Tag Archives: Jesus

Christians are peaceful, are great servants, are there for anyone in trouble. I will take Jesus anytime over anything else in the world.

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The following is from Dr Dale Meyer, the President of Concordia Seminary, he was the president while I was a student there, I took a couple of his classes and I think the world of Dr Meyer. I am posting his blog from today to undergird some of my comments afterwards. In no way has Dr Meyer endorsed or not endorsed, I don’t really know the background on “Charlie Hebdo” and so he is providing some of that and also some thoughts as a Pastor and leader in my church hierarchy. (And yes feel free to check out the link to First St John’s while you’re at it.)
First Saint John’s, York, Pa. shared Dale Meyer‘s status.
Posted by Jim Driskell · 19 minutes ago
Meyer Minute for January 8

“Compliments to the French police for their quick identification and pursuit of the three evil men who gunned down the 12 people in Paris. Amidst many thoughts, I’m also thinking about this as a sincere church-goer…

First, Charlie Hebdo satirizes the Christian religion (understand Roman Catholic) even more than Islam. I googled and found cartoons that were very offensive to me as a follower of Jesus.

Second, last Saturday the Wall Street Journal ran a front page feature on empty churches in Europe. A little over 11% of the French attend services every week. Germany is the same. While there are still true believers in Europe, Christendom is dead.

Secularized society…mockery of religion…it’s not unlike the situation early Christians found themselves in. A minority in a pluralistic society where everything was relative, many early Christians were mocked, shunned, and here-and-there the victims of violence.

That’s Europe; what about America? American Christians aren’t living in a Charlie Hebdo Europe…yet. It could come, we see signs, but it doesn’t have to. One key to the future will be the energy that you and I put into the institutional church, and that comes down to the congregations where we worship. St. Paul said he was a “helper of joy” to the Corinthian church (2 Corinthians 1:24). The decline of institutional religion in America is a fact. Doing our part to make vibrant, welcoming churches, and lots and lots of them, could be one way God will bless America in the future.”

Driskell – Amen, Amen, and Amen, you want to see a vibrant United States, let’s all get back to meaningful Christian worship. I would disagree in one sense, being the reference to Christendom being dead in Europe. I certainly understand Dr Meyer’s basis for saying that, but I also believe that God always has a remnant of believers. While the organization may be in very bad shape, Christ’s church is always present.
The one point that I did want to elaborate on is Dr Meyer’s reference to the fact that “Charlie Hebdo” satirizes Christianity more than Islam. I don’t doubt Dr Meyer’s assertion for an instant. Now with the exception of some nut jobs, Christianity is a peaceful religion. Yes, I know, blah, blah, blah, there have been periods where it has not lived up to that and abused its position as the church. Sorry, but that’s bad judgment on the part of individuals, the church should not get a beat down because of some dumbness in the hierarchy. I’d sure like to see many other institutions held to that standard.
My biggest beef is this, the fringe, lunatic atheist element like Richard Dawkins who continually tries to lump all religions together with the violence of Islam. To the effect that, and frankly I can never follow the logic, but that doesn’t seem to stop them, that religion somehow makes people crazy and they do stupid things. I refer you to my previous blog, which readily points out all the good that Christianity has done through history and right up to the present time. Christians have regularly put themselves in harms way to serve others. Christianity is a relationship with God the Son, Jesus who sacrificed Himself for us and we are called to live sacrificially for others. Regardless of whether they are Christians or not. J Warner Wallace suggests that before you buy in to such palpable nonsense of the “new Atheism” who makes such ridiculous claims, a la Richard Dawkins, consider this. What are the claims of the Bible? Oh yes, there is a recognition that there will be violence, that the world is a dark and dangerous place. But we are told as Christians to be the ones to sacrifice, as our Savior did, to stand up for what is the best, as our Savior is. Does that mean that we can never resort to violence. No! Sometimes, there is a need to protect innocent life, especially against belief systems, like secular humanism (Fascism, Communism and any other system that condones taking life in order to build up or prop up governments (in particular) that are illegitimate.
Take away, cut to the chase is this: I can’t speak for Islam, won’t do it, just won’t go there, just no point. There is no doubt in my mind that Christians put their lives on the line in any of the incidents that are going down in France right now. I do have to observe that if Europeans weren’t so ready to jettison the church in favor of humanist philosophies that are so violent and so readily reject the sanctify of human life, that they probably wouldn’t be subject to so much violence. I have no need to satirize other religions because I have full confidence in the truth of Christianity, someone wants to satirize it, hey rock and roll. Their satire doesn’t change the facts, and frankly if you held the lives up of those who engage in such nonsense, I’d be willing to bet there would be plenty to satirize in them. But don’t, just DON’T lump Christianity in with any kind of religiously incited violence or any other religion, the differences are profound. It’s a stupid, untenable position. The Richard Dawkins’s of the world can make silly claims and a small percentage of the population might believe them, but when the chips are down, my faith will be in a Christian; if my life is at risk, if I need education, medical attention, or a helping hand. There is no other belief system in the world, in mankind, that can make such a claim. So go satirize that Richard Dawkins and Charlie Hebdo and anybody who wants to respond with violence to satirism.

