Happy Holidays?

Perspective. Without perspective, followers of Christ lose focus faster than cheap binoculars. This is especially important during the Thanksgiving and Christmas seasons. With the recent crusade of retailers to remove the blatantly detestable declaration of "Merry Christmas," it is imperative for Christians to maintain perspective amid this horrible offensive to remove Christ and any mention of the God of the Bible from the marketplace. When Peter lost perspective and took his eyes off of Jesus, he began drowning. My friends, Christianity has found itself drowing this holiday season.

Not to criticize the life of Peter, but to using him as an example, Christians can properly respond to a cashier declaring, Happy Holidays. When Christ was arrested, Peter, being the man of action he was, sliced off the right ear of the high priest's servant, Malchus. This act, noble in deed, seemed like the right thing to do at the time. The hunting party was taking Peter's friend for no reason, so naturally he was just defending the Man with whom he had just spent the past three years. Jesus, our Savior, Redeemer and the ultimate Healer, kindly mended the amputated ear and rebuked Peter for his violent response. Jesus was simply fulfilling the prophecies spoken of by the prophets and at the will of His Father willing chose to go through with His brutal murder for our sins.

By choosing to boycott retailers who have made it a policy to wish customers "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas," Christians are literally cutting off the ear of many people who need to see and hear the wonders of Christ lived out through His disciples. Jesus rebuked Peter for responding with violence, after he directly commanded him earlier to, "Turn the other cheek."

Turning the other cheek for Christians this holiday season is simply maintaining perspective. Christ has called His disciples to make disciples, and there is no better time to make much of the name of Christ that at the season set side to celebrate His birth.

But how?!?!?!?

Keeping the perspective of the Gospel message and looking for every possible opportunity to share God's message. Christians who are focused on sharing the Gospel view every conversation as a chance to tell someone about Jesus. Responding to the phrase, "Happy Holidays," is no different.

I ask you, what is a holiday?

A holiday is a holy day. Dictionary.com defines a holiday as, "a day fixed by law or custom on which ordinary business is suspended in commemoration of some event or in honor of some person." This unmentionable holiday was a day fixed by law and custom as a day to commemorate the birth of Jesus Christ. I realize that other "holidays fall in this busy time of the year, but what day, for the most part, are all the gifts which are purchased in the stores given? Easy. December 25, or Christmas. Hence the name Christmas shopping, Christmas tree, and Christmas day.

Armed with this simple understanding, Christians, instead of boycotting Merry Christmas free stores, can shop them and when greeted with or bidden farewell with, "Happy Holidays," can reply that holiday means Holy Day and that holy day is a day set apart for the remembrance of the birth of Christ. It is not wrong to wish someone," Happy Holidays," because Christmas is in fact a holy day for a holy God.

It is the Christians responsibility, not to remove the ear of the over-stressed cashier, but to bring the healing message of Christ to the very person who is acknowledging that Christmas is a Happy Holiday, whether they realize it or not. The priest's servant wasn't expecting to lose an ear that night to the constantly drowning Peter, and the cashier, just like the servant, needs the touch of Jesus. Amen or not?

"Man does not live by bread alone."

Jesus says, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God."

Why?

One of the most important questions we can ask in our study of the Scriptures is Why. I am going to answer the question, why cannot man live by bread alone?

The Word of God is something special. Jesus who had not eaten for 40 days, being tempted by Satan in the wilderness to turn stones into bread, defeated the temptations of Satan by quoting the Word of God. Satan, knowing the power of Jesus, tempted Jesus to rely on the power He has as God to satisfy His longing for food; to give into the lust of the flesh. We as Christians long for comfort in this fallen world and Satan was attacking Christ in his human form from this angle. If Jesus could not survive 40 days without food and used His Godliness to feed himself and satisfy His flesh, how in the world would He ever be able to withstand the mockery, abuse and torture of being crucified. Jesus came to do the will of the Father and that will is to be obedient to His Word.

