Incoherent Ramblings of an Insane Pastor

I know this blog has become a ghost-town recently. So I thought I'd better dust off the cobwebs. I was watching TV. During a break I had to watch a local car lot commercial. I hate local car commercials. They are selling the #2 big purchase that most people make and they treat you like an idiot. Why would I want to buy anything from someone who is waving their arms around screaming at me. So, I turned the channel. It landed on a TV evangelist. I'll let you connect the dots. Peace.

Friendship We hear a lot of talking about friendship with God. I think we need to view God as accessible, personal, and relational. It is important to view God as a being that exist outside of religion and wants a relationship with individuals. But in the dialog to see God in this way, we need to make sure that we don't confuse friendship with familiarity. God is referred to as King, Prince, Lord, Master, Teacher, Almighty, Most High, the Creator... We must not treat Him as a neighbor that we go to when we need a cup of sugar. Healthy Fear The concept of the fear of the Lord could be easily overlooked. God wants to be a personal friend, but He also demands this concept of fear. It is much like electricity. It is a very good thing. We all are very close to it and we use it everyday. Although we come in contact with it frequently, we should have a healthy fear to treat it with respect. If it is not feared in this way, you will pay for it. We have become so comfortable with it, we hav...

So many times I have heard someone say, "I'm just not creative." I think it is more likely that they haven't unlocked their creativity. Follow this logic with me. 1. A Creator created everything. If you are an evolutionist, this is where you skip down to the next post. But if you believe in a Creator, then maybe Genesis Chapter 1 will remind you of God's awesome work. 2. Mankind was created in the image of the Creator. He actually made us to be His self-portrait! We are His masterpiece . 3. If a Creator created us and we are His self-portrait, then logic demands that we were created with the ability to be creative. Keep in mind that creativity goes beyond the artistic. Creativity is also the ability to find a new approach to a problem. An accountant can be just as creative as an artist. So how can you develop your creativity? Ephesians 4:15 says that we can become more and more "like Christ." If we are creative because our Creator is creative, the...

Every person in this world is on a spiritual journey. Consider a mountainside with God at the apex and destruction at the bottom. The journey can either be upward towards God or downward to destruction. We are born with a natural tendency to go the easy way downward, yet God is calling us to a higher place. On this path there are two distinct types of people, believers who are heading towards God and non-believers who are facing away from God. Because of the uniqueness of every individual, we are spread out at different places along the path. God's call is not only to focus on Him, but to also pay attention to others along the path. Matthew 22:38-40 As we meet believers on the path, we must look out for each other. We should encourage them along the way. We can also help others by pointing out things that we struggle with. The idea is to help people move toward God. Jesus and Paul gave us warnings not to trip up those who are further behind us. We also must be aware of the no...

1 Peter 1:15 “In the world and not of it” is a mantra constructed from several scriptures. The original meaning was that we must live in the world, but not be corrupted by it. But separation became the emphasis. Stay away from “the world” so you won’t be corrupted. It is interesting that while quoting this mantra ad infinitum, the church has become more of the world and not in it. It is much easier to tell others how messed up they are, while hiding the places where you fall short. Emphasis on separation allows someone to look and act holy. Rules of outward conformity have piled up pushing the church farther and farther from the community that they are supposed to love. Love becomes conditional, “We’ll let you in, if you agree look and act like us.” Religious condemnation is the result. Society feels that the church is condemning them. And much like the pharisaical law of Jesus day, even people in the church feel condemned because the standard has become impossible to live. True Chris...

A few years ago, I designed a T-shirt for a children's ministry at a traditional church where I worked. Even though the idea wasn't original, the design was and I thought it was hilarious. It had the reference, Ephesians 6:10-20 , a cartoon of a gladiator and the caption, "Don't Fight Naked." Apparently the church was more conservative than I thought. I showed the design to a few people and immediately began receiving phone calls. Apparently the word "Naked" is offensive to some people. Who knew? The armor of God is a great visual. Everybody has visions of Russell Crowe fighting gladiators and becoming a Roman hero. I remember the scene where he gets new armor from his owner. It would help him in his fights ahead. Even if you are perfectly equipped with salvation, righteousness, truth, God's Word, faith, and a message there is still more to gain if you follow the analogy of a Roman Soldier. The Roman soldier had nothing to protect his back. OK, this ...

