His Prayers

When I was a kid, Easter to me meant family trips to Florida, beaches, chocolate bunnies, Easter baskets and egg hunts.  When I finished college and got a job, Easter to me meant a ham dinner on a Sunday and back to work on Monday.  Since becoming saved, Easter means so much more!  It's not about bunnies and candy anymore than Christmas is about presents and decorations, it's about Jesus.  I know it's said all the time but I've learned what it means.  God loves the people He created so much that He gave us His one and only Son (Christmas) and whoever believes in Jesus and what he did for us on the cross where he took all past, present and future sins of man upon himself and defeated death so that we could live in eternity with him and the Father (Easter). 

Seeing as Resurrection Day is just around the corner, I've been spending a lot of time this week reading scriptures around the events just before Christ's crucifixion and his resurrection.  I particularly like reading verses covering His time before being arrested and I'd like to share how some of those verses are speaking to me.

Towards the end of the book of John, Jesus had finished the Last Supper with His Disciples.  He then told them about what was going to happen with them when He is gone and how the world will treat them because of their belief that He was the Son of God.  He reassures them that the Holy Spirit will be with them and guide them as He had done on Earth.  Knowing that He was soon to be arrested and crucified, He then spends time praying (chapter 17).  He first prays for God to, "...¹glorify your Son that your Son may glorify you."  Then He prays for protection of the Disciples, "...¹¹Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name, the name you gave me, so that they may be one as we are one."  Finally, Jesus prays for all Believers in chapter 17, verses 20-26.

Inclusion 
²⁰ “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message," - He is speaking about the Disciples since the prayer preceding this one is for them.  He is not limiting his prayer to the 11 who had followed Him, but extending His prayers to all people who listen to and receive God's word through His teachings of the Disciples (scripture).  Interesting thought is that He's not just praying for Believers, but also for those yet to believe when He says, "...those who will believe in me"

Unity 
^21 "that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. ²² I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one. ²³ I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me." - This is an invitation..an invitation to be with Jesus and with God, that we are all one simply by believing the Jesus was sent by God!  He prayed earlier on for the Disciples to also be one with Him and with God.  Jesus spent time praying for the unity of people though the belief that God sent His Son to bring people to eternal salvation.

Salvation
²⁴ “Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world." - Another invitation, this time for salvation.  He wants those who have had some exposure to Jesus "...those you have given me" to be with Him where He is (heaven for eternity).  The reason for His desire to have people see the glory of God is because God loved Jesus even before the creation of the world.  Previous verses connects Believers with Jesus and Jesus with God and God with Believers.  This illustrates God's love for us as He loves Jesus before creation.

Forgiveness
²⁵ “Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. ²⁶ I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.” - To me is a great verse about the continuation of expanding God's kingdom through Christ.  "...and I will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them."  Jesus knew He was going to be killed and yet says He is going to continue to make known God's love so that all people can be with them.  That's talking about us, here and now.  It reassures that His church continues even today and since Jesus says "I will" means to me that He lives on for eternity and with the invitations to us, we only need to accept God as Lord of our lives through His Son Christ Jesus.  

Praise God!

John 17:20-26

New International Version (NIV)

Jesus Prays for All Believers

²⁰ “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, ²¹ that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. ²² I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— ²³ I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.
²⁴ “Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.
²⁵ “Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. ²⁶ I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.”

Are you sure?

My wife and I are blessed to be able to facilitate one of the small groups at our church on the topic of Heaven from a DVD series by Randy Alcorn.  I thought I would blog about Heaven and some of what I’ve learned each week.  My hope is that you might be intrigued enough to learn more about Heaven too.  I mean, we should probably know a little something about the place where we want to spend an eternity.

Paradise!

There are as many views and opinions of what heaven looks like as there are people on the planet!  The Bible teaches that it is a place free from sin, free from pain, free from misery, free from all the things that are wrong with the world.  It’s a place so magnificently beautiful that we are unable to comprehend its glory.  Simply put, it’s Paradise.  What a great place to spend eternity!  I think if you ask most people you know where are going to go after they die they’ll reply, “Heaven.”  And I bet that if you then ask them why they think they are going to Heaven, they’ll reply something to the effect of them being a good person or that they believe in God.

