Is There A Limit To God's Forgiveness? from CHCC Technical Arts Director on Vimeo.

When a bride looks like a whore...

Yesterday I was made aware of a local church over on the eastside that had a group entitled "no effin clue" (first group listed on their website). After I got over my initial shock that a church would even consider that name but that they would go a step further and put it on their website and promote it, I started to think about what is at the heart of an organization that does things like this. The only conclusion is that she wants to look like the prostitute instead of the pure undefiled bride of Christ.

My mind was drawn to the title of the church that God uses time and time again, the bride of Christ. A bride is THE woman of her husband. She is to outwardly show her inner beauty (1 Peter 3:1-6). She is submit to her husband. She is to be beautiful to her husband. She is not to look like the the unmarried teenage whore that is found on the front pages of so many current magazines and Internet sites bearing for all the world to see. There is a reason why the bride wears white on her wedding day. It is to represent her purity. Purity in her physical body. Purity in her mouth. Purity in her thoughts. Purity in her actions. A setting apart of herself for her husband the groom. At that time, when she walks down the isle, everyone in the room stands out of respect for her. Most see the dress and respect what it stands for.

If the bride where to come in with a cigarette hanging out of mouth, a beer bottle in one hand, and dressed like a prostitute (letting the audience see what should be reserved for her husband only), the audience might wonder who she is. They definitely are not going to immediately stand because after all standing is reserved for the bride. If this woman got to the end of the isle and the pastor said do you take this man to be you husband and she said, "no effine clue", there is a good chance that the groom might just walk out due to sheer embarrassment.

The church is the bride of Christ. We are to honor Him as our husband. He came to save us unto Himself and all that He stands for not free us up to look as whorish as we can. May the bride of Christ bring honor to Her Husband through all she says and does (doctrine an practice).

Soli Deo Gloria





-- Post From My iPhone

The Purpose for Christmas

 

My goal for this time is to get you to think about 4 things that you absolutely need. I am not talking about wants, I am talking about needs. This is a little bit of a deeper message, but I am going to try my best in describing the four things that you absolutely need, it is my hope that you will see or understand what the purpose of Christmas really is.

Whenever someone thinks about Christmas, especially as a pastor, my mind instantly wants to go to the account in the Bible about Joseph and Mary going to Bethlehem. Most people know that story and are well aware of it. Out of that story often come things like the meaning of Christmas is love from God, or a gift from God, or something like that. For our time this morning, I want to come at this from just a little different angle. I want to think about Christmas from the angel of Genesis chapter 2:17.

I am going to do something that I rarely tend to do, but I think it will fit for our time this morning. I want to tell you the Genesis 2:17 account in my own words. Instead of reading it, I want you to sit back and let me recount for you what happened.

The Bible starts by telling us what God created. Everything He created was good…not one hint of evilness could be found in what God created. It was perfect, holy, pure, etc. When we get to Genesis 2:17, God tells Adam and Eve about a tree in the garden that He does not want them to touch. There was nothing wrong with the tree other than to say that God said not to touch it. God set up a situation where He wanted His creation to trust Him. So He gave the command for them not to eat from that tree. By obeying this command, Adam and Eve could remain just as God had created them. They had all that they needed in order to be perfectly connected to God. As long as they obeyed that one command they could talk with God whenever they wanted to for as long as they wanted to. They could think, say, and do whatever they wanted and know that God would be happy with what they were doing. They never had to worry about bad consequences, guilty feelings, hurting each other, the death of relationships or anything else that you and I often have to deal with. As long as they obeyed that command, things were holy…or another way to look at it…evil had not entered into the world.

However, in just a few short verses we find Eve smack dab in the one situation that had the potential to wreck it all. For the first time in the Bible, temptation shows up. I wish I had time to go into this verse by verse, but I don't so I just want to summarize with one word what happened at the end of it all…death.

God promised in Genesis 2:17 that death would happen and it did. A definition of death could be separation of what was meant to be together. When Adam and Eve ate the fruit of the tree that God said not to, separation happened. The very first thing that they did was to hide…how they looked and where they were located. There was the death of the relationship between Adam and Eve and there was the death of the relationship between God and Adam and Eve. It was the absolute worst thing that could have happened. No more walking with God in the garden. No more talking with God whenever they wanted to. No more guiltless days…Now they were going to hurt each other constantly…and so on. From that moment on, the rest of humanity has died…been separated from God and from each other due to sin.

I want to make sure that I am keeping my younger crew here this morning, so I want to show you all how this happens to you as well. How many of you in here have done something that you mom and dad told you not to do? Man I would imagine that it would be everyone in here.

