t believe there has been a Third and Fourth Great Awakening. I believe the Jesus Movement was a spiritual awakening that had a great impact. God used the Movement to no doubt affect a nation and save many souls. Through the Movement, God also ushered in Contemporary Christian Music (CCM) and the acceptance of casual dress into the church house. Today, CCM is a mixed bag and casual dress is more often the rule than the exception. For decades now, not wearing one’s Sunday best has become the accepted practice in many churches. However you feel about these things, the reviews on the Jesus Movement itself remains mixed. 

For this reason, I do not classify the Jesus Movement as a Great Awakening. I am thankful for the Jesus Movement and readily admit that the Movement has affected me even though I didn’t live through it. I think so well of the Jesus Movement that I believe it may well contain the seeds that could sprout a Third Great Awakening in our nation.

I choose not to use the word “Great” lightly. Our country has seen two World Wars. These were “Great” Wars, and not “Great” in terms of having to have been fought. No war is great because in every war, people die. But in terms of sheer impact and comparison to other wars our nation has fought, WW I and WWII were Great. 

Many other wars have been fought since these 2 World War’s. The impact of those wars were great too, with a lowercase “g”. The First and Second Great Awakening were Great. Could it be that the Third Great Awakening comes at or around the same time as World War III? 

None of us know. God himself determines when and where a Great Awakening will occur. But like war, it’s usually a chain of events that sets things off. When it comes to a Great Awakening, only prayer will begin to set things ablaze. 

In order for a Third Great Awakening to occur, the church must first be revived and then spiritual awakenings must be observed in multiple regions on multiple fronts for a lengthy period of time. When a Third Great Awakening happens, there won’t be any question about it. The reviews won’t be mixed. Everyone will agree and who knows, at that time, the angels may be in the sky.

The Church is a sleeping giant that has slumbered for far too long. What are we waiting on? Let’s humble ourselves, pray, seek God’s face, and turn from our evil ways. Both God and the world are waiting on us . . .

Categories
Articles

Who Was Asbury?

Revival starts with prayer. Someone somewhere was asking God to start a revival within the next generation long before students at Asbury University in Wilmore, KY decided to stay and praise God after a regularly scheduled chapel meeting. It’s interesting that about the same amount of people who frequented the campus during the two week revival–50,000 people–was about the same amount of people who died in a horrible earthquake in Northern Syria and Southern Turkey around the same time. As Jesus would say, the people in Kentucky weren’t any better than the people in Syria or Turkey–“Unless you repent, you will all likewise perish” (Read Luke 13:1-5). “See, now is the acceptable time; now is the day of salvation (2 Corinthians 6:2).”

It’s not that revival isn’t for all ages. It’s that in the history of revivals and spiritual awakenings, God has often used the young to spark the flame. I think there is something some people are missing in this latest revival and bringing this out in the open is the reason for this post. Who was Francis Asbury, anyways? In his book Revival And Revivalism, Church historian Iain Murray says this,

“By 1778, with one exception, every Methodist preacher who had been sent across the Atlantic had returned to England. The exception was Francis Asbury who had arrived in 1771. For nearly half a century Asbury’s calm leadership in the work of evangelistic itinerary and church organization did more than any other figure to establish Methodism in North America. The opinion of Abel Stevens on Asbury is perhaps overstated but it bears repetition: ‘Neither Wesley nor Whitefield labored as energetically as this obscure man. He exceeded them in the extent of his annual travels, the frequency of his sermons, and the hardships of his daily life.’ . . . unlike the Church of England, Methodism was inherently a spiritual movement.”

Could it be that God is still honoring this man and this movement amidst a university that has yet to bend the knee to its culture? If you’ve been keeping up at all with the Methodist church in America lately, you know there has been quite a divide amongst the churches over cultural issues such as LGBTQ+, etc. Read on,

In his book about “Defining Moments That Shaped Our Enduring Foundations of Faith,” Pastor Robert J. Morgan writes,

“The Cane Ridge Revival was started by Presbyterian Barton Stone, but its combustion fired up the Methodists, whose circuit riders tackled the frontier—Kentucky, Tennessee, Ohio, Illinois, and points beyond. Two names top the list of those riders, and they were as different as lightning and thunder. Bishop Francis Asbury was lightning. John Wesley appointed him to oversee the Methodist work in America, and for nearly half a century Asbury traveled three hundred thousand miles by horse and carriage, preaching more than sixteen thousand sermons. He began his work in America in 1771, at age twenty-two, and he became part of the Second Great Awakening . . . When Francis Asbury arrived in America, there were fewer than six hundred Methodists in the country. By the time he died, the number had grown to two hundred thousand. But the middle of the 1800’s, one in every thirty-six Americans was Methodist.”

This post isn’t about putting in a plug for the Methodist church. It’s about recognizing a man who was aflame for God! God could use any man from any denomination if he so chose. He also could use a donkey and he has before (Numbers 22:21-39). Oh, that we would have more Asbury’s—itinerant evangelists—willing to travel this world over to save men’s and women’s souls from an everlasting hell.

