Archive for February, 2009

Promise #4 – Take a Day Off!

Monday, February 23rd, 2009

Promise #4

Take a Day Off!

 

How cool is God? There’s 10 commandments. You’ve got just a few commandments or promises to show them the new life you want to give them. With only 10 of these; it’s awesome to me that right in the middle, God has this awesome promise! “You will take a day off!”

The fourth promise says in Exodus 20: 8 “Remember to observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. 9 You have six days each week for your ordinary work, 10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath day of rest dedicated to the Lord your God. On that day no one in your household may do any work. This includes you, your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, your livestock, and any foreigners living among you. 11 For in six days the Lord made the heavens, the earth, the sea, and everything in them; but on the seventh day he rested. That is why the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and set it apart as holy.”

In other words, TAKE A DAY OFF!

This is so like God! It’s His method of operation from the beginning of our little world! God, who can speak and things pop into existence takes 6 days to create the world; and then, takes a day off and says, this is the day to quit working!

Genesis 2:2 On the seventh day God had finished his work of creation, so he rested from all his work. 3 And God blessed the seventh day and declared it holy, because it was the day when he rested from all his work of creation.

God believes in taking a day off?

Could this be because He knew we’d obsess and work hard?

Could it be that He knew we’d pack our lives with more and more stuff?

Could it be that He knew we wouldn’t stop to enjoy life sometimes?

Could it be that He knew He could pack 7 days of productivity into 6?

Could it be that He knew He could help us realize we were trying to do too much anyway?

The beauty of the Sabbath – the day off – is that it’s a great metaphor of salvation. Where do we mess up too easily on the issue of salvation?

1. We won’t let go and let God take care of our salvation. This is legalism – if I work I’ll get or keep my salvation.

2. We easily forget that God can actually change anything… We start to believe we receive salvation and then stay stuck in our life and sin.

The Sabbath faces both of these lies head on.

Hebrews 4:9 says, “There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; 10for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from his.”

The writer of Hebrews is saying, look, salvation is is your rest! You stop worrying about your salvation and transformation and leave it in the hands of God!

And to take a day off of work of all the normal stuff of life – the things that make your life work – means that God has to help make it all work – and we trust Him to actually change things.

The Israelites got a great example of this right before God have them the 10 Commandments. They needed food, so He provided food for them. They called it manna. You can read this story in Exodus 16. Every day God gave them enough food for the day. If they collected too much it went bad overnight.

However, when it came to the day before the Sabbath, they were to collect twice as much so they could rest on the Sabbath. He provided for them… He made them more productive! It’s a promise about the Sabbath encased in a story!

It’s God saying, TAKE A DAY OFF!!! Do you need a day off?

And look at the wording! “You have six days each week for your ordinary work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath day of rest dedicated to the Lord your God. On that day no one in your household may do any work.” This is talking about the stuff that makes life work; the stuff you are called to do; this is the stuff that makes life continue. You get to stop for a day and relax!

So, God both saves us -and gives us rest – and provides for us in the process!

This is salvation! You have rest – and I’m going to change your life! Complete salvation!

Now, here’s where people get stuck… It’s the first part of the promise:

You will remember the Sabbath day…. but the seventh day is a Sabbath day of rest dedicated to the Lord your God.

What day is the seventh? Saturday. This day has been kept faithfully by Jews for thousands of years. The calendar has been revised, but the days of the week have not changed. Saturday is the Sabbath.

And Jesus kept it – read through the gospels. And He expected people after He was resurrected to keep it as well. How do I know? In Matthew 24 Jesus is talking about persecution to happen after His resurrection and he says, “18 A person out in the field must not return even to get a coat. 19 How terrible it will be for pregnant women and for nursing mothers in those days. 20 And pray that your flight will not be in winter or on the Sabbath. “

So, He is anticipating that His followers would be keeping the Sabbath after His ascension!

You might ask where did people worshiping on Sunday come from then? Well, that’s a whole study in and of itself, however, to give you a quick view- after Jesus ascension Christians started to celebrate His resurrection on Sunday. They kept the Sabbath (you can read this throughout Acts). However, when persecution of the Jews became more and more intense, Christians started to compromise and wouldn’t worship on Saturday to keep a distinction between themselves and the Jews. As political power united with religious power, worshiping on Sunday became the enforced norm.

But, the bottom line is, Jesus never stopped the keeping of the Sabbath on Saturday.

The next easy question is simple… Why does it matter? Shouldn’t I just keep one day as a day off? I would say yes – except that God Himself said, “Remember… to keep the Sabbath day…. but the Seventh is the Sabbath.”