My girls love it when I tell stories about my life growing up, so bear with me while I tell you about a story where I disobeyed what my parents told me to and it caused all kinds of death. When I was 4, my dad became a pastor at a church in Indiana. In the summers there, it was really hot. Right across the street from our house, there was a creek that had little minnows and crawdads that I love to catch. My friend Paul would ride his bike over to my house and we would take off over to the creek and spend all day there. We would come back with buckets and buckets of all kinds of little critters. My mom really didn't like it when the tadpoles were out…I brought home thousands of them. I was allowed to go over the creek as long as I followed one rule…I had to wear shoes. Where I lived in Indiana, there were thorns that grew close to the ground that were anywhere from 2 to 3 inches long, dark purple, and very poisonous. I followed that rule all of the time except for once.

One time, and for the life of me I can't remember why I did this, but my buddy Paul and I decided to go into the creek without our shoes on. Almost instantly I stepped on one of those long thorns. It went in to my foot about half way and stopped. I can still remember how much it hurt. I don't remember what it felt like, but I remember what I did when I stepped on it. I screamed really loud which made my friend Paul spin around to see what the problem was. I told him that I stepped on a thorn and showed him the bottom of my foot. He made a weird face as if to say, "Wow that's really bad" and then said, "Hold still while I pull it out." He yanked really quickly and out it came…well most of it. When we looked at the top of the thorn it was gone. It had broken off up inside of my foot. To say the least, my foot was bleeding and it throbbing at the same time. It hurt very bad. I decided I should put my shoes back on and call it quits for the day. So I gently put my shoes back on and hobbled back home. Now my mom and dad both worked and so they didn't come home until later on that evening. I was still limping but I tried to hide the fact that I was limping. I did things like try not to walk around my parents, stay out of the house when my mom and dad were home, and things like that. I did a good job for a couple of days…that is until the weekend.

My mom and dad were home all day on Saturday and so was I. My mom happened to notice that was limping pretty bad and she asked if I had done something to hurt my foot, to which I lied and said "no". God has blessed me with this weird thing when I lie. The outside of my mouth gets white and that is how my parents always knew when I was lying. And sure enough the outside of my mouth turned white when I lied to my mom. She asked me to sit down and take my shoes and socks off so she could look to see what the problem was. I reluctantly did that and I watched her face go from curiosity to panic. I didn't know that those thorns were poisonous; I just knew that they hurt. When my mom looked at the bottom of my foot it was really read, puss filled, and there were some streaks starting to shoot out from where the thorn had pierced into my foot. She saw how serious it was and off to the hospital we went….now I could make the story longer…but I want to get to how this applies to what Adam and Eve did.

Up until the moment where I disobeyed my parents, my relationship with them perfect. I had nothing to hide from them. If I went into the woods, I would tell them all about it. I would show them what I had caught, how high the water was, and so on. But when I disobeyed them, my relationship was separated. Not only did I not tell them what I had done, I tried to conceal from them the very thing that would have killed me if they had not found out about it. Sin always kills…it always separates…it always destroys the way that God intended things to be.

And the most horrible part of sin is that there is nothing that we can do in and of ourselves to fix that problem. When my buddy and I tried to fix the problem of the thorn in my foot, we did what we thought was best and only made things worse. And then I added to the problem by trying to cover it up…and it would have led to my physical death if someone outside of me would not have intervened.

The purpose of Christmas…what is the purpose of God coming down to earth in the form of a baby whose name of Jesus. I want to go back to Adam and Eve in the garden and talk about 4 things that they lost when they sinned that they absolutely needed. The lost their sinless nature…they became evil from the very core of their heart. Instead of telling the truth, now they wanted to lie. Instead of thinking about each other, they only thought of themselves. Instead of taking responsibility for what they had done, they blamed each other for what they had done. They lost their holiness.

In addition to their holiness, they also lost their oneness or unity with God. I hope all of you in here know what it is like to hang out with your parents without having anything hidden at all. No flunked tests, no bad papers, no discipline issues…just about to hang out and have a good time. In times like those, you are unified with your parents…there is nothing between you. That was what was lost when Adam and Eve sinned. They were no longer unified with God. They went and hid, and then when they were found out they could not even stay unified with each other. The lost their holiness and their oneness to God and each other.

The also lost the peace with God. They could no longer walk in the cool of the day with God and talk with Him. Where there was once peace, there now was tension. Do you know what that is like? Have you ever had a friendship that went bad? One day you were best friends laughing it up at Starbucks and now you can't stand to even hear the name of your friend. That was what it was like when Adam and Eve sinned…peace was gone and the only that was left was horrible tension.

