Tag Archives: following

Noah 2.0

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Hello Friends!

So my last post was…it was bad. Not that I said anything I didn’t think was true but I just didn’t say much. No substance, just fluff. My goal today is two-fold:

1. to add some substance to the fluff 

2. to challenge anyone reading to open their own Bible and begin reading

 

1. In the movie, Noah, there were errors. In the ark, there were 7 people: Noah, his wife, his oldest son and his wife, his two other sons, and the bad guy.

The bible says that there were 8 people; Noah and his three sons and their wives. See Genesis 6:18.

2. In the movie, the wife of the oldest son gives birth to twins while sailing on the ark.

The Bible, in Genesis 9:1, God says to multiply and fill the earth. There were no ark-born children.

3. The last discrepancy I want to make is about the Watchers. In the movie, these creatures were angels that came to earth to be with humans. The couldn’t show their true selves so God clothed them in rock and stone. They looked more like something you would find in a Lord of the Rings movie.

In Chapter 6 of Genesis, there is talk of the Nephilim. This can be better read giants. But they were not clothed in rock and stone.

 

There were more examples but for now, that seems like enough. On to the application.

Noah and the Ark is a literal story. It really happened. Besides being an actual event, it is also a symbol of something that is yet to come.

God wanted to destroy the world because of all the wickedness that He saw. He also saw that Noah was righteous. The Ark saved all the righteous people and destroyed the wickedness.

When Jesus arrives on the scene many, many years later, He is also an Ark. Because of the sin that all humans are born into, God wants to destroy that sin. He is holy and just so He can’t stand to look upon that sin. Jesus is the Ark so if someone is in the Ark when the flood (judgment) comes, they will be saved.

 

So by faith, you and I can be saved today. Ephesians 2:8-9 says, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.”

 

I challenge you to pick up your Bible and read the Noah account. Besides being a great story, it also gives us hope that God, who is loving and just, has made a plan for us. If you find yourself wondering or questioning, ask me or someone you trust. There is help and hope for you.

 

By the way, there is plenty of room for all of us. See you on the ark!

32850 pounds.

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Have you ever laid landscaping block? I have. The picture here is not my house but it is very similiar to the project that my wife and I completed earlier this year.

wall_landscape_6

Because my brain works in odd ways, I thought it would be fun to total up the number of pounds that I lifted during this project. We purchased the blocks, capstones, and bags of sand from a local store. Here is a breakdown of the blocks and their respective weights:

1. 90 Large block, 70 lbs 

2. 30 Small block, 17 lbs 

3. 55 Capstone for large block, 56 lbs 

4. 20 Capstone for small block, 13 lbs 

5. 16 Bags of Sand, 50 lbs

 

But I didn’t move each block once. I figured that I had to lift each of these items 3 times. Once from the store to my van, another time from the van to the yard, and the final time, from the yard into its position.

So I did the math.

90  x 70 x 3 + 30 x 17 x 3 + 55 x 56 x 3 + 20 x 13 x 3 + 16 x 50 x 3 = 32850 lbs

When I hit total, I was astonished! That is a ton of work…wait, no! It is over 16 tons of work! How cool is that!

So what? Why is that worth writing about?

Let me tell you. I can never lift that much weight by myself. Ever. In fact, no one person could. It is simply too heavy. However, I can lift one block at a time.

 

I CAN DO ANYTHING, if I move one block at a time.

 

My prayer for today is this, “Dear God, help me to move one block today so that your will can be accomplished in me and through me, amen.”

My Haiti Experience; Chosen…part 2

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The last post left us with smooth sailing along with Jonah. He was on his way to Tarshish. That was the west, the wrong way. Let’s pick up the story.

When we make choices that displease God, I think His heart gets heavy. Yes, we can make the Almighty Creator feel sad. He loves us and has the best life in mind for us. So why don’t we trust Him? Now we find Jonah in a boat heading west. He paid the fee and is feeling sleepy, so he goes below deck and naps. (1:4) But then the wind kicks up. A storm starts blowing and howling. It is described as “a violent storm.”(1:5) Even the sailors were afraid, and Jonah is found sleeping! It was bad enough that the captain had to find Jonah and ask him to pray, but he didn’t know that Jonah was in no spiritual condition to pray! (1:6)

Let me just ask one question. But before you finish reading this article, take a moment to answer this question in your own mind and heart; “Is it ever worth it to run from the Lord?”

