Confession and Forgiveness

Imagine someone you know had a major moral failure. This is someone you know, maybe a friend or someone from church, or a family member. What if they've been having an affair? Or stealing from the church? Or lying about a job or hiding terrible pornography. How would you respond? Would you be outraged? Feel betrayed? Would you reject that person since they 'Aren't who you thought they were?' Could you look them in the eye again? Talk to them without thinking about what they've done?

Now imagine you are the person who's done this. You're scared to death because you know if anyone finds out about what you've done, they'll react just like the above. So you keep your secret. You lie and sneak around. You wish you'd just stop and it was all over, but for some reason you can't and you sure can't ask for help because they wouldn't understand. You feel absolutely worthless because of your sin, and the fear of anyone else thinking the same keeps you from ever talking about it.

Each and every one of us are both of these people. We've all had or have stuff we don't want anyone else to know, but we're all so judgmental of others. Yes we're hypocrites. Yes, we're Christians. We're fallible humans just like everyone else on the face of the planet and fallible humans have a wonderful capacity for double-standards. We expect everyone else to live by exceptional standards and yet expect understanding for our own short-comings. We can't seem to understand how anyone can allow themselves to get ensnared in serious sin, all the while we are there ourselves.

The key to this is confession and forgiveness. It's a balancing act. It's Tug-of-war. Both need to be there in equal measure or someone's going to fall. If I'm willing to confess and someone is willing to forgive me, Jesus will give us both the strength to do so. Through that, Jesus will bring healing and restoration. He will receive glory and praise because through Him this sin was conquered.

Forgiveness: We have to be ready and willing to forgive. We have to remember that we also sin and we know what it's like to confess our sin to someone. It is not our place to hold this person's sin against them. But more than that, we need to see them for who they really are, a brother or sister in Christ caught in sin. Put yourself in the mindset of an army soldier. Don't look at this person as someone who's just been discovered as an enemy in your ranks. Rather, see them as one of your own who's been caught and help captive behind enemy lines. They've cried for help and need you to come get them. We're all spiritual warriors and must not leave anyone behind! We've got to fight through the enemy to get them home safely. Unfortunately, the enemy is often our own pain, fear, pride, arrogance and anger. We must call out to Jesus so that these are defeated and our captured brother may be released from their bondage of sin.

Confession: Yes, this is scary. Yes, even if you're completely forgiven there will still be consequences and discipline. Relationships will be damaged, trust hurt, respect lost. There is always a price to pay with sin, but that's a debt that has already accrued and is still compounding. There's no guarantee that the partied involved will forgive you like they should. You are guaranteed, by God Himself no less, that you will be healed. Anything that may happen will be so much better than living in the fear, self-condemnation and bondage that you currently are.

Like I said, this is a tug-of-war. It only works if both the confessor and forgiver are doing their part. And they can only do their part through Jesus, asking Him to provide strength and the resolve to live as He wants.

Now I've written this from the standpoint of a major moral failure, and not everyone goes through that, definitely not regularly. But there are smaller, more common and accepted sins that we hide everyday. This all works the same. Be willing to confess your sins and forgive the sins in others. I know it sounds simple, but we need Jesus through it or we will fail.

Two of Our Own

Our church had two deaths this past weekend, both to car accidents. One was a 17 yo boy, the other a 51 yo man. Sunday's service was heavy as we prayed for their families. I can't say I was close to either of them, but I had worked with the older of the two in drama programs. His death hit me more, just having known him.

Just a few minutes ago, I updated our church website with their funeral and viewing info and was hit again with the sadness of it all. What really struck me, however, was how this must be effecting our pastoral staff. Two funerals and viewings over three days, both for such premature deaths. I know that funerals are a part of pastoring, but this must be a particularly heavy burden.

Please join with me in praying for them. Yes, I know that they are not the ones most effected by this tragedy and we definitely pray for the families. I just want to offer up some pleas to God for the ones doing the ministering.

Oh What a Failure I Am.

Feel like a failure? Guess what, you are. Where did you ever get the idea that you weren't?

To be fair, that came from a story a friend of mine told me. He was shocked when he was given that bit of insight. But you know what, it's true.

I hate the phrase "God won't give me more than I can handle." It's sad because it's often used by someone who's trying to build up their faith and muscle through. I don't want to take anything away from them because they are trying to express their faith in God. The problem is, they are placing their faith in the wrong place.

