The Sound Word

We all love the characters made famous by author A. A. Milne in his book revolving around the 100 Acre wood and the leader of the pack, Winnie the Pooh. While Winnie can make a great metaphoric parallel to the average American Christian; one who is hungry for spiritual food, but often gets into trouble trying to get it, and makes plenty of mistake along the way as he matures, we must take notice. Eeyore is always close by. While the A. A. Milne/Winnie the Pooh character of Eeyore is certainly a loveable individual, if his attitude were the prevailing one in the 100 Acre Wood, there'd be a lot more trouble there than they already seem to have. When faced with hard times, we have a choice. We can look back through history to those before us who have suffered similarly, or even more so than us, and say, "hey, they made it through this, we are going to get through this as well" and work our hardest to make that happen. Or, we can do nothing, sit on our laurels, expecting some...

Romans 12:2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. `Having seen (by the Grace of God) a pattern in a biblical method of becoming more in-focus or in-tune with Jesus in our relationship with Him, we have been looking at a step-by-step process to do just that. First we looked at a refreshing. How not to allow the world to lead you by its inherent distractions on your flesh, but to stop and get the spiritual rest you need to have a functionally appropriate look at things to come. Secondly, we realize that a refreshing is not refreshing for long if we delve right back into that pattern and lifestyle that we had been following, and that saw us getting of His track and running full-bore on our own. If we do not refocus on Jesus, and I mean everything on Jesus, than we stand firmly set in a pattern that comes with a 100% failure rate. So what comes next? Our over-d...

Yes, sometimes we need to be refreshed. Of this there is no doubt. Not only is it desirable, it is biblical. But for it to remain biblical, our refreshing must come from God, and nowhere else. Once we seek, and have received our refreshing from the Lord, yes, there is still more to do. "There is more to do" is a line that threatens people. The first thing some will think is, "legalism!", "works-based faith and redemption!" And while these phrases should rightly so make our spiritual spider-sense tingle, it is a sure sign of an under-fed, immature Christian to stop there and look (or listen) no further. When I say there is more to do, what I am meaning in this is simply that once we have become a Christian and have begun growing in the spirit, a sure sign of a maturing Christian is an unfettered desire to grow all the more. As we are made new creatures in Christ, these new creatures will have habits and desires that the old creature, now supposedly dead, ne...

God really spoke to me earlier this month at the Calvary Chapel annual Sr. Pastor's Conference. Since then, His word and Holy Spirit have been working in really cools ways, and changing people's lives and faith. I really look forward to more of the same as we move forward in our growth as individual believers, and as God grows our church. This devotional is the first in a series of three that are designed to offer a God ordained path towards getting yourself and your walk with God back where you want it, and where it ought to be. This three-step process is something the Lord clearly placed on my heart that I want to share with you as a means to look anew at our relationship with our loving Father and Savior. _______________________________________________ There are times when we all must stop. Too much in our lives happens too quickly, and we just don't give ourselves time to react in a Godly way; a way that has been balanced and checked against scripture, and that has been...

We have probably all sung a hymn or worship song at church, or have prayed a prayer, or have heard a pastor or church leaders pray for the working of the Holy Spirit in your church or in your person. We do this because we have been asked to do so. We know that the Holy Spirit is god, and is currently not just with us, but IN us as a gift from the Father because of the work of Jesus on the cross. As mature believers, we crave the Holy Spirit working, and seeing Him perform in big or small ways. Even when the work is not in us as individuals, our Spirits are encouraged, and God is glorified just because we see Him work. I wrote not too long ago about expectancy. It seems that in the Christian church today, at least from an American perspective, we have lost the expectation that the Holy Spirit will work in our lives and churches. As stated then and I'll reiterate now; much of this lack of expectancy is due to lack of maturity and lack of faith. We do not expect the Holy Spirit to w...

Acts 1:8 "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth." I've been away for a week at the Calvary Chapel Sr. Pastor's Conference (CC-SPC). It is always an encouraging time of feeding on the word and encouragement. I have been looking through my notes, and my head is still reeling! It's so nice as a pastor to just go and get pastored to by other pastors. Encouraging and humbling just the same. The theme of this conference was "Continuing in Grace". The idea is that we (Calvary Chapel) as a church movement need to continue on in what has made the CC movement so effective; the leading of the Holy Spirit. I joyfully sat through roughly 9.25 hours of worship, prayer, teaching and encouragement each day. Yes, the Spirit was willing, but 9 hours of sitting each day did in fact cause the flesh to grow weak, and sore (in the area of the ...

Psalm 145:3   Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised; and His greatness is unsearchable.   A recent series of devotionals I have been tacking from the teachings of A. W. Tozer, perhaps best known for his books on the Holiness of God such as "Pursuit of God" and others, has touched off and on for the last week or so on worship. What worship should be, what once was, and what now has become were the basic topics.   Today in some many churches we seem to have gone to extremes. While some have made worship pedestrian, others have made it like a rock concert, and still others into an over-charismatic time of being outside of yourself or normal acceptable behavior "in the spirit". What I am struck by is what Tozer hit upon; it simply needs to be about praising God and His unsearchable greatness. Here's what Tozer had to say:   "The dictionary says that to admire is "to regard with wondering esteem accompanied by pleasure and delight; to look at or upo...