Not only had they lost their holiness, oneness, and peace with God, but they also lost eternity with God. Hell was now where they were going to go…a place that was devoid of God and any relationship with Him. We learn later on in the Bible that this place is where there will be gnashing of teeth, fire, and other things…but at the top of the list of bad things about hell is the fact that God will never be there and so there is no chance of having a relationship with Him.

So that is what was lost…and when you open up to the New Testament and read of a baby lying in the manger with Joseph and Mary looking at Him, with the shepherds showing up along with the wise men to worship him…what you have in that baby is holiness restored, oneness with God brought back, peace with God reinstated, and eternity with God a reality

If you are following with me this morning…the purpose of Christmas is Holiness restored, (H), Oneness with God brought back (O), Peace with God reinstated (P), and Eternity with God a reality(E). The purpose of Christmas is Hope. Not the hope that is often used at Christmas, but it is the hope that expects and knows that one day all will be as God wants it to be. The kind of hope that is often used says, "I am not sure what I am going to get but I hope to get…" It's what we want. But the Biblical hope is not in hoping that we get what we want, but in hoping that today is the day that we get what the Bible says we will get…

As something practical for you to do before you spend time opening up presents this year, spend some time talking about the hope that you have knowing that your holiness has been restored, that your oneness with God has been brought back, that peace with God has been reinstated, and that eternity with God is now a reality. And if you are still looking for a gift to give someone who does not know Christ, there is no greater gift for someone this year than hope…give them the gift they desperately need.

…and eagerly watch

Psalm 5: 3 says, "In the morning Lord, You will hear my voice; In the morning I will order my prayer to You and eagerly watch." There is so much about who God is that is wrapped up in this one little sentence that it would takes days and days to write out all of it. But three things that I want to remember for today are: (1) God always hears, (2) God is always up to good, (3) I need to be looking to see what God is up to. These three areas are three things that I can tend to treat like facts and nothing more. Here is an example of what I mean. I know that as I am writing this blog, there is a team of people who are doing something up in space with the international space station. They took off a few days ago and have connected to the space station and are doing something. I don't know any more than that because it is not affecting my life right now and to be honest, I don't really care about what is happening up there. That is how some of the truths that I just mentioned hit me when I come across them unless I slow and am reminded that these truths are more than just facts…they are life.

God always hears me when I am talking. This can be a comforting thing and it can also be a terrifying thing. God hears me my house hasn't sold, I have no more money to pay for the mortgage, and there is no end in sight. That is extremely comforting to know that God hears me. When any of my kids has a horrible cold and they are coughing and shaking from a fever, it is comforting to know that God is near me hearing my prayers for their safety and healing. It is a terrifying thing though to know that God hears me when I say something to the guy who just cut me off in traffic. It is horrifying when God hears the very thoughts that go through my head about immoral things…and there are times when they seem to come out of nowhere. It is humiliating for God not to hear what I say when I am sitting next to someone and know that I should talk to them about salvation and I don't. I need to be reminded that this truth of God always hearing is so much more than just a fact about who He is…it has everything to do with who I am and my relationship with Him

God is always up to good…Romans 8:28. As with the first truth I mentioned, this one is just as true and has an even more practical implication for me. If God is always up to good through every circumstance, then I have no right to complain or even question God and His motives. It is good for me to write that out, because that is hard for me to do. I was just at a conference in Philadelphia and wouldn't you know it, I came down with one of the worst colds that I have had in a long time while flying on the way to the conference. While I was there I was put in a hotel room that was 30 minutes away from the conference without traffic almost an hour with traffic. When checking in at the car rental place I failed to see a dent in the back end of the car (or someone hit me in the parking lot), which means that I might be responsible to fix it. God is always up to good. While I was at the conference, I received a bunch of emails about how things were going back at the church where I work…and the whole time I was tempted to question the goodness of God and what He was up to. But God reminds me in this psalm that He is always up to good. There is nothing that happens, including falling into sin, which is outside of His control. He is using it for my good and His glory. Thankfulness is the key to this truth…am I thankful for all that God is doing in my life.

