BLISS'S TRASH&TREASURE

Making Excuses

Every single time I feel I have done something wrong, I start making excuses. EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. It’s amazing how quickly it happens to. It’s almost reflexive. As soon as I feel that twinge of guilt, my brain starts churning out reasons why I had no other option to do what I did. 

It doesn’t matter if it was an active wrong (meaning that I went out of my way to do something wrong) or a passive wrong (meaning that just sat still and failed to do what I was supposed to do). Either way, the excuses just start rising to the surface.

I think this natural reflex that many of us have to make excuses is a pride issue that Satan exploits for his gain and our destruction. Making excuses for our bad behavior is simply us fighting to believe that we aren’t sinners. I don’t want to be a sinner. I don’t want to be wrong. I don’t want to have to slink back to someone and apologize because it’s embarrassing. I don’t want admit that I’m selfish, and lazy, and arrogant. I don’t to admit that I’m truly as bad as I really am.

The real danger in excuses is that it causes us to deny reality. Because I am a sinner. I am wrong quite often. I am selfish, lazy, arrogant, and a whole host of other sinful qualities. And when I convince myself through a string of silly excuses that I’m not that bad or that I’m a good person, I put myself in a place where I no longer see my need for redemption. I stop seeking forgiveness through my Savior, Jesus the Christ, because I’ve convinced myself that I don’t Him.

The great irony is that when we do that, we actually cement those sins in our life. We aren’t attacking them with the ferocious power of the Holy Spirit through the forgiving grace of Jesus. Instead, we’re just letting them hang around in our soul to pollute us further and leading us to do more damage to those around us.

As hard as it is, we must STOP making excuses. I would even say that we need to stop making them altogether in every circumstance. Their danger far outweighs the few times they might do us actual good. So when you stand before someone you’ve hurt, instead of passing the buck onto that person or on to life in general, here’s what you do:

• Say, “I’m sorry.” The shut your mouth and take what comes.The full weight of their anger or their pain. The full weight of the guilt in you that tells you that you are a sinner in need of  Savior.  
• Make it right if you can. If you told a lie about someone, you can't unlie, but you can go around to all the people you told that lie to and admit the truth.
  
• Pray. Humbly come to Jesus, praying that His Spirit might work this evil out of you. Praying a prayer of thanksgiving that His grace is sufficient to cover your evil.

The ability to not make excuses is a sign of Christian maturity. But it’s a hard skill to keep your lips closed when everything in you wants to pass the buck. You won’t always succeed, but by God’s grace and the persistence of the Holy Spirit, we’ll learn to own our sin and let Him do something about it.

Bible vs. Science: The Most Unnecessary Fight in History

Now I am an not under the illusion that many people read this little posts of mine. But if someone comes across this to whom it may be helpful then mission accomplished.

I was quite intrigued leading up to the Ken Ham/Bill Nye debate on evolution vs. creationism. Bill Nye is a big name with a charismatic personality. Ken Ham is a guy I’d never heard of, but whom I’d hoped might be able to show a few fallacies in mainline secular beliefs.

I was disappointed when I watched the debate (which I believe the Science Guy won). I was not disappointed that Bill Nye came out on top. I was disappointed that there were not more bridges built between Christianity and science. In fact, the debate seemed (at least to me) to do more to widen the gap in the minds of many between the two.  

You see the debate basically laid out that you must choose to believe in either the Bible or in modern science; that you CANNOT accept both. But this is wrong. I want to stay away from affirming any one model of creation (at least in this post), but there are many people who believe that God created, the Bible is His authoritative revelation to the world, that God came into our world as Jesus to die on the cross for the sins of mankind, that Jesus resurrected, that the Holy Spirit lives inside those who trust in Jesus as their salvation, and who also accept much, if not all, of mainline science. There are Christians who believe, as Ken Ham does, in a literal six day Creation. There are also Christians who believe God created life on our planet through the evolutionary process. And there are also Christians who believe something sort of in the middle.

My fear is that most nonChristians were affirmed in the assumption that to be a Christian means to reject all mainline science and believe that God made the world in six literal days. In our modern society, if that’s the only option people are given, they’re going to stick with science. If you have ever looked at Christianity and thought we believe more fantasy than reality, maybe you’re only getting the perspective of one small slice of Christianity. Science and Christianity aren’t enemies. In fact, if God created the world, then science should tell us more about Him. Believing in God or the Bible or deciding to trust Jesus as your savior does not instantly and automatically make you an enemy of science.