“By default”

In the DVD, Randy Alcorn teaches that people have the default belief that they are going to Heaven.  People believe they are born with a Heavenly destiny and as long as they don’t murder people or commit crimes, then they are headed to Heaven after they die.  But consider that the Bible teaches us that man is born with a sin-nature.  People are born into sin.  Sin is what separates people from God.  Heaven, is God’s dwelling place and devoid of sin.  It cannot exist there.  Therefore the sinful man’s default destiny is actually hell (separated from God) and not Heaven.  Kind of depressing, huh?  So, how does one get into Heaven?

Perhaps I can live a life free of sin…

Q.  How about if you just lead a good clean life?  A life without sin?  Sort of a 10 Commandment kind of thing.  That will surely earn you a spot in Heaven, right?

A.  Well, that’s a nice thought, but impossible to accomplish.  For this to be a path to salvation, then sin would need to be ranked.  Sins would have to be listed as worse or better than another.  Then at what level of sin could you still commit and make it into Heaven?  What about compounding sin, would that stack up?  Would 5 semi-bad sins equal one really bad one?  How much sin is too much sin?  The Bible teaches that all sin is sin.  It is equal.  It serves one and only one purpose, to separate God’s people from God Himself.  Have you ever had a lustful thought?  Ever said anything bad about another person?  Ever lied?  Ever cursed God?  Ever rebelled against your parents?  Ever ignored someone in need that you had the ability to help? Ever gossip? Ever wished harm on someone else?  Ever taken revenge on someone?  According to Jesus, these are all sins!   The 6th Commandment says, “Thou shalt not kill”, Jesus says that when you speak bad about someone, you are in effect murdering them with words.  The 7th Commandment says, “Thou shalt not commit adultery”.  Jesus says that even thinking lustful thoughts about another person is adultery.  Get the picture?

Perhaps I can do good things to earn my spot…

Q.  Maybe you can’t be as good as Jesus, but how about just being a pretty good person?  Surely God will show favor to good people.  Those that try really hard, are good people, give to charity and say their prayers every day.  God, who is forgiving will let those people in Heaven, right?

A.  Well, that’s a nice thought too, but impossible to accomplish.  If salvation could be earned through good deeds, then how would the magnitude of those deeds be measured?  How good is good enough?  To determine your level of “good”, you’d need to be measured against something. for example, If you want to be the best in a sport, then your performance would need to be compared with the performance of someone considered the best at that sport and anything less is failure.  The team that wins the Super Bowl is the best, all others failed to reach that goal.  The Olympian who wins the gold medal is the best, all others failed to reach that goal.  So in considering how good you are, you must then compare yourself with the person who lived the best, most clean life.  By this logic, you’d need your life to be measured against the life Jesus lead!  In doing so, you’d always fall short and therefore a failure and not going to Heaven.

Ok, so now what?

Q.  Now I’m depressed because it seems like I’m destined for hell, what can I do?!?

A.  Wait!  There is hope for you!  This is where Jesus steps in.  He was the only truly sinless man and He took it upon Himself to become the last sacrifice.  By His dying on the cross, and rising from the dead we no longer need to try to be good enough to earn our place in Heaven.  We only need to accept God’s grace and His free gift of eternal salvation through Jesus Christ.  This gift is given freely by God to those who believe that Jesus died on the cross for their sins and that He is the son of God for which salvation is achieved.  A person needs to accept God’s gift of salvation in their hearts.  And in doing so, a person will change from the inside out.  There will be fruit (meaning good deeds or works) from that person’s acceptance of Jesus as Lord.  You will let God guide your life and your path.  These deeds are done out of the love of Jesus rather than by trying to earn points for salvation.  Once you give your life to Jesus, your focus will change from earthly accomplishments to living to expand God’s Kingdom on Earth so that none will perish and that all will have eternal life with Jesus.  Jesus said in John 14:6, “I am the way and the truth and the light, no one comes to the father except through me.”  He is the path.

Consider this

I had a chat with my friend a few weeks ago about Salvation and we were discussing the story when Jesus was on the cross with two criminals also being crucified with him from Luke 23: 39-43 “One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: ‘Aren’t you the Messiah? Save yourself and us!’  But the other criminal rebuked him. ‘Don’t you fear God,’ he said, ‘since you are under the same sentence? We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.’  Then he said, ‘Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.’  Jesus answered him, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.”