So I need to watch and wait. If God hears all things and is always working things out for good, then I simply need to watch and wait. I need to be patient and trust. Hard to do…

Soli Deo Gloria

Psalm 1 – 1 Reason for Hard Times

As I was reading this morning in Psalm 1, I was vividly reminded of a reason for hard times. I have to admit that I like good times. I like when I don't have to watch my checkbook as closely because I know that there is ample money to spend. I love it when my kids all listen and I don't have to discipline them for disobedience. I love to "fall back" and gain an extra hour of sleep instead of "spring forward" and lose one. I love it when my whole family is healthy and the doctor has not been visited for months. On that note, I love it when my medical deductable has been met so that I don't have to pay nearly as much for doctor's visits. In short, I love it when life is going the way that I want it and expect it to go. I love it when life is easy…the waters are calm, the sun is high up in the sky, it's about 85 degrees out and I am on my 4^th coconut.

By contrast…I don't really care for the hard times of life. I don't really enjoy having to share my bedroom an infant who could care less if I have a full day of counseling ahead of me. I absolutely hate it when my kids get sick and I can't do anything about it other than listen real closely at night to make sure that they are still breathing. I would rather have to do something else than find out that a close friend has died or something else tragic like that. I hate it when I hop online to check out how much money I have left and realize that I was way off in my "mental" math. In short, I hate the hard times of life. I don't like the cold rainy blustery days that are unpredictable.

But…there is an ironic twist about the days that I love and the days that I hate. The good days, while fun and enjoyable, are really wasted days in my life when it comes to eternity. I am forced to deal with absolutely nothing on those good days. Life can continue on as normal in those good days. I am not drawn one step closer to the God I claim to love as long as life is peachy. I am always tempted on these days to be satisfied with what I know about Him and how far I have come in my walk with Him. And to be honest…there are more days that I care to admit where I give in to that temptation. That's extremely sad considering those good days are a gift from Him that I just take for granted. On the other hand, the bad days are the best days for my walk with the Lord in this life. The worse the day…the closer I draw to Him. The harder the rain, the more shelter I need. The higher the wave, the faster and bigger the rescue.

As I was reading through Psalm 1 again, I got to the verse that talks about the wicked being blown away like the chaff. The righteous on the other hand are like a tree that is firmly planted by streams of water which yield its' fruit in its season. It's funny because this does not mean that life is always sunny for the righteous and things always go well for the righteous. No, the same circumstances come at the righteous that come at the wicked. Righteous people have lost millions in the stock market just as the wicked have. Righteous people have lost their homes due to the housing crisis just as the wicked have. The storms of life rage and not selective as to whom they mess with. The difference however is in what happens to the righteous and the wicked. The righteous produce fruit in those hard times…the wicked perish. The righteous bring honor and glory to God…the wicked have lost all purpose. The righteous have every reason to put one foot in front of the other…the wicked have every reason to give up and float away. The righteous are made stronger in the storms…while the wicked are destroyed.

Give a logical biblical look at the way good works and I am thankful for the storms in my life, not because I enjoy them in the moment, but because of what they produce. Man I hope I remember this when I am going through the storm.

Punishing the Tool

Jeremiah 51

The sovereignty of God shows up like no other in this chapter. This is the account from God of what He is going to do to Babylon because of what it has done to God's people. At the end of this chapter (vs.56), Jeremiah records that God is a God of recompense and He will fully repay. The idea here is that God will not allow the nation of Babylon to get away with what it has done to His people. The word "fully" is a strong word here. God does not just say that He will pay them back for what they have done; rather, He says that He will fully pay them back. That means that there will not be one iota overlooked on God's part. If there is a water tower of His wrath that is to be poured out on the nation of Babylon, then God will work until every last drop of that water tower is released upon them.

Here is the part that I can see so clearly that just lifts God to the highest places in my mind. Back in verse 20, God says this about the nation of Babylon, "You are My war-club, My weapon of war; and with you I shatter nations, and with you I destroy kingdoms. With you I shatter the horse and his rider, and with you I shatter the chariot and its rider, and with you I shatter man and woman, and with you I shatter old man and youth, and with you I shatter young man and virgin, and with you I shatter the shepherd and his flock, and with you I shatter the farmer and his team, and with you I shatter governors and prefects." This is what God says about the nation of Babylon. This heinous nation was actually a tool in the hand of God to do just what God wanted them to do. There wasn't one man that was killed that God had not ordained. There was not one fire set that God had not decided before hand would be set. These people, including Nebuchadnezzar, did all that God wanted and purposed.