Most often when this is said, it's understood that they are saying "I know I can do this because God won't give me too much." See I think that's putting too much focus on my effort. "I can do this." True, God gets some credit in that He will protect us, but I'm still the one expected to follow through.

See, I think the exact opposite is true. I think God will absolutely give us more than we can handle. He does so that we will turn to Him for the strength. As my pastor pointed out, that phrase is actually a poor interpretation of 1 Corinthians 10:13

No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful;
he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are
tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.

So He will not allow us to be tempted beyond what we can bear. He will provide us a way out. The focus is on His grace and mercy in our life, not in our own effort.

Just as Jesus knew that Peter will fail Him, so He knows that we will fail Him. We are destined to fail. It's only working through Him that we may have periods of success.

This is very freeing. I'm not expected to succeed. I'm expected to turn to Him in prayer and ask for His strength. I don't have to be ashamed in front of God when I fail. I don't need to have any guilt. It was never expected that I could do it on my own. This releases me from a huge bondage.

We don't turn to God in shame once we've failed, we turn to God first knowing that it's only in Him can we succeed.

Does this make sense? I hope so. I'm still trying to get it in my heart.

But I Am a Christian...

On Monday, I asked the question if you were to find yourself before God to be judged, would you be scared. As I wrote this it occurred to me that there might be some Christians who would find themselves scared. At the time, I thought I would get into the idea of whether or not there can be 'false converts'. Really, though. I'm not feeling it. I'm not sure it's something I should be getting into. However, I did say that I would cover it, so I feel I should make just a few points.

Wednesday, I posted in "Aren't I Good Enough" the four points I believe are needed to be a Christian.

1. Confess your sins. We agree with God that we're sinners and that we deserve death.

2. Repent. We decide to stop following our own way and we reject sin.

3. Believe in Jesus' death as payment for our sins. We ask that He forgive us our sins and save us from death.

4. Take Jesus as Lord. Just as we've given up our own way of sin, we decide to follow Jesus and live our life the way He wants us to.

Now there's aren't things to just say, or acknowledge. You have to believe them. In your heart, you'd bet your life that these were true. (Let's face it, you are.) When you do believe them, we pray to Jesus and tell Him. As a response to our faith, His spirit comes into us, our sins are forgiven, and He lives through us.

Now some well-meaning Christians will push some to pray a prayer, without really helping the person discern if they believe each of those four things. It's easy to get convicted that we're sinners and in emotional desperation want forgiveness. Next thing we know someone is asking us to repeat that we 'repent' and take 'Jesus as Lord'. You think "I don't know about all this, but I do want forgiven."

Does that count? I don't know. However I think if you have to ask if it counts, then you're on shaky ground. This isn't a game. We're not trying to manipulate God's rules so that we get to Heaven. God is after our hearts and I think He knows if we weren't sincere. Unfortunately, we may have been at the time, and had that person shared with us what repentance and the Lordship of Christ meant we may have responded. But we were blindly lead in a prayer and now that emotional moment is gone and worse, we think we're saved. Six months later, we find ourselves right back where we were thinking "Well that doesn't work."

If that's you, look at that list again. You're still just as much a sinner as you were. I've been a Christian for six years and I'm just as much a sinner as I was. (We will always fail God's standard.) Pray that God will show you both your heart and His.

Lastly, you could be a Christian, having agreed with those items above, prayed and you know that Christ is in you however you're still scared at the idea of seeing God. If this is true, there could be any number of discipleship issues you might need to discuss. So many times our image of God can be distorted by our different experiences. I'd encourage you to share with someone who you know is strong in the Lord, like a pastor or older, more mature Christian. These things are common to us all and just another part of learning to trust God and walk closer with Him.

A Parable

A foolish man once came to his master and said, "Look, it is raining."

"It is not raining." The master replied. "If it were, everything would be wet. The grass and windows and driveway would all be wet."

So the foolish man went out and got a garden hose. He began to spray the grass and windows and driveway. He sprayed all day until evening came and everything was soaked. He then returned again to his master and said, "Look, it is raining."

"You fool!" cried his master. "Do you not think that I know you sprayed everything with a garden hose? Try as you might to make it look as if it has rained, I know that it has not."

In the same way men will come before their LORD claiming to have faith. He says to them, "If you truely had faith, you would do good works." ¹

So men will spend all their lives doing good works. And when evening comes and they stand in judgement before their LORD they will say to him, "Lord, look at all the things we did. See, we have faith!" But the LORD will not be fooled, saying "Try as you might to make it look as if you have faith, I know that you do not. I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!" ²


1. James 2:26

2. Matthew 7:21-23

Aren't I Good Enough?