In the Fullness of Time Galatians 4: 4-7 First St Johns December 28, 2014

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We make our beginning in the Name of God the Father and in the Name of God the Son and in the Name of God the Holy Spirit and all those who know the perfect timing of God said … AMEN

Under the heading: “There is no such thing as “coincidences” where God is concerned, for that matter anything, since God is concerned with everything about our lives, we read Paul’s letter to the Galatians. Galatian’s four short verses are loaded with teaching. Paul’s quote in Galatians 4 is particularly interesting: “But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son … to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons … you are no longer a slave, but a son,…”(Gal 4: 4-7)

The part that of find of interest right here is “…the fullness of time…” Some think that had something to do with Mary coming to term in her pregnancy, or something that was dictated by Joseph and Mary’s situation. But most see Paul’s short expression as an appreciation and understanding of how God does things in His time and dictates the course of events and history according to His will. The Father didn’t turn to the Son one day and for just any old reason say, “yeah, think it’s about time we do the incarnation thing.” This had been the plan since the beginning, He chooses to reveal that plan to us, first, in Genesis 3:15, at the very beginning and then just before He throws the switch to make it happen, the Father reaffirms His plan, in an even plainer way in Isaiah 9:6. The Genesis passage, the proto-Evangelium, where God promises Satan that there would be a Savior, that the Messiah, anointed One of God, would come into the world to crush Satan’s head. God the Son would crush Satan’s head and by doing so, would save us from the curse of Hell. That sounds harsh, necessary, but in your face. However the Father’s promise to Isaiah is the one that is His majestic promise that He made when Judah is about to be crushed by Assyria and to disappear as a nation, most of her people killed or enslaved. Certainly a great crisis where Yahweh promises them; “A Child is born, A Son is given, Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” The Israelites knew that they were about to take a harsh and long-lasting beating and they needed this promise. Isaiah could have said the same thing Paul writes: “But when the fullness of time had come…”, because Israel had pushed too far for Yahweh and He was now about to let His people know what happens when they ignore Him and get too caught up in their own plans and expectations. The fullness of time had come and Israel, at least for a few generations, would cease to exist.

Paul on the other hand tells us that the “…fullness of time…” had just occurred for the Father to fulfill His promises to Adam and Eve, and to the people of Israel by Isaiah and it happened at this intersection of time. Although Paul didn’t know it, although Jesus prophesied it, this was the perfect time for God. While they were strolling away from the temple and the disciples were admiring the view of the buildings of the temple, Jesus took them to task and said “You see all these, do you not? Truly, I say to you, there will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down.” Don’t become to fascinated by the things man, in this case King Herod, build, because there is going to be another turning point in Israel’s history and this temple that you find so fascinating will be completely destroyed in just a few years. In about 40 years Israel, as you know it now, will cease to exist along with the temple. The Judaism of Israel would no longer be focused on the temple and would be scattered again. A new world would begin and the Christians in Israel would be forced to leave and take Christianity into the world.

This time, that Jesus had been born into, was the perfect time for Him to come into the world and conduct His incarnational ministry. It was a time of peace in Israel, Jesus did not have to contend with wars or any kind of famine or drought. He could get everyone’s full attention on His ministry and drive it deep into their awareness so that they could readily understand their new relationship with the Father. They had time to absorb the Gospel and begin to live it before they had to go into the world to spread the Gospel. They had to unlearn the legalism of Judaism and the debauchery of paganism and to come to understand that they were saved solely and completely by grace. They couldn’t earn their way to Christ in this world or to eternity, they could only be brought to salvation in Him and through His actions, what Jesus does to save us.

The conditions were exactly right for the disciples to absorb Jesus’ teaching and take those teachings into the world. Not only was there peace, the conditions surrounding them enabled them to bring Jesus to the world. As Lee Strobel points out: “The time period when Jesus lived was ideally suited for the spread of Christianity. The vast reach of the Roman Empire primed the known world for the gospel. Roman roads allowed relative ease of travel and greatly increased the area to which the gospel spread. Roman authority also helped protect travelers from robbers and attackers. Throughout the Roman Empire, Greek was the common language, and allowed communication of the gospel between groups who lived hundreds or thousands of miles from each other.”1

The Pax Romana, that is the peace of Rome, which united the entire world, enabled Jesus’ disciples to teach and preach without the distraction of wars or other disruptions to those they preached to. Jesus’ disciples could travel and teach without being abused because the Roman Empire tolerated many belief systems. Any earlier or later, and the disciples would be persecuted before Christianity could take root. At this time Christians could worship and evangelize unmolested. God created the conditions through man, mostly the Romans, so that He could send His Son into the world to preach God’s Word and Will and so that His church would grow. The church of Jesus Christ might otherwise have been steamrolled or isolated to small parts of the world. Jesus’ appearance met other promises of prophecy. Strobel writes: “God fulfilled his prophesied time frame. Daniel predicted that the Anointed One would come and would be ‘cut off’ (killed) before the destruction of Jerusalem and the second temple (Daniel 9: 24-26).”

From Paul’s writing we can see the sovereignty of God, that is God controls and is Lord of all that He has created. He planned and controlled human history so that at just the perfect time in that history His Son would appear and become the focus of the entire world. The world had never been brought together as it had under the Roman Empire and in a couple of hundred years it would be shattered and different peoples would be separated from each other, unable even to communicate. God controls the events of the world, which He does, although He permits man, because of His sin, to spread war and sickness and famine throughout the world. Then clearly God controls those who He has chosen to be Lord of their lives. For myself there is no doubt that God chose the perfect time for me to know Jesus as my Savior. Because you are here, baptized, listening to His Word, about to take His Body and Blood, He has chosen you at just the right time to be saved in Jesus.

