Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Examine Yourself Part 2

Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you—unless indeed you fail the test?2 Corinithians 13:5
I guess this would be a continuation of yesterday's post.
I was watching the news this morning about the polygamist sect the authorities recently invaded. It seems that several of the "children" that have been removed from the sect and placed in foster or group homes have been found preganant. Most of these girls are 14-15 years old. One girl is 13 and preganant. I was outraged and ready to go to wherever this place is and beat the snot out of the men who would take advantage of these little girls.
Later this morning we were listening to the radio (Kidd Kraddick) and they were on the subject of the Vanity Fair pictures of Miley Cyrus. Of course they each had a different opinion about the motive of the pictures and whether or not Miley should be punished by Disney or fired for what obviously was a lack of judgement on her and her dad's part.
I was all ready to take up the mantle and come to the rescue of poor little Miley when the same words that have been haunting my mind all week came back. "Examine Yourself".
I asked myself, "What does all this have to do with examining myself?". I began to think, which is usually a dangerous thing. How are the two situations any different?
Why do we get so riled up about thirteen year old girls being given in marriage to old men but we are willing to pass off something as bold as a picture of a 15 year old girl wrapped in a bed sheet suductively looking at the camera. By the way, her dad was in the studio. The story is that Myley was wearing a flesh covered body suit for the shoot but it was photo shopped out for the final proof. The question remains. What is the difference? Miley was not having sex on camera, it was just meant to "look" that way. Either that or it was made to "look" like she was sleeping in the nude in full makeup.
I thought of my own girls. How many times have I pushed them out of the door with the encouragement to "use what the good Lord gave you". I have encouraged flirting to catch or keep their man. At no time in the book of Ruth did Naomi encourage Ruth to show a little ankle or pull your robe down a little in the front. She landed the most eligible bachlor in Bethlehem by being a servant to him. She let him know she was interested but that is as far as it went.
We go to the store with our children and allow them buy clothes that encrouage anything but fasting and praying. They are designed to encourage lust and desire.
A pastor's wife once told me that her daughter had a great body and if she herself had the same body she would dress that way too. God Forbid! I would like to think that holiness has no body type. That the same attire required of one is required of all.
I think it's time we examine ourselves and see if we are in the faith where our children are concerned. When our children leave the house are they dressed to attract? I know, I know, boys will be boys. It doesn't matter if a girl is wearing a nun's habit or a mini skirt. They are going to look and they are going to lust. Get real! I know lots of Godly young men who would tell you the way girls dress is what makes it so hard for them remain to keep their minds set on God. Sending our daughters out to seduce is no different than the polygamist sect or Myley Cyrus. We cannot sit in judgement if we are guilty of the same crime.

Blessings
Allen

Monday, April 28, 2008

Examine Yourself

13 “You can enter God’s Kingdom only through the narrow gate. The highway to hell is broad, and its gate is wide for the many who choose that way. 14 But the gateway to life is very narrow and the road is difficult, and only a few ever find it.
15 “Beware of false prophets who come disguised as harmless sheep but are really vicious wolves. 16 You can identify them by their fruit, that is, by the way they act. Can you pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? 17 A good tree produces good fruit, and a bad tree produces bad fruit. 18 A good tree can’t produce bad fruit, and a bad tree can’t produce good fruit. 19 So every tree that does not produce good fruit is chopped down and thrown into the fire. 20 Yes, just as you can identify a tree by its fruit, so you can identify people by their actions.
21 “Not everyone who calls out to me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Only those who actually do the will of my Father in heaven will enter. 22 On judgment day many will say to me, ‘Lord! Lord! We prophesied in your name and cast out demons in your name and performed many miracles in your name.’ 23 But I will reply, ‘I never knew you. Get away from me, you who break God’s laws.