According to The Barna Group, a christian polling and research group, approximately 85% of the US population would identify themselves as Christians, however when polled about their specific beliefs only 45% actually are, or what are called Born-Again. The rest are called Notional Christians in that they categorize themselves based on how they were raised, not what they actually believe. This means that 40% of the US population thinks that they will have eternal life after they die, when the Bible is clear that they will not. Scary.

Earlier, I asked if you would be scared if you died and found yourself appearing before God. If so, I can understand. It's crunch time. Now we find out if we were right. I did this for a while and I'm glad I'm not there now. It's like driving without a licence, you just hope that your gamble will pay off and you won't get pulled over. But you can't escape death. You'll be faced with it eventually so you might as well really think about it. What do you believe and what will God say when I finally meet him.

If you're like most Notional Christians, you think that you're basically a good person, after all no one is perfect. You've tried to live right and you're no criminal. Besides, would a loving God really send someone to Hell. If He were to send you to Hell, He ought to send everyone else too. You're blindly hoping this is right and you'll get into Heaven

I'm going to steal a page from the ministry "The Way of the Master" and ask the question, are you good enough to get into Heaven? Most people who would call themselves Christian would agree that the Ten Commandments are the basics of what would make someone a good person, so let's try a few.

1. Have you told a lie? I have and I'm sure you have too. That would makes us liars.

2. Have you ever stolen? I have. Think about all the ways you can steal, including cheating your taxes and coming into work late. We've all stolen, which makes us thieves.

3. Have you ever committed adultery? Jesus said that anyone who looks upon another with lust in their heart has committed adultery in their mind. That said, we're all adulterers.

That's just three, and we've failed them all. Look at the rest, we've failed them too. So we've completely failed God's standard. No wondered we'd be scared to stand in front of Him. We know we're guilty and just hoping that God will forgive us. After all, He loves us.

Picture yourself in a courtroom. You've got some pretty heavy charges against you and have just been found guilty. But lucky you, the judge is your father and he loves you. So he forgives all your crimes and let's you go. You're beyond excited, but the courtroom explodes with anger and the injustice. They're right. No good and just judge would do that. He'd be thrown off the bench for trying it. So if a fallible, sinful human judge can't get away with that, why would a perfect, sinless God do any less?

God can't forgive our sin just because He wants to. He is absolutely just and must fulfill His promise that the punishment for Sin is death. It won't matter how much good we've done or all the times we could have sinned but didn't. It's not a scale where we're either more good or more bad. We've committed sins against God which must be punished.

Of course, this is where Jesus comes in. He's was sinless and didn't deserve death. Yet He chose to die on the cross as a payment for our sins. We were found guilty, yet He took the punishment. God's justice was fulfilled and we were let go.

But this didn't happen for all of humanity all at once. His salvation is offered to each of us individually. We must accept it for ourselves. We do this by:

1. Confess your sins. We agree with God that we're sinners and that we deserve death.

2. Repent. We decide to stop following our own way and we reject sin.

3. Believe in Jesus' death as payment for our sins. We ask that He forgive us our sins and save us from death.

4. Take Jesus as Lord. Just as we've given up our own way of sin, we decide to follow Jesus and live our life the way He wants us to.

There is no magic prayer to get you into heaven. You can't just recite something off. You must believe those four things in your heart. At which point, we pray and ask God for forgiveness. If you agree with those four statements, but have never said the words, here's something that sums it up.

"Jesus, I am a sinner. I deserve death and need your salvation. I don't want to live a life of sin anymore. I believe that You died for me and I ask for your forgiveness. I take you as my Savior and my Lord and I will live for you."

Peter Again (Hope for us all)

I was listening to a CD today and decided to read the account of Peter visiting Cornelius (Acts 10). I started to summarize this for you, but please take a second to read it.

Now two things struck me and both center around Peter's thick-headedness. First, when God speaks to Peter and tells him to eat of the unclean food, he replies "Surely not, Lord!" At first read this sounds like a refusal, but I think it's more a declaration of disbelief. Either way, pretty arrogant to tell the Creator what He does or doesn't mean. It says that they went through that little exchange three times, so obviously God wasn't changing his mind.