Strobel writes: “ God had an appointed day when he would intersect human history with the promised redemption. The moment in history when Jesus arrived was tailored for the rapid spread of the Gospel. All human history is balanced on the fulcrum of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection.”2 God gives us the understanding we need in order to know Him as our Father and Jesus as our Savior, and when we see it in human history, we can better understand how He works in our own personal lives. Take some time over the next week and think about how “..in the fullness of time…” God the Father, Abba, has made us His own sons and daughters that Paul writes about in this passage.

The peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Shalom and Amin.

1Lee Strobel The Case for Christ Study Bible p 1634

2Ibid p 1634

What Christmas Means to Me

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What Christmas Means to Me.

The above link is from Russel and Pascal, an atheist and a Christian, respectively. I really appreciate the following from Pascal:

“Christmas is the story of God’s spirit completely entering mortal body and soul in Jesus Christ.  God’s spirit navigated the humanity he created.  God’s spirit was willingly and intentionally contained in the frailty of a human body with human mind, will and emotions.  God’s spirit did what we do – – suffer.  Christmas is the story of compassion, literally suffering with.  The Buddha did not suffer with me, he taught me how to avoid it by divorcing attachment.  The prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, did not suffer with me.  He taught me how to submit to God and how to conquer.  The pantheon of Hinduism did not suffer with me.  They taught of creation, destruction, and the fire that synthesizes the two in daily life.  Jesus suffered.”

No other faith truly shares the human condition in the way that Christianity does, and Christianity does it in a way that we call all related to in terms of the suffering and the humbleness of normal life. All other beliefs try to tell us there is a way to avoid the human condition. God the Son was born in the flesh lived a humble life and as God suffered and died for us. Not what we do, which is the theme of all other religions, Christianity is what God has done for us. Freedom from the sin and oppression of this world only comes to those who are in Christ in the resurrection. The resurrection, the eternal life that we live the way God intended us to live, in peace, comfort and perfection. Life and life more abundant.

God’s moving our life in our work and in all parts of our life.

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We’ve been trying to pull together a “flesh & blood group”, versus an on-line group for awhile about living our lives as Christians in the workplace. We have an on-line group on LinkedIn, but can’t seem to get it past that. More and more it seems we are disconnecting our work life and our other “vocations” from the fact that we are Christian. Seems like church is an activity we check off the list, instead of a time we come into contact with the living God, look at our life and what it means to be a Christian and how we are going to go back into the world and apply our Christian life.

For the “once in awhile” that we have people at our Wednesday morning “Coffee Break Bible Study”, we been using a book by Dr Gene Veith “God at Work: Your Christian Vocation in All of Life”, which I think is, unfortunately, out of print, but I did manage to grab one off of Amazon.

Dr Veith is the Provost at Patrick Henry College in Virginia and also a very prominent Lutheran leader, writer and teacher. As a Lutheran teacher he is obviously highlighting Martin Luther’s teachings and as Dr Veith points out: “For Luther, vocation, as with everything else in his theology, is not so much a matter of what we do; rather, it is a matter of what God does in and through us.”

This is an important distinction. Lutheran theology is all about what God does, not what we do. The issue of faith, for example. Too many Christian teachers talk about how we need faith. No argument there, but the issue becomes how we get faith. Too often it will be imposed on the person to somehow generate “faith”, otherwise they are somehow not good enough or worthy enough to be Christians. Sorry, but we don’t generate our own faith, when we trust in God and what He’s doing, the Holy Spirit will provide us the faith that we need. We don’t “choose” God, he chooses us. We don’t do anything to earn our way to salvation or justification, it is God who does it and that’s a very good thing. Let’s face it if it’s up to us to have enough faith or somehow achieve justification, really, how’s that going to work out for us? Right! We aren’t going to make it. But when we trust in the Holy Spirit to do it, how’s that going to work out? Yea, we have what we need because He provides us with it.

Obviously when God gives us that kind of trust and understanding that impacts our entire life He is going to do it far better in our life than we will. We trust that He is moving us where we need to be and what we should be doing. That applies not just on Sunday morning, but our lives at work, our lives with our parents, spouses, siblings and children, our lives in the community, whatever we do. God guides us in our entire life. We don’t say that because we go to work God’s not there. Of course God is there guiding us in an important aspect of our life. When we go to school, despite what many in the world think, God doesn’t wait at the door as if public education is somehow some greater “god”. Really! What part of our life is Jesus not Lord of?

We will have group meet at the Green Bean Coffee Co 10 am Wednesday mornings, right at the corner of W King and Beaver Sts in downtown York, Pa. Parking is available right behind the church, 140 W King St, and it’s just a few yards to the coffee shop.

Meyer Minute, Dr Dale Meyer, David’s Psalms read by Jesus which makes them important to us.

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The Rev Dr Dale Meyer has had a varied and tremendous ministry, filling the pulpits of prominent churches of the Lutheran Church, in broadcast and now as President  of Concordia Seminary St Louis, Mo. one of the largest Christian seminaries in the United States. The following is a “minute” describing the connection between King David’s (most of them at least) Psalms and Jesus, who of course is linked to us. Friend Dr Meyer on FaceBook to get his daily “minutes” he’s at Dale Meyer
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Dale Meyer
2 hrs ·

Meyer Minute for November 20

The print on your phone or tablet isn’t large enough? Want the picture bigger? Do the magic thing with your fingers and presto, the print is larger and you get it.