So let’s skip to verse 17 of the first chapter. I know I jumped over some important ideas in the chapter, so when you have time, it makes a great read. This is an important verse so I will include it here. “Now the Lord provided a huge fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.”

I think God got Jonah’s attention.

At the beginning of the story, God chose Jonah to go to Nineveh. Nineveh was a physical place with a spiritual purpose. I think that any place can be significant in God’s eyes. May I suggest that God has a reason for the fish even though Jonah was supposed to go to Nineveh? It comes to this: God chose Jonah and then sent a fish to get Jonah’s attention. Here are my thoughts on why God used the fish.

jonah2

1. It was to save Jonah’s life. He would have drowned if God did not intervene.

2. It was to serve Jonah a lesson. The intensity of our disobedience is directly related to the intensity of God’s discipline.

3. It was to show Jonah love. He could have let Jonah drown, but he didn’t. He could have called another prophet to Nineveh, but he didn’t. He could have sent fire and brimstone to destroy the wicked city, but he didn’t. Instead, God demonstrated His love for Jonah.

So here is where the “rubber meets the road.” God has chosen you and me for His purposes. If you find yourself in the fish, turn your heart back to God. Here are the first few words of Jonah’s prayer: “From inside the fish Jonah prayed to the Lord his God. He said: “In my distress I called to the Lord, and he answered me. From deep in the realm of the dead I called for help, and you listened to my cry.”
God will answer. So stop going west (away) from God and head east (toward) Him.

My Haiti Experience; Called!

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Hopefully you have read my first post about Haiti; My Haiti Experience; Created. If not, please do so. It should help with context and flow.

Alright, part 2! My Haiti Experience; Called!

bag phone

Have you ever received a phone call? Of course, everyone has, right? With cell phones in abundance, people are getting called all the time. For the week I was in Haiti, I did not receive any calls. It was odd and a little frustrating to not speak with my wife for the week. I even had my cell phone with me. The problem was that I did not get any signal. My phone was in working order, but it could not get the signal while I was in Haiti. Getting any calls is impossible when one does not have the right signal.

Back in 1990, God called me. And it was not on my cell phone! In fact, the only phone that we owned that did not have a cord attached to it was the huge, 5-pound bag phone that my mom had in her car! I still remember when she would call from the Tom Thumb. The Tom Thumb was a gas station that was a mile away. She would call home so I could have the garage door open for her. Yep, it was a manual door. So, let me get back to the Call; but before I can describe the call, I need to set the stage. Knowing a little bit about how I grew up will help you understand my thinking and mindset about how God calls people.

I grew up going to an Assemblies of God church. Now that I think about it, I have been part of an A/G church for almost all of my 41 years of living. For me, going to church multiple times a week was normal. It never bothered me to have to get up early on Sundays to get to church. When I was 9 or 10, I was helping in the toddler rooms. I was part of the music ministry at the churches we attended. Having my parents involved was also part of my normal pattern. We were always at church. It was central to our family. But more than just our standard, I enjoyed it. I would rather be in church than anywhere else. It must run in my blood. On both sides of my family, I have pastors, missionaries, and many others who are involved in Kingdom work. So it stands to reason that when I talk about church and serving God, it was normal and enjoyable.

Now I can bring you to the call. Often on Sunday nights, our church service was dedicated to a visiting missionary. The person would come and preach a sermon and there would often be slides that they would show. These depicted life in whatever country the missionary was working. This was always neat because I loved hearing about other places. I still read maps, just for fun, to this day. There was one particular Sunday night when we had a missionary lady in our service. To this day, I could not tell you her name, what country she was from, or anything she preached about that night. But I do remember how she concluded her service. She had everyone stand. Then she proceeded to start at one end of the room and pray for people. She might be laying her hands on people as she prayed or she would just point to them. What was I doing at this moment? As an eighth grader, I was not really into the service. In fact, I was thinking that this lady was kind of crazy and she should go back to the desert from which she came! I had a buddy standing next to me and we were joking and being mildly disrespectful. But that didn’t stop God. All of the sudden I find myself standing in front of this lady and she is pointing at me. This moment is indelibly etched into my mind. She didn’t recite a long prayer. She didn’t rebuke me for misbehaving. She simply spoke these words, “You are going into the ministry.” That was it. No fireworks or audible voice. No angels floating around. My response was not even godly. I laughed. Yea, right lady. I am in eighth grade. Ministry? Whatever. Maybe you should go back to Africa. This was my thinking. And for the next three years, I would not think about this night again.