The second criminal believed in God (Don’t you fear God) and acknowledged who Jesus was and asked forgiveness (remember me when you come into your kingdom).  He admitted he was guilty (we are punished justly).  Jesus knew the criminal’s heart and granted him grace and salvation (Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.)  As you can see, the criminal did not earn his salvation from doing good deeds.  In fact, he had done bad deeds which lead to his death sentence.  It took Jesus Himself to save this criminal.

God is forgiving to all asking for forgiveness and accepts His Son as their Savior and Lord.

....his small heart grew three sizes that day!

I love the line in How the Grinch Stole Christmas that goes "Maybe Christmas", he thought, "doesn't come from a store....Maybe Christmas... perhaps... means a little bit more!"  Sometimes I think those people standing in line at 2:00am at WalMart to buy a 40" flat screen should watch the Grinch movie before they decide on such an endeavor!

What's it all about?
There's a good chance if I asked most people what Christmas is really all about, I'm likely to get a response like, "It's Jesus' birthday."  Because even with all the Christmas shopping and running around and buying presents and all the chaos, I think that most people know what it's really all about, Jesus.  And they are correct, it is all about the birth of Jesus.  But, I wonder what kind of responses I would get if I were to pose a follow-up question, "sooo, why is that important?"  I'd be curious to hear some of those answers.  I picture it kind of like a Jay Leno Jay-Walking segment.  But instead of crazy answers that Jay gets during that bit, I bet there would be a lot of silence and ummmm's. 

ummmm...
The question of "why is that important" is interesting to me because it's kind of like asking "why is Jesus important" which then leads into "who is Jesus to you?"  Jesus himself asked that very question of His disciples, his very close, most trusted friends.  In Matthew 16:15 He asks, "Who do you say I am?"  Imagine if Jesus himself went around asking people on the street in Jay Leno fashion, "Who do you say I am?"  I'm sure there would be several ummmm answers.  He'd probably even get the occassional "you're God's son" or "you are the guy who died on the cross." or maybe, "aren't you the one who walked on water?"

All true answers, but all not really the right answers.  When Jesus asked the question "Who do you say I am?" Simon Peter was the one who got it right, "You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God." Matthew 15:16  Upon hearing this answer, Jesus was excited and blessed Peter.  Jesus is the Messiah, meaning the Savior,  He's the one sent by God to redeem man and save his soul.  Redeem man from what?  Sin.  All man is sinful, and sin separates man from God the Father.  God gave us a gift for Christmas...the gift of grace, forgiveness, salvation and of freedom.  It's the greatest gift ever and we did nothing to earn it because it cannot be earned.  There is no amount of "good deeds" man can do to earn salvation.  It comes simply from accepting God's gift through Christ Jesus.    

The best present ever!
God is the most amazing gift-giver of all!  The very well known scripture John 3:16 illustrates this well, "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."  God gave His one and only Son to man and all we have to do to receive the gift of eternal life is to believe in Him.   This is not to say people need to just believe that Jesus was the Son of God.  A person can believe that Jesus was the Son of God but still not accept Him as their Savior.  Many people believe Jesus was God's son, but don't have Him in their hearts.  You must believe that Jesus is your Savior, and you must have a personal relationship with Him to really receive God's gift of salvation.  

The BIG question..
So now ask yourself this question, "If God had a big-box retail store, would I line up at 2:00am to receive His free gift?"  During this Christmas season I will be praying for you and others who do not yet have a personal relationship with Christ.  For anyone who knows of who Jesus was, but does not who He is.  I know thousands of other Christ-followers will be praying for you also, for you to accept the true meaning of CHRISTmas.  It's God's desire to have you in His Kingdom.  Remember the second part of John 3:16 "...that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." 
Merry Christmas! 

Separation of church and...

Separation of church and State is an important “hot” topic which I am not going to address right now!  Why?  Because I think that there is an even more critical “separation” that needs to be discussed.  And that is, the separation of Church and Self. 

