Family Friday

My three girls - Autumn, Anna, Sarah. Treasures of the Lord to an unworthy father. Two weeks from Monday, with the Lord's mercy and protection we will have a fourth girl to add to the family picture - Emma Joy. We have great anticipation for our new addition and stand in awe of how God has taken us from wondering if we would ever have kids to four little girls.



I wrote on Wednesday of revival. Families are perhaps the most beautiful of God's institutions because they are so real, so personal and they touch every aspect of our emotions and senses in powerful, heartwrenching ways. They present an individual with a sense of comfort, love, ownership (or responsibility), accountability, devotion, investment, warmth and so much more.
The love we have for them, the concern when they are sick, the burden for their souls, the gravity of the task of raising them in a Christ like way, the joy when they are glad, the walking in the door to three kids running toward you with smiles and hugs, the cleaning up after them, the teaching them something new, the amazement in their eyes over the beauty of God's creation in the simplest of creatures that we unfortunately lost our wonder of a long time ago, the melting of our hearts when we have to discipline them and so much more.

The greatest foundations that God establishes of course are the most attacked foundations by the enemy. Genesis 1 gives us creation, which as we all know - Satan has attacked through the foolishness of evolution, the big bang or just outright leading people to worship the creation rather than the Creator. In Genesis 2 we have the first mention of families as we have the first mention of father, mother and wife in verse 24. Satan attacks the family in hundreds of ways - many of which I am certain we are not even aware of since his subtle tactics (those attacks we'll save for another day) likely have changed God's intended behaviors and desires for families generations before we even came into this world. Of course the next would be Genesis 3 where we see God's word come under attack right away. We could go on and see every major institution God set up (like government) and how it has come under attack.

God's design for all of these things are to be pictures of things in the spiritual realm - His family relationship with us, His justice and holiness in government, His truth and immutability in His word, His power and beauty in Creation and so much more. The enemy wants to destroy those foundations and If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do? - Ps. 11:3

Every generation Satan seems to gain more headway - further tainting the perfection of God's creation through sin, confusion, wrong priorities etc. Yet we have wonderful hope, we have access to God and the preservation of His word which Satan can't do a thing about!

A powerful revival for all of our families is God's desire that the hearts of fathers will turn back to their children and their children to their fathers. I will save the study on fathers for another day but here is a verse to reiterate how God promised to bring revival at the end of the OT.

Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD: And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.
Malachi 4:5-6

The more a father reflects the Father/Child relationship that God desires to have with all of us - the more our hearts turn toward our kids in desire for them to walk with God and not just be pleased with us by spoiling them - the stronger of an impact we will have on this world for Jesus Christ.

God has charged me as a father with many things - and He has also set the expectations of what He wants my precious little girls to become (Prov 31, Titus 2). The way of getting there is through communion with Him by worship, prayer and loving His word.
I am far from it and can't do it on my own, but by the grace of God we can all be confident of this very thing, that He which hath begun a good work in us will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ (Phil. 1:6).

Have a great day and love on your kids if ya got 'em!

Wake-Up Wednesday

1 Corinthians 15:34 - Awake to righteousness, and sin not; for some have not the knowledge of God: I speak this to your shame.

This verse is one of the most convicting in all of scripture.

It is a wake up call in every sense
1) It is a rebuke by God through Paul to Corinth to wake up, (thereby making it clear that they were spiritually asleep) -and it is a rebuke that passes through time to all who are sleeping in every generation

Consider the state of sleep:

• it accomplishes something beneficial for self but not for others
• the sleeping individual is not aware of what is going on around him/her - vulnerable
• large periods of time go by in this state without the individual really noticing it - it seems like only a moment to them
• often an individual does not wake up on their own but it require some type of outside disturbance or wake up call

We all understand that this command of God echoes through time from its original intended audience to God's children of today - "Those of you who are sleeping - WAKE UP!"