Then, after Peter has gone to Cornelius' home, he explains that doing so is against Jewish law but that he is there because God has taught him not to 'call any man impure or unclean'. So Peter walked with Jesus Himself for three years. During which time they ate with tax collectors and sinners which was also against Jewish law. Jesus Himself modeled to Peter for three years that He cared more for the people than what people thought of Him. Yet Peter needed an additional supernatural vision to get the message this time.

Peter continued to make the same mistakes years after Jesus ascended, yet God still used him not only to save Cornelius and his family, but also as an example to the rest of the Apostles that God's salvation was for everyone(Chapter 11).

This gives me great hope. I know that I learn something only to forget and need to relearn it. In my walk with Jesus, He shows me some truth or failing and I respond, only to need it yet again some time later. This means that my own thick-headedness won't be used against me, as long as I'm always willing to learn and submit to Jesus' teaching.

Off-topic

I don't like to post too much personal or trivial stuff on here, but I've got to admit I'm excited about this. Yes, I'm a Star Trek geek. No, I don't have a costume or bridge set in my basement. Yes, I'm still going to post this.

Star Trek Teaser Trailer

This has real possibilites. It's much more real (can you remember seeing welding torches on Star Trek?), yet still the same Enterprise.

Only thing I'm wondering is how those guys are welding on the outside without space suits? (My wife just rolled her eyes.)

Indulgence over.

New Evangelism?

Today on his blog, Ken Ham of Answer's In Genesis said that in today's new and progressive society, what we need most is to return to the basic teachings of Christ. The question posited was if our society had changed so much that we needed to rethink our evangelism methods. In Ken's opinion, in the past hundred years we've become a secular humanist society which is actually antagonistic toward Christianity. The problem is that most Christians assume that people have a basic knowledge and understanding of biblical teachings and the Gospel, but that may not be the case. Ken says that we need to get back to the basics in our evangelism and assume that most have not heard, or do not understand clearing, the basics of the Christian faith.

In this vein, I thought I'd list that I believe is the very basics of our faith.

1. God is the absolute creator of all. Everything that is, both physical and spiritual, He created.

2. Adam and Eve's sin caused in us a spiritual death and, as such, separation from Him.

3. Since then, everyone on Earth has been born a sinner and spiritually dead. Everyone sins, non-Christians and Christians alike. Sin is defined as falling short of God's Glory. Both you and I and everyone else can end their day counting the ways they've fallen short.

4. Jesus was born of Mary without sin, therefore he wasn't spiritually dead. He lived His life for the Father, and never sinned.

5. Jesus came with the express purpose of paying our debt and dying in our place. His death on the cross made it possible for people to have their sins forgiven, past and future, and be reconciled or reconnected with God.

6. This is a free gift, but not one just given to all by default. You must believe in the salvation Jesus offers, confess to Him that you are a sinner and need saved. You must also take Him as Lord, following Him and living your life His way. Let's face it, your way is how you got where you are.

The Christian faith is not one to be taken lightly. It has a cost. You risk your relationship with family and friends who won't understand. You risk facing God's discipline as He bring correction into your life. However the alternative is too much to bear.

Maybe you've read this and don't think you're really a sinner or that you're basically a good person whom a loving God wouldn't send to Hell. We'll cover that tomorrow. In the mean time consider this:

Imagine yourself going to sleep one night. You awake not snuggled under a comfy blanket in a cold room, but in a place neither hot nor cold, with a light brighter than you've ever seen, yet your eyes do not hurt. You realize that you're dead and about to meet God. Does this idea frighten you? Be honest. If so, then you're not as confident as you think. Come back tomorrow.

BTW, if you're a Christian and that above scene scared you too, we'll talk on Friday.

Leave comments. I'd love to hear from you.

Two Thoughts, Part II

Last Sunday, a message was shared to challenge the men of the church to be spiritual leader. This is in their homes, with their wives and families, in their workplace, community and in the church. It got me thinking about how we're to do that. The idea came to me that we need to redefine a Christian leader.

Leader: Be the one to make the Godly choice.

Instead of ordering and directing others (which is how we often think of leaders), lead by doing. In your homes, take responsibility to make the Godly choice. I shared this last night at Entrust and one man said that he wanted his kids to see him making the right choices. I think our wives do too. She'll feel safer, more secure. It makes it easier for her to submit to her husband when he's dedicated to seeking God's heart and doing things His way. And she'll respect him for that too.