Today, I had an interesting conversation about Halloween with a co-worker.  She was talking about what kind of candy she should give out at Halloween this year.  After a few minutes of discussion, she eventually proclaimed, “Well, whatever it is at least I won’t be like one of those people who wraps literature around the candy they give out.”  I asked her to explain and she replied, “You know, they wrap religious literature around the candy bars.”  I countered, “Well, Halloween is not a day universally celebrated by Christians, so it makes sense they would try to inform people.”  She then said, “Yeah but…the kids just want candy and this isn’t the right time to be doing that.” An interesting comment she made,”not the right time.”  This implies there is a right and a wrong time to express your faith.  This is what I mean by the “Separation of Church and Self.”  Keeping your church, faith separated from the rest of your life. 

Unfortunately, due to work responsibilities we weren’t able to continue our conversation.  I’m guessing that if we had, she would have expanded that she believes that religious topics should be discussed only in church and perhaps only on a Sunday.  And based on how offended some people respond lately when someone mentions a religious belief during any other time of the week than Sunday morning, I think that she's expressing a fairly popular opinion.  “Keep your religion at church” or perhaps you’ve heard “keep your religion out of government”, or even “keep your religion out of schools.”  I can understand the concern.  I mean, I wouldn’t want our government, one that tends to fail at most things to get their hands around trying to manage a Federal religion!  But does this mean that we can only be faithful during church hours?   

I don't think practicing your religion means practicing it during specific times of the week.  A genuine Christ follower doesn’t have an on/off switch when it comes to living out their faith.  “Oh, it’s Christmas morning, better head to church to get my religious fix to cover me for the next year.”  No, that’s not it at all!  I just can’t picture God being happy to see His people ignoring Him all week long and then heading to church on Sunday “just to put their time in”.  He wants an ongoing relationship with each and every person on Earth through Christ Jesus.  Scripture is clear on this.  He doesn’t want you (or others) to put limits on your relationship with Him.  Scripture is clear on this too!  He wants to part the center of every aspect of your life.

Luke 10:27 says, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind”

Luke 10:27 doesn’t say, Love the Lord your God on Sunday morning and with a portion of your soul and with a little strength and part of your mind.

I’ll admit that there was a time in my life that I didn’t understand why my religious beliefs needed to be part of my life other than the occasional Sunday morning.  I thought you just needed to believe that there is a God and that Jesus was a man who was God’s son and then I was all set on my pathway to heaven.  But there’s a difference between believing that there IS a God and believing IN God.  Check out James 2:19 “You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that--and shudder.” 

A person can believe in the existence of God, but it takes a heart full of faith, love, submission and worship to live a life where you believe IN God and His plan of salvation and grace.  Once you get there, that will be the point where you can no longer understand the Separation of Church and Self.  It no longer makes sense.  How can your heart be so filled with love for the Lord, that at any point during your day or night that you can separate this out?  Just turn it off.  It’s not possible.  In fact, if you remove any portion of your love for God love out of your heart, you end up making room for something else.  Likely, it will be something that is the opposite of love, as in hate, fear, desire, and sin.  

Personally, I believe that there is no way you can discuss the Separation of Church and State until you no longer have Separation of Church and Self.   When you are no longer separating yourself from your faith, when you are truly living it 24/7 and when your entire heart belongs to God, to His glory…then everything else will fall in line.  Answers to those “hot topics” become crystal clear.  All you need to do is stop separating God out of your everyday life.  He has the answers.  He doesn’t want to just know you and guide you and have you love Him on Sunday.  He desires that each and every day!

1 John 3:1
See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!  and that is what we are! 

Roses, stop and smell them

Under pressure!

Priorities, priorities, priorities...are a huge topic of discussion lately. I sometimes hear people older than myself telling me about how when they were my age, things weren't quite as hectic.  I suppose they are right.  Look at how we are constantly trying to fit in as many activities in our already over-scheduled lives: family, work, school, kids, sports, meetings, social gatherings, business trips, etc. Last time I looked there were still only 24 hours in each day and we like to maximize each one of those hours.  I mean seriously, I'm writing this at 11:32pm!  But with all these distractions, just where does God fit?  Does He get shoved onto the back burner in your day-to-day priorities?  If I asked you to write down your life's priority list, what would it look like?

