Tag Archives: God

September 11, 2009

Test of Time

I was reading through the fifth chapter of Acts this morning and came across something that really stood out to me toward the end of the chapter. Remember that Acts is basically the story of the early church and the “acts” of the apostles after the death of Christ. The Sanhedrin (the group of political officials who voted to kill Jesus) are fighting the Apostles because they are basically telling everyone that the Sanhedrin killed the Son of God, which was true, but who wants that on their conscience?… The Sanhedrin has jailed them multiple times and they keep getting out, most recently by an angel who opened the door for them!

So, in verses 35-39, a Pharisee named Gamaliel stood before the group as they were plotting on how to get rid of the Apostles. He said the following:

“Men of Israel, take care what you are about to do with these men. ³⁶Forbefore these days Theudas rose up, claiming to be somebody, and a number of men, about four hundred, joined him. He was killed, and all who followed him were dispersed and came to nothing. ³⁷After him Judas the Galilean rose up in the days of the census and drew away some of the people after him. He too perished, and all who followed him were scattered. ³⁸So in the present case I tell you, keep away from these men and let them alone, for if this plan or this undertaking is of man, it will fail; ³⁹but if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them. You might even be found opposing God!”

Good call buddy! How’d that one work out for you? The thing that amazes me is that it is the truth! If the Apostles were following someone that was not of God, they would have dwindled and definitely would not have been willing to be killed for Him. Peter was crucified upside down…I mean who would be willing to die that painfully for something that wasn’t true?

So, nearly 2000 years ago, good ole Gamaliel challenged the officials around him to just wait out the Apostles and to see if it would just pass. I wonder how people are still waiting and wondering if this Jesus guy is legit…

1 Comment | tags: Church, God, Truth | posted in Christ

September 3, 2009

Everything Is Soooo Difficult…

By mhunt3488

I was reading through the second chapter of Acts this morning and hit a couple of things that really stood out to me. The book of Acts is written by Luke and is actually considered to be a continuation of his first book (the Gospel) kind of like a sequel, sometimes called Luke-Acts. Acts documents the beginning of what we now know as the Christian church.

Acts 2:1-13 – In verses 1 through 12, we see that the Holy Spirit has filled the people with His power. It says that the people were speaking in languages different from their own. This is not to be confused with the prayer language of tongues that we read about in 1 Corinthians 12 and 13, as each persons’ speech was understood by the people around them. However, the crowd thought they were all drunk because they did not understand this power of the Spirit. How often do we dismiss someone because they may act in a way we don’t understand?…even in church?
Acts 2:22-41 – Verses 22 through 36 put Jesus in a context that the Jews would have understood. Jews knew the facts about David and had no question that David was a servant of God. When Luke puts Jesus in the context of David and shows the Jews that Jesus is much greater than David and was the Lord that spoke to his Lord (verse 34), it’s like a light bulb goes off! Verse 37 tells us, “When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart.” 3,000 people then gave their lives to Christ and joined the church, AT ONE TIME! I don’t know about you, but I would love to see 3,000 folks join my church!
Acts 2:42-47 – After joining the church, verses 42 through 47 tell us about how they acted toward each other. They were “devoted to the Apostles’ teaching, breaking bread, and prayer.” They were filled with awe and many miracles were performed. Verse 44 is the kicker for me…”All the believers were together and had everything in common.” They sold everything they had and continued meeting together every day, breaking bread in their homes, praising God, and “enjoying the favor of all the people.”

So…that is the basic story of how the church began, and I can see some pretty massive gaps in where we are now… I believe that we try so hard to make our lives into something that we desire that we manage to make the most simple things difficult. These early Christians were full of joy from the Lord and didn’t analyze every single thing. They just enjoyed the Lord and enjoyed it with each other. So, let’s make an honest effort to quit making everything so difficult, and just enjoy the Lord!

Leave a comment | tags: Church, God | posted in Christ

August 25, 2009

You Got Slimed!

By mhunt3488

Who here remembers the great Nickelodeon show “You Can’t Do That on Television”? The high point of that show was always folks getting that disgusting looking slime poured all over their heads. I could only imagine how nasty that stuff probably smells and feels.

I saw a verse this morning when I was flipping through my bible that made me think about that nasty slime. Obadiah was a prophet back in they day that had a vision that takes up all of about 1 full page in my bible. But wow does that 1 page have some pretty powerful stuff in it!

slimed Obadiah 1:15 says this: “The day of the Lord is near for all nations. As you have done, it will be done to you…” Now that part is not so bad, mainly because we have all heard that before and know that in general when we treat folks nicely, we get niceness in return. The verse then says, “…your deeds will return upon your head.” That’s right…ON YOUR HEAD!

So, let’s all take a moment to reflect on all those not-so-lovely things we’ve done… The guy we cut off in traffic and the person we spoke rudely to, all of that comes back and smacks us in the face! That’s an eye opener for me and changes the way I look at doing something that I will regret later. This doesn’t make it so easy to dismiss or excuse being an idiot or jerk anymore….ouch!

2 Comments | tags: God, Leadership, Service | posted in Christ

August 21, 2009

What a Dirty Man

By mhunt3488

pitino For those of you who don’t pay too much attention to sports, Rick Pitino is the head coach of the University of Louisville Cardinals, and is a pretty darn good coach. Last week, a news story broke that Pitino, who is married and has five kids, got another woman pregnant and paid for her to have an abortion. Now adultery is a disgusting sin, and abortion is murder, but this story gets worse. Pitino and the woman had sex at a restaurant, and by the way, this woman is now married to the Louisville Equipment Manager.

