Category Archives: Spiritual

Because it takes so much time…

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I figured out the reason I haven’t been blogging as much (and why I don’t write e-mail messages to my friends very often) — because it take so much time.  Not that I don’t have a lot of extra time, and not that you all are not worth my time, but it’s exhausting for me.  Most of it is brought on by myself; my fear of writing something I didn’t mean or of exposing any heretical beliefs causes me to check, and re-check and then doubt and then check again.  The doubt that I have any idea about what I’m talking about continues until you reply to my e-mail or leave a comment.  You can only imagine the fear that runs through my mind when nobody comments or when an e-mail is not replied to.  Because of all that fear, I spend over an hour writing a blog post and some e-mail messages — especially if I’m talking about spiritual things.  I even have my computer read my post or e-mail out loud to me before I publish or send it, just to be sure it’s right.  Some of that fear is healthy I guess (helps reduce typos) but a lot of it probably isn’t (it’s called “fear of man” — fearing what others think to an extent that alters motives and actions.  The opposite of this is the “fear of God”, fyi).  Anyway, just thought I’d share where I’m coming from.  This post took me 30 minutes to write…  if you don’t comment, I’ll go a little crazy, but I’ll just assume you are trying to help me work through my fears ;-)

No Shame in a Repost…

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Afterall, I wrote it.  At Dayspring UMC we started a new staff blog.  Mondays are my day to post something and here was my first post.

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This week in the youth GRACE groups we started a lesson and discussion on salvation, starting with an in-depth look at atonement.  In Leviticus 16, God lays out explicit instructions on how Aaron (and subsequent priests) were to approach him each year so Israel could be cleansed of their sins. This involved a number of animals and rules that were so important the priest would be killed if he didn’t follow it exactly.  This was required once a year to pay for the sins of the nation of Israel.

If you get a chance, read Leviticus 16.  If you have a little more time, read through the book of Hebrews too. The author of Hebrews says, unlike other high priests, that were numerous because they were limited by death(Heb 7:23), Jesus holds his priesthood forever (Heb 7:24). He is one who sympathizes with our weaknesses (Heb 4:15) and made one sacrifice that accomplished what no other sacrifice could ever do — take away the sins of his people (Heb 10:11-14). Matthew 1:21 tells us “he will save his people from their sins.” We are a people that have been cleansed of our sins, not by our own efforts, but by the atoning work of Jesus Christ; we can add nothing to it.

What does this mean for us today? That we can and should approach God with confidence when we fall short (Heb 4:16), not with an attitude of guilt or shame because our debt has already been paid. Praise God!

Will you choose to walk in God’s abundant love, grace and mercy this week?

Knowing My Role

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“A religious mentality, characterized by timidity and lack of moral courage has given us today a flabby Christianity, intellectually impoverished, dull, repetitious, and to a great many persons, just plain boresome.  This is peddled as the very faith of our fathers in direct lineal descent  from Christ and the apostles.  We spoon-feed this insipid pabulum to our inquiring youth, and to make it palatable spice it up with carnal amusements snatched from the unbelieving world.  It is easier to entertain than to instruct.  It is easier to follow degenerate public taste than to think for oneself.  So too many of our evangelical leaders let their minds atrophy while they keep their fingers nimble operating religious gimmicks to bring in the curious crowd.”  — A.W. Tozer, 1955

“I’m afraid too many churchgoers today are listening but not learning.  They are spectators, not students.  They are passive, not participating.  Why?  Because we who teach often give them cut flowers that easily fade and wilt, rather than showing them how to grow plants for themselves — to discover firsthand the truth that God has revealed in His Word.” — Howard Hendricks

Each week that I teach the youth at my church I have the temptation to “ease up” a bit on the Bible study and focus on making sure the students are having a good time — that they are enjoying it.  Then I look back on these two quotes and am reminded of my task — I am here to teach the Gospel.  If that is boring to them, then I need to keep teaching it because they obviously are still not getting it!

Classified

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This has become a part of Jeff Olive’s (Pastor at Dayspring UMC) blog, a series called Sermon Classification.  Each week we post our sermons online and iTunes tries to figure out the details.  It is never right but that doesn’t stop iTunes from trying.  I preached my first sermon at Dayspring on Sunday and here is what iTunes thinks:

Name: Samurai (Part 1)
Artist: The Art of Quiet Fighting
Album: X-Fade
Genre: Metal

You can listen for yourself here:  http://dayspringumc.com/files/sermons/sermon_73.mp3

**note — the first 4 minutes or so is audio from a video we did at church (not me).