Here are a couple of links to websites of Christian groups who differ from the perspective of Ken Ham and the Answers in Genesis people. I offer these resources, not to attack Mr. Ham or his organization, but simply to say, that more perspectives exist in our larger family of Christianity. 

www.reasons.org

www.biologos.org

Is it really ok to not be ok?

The last Sunday in January, I spoke on living our lives to make an IMPACT in world around us. This last Sunday, I started a series on money. This series will culminate in talking about being generous. Since there is a little overlap, I’ve been thinking about this topic of helping people. More specifically, I’ve been thinking about people in our church helping others in our church. I don’t there is a lack of compassion in our midst. Yet I think people feel a false sense of shame when they have a need. Almost as if being in need indicates failure. Which isn’t true at all! We live in a broken world where live just clobbers some of us regardless of what’s we’re doing. Being in need doesn’t mean you’ve failed, it just means you’ve live long enough for it to be your turn.

I’m not sure we’ve created a culture where we feel it’s ok to not be ok. It is imperative that this change. If you are a part of a church and have a need, there is a really good chance that God has placed someone near you that can help. But how can they fulfill that role in which God has placed them, if they never know how you are hurting.

We were meant to encourage each other in struggle, counsel one another in sin, pay each other’s bills, and all around take care of each other. So let me end with two questions:

1. Do you have a need (financial, emotional, etc.) that you should share with someone at church to seek help?

2. What do you have that you could offer to someone you know is struggling?

That First Step

This past Sunday, I spoke on how we as a church must be making an IMPACT in our communities. One thing I didn’t have time to hit on was that one way we can do that is by partnering with other local missions in the area.

We have a great food pantry in Loami that helps many families get the food they need each and every week. You could make and IMPACT by saying each time you go grocery shopping you’re going to get $10-$20 worth of nonperishable food items to give to the pantry.

Another great ministry is Lewis Memorial Christian Village. They offer a host of services from assisted living for the elderly or a temporary rehab location for someone recovering from surgery. You could make an IMPACT by spending a Saturday a month visiting with residents or doing yard work.

There are a couple of other great missions in the area (that we don’t currently support regularly, but we do occasionally try to bless them). One is the Pregnancy Resource Center in Jacksonville. They specialize in helping with pregnancy and sexual health issues. The other one is In His Hands Orphan Outreach. They work in many ways to help with the orphan crisis in our world. They help families get through the adoption process, they help families with the financial side of adoption, and they work to improve the conditions of orphanages around the world for the kids who are still living in them.

As you can see, we have no shortage of opportunities to do something to make an IMPACT in our world. What we often lack is the courage or the motivation. Sometimes all you need to do to start doing something is to take that first step of just asking to volunteer. Just go to one of these organizations and asking, “How can I help?” It’s not terribly complicated, but it requires us to make a change and get outside our comfort zone. But I guarantee you will be blessed through serving. I’ve never heard anyone say, “I helped all these families adopt children and give them good homes and I feel just awful about it.” No serving brings us joy we never knew because God made us to serve and when we do it, we are tapping into something special He put in us. So get up, go, and make an IMPACT in this world for Jesus!

CONNECTing people to Jesus

Our church’s mission statement is: Loami Christian Church exists to CONNECT people to Jesus, GROW them in Jesus, and IMPACT the world for Jesus. I’m currently doing a sermon series called “Disturbed” to highlight that mission. This past week, I focused on the CONNECT portion.

We, as believers, absolutely must help other people come to know Jesus as their Savior.  This is not really negotiable. Jesus himself says that He is the only way to the Father. God has a heart for all people to come to find salvation in Jesus. So much so that He sent Jesus to die for us. Jesus sacrificed everything on our behalf.

If your a believer, then that should be new information to you. But I cover it because often we as believers in Jesus really don’t act like Jesus. We don’t share His devotion to bringing rescue to the world. We Christians, tend to get a little ingrown over time. By that, I mean that we care more about ourselves and what’s going on in our own little Christian community and we lose focus on (and thus lose a heart for) those who don’t know Christ.

