Joy Meter

Have you checked your Joy Meter lately? We know in Galatians 5:22, "the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, and self control". As Christians, we have a Joy Meter. How is your joy lately?

The Greek word for joy is Cara or Chara. It literally means joy, and gladness. It is used 57 times in the New Testament alone. Sometimes I forget to keep tabs on my Joy Meter and I find myself grumbling about things I shouldn't grumble about.

Are you becoming more joyful each day? With the help of the Spirit, our Joy Meter should be tapped out or at least moving a little more in that direction each day.

If you, like I, struggle with this from time to time, would you join me in a quest to tap out our Joy Meters? Just think of the impact we could have on our lives and the lives of those around us. Joy is contagious. Would you join me in spreading it?

Priorities

Sometimes, I unknowingly shuffle my priorities. You know, put myself first or my career by jumping into the "rat-race". I will catch myself from time to time and remember the cost Jesus told us we'd have for following Him. He wants to make sure our priorities are in the correct order. In Luke 14:26, Jesus says, "If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters-yes, even his own life-he cannot be my disciple".

Now Jesus didn't really want us to "hate" everyone. The point he was making is rather simple. Jesus wants us to make Him the number one priority in our life. That is it. To put away your fleshly desires and follow Him as the number one priority.

When my wife was pregnant with our first child, I was working nights at our church. She called me and said she was having some problems. Believe it or not, to me, I had a problem. You see, I was taught to make work your number one priority. How was I going to leave work? I approached our youth pastor, who was the only pastor on campus, and told him my problem. He gave me a bit of wise counsel that I will never forget. He told me where my priorities should be. Jesus, Family, and all other stuff comes last, including self-and yes, even maintenance at the church.

It's funny, the church in America even struggles from time to time with priorities. You can see it in many churches. Numbers over truth is what I like to say. They are more interested in building a large church and not really about preaching truth at all cost. I also here churches today say they are scaling back so people can spend more time with family and hobbies and the like.

So what priority should be first and way out in the lead, nothing but Jesus.

Why I like Mike!!!

Awesome!

The Book of Acts

I have been doing some intense study of the book of Acts. In addition, I have the pleasure of teaching Acts in a Sunday morning class at my church.

I have to say, "wow", as I read this great book. Through my years in the church, it never seemed this book was preached enough. In Baptist settings in my past, I never really heard about the incredible things in Acts. I guess that had to do with the Holy Spirit and gifts like tongues; maybe a little too charismatic for the Baptist taste.

Through this book, I have really gained an understanding of the Holy Spirit and the importance the Spirit plays in our lives. Without the Spirit, would we really be able to carry on the work started by Jesus?

I am reminded of the story of the Brooklyn Tabernacle and the way they seem to be so in tune with the Holy Spirit. I would encourage anyone to read the books written by Jim Cymbala, Pastor of the Brooklyn Tabernacle. These books really help you see the power of the Holy Spirit in our world today.

In future posts, I will be discussing some of my favorite moments from this great book, the Book of Acts.

May God bless you on your quest to understand and connect to the empowering Holy Spirit.

Banning Christmas

Well it's that time of year to start my list of those Scrooge stores who have decided to ban the use of the name Christmas in favor of Holiday.

The first on my list is Mrs. Fields Cookies. Yes, old Mrs. Fields has become politically correct in her old age. Well I for one, will not be enjoying any Mrs. Fields cookies this year.

Check back from time to time to see what other stores are added this year.

Have a great Christmas season.

Funny...

Ornamental Fruit

I remember as a kid when I first heard about ornamental fruit. I just couldn't figure out the reason for this ornamental fruit. It looked like the real thing, but I was told some actually contain poison. Growing up in Arizona where citrus trees are common, I remember as a kid pulling fruit from trees and eating it right then and there. After learning about ornamental fruit, I soon realized I had to be very careful to make sure the fruit I was looking at and about to eat was real or simply ornamental.

Jesus talks about bearing fruit with this warning, “Therefore every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire" (Luke 3:9). Is Jesus telling us to cut down the trees with the ornamental fruit? He does say to save only those that bear “good fruit”. What is “good fruit”? Well, the obvious answer for "good fruit" is fruit that is pleasing to God. Therefore, bad fruit is that which is displeasing to God. Maybe referring to evil deeds. But I want you to ponder something with me. What about fruit that has the appearance of “good fruit”. You know it looks real and may even smell real, yet it contains poison.

I believe we can expect to see an increase in “ornamental fruit” in the church. It may not be as obvious as we might think. It may not be the pastor preaching heresy from the pulpit. It may be a pastor doing things in the community that really draw attention to himself. He now gets to go on the news. He is interviewed for the newspaper. He gets to stand in front of the congregation and say look what I have done.

We must be careful about the fruit we claim as "good fruit". We must test all thing against the absolute truths found in the Word of God.

A Must Listen For Every Christian

I recently heard a message given by Mark Driscoll of Seattle's Mars Hill Church. He was speaking just this past September 21 at a convention in association with the Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary.

Every Christian should listen to this especially if you are confused about terms like emergent, emerging, conversation and so forth.

Click on the link below and select session 3. It is just over an hour long but well worth every minute.

http://www.sebts.edu/Convergent/GeneralInfo/

Power from the Holy Spirit

When I think about the birth of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, I realize just how vital He is to our Christian walk. As I was pondering this issue, I came up with this somewhat corny illustration of how important the Holy Spirit really is.

I’m not sure if you have heard of the outdated computer game SimCity, not The Sims, but SimCity where you create a city. Anyway, many years ago, I used to love that game. For those of you who have never heard of this game, you start off with a large plot of land (city size) and begin to create your city. You need to zone the property industrial, commercial, and residential. I can remember first playing this game and zoning the land and I began to wonder why it wasn’t being developed. Nobody was moving to my city. As I checked out the different buttons on the game I discovered one for electricity. It had two choices, power plant or power lines. Wow, I thought. So I put in a power plant and began to run some power lines to the zoned land. What do you know; the land slowly began to be developed. Even nearby land was developed because of the energy being passed from “next door”.

You see, this is a good example of how the Holy Spirit works. Without the Holy Spirit, we are just people flowing uselessly around this world. Yes, God may have zoned us for something specific, but we will not be developed until we are energized with the power of the Holy Spirit. You may not be a Christian now, but maybe God has “zoned” you for something incredible in His kingdom. Without the energy from the Holy Spirit, you will never be fully developed to carry out God’s work.

Favorite Rob Bell Quotes?

Below, please find two of my favorite quotes by Rob Bell. I am increasingly saddened in knowing the number of people who desperately want to know God, yet Rob Bell is holding them captive to his “new kind of Christian[ity]”. Last I heard, Bell’s church was well over 10,000 attendees.

I’ve heard it said that false teachers come in all shapes and sizes.

The two quotes below are from Bell himself.

“We’re rediscovering Christianity as an eastern religion.” http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2004/november/12.36.html

"I am learning that my tradition includes the rabbis and reformers and revolutionaries and monks and nuns and pastors and writers and philosophers and artists and every person everywhere who has asked big questions of a big God." (Velvet Elvis, Bell)