If for no other reason than this, we know we cannot live by bread alone, it is enough, but the Word of God is clear about itself being all that we need. Jesus, in His weakest moment clings to the Word of God to turn the devil away. But why? Why does Jesus, being God with all power, with all might and ability to cast Satan straight to Hell that very moment choose to repel Satan with the Word of God? Because of the power of the Word of God. The Bible, the holy written scriptures, are the Word of God Himself. This is why it is able to conquer the power of death. The Word of God gives life. From the beginning of creation as we know it the Word of God has given life to everything. God said, "Let there be light." There was light. Jesus, in the New Testament is refered to as the light of men. Jesus is also referred to as the Word, God's living Word. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.

This life is obviously not the physical life, but the spiritual life. Our spiritual life is the life that matters. The spiritual is eternal, the physical is not. We are here in our physical state for a brief moment in time compared to a spiritual eternity. It is this life we must feed. And we know physical food cannot satisfy our souls.

Jesus is our example. Paul says, "Imitate me as I imitate Christ." We know that our chief purpose as Christians is to be conformed to the, "Image of Christ." So, armed with this truth alone, knowing that the word of God can defeat the temptations of the devil, we should cling to the Word of God, hide It in our hearts and be totally consumed by It, because Jesus proved that, "Man does not live by bread alone."

Back to the Word

Two posts ago I began to write about the Word of God by briefly explaining the Old Testament hoping within a few weeks to write about the New Testament. Well, that didn't happen and now, a few months later ;) I am going to briefly introduce the New Testament. To save time, I am not going to review the Old Testament, so if you would like to start there the post is below.

Now, on to the New Testament. The New Testament is a collection of 27 books written by nine different authors, if by chance Hebrews was written by someone other than Paul. What is cool about the New Testament is that the events recorded in the New Testament complement and complete the Old Testament. The Old Testament closes with the prophet Malachi who is the last prophet before the 400 years of silence, also know as the Intertestemental Period, where God chose to speak through no one; a time unlike any time known to the Jewish people.

The New Testament opens with the four Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. These four books give four different perspectives on the life of Jesus; one from a tax collector, one from a companion of the Apostle Paul, one from a doctor,and one from a disciple especially close to Jesus. The Gospels are designed to give us an accurate picture of the life of Jesus Christ as well as a record of the things He taught while He was here on earth. The most significant detail the Gospels give us is the account of the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ, on which all of Christianity and salvation hangs. Without the death burial and resurrection of Christ mankind would be eternally lost without hope of reconcilliation to our creator.

After the Gospels is written the book of Acts, commonly known as The Acts of the Apostles. This title is not thebest title for the book but history records it this way and so it stands. The real acts recorded in the book of Acts are those of the Holy Spirit. In the Old Testament we primarily see God the Father working in and through His people. The Gospels picture God the Son, in Christ Jesus, working , while the book of Acts and the rest of the New Testament, except for the last book, Revelation, are the work of the Holy Spirit.

The book of Acts was written by Luke, the author of the Gospel that bears his name. His Gospel records, "all that Jesus began both to do and teach," while the book of Acts records the replacement of Judas the betrayer with Matthias, the beginning of the church as we know it and the spreading of the Gospel message to the ends of the known earth at the time.

Following the book of Acts are the Epistles, or letters, to various churches and individuals to address doctrinal error, warn of false teachers , encourage the downtrodden believers, an give us a glimpse into the lives of the very first Christians.

Closing out the New Testament is the Revelation of Jesus Christ, one of the most difficult books of the Bible to read, much less interpret correctly. With Revelation's vivid imagery and hard to discern symbolism many people are hesitant, including me to take a dogmatic stance on the meaning of the things recorrded bythe Apostle John. Even thought the meaning is difficult to understand, the title decribes this book perfectly: The Revelation of Jesus Christ. The best conservative scholars can tell is that Revelation is a glimpse into the future to the glorious promised return of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

The New Testament opens with Jesus coming to earth as a humble nobody to die as the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, and ends with Jesus coming out of Heaven to Earth as Judge and King. It is clear that the New Testament was written to reveal the whole glory of Jesus Christ and what a glorious day it will be when my Jesus I shall see!!!