When a follower of Jesus zooms in on the Psalms, the picture of the ages gets clearer. At first blush, each psalm is about something in someone’s life long ago. For example, the writer of Psalm 118 had survived a battle and so he exults. “Glad songs of salvation are in the tents of the righteous… I shall not die, but I shall live.” (Psalm 118:15-17) OK, good for him. You read further and come across this, “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.” (22) Whoa! As a Jesus follower you know that the New Testament uses that passage for Jesus. You reread and see the psalm also describes Jesus. “I shall not die, but live” came to fulfillment in Jesus, who did die but arose and lives forever. Zoom even closer. Since Jesus promises, “Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live,” you also see your future in the psalm. (John 11:25) You shall not die but live! “Glad songs of salvation are in the tents of the righteous.”

The Psalms are the prayer book of the Bible. There’s probably no emotion of your life that isn’t talked about and prayed about in the Psalms. More than that, the Psalms were Jesus’ personal prayer book. He prayed these very words you are reading and praying. Now you’re zooming wide! The psalmist long ago, you, Jesus…people of the kingdom, members of the Body of Christ, all united with Jesus in praying the psalm. “This is the Lord’s doing; it is marvelous in our eyes. This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.” (23-24) The picture of the ages gets very clear!

The saints of Jesus, those who live with authenticity First Saint Johns, November 2, 2014

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Traducción española sigue el texto Inglés

Click on the above link or copy and paste into your browser to hear the audio version of this sermon.

We make our beginning in the name of God the Father and in the Name of God the Son and inthe Name of God the Holy Spirit. I’m going to say good morning saints of York and you’re going to say good morning Saint Jim, Good morning saints of York…

And all God’s people said AMEN! We celebrate All Saints Day today, which is also the same day as Reformation Day which we will observe in this afternoon’s worship, the day that Martin Luther posted his 95 Theses.
Halloween, which was observed on Friday, has its roots in a Gaelic pagan holiday called Samhain [pronounced sawin] which is when it was thought that spirits and fairies could more easily move into the physical world. The souls of the dead would visit the places where they lived. Halloween is the second most observed celebration after Christmas. For those in the secular world who love to think of how pragmatic and reality driven they are, one writer observed that “Halloween is he ultimate holiday of pretending… we dress up and ‘pretend’ to be someone or something other than ourselves…” In other words it simply emphasizes the phoniness of the world that we live in. A world that denies the reality of a loving, Creator God and tries to make itself into something much better that it’s not. The world loves to concern its self with the phoney aspect of “spirituality” which many people today readily buy into and deny the true spirituality that is Jesus Christ. I keep searching, but I can find no where that explains what people really think that kind of spirituality will do, except that it gives them the feeling of being in control, but never really how that control is realized. How it works in terms of eternity? No one seems to be the least bit interested. The world talks a good game about being “genuine”, of authenticity, but you rarely see it, it’s only in terms of their deluded perception of a world without God and then they wonder why they always feel lost, frightened and alone. There is only one source of authenticity and that is in Jesus. When we are a saint in Jesus are we truly authentic, part of which is being humble, that is when we trust the Lord to live the life that He has saved us for. To be sure being a Christian is much more than the Beatitudes, our reading today, but we certainly model authenticity when we do our best to live that life through the power of the Holy Spirit. The Beatitudes are not our works, they are the fruit of the Holy Spirit who is working through us. We still sin, the world thinks that we should live in perfection. No, the saints will always be fallible people, the old man lives in each of the saints, but the Holy Spirit moves us again and again to live up to the Beatitudes. The world tries to live its own virtues, but it is very clear that those virtues are only to enhance their own life and the fruit of their own spirit, the spirit of the world and not of the Holy Spirit. Roy Lloyd tells the following: “…a man who arrived in 1953 at the Chicago railroad station to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. As he stepped off the train… as the cameras flashed and city officials approached … he thanked them politely. Then he asked to be excused for a moment. He walked through the crowd to the side of an elderly black woman struggling with two large suitcases. He picked them up, smiled and escorted her to the bus, helped her get on and wished her a safe journey. Then Albert Schweitzer turned to the crowd and apologized for keeping them waiting. It is reported that one member of the reception committee told a reporter, ‘That’s the first time I ever saw a sermon walking.’” Schweitzer was a German theologian, a Lutheran, an organist who studied Bach, a physician, a medical missionary to Africa. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his philosophy of “Reverence for Life”, evidenced in his founding of a hospital in Gabon around the turn of the twentieth century. It is interesting how a saint of Christ who produced so much fruit as a Christian disciple, so accomplished and yet in a huge crowd, was the only one who noticed an elderly lady who needed help, then and there, to make her next connection for her trip. A simple act from a man who served our Lord in such magnificent ways, a great saint of Christ.
David Kinneman was the speaker at the conference in North Carolina I attended. One thing he returned to over and over in his presentation was that today’s younger generations and, I submit most people in the world, are looking for, is authenticty, genuinness. They know and we who are in Christ know that the world is not genuine. All the institutions of the world fail repeatedly and yet try to convince of their authority and authenticity even while they impose on our society and repeatedly fail. All of us can relate to how we can see through the thin veil of hypocrisy around us. The church is often accused of hypocrisy and often for good reason. We try to convince the world that we are perfect saints in Jesus and yet our attempt is shattered when we look at the true saints. Paul called himself the chief of all sinners. He didn’t say that in an attempt to appear to be pious, he knew of the sins he had committed against Jesus and His church and he acknowledged them and continued to bear the fruit of the Holy Spirit. Not as some kind of way to atone for His sins. Why? His sins had been paid for at the Cross, Paul knew there was nothing he could add to Jesus’ sacrifice for us. Jesus paid for our sins through His suffering and sacrifice. We, as His saints, are saved in His sacrifice, but as His saints we faithfully follow the leading, encouragement, promise and hope of the Holy Spirit which is the only way we can live out the Beatitudes. We acknowledge our failings, our sin. When we try to convince the world that we are perfect and above all the evil of the world, the world can see right through us. But when we acknowledge that the only way that we are perfect is through Jesus and only through His grace and forgiveness, that we still struggle and still fail in sin, then the world may know salvation through Jesus.
We are valuable, we are His creation and are saved by Him through Christ. We have to remember how valuable we are to God. John writes: “See what kind of love [that is the agape love} the Father has given to us: that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him… but we know that when he appears we shall be like him,..” We shall be His saints and we will be perfect, not in ourselves, but in Him who died for us, and because of that we are valuable to the Father and He loves His children with the highest expression of love.
Dr Luther wrote: ‘Tomorrow I have to lecture on the drunkenness of Noah [Gen 9: 20-27]; so I should drink enough this evening to be able to talk about that wickedness as one who knows by experience.” Luther was authentic, I’m not telling you to imitate authenticity to that degree, but it is to acknowledge that we are tempted and occasionally fail.
Since the elders, the saints in Christ will be gathered around the throne of God in heaven as we read in Revelation 7:12, the saints praising God and worshiping Him, let’s pull out the lyrics inserted in your bulletin and let’s praise Him here and now: I love you Lord, lyrics by Petra…
The peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Shalom and Amin.

