The Sound Word

If you want to get people's attention when you share a devotional or personal thought with someone, here's how to do it: "I have a confession to make". And, that's where I'm at. I have not even shared this with my wife yet simply because I have no idea where the Lord is taking this… or me. But what I can tell you that she does know ~ is that God is alive and working in our church body, perhaps like we have never seen before. When faced with hard times, and tough decisions, people who love the Lord and seek to serve Him band together in prayer and sacrifice. I can see and feel this happening. Sometimes God has to show us the end of the rope so that you know you really need to hold on to Him with all of your spiritual might. So here's my confession: My life has been changed by a sloppy wet kiss. Legalism is not me, and it is not becoming. I abhor legalism and God has given me the nose of a hound, and the eyes of a hawk to seek it out. But we must carefully b...

Sometimes I have a specific spiritual experience. In this experience I come to have a sudden realization of the total pile of garbage that I really am. As a friend has told me time and time again, that you realize that you are nothing more than a wart on the backside of a hog. Seriously, when you truly recognize the gospel, and the 'bigness' of God, you realize that you are nothing. Outside of a biblically foundational world view, this experience can be startling and hurtful. By worldly standards, this can be devastating, and entire lives are spent trying to 'recondition our psyche' to recognize our self worth and to grow our self esteem. But as a Christian, soon after this realization strikes, the real struggle begins That struggle is to use the experience or realization that God has allowed me to have (or has actually engineered) and to use it for good. We struggle against using it for our benefit, vs., allowing the enemy to use it to his advantage by bringing discour...

Paul once said, "I have become all things to all men". Since those words have been spoken, they have been used to mean a great many different things to a great many different people. For the most part, this verse is referenced to show how a Christian must be willing to interact with the people of the world in order to take the gospel of Jesus Christ to them. As they should. For some, this verse is sighted to show that if we as Christians are going to be effective in reaching 'this generation', we need to ' do as they do ', look as they look, and act as they act. Is this what Paul really meant when he wrote those words? Let's work off the assumption that we all agree that the lost of the world need to be reached with the gospel. It's a good place to start. Christians are called to evangelize. "Go" unto the world, cannot be done from your desk, from inside your church, or even from your computer. You have to go and rub elbows as they say, and ...

Matthew 5:14-16 14 "You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven. In watching some worthwhile Christian TV last night, this verse was read to me. In the context of the show ( Drive Thru History: America , You can become a Facebook fan of the show by clicking HERE ), they were talking about the Pilgrims travails in getting to America. In that show it was mentioned that one of their driving forces was the verse above from the Sermon on the Mount. As the host read off this passage, the end of verse 16 stuck in my ears. With all the talk the Lord has been giving me on making a difference as Christians, and applying God's will and righteousness to our freedoms, this verse played right into that theme. We ha...

Philippians 4:8 Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things. [Begin Rant] OK, call me a crazy Christian conservative right-wing gun-toting whacko, but why in the world do we want to say it is OK to have our children, the next generation of Christians (or so we hope) fill their minds with stories of Vampires, the 'underworld', demons and magic? Whatever happened to filling our minds with the things of God and righteousness rather than the things of the world? Whatever happened to Philippians 4:8? Why don't we encourage these things more, and work harder to protect our children and young and vulnerable believers from the attractions of the world which will prove to be distractions from Christ? Sure, we can debate the 'freedom in Christ' thin...

John 17:4 I have glorified You on the earth. I have finished the work which You have given Me to do. It came to mind today something that Pastor Chuck Smith had shared with us at this year's Sr. Pastors Conference. I thought of it in part because of the celebration we had this weekend of the 40 th anniversary of the Apollo 11 Lunar landing. President Kennedy, who had promised to take us to the moon within the decade (1960's), something we did accomplish, but that he did not live to see, started his term as President with a wonderful speech. In that inaugural address he said, "Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country." What Chuck Smith had to say was very similar in tone, but with much farther reaching effects. Chuck said, "Going through all of scripture I find a biblical emphasis that is not what we can do for God. But rather, what he has already done for us." His point was, I believe two fold. Firstly that the work of...

2 Corinthians 11:3 But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. Last night, on a night when we normally have a family bible study, or a one on one study with the kids, I decided a change of pace was in order. I talked it over with my wife, and off we went to a 6:40 PM showing of the animated movie UP. Long story short, it was wonderful. Go see the movie. In the mean time, here's my experience. I went into the movie just glad to have a weeknight open enough to be able to go. Usually, between study time for the mid-week and Sunday teachings, board meetings, general meetings, and the midweek bible study itself, there is not much time left to do anything. Last night was a wonderful and rare exception to have free time. We to the theater, and after figuring out that the Fandango kiosk was not working, and listening to the next guy cuss at the machine because it does not dispense cash (it...