So don't think of being called to leadership as some huge ordeal involving a flow chart and staff meetings (although it might). Just be the one to make the Godly choice. The rest will follow.

Two Thoughts, Part I

In 1982, Dr Barry Marshall and Dr Robin Warren discovered a connection between stomach ulcers and the presence of the H. pylori virus. This was not through a large, well funded American research hospital. Dr Marshall was an unimportant doctor at a small hospital in Australia and Dr. Warren was still a student. They presented their findings but were met with a huge amount of resistance from the Medical community. First, it went against the common understanding of ulcers which were accepted to be stress-induced. But more importantly, it was felt they had little credibility. It would be like a cure for cancer coming from Madison County Hospital, not The James Cancer Center at OSU.

On the surface, this makes sense. You and I would trust something like this coming from a larger hospital and not a smaller one. But my point is this. Is this the way you expect science to work? No, it's not. You expect scientists to look at the facts and evidence dispassionately, letting it speak for themselves. This is much like Grissom from CSI. If he's wrong or something turns out differently then he wanted, he doesn't get upset but just goes with the flow satisfied to find the truth.

Unfortunately, this is not realistic. Scientists are people. They bring their own preconceptions and perspectives to their work, just like everyone else. If a firefighter responds to a scene where a house exploded and caught fire in a poor and dangerous part of town, he'll think 'Meth Lab'. But if he responds to the same scene in a rich area, he's thinking 'Gas line'. It's just human and scientists are no different.

What other prejudices and perspectives do scientist bring to the table? I would argue that one big one is their personal religious beliefs. Consider the scientific study of origins. The definition of this you might get from an evolutionary scientist is "It's the study of where we can from and how we came to be." However, there is something missing from this. It's understood and implied, but what's really meant is "It's the study of where we can from and how we came to be through natural means and processes." It's understood that the possibility of God and any outside involvement is just off limits and not scientific.

But is that attitude scientific? Is that how we think of scientists? No. Again, we think of scientists as dispassionately looking at the data and letting it speak for itself. What we don't expect, and frankly don't want, is a scientist eliminating a possibility up front before the data is even considered. "No good research comes from a small hospital." "The Earth was formed through natural processes, so let's find out how."

(There is a documentary coming out this February which looks at the biases within the scientific community. It's called Expelled:No Intelligence Allowed. It's by Ben Stein, who isn't exactly a religious fanatic. I'm looking forward to it.)

So does that mean that there scientists who don't believe in evolution? Sure. They follow the same scientific method, observe the same world and look at the same evidence. But they aren't discounting the reality of God. Since their perspective is different, so is their interpretation of the evidence.

This just takes scientists who are willing to work through the prejudice of their peers and get their work acknowledged. Like Dr Marshall. He's not a creationist (that I know off), but he did have an idea that was rejected by the scientific community without really getting a fair and balanced review. What did he do? He drank a sample containing a colony of H. pylori, got an ulcer, then cured himself and healed his ulcer using antibiotics. This shocking step finally got people to really review his work and in 2005 he and Dr. Warren won the Nobel Prize.

Prayer time

I found an empty office at lunch today and spent some prayer time. First time I've done that in a while. It's funny, but I found it hard to start a conversation. Didn't really know what to say. I ended up speaking in very fragmented sentences, but I know God understood.

One thing I tried to do was not get caught up in guilt over my not praying or other sins. I wasn't going to spend the entire time beating myself up and making promises that I knew I wouldn't keep. I did ask forgiveness. Then it struck me that God doesn't just was us to ask forgiveness, He wants repentance. I have a hard time with repentance some times because I know it means to turn from your sin, but that promise seems so empty to me since I know that I will do it again. I might not mean to in the moment, honestly I know that later I likely will sin again. So spending my prayer time promising not to sin just seems dishonest and unfruitful.

On that note, it got me thinking about Peter and my earlier post on him again. If I repent, God knows that I will sin again and is planning on it. So I think I'll look at the first time Peter talks to Christ after denying Him to get an idea of how he handled it.

Sidebar 1: We know that scripture is infallible, however man is not. So when you read where someone in the Bible did something, can we know that was a proper way or response? Or do we just know that their actions we recorded perfectly, even if they were wrong?

Sidebar 2: When you pray, do you pray to Jesus or God? I always pray to God. Maybe it was my Catholic upbringing. When I notice it, it makes me feel somewhat less Christian, that I should have more of a relationship with Christ.

