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I’m not sure if you have heard of the outdated computer game SimCity, not The Sims, but SimCity where you create a city.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)

New Link...

I have added a new link to my favorites. It is Way of the Master, a website by Kirk Cameron. Kirk shows an effective way to share Jesus with people. Check it out, you will be as amazed as I was.

Continual Doubt versus Childlike Faith

There is an alarming amount of doubt coming from the churches in America today. Leading the charge is this emergent philosophy. Some of the folks live in a state of continual doubt.

I recently read a quote by Clement of Alexandria. Clement was a Christian teacher of around 190 AD. He eventually settled in Alexandria Egypt, hence the title Clement of Alexandria.

One of the Characteristics of the early Christian was to have a childlike faith. They never felt as if they had to understand everything in the bible to believe. They simply trusted God with childlike faith. Clement asked, "Who then is so irreverent as to disbelieve God, and to demand explanations from God as from men?"

I have searched for words but Clement said it best.

9/11

So many memories flood my mind of that day. The drive to work, the meetings with staff and management, the uncertainty of everyone around me. It's impact was felt all the way to Arizona. The threat was real and it is still real today.

My heart still aches for the families of those innocent ones who lost their lives that day. I pray that God would comfort them.

I pray that God would stop the madness that rages inside the minds of those terrorists. But I know this struggle between Arabs and others is talked about in the bible and it will not go away until Jesus returns.

So for now, my prayers are for God to protect all the innocent people around the world. I pray they will be protected from the madness of these terrorists.

And shall we never forget 9-11-01!

Spiritual Castaways

As I look at the church today, I see more and more churches moving away from messages based simply on the bible. It seems rare to hear a message based on a section or chapter of scripture. Instead, messages are about how to be a better person, or finding your purpose (even if that purpose isn't pleasing to God), or in some cases messages are nothing but attacks on fundamental Christianity.

If you look around the Christian landscape, you will notice many Christians are, what I would call, Spiritual Castaways. Just get a mental image of a person on a deserted island. They have been walking around for years, starving. The only thing they have to feat on is milk. They are craving a roast dinner, a chicken dinner, a t-bone steak, just give them meat.

Many Christians today know all about the recurring themes from the seeker sensitive pulpit. They are masters in fluff, gimmicks, purpose, and all the other hundred mile wide and an inch deep messages.

They are craving the Word of God. They want to know about the Holy Spirit, and what gifts He has given them. They want to know about the end times and see how the current events appear to be fulfilling prophesy. They want to understand who God is and how He expects them to live.

God has given me a passion for these spiritual castaways. I have a cruise ship with freezers packed with meat and I am on the way to that deserted island.