Nothing real earth-shattering here, just something I’ve been kicking around for a while.  Probably in response to some sermons I’ve listened to online, via podcast or whatever, but I am getting tired of asking God to bless me.

God is gonna bless me if I do this or if I give that.

He’s gonna overflow me with blessing.

So much blessing I can’t contain it.

God please bless me, bless me, bless me…

Hasn’t he blessed me enough?  I have a roof over my head, I have a car, I have a TV, I have a cell phone, I have some sweet guitars, I have, I have, I have…not to mention an awesome wife and two great kids and family and friends.  (I almost didn’t mention them because usually when Christians are talking about blessing, they are talking about money.)

But man, I am blessed beyond anything I deserve.  In fact, speaking of money, I have a few bucks in a bank account, that makes me one of the richest people in the world.

Anyway, so I have been thinking about blessing, and want to change from God bless me to God let me be a blessing to someone else.  Yeah, that’s good.  I wanna be a blessing to someone else.  I want to help, encourage, lift up, pray for, motivate someone else.  I want to tell someone about Jesus, about the forgiveness of sins and the need for repentance and the peace that surpasses all understanding. 

Funny thing though, since I live in the USA and since people here, myself included, are so driven by money and possessions, I wonder if I truly mean what I am saying.  Do I really want to be a blessing or is there a splinter in the back of my mind that knows that if I am a blessing to someone else, God is gonna bless me back?  Am I just playing lip-service to the ‘God don’t bless me, let me be a blessing” stuff?  Or do I really mean it?

I can be honest and say I don’t know for sure.  But I want to be that.  I want to be concerned with others, I want to be a blessing.  I want to be so into Jesus that whatever the circumstances I will look upon them as a blessing from God and continue to bless others.

We often thank God for Jesus.  We thank him for his Word.  We thank him for worship, for being with Gideon and speaking to John.  For walking with Abraham and leading Moses.  We thank him for his blessing and his mercy and his grace.

But do we stop enough to thank him for the flood?  And when I say the flood I am not talking metaphorically about some flood of his Holy Spirit or some great outpouring of his love, I am talking about the actual flood that covered the earth and was only survived by two of every animal and Noah and his family.  I am thankful for the flood.

You see, if it weren’t for the flood, there would be no bacon.  No bacon!

When God created man, he placed him in the Garden and said, "I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food.”   (Genesis 1:29)  So basically, God created man to be vegetarians.  No wait, there’s more, he even created animals to be vegetarians, “And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air and all the creatures that move on the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food."  (Genesis 1:30)

So there we were man and beast all happy eating fruits and veggies.  Or being as happy as we can be eating only fruits and veggies. 

But thank God for the flood.  Because it was after the flood when God was speaking with Noah that he said this, “Everything that lives and moves will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything.”  (Genesis 9:3)  Whew, thank God…can I get an amen.

I can get an amen and I can also get a bacon cheeseburger.  Thank God! 

An awesome and thought provoking song by Todd Agnew.  Doesnt really require much background or anything, just a good song with a bunch of good questions to think about Jesus and his birth.

Enjoy.

Get ready. If it hasnt started it will soon.

“How DARE stores tell people ‘Happy Holidays’!”
The rage of Christians everywhere is going to be boiling over as some stores go with the generic holiday greeting instead of the Merry Christmas that we all long for.
I mean its just crazy right? If these stores would just say Merry Christmas then everything in the world would be OK. People would walk into Wal-Mart, hear the greeter say, “Merry Christmas!” and they will drop everything and repent right there.

Dont get me wrong. We all know political correctness has gone way too far and in fact many stores have stopped commanding their employees to say Happy Holidays instead of Merry Christmas. But, they did not change their minds because of their love of Jesus and because of the evils of political correctness, they did it for one reason and one reason only…money.
Stores saw that many people were not shopping with them because of the stupid edict of not saying Merry Christmas and they changed their minds to get money. Not because it was right or because of some great love of the Messiah.

I also wonder about the ‘rage’ Christians feel about this subject every Christmas time. (It is about equal to the outrage of abortion that occurs every 4 years.)
Should people say Merry Christmas. Yes. Should Christians be concerned about the ease of abortions and the death of millions of innocent lives. Absolutely. I just wonder where we might be in these and other fights if our rage and concern manifested itself throughout the year instead of only at certain times.

     Just something to think about…

     We pray for all types of different things in our lives.  We pray for health, wealth, peace, joy and strength.  And of course this is just a partial list.  We could include promotions at work, good grades on tests at school, direction in our lives, etc etc etc.

     But if we believe the Bible to be true, how come we never pray for junk?  How come we never pray for trash?  How come we never pray for hard times?  How come we never ask God to make things difficult in our lives?

     James 1:2-4 says, “Count it all joy my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.  And let steadfastness have its full effect that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”

     If we believe this to be true, wouldn’t it benefit it us to pray for hard times?  James here is telling us that the hard times we ARE going to face produce things in us that, his words, may make us perfect and complete.  I think that sounds pretty good, to be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. 

    And what about the way we view people who are experiencing tough times.  They must have done something wrong.  They must be paying for all the bad things they’ve done in their lives.  If only they would have enough faith they could pray the tough times away.  Hmmm, maybe praying the tough time away isn’t the right thing to do.  Because if we did that wouldn’t we be taking ourselves out of the steadfastness having it full effect and therefore producing in us the perfectness and completeness that we so long for?

     It’s funny even as I know this, I also know that tonight when I pray I am NOT going to ask God for junk.  Tomorrow at church I am NOT going to ask God for a heaping pile of trash in my life…but maybe I should.  Because I am not yet perfect, not yet complete, and I still lack plenty.

We are saved by grace through faith in Jesus.

Simple right. I’ll make it even more simple.

We are saved by grace. That grace comes from Jesus. In fact it wouldnt be a huge leap to say that Jesus IS grace. So…

We are saved by Jesus through faith in Jesus.

OK. Now faith. Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen according to Hebrews 11. And if you read your Bible a little bit more, dig a little deeper you will learn that faith is a gift from Jesus.

That’s right. The faith you have to believe in Jesus comes from Jesus. So Jesus gave you faith so you could believe in Jesus.

So concerning faith we could say…

We are saved by grace through Jesus in Jesus.

Now put it all together…

We are saved by Jesus through Jesus in Jesus.

Or to even simplify it more.
Just say Jesus.

The title of this blog post is the answer to the question posed in this article on ChristianityToday.com

Should Christians Fast During Ramadan With Muslims?
Church leaders and observers weigh in on a current debate.
Compiled by Ruth Moon | posted 10/26/2009 10:37AM

The funny, not haha, part is that this article goes on for 2 pages to answer the question that I can answer in one word. I did it in the title, I’ll do it one more time here:

NO

I know it is said we are to love the sinner and hate the sin.
OK thats fine. But I wonder if we also hate the sinner’s clothing like the Bible tells us to?

Jude :23
save others by snatching them out of the fire; to others show mercy with fear, hating even the garment stained by the flesh.

Wow hate someone’s clothes? Think about that for a few minutes.

When done thinking about that, try figuring out what showing mercy with fear looks like?