There is little doubt that there is a significant need for revival across churches in America today - many of us in the body of Christ have gone through these times of sleeping where the emphasis was turned to self and not others, times where we have become vulnerable and fallen victim to many of the subtle attacks of the enemy because we were not sober and vigilant to see the impact of these subtle wiles, a lot of time has past with little spiritual growth and little fruit abounding to our account and quite frankly - we like our sleep - it is comfortable and we are not likely to wake up on our own...

Hence God cries out again and again - AWAKE

2) It is a call to Righteousness, a call to perfection (sin not)

I know arguments come in here but consider that if we are to take the Bible as being perfect, then to say that perfect doesn't really mean perfect as in flawless is a problem...

Websters - Perfect
1. Finished; complete; consummate; not defective; having all that is requisite to its nature and kind; as a perfect statue; a perfect likeness; a perfect work; a perfect system.
2. Fully informed; completely skilled; as men perfect in the use of arms; perfect in discipline.
3. Complete in moral excellencies.
Mat 5:48 Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.

Complete is what we use to define it, mature, developed, rooted, disciplined, consistent biblical adherence with the right motives behind our right practices.

That the man of God may be perfect...

1 John 4:17-18 speaks of being perfect in love - producing boldness

Christ teaches throughout the sermon on the mount to be perfect in motives and methods

We are shown by Paul in Romans 6 that we have victory over sin through Christ's victory over sin, death and hell

Can we be perfect? Reconciling these passges with what we know about ourselves and Romans 7 - in me that is, in my flesh dwelleth no good thing, for to will is present with me but how to perform that which is good I find not...

The inward man delights in the law of God but it is at war with the law of sin which is in our flesh

Never should we have an attitude of "I just need to try to sin less" We are called to be sinless. We are commanded to turn from it, to hate it, to revile it, to be dead indeed unto sin but alive unto God.

Will we fall short? A million times over - yes but we must never be content with that. We must never set a lower expectation for ourselves than what God sets and His expectation and command according to 1 Cor. 15:34 is to sin not.

Praise God that when we do sin - we have an ADVOCATE who is faithful and just to forgive us our sin and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

When we accept that some sin is to be expected and that it is common to all - then what happens is that it does not grieve us how it should - we do not hate it how we should, we grow cold to our sin and we even find ourselves joking and foolish talking about our "little sins."

Pro 8:13 The fear of the LORD is to hate evil: pride, and arrogancy, and the evil way, and the froward mouth, do I hate.

Psalms 97:10 - Ye that love the LORD, hate evil: he preserveth the souls of his saints; he delivereth them out of the hand of the wicked.

Remember Job

Job 1:8 - And the LORD said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that [there is] none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil?

Yet when he saw who he was compared to God

Then Job answered the LORD, and said, Behold, I am vile; what shall I answer thee? I will lay mine hand upon my mouth.
Job 40:3-4 -

I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee. Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.
Job 42:5-6 -

This was a man that already beseeched God daily on behalf of his children lest peradventure they had sinned...

Isaiah has a similar reaction when he saw God (Isa. 6)

Seeing God for His absolute holiness and seeing us for our absolute wickedness through His word is what will help us see just the extent of revival that we need.

One preacher put it this way - If you have ever been closer to God then you are right now, it is obvious you need revival. To take that one step further, at our closest to God, is it likely that we were as close to God as Job when God bragged on him...

Revival is desperately needed - to be able to weep for souls, to see thier fate without Christ as I approach them, to be so enamored with the cause and mission of God that the things of earth grow strangely dim and incredibly unimportant.

3) FOR SOME HAVE NOT THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD - SPOKEN TO OUR SHAME

it is this generation of Christians reponsibility to reach this generation of the world with the gospel of Christ

When we are asleep, when we are desensitized away from the need, when we become selfserving, when we are accepting of sin rather than hating it vehemently, when we do not hunger and thirst after righteousness by hungering and thirsting after God through His word - - the burden is weak, the passion is small, the love is not all consuming, the concern is not great, the mission is not ever on our hearts, in our prayers, the talk of our lips, the topic of our studies and the goal of our lives

The neighbors, coworkers and friends do not get reached by sleeping Christians

God does not get worshipped in spirit and in truth by sleeping Christians

The uttermost does not get reached by sleeping churches, God's heartbeat for souls all through the world is not in the forefront of the priorities of sleeping churches.