Hacemos nuestro comienzo en el nombre de Dios Padre y en el nombre de Dios el Hijo y en el Nombre de Dios el Espíritu Santo. Yo voy a decir buenas santos de la mañana de York y vas a dar los buenos días en Saint Jim, buenos santos de la mañana de York …
Y todo el pueblo de Dios dijo AMEN! Celebramos hoy el Día de Todos los Santos, que es también el mismo día como Día de la Reforma que observaremos en el culto de esta tarde, el día en que Martín Lutero clavó sus 95 tesis.
Halloween, que se observó el viernes, tiene sus raíces en un día de fiesta pagano gaélico llamado Samhain [Sawin pronunciado], que es cuando se pensaba que los espíritus y hadas podían moverse con mayor facilidad en el mundo físico. Las almas de los muertos visitaban los lugares donde vivían. Halloween es la segunda fiesta más observado después de la Navidad. Para aquellos en el mundo secular que les gusta pensar en cómo pragmático y la realidad que son impulsados, un escritor señaló que “Halloween es él último día de fiesta de fingir … nos vestimos y ‘pretender’ ser alguien o algo distinto de nosotros mismos. .. “En otras palabras, simplemente pone de relieve la falsedad del mundo en que vivimos. un mundo que niega la realidad de un cariño, Dios Creador y trata de hacer en algo mucho mejor que no lo es. El mundo ama a preocuparse de su auto con el aspecto falso de “espiritualidad” que muchas personas hoy en día comprar fácilmente en y negar la verdadera espiritualidad que es Jesucristo. Sigo buscando, pero no encuentro donde explica que lo que la gente realmente piensa que tipo de espiritualidad va a hacer, excepto que les da la sensación de estar en control, pero nunca realmente cómo se realiza ese control. ¿Cómo funciona en términos de la eternidad? Nadie parece ser el más mínimo interés. El mundo habla un buen juego de ser “auténtico”, de autenticidad, pero que rara vez se ve, es sólo en términos de su percepción ilusoria de un mundo sin Dios y luego se preguntan por qué siempre se siente perdida, asustada y sola. Sólo hay una fuente de autenticidad y que está en Jesús. Cuando estamos a un santo en Jesús son verdaderamente auténtico, parte de la cual está siendo humilde, que es cuando confiamos en el Señor para vivir la vida que Él nos ha salvado para. Para estar seguro de ser cristiano es mucho más que las Bienaventuranzas, nuestra lectura de hoy, pero sin duda modelar autenticidad cuando hacemos nuestro mejor esfuerzo para vivir esa vida a través del poder del Espíritu Santo. Las Bienaventuranzas no son nuestras obras, que son el fruto del Espíritu Santo que está trabajando a través de nosotros. Todavía el pecado, el mundo piensa que debemos vivir en la perfección. No, los santos siempre serán personas falibles, el anciano vive en cada uno de los santos, pero el Espíritu Santo nos mueve una y otra vez a la altura de las Bienaventuranzas. El mundo trata de vivir sus propias virtudes, pero es muy claro que esas virtudes son sólo para mejorar su propia vida y el fruto de su propio espíritu, el espíritu del mundo y no del Espíritu Santo. Roy Lloyd dice lo siguiente: “… un hombre que llegó en 1953 en la estación de ferrocarril de Chicago para recibir el Premio Nobel de la Paz. Como él bajó del tren … como las cámaras destellaron y funcionarios de la ciudad se acercaron … él les dio las gracias cortésmente. Entonces él pidió ser excusado por un momento. Caminó a través de la multitud hacia el lado de una mujer de negro anciano que lucha con dos grandes maletas. Él los recogió, sonrió y la escoltó hasta el autobús, la ayudó a subir y le deseó un buen viaje. Luego Albert Schweitzer se volvió hacia la multitud y se disculpó por mantenerlos esperando. Se ha informado de que un miembro del comité de recepción le dijo a un reportero, “Esa es la primera vez que vi un pie sermón. ‘” Schweitzer fue un teólogo alemán, luterano, un organista que estudió Bach, un médico, un médico misionero a África. Fue galardonado con el Premio Nobel de la Paz por su filosofía de “Reverencia por la Vida”, se evidencia en su fundación de un hospital en Gabón alrededor de la vuelta del siglo XX. Es interesante cómo un santo de Cristo, que produce tanta fruta como un discípulo cristiano, por lo realizado y aún en una gran multitud, era el único que se dio cuenta de una anciana que necesitaba ayuda, entonces y allí, para hacer su próxima conexión para su viaje. Un simple acto de un hombre que sirvió a nuestro Señor de una manera tan magníficas, un gran santo de Cristo.