The current Asbury revival touched many denominations and people around the world. As the revival spread to local colleges and universities, it’s interesting to note the circuitous path. The revival went to regions that Asbury himself would have been well familiar with. He traveled those same roads, albeit by horse. The current revival made its circuit primarily through the form of social media and word of mouth.

The thing I loved about this revival was how the school’s administrators handled it. In a school of only two thousand students, the campus itself didn’t have the infrastructure or capacity to sustain a large number of outsiders coming to campus. It got to a point where administrators would only allow those 26 and younger into chapel for the services. They emphasized the next generation because the next generation is our heritage (Psalm 127:3). We all need revival but church statistics will tell you our nation sorely needs a revival within the next generation. This revival gives The Church and America hope! God is not finished with our nation or the next generation! Let’s not give up on them or our country so soon. Jesus doesn’t, Asbury wouldn’t, and neither should we.

Our ultimate hope is in Christ! America isn’t going to last forever. Neither will this generation. The Bible tells us so. However, our attitude needs to be like the apostle Paul’s, “I have become all things to all people, so that I may by every possible means save some.” Now, we don’t save people. Jesus does. But if we don’t get on our horse and go, who is going to get saved? Asbury knew this and that’s why he rode like the dickens. Paul knew it too and that’s why he made three missionary journeys (kind of looks like a circle to me).

I’ve heard it said that the gospel is a movement to be advanced and the church is an institution to be maintained. We could quibble some over the statement but there is some truth in it. Maybe it would be better stated that we need a gospel movement today in our institutional churches. What God has done before, God can do again! This wasn’t the first revival Asbury University had experienced. They had also experienced a revival around the time of the Jesus Movement in 1970. We could use another revolution today. We need churches willing to accept those who are different from them and give them time to explore the faith. This doesn’t mean we allow, for ex., the LGBTQ+ community to become members in our church. It does, however mean that we invite their community in and make them feel welcome. And if you want to go the extra mile, pick them up and bring them with you.

Our nation has changed and is changing. A Jesus Revolution will look different in the USA than it did in the 1970’s. In the 70’s, hippies by the scores were being saved by Jesus and allowed in his church. Sinners come in all different shapes and sizes. If we can’t be hospitable to sinners in the form that they come in today, why should we expect God to save anybody? Our job is simple. GO! Preach and live out the gospel regardless of the person standing in front of you. And don’t forget to pray. God will take care of the rest. If you need an evangelistic tool to help you along the way, give The 3 Circles a try.

Categories
Articles

Letter To A Christian Student

I don’t believe I have ever used an entire post on my blog to address students. After all, most people who read this blog are either leaders, parents, or educators of the next generation. However, I feel that time has come. If you happen to be a ministry leader, parent, or Christian educator, don’t stop reading now. You may just find some material for your next lesson, lecture, or sit-down.

Dear Christian Student,

You are living in unprecedented times. Culture in the form of media, technology, and even education teach you sex education and gender ideology from kindergarten on. You are taught through social media and public school that gender is fluid, not connected to biological sex, and that you can choose to be whatever you feel like being. Many of you lost your childhood when you were given computers and or smartphones and saw things on them you should never have seen. Covid and subsequent government mandates that followed have only helped to delay your holistic growth and development. You feel like you are behind in home, school, and church because you are. You have been discriminated against in society at-large and are continuing to be discriminated against today.

Yet, know this—there is hope! Though you may feel like you are the least of the least, God says that with him, you’re the best of the best!

In Judges chapter 6, the Midianites are oppressing Israel when God chooses to raise up an unlikely hero:

14The LORD turned to him [Gideon] and said, “Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian’s hand. Am I not sending you?” 15″But Lord , “Gideon asked, “how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family.” 16The LORD answered, “I will be with you, and you will strike down all the Midianites together.”

You may feel just like Gideon: How could God use me? I am only a youth. I am weak and puny. This sounds like the excuse the prophet Jeremiah came up with when God first told him he had been appointed as a prophet unto the nations:

6 “Ah, Sovereign Lord ,” I said, “I do not know how to speak; I am only a child.” 7 But the Lord said to me, “Do not say, ‘I am only a child.’ You must go to everyone I send you to and say whatever I command you. 8 Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you and will rescue you,” declares the Lord . –Jeremiah 1

You need to understand that God often chooses the most unlikely to pull off God-sized feats. In 1 Corinthians 1, we find these words penned by the apostle Paul who himself claimed to be timid in action and ineloquent in speech:

26 Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. 27 But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. 28 He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things–and the things that are not–to nullify the things that are, 29 so that no one may boast before him. 30 It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God–that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. 31Therefore, as it is written: “Let him who boasts boast in the Lord.”