And when Christians are asleep, often we dont realize it - we are in a dreamworld where we are such a success for God that He is pleased with all we do and although we need a little brushing up and maybe to read an extra chapter a day etc - we certainly dont need to weep or be broken or consider that we may actually not have arrived.

Now that I have discouraged myself (since i'm my only reader) lets remember that after Romans 6 where we learn we are to have victory over sin and then Romans 7 where we learn that it will be a continuous battle with our flesh for life we have Romans 8.

There we are encouraged with promises of being conquerors, being adopted by God, being on the winning team and that nothing can separated us from that love of Christ - GLORY!

Lets allow God to drive us to His word and to our knees right now - Revival is typically associated with fasting, weeping and mourning in scripture. Those things are responses to conviction about our sins, the lost world around us and a brokenness for wanting to be closer to God and more like Him.

God takes pleasure in showing mercy and in His mercy He would desire to bring revival if we are ready to be broken...

"Fancy giving a preacher just 40 minutes"

This quote came from Keith Daniel in a message on the Holy Spirit. The message is more than twice that length. Bathed in prayer God can use a man in any time period but wouldnt it be better if God was given the freedom to have what time He desires as He directs the vessel He is using. Would to God that His children and worshippers that rely on Him for our everything would be thirsty for all that we can get from God?

Isnt it amazing how it is considered more exciting and valuable if a sporting event goes to overtime? They are temporal, they do not edify, challenge, give glory to God (general rule - pro/college sports) and are little more than fleshly entertainment. I am not saying that there is no room for them but what value should they be in comparison to the Word of God that we are to meditate in day and night that we may observe to do according to all that is written therein?

Let us not frown upon a man of God, filled with the Spirit of God, proclaiming the Word of God, for the glory of God who takes some extra time and care in this work of eternal value.

The greatest times with God are times of waiting upon Him and spending time in His presence which is why we read so much in scripture about being still, meditating and focusing on Him all the day long. Christ spent all night in prayer more than once, fasted and prayed forty days and lest we forget, the multitudes followed Him often for days on end without food. Perhaps some did that for the wrong motives but not all - some felt that this was clearly a worthwhile use of their time.

Should preachers apologize for proclaiming God's glory, eternal word, will and gospel because for some it is too long and inconvenient? Should they have to cut out vast portions of what God has shown them, much of which God may have given them for the express benefit of one or more of the people that will hear that message?
I was blesssed to be challenged last night in mens prayer meeting. The messenger had great consideration for the time of night and those in the audience. That is considerate and appreciated but my prayer is that someday God will take those concerns away from us and meet with us in such a way that the prayer, worship and preaching would be offered up to God with no consideration of time and that hours could be consumed if God so wills it and it would be as but a moment in His presence. Would you pray with me for that kind of revival?

4+ hours - round of golf
Time in front of the TV for an average person per day?
Baseball, football, hockey or soccer game - 3 hrs?
Other hobbies - hours a week - photography, scrapbooking, biking, running, hiking, boating, swimming, reading, huinting, skiing, fellowshipping, eating (sort of repetitive I suppose).

The length of a message? Challenges given? Time to respond? Altar calls? Is not the purpose of preaching for God to speak through His Word and messenger to glorify His name and to accomplish things in peoples lives and hearts that mandate a response of some sort?

Here is a Bible example of a people in the midst of a revival who valued the importance of the Word of God and preaching.

Neh 8:2 And Ezra the priest brought the law before the congregation both of men and women, and all that could hear with understanding, upon the first day of the seventh month.
Neh 8:3 And he read therein before the street that was before the water gate from the morning until midday, before the men and the women, and those that could understand; and the ears of all the people were attentive unto the book of the law.
Neh 8:4 And Ezra the scribe stood upon a pulpit of wood...
Neh 8:8 So they read in the book in the law of God distinctly, and gave the sense, and caused them to understand the reading.

