Giving Answers (1 Peter 3:15)

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....

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 contradi...

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 ...

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 ...

Dictionary.com rendered the following definitions for Judgmental: Image courtesy of Cooldesign at FreeDigitalPhotos.net judg·men·tal     [ juhj- men -tl ]     Show IPA adjective 1. involving   the   use   or   exercise   of   judgment . 2. tending   to   make   moral   judgments :  to   avoid   a   judgmental   approach   in   dealing   with   divorced couples. They also offered up this definition from the World English Dictionary: judgmental   or   judgemental     (dʒʌdʒˈmɛnt   ə  l)     —  adj of   or   denoting   an   attitude   in   which   judgments   about   other   people's   conduct   are   made So just based on the common definitions given, the question that begs to be asked is:   Are Christians Judgmental?   ...

Image courtesy of Renjith Krishnan at FreeDigitalPhotos.net One of the biggest arguments against the existence of God is the problem of evil (or pain and suffering).  It has been stated many ways usually trying to show how either God, if He exists, is powerless to prevent evil (as in the cases of people harming one another) or is ultimately the cause for such evil (such as natural disasters).  The premise behind such arguments is to diminish the God whom a believer is defending in such a way that no vestige of that God exists any longer and the only logical options are either atheism or skepticism. What often isn't questioned are the assumptions behind such scenarios posed to the believer.  If these were focused on a little more, I believe, that many of the arguments against theism would crumble against the weight of the very questions asked. Consider the worldview of the atheist or extreme skeptic that comes down on the side that God doesn't or probably...

Image courtesy of Stuart Miles at FreeDigitalPhotos.net She walked into my office having been escorted by our secretary, tissue in hand, eyes red from the constant flow of tears.  I invited her to sit down and tell me her story.  For the next hour, she shared heart-wrenching details of a relationship gone bad.  It was the disinterest that tipped her off that something was wrong.  Though only married 3 years, the problems began in earnest 18 months before.  He stopped doing the little things like, playing with her hair and surprising her with small thoughtful gifts.  Her personal favorite was when he would show up at her work with a mocha from Starbucks, she adored that just because it came from his hand.  But he hadn't done that in well over a year now.  Shortly after they were married, they were blessed with a beautiful daughter.  With parenthood, comes a lot of responsibility.  Maybe the ...