You still with me?

Now let’s move ahead to March of 1990. I was a junior in high school. Life was good. High school was a fun time with athletics, acting, and academics. Up until this point, I had not given my future much thought. I marvel at people who know what they want to do with their lives when they are in high school. I didn’t. (If you are in high school, don’t worry, God will find you.) Also at this time, my dad was a faculty member at North Central University. It was an idea that I could go there and live at home until I found some direction for my life. It was an inexpensive option that was appealing to me. The other part of my life was church, but more specifically, the youth group. I was always doing stuff with other students from church. And this particular March was no exception. There was a youth retreat at Lake Geneva, which was the A/G campground in Minnesota. I was a regular at summer camps, so I signed up to go on this trip that was entitled “The Great Thawing Out.”

The weekend was a blend of snow sports, food, and church services. The speaker for the weekend was another missionary. Mike Shields was to preach to us in each service. My attitude going into the weekend was not very spiritual but not worldly either. I was expecting to enjoy the services, play some games, go skiing, and maybe talk to some cute girls (not necessarily in that order). As with the missionary lady a few years prior, I do not remember anything that was preached or any of the services. But on the last night of the retreat, God would find me and set my life on a different path. Pastor Mike finished his message that Sunday night and gave an altar call. He explained that if there are any juniors or seniors that do not have specific plans after high school, they could come forward and receive prayer. That fit me. Again, it was not something I was worried about. I just had not given much thought to it. So I went forward. It was warm in the room. Standing shoulder to shoulder with other teens waiting to get prayer was interesting. You try to pray but you really want to listen to everything going on. Sometimes you close your eyes, but you don’t want to miss anything. Finally, the missionary got to me. He placed his hand on my head and said the following sentence, “Evidently, you’ve known this for some time, but you are going into the ministry.” What!?!? He was already praying for the next kid. Still no fireworks or audible voices. Didn’t see any angels this time either. In fact, I went over to a quiet corner and sat down. How long I sat there, I don’t recall. But in a very real way, I knew that God had called me. Wow. God, the Master Designer of the Universe specifically called me into His work. And friends, as I write this, that call is as real as ever. The cell phone of my soul has a very strong signal and this call is coming in loud and clear.

I decided to go to Bible College, specifically North Central University, after that experience. But it was different. I was not going because it would be cheap or that my dad worked there. I was going because I wanted to go. God called me and I would take steps to start living that call.

I think that I need to clarify something for you. When God calls somebody, it means that He wants to involve that person in the process of reconciliation; that is, the world being reconciled back to God. I have a part in that whole deal. The kicker is that God never retracts His call. I am in it for life. Whether or not I am living for God, He still has that call for me. So for me, my call will look differently than another person’s call. Right now, I am a waiter. I don’t cook, host, manage, or bus tables. I serve. I do my job and everyone does his or her job. If that happens, the guest leaves happy and full. God has a plan and he has called me to be a part of something great.

god call phone By the way, is that your phone ringing?

Bad Word #1

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We all know bad words when we hear them, don’t we? Swear words are commonplace in today’s society. But these words are not the kinds of words to which I am referring in this article. I am not speaking of cuss words or swear words. The kind of bad words to which I am referring are everyday words that can take on bad meanings for us. Here is an example of what I mean.

This four-letter word can frighten some men I know. It can be fearful to think of this word and what it means. The word is iron. Think verb, not noun. This is not the element iron but the object used to get wrinkles out of an article of clothing. An iron is plugged into the wall socket and begins to heat up. When it gets to whatever temperature the fabric requires, the user, that is I, (and yes, I do iron my own shirts from time to time), pushes the iron across the shirt until the wrinkles disappear. It is actually quite fulfilling knowing that I beat the wrinkles! Although, truth be told, I have used the dry-cleaners more lately. But I digress…the point is that the word iron is not a bad word but it can have a bad or negative connotation.