Maybe your priority list looks something like this;            Or perhaps like this one;

Family                                                                                       God

Career                                                                                       Family

Health                                                                                       Career

God                                                                                            Health

Money                                                                                       Money

Recreation                                                                              Education

Education                                                                                Recreation

Politics                                                                                      Politics

Charity                                                                                      Charity

One of my favorite sermons my Pastor preached about was Prioritizing God.  The main point of the sermon was that we shouldn't put God at the top of our priority list.  He should “BE” our list.  Everything on that list needs to be centered around God.  Everything.  The risk of “prioritizing” God (even if you put him at the top of the list) is that if something really important came up, God stands the risk of being bumped down the list.  Perhaps it would be a family illness, a loss of a job or severe financial stress.  We then tend to lose focus on Him, spend our time and energy on the circumstances of the situation and therefore bumping God down our priority list.  But by keeping Him at the center of everything on our list, the order can fluctuate, and He remains our source fo strength and firmly at the center.

                                                                                      family

                                                                    career                   charity

                                                                health          God             politics

                                                                   money                   education

                                                                                 recreation

Priorities = distractions

When a person has too many priorities, each is getting only a fraction of that person's attention.  Again, we still only are given 24 hours in a day.  Each priority acts as a distraction from the other priorities.  These multiple priorities and distractions are causing people to be too overscheduled and busy day and night.  The distractions are the things that take you away from what's really important, your personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ.  Think about it, if you lived on a deserted island with nothing more than a loin-cloth and banana leaves for shoes, you'd get to know God real quick.  With all of our modern distractions having been vanished away, you'd be able to focus completely on Him.

There isn't an App for that

So now we've established that priorities will yield distractions which can then weaken our relationships with God.  But what enables these distractions?  The great enabler for managing our busy lives (priorities) these days is our devices and the technology surrounding these devices: Smartphones, iPads, iPods, Playstations, Xbox 360s, wifi, 4G, streaming video, Netflix, Google, Facebook, GPS and apps.  You name it.  So where does God fit into all of this stuff?  Maybe God needs an App.  How can we find Him amidst the chaos of technology and our busy overscheduled lives?  Since everything else in our lives is taking up our attention, we can easily lose focus on God.  There is a good scripture about this very situation. Let me paraphrase, Matthew 14:22-32.  Peter was in a boat with the other disciples when they saw Jesus walking on the water.  Jesus told Peter to come to him.  Peter got out of the boat and started to walk towards Jesus.  But then he saw the wind he became afraid and began to sink.  Jesus then reached out his hand and grabbed Peter.  When Peter looked away from Jesus, he got scared and lost his way. He saw the wind, looked away from Jesus and sank.  Perhaps wind could equal anything that is taking your focus away from Jesus (aka a distraction)

A real turn off

This past summer I went camping, my wife and our two boys (5 & 8).  First time ever, we loaded up our little truck and set out for a tenting adventure.  TV, iThings, phones, computer, internet, cable, housework, laundry, yard work, job stress everything was left at home.  We went mid-week when almost no one else was there.  We set up our tent and our site, and then spent time enjoying the park.  We went hiking, fishing, walking in the creek, finding crayfish, bugs and fossils.  Later we roasted hot dogs over the open campfire.  Of course we had s’mores for dessert.  After telling silly stories around the fire (versus telling scary stories) we all climbed into the tent.  With little light, we improvised our normal bedtime book reading time with telling Bible stories to our boys. Everyone shared their favorite Bible story.  When we were finished, I saw that it was only 9:45pm...which is certainly not my regular bedtime!  Let's just say that it I had a rough time falling asleep!

3:14am is an actual time

I really dislike tent camping.  My theory is that I don't work all year just so that I can spend my vacation sleeping on the dirt.  But, as a parent, you have to make sacrifices sometimes!  I finally fell asleep somewhere around 11:00 - 11:30pm.  At some point in the night/morning a cold, clammy finger tip was poking my forehead..."Daaaad" I heard my oldest whisper to me, "I have to go to the bathroom."  My clock indicated the time was 3:14am.  Yes, a.m.  I fumbled around for the flashlight, then took him for a short walk to the bathroom area.  After he was finished, we headed back towards the tent.  That's when I noticed the night sky.  It was amazing!  It was completely full of stars and a magnificent full moon over head.  The air was warm and humid and the sounds of crickets and cicadas overwhelmed me.  We walked slowly back towards the camp on that stone park road.  I stopped and pointed to the moon and said to him, "look at that moon tonight, it's gorgeous...aren't those stars incredible?!"  My son looked up and said, "Wow!...it's so bright out but it's nighttime!"  We were both enjoying the fact that we could see our shadows on the road from the moon's light.  The fishing pond was like a sheet of glass and the meadow was covered in dew and fog.  We spent the next few minutes in awe of creation.  We were in awe of all of it all.  We stood in awe of God.  We talked about God and how he made all this beauty.  What a humbling experience for the both of us.  All of life's distractions were gone for those few moments.  It was just me and my son in complete amazement of the Father's creation.  It was unforgettable.