Life comes at you fast....

Once again it has been a while since I blogged.Since my last post I have gotten a new job, moved cities, went from a two income household to a single income household and watched my wife begin the wonderful journey of homeschooling our three children.

First, I have a new job. Normally this wouldn't be a big deal, however, I am working for an Aerospace Engineering company building afterburners and fuel nozzles for military and civilian aircraft as well as land based turbine engines. All I can say is that my God is big. I love my job. I cannot wait to go to work every day. The Lord has opened up a great mission field and the great part is that my supervisor is a Christian and doesn't mind me teaching and proclaiming the Gospel while at work, on break of course. The Lord also works the tiniest details out. I am working second shift, so I am able to be involved throughout the day in our homeschool program, but more about that later.

Growing up in a very rural mountainous part of Appalachia, I never had the desire to live in the big city. When God brought us to Grand Rapids, MI, I wondered what in the world was He thinking taking a small town country boy and putting him in the second largest city in Michigan. Since the Bible says there are seasons for everything, I know that we were there for just a season. We enjoyed every bit of living in a metropolis and the amenities and activities large cities provide. Great food, fun, quirky downtown lifestyles and all, Grand Rapids was a great place to live.

The next season in our life has placed us in Zeeland, MI. A small, quaint, very Dutch town 25 miles Southeast of Grand Rapids. I think the streets are rolled up every evening at 9p.m. Zeeland is a wonderful place to live with a great downtown atmosphere and bicycle trails everywhere. Also, living two and a half miles from work affords me the luxury of riding my bicycle to work. We are closer to friends we have made and closer to the church we attend while waiting on the Lord to open up a door for ministry.

For the first time since I have know her, my wife is without a job. What a wonderful woman God has blessed me with. June 15, 2011 my wife resigned her position as a direct underwriter with 5/3 Bank to assume another full time position. One she felt God was calling her to. Seeing the lives of our children slowly fade away as they grow older, she desire so much to be able to stay at home and teach them not only educational principles, but how to be a follower of Christ. My hats off to her for her diligent research and frugal shopping to provide our children with a complete homeschool curriculum that will provide our children a Biblical education.

Please pray for her, and me too, as we embark on this journey God has placed in front of us.

God's Word

Just a couple of post below I wrote that the first step to real manhood begins with the Word of God. I realize that in our busy world sometimes we do not realize the impact one small Book can have on our lives. This simple book has withstood thousands of years and has miraculously remained intact, even though people have tried to erase it from existence, or at least keep it out of the hand of the masses. There is a reason that the book we know as the Holy Bible is still changing lives today: it IS the Word of God. However in a world that views truth as relative, I take for granted that people understand what the Bible really is and who wrote it for that matter. So... Here is a little lesson in the book we call the Bible.

First, The Bible is not just one book. It is a collection of 66 books with God as the main author as well as many human authors. How is this possible you ask? We will get to that later. The Bible is comprised of two main sections called the Old Testament and the New Testament. The Old Testament contains 39 different books and the New Testament contains 27 different books. If I did my math right that comes out to 66.

The Old Testament starts with the book of Genesis which gives us a detailed account of how God created everything we have knowledge of as humans and ends with Malachi, a prophet of God declaring judgment on Israel, promising their repentance and a message of hope concerning a Savior as well as the simple truth that God keeps His promises. The major theme of the Old Testament is that God simply spoke our universe into being and created man to enjoy His creation forever, but because of man's rebellion we are no longer able to infinitely enjoy God and His creation and have brought the wrath of God upon us which is another lesson. All we need to know right now is that in the Old Testament, God promises a way to reconcile our broken relationship through a coming Messiah.