I want to share my thoughts about a bad word I heard in church recently.

We have been in a series of sermons at church that deal with this idea: Are you a fan or follower of Jesus? It has been refreshing in that I walk away from church with a new sense of challenge in my own life. It’s easy to be a fan, but it is tough to be a follower. As a normal human being, I desire what most people want. This is a common want or desire for probably every human on this planet. At least I think it is. This common desire that seems to be present in any area of life can be summed up in one word. This word is the bad word to which I have been referring. And the word is…comfort.

Growing up in the church, going to Bible college, being a pastor, and being around Christians for most of my life, I feel as if I have heard this term, “comfort  zone,” hundreds, maybe even thousands of times. The idea is that there is a place where I am content with my surroundings to the point where it does not hurt and I am not growing. This applies to my physical world, but more importantly, it applies to my spiritual world as well. I do want to point out that being comfortable is not necessarily bad. My house is set at a comfortable temperature. I like to wear clothes that are comfortable. If people come to my home, I like to make them feel comfortable. Movie theaters have comfortable seats. My car is comfortable to sit in. These things are not the major point of my thoughts for this writing. There is another realm in which comfort is not the goal.

Jesus said “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me” (NIV) Luke 9:23. There is no comfort in that statement! Let’s look more closely at that verse.

 “If…” – Jesus starts with a question. Whenever I see the word ‘if,’ I know that I have a choice. Right off the bat, there is an opportunity for me to choose comfort or something else.

“…anyone would come after me…” – This is the best part about this verse. Of course I want to follow Jesus. Sign me up. And since I fit into the category of ‘anyone,’ I won’t be turned away. Jesus won’t turn anyone away as long as they understand the terms.

“…must deny himself…” – You mean that following Jesus does not leave room for my stuff?!!?[*] I must restrain myself from indulging in my own desires. Jesus needs all of me. I can’t give him all if I am not denying myself of the stuff[†] in my life. The problem is that stuff makes our lives comfortable.

“…take up his cross…” – Have you ever carried a cross? Have you ever carried any piece of wood that was over 50 pounds? Try it; you won’t like it.  But wait, Jesus carried his cross. In fact, he did it while under tremendous strain, excruciating pain, and terrible pressure. Trust me when I say that there was not one ounce of comfort in the last moments of the life of Jesus.

“…daily…” – Yep. That says ‘daily’. At the start of every day, we have a choice. I can choose to be comfortable, or I can choose to follow Jesus. When I wake up in the morning, I am faced with that same decision. Comfort or Christ? You are too, my friends. That is the deal for which we signed up. Take it or leave it. It is time to choose.

 

Hold on, I’m not quite finished. If someone was presented with this article, they might be thinking that following Jesus is nothing but pain, suffering, and trouble. In a word, it could be considered uncomfortable. Why would anyone want to choose this kind of life? Even with the knowledge of heaven and eternal life with God, people still are choosing their comfort. Let me share one more passage of scripture with you.

John 14:16 says, “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever- the Spirit of Truth.” (NIV) Jesus spoke these words to the disciples right after the Last Supper. It was the night before the crucifixion. No doubt the men were feeling scared and unsure of what was happening. Jesus said he would ask the Father to give another Counselor. That word, counselor, is the word that is found in the New International Version. Some of the other words that are used in various translations are: helper, advocate, and comforter. The word literally means, “called to one’s aid.” So, when Jesus was saying “follow me, carry your cross, deny yourself, etc.,” he was saying that in all of that discomfort, the Holy Spirit will be right next to me so that I may have comfort.

 

In conclusion, when following Jesus, it requires me to let go of my stuff[&]. Sure, this may seem uncomfortable, but it really is the best way. When God through the Holy Spirit comforts us, only then can we see the value in our self-denial, our cross carrying, and our daily choosing of living uncomfortably. I am certainly glad that Jesus didn’t let his comfort get in the way of God’s plan. I certainly hope that my comfort won’t either.

 

[*] I used the word ‘stuff’ to represent anything that would conflict, interfere, replace, or remove Jesus as the number one desire of your life. For me, pornography and laziness was the ‘stuff’ of my life.

[†] Stuff gets in the way. Let it go!

[&] See earlier footnotes