Giving Answers (1 Peter 3:15)

It happens all the time.  I just had another conversation from a faithful member concerning sin in their lives.  If you think this blog is about you...it is...but it's about me too.  So don't worry, I will happily go through this trial with you. I was told how their particular sin was hindering their lives.  No matter how many times they tried to defeat this sin, it came back and bit them in the butt again.  Every single time they failed over the sin, they felt like a hypocrite.  And there was no place more evident for these feelings than when they were at church in community with other believers. Don't worry...I go through the same thing. I mean, how can anyone honestly sing praises to God when we've struggled so mightily just this last week with sin and failed the very God we say we serve?  Doesn't that make the time of praise full of just empty words devoid of any true meaning?  In our minds, it becomes just a clever masking, putting on a good face in h

Image courtesy of stockimages / FreeDigitalPhotos.net I saw it again the other day in an article that I read.  I almost blew a gasket.  However, I am also a patient man (well, sometimes) and I am reminded that a righteous man is supposed to be quick to listen and slow to anger (James 1:19-20). I decided that before I started my rant I should do some research in case I was wrong.  So I turned in my Bible (in this case biblegateway.com) to see if I could find any evidence in the Word of God that this was even supposed to exist.  However, try as I may, the word "revelant" wasn't found anywhere in the Bible concerning the church...as a matter of fact, it is nowhere in the Bible at all.  Just to be on the safe side, I also inserted the word "interesting" in its place and came up with similar results. For nearly 17 years, through Bible college and nearly every Christian publication that I have ever read, pastors and Christian leaders have been encouraged to ma

Image courtesy of cooldesign / FreeDigitalPhotos.net Those of you who know me know that I am organizationally challenged.  Actually, that last sentence is probably an understatement.  But when I say that I am organizationally challenged, it only involves the physical things in life (messy offices, clean houses, meeting deadlines, etc...).  However, in the area of spiritual matters, I am very organized because God is very organized. Within the Scriptures, God has given us several lists on the right order our priorities are to take.  I find this comforting because I am a guy and guys tend to want things spelled out for them.  Give me a task and I can complete it with ease.  Expect me to do a task, hint at it overtly, but never tell me directly...you've only got about a 10% chance of it happening (that number is probably high). Because God is so organized, I have come up with a list based upon the Scriptures on how our lives are supposed to look. 1.  Our relationship with Go

Image courtesy of khunaspix / FreeDigitalPhotos.net A few years ago I had a student come to me before youth group and ask a very insightful question.  He asked, "Why is it that when I come to your church I hear one thing about the Bible, God & Jesus, but when I go to my mom's church I hear the exact opposite?" How can the message of Christ be so radically different from one church to another?  Why is it possible to find one church that affirms gay marriage, gay clergy, living together relationships, etc... while another sees these same actions as abominations?  I could mention many other areas of disagreement in varying degrees of importance, however, I would like to stick with the one I've already mentioned because it is the lightning rod issue of the day and needs to be boldly addressed. The confusion in this student's question was sincere.  He wanted to have a basis for belief to know what was right, but he was given a contradiction that couldn'

Image courtesy of Scott Chan / FreeDigitalPhotos.net The SuperBowl is coming!  You know what that means...commercials!  Not just ordinary commercials either.  Whole creative teams come together to hopefully make an advertising campaign that people will never forget, paying millions of dollars for a 30 or 60 second spot. Here are some of my favorites: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R55e-uHQna0 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Oag8iBB7HE http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbSpAsJSZPc http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XiO1_nVr3no http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Set-r53xvBI But why do companies pan out so much cash for cute, funny and hopefully unforgettable commercials? Answer:  So that their audience of 100 million people might see their product, become interested in their product and hopefully go out and buy what they are trying to sell. Seems simple enough, right? It works too.  Just after Christmas, my family went out to Buffalo Wild Wings (which we saw from a commercial)..

Image courtesy of Panupong1982 at FreeDigitalPhotos.net I know what you are thinking.  Somehow, I'm not satisfied with my wife and am looking for some backdoor excuse to love another.  I assure you, nothing could be farther from the truth.  Believe it or not, this post really isn't about me at all. I've been a pastor for the past 12 years.  Much of that time has been spent with youth and young adults.  There has been an alarming trend I have seen over these years.  Guys are disappearing from the ranks of the faithful.  It can be seen in the massive epidemic of single parent families, mainly lead by women (80%).  Even when the men are still in the relationship, it is often the women who have taken up the role of spiritual leadership, as the men have either abandoned the faith or never had it in the first place. Pastor Mark Driscoll has stated that the main reason guys aren't involved in the faith is that the church has catered to a population of women and not all