While helping my daughter with her homework, we got into a discussion on Pi . Upon hearing my explanation my daughter asked,"Who comes up with this stuff?" and "Why does it work?" My response was ,"I don't know. It just works." That night I found myself thinking about the things that we accept as truth just because "it works." Truth is relative in our society. If I perceive that it works, it must be true. If not, then it may be true for you, but not for me. I was born in December of 1964. That puts me right in the middle of the Boomer Generation and Generation X. I seem to have qualities of both. Sometimes torn between the two. Part of me believes in the concrete. The other part of me is willing to explore issue to see where the truth lies. I have a need for a solid belief system and absolute truth, yet I have to be willing to reevaluate or I could be walking blind to the real truth. This has even affected my spirituality. Things that I used...

I was hanging out in one of the local coffee dives this week. (I know quicken will tell me how much I'm spending on coffee, but I really don't want to know) Anyway, sitting across the room is an Air Force Recruiter. He was sitting on one side of a table, a frustrated mother was in the middle and a rough looking teen was on the other side. I was trying to focus on my late' and a book, but the dude was using his outside voice. I think he thought louder is more convincing. So I spent the next 30 minutes listening to a hard sell on how the military will straighten this kid's life up and give him a purpose. I wondered if this guy also did used car commercials on TV. Keep in mind, I'm as patriotic as you can be. My dad was career military. I was on my way to the Air Force Academy when I decided on a life in the ministry. I actually wore red, white and blue shoes in the 70's. OK, bad image, but you get my point. THIS GUY WAS ANNOYING ME FROM 30 FT AWAY. I just wanted t...

This week at Crossings... We read: Acts 9:1-31 Saul made the most dramatic turnaround ever. One day he's killing people who follow Jesus and then after a dramatic encounter with God, the hunter becomes the hunted. God told Ananias that Saul would have to learn to suffer. He didn't take long to start Saul's lessons. How ironic that a group of men, who he would have stoned just weeks before, had to help him escape being stoned. Paul would be the most prolific writer of the New Testament. He would circle the known world, heal sick, raise the dead and start and disciple churches. But in between hating Jesus and becoming a dynamo for Jesus, Saul had to have a time of waiting. He isn't heard from again in the book of Acts until chapter 13. Did he just sit and wait? No, He hung out with the Apostles. He preached when given the chance. He made a friend of Barnabas who was a follower of Jesus. Other great men in the Bible had to learn to wait. Abraham had to wait for God to giv...

OK, so I have some form of Russian Monkey Death Flu or something. The bad part of having a small pioneer church is that when the pastor goes down, it's kinda hard to have a meeting at his house. Anyway, here is the passage we would have read: Matthew 2:1-12 There are many myths about the wise men. One myth is that there were three men. The Bible doesn't say how many there were. Another myth is that they were at the Nativity. But if you read the passage closely, a period of approximately 2 years had passed by the time they found the child in a house. We do know that the wise men were scholars from a far country. They would have had a knowledge of science as well as the books of prophesy concerning the Messiah. They also were probably wealthy. The gifts they carried were expensive and were meant to be presented to a King. The star was their vision. They believed so strongly in that vision that they held to it for at least two years while they searched. The baby they found wasn...

This week at Crossings... Ryan went for a job interview today. He said that all went well. He will go for a follow up interview soon. Pray that God will work things out for him. A day job could be a real blessing to him and to the church. This will be his weekend to work. Eric is doing well with his new job. Pray that God will help him get his schedule worked out so he can be with us again on Sundays. Marcie is doing well at her IRS training in Little Rock. She will be gone this weekend and then back again next week I believe. We will all be glad when she gets back home for good at the end of February. Keep praying that all goes well for her. No news yet on a meeting location. We will meet at my house on Sunday. Blessings. Pastor G

Tonight at Crossings we talked about 2 Corinthians 5:11-21 God can take a messed up life and straighten it out, he can also take someone's boring, old Christian walk and make it new again. The key is what you will allow. God wants to help, but it's up to you. Why not wake up tomorrow with "All Things New." Peace.