Neh 8:18 Also day by day, from the first day unto the last day, he read in the book of the law of God.

It is the progression of the modern day. We are so time sensitive in this culture. God is not in all our thoughts, I will be the first that admits to being guilty of this. Time will be made for what satisfies us most and what is most important to us. As pilgrims passing through this world, may we look to eternity, change our perspectives and priorities and not limit God's time in exchange for "our time."

May I recommend this message. It is a major challenge, you have been warned...

http://www.sermonaudio.com/sermoninfo.asp?SID=7207213143

One of the biggest lacks in modern Christianity (and a key to revival)

As I sat in Sunday School listening to 1 Peter Farrell expound on Deut 6:6-7 and talk about our command to speak the word of God constantly - it was like a quick burning fuse was lit that exploded dramatically into about a billion thoughts and verses.

Deu 6:6 And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart:
Deu 6:7 And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.
Deu 6:8 And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes.
Deu 6:9 And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates.

How many times do people read and then could not give you a single thing they learned or perhaps even remembered about their reading? I go a step further and ask the question - HOW OFTEN IS THERE DISCUSSION ABOUT GOD's WORD?

Is this not the key? If I knew I were going to have a test, I would study - if I know there will be accountability time at Home Bible Study, I might be more likely to pay close attention in my reading - if I am preparing a message or a lesson, I have no choice but to study with attentiveness and prayer - if there were Bible quizzing or trivia contests coming up then I would rehearse important facts. Whether the motives were right or not - it would motivate. People read so many times and gain nothing because they do not

• pray that God will open our eyes that we may behold wondrous things out of His law
• devote the time and energy to comprehension and meditation
• they do not journal, blog, memorize, take notes, email a friend, converse or in some other way organize what they are reading into thoughts; consider and address the personal implications of what they read and then share them with others

What does Deut 6 and about a hundred other places challenge us to do? To know the word of God - to memorize, to read, to meditate, to apply, to study, to preach, to teach, to provoke others to love and to good works - to be in the Word and let the Word be in you.

Order my steps in thy word and let not any iniquity have dominion over me - Ps. 119
It is a lamp and a light
It is quick (alive) and powerful, it is sharp and discerning
It is like a fire, it is like a hammer
It is like water to a thirsty soul
It is the sustaining and nourishing bread of life
It is promised to accomplish what God will have it to
When it is in you, it burns and you cant contain it, you must speak the word or you will explode

When hid in your heart, it will be a powerful force in keeping you from sin - 1) it is a means of keeping your heart with all diligence, 2) its presence means there is an absence of something else (something either harmful or at least less profitable than the word), 3) it will be brought to your memory in the midst of temptation and the list goes on.

It is part of the armor of God - the most versatile piece. The sword is used in both offense and defense as well as being the most intimidating part of the armor. Do you know of an enemy vanquished by a helmet, a shield, a breastplate etc - it is the sword that will vanquish the enemy. Is that not what Jesus used to make Satan flee?

We could go on all day about what God says about His word - its power, its prominence (magnified above His name), its promulgation etc. Hundreds and hundreds of verses (and that is just in Ps. 119!)

So why the apathy of "Christian" kids today - why the spinning of the Bible or forgetting to bring it, why so few that claim to have read it even once that week? Why does it require mass entertainment and sports to get them even interested in being there?

Will these kids be a witness? HA
Will these kids resist temptation?
Will these kids love the Lord their God with all their heart, soul, mind and strength - will their parents, will we?

God tells us not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together - this is one rule a good baptist just won't violate (provided there is food)
Why are we to gather...
What did the early church do in their gatherings...
Why did God want the children of Israel to bind the word on their hearts, keep it as frontlets before their eyes, put them on signposts at their homes and to talk of the word when they sit, stand, lie down, walk in the way...

