The Endless Frontier

What a week! It's been a busy, and sometimes even discouraging week. In the midst of all the business of everyday life, though, I've discovered a real gem of a book-------"When God Writes Your Life Story" by Eric and Leslie Ludy.

This book really slams home a point God made Himself in Luke 18:27---"The things that are impossible with men are possible with Christ." We as Christians often forget that Jesus is capable of doing anything...ANYTHING... through us. We forget this fact, and often end up settling for a mundane, meaningless existence. Life becomes more about what we DON'T do, instead of what we do.

What does this mean for Christians specifically? Well, what we DON'T do is sin...at least that's what we try to make everyone think. We try to appear all spotless and perfect on the outside, even if we're falling apart spiritually, emotionally, physically, etc., etc. That seems to have become the goal of the Christian life...just look good. We've become obsessed with this idea that the answer to "WWJD" is....just don't sin...or at least don't get caught.

The book "Dirty Faith" responds to "WWJD" this way: "HDYKWJWDIYDKWHD?"

"How do you know what Jesus would do if you don't know what He did?"

It's a compelling question. It blows out of the water the idea that "Christian living" means not doing something. It rightly implies that following Christ is a lot more meaningful than what we don't do...It requires action. Our faith is not measured just by the sins we don't commit, it also is weighed by what we do with the opportunities to do good that God presents to us on a daily basis.

Look around us. Homelessness in Athens. Addiction and heartache and loneliness in our own community. Aids in Africa. Genocide in the Sudan. Ethnic hate in Eastern Europe. Most of the world bound for eternity in hell.

You might think, "Those things are on the other side of the world...I'm can't do anything about that...What if I try to do something and fail?...I'm just not big or rich or important or famous enough to do anything about all that!"

If you read the Bible, it's filled with stories about men and women of action, men and women who were insignificant in the eyes of the world, but allowed God to work through them to accomplish the impossible. I love to read about David. David was short, had a bad complexion, was disobedient, adulterous, watched Saul pee in a cave, didn't fulfill his responsibilities as a king, made terrible choices as a father, and was left-handed (I really think there's something wrong with left-handed people---maybe I'll write on that sometime). Despite all this, God used David, as a teenager, to kill a 9 foot tall warrior that an entire army was scared to death of. I love David's actions as he's moving toward the giant---He pauses to pick up "5 smooth stones". What that tells us is that if he didn't kill Goliath with the first rock, he wasn't quitting. He saw the impossible problem, and dove in head-first to do something about it.

There is an endless frontier of problems/opportunities that God presents us with in this world. He intends for us to attack them with passion and fire, with a "never, never, never, never quit" attitude.

What great thing will you allow God to do with your life?

The Love Connection

MCHS was quite a scene this morning, with all the girls going crazy over their Valentine's candy and stuffed animals, and the guys walking around holding balloons---You know, it is really difficult for a teenage guy to maintain an adequate level of street credibility when he's carrying around a bunch of Care Bear balloons! I did see one dude this morning, carrying an enormous pile of balloons, and he had his slow, "Yea, I'm tough...Go ahead...Say somethin' about my heart-shaped balloons"...strut going on. It was pretty funny.

Yes, it's the season of love! Delta Worship this Wednesday is going to be all about love---We've got a little activity planned for our adults that we're calling the "Love Connection", and we'll have plenty of Valentine's treats for everyone, so you'll all be good and hyper while I'm preaching! We're going to be hitting purity pretty hard this Wednesday, but don't expect to hear what you've always heard before---Not one time will you hear me say that sex is a bad thing (Gasp! I can hear the parents speed-dialing Pastor Joe even as I type!). Sex isn't bad---In fact, it's good. In fact, it's really good---As long as it's done in the right context. God created sex---He told Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden to be fruitful and multiply---And He wasn't talking about doing math!

We are created to have physical relationships in the context of marriage---one-on-one, for as long as we live. God wired us that way. It's pretty amazing---We are the most intelligent creatures that God made, but we can't seem to grasp the idea of having one mate for life. Orangutans get it---They only have one mate for life. So do chimpanzees, penguins, and doves. Doves have the smallest brain of any bird of flight---They are so dumb, they are the number one source of food for every bird of prey in North America---But they understand that God only made them to have one mate, for life.