David Kinneman fue el orador en la conferencia en Carolina del Norte que asistí. Una cosa que él regresó a una y otra vez en su presentación fue que las generaciones más jóvenes de hoy en día y, a mi juicio la mayoría de la gente en el mundo, están buscando, es authenticty, genuinness. Ellos saben y nosotros, los que están en Cristo saben que el mundo no es genuino. Todas las instituciones del mundo fallan en repetidas ocasiones y, sin embargo tratar de convencer de su autoridad y autenticidad, incluso mientras ellos imponen en nuestra sociedad y en repetidas ocasiones fallan. Todos nosotros podemos relacionar con la forma en que podemos ver a través del fino velo de la hipocresía que nos rodea. La iglesia es a menudo acusado de hipocresía y, a menudo por una buena razón. Tratamos de convencer al mundo de que somos santos perfectos en Jesús y sin embargo nuestro intento se hizo añicos cuando nos fijamos en los santos verdaderos. Pablo llamó a sí mismo el jefe de todos los pecadores. Él no dijo que en un intento de que parecen ser piadoso, él sabía de los pecados que había cometido en contra de Jesús y su iglesia y él los reconoció y continuó a producir el fruto del Espíritu Santo. No es como una especie de forma de expiar sus pecados. ¿Por qué? Sus pecados han sido pagados a la Cruz, Pablo sabía que no había nada que pudiera añadir a sacrificio de Jesús por nosotros. Jesús pagó por nuestros pecados a través de Su sufrimiento y sacrificio. Nosotros, como sus santos, somos salvos en Su sacrificio, sino como sus santos que fielmente seguimos el liderazgo, ánimo, esperanza y promesa del Espíritu Santo, que es la única manera en que podemos vivir las Bienaventuranzas. Reconocemos nuestras faltas, nuestros pecados. Cuando tratamos de convencer al mundo de que somos perfectos, y sobre todo el mal del mundo, el mundo puede ver a través de nosotros. Pero cuando reconocemos que la única manera de que somos perfectos es a través de Jesús y sólo a través de su gracia y el perdón, que todavía luchamos y todavía fallamos en el pecado, entonces el mundo conozca la salvación a través de Jesús.
Estamos valioso, nosotros somos su creación y somos salvos por Él a través de Cristo. Tenemos que recordar lo valioso que somos para Dios. Juan escribe: “ver qué tipo de amor [que es el amor ágape} el Padre nos ha dado: que seamos llamados hijos de Dios; y así estamos. La razón por la cual el mundo no sabe de nosotros es que no lo conocía … pero sabemos que cuando él se manifieste, seremos semejantes a él, .. “Vamos a ser sus santos y vamos a ser perfecto, no en nosotros mismos, sino en Aquel que murió por nosotros, y debido a que somos valiosos para el Padre y Él ama a sus hijos con la expresión más alta del amor.
Dr. Lutero escribió: “Mañana tengo que dar una conferencia sobre la embriaguez de Noé [Génesis 9: 20-27]; así que deben beber suficiente esta noche para poder hablar de que la maldad como alguien que sabe por experiencia. “Lutero era auténtica, no te estoy diciendo que imitar autenticidad a ese grado, pero es reconocer que somos tentados y ocasionalmente fallar.
Dado que los ancianos, los santos en Cristo se reunieron alrededor del trono de Dios en el cielo, como leemos en Apocalipsis 07:12, los santos alabando a Dios y lo adoran, vamos a tirar hacia fuera las letras insertadas en su boletín y Alabemosle aquí y ahora: Te amo Señor, letra de Petra …
La paz de Dios que sobrepasa todo entendimiento, guardará vuestros corazones y vuestros pensamientos en Cristo Jesús. Shalom y Amin.