God the Con Man?

Go ahead and read this. I'll wait.

http://www.christianitytoday.com/leaders/newsletter/2008/cln80114.html

(For those of you who didn't, I'll summarize. It's the story of a young couple who God calls to move across country thinking they are going to minister in a certain way. After three years of beating their head against a wall, God finally allows that ministry to happen, only for them to discover that they don't really want to be there and they leave. The moral is that God seemed to lead them there to do one thing, only to find that the true purpose was for them to learn not to lean on themselves but on God)

I'll admit, as I read this I wondered about my own calling as a Pastor. I processed this and truly believe it is of God. However the time immediately after that until now has been a wilderness experience for me. It forces me to ask if this is truly where God is calling me or a rather a way to get me to grow.

Trivia: The article uses Hosea as a reference for a major point. Coincidence?

Blog Updates

Just a few items to note.

1. There's now a Bible passage search on the right. Feel free to use it as a quick reference if needed. It's NIV.

2. You can also find some menus to add this to your RSS reader. If you don't use one and you check a lot of blogs or news sites during your day, you might think about it. I use Google Reader and it works great. I've got about a dozen blogs in there plus another doezen news sites. Just one page loads the most recent updates from all of them. Much easier than checking a blog all the time only to see there's nothing new.

Don't miss my new post below. Enjoy.

Hosea (or not)

The book of Hosea was recommended during our recently Entrust meeting so I decided to try it. I couldn't get through it. Maybe I wasn't in a good mindset, but I seem to have a problem with some of the prose. My mind starts to wander and I miss everything. So I just stopped. Maybe I'll pick it up again later.

Instead, I read Pslams 2-4. Now I know that it's ridiculous to stop reading something due to the prose only to switch to the Psalms. That's like getting tired of pasta and switching from spaghetti to linguine. However, I did get something out of this. Which was, of course, what I almost always seem to get from David's Psalms (author's disclaimer: I've never read through Psalms, only those that have been refered to by other teachings. That's why I'm trying now.) I'm always impressed by how David speaks to God. He's very honest and nearly demanding. He speaks boldly and in ways I'd almost be embarrassed to do so. Maybe as I read, I'll find where David is corrected by God for some of the things he asks. Anyway way to look at it though, you've got to have chutzpah to demands things from the Creator of all.

Me, I'm more meek. I've found that my prayers fall into three categories.

1. Focus on my shortcomings. I can't be in God's presence for more that 20 seconds before I'm overwhelmed with how I've failed Him. Keeps me honest, but also keeps me from Him.

2. Focus on God's plan for me. This is much more selfish. "God, what's you plan for me?" "What do you want me to do with my life?". My mind is always about me, my future, my money, my calling. Rarely have I ever prayed "God, who do you want me to reach out to?" "How can I encourage or bless ______".

3. Focus on requests. These are vague and more often about me than others. "God help me lose weight" "God, bless ______ and show them your love."

Is David's way or my way right? I think it's more David. However we were both selfish in our prayers. Maybe it's David's style with a much greater emphasis on others. Thoughts?

Peter's Sin

Last night we met for Entrust for the first time. It was really good. There were a few conflicts, so only Pastor Linden and one other were there, but that didn't really seem to matter. We shared alot and I think God spoke through us to each other. It's been a long time since I've been on the receiving side of that and I felt revitalized. I'm looking forward to it.

One thing that came up was brought up by the other guy (I'm not too sure about using names here for those who I don't know that well.) Linden had brought up 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24 "May God Himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through, May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful and will do it." Notice that it is God who sets us apart and keeps us blameless. He is faithful and will do it. We aren't the ones who will keep ourselves "good enough" to see Heaven, God is. And He is faithful and will do it.

Now on to Peter. Take a look at John 13:38. This is where Jesus predicts Peter's denial. Now right before that Jesus is talking about leaving and the disciples following later. Now that is continued on into chapter 14. So you can read the end of 13 and the beginner on 14 together. If you do, it reads like this.

"I tell you the truth, before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times! Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me"

Jesus knows what will happen and He doesn't try to talk Peter out of it! Instead He basically says, you'll deny me but don't be troubled by it. Yes, you'll sin tomorrow but trust in me. Even though you'll sin, I'm going to prepare a room for you in my Father's house. Jesus knows that we will sin, but we're not to be troubled by it. Instead, we're to trust in Him, in His promise and His faithfulness. That same faithfulness that will sanctify us and keep us blameless. Jesus isn't going to let our sin break our relationship with Him, so why should we?