If your job has you working on Saturday or you have other activities on Saturday, then obviously, this is going to be a big faith risk for you… Will God take care of you if you fulfill the promise He has for you?

It all goes back to salvation? Can you trust God with your life? Can you trust Him your time and your money? Yes. Yes you can!

And more than that, you get a DAY OFF!

 For more on this, listen to my sermon on this promise at http://livetheexperience.org/media/listen-online-september-13-2008/

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Promise #3 – You’re going to have a passion!

Monday, February 16th, 2009


Ten Promises of a New Life

Promise #3 – Exodus 20: 7 “You must not misuse the name of the LORD your God. The LORD will not let you go unpunished if you misuse his name.”

 

Growing up in church, I heard this was all about swearing. Don’t say, God, Jesus, and so on as swear words.

 

But, that is just a small part of not misusing the name of the Lord. When the Bible is talking about “name” it’s not just talking about a word – it’s talking about a lot more. It’s talking about the reputation, the fame, and the persona of a person.

 

When I worked at summer camp one summer there was another guy named Brian there. Problem was, he was a bad worker and didn’t get along with the other staff very well. And it started to effect MY reputation. MY name got rubbed in the mud. Once I complained to some friends that he was messing up what people thought of me because the name Brian was getting a bad reputation!

 

That’s what the Bible is talking about in a name…

 

So, this promise is really about living life about something different!

 

The first promise is that God is it! There’s nothing greater than Him in your life.

 

The second promise is that God is going to rock your world and take you on an adventure that’s completely outside of what you can imagine!

 

The third promise is God is going to give you a passion and a mission in life! It’s the passion for God’s reputation in the world! Nothing else matters except that God is glorified:

 

            Isaiah 26:Lord, we show our trust in you by obeying your laws;

      our heart’s desire is to glorify your name.

            1 Corinthians 10:31 So whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do,

do it all for the glory of God.

 

God says, your life is about something totally new! It’s about living for God’s reputation!

 

For more on this, check on my sermon on this subject at http://livetheexperience.org/media/listen-online-september-6-2008/

 

I would like to make a brief mention of a movement among some that stems from this commandment, as well as other thoughts. Some call it the Holy Name Movement; some may call it different things, or nothing at all. But, it’s the idea that it is improper to use the names God, Jesus or Lord when talking about God.

 

Here are a few thoughts on this:

 

  • First, to think that we fully understand the name of God is a big presumptuous of us as humans. We must realize that we are not divine, the Bible is not written in some Biblical language – it was written in the language of the people! So, to think that humanity can contain the name of God is crazy!
  • Secondly, when God did name Himself to Moses, He said, I AM. He’s saying, you can’t define me! This is the issue of the second commandment – you won’t understand me! You can’t put me in a box!
  • Third, the Bible uses the generic name that would be translated “God” in both the Old and New Testaments. In the New Testament the Greek word is Kyrios that both Jesus and the apostles use for God. It’s used for human authority and for deity – false deity AND true deity. The Old Testament uses elohiym – and it’s used for the true God and for gods and goddesses as well as rulers and judges.
  • Fourth, Jesus is the English transliteration of Iesous – which is the Greek transliteration of Yeshoua. The New Testament writers use it consistently.
  • Fifth, there might be those who then say, well, the Bible is corrupt. This is a false theory for several reasons:
    • First, we have New Testament manuscripts to within about 30 years of when the original books were written – and they are consistent with what we have now.
    • Secondly, the Old Testament was preserved with incredible accuracy – as was found with the revelation of the Dead Sea Scrolls.
  • Yahweh may not even be the name of God. The Israelites were so careful to not harm the name of God that they took the vowels out! Scholars have guessed at what those vowels probably are, but we don’t actually know. So, we don’t really know what the name actually is!

 

This is a very surface review of why this belief system is in error. There’s nothing WRONG with using Yahweh or Yashua, but it is not a requirement or obligation to use those names and NOT the names of God, Lord, Jesus, etc.

 

You see the name is not a magic potion. If Mike Agee, KTSY general manager sends me to a Christian Book Store in the area and asks me to pick up tickets for a concert we’re helping promote, the name Mike Agee has no power. It’s the reputation that Mike has; it’s the position, authority and history that Mike’s name carries that moves people to do what I ask…

 

The same with the name of God. Acts 19 tells a great story of people who tried to use the name of Jesus like a magic potion. The demons came and beat a guy up! It’s about the power of the person behind the name; it’s the reputation, history, position, and authority of the being WITH the name.