I’ve always thought that Pitino had a little bit of a dirty feel to him and wouldn’t be surprised if he had connections to the mob. After all, he is a true Italian-American, born and raised in New York. And on top of that, who wears a white suit?…I mean really! And for the final straw, when he held a news conference to discuss this whole mess, he actually commented that “I will remain as head coach at Louisville.” Really dude?…cause that is the most important thing in your life right now.

As much as that bothers and disgusts me, maybe I shouldn’t be quite so judgmental. In my summer courses, I’ve been taking Old Testament Theology and I recently read through Hosea. Hosea had a rough go, but this guy knew his stuff. In the first chapter, the Lord tells Hosea to go take an “adulterous wife and children of unfaithfulness.” So Hosea goes and marries Gomer, who the bible actually calls a whore. This woman is named Gomer (not so hot) and she is a prostitute who continues to commit adultery but Hosea loves her anyway.

I could only imagine how hard it would be to love someone that continually betrayed and dishonored you and your covenant of marriage. The Lord tells Hosea, “Go, show your love to your wife again, though she is loved by another and is an adulteress” (Hosea 3:1a). In the word “though,” The Lord acknowledges that it would be hard for us to love someone like that. He then goes on, “Love her as the Lord loves the Israelites, though they turn to other gods…” (Hosea 3:1b).

Don’t be too quick to justify that you are not an “Israelite,” cause we are! We are God’s chosen people today and He just compared us to an adulterer! When we sacrifice time, money, energy with God for other things, we are committing adultery against Him. He desires to the be the center of our lives, but we allow other things to take over. So, next time you see some sleezy looking politician, actor, or athlete admit to adultery, remember that to God, we are all adulterers…

BUT….He still loves us and grants us grace from our sins! For me, that is beyond my understanding!

1 Comment | tags: God | posted in Men

August 18, 2009

Ignore-ance

By mhunt3488

Romans I was reading through Romans 1 this morning and came across the last paragraph of the chapter. In the second half of the chapter, Paul talks about those people who know about God’s love and have even experienced it, but instead choose wickedness: “For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.” (Romans 1:21)

They began to worship man-made things rather than God’s glory and Paul says they turned themselves “over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another.” (Romans 1:24)

In the final paragraph, Paul says that they did not feel it was “worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God,” so they filled themselves with wickedness, greed, evil, depravity, envy, murder, strife, deceit, and malice. They became gossips and slanderers, insolent, arrogant, and boastful; they disobey their parents and are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Paul concludes, saying, “Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.” (Romans 1:32)

It is amazing to me how we still do the same things today. When we choose to sin, we are choosing to ignore the the knowledge of God. We choose to seek after worldly things as though they will give us happiness, taking our attention away from the Lord. It becomes easy to get caught up in the hustle of our world, and if we are not careful, we will turn our back on the Lord and take His knowledge for granted. Our world tells us that all of those sinful desires are good, but His knowledge tells us otherwise. The only way to know His knowledge is to make Him a priority and to seek after Him daily. When we ignore His knowledge, we are just being plain ignorant, and that is our fault alone.

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August 14, 2009

Christ: In Bits

By mhunt3488

With the growth of social media sites like Twitter and Facebook over the past several years, our world has become more and more connected to the internet and the instant information and gratification that it can provide. We have instant access to the web whenever we want through tools like the iPhone and printed media is becoming more and more forgotten. We seek out information on news, sports, and what our friends are currently doing. In all of this, how often do we hit the web in an effort to seek after God?

The first English written bible was created in the 1380s, but bibles still remained in solitary locations, shared by the community. Johannes Gutenberg created the printing press around 1440 and the bible was mass produced starting in the 1450s. For nearly 560 years now, we have been using the bible in a strictly printed manner.

Today, printed text is on the decline as people rely on the web for their news and even books. So where does this put the bible? Why have we, the church, not pushed to move Christ more to the web over the past decade?

My immediate answer is that there is a fear of de-humanizing Christ or removing the relationship factor of fellowship. People also like the comfort of having a physical bible in their hands with the ability to highlight and note certain passages. I would argue that either of these things are possible through the web, if it is done the right way! Converting the passages of Christ from the text of the page to the bits of the internet is no different from the initial transition from the oral tradition to the written scripture. The initial transition was done so that the scripture was more readily available; the same result could come from a transition to the web. We have all seen some pretty impressive sites that allow users to create personalized pages, so there is no reason that scripture should be any different.

Obviously, not all of us have the ability to go out and build a website, but we do have the ability to share Christ with others. We can encourage our churches to begin the move to the web and even help design ways of sharing Christ with the world.

As we enter into this world of a constant changing internet, we, as Christians, must learn to keep up. Many people will fight against the move to the web, in a fear that “we might leave the Lord behind.” God will use whatever media He chooses to be glorified, now and forever: “Do you not know? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ENDS of the earth.” – Isaiah 40:28

Leave a comment | tags: God, Technology | posted in Christ

August 13, 2009

Where are The Men?

By mhunt3488

There is an obvious lacking of men in church today. When I say men, I mean men that are truly leaders that are seeking after God. There are plenty of guys, but very few MEN who actually love the Lord and desire to lead according to His desires.

Too often, men come to church because they are tagging along. They either come to find a girl or come to impress a girl. Rarely do men make the decision to come to church on their own, and when they do, they get turned off by the lack of men with passion in the church. The majority of activities and groups in a church are lead by women. Just take a look at the women’s ministries in churches compared to the men’s ministries.

The church needs men with passion to serve the Lord!