This really spoke to me. I often feel guilty when praying because of my unfaithfulness to God. But He knew this is what it would be, called me anyway and isn't relying on my faithfullness (which will fail), but His(which won't).

(Footnote: If you think this means you can sin and it doesn't matter, read Romans 6.)

Absolute Truth

I had lunch with a friend yesterday. She's a mother of two and her sixteen year old son has been a challenge these past few years. He's rebelled against most of what his family has tried to teach him and now considers himself to be gay and Wiccan. Happily, his relationship with his mother is still open and they can talk. She still tries to discuss Christ with him. During a recent conversation she said "Well I still know the truth and even though you choose not to believe it, it's still true." To which he replied "That sounds so stupid."

I can see what he means. Not that what my friend said was stupid. I know her heart and understand what she was trying to say. However her statement depends on the assumption that there is an absolute truth. From his perspective, and that of many liberal theologians, is that there is no absolute truth. So to claim that you know what is right and that everything else must be wrong, would sound stupid and ignorant.

You've got to back up and look at the idea of truth. Is there absolute truth? There is. There has to be. If we both look at a car and I say it's blue and you say it's yellow, we both can't be right. We may have our own perspectives on something, but there is still truth. For example, suppose there was an auto accident between a car and a bus. Some witnesses say the car caused it, others say it was the bus. Regardless of their perspective, the events occurred a certain way. That is the truth. What actually happened can never be changed regardless of our own opinions or desires on the subject.

However this is the stance that many try to take with matters of faith. Each person can believe their own thing and each have their own truth. This is of course ridiculous and a great example of Orwellian double-speak. You may have your own beliefs and I may have mine, but that does not change the Truth. A Christian, Jew, Moslems, Hindu, Mormon, and Atheist can't all be right. Each belief system contradicts the others. To say that they all have their own truth is as close a definition of mental illness that I can get.

Why would someone not see this and take the position that there is no Truth? Well as long as you believe that, then you can pick-and-choose what to believe and that belief can be valid. It's the church of Meism and it's the most popular, fastest growing church out there. If I decide what is true then I don't have to believe anything that makes me uncomfortable. By my rules, I'm a good person and that’s what really matters. So if I believe in Meism and you do too, then we can both believe the same thing, even if they are different. Double-speak.

But regardless of what people choose, there is Absolute Truth. And you've got to seek it out in everything.

One side note: Telling the truth is not the same thing as the truth. We as Christians know we should not lie. But you can not lie and yet not tell the truth. Say you're late coming home so you speed and get pulled over by a cop. You wife asks why your late and you say "Sorry, left the office late." True enough, but not the truth. Facts are not truth in that they can be incomplete or cherry-picked so as to paint an untrue story. You didn't lie but you didn't seek the truth either. As Christians we are to live in the Truth. Don't allow yourself to settle for less

Happy New Year

Well, Christmas is over and that's a good thing. I really enjoy Christmas, the time with my family and all. We all have our traditions and for me, that's what really makes it. I'm also surprised how much I enjoy having the little kids around.

This year, Amanda and I are trying some new things to get our Christian lives in gear. First, we'll be attending the Marriage Encounter weekend the first week of February. We attended the Engaged Encounter before we got married and really loved it. If you've never heard of or been to one, I'd encourage it. It's a three-day (Friday Night, Sat & Sun) program and it does a great job of encouraging communication. We're really looking forward to it.

Secondly, we'll be joining up with a new Bible study group. I've led one for the past two years, but it's been getting steadily weaker. It's a real shame. Over the past six months, we've only met probably six times. Each of those six were great and really make me sad that they don't happen more often. Unfortunately we've just continued to lose people and have scheduling problems. So we're going to start attending another group. I think this will help a couple of ways. It should be more regular so that it's more disciplined and without the job of leading the group, I hope to get more from it.

Lastly is something for me. I'll be starting a men's group at church that my pastor is running called Entrust. It's small so it should be a safer environment to be honest and with a regular agenda. I'm not really sure how it will all play out, but the first meeting is this Thursday and I'm really excited.

I'm also going to try and blog three times a week for a while. I'm putting it in my Outlook calendar as a reminder, so that should work. I'll try to post at least what scripture I'm reading and my thoughts. I need to rebuild discipline in reading my Bible, so we'll try this.