Sidebar

Kids get this.  They get God.  Their lives haven't been muddled up with distractions, skepticism, negativity, sarcasm, and doubt.  If you ever get a chance to talk to a child about God, I recommend it.  They have a faith that is so pure that you'll be amazed at it's simplicity and their unfaltering devotion.  Jesus knows this...

“...Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.  Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.” -  Mark 10:14-16

Pump the brakes!

That camping experience was something I will never forget.  In fact, it's changed the way I look at things too.  I try to make more effort to stop and smell the roses or to stop and see the moon-shadow.  God wants us to worship him day and night.  Don't get me wrong, I like devices and things of the world too.  In fact, I just finished playing my electric guitar and am typing this blog on my laptop while listening to iTunes.  Once I am done, I might even go and watch a show on Netflix through my Xbox.  All I am saying is that maybe we need to pump the brakes, slow down, shut things off and spend time appreciating and acknowledging and giving thanks to God for His creation.

In case you’re wondering where the inspiration for this blog post came from, it came from God’s word…

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

Love.

This story is too good not to share.  This is what happens when Jesus' love works through others for others...


The Gay Protest That Encountered The Love of God
From Charismanews.com
by Michael Brown

Last week, Scott Volk, one of the pastoral leaders at FIRE Church, my home congregation, received a call from the local police informing him that there would be a gay protest outside our building on Sunday morning.
The leader of the protest announced on Facebook, “We will meet just before service begins, and protest as they gather, we will have a silent protest as service is going and let them have it as they leave for the day. Remember we will be peaceful and respectful, something they don’t understand. We are going to STAND TOGETHER AS A COMMUNITY to show that our love is stronger than their hate.”

In response, I wrote on my blog: “On behalf of FIRE Church, I want to extend to you the warmest welcome and let you know that we are thrilled that you are here with us on Sunday. We have been praying for you for a long time!
“As always, you will only meet with love, kindness, and respect from the FIRE leadership and congregants, and we proclaim to you once again the amazing grace of God. Jesus died to save us from our sins, heterosexual and homosexual alike, and only in Him can we find forgiveness, redemption, and transformation. Jesus alone is the Healer, Savior, Deliverer, and Transformer.”
On my radio show, I also encouraged them to come in good numbers so we could greet them, and Scott posted a note on Q-Notes, a local gay website that had announced the protest, saying, “As the pastor of FIRE Church, I just want you to know that you’ll be greeted with the same love and compassion as we always endeavor to show anyone--you are more-than-welcome! You make mention of the ‘hate’ that we show. Yet, in all our years here we’ve only desired to reach out with love to everyone in the local community here whether they are labeled as gay or straight. Hopefully, you’ll see that love demonstrated on Sunday as you protest.”

Not surprisingly, given the suspicion, and misunderstanding that exists, Scott’s gracious invitation drew some hostile responses:
David: “Love is the most disfigured mask that hate wears.”
Sue: “If what you think is reaching out in love is perceived as hateful attack, perhaps you should reconsider your actions.”
David: “You can fool yourself, Mr. Volk. You can fool your parishioners. But you can’t fool God. He knows what’s in your heart, and it isn’t love. It’s hate.”
Tom: “What these fire church people probably don’t understand is that spending an eternity ANYWHERE with them is what I would consider a true HELL. They should concern themselves with their own pathetic lives and leave other alone to theirs ...”

Scott responded by inviting them to his home for dinner to spend a night with him and his family. And he explained that, “to call someone hateful without ever meeting them, seeing them, or hearing them speak, is an indication of a heart that needs love. I make myself available.”
On Sunday morning, Aug. 26th, about 10 protesters showed up (we were disappointed there were so few) and some of our FIRE leaders met with them, offering them water and snacks, sharing God’s love and truth with them, and then inviting them to join us in the service. After a few minutes they left, explaining that we were too nice and loving to deserve a protest!
Bear in mind that these protesters know the stands we have taken for biblical values and some of them have listened to my radio broadcasts or read my writings, so they recognize how strongly we differ with them on many key issues. Yet they also recognized our genuine love for them and saw that we were not full of hate. The love of Jesus, flowing out of Spirit-filled, godly hearts, makes an impact that cannot be denied.