This scripture sounds a little intense but maybe intense is what we need. I stumbled upon a sermon by Paul Washer this past week and, after listening to it, I found myself examining my own salvation. I found myself asking questions like, "Has there really been a change in my life?", "Do I sincerely desire to draw closer to God?", "Do I bear the kind of fruit these verses talk about?", "Do I base the security of my salvation on the fact that I prayed the 'sinner's prayer'?". I also asked myself questions on behalf of my children. Do I tell my children that they are Christians solely because I remember that they prayed a prayer or do I base my security on the fact that they are bearing fruit? Do I look back to the day that they were baptized and think that my job was over, that God had completed His work in them?
I find myself gripping the edges of my desk and holding on lest God should rain down judgement on me as a father for not requiring more of my children and myself. I am under such conviction about the life I live as well as the lives I have allowed my children to live. We are by no means morally bankrupt but we are so far away from the ideal. We cry out for God's blessings yet we have failed to totally sell out for Him. People in other countries are dragged behind camels, beaten to death, mamed and raped and torn into peices for their faith. And yet I find myself thinking that I am suffering for Jesus when I have to get up early on Sunday morning or spend a late night practicing. I am such Pharisee!!
I guess what the entire scripture is getting at is this, "Examine Yourself". Who am I when no one is looking. In the darkenss, when there is no danger of anyone seeing me, who am I? Am I the passionate worshipper that I claim to be? Am I really the man who has such a insaciable hunger for God? Who am I when people aren't looking and there is no one to listen?
God has given me a pop quiz and I have been found failing. This is not the end.....it is only the beginning. I must bring my grade up!
Our lives must match up to the truth of God's Word. If we say we are Christians and yet we still make a decision to live in sin then we are liars. (God's words not mine) If we say that God is our Savior and Lord and we plan our calander around watching immoral shows on TV and going to see movies with "not that much" swearing and nudity in them then something is wrong. Do a "Check up from the neck up". There is not such thing as a "carnal" Christian. That is an oxymoron. You can't be friends with God and hold hands with the devil. We are in the end times and people's hearts are empty and hurting and searching. We need to decide if we are going to serve the God's of Egypt or serve the true and living God. How can we show them that God is what they are looking for when He doesn't even satify us?
Examine yourself! Examine yourself! Examine yourself!

Blessings
Allen

Thursday, April 24, 2008

It's Friday Eve!!!!

It's Thursday, the sun is shining and I desprately need a day at the beach!!

I was reading one of my devotionals this morning and it seemed to go along with what we were talking about in Life Group last night.
Last Sunday at church, Mike preached about the differences between Dawinism and Believing in Intelligent Design. We, as Christians, are looked at as being less intelligent because we believe that God created all that we see and not some freak lightning strike in the mud. We are accused of having "blind" faith because we believe in a God that we can't see, touch, smell or touch. DUH! That's what faith is, stupid! Believing without seeing.
We had a lengthy discussion last night about being prepared to give an answer when our "faith" is attacked.
Most of us have never really been attacked or molested because of our faith. The time will come though. Our friend MJ, who is a teacher in a Christian School, said that we have to study, our kids have to study. We have to be students of the Word. We have to know what it says so that we will be able to react not only with faith but also with intelligience.
I agree with that so much. When we know God, I mean really know God, we want to learn more about Him. Our "faith" in Him and our experiences with Him creat a hunger in us to learn more and more. I believe that when we study and allow the Holy Spirit to teach us then when the time is right the answers will ooze from us like sweat from a fat man. There are parts of the scriptures that we will never understand or be able to explain. We can't explain or understand the Trinity or the Rapture or how God could be everlasting both past and future. We can only understand what our human minds have been created to understand. We are limited by our humaness. But that should not keep us from seeking. The problem comes when we spend so much time argueing over what God really meant when He said whatever. The world is dying and going to hell, so we really need to spend so much time in infighting and bickering? It's the WORD OF GOD for God's sake. When I read the prayers of Christ I see a prayer before he was assended that said something like, "I pray that they will be one". How does having a "theological discussion" about predestination, election, the rapture, the Trinity make us unified in the body?
I didn't mean to start a sermon here. I'll post the scripture I read this morning and hopefully shut up. When our children and the world see a "living, breathing" faith in us. A faith in a God that we actually know not just know about. A faith that makes us hungry for more of Him. A faith that makes us passionate about His Word then they the heritage of faith, real faith, will be passed on to our children and when they are faced with some teacher or peer that attacks what they and their parent believe they will be able to answer with knowledge and intelligience and most of all faith.
1 Corinthians 1:26-2:5
[26] Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. [27] But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. [28] He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things-and the things that are not-to nullify the things that are, [29] so that no one may boast before him. [30] It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God-that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. [31] Therefore, as it is written: "Let him who boasts boast in the Lord." [1] When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. [2] For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. [3] I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling. [4] My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power, [5] so that your faith might not rest on men's wisdom, but on God's power.
NIV
Blessings
Allen