Posted in 10 Commandments, Chaplain Rambling | 2 Comments »

Promise #2 – American Idol?

Monday, February 9th, 2009


The second promise of a new life at first may sound like it has nothing to do with us. When’s the last time you knelt in front of an idol?

 

Exodus 20:4 “You must not make for yourself an idol of any kind or an image of anything in the heavens or on the earth or in the sea. 5 You must not bow down to them or worship them, for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God who will not tolerate your affection for any other gods. I lay the sins of the parents upon their children; the entire family is affected—even children in the third and fourth generations of those who reject me. 6 But I lavish unfailing love for a thousand generations on those who love me and obey my commands.

 

However, the promises of a new life go so much farther than that. You see, making an idol was a way for people to understand their god. We want something that we can understand – that we can wrap our minds around.

 

This is the power of the second promise for a new life: You will not control me! I am going to take you on an adventure – a life that is outside of the box that you live in.

 

If I can understand God; if I can wrap my mind around Him; if I can define Him then I am at the same level of God- and I keep a huge level of control in my life. I am at the level of God!

 

But, when we see what God has taken us through; when we see that God has given us freedom; when God has taken us out of our own Egypt, we simply say, “WOW! I want nothing else! And not only that, but I give control up to God… Take me on this adventure!”

 

This is the power of the second promise!

 

Now, some of you may have read to the end and are saying, but Chaplain Brian, “What about that ending and the sins of the fathers on the children?”

 

Well, Let me just make it simple… When we try to control the adventure, we mess up our own lives – AND the lives of other people. We don’t just live for ourselves – we affect others.

However, the great thing is, we can effect positive change! The second part is that God lavishes His love for a thousand generations. You are receiving blessings from people you have never known in your family tree who loved God! And that power is greater than the power you have to hurt someone by your actions!

 

God is promising you the most incredible adventure! You will not try to box God up and He’s going to take you on an incredible adventure!

 

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10 Promises for a New Life

Monday, February 2nd, 2009

I’m a little behind in my blogging on the 10 Promises of a New Life… We’re much farther on the radio than I am on the blog.

However, let’s take a quick jump back to slowly catch up…

The First Promise is powerful: (Exodus 20:1-3)

Then God spoke all these words, saying,“I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. “You shall have no other gods before Me.”

Can you imagine standing in front of Mount Sinai? There’s an amazing special effects show blasting over the mountain. And you are hearing the voice of God!

Not just that – but they’ve just witnessed God pick them up out of Egypt and take them out. They’ve seen God show in a literal way that the God’s of Egypt are ridiculous. They’ve seen Him do spiritual butt-kicking on the Egyptian religion, culture, and government.

Then, they’ve faced the Egyptian army and seen God take them through the Red Sea on DRY GROUND – and then that army get swallowed up by crashing walls of water…

They’ve had God feed them and give them water on their journey.

And then they in front of this mountain and hear God say, “I’m it! I took you from Egypt! I delivered You! You’re not going to have any other gods than me!” And the people said…. “Duh! Ya think?! Who else would we want?”

You see, this first commandment; this first promise only comes after they have been delivered. It only comes after they have seen God take care of them – they have seen their own weakness and are excited to be free!

And when that happens to you – you say, “I don’t want anything else except Him! He’s IT!”

What role does a god play in our lives?

  • From our “god” we find out who we are
  • From our “god” we find out our purpose
  • From our “god” we have a reason to live
  • From our “god” we are given structure to our life
  • From our “god” we find what is important
  • From our “god” we find our own identity
  • From our “god” we are filled emotionally

This is the first promise – and it is – when you have been delivered, then nothing else matters but Him.

And, as we’ll see, all of the other promises hang off of this first promise. If you have this promise, you almost don’t need the others. They are simply expanding and defining this promise!

For you, God is saying, “Look – I’ve given you a new life- and when you see that you won’t want anything or anyone else to be in the place of giving you your identity. You won’t have any other gods but me…

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The Shack

Monday, February 2nd, 2009

So, the morning show team has been blogging about the book, The Shack. They’ve received some negative responses from those who have some great problems with The Shack.

I don’t care whether you read The Shack or not – I’m not here trying to catch on a campaign. Nor am I going to get embroiled in an argument about each individual issue on The Shack.

1. Presuppositions: I believe deeply that the Word is the ultimate authority – above all others. No one person, or author stands in the place of the Bible.

2. What you believe is important. Wha tyo ubelieve determins how you interact with God. If you believe He is a harsh judge, you will relate to Him that way. If you believe He is unknowable, You’ll interact with Him in a different way. What you believe is important.