Scott shared this good news on the Q-Notes website, along with the invitation to those calling us hateful to join him for dinner at his house. In response Spydre wrote, “I want to hear more about this Jesus,” and Jaybea commented, “Even I would be welcome there? It would be an honor to meet Scott Volk and Dr. Brown. I’m beginning to see light as very attractive.” How amazing!
The next day, Monday, Aug. 27th, the leader of the protest called into my radio show to apologize publicly for the protest, explaining that their “anger ... was aimed [in] the wrong direction.” And then he said these words: “Once we got there Sunday morning we were greeted with absolutely perfect love. I mean, it was fantastic.” Praise God!

After the broadcast, we exchanged contact information and are looking forward to sharing a meal together and, more importantly, candidly sharing our hearts. This is genuinely good news.
When the Lord called me to get involved with homosexual issues eight years ago, He said to me, “Reach out and resist,” meaning, “reach out” to the people with compassion and “resist” the activist agenda with courage.
Is it possible to do both? By God’s grace, the answer is yes, and in the end, love never fails.

Michael Brown is the author of The Real Kosher Jesus and the host of the nationally syndicated talk radio show The Line of Fire on the Salem Radio Network. He is also president of FIRE School of Ministry and director of the Coalition of Conscience.

Get real!

Sticks and stones
It makes me sad to see how Christians are being portrayed in the world these days.  Why do Christians get these distorted and hurtful labels placed on them?  I've seen the words bigot, discriminatory, anti-gay, close-minded, hateful, judgemental, out-of-touch and irrelevant all tied with Christianity in recent news articles, reports, blogs, social media and videos.  I wonder what Jesus himself would say if someone called him those names?  He'd probably give that person a big hug because, well, he's Jesus and he loves everyone including sinners!  Wait!  We're all sinners, so he must love us all! 

Who's to blame?  I blame us!
I blame part of this bad perception on some Christians themselves.  See, there is an expectation of Christian behavior as it's clearly outlined in the Bible.  When non-Believers (or sometimes-Believers) see people calling themselves Christian acting in a way that doesn't align with the Biblical teachings of Christianity, then labels are put on people as a whole.  Yes, a messed up stereo-type.

Who's to blame?  I blame them!
I blame part on the media for picking and exploiting stories about Christians that show those who are not behaving in a Christ-like manner perpetuating a misguided idea about what Chritianity is really all about.  Lets face it, there are some crazies out there who don't do the rest of us any favors.  But instead of over-looking these stories, the media will often put them front and center.  When was the last time you saw a major media story that showed a Christian living out his faith in a positive way?

Who's to blame?  I blame us some more!
I blame social-media for it's fast paced, sarcastic humor and incorrect message spreading as well.  How many times have you seen cynical cartoon, images, web-videos and the like, that reduce Christians down to a point where a reader just laughs and mocks them.  This denigrates Christianity and removes all the loving wonderful aspects of all of Christ's teachings.  It is making a mockery of what Jesus' purpose and what real Christ-followers believe.

Check yourself, before you wreck yourself
So what's a Jesus loving Christ-follower to do?  I think those poking fun of and mislabeling Christians don't truly comprehend what it means to be Christian.  No one is perfect (only Jesus was), but all of us are forgiven when we give our lives over to Christ.  In doing so, we're held to a different standard.  We can't hate, like the world does.  We can't be bigoted.  We can't discriminate.   We have to be as my Pastor says,  "Jesus with skin on."  If we are to change the misperception of what a Christian is all about, we need to match our actions and words with scripture.  Does what you do or say align with God's word?

Separation anxiety
Often times it feels like we are under attack.  And rightly so, because well...we are.  Whether you believe that evil does exist (Satan) or not, you must agree that the best way to keep people from having a personal relationship with God through Christ is to separate His people from Him.  Worldly activities and government policies will often subtly work to separate people from God.  We need to remain faithful.  We need to remain in God's grace by following His word (scripture) and acting and behaving in ways that please God and build up His Kingdom.  This is tough to do.  But Jesus made it easy for us.  Pray and live in faith and God will strengthen you.  When asked what is the most important Commandment, Jesus answered:

"Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.  The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.  There is no commandment greater than these.”(Mark 12:30-31). 