You may feel like God doesn’t want to use you or that God can’t use your generation, but oh contraire! As the story of Gideon continues in Judges 7, you will find God raising up an army for Gideon to lead into battle. However, God isn’t looking for a large number in this army, but rather a faithful few. Left to our flesh and human reasoning, God’s wisdom doesn’t make any sense. First, God allows 22,000 soldiers to take off. They were afraid to fight and God allowed them to leave. Then in verse 4, God says, “There are still too many men.” So Gideon follows God’s further instructions and the army is reduced from 10,000 down to 300. Verse 2 tells us why God chose to use only 300 Israelites to defeat 135,000 Midianites: “In order that Israel may not boast against me that her own strength has saved her.”

God chooses to uses the least, the weakest, the inferior so that through less, he can gain more glory. A big God deserves glory for himself! May we not boast in our strength, but only in Christ’s. We are saved through the strength his grace provides and not our own (Ephesians 2:8).

You may look around and see less people in your generation following the Lord. You are no doubt experiencing more peer pressure to conform to the world’s standards than the generations that came before you. But again, what you need to understand is that God often chooses to do more with less. His thoughts are not our thoughts and his ways are not our ways (Isaiah 55:8). Throughout the history of revivals and great awakenings, God has often used the young to spark the fires.

Just like the Hall of Faith mentioned in Hebrews 11, I don’t have time to mention all of the examples in the Bible where God used ordinary people to accomplish extraordinary feats. Goliath looked down on David when he was a youth but you know the end of that story. Paul told young Timothy in 1 Timothy 4:12: Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity. The suffering and persecution you and your generation of Christ-followers have endured today has only served to make you stronger in the Lord. Though there may be less of you out there, your fortitude and resilience has increased.

In the words of the band Unspoken: “Keep fighting the good fight, Keep letting your light shine, ‘Cause I’m never gonna leave you
Always gonna see you through to the other side”

Run the race God has for you and never look back!

In Christ,

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Get off of yourself

If you take a selfie, what do you see?

Have you ever thought about how self-oriented our society is?

I’m not a huge fan of using the self-prefix because it often leans towards revealing our selfishness. For example, it is said you can self-teach yourself by turning to self-help in order to self-discover how you can become a self-made man or woman with a good self-image and high self-esteem. In this way, you will be a self-confident, self-sufficient, and self-reliant person who is self-aware, self-disciplined, and under self-control. Your self-actualization and self-realization along with your self-centered self-beliefs will give you self-assurance and not self-doubt. It is this type of self-reflection and self-interest that will allow you to become self-serving and not self-righteous, self-employed and not self-indulgent. You know, just believe in yourself always being sure In your self because if you’re true to yourself and you do you, then you can have your best life now … you only live once … if it’s true for yourself, it must be true.

There’s only one problem with all this mumbo jumbo. Can you guess what it is? You’re right if you said its your self. Most of today’s postmodern and new age philosophy is laced with subjective opinion over objective fact. And you guessed it – its philosophical “truths” begin and end with the self. The problem with the self is itself is not God. Left alone by itself, the self can have a form of godless denying the power thereof (2 Tim 3:5). This is why many new agers claim to be divine gods themselves.

But what did Jesus, who actually was God, say? Jesus said for one to truly find oneself, he or she must lose himself or herself for the sake of Christ (Mat 10:39). Jesus said, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it” (Luke 9:23).” If you lose your self for Christ by repenting of your sin and turning to follow Christ, Christ will save you from yourself. The self comes off the throne of your heart and Christ comes to sit up on it. The world’s wisdom is antithetical to the wisdom of God. True, God’s wisdom makes no sense to the world because Christ and the cross are considered folly, but to those whom would believe, their life — their self — will be made anew (1 Cor 1:18; 2 Cor 5:17). In fact, in heaven, they will be given a new name (Rev 2:17). I don’t claim to understand all these mysteries, but I do believe what the Word of God says is true. Losing yourself for Christ begins and ends with believing what God says is true about yourself and not what you say. Without Christ, we’re all aimless wanderers left to wonder what this life is all about. The good news is there is hope and his name is Jesus.

I don’t mean to bash all self-hyphenated words. We need a next generation who is self-motivated and self-driven. We need self-initiators: If something needs done, don’t ask for permission, go do it. We need self-feeders: Listen to the sermon podcast or watch the worship service livestream in your down-time, write or read that next great Christian novel, and keep praying, fasting, and reading your Bible app devotions. We need self-starters: Set some goals for yourself and start out to meet them. You can set spiritual goals, physical goals, financial goals, emotional goals, academic goals, etc.

Our culture and society is highly individualistic. I think that is why these self-words are so pervasive in pop-psychology and pop-culture. After all, if you can pull yourself up by your own bootstraps to become that self-made man or woman you’ve always wanted to be, don’t you deserve some credit for that?

Because you’ve been made in the image of God, perhaps you do deserve some. But the truth is without God, you wouldn’t even be here. And knowing that fact, I would say ultimately, you deserve none. God is our Creator and Sustainer. Without him, we can do nothing. What I hope for is that for some reading this post, he will become more than the One who made you and keeps you alive. He can become your Lord and Savior! Repent of your sin and yourself today and believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ. Your works won’t save you, only His work on the cross.