I think this is one of the (if not the #1) biggest reasons for most of the stupid church fights that take place. When we focus on ourselves, the mission of God takes a backseat to our preferences and opinions. We start backbiting and gossiping about those who don’t share our preferences and opinions. We start to fight about trivial things like carpet color, kids running in church, and music style rather than uniting with one another around the mission of CONNECTing people to Jesus.

I’m not necessarily saying that LoamiCC is stuck in that mess, but I definitely don’t want us to. I want to driven by the mission of God, not the opinion of anyone. I want us to care more about outsiders than ourselves. I want us to be willing to sacrifice preference if it means reaching people for Jesus. Now, I am not saying that we compromise on our message. Earlier I said that Jesus is the only way to the Father and thus Heaven. I’m not saying we EVER compromise on the Holy Scriptures. Our Message will NEVER change, but that doesn’t mean that our methods must stay the same.

I mean if I thought we could open more people’s hearts up to Jesus by having kazoos as the only instrument in our services, I’d say, “Let’s do it.” And kazoos are a ridiculous instrument that I wouldn’t particularly desire to listen to each Sunday, but if the songs point people to Jesus and help people who don’t know Jesus draw near to Him, then I’m willing to lay down my preference for the mission.

I’m not trying to harp on music. That’s just an example of a place where we can either fight about what we like or use music for the mission. I just think the most important thing for us to do as believers and as members of Loami Christian Church is to always keep the mission of God right in front of us so we never forget that the joy that God has given us the opportunity to have front row seats to seeing people come to salvation.  

Sacrificing Heaven for Happiness

I’m currently working on this week’s and next week’s messages in the sermon series “White Christmas”. The idea behind this series is a promise God makes to some really awful people in Isaiah 1:18, “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.”

But one thing I keep noticing as I study different passages of Jesus forgiving people’s sins is how easily we humans get our priorities mixed up. For instance, in the story where the paralyzed man is lowered through the roof in an attempt to have Jesus heal him, Jesus first forgives his sins. What no one seems to notice is that this is a much greater gift than Jesus flat out healing the man. Why? Because the healing would help the man in this life, but the forgiveness of sins has eternal consequences. Having our sins forgiven is what enables us to have unity with God and spend eternity with Him when we die.

How often are we more concerned with having our hurts fixed, our sufferings removed than we are of having our sin removed? I don’t say this to make our sufferings sound trivial. No, our sufferings are huge, gigantic, and often overpowering. What I mean to do is show you just how big and nasty of a problem sin really is! Sin is the source of all the sufferings and hurts. And to just deal with the hurts is just treating the symptom. Well Jesus came for more than just pain management. He came to deal with the real disease that plagues our existence: sin. 

Let me say, I don’t want to suffer and hurt. I don’t want to see others suffer and hurt. Sometimes though, we put such an emphasis on the idea that life’s chief goal is to be happy. Sufferings and hurts disrupt our happiness and so we spend our time praying for God to remove them so that we can get back to the real business of being happy. But what if the chief goal of this life wasn’t to be happy, but to find Jesus, know him, surrender to Him and have our sins removed by Him so that we could enter the next life.

You see the next life, for those whose life is in Christ, is a life where we get all the things we long for now: no suffering, no pain, no loneliness, no loss, no heartache. But we only get that if we let Christ deal with our sin problem. My fear is that we will be so concerned with having our temporary earthly hurts and sufferings removed that we will miss Jesus’ real work of getting us to Heaven.

Also, no matter how you slice it, this life will always have suffering. There is nothing we can do to remove the disasters from this life. So it is futile to put all our energy in hope in this fools errand of being happy 24/7. No, we must put our hope, not in this life, but in the next life (where all the bad stuff will fully be removed) and in the One who will get us there.

What do I really want for Christmas

This isn’t as much a sermon leftover as it is just something I’ve been mulling over as I prepare for Christmas.  What is it that we really look forward to at Christmas?

For some it’s that magical/hopeful feeling that you’ve gotten every year since you were a kid. There is just something about the lights, the music, and the decorations that just puts a skip in your step.

For others it’s family. Many of us who live away from our families only see them a few times a year (or maybe Christmas is the only time you see them). So you look forward to spending time with the people you love so much.