God has given a lot of evidence for His existence

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Ravi Zacharias is one of the most influential Christian apologists of our time, I’ve been reading him for a long time. I do copy a lot of things, but there is a lot of great stuff out there that others may not see and that I think is important to share and so I am submitting this for your consideration.

The gospel of Jesus Christ is beautiful and true, yet oftentimes one will ask, “How can it be true that there is only one way?” Odd, isn’t it, that we don’t ask the same questions of the laws of nature or of any assertion that lays claim to truth. We are discomfited by the fact that truth, by definition, is exclusive. That is what truth claims are at their core. To make an assertion is to deny its opposite. Rather than complain that there is only one way, shouldn’t we be delighted that there is one way?
The question really is, how do we really know this is the truth?
Whether Hitler or Hugh Hefner, religious or irreligious, everyone has a worldview. A worldview basically offers answers to four necessary questions: origin, meaning, morality, and destiny. In turn, these answers must be correspondingly true on particular questions and, as a whole, all answers put together must be coherent.
Taking it a step further, the three tests for truth must be applied to any worldview: logical consistency, empirical adequacy, and experiential relevance. When submitted to these tests, the Christian message is utterly unique and meets the demand for truth.
Consider the empirical test of the person, teaching, and work of Jesus Christ. A look at human history shows why he was who he claimed to be and why millions follow him today. A comparison of Jesus’s teachings with any other claimant to divine or prophetic status quickly shows the profound differences in their claims and demonstrations. In fact, none except Jesus even claimed to be the divine Savior. His offer of grace and forgiveness by being the perfect sacrifice of our offense is profoundly unique.
I position the sequence of fact and deduction in the following way: Love is the supreme ethic. Where there is the possibility of love, there must be the reality of free will. Where there is the reality of free will, there will inevitably be the possibility of sin. Where there is sin, there is the need for a Savior. Where there is a Savior, there is the hope for redemption. Only in the Judeo-Christian worldview does this sequence find its total expression and answer. The story from sin to redemption is only in the gospel with the ultimate provision of a loving God.
But the question can be pushed back further. Does this not all assume that there is a God? Yes, it does, and there are four stages in the argument. The first is that no matter how we section physical concrete reality, we end up with a quantity that cannot explain its own existence. If all material quantities cannot explain their own existence, the only possibility for self-explanation would be something that is non-material.
Secondly, wherever we see intelligibility, we find intelligence behind it. Thirdly, we intuitively know that our moral reasoning points to a moral framework within the universe. The very fact that the problem of evil is raised either by people or about people intimates that human beings have intrinsic worth. Fourthly, the human experience in history and personal encounter sustains the reality of the supernatural.
There you have it. Who is God? He is the nonphysical, intelligent, moral first cause, who has given us intrinsic worth and who we can know by personal experience.
The verification of what Jesus taught and described and did make belief in Him a very rationally tenable and an existentially fulfilling reality. From cosmology to history to human experience, the Christian faith presents explanatory power in a way no other worldview does. Our faith and trust in Christ is reasonably grounded and experientially sustained.
I often put it this way: God has put enough into this world to make faith in Him a most reasonable thing. But He has left enough out to make it impossible to live by sheer reason alone. Faith and reason must always work together in that plausible blend.
Many of you may be familiar with my own story. I was born to Indian parents and raised in India. My ancestors were priests from the highest caste of Hinduism in India’s Deep South. But that was several generations ago. I came to Christ after a life of protracted failure and unable to face the consequences, sought to end it all. It was on a bed of suicide that a Bible was brought to me and in a cry of desperation, I invited Jesus Christ into my life. It was a prayer, a plea, a commitment, and a hope.
That was fifty years ago. I hardly knew what lay ahead of me, except that I was safe in Christ’s hands. Now as the years have gone by and in 2014 we celebrate thirty years of ministry at RZIM, I marvel at the grace and protection of God and the doors he has opened for our team. And more and more, I am convinced that Jesus Christ alone uniquely answers the deepest questions of our hearts and minds.
• This article was posted in: Just Thinking Magazine

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• This article was posted in: Just Thinking Magazine

Make church and worship a little challenging for yourself.

