Don't Force Spring...

"There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven..." Ecclesiastes 3:1

Every planet on the solar system has seasons. On Venus, seasons are very short. On Uranus, a season can last for 20 years.

You might feel like you are in a prolonged winter. And you might be correct.

- You are praying with few answered prayers.

- You’re reaching out to someone for Jesus, but they show no interest.

- You’re working as hard as you can and seeing minimal results.

If you’re in winter and waiting for spring, remember God also works in the winter. During the cold months, the roots of trees and plants grow deeper and stronger. In this season, God is often doing an unseen work preparing His creation for spring.  During winter, God does more internally than externally.

It is helpful to remember: "You can’t have spring without winter."

How has God worked during the winter seasons in your life?

Love vs. Lust...

The Granger Community Church came up with the following video to help answer the question,"Is there a difference between love and lust?"



I appreciate the very effective way in which Granger uses media to connect God's eternal truths to our culture.

Are You A Good Christ...

This recent post by Francis Chan knocked my socks off.

I think it's time we stop asking ourselves the question: "Am I a good Christian?" We live in a time when the term "Christian" has been so diluted that millions of immoral but nice people genuinely consider themselves "good Christians." We have reduced the idea of a good Christian to someone who believes in Jesus, loves his or her family, and attends church regularly. Others will label you a good Christian even though your life has no semblance to the way Christ spent His days on earth. Perhaps we should start asking the question: "Am I a good Christ?" In other words, do I look anything like Jesus? This question never even entered my mind until a friend of mine made a passing comment to me one day.

Dan is a long time friend of mine. In fact, he's the pastor who performed my wedding. He was talking to me about a pastor named Von. Von has been working with youth in the San Diego area for decades. Many of his students have gone on to become amazing missionaries and powerful servants of God. Dan described a trip to Tijuana, Mexico with Pastor Von. (Von has been ministering to the poor in the dumps of Tijuana for years). Dan didn't speak of the awful living conditions of those who made their homes amidst the rubbish. What impacted Dan the most was the relationship he saw between Von and the people of this community. He spoke of the compassion, sacrifice, and love that he witnessed in Von's words and actions as he held these malnourished and un-bathed children. Then he made the statement that sent me reeling:

"The day I spent with Von was the closest thing I've ever experienced to walking with Jesus."

Dan explained that the whole experience was so eerie because he kept thinking to himself: "If Jesus were still walking on earth in the flesh, this is what it would feel like to walk alongside of Him!" After that discussion, I kept wondering if anyone had ever said that about me-"The day I spent with Francis was the closest thing I've ever experienced to walking with Jesus." The answer was an obvious "no." Would any honest person say that about you?

What bothered me was not that I hadn't "arrived," but that I wasn't even heading in the right direction. I hadn't made it my goal to resemble Christ. I wasn't striving to become the kind of person who could be mistaken for Jesus Christ. Isn't it ironic that a man can be known as a successful pastor, speaker, and CHRISTian even if his life doesn't resemble Christ's?

1 John 2:6 "Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did."

When John made that statement, he wasn't speaking about how to be a church leader or even how to be a "good" Christian. He merely stated that anyone who calls himself Christian must live like Jesus did. So how did Jesus live? You could make a list of character traits to compare yourself to, but it would be far more beneficial to simply read through one of the Gospels. After you get a bird's-eye view of the life of Christ, do the same with your own. Are you comfortable with the similarities and differences?

It's easy to get caught up in the pursuit of "success" as American church-goers define it. The thought of being well-known and respected is alluring. There have been times when I've been caught up in the fun of popularity. I've even mistaken it for success. Biblically, however, success is when our lives parallel Christ's. Truth is, there are many good Christs that you'll never read about in a magazine. They are walking as Jesus walked, but they are too focused and humble to pursue their own recognition.

May we make it our goal to someday have someone say of us: "The day/hour/15 minutes I spent with ______ was the closest thing I've ever experienced to walking with Jesus."

As Christians in America, we often complain about how antagonistic people are toward Christ. Personally, I'm not sure that Americans are really rejecting Christ. Maybe they just haven't seen Him.

Try to be COMPLETELY honest with yourself right now. Is the following true of you?