Then in verse 24, Jeremiah records, "But I will repay Babylon and all the inhabitants of Chaldea for all their evil that they have done in Zion before your eyes," declares the Lord. "Behold I am against you, O destroying mountain, who destroys the whole earth," declares the Lord...This paints a very clear picture that this nation was a tool in the hands of God to do the purposes of God, but that does not mean that God excuses what they have done. They are now going to have to pay for all of the sin and idolatry that they have committed. God goes on to say that He will stretch out His hand against them and roll them down from the crags, and make them a burnt out mountain. It sounds as if God started out almost praising them for the work that He was able to do through them and then ends by condemning them for what they did to His people (who were being punished by God by the way).

Here in is the sovereignty of God...to do what He wants with His creation when He wants to do it in any way that He wants to do it. It's not too often that I hear about the Sovereignty of God in this capacity. So what does this mean in my own life though...this means that as a child of God I know that I am loved by the King. That does NOT mean though that I will be used by God for only good easy purposes. I might end up dying at the hands of my enemies in order to fulfill what God wants. I might end up losing those whom I love very dearly in order to bring God glory. It means that those who have been against me in this life have really been used by God in one way or another to make me more into the image of His Son. God used Babylon to get to Israel to wake them up out of their Idolatrous slumber that they had fallen into. In the same manner, God could use some ungodly avenue to get my attention.

Overall, this chapter reminded me solidly of God right to do what He wants with His creation. Isaiah 55:8-9 says, "For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,' declares the Lord.'For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts." There is no telling what God is doing right now and that is not for me to know. What I have is His Word at my hand, and that is what has been revealed to me. I need to be studying it and resting in the sovereignty of God. He will only allow things to come my way that have gone through the sovereign grasp of his almighty fingers. He will not allow me to be tempted beyond what I am able, but with the temptation will provide the way to of escape....and all for His glory.

Soli Deo Gloria...

The Two Fold Plan of God – Jeremiah 50

Jeremiah 50 - The Wrath of God

This chapter has so many different aspects of God in it. God's love, mercy, patience, and steadfastness are seen towards His chosen people. He said that He would leave a remnant. But the overwhelming characteristic that I was able to pick up in this chapter is the wrath of God. Babylon, while used by God to discipline God's children, is now at the receiving end of God's wrath. God has decided and planned to utterly destroy the Babylonians. He will not let the evil that they have done go unpunished. Verse 45 says, "Therefore hear the plan of the Lord which He has planned against Babylon, and His purposes which He has purposed against the land of the Chaldeans." There is a plan and a purpose to what Jeremiah and the other Israelites are going through. It is a two-fold plan.

1. God is the Faithful Father - He must discipline/train those who are His. If He did not then He would not be a good father and nor would we be His legitimate children. He would not love us and we would go off and do all that we wanted to do (Hebrews 12:7-11). The Israelites (God's Chosen) had decided that they were going to go and worship who they wanted when they wanted. From the beginning of this book they had decided not only to go and do whatever they felt like doing, but they were going to put people in charge of them who would purposely point them in that direction (Jeremiah 5:31). That sounds an awful lot like what Paul tells Timothy in 2 Timothy 4:3 when he says, "For the time will come when they not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths." For myself today, I need to be reminded and live in such a way as to please my heavenly Father and not further put Him in a position where He must discipline me.
   


2. God is the just Judge: He must sentence and condemn those who are not His, even if He has used them for His purposes. There is evil in this world and if God is who He has said He is, then He must not only judge those whom have done evil, but He must sentence and condemn those who have committed sins against Him. My first instinct is to look at the world around me and say, "Yep, your time is coming." But that sounds almost like the Pharisee who stood above the tax gather and pointed down at him saying, "Thank you Lord for not making me like that person." My job isn't to look around and figure out who God is going to condemn and who belongs to Him. My job is to look at the world through His eyes and weep for everyone realizing as I go that if were it not by the grace of God, I would be under the same condemnation as the rest of the world. I would not have found God if He had not first found me, I would have not have responded to God if He had not first done a redemptive work in me, I would not have loved God if He had not first loved me. I can take zero credit for anything that I have done in the way of coming to know the Lord Jesus Christ...that is all the work of God for His glory alone. God is the just Judge and when all of time is complete, He will commit one final act of Judging...I have no choice but to weep and plead with men today about what is to come.
   

There was a lot to this chapter and I am sure that as I go through and read Calvin's thoughts on this chapter more things will be stirred up in me. But for now, for today, I need to rejoice in the fact that I am His child saved by His Son all for His glory. I also need to be praying for those who I will pass by on my way in to work, those who will serve me any food that I order today, those who I pay to any kind of work...the wrath of God is building and in His final act of Judging, He will release that wrath out on anyone who is not found in Christ. Soli Deo Gloria