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Yea, “Leadership Magazine” is out (Summer 2014 p 92) and Skye Jethani has written an editorial to challenge our idea of what a sermon should be like. I will take his column a little further. Lutheran worship has always espoused a sermon that is “Law and Gospel”, remind people why they are in worship. We are sinners, we need to be reminded that we violate God’s Law on a regular basis, so we are reminded of what His Law is. But God doesn’t stop there, because we also have the Gospel, the Good News, that Jesus came to be the sacrifice, the payment, the propitiation for our sin. The Law and our regular violation of the Law separates us from God. God is holy, just, righteous. If there is a violation of His Law then His justice requires that there be payment for that violation. Jesus made that payment for us on the cross, through His death and sacrifice. Jesus restored our relationship with God the Father through that sacrifice, when God sees us, He sees His Son. Jesus is perfect, sinless, God the Son and the only One who could make a sacrifice sufficient to pay for the sins of the world. When the Father sees you or me who are in Jesus, He sees His Son and we are restored in the relationship with the Father.
But in this day and age, too often, pastors downplay our sin and give us a more “rose-colored” view of the world and ourselves. We continue to sin, but that gets soft pedaled. Skye writes “…we only grow when we are uncomfortable, and too much comfort can be downright dangerous.” For me it’s dangerous in a couple of ways, it makes us complacent towards the content of the sermon and to the seriousness of the sin that separates us from God the Father and leaves many condemned because we don’t take our Christian discipleship seriously enough for those who don’t know Jesus.
Skye writes: “…With the best intentions, we have tried to make worship a comfortable place for both believers and seekers to learn about God.” And I might add, to learn about our relationship with Him and how we separate ourselves from Him.
Skye points out that our brain functions on two levels. One is when we kind of coast, take it in, but don’t think about it too critically. Our other level is when we are “…required to rethink assumptions, challenge ideas, and construct new behaviors and beliefs. System two must be active to learn. Research shows that the brain shifts from system one to system two when forced to work; when challenged and uncomfortable.” So he asks the question, “…should we be seeking engagement that requires more work on the part of our listeners rather than less?” Shouldn’t my sermons be more challenging, more critical, uplifting, but in terms of remembering what we have to be thankful for and why. We should be able to take what we get from a sermon, examine our own life, our family’s and to be able to articulate that to a person who does not know Christ as Lord of their life? In order to do that I have to push you in my sermons and not make them easy or comfortable.
Skye writes about how: “…Jesus was a brilliant communicator, … it is obvious that the comfort of his audience was not a significant consideration. In fact, Jesus taught in a manner that challenged (sometimes baffled) his listeners. He expected them to work in order to understand his teaching. He asked them questions wrapped his teaching in opaque parables, and often taught in distracting settings.”
Speaking for myself, I want people to be even a little baffled when they leave worship. I would love it if they came up to me and said “hey pastor, what did that mean when you said … and how does that apply to me?”
There’s an old pastoral saying, that we are “to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.” When you sit in those pews in front of me, I want you to feel challenged, convicted, not beat up on, but in a way that makes you want to fight to that next level. When you really confront what the Law is, what Jesus did for you and how that applies to you and those around you, it should raise a host of questions. When you leave on Sunday morning I will feel I have achieved my goal as a “seel sorger” a soul healer if you leave feeling a little challenged. Not because I’m so smart or so good, believe me, that sermon should reach both of us and remind us that only by God’s grace, by the life, death and resurrection are we saved in Christ. And when we remember that, we should also feel that we’ve been pushed and prodded to grow in the faith.

Spirit, mind and body

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Thanks to the York County Council on Aging for a great “Seniors Game”. I have to admit that it sort of bristles that I’m “old” enough to be in anything that refers to “seniors”, however the YCCA, AARP, various other organizations posit that I am “old” enough. It was fun though and I did pretty well, even won in backstroke, which I’ve never won anything at. So I won three silvers and one bronze, 100 yard free, 50 yard back, 50 yard breast and 100 yard breast.
The entire competition went awhile, started at 10am and ended at 3pm, but considering the events and age groups the volunteers made sure things went off bang, bang. Gave me time to chat with new friends, get some good tips, allowed me to reflect back to the competitions I did in school/YMCAs. It’s been a long time since I’ve done a swim meet and there was plenty of time to take it in and get that old feeling from many years ago.
We are very physical beings, when we die, assuming the Lord Jesus doesn’t return before then, we will be in spirit, but only for a short time. We were made to be physical beings. God put Adam and Eve into the Garden of Eden intending that they should live there in a perfect, very physical world. That is what the resurrection will be. We will live in a world much like it is today, but Jesus will be our very visible light, we will be sinless, our bodies will be strong, there will be no illness, no physical disability or death. We will be as we were intended to be until we undermined God’s work with our sin and corruption.
Point being we were made to be very physical, in body, to use our minds for God’s glory and to have a spirit that transcends the world and by the Holy Spirit is guided into eternal life. As God’s children in Jesus we are responsible to use the gifts associated with body, mind and spirit to our best abilities and to the glory of God.
So yea, I try to make a good witness by trusting in God, being led by Him and doing the things that bring glory to Him in all the ways He made me, to rip off the YMCA, in spirit, mind and body. Having swum for YMCA teams, been a member, lifeguard, swimming instructor, phys ed instructor, aquatic director and filling various and sundry other jobs at the “Y”, and being a Christian organization, it’s always great to see that motto and remember all the things that God made us for.
It was fun to compete, it was fun to win some, but it was fun to just have a little God given ability and use it as He intended and maybe, just maybe be an example to someone else who might just decide; “it’s time to get back in there and do something to make myself stronger in body, mind and spirit.” I hope you will join me and share how you have decided, to make yourself stronger in all the gifts God gave you.

You don’t have to win, place but just show up for the challenge, the fellowship and to His glory.

As part of our Israel travelogue, I am putting the pictures I took in Israel on display, this was a church trip we did back in the Fall of 2012. This picture is of the Roman city of Scythopolis it’s north of Jerusalem south of the Sea of Galilee on the west bank of the Jordan. It was part of a chain of ten Roman cities called the Decapolis (ten cities). There are three references in the Bible where it is referred to as Decapolis, it’s the only one of the ten cities that was in Israel proper. It was build by the Romans, as a Roman administrative center. I’m not exactly sure of the history, but it was supposed to have been built while Jesus was growing up, so it’s thought it could be a possibe that he worked with his father as carpenters on the building of the city.

The entrance is set up so you have to step to the side and when you do, this is the panorama that is set before you. This was an extraordinary site. The hill is man made, it was a temple to either Artemis or Diana. It was a fascinating place to explore. Please let me know if you want to see more pictures of this site.