3. There is ultimate truth. There is truth above all else. And that truth is God – as Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.”

With all that said, I read The Shack – and I enjoyed The Shack. It was a blessing to me.

Did I agree with everything in The Shack? No.

Do I agree with everything I read in most books – even Christian books? No. Max Lucado? Find things where I believe the Word does not agree with Max. Pick an author – I can challenge him with the Word.

Does that mean I should not read them? No! It means I should read them and test it in light with the Word and take what is true.

What I find most unique about The Shack is that IT IS A PARABLE. IT IS NEVER PRESENTED AS TRUTH. It is a PARABLE!!!!! And a parable is there to get a message across. The Shack was written to wrestle with the problem of bad things happening.

Even Jesus, in parables, uses story telling and does not give perfect theology. Look at the parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus in Luke 16. Are Heaven and Hell really just separated by a big gulf – and those in hell can see heaven and vice versa? Is heaven really being in Abraham’s bosom? No! This isn’t the picture of heaven and hell anywhere else in the Bible. This is simply a story to make a POINT!

Now, there are a couple things that bother me about The Shack.

  1. Open theology: There is an illusion to the concept of Open Theology when God says that they don’t look into the future so they can be in relationship. I don’t have a huge problem with that – maybe there are times God focuses on us -and how that happens, I don’t know. However, the concept of God not knowing the future is a belief – called Open Theology – that I deeply disagree with – and The Shack could seem as a step in that direction. On the surface I don’t have a problem with The Shack – but where it COULD lead – if someone is not studying the Bible is a problem.
  2. Lack of Authority: The Shack also talks about how there is not authority in God’s world as there is in ours. I think the author is pushing our conceptions of God. However, there is authority in heaven and among the trinity – I’m sure we wouldn’t really understand it or recognize it… It’s much different than we understand.

These are things that simply put, are things people need to be reading the Word first – and they will understand truth. And then, let’s relax, read, and test things against the Word and be pushed back to the Word.

Are there things I don’t agree with in The Shack? Sure. But, if I get rid of everything that has things I don’t agree with in the Word I’d have to get rid of a lot of my books – and my friends!

Posted in Chaplain Rambling, Issues, Salvation, Theology | 3 Comments »

President Obama and Christians

Monday, February 2nd, 2009

I’ve gotten some feedback from my Chaplain’s Minute about the inauguration. I figured I’d write out more of my thoughts. This comes from an email I sent a listener who responded to me. I don’t suspect that my feelings will be completely accepted and agreed upon – however, I believe this issue is deeply important.

Christianity MUST think about their relation to government. I deeply believe that we have become innefective at communicating the gospel because we’ve forgotten the One Big Thing.

Every person and organization has the ONE BIG THING. The One over-riding thing that is super important that all other things take secondary position to.

You’re one thing may be a clean house; having friends; being organized; being spontaenous…. Your life lives out throught that paradigm.

What is the One Thing for God?

Very simply put – it’s lost people. The heart of God is passionate about YOU! His ONE thing is seeing humanity saved for eternity.

If I were an unbeliever looking in at Christians, I’d think that the One Thing for them was one of the following: The Republican Party; Being against Abortion; Being Against Homosexual Marriage – and for a few Christians right now – hating Obama.

What does this mean? It means that in our concern to protect our culture and way of life we’ve gone into a cultural war.  And once we’re in a cultural war, we can no longer connect or communicate – we are simply fighting. And we’re NOT fighting for the ONE THING that is important to God.

It has been said that my spot made the impression that we are now to support and pray for him. And that is very true. The question may be, what does it mean to support Obama? Does it mean that I agree with everything he stands for? Absolutely not – I don’t agree with everything he’s said and has done. However, I should still stand behind the man, and be an encourager, not a distractor. Put it through this filter – would what I have say about his politics open the door for me to share my faith with him, or distract from it? Would Obama be more inclined to dialoge with me about faith or less likely?  Because the BIG THING is the BIG THING no matter the person’s position – president or pauper.

The other part of this conversation that I differ with many is that I don’t see this world as our home; nor do I see this nation or government as the bastian of morality or the hope of the world.

This nation and culture are not the answer, nor are they our future. As that old song says, “This world is not my home, I’m just a passing through….” So, I should not be amazed when things happen in this government that I don’t agree with. I should not be THAT worried about making it home now – it’s just a temporary place.

I’d love to hear your thoughts… Join in the conversation below!

Posted in Chaplain Rambling, Mission, Politics, Witnessing | No Comments »