Here is what clicked.
WE ARE TO LOVE GOD WITH ALL OUR HEART SOUL MIND AND STRENGTH
MEANING HE IS ALWAYS ON OUR MIND AND IN OUR CONVERSATION

If we were to commit ourselves to talk of God's word in our everyday conversations and challenge each other in our reading every time we got together I suspect the following would happen

1. We would spend more time reading our Bible
2. We would pay much closer attention to our reading, if for no other reason then that we know it would be discussed and it would be embarrassing not to have an answer for those Christians who ask us what God is showing us. Should that not be a shameful thing for us as children of God?
3. That word that we are reading would begin to work in our lives
4. Our Individual and collective knowledge of the Scriptures will multiply (do we need a list of how this will advantage the kingdom of God)
5. Our children will see this emphasis and realize that no longer are temporal matters our priority, but eternal - this is the perhaps the last and only hope for the next generation since this one is so Laodicaean in nature as a whole.
6. Our kids will care about what we care about - Prov. 22:6 - our kids aren't leaving what they were raised with - the Red Sox are still their team, they still prefer Chevy over Ford, they like camping and barbecue and they still will follow their parents advice in areas of college, career and investing. The Bible - well that was something the preacher talked about, not mom and dad so much... WHAT IF THE OPPOSITE WERE TRUE
7. When our conversations are consistently about the Bible then the result will be that those who don't have a use for the Bible will be forced to either step up "their game" of faking it or they will leave OR they will sense the excitement and moving of God and want to be involved and start digging into the Word in sincerity.
8. When we are used to talking about the word of God to the saved consistently, it will be much more natural to speak the word of God to the lost. (out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh)
9. When we discuss the Word of God consistently with believer and unbeliever alike (as we are commanded) then it seems that the things of God would now be consuming our daily thoughts and actions - this would be the first time that we could honestly start to think that maybe we are close to loving God with all of our being.
10. If God were always on our mind in this way then perhaps we would have desires and dislikes more in line with God's and be less susceptible to sin.
11. We would spend more time in the word and therefore less time and money on selfish endeavors giving us greater resources and motivation to minister to the needy, to spread the gospel and to support our missionaries.
12. Friendships would be created or restored, jealousies would diminish, GOD WOULD BE GLORIFIED

I am certain there would be MANY other benefits.

So where does this start? With beginning a practice of talking about the Word of God. Ballgames, video games, movies, stock investments, car shopping and vacation planning - none of those things will profit us spiritually or matter in eternity so lets meet on our common ground. Lets discuss the one thing that is supposed to bring us all to church and make us one family - Jesus Christ - Lets talk about THE WORD OF GOD and see if it doesn't help our families, our church, our friendships, our work ethic, our victory over sin, our boldness, our prayer lives, our worship, our separation, our attitude, our love for God, our service and the spreading of God's word throughout this lost world.

There are a lot of our, my, I and we statements in that last paragraph - if our desires are God's desires then that is fine because those are the things God wants of us and that give Him pleasure.

Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly...ready to give an answer...studied to shew yourself approved...word hidden in your heart...observed to do according to all that is written therein...prepared your heart to seek the law of the Lord and to do it and to teach...let the words of your mouth and the meditations of your heart be acceptable...walk in the law of the Lord...

We learn of God through His word

We see who He is and who we are

We get our calling and direction
We get our victory over sin
We know of the glory ahead
We know of our great Saviour
We know the promises He has made us
We know the power available to us
We receive conviction of sin and promise of forgiveness
We know God's tremendous love and His burden for the souls of every person He died for (that is everyone)
The list goes on - I THINK THERE IS PLENTY FOR US TO TALK ABOUT - especially if God has said that the Bible contains unsearchable riches

Deu 29:29 The secret things belong unto the LORD our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law.

It was John and Charles Wesley that were indited as the holy club and the methodists who were guilty of practicing this premise. I suppose I could think of worse things to be called.