The Old Testament is broken up into four sections. The first section is called the Law or the Pentateuch; also referred to as the book of Moses. It consists of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus Numbers, and Deuteronomy. The books of the Law are followed by the History books chronicling the history of Israel once they reached the promised land. After the history books we have the Poetry book or the books of Wisdom: Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and the Song Of Solomon. These wonderful writings are followed by the books of Prophecy broken down into the major and minor prophets.

There are a multitude of reasons the Old Testament is important to us but the most important reason to us as non-Jewish people is that the Old Testament gives us an accurate picture of who God really is. We see God as Creator, Judge, Savior, Protector and so on. We see Him conversing with creation in the Garden of Eden, judging the world with an apocalyptic flood, saving the nation of Israel multiple times and finally falling silent for four hundred years known as the Intertestamental Period. I have skipped a lot of good stuff I know, but I cannot write a book tonight.

The next section of our Bible is the New Testament. It starts off by ending the four hundred year period of silence with an interesting fellow named John the Baptist calling for the repentance of the nation of Israel. I will discuss it further in my next post. Stay tuned.

All work and no play?!?!?!?

If a picture says a thousand words, how bout a video....



Needless to say, every day life brings us unexpected obstacles. Why in the world to people walk up the middle of a sledding hill is beyond me, but it gives us a great illustration. It is what we do in these unexpected events that define us as men.

1st. Step to Manhood

August 24, 2010 my son Jaxon turned ten. Wow, I never imagined that I would have a ten year old son. Seeing him turn "double digits" as he called it caught me by surprise. It hit me like a ton of bricks that in a few short years he would be driving dating and doing only God knows what if I do not start mentoring him immediately. I was cruising along thinking I had a pretty good son until I realized that he was just as likely to create the same mischief and foolery I involved myself in at that age. By the grace of God I have caught him in time before the school system began educating him, if you know what I mean.
Manhood is a journey; one I started way too late. As I shared with Jaxon regarding our move to Michigan, every journey begins somewhere. My journey to "real" manhood began in 2007 when I surrendered my life to Christ. Sure I said a prayer when I was six and was baptized, but the problem was I just said a prayer. I was just as selfish and depraved the moment after praying as I was before. It wasn't until March of 2007 that I began to realize that I claimed to be a Christian, however my life at the time lead people away from Jesus, not to Him. By the grace and mercy of God, I saw that the only way I was going to be the man my family needed was to get my life in order in a real Biblical sense.
I did the only thing I knew to do; go to the Bible bookstore and buy me a Bible. After looking at Bibles for over an hour I decided on a Life Application Study Bible for the simple reason I need to know how to apply God's word to my life. This was before I sat in more than one class in Bible college specializing in hammering observation, interpretation and application into our filled to hurting heads along with context, context and more context. In reading this Bible I realized that the Bible said things a little different that what I had always been taught. Some of the stuff good Christians did was not exactly what I was reading.
The moral of this story is step number 1 in becoming a real man, which is: Read the Bible. 2 Peter 1:3 tells us that God has given us everything we need to be real men through the knowledge of God. We know that God has chosen to reveal Himself through the Bible, so the only logical way to know God is to spend time reading the Bible.
If you do not have a Bible, step 1 becomes going and buying a Bible. Step 2 is then to read the Bible you just bought.

Now, once you have bought a Bible, the question will arise, where to start? I will share the advice I received regarding my daily Bible reading.

At the church I was attending when all of this took place, I was blessed to be a part of a group of men who would meet every Tuesday night to pray for the church among other things. It was out of this group that Mike Loukas, a wildlife officer, challenged me to read Psalm chapter 1 and James chapter 1 everyday for a month. This was a great starting place. The wisdom contained in these short, yes short, easy to understand chapters was overwhelming to me in my early walk with Christ. I also challenge any men, of all spiritual conditions to take it upon your self to read the two chapters every day for a month. If it doesn't change your life for the better, I will dance at your next wedding.

Note: If you are overwhelmed by the many translations and styles, you can never go wrong with a King James Version, New King James Version or New American Standard Bible.