You passionately love Jesus, but you don't really want to be like Him. You admire His humility, but you don't want to be THAT humble. You think it's beautiful that He washed the feet of the disciples, but that's not exactly the direction your life is headed. You're thankful He was spit upon and abused, but you would never let that happen to you. You praise Him for loving you enough to suffer during His whole time on earth, but you're going to do everything within your power to make sure you enjoy your time down here.

In short: You think He's a great Savior, but not a great role model.

The American church has abandoned the most simple and obvious truth of what it means to follow Jesus: You actually follow His pattern of life. I pray for those who read this post- that we don't become cynical or negative toward the church. Instead, let's make a personal decision to stop talking so much and begin living like Jesus. Then we can say as the apostle Paul, "Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ" (1 Corinthians 11:1). My guess is that you've never had someone say that to you, and you've never said it to anyone else. Why not?

On Songs & Singing..

Not long ago, I was with a group of university students enjoying a time of praise in song and prayer. Near the end of what a been a very uplifting time of worship, the question was asked, "Does anyone have a song they'd like to start?"

And someone did. This person started a song that I recalled singing as a youth minister with my youth group in the early 1990's. This was very popular praise song in the 90's, its words rooted in Scripture... one of those songs our youth group always liked to sing.

But in the year of our Lord 2009, this song sounded really dated. Most of the university students I was sitting with either didn't know the song, or were trying to recall the tune. Suffice it to say that after one verse and the chorus, the group respectfully segued to another song.

And that brief experience got me thinking... all songs were new at some point, and a lot of people liked to sing them, and the words spoke to various hearts in various ways. But even songs that aren't all that old (I don't consider the early '90s "a long time ago") lose their meaningfulness, appeal and the desire that they be sung.

I don't take this to mean that these were "bad" songs. I'm thinking what's taking place is a very normal thing... songs that speak to our hearts at certain times in our lives, don't at other times. And I believe a big part of letting the "word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God" is about singing psalms/hymns/songs that are meaningful to us... at that time.

So, the next time I'm about to fire off a verbal broadside like "Old/new songs just don't touch my heart" or "New/old songs are the best"--I want to remember that the age of a song is incidental to its power and ability in taking us before the Throne of our Father.

Herding Cats...

This video is clever, and quite funny. There's a whole lot going on in this short clip... so watch carefully.



I have great admiration for cat herders.

How To Really Celebrate...

This clip gets to the essence of what it means to celebrate... and I'm talking over-the-top celebration. As challenging as it may be, watch the entire clip--paying special attention during the final 10 seconds.



Okay, the guy's obnoxious... but did you notice the score?

Porn Okay, Except On Sunday...

The research that Tim Avery describes in his article below draws no hard conclusions, but the study does sound another wake-up call to Christians regarding sexual purity and living "compartmentalized" lives.

Do Christians buy less online pornography than non-believers? The Associated Baptist Press reports on a recent study suggesting "no"—except, that is, on Sundays.

Harvard Business School professor Benjamin Edelman took the zip codes of subscribers to a top-ten porn seller and analyzed the geographical distribution. He says that subscription rates in regions where more people report regularly attending religious services aren't "statistically significantly different" from subscriptions elsewhere.

In fact, subscriptions are actually more prevalent in states that have passed conservative legislation on sexuality, as well as in states where more survey respondents agreed with statements like "I never doubt the existence of God" and "I have old-fashioned values about family and marriage."

An interesting (or depressing) wrinkle is that, in regions of higher church attendance, a smaller proportion of porn subscriptions begin on Sundays. "This analysis suggests that, on the whole, those who attend religious services shift their consumption of adult entertainment to other days of the week, despite on average consuming the same amount of adult entertainment as others," says Edelman.

So what to make of this study? For one thing, the criteria of "attending religious services" is not restricted to Christian places of worship. Still, those must be the overwhelming majority.

It's safe to say, then, that the church has a long way to go in terms of sexual purity. As the study shows, a lot of that has to do with how people compartmentalize their lives, living one way on Sunday and another the rest of the week. And it's easier than ever these days to go where you shouldn't. Thanks to the Internet, now "every city is Sin City."