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Withdrawal from Splenda

It's Wednesday and I'm still in my first week of Splenda Withdrawal. About a month ago my wife, Patricia, was at a Bread Beckers meeting. That's an organic food group that gets together to mill their own wheat and swap recipes and ideas and stuff. She was discussing the never ending battle of the buldge we seem to have and our struggle to eat healthy. Somehow the subject of what sweetener we use came up. Patricia told them Splenda and the whole room stopped and collectively gasped. Seems that through all the research that they have come up with the reason that Splenda has no calories is because it is not absorbed into your body. The Splenda people will tell you it passes through your body without being absorbed. Experts will tell you that it neither is absorbed or passed through but collects in your body because you body doesn't recognize it. Because of this your body stores what is esentially Cholride, chlorine or some other poison as fat. I am told that this is why I am fat and feel bad. So I can attribute all of my problems to Splenda. I wonder if I could start a class action lawsuit? I guess I would have the energy to take on such a feat if I weren't being slowly poisoned by the artificial sweetener industry!
So..........this is the deal. I have been reading this book by Ben Lerner called "One Minute Wellness". It's mostly about eating food by God and limiting food that is manmade. I really felt conficted about the way I eat. One of the things he said that we need to stop eatting for ourselves and eat for the ones we love; wives, children, God. I don't make wise choices and I will have to admit that when I sit down late at night with cookies and milk that I don't do a "checkup from the neck up" to see if I am honoring God with what I am doing. Am I really eating like I want to grow old and see my children live healthy, happy, productive lives? Do I eat so that I can grow old with my wife and best freind or beat her in the race to heaven?
My weight affects every part of my life. It makes me feel unworthy. Unworthy of friendship, unworthy of the life I deserve and unworthy of God's love. It's rediculous I know but it's the way I feel. I feel like as much as I preach to people about staying clean and close and how our lives are our worship that I should be able to get a handle on this weight issue.
Back to my Splenda issues. I am officially off of the poison know as Splenda. I am still drinking diet drinks containing Nutrasweet. I figured one poison at a time. I promised the people at work that I would wait until the weekend to undertake the detoxification process with Diet Drinks altogether. I will be one more cranky man.
I know God will help me get through it but God didn't get me in this mess. He outlined the way we should eat in the Bible and I chose to neglect it and eat like the gravy sucking pig that I am.
I have been trying to make small changes in my eating habit. I have sworn off of white bread, white pasta, white rice and am only eating whole grains and lots more vegetables. I did fall off the wagon and have a double cheesburger from Wendy's. Oh, and fries. But I followed it with a Diet Coke. That's ok, right? Anyway, I will keep a record of my progress.
Blessings
Allen

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Hello! This is my first blog

Hey guys
I'll tell you a little about myself.
I am a God Chaser to my very core. I feel like so many people spend their lives never knowing and experiencing the "God that breathes". When I have sleepless nights, He is in my foremost thoughts. When I am awake I am continually thirsty for Him. I look so forward to the times I can spend alone with Him.
I am a passionate worshipper. I lead worship in our church and it is then that I feel alive and feel like I have met my life's purpose.
People who know me know that I always have a song going on in my head. I rarely sign out loud in the car even though I listen to music 24/7. I don't sing in the shower which is very unusual for a musician.
I tend to be very vocal and outspoken. I've learned through trial and error, though, that people don't always want to know what you think or how you feel. (Lost lots of friends that way)
Anyway. I don't know how successful I'll be on this blog.
I want to post some songs and stuff like that but I haven't figured out to download from my video camera to the computer. Give me a break! I was born in 1960 before we even had color film! OK?
If you find yourself here reading this blog on purpose or by accident I would love to hear from you. Be forwarned that I tend to get really musshy and go on endlessly about worship.
Blessings!
Allen