For some, it’s the presents. Let’s just be honest and say that getting Christmas presents is awesome. There is something about the excitement of looking at a wrapped present, not knowing what’s inside. There is something slightly intoxicating about having something new.

We look forward to all those things and they’re all very nice, but are they what make Christmas? It’s not the lights, the presents, or even the family. Christmas is about the coming of Christ in our world. It is to be a celebration that our God fulfills His promises, that He sees our hurting and HAS brought the remedy in Christ.

I’m all for these traditional things we associate with Christmas, but what I really want is to ensure that neither myself or my family lose the hope of Christ at this wonderful time of year.

Wanderer

In the parable of the prodigal son, Jesus is very intentional to make the lost son a jerk and an idiot. The ultimate point is that no matter how far away from our Heavenly Father we wander, when we come to our senses and see the foolishness and evil of our sin, He will receive us with joy and forgiveness.

I just can’t even wrap my brain around that kind of love. What an amazing God we serve!

Worst is Better

The Parable of the Lost Son is a stinkin’ gold mine of truth. One leftover that doesn’t fit in the sermon is a very powerful realization this runaway kid comes to: 

The worst life with his father is better than the best life without.

With his dad he was always cared for and provided for. His dad was such a good man that he even took care of the lowest workers. On his own this son was only able to waste everything he had and end up on the verge of starvation.

If only we could see that the worst life with God through Christ, is better than our best life without Him. Sure we can pile away a lot of money, buy a lot of stuff, and find a lot of pleasure in this life, but we miss the peace, joy, hope, and confidence that comes from a life fully pursuing God.

That peace, joy, hope, and contentment are how some Christians endure appalling situations and events in ways that make other people just scratch their heads. I’ve seen Christians lose everything they owned when their house was flattened by a tornado and, though they were clearly devastated by it all, they were able to quickly pick themselves up and have joy that the family survived, peace that God would provide in their loss, and confidence that all they lost was just “stuff” and not what was really meaningful.

The worst life with God is better than the best life without. 

You can make happiness and pleasure the highest pursuits in your life, but you’ll never find them in levels that provide permanent satisfaction. Like eating a good meal, you might feel full for a while, but eventually you’ll need another fix.  Through Christ, we can know a life with joy, peace, and contentment that doesn’t expire; a hope that even devastating life circumstances can’t take away. 

There is no undo

This coming Sunday, I will begin a series on the Parable of the Lost Son (or Prodigal Son). In the story, the stupid son basically says, “Dad, are you dead yet? No? Well I want my inheritance anyway.” So the dad gives this ungrateful kid the money and stuff that he would have gotten when the dad died. The kid runs off and blows all the money and loses all the stuff. His entire inheritance (which was a lot) is completely gone and he hits rock bottom.

The thing that stuck out to me at the end of the story is when the son returns, the father receives him back as a son, but his inheritance is still gone. The dad throws him a party and is so pumped that his son came to his senses and returned, but when the dad dies, that son still has no inheritance. He already threw it away with his stupidity and foolishness.

Since the father in the story represents God and the son represents sinners, this means that just because God forgives doesn’t mean God undoes your bad choices.  This is something that new Christians need to know.  I have seen too many people give their lives to Jesus and then become so frustrated with God because they continue to suffer from their past choices and sins.  Overblown example: if you kill someone, go to jail and then become a Christian, you stay in jail. God’s forgiveness doesn’t mean you don’t have to suffer the consequences of your past choices.  If you spent years as an alcoholic and then because a Christian and, by God’s grace, put that behind you, you still might have to suffer health issues from the damage you’ve done to your liver.  

The fact that your past choices bleeds over into your new life in Christ is evidence to the evil nature of sin and explains why God hates it so much and takes such a hard stance against sin and those who harbor it.

The frustration we tend to feel towards God for our continued suffering should often be redirected to ourselves. God didn’t make us sin. Rather than frustration, we should feel continual gratitude that He even meets us with grace and forgiveness.

Our reaction, then, should be to meet these moments of suffering as best we can with a sense of responsibility and with a renewed heart in Christ so that we might, make it better, or at least endure it with Godly grace and peace. If you spent years living in your sin, you might have to spend years (or decades) living with the consequences. Luckily you’ve got a Heavenly Father who welcomes you and can help you walk straighter in the future.