Sunday's Passionate Plea

This is a cry from within the passion of my heart.

We have allowed our Doctrines and our Denominations
- to Dictate and Define who we are
rather than the Divine Deity of our Deliverer and Savior...

…I mean if you think about it…
We have re-defined ourselves
from WHO our Creator and our Re-Creator - HIS SON…
created us to be.

YES, we ARE Christians
- and that’s all find and dandy, that's who we should be…

…but now we’ve tagged ourselves as something all together separate…

..because now we’re not only Christians
but we’re also…

- Presbyterians

- Baptists

- Catholics

- Episcopal

- Methodists

- Calvinists

- Pentecostals

…and you name it
we’ve sub-categorized,
-or sub-cultured ourselves as it.

We’ve made ourselves
into all of these different organizations
- instead of the ONE moving,
breathing, and living organism
that God intended for us to be.

So if you seriously think about it…
- how much different are we
than the Pharisees, the Sadducees,
the Herodians, or the Sanhedrin?

And ths sad thing is,
all the while as we sit around
separating ourselves into our individual containers,

- debating and arguing
over whether you have to be
sprinkled, sprayed, or dunked…

…whether you should play a piano, guitars, drums
or play any instruments at all...

...have traditional services or contemporary services…

…and whether you should speak in tongues or not speak in tongues…

…there are people outside of our exclusive pew boxes
dying and headed for hell
because they can’t see the UNITY of God’s LOVE between us…

…let alone, feel it coming from us.

And I really believe we would see more people come to Christ
if we would stop trying to build our own little kingdoms on earth
and start living and acting as God’s Kingdom on earth…

…and the only way to achieve that
is to stop being self-centered
and get back to being Christ-centered!

THE CONTENDER

I felt I had to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints. - Jude 3 [niv]

What does Jude mean when he says to "contend" for the faith?

Well he means that as Christ followers we need to "fight" to keep the faith. Now the Word says that we're not fighting against flesh and blood and so in Jude's letter he's really not talking about fighting in the arena of politics, schools, workplaces or even fighting to keep the faith in our government or country. He's actually writing this letter to the church about the church keeping the faith within themselves. And as any good fighter knows it takes discipline to fight the good fight. You see it takes disciplining ones body, mind and spirit and giving it your all in order to win any fight.

And so this Sunday we will be bringing out a few ways we can discipline ourselves to be winners by looking to "THE CONTENDER". So join us this Sunday at 8:30 or 10:30 for "THE CONTENDER".

CONFUSED

I'm sort of confused about something.

We have a great building full of loving Christ followers who always encourage me as their pastor. They compliment me, seem to listen (most of the time) when I'm preaching, they follow my leadership as I follow the Lord, and I know they really love the Lord and His Word with all of their hearts, minds, souls and strengths. But when I announce we're having a different speaker other than myself on a future date, most will not attend church that day or if they do they seem disturbed or unhappy. Now I know it can't be that I'm the greatest preacher in the world or even in Pomona for that matter, (because I know I'm not even close) so why is it they choose to not attend service if I'm not speaking? So at this point I am going to openly display the thoughts inside my head and spirit when I think of these times.

ONE- Where does a followers loyalty lie, is it in their pastor, or in the God they serve?

TWO- If a speaker a pastor has asked to fill his pulpit is disapproved of, or is disliked by his congregants, then isn't that a reflection of their dissatisfaction or disapproval of their pastor's leadership?

THREE- Isn't God's Word what they should be gathered to hear, study and consume...not mans delivery?

FOUR- Is it not understood that different preachers can hear God speak to them and in turn allow God to speak through them.

I have been contemplating this kind of stuff for some time now so I am thinking of starting a new separate blog that will most likely be called "View From The Fishbowl." Be looking for it in the future.

Hey Jude

I am really excited as usual about Sundays service but tomorrow starts our new "Hey Jude" series. And I'm pretty stoked about the fact that our worship team is singing Beatles songs as specials and that our ministry team gets the opportunity to talk about Jude, his letter and the depth of his warnings about false teachers in the church and the depth of his love for Christ and His church.