Dogs don't get this. Dogs will mate with any other dog they see, as well as throw pillows and random people legs and pieces of furniture. Dogs also eat their own throw-up and poo. This should tell you something about the mindset of people who are out to have sex with as many other people as possible. We'll get more in-depth into the mind of the dog, and what the Bible says about sex and sexual immorality tomorrow night.

In First Priority today, Karen Yuhas did a great job of speaking on the importance of doing daily devotions, spending quality, intimate time with God. Christians and non-Christians alike will spend tons of money today on flowers, balloons, and candy, and then devote our time to the people we care about by taking them to dinner, going to movies, and what not. We devote our energies to showing love to the people that already know we love them. I'm reminded today that Jesus called us to even higher standard---to love God with ALL our hearts, to love our enemies, and to love our neighbors without narrowly defining who our neighbors are. Everyone has heard John 3:16---"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, so that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish, but shall have eternal life." Not so many folks have memorized I John 3:16, though---"We know what love is because Jesus loved us, and gave up His life for us, so we ought to also give up our lives for others." Take time today to let Jesus know how much you appreciate what He did for you, and do something nice today for someone that you normally wouldn't be so good to, in addition to the folks that already receive your love on a daily basis. Love God, love people--those are our greatest commands.

Peace---

Pastor Lee

Ultimate Freedom

Welcome to goDelta! We've spent the past several weeks discussing Psalm 119:32---"I run in the path of Your commands, because You have set my heart free." It seems like a huge contradiction. Freedom seems to imply that you can do whatever you want to do---No boundaries, no rules, no authority figures to answer to. But here in Psalms, David is writing that he's free, so he's going to follow God's commands. We've been exploring what those commands are, those things that God really wants us to live by. I mean, how do we really know how He wants us to live?

I thought a lot about this, and I figure if God is a father, then He probably teaches us life lessons the same way our own parents do. If your mom or dad wants you to do things a certain way, they probably tell you how to do it over and over again, until they're sure you've got the point. God works the same way. The things that He really wants us to get right, He repeats time and time again in the Bible, His love letter/life manual written to us.

So what are the things He wants us to do? We're taking a month or so during Delta Worship on Wednesday nights to really explore this question. We probably could never squeeze in all the things God wants us to do, but we're hitting what we can. We're not just regurgitating the ten commandments, though; instead, we're exploring the whole Bible, finding the things that God repeats to us time and time again.

We started with two statements that have basically the same meaning---"You shall have no other Gods before Me" and "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength". Different statements, but they have the same spirit--Put God first. God tell us five different times that this is a really big deal (Exodus 20:3, Deuteronomy 6:5, Matthew 22:37, Mark 12:30, and Luke 10:27). How do we show God we love Him more than anything? In John 21, Jesus told Peter three times that if he really loved Him, he would "Feed His sheep". In other words, tell people about Jesus and care for them.

Next, Jesus tells us three times (Matthew 22:39, Mark 12:31, and Luke 10:27) to "Love your neighbor as yourself". We all need to work on this----We as Christians have to be careful to not make church into a "God box" where we leave Jesus after we visit with Him for a while on Sundays. I John 3:16 says that "We know what love is because Christ gave up His life for us...and so we also ought to give up our lives for others." "Conservative Christian" is a hot catch phrase these days, but we can't afford to be "conservative" with our love; instead, we should give our love recklessly, dangerously even, so others will know that what we stand for is real.
Then, we covered "The one you don't want to hear" if you're a teenager---"Honor your father and mother, so that you may live a long life" (Exodus 20:3). I researched what the Bible says about honoring your parents, and before I got even halfway through, I found this command mentioned no less than 45 different times, worded in many different ways. This was a great night---Derek Aponte gave his life to Christ, and several students made commitments to get their relationships with their parents right.

The fourth command we've covered is "Watch Your Mouth!" God instructs us to do this in three different ways---don't take His name in vain (mentioned at least 18 times); don't lie (at least ten times); and don't murder. What! Don't murder?!? We're talking about murder by mouth, which includes two things---harsh words (Matt. 5:22 and Proverbs 12:6) and gossip (at least 23 times).

We'll wrap up this series (maybe) after two more weeks---Next Wednesday (Feb. 9), we'll cover adultery in a way you probably haven't heard before; Then we're going to have Valentine's blowout on Feb. 15 called "The Love Connection". Hope to see everybody there.

Peace----Pastor Lee
I Thessalonians 2:8