24/7
If you love the Lord your God then in turn you will love His people, His creation.  But also, if you love your neighbor as yourself, you will also love the Lord God!  Kind of neat how those two most important commandments go hand-in-hand.  But what the world needs to understand is that in living out "Love the Lord your God...", a Christian is filled with God's love through Jesus 24/7.  It's not a Sunday-thing.  It's not just on Christmas and Easter.  It's day and night.  In doing so, a person is humble and submissive before God and does whatever he can to please God through worship, prayer and every aspect of life.  God is the center of all, He is not somewhere on your priority list.  Your thoughts, opionions, actions, activities and words should serve to glorify God to best you know how.  It is done through a continual personal relationship with Jesus.

A Christian cannot do this and turn his back to God when there is a hot-topic or issue facing our culture today.  A Christian needs to keep his focus on God while walking in the world.  A Christian must not waver from obedience to God just because it's easier to go with the flow of popular opinion.  Loving your neighbor as yourself does not mean that its ok to turn away from God or his word in order to do so.  It also doesn't mean your neighbor is always right.  God is always right and just.  As a Christian we can't pick the parts of scripture that we like and ignore the rest.  Yes, love your neighbor, but first and foremost love the Lord your God.  You can't love the Lord your God and be intentionally disobedient at the same time.
Pride and truth
Personally, I think what our culture today struggles the most with is pride and truth. 
Pride.  We are a culture of prideful people who can take care of ourselves and don't need God in our lives.  People reject Him, or turn away from Him because they are living a happy, comfortable life and are good people.  I don't have a way to convince anyone they need God's grace, that's something a person has to accept for themselves.  I pray for those people to accept God's free gift of salvation without having some life altering tragedy in order for them to realize they need Him. 

Truth.  The second thing that our culture doesn't like is truth.  The Bible is full of truth.   If you are calling yourself a Christian, then the Bible is well...your truth.  It's your Bible!  It is truth.  Sometimes it is hard to accept because some biblical truth is contrary to what is acceptable and "right" in our culture today.  Before accepting Christ in my life, I often went back and forth on issues because both sides made sense from time to time.  But what was missing was the knowledge of truth defined by authority.  When I let God rule my life, I found that authority....God himself, the Creator.  I'm pretty sure He knows what's right and wrong.  I now know truth.  I pray for those who do not yet know truth,  and that they come to know it through His grace, and word. 

The major difficulty with pride and truth is that we often have to set aside our pride in order to accept truth.

What to do
I will continue to read God's word and pray so that I can be like Jesus to the best of my ability.  I will continue to to try show people God's love and grace through how He works through me.  I pray my actions and words glorify God and do not serve to separate His people from Him but instead encourage others to seek Him out through Jesus.  This in no way means I am perfect.  I make mistakes.

I am a Christian, not a bigot.  I love my neighbor no matter his race.
I pray for the salvation through Christ for people of all races.

I am a Christian, my aim is not to discriminate but to love my neighbor no matter his religious belief.
I pray for the salvation through Christ for people of all religions and those without any belief system.  I pray their hearts are opened to God through Jesus.

I am a Christian and will demonstrate love for my neighbor no matter his sexual orientation.
I pray for the salvation through Christ for people struggling with sexual addiction, confusion and differing orientations.   I pray for their strength to overcome sin.

I am a Christian. I am not closed-minded or hateful.   I love my neighbor no matter his judgement on me because I identify myself with Christ.  I pray for the salvation through Christ for all people overwhelmed with pride, cynicism and judgement.

I am a Christian.  I am not perfect.  I thank God each day for His loving grace.

If you're wondering where I got this blog idea from, well, it came from God Himself.

"And now, just as you accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord, you must continue to follow him. Let your roots grow down into him, and let your lives be built on him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness.

Don’t let anyone capture you with empty philosophies and high-sounding nonsense that come from human thinking and from the spiritual powers of this world, rather than from Christ.  For in Christ lives all the fullness of God in a human body. So you also are complete through your union with Christ, who is the head over every ruler and authority."
Colossians 2: 6-10