Jude deserves more than just a quick read because we're trying to 'read through the bible in a year', but it really deserves (like all of the Word) a deep investigation of the many truths that need to be revealed, remembered, rehearsed, respected and regarded as important for a Christ-like lifestyle. We will not only look into the letter (or book) of Jude but we will be looking into who Jude was, his passion and his character.

So you see my excitement about this series is not really about our worship team playing secular songs from those who helped change the direction of popular music, it's about using the secular to bring others to a deeper understanding of the spiritual. To be honest even though your average church-goers would find the Beatles songs offensive being played in church, those exact same church-goers could recite from memory every word of Hey Jude, Let It Be, or any number of Hank Williams or Johnny Cash songs but yet they cannot tell you hardly one word of what Jude or any number of other authors in the bible have written.

This is why I'm excited about this Hey Jude series. Hopefully it will bring excitement and a passion in others to dig deeper into the Word and allow the Word to dig itself deeper into them.

Elusion or Illusion?

I will be the first to admit I have a question in which the answer has eluded me.

Knowing that the word “glory” can be defined in the Hebrew noun of “kabod” which means a “weight” or “weightiness” in the physical context of God’s presence, then how does one distinguish between the weightiness from God and the weightiness or heaviness from ones own emotional struggles?

Having experienced more than one event of heaviness I understood to be from God (after the fact), feels exactly the same to me as the heaviness I’ve experienced throughout emotional turmoil. I know both heed the need for desperate prayer, but the question in preponderance is why do they have to "feel" the same?

One is lead of God to seek Him for prayer on the account of ones obedience to pray, to be prepared for an upcoming event He knows is coming ones way, or His leading to obey a command or conviction He’s place on the heart and mind. But the other is that of a broken heart due to a saddened state of emotional toil. So the question I’m inquiring of God is, why must they feel so much alike?

16 TONS

In today's service we talked about how most of America sees their jobs as Tennesse Ernie Ford's song describes..."You load sixteen tons and what do you get, another day older and deeper in debt!" You see working at a secular job does not have to seem like an endless merry-go-round of unpurposed toil if we choose to look at our labor as service unto God instead of service for self-preservation. God calls all of us as His followers "priests" for His Kingdom. So if we take the perspective (or the challenge) that our daily labor is to actually display God's love, grace and mercy to everyone on our jobs then that holds more importance than just our making a living, and with that type of outlook our days will become more about God and less about us, which will transform our everyday labor from persistent problems and personality conflicts to purpose-filled pleasurable service to our King.

Separation of Church and Life

Have you ever noticed how as followers of Christ we’ve separated the secular from the sacred? We’ve said this over here, our churches, pastors, priests, and Sundays are sacred and that over there, our jobs, hobbies, work and Mondays through Saturdays are secular. Now if we were living in the Old Testament that would be true but we don’t live in the Old we live in and under the New Testament. The New Testament tells us that as followers of Christ we need to understand that for us there is no separation between the secular and the sacred as a matter of fact if you read Hebrews chapter 9 you’ll see that explained in great detail. Here’s what Revelation 1.5-6 says in the NIV it says,
Grace and peace to you from him who is, and who was, and who is to come, and from the seven spirits before his throne, 5and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth.
To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood, 6and has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father…
Since we are followers of Christ then He, through His shed blood not only provided a way for us to be freed from our sins but He also made us ALL His priests and the Holy Spirit lives inside of us so everyday not just a few hours on Sunday but everyday is Holy to us because wherever we are whatever we do, the Spirit of God is with us. We’re briefly talking about this in this Sundays message called “16 Tons” which is named after Tennessee Ernie Fords song with the same title. The thing is once we get the concept of wherever we go and whatever we do God is with us we will have a greater understanding of what the Word means when it calls us the Body of Christ, the Ecclesia, the Assembly or more commonly known as “the Church.” So wherever we go and whatever we’re doing we need to do it as if we’re doing it unto the Lord. You see as followers of Christ there really is no separation of Church and Life!