Questions I recieved via text on 1.16.10

Question One: Are things like TV and the Internet OK on the Sabbath?

Answer: I think God wants us to think and to think we need to look at the principles he has given us, not the mechanisms. First, are you keeping the principles of the Sabbath (rest, blessed, and set apart)…in this case, set apart. The Sabbath is not for you, but building your relationship with God and others. Can that happen through the TV or internet? Sure? But, I am going to guess that it depends on what you are watching or doing on the web. I think if you focus on the principles of Philippians 4:8, you will be on the right track.

Question Two: Why did the change the Sabbath?

Answer: The short answer is the change happened gradually as “new” Christians I nRome began to keep Sunday (resurrection day) as the Sabbath. Constantine, the emperor of Rome added to this practice to help Christians avoid persecution that occasionally broke against Christians in this pagan (Greek Gods) Rome. Later, Papal Rome (which became the Catholic church validated this change by saying it had the authority to change the day to commemorate Jesus’ resurrection from the dead.

Question Three: Do Sunday worshippers keep the “Lord’s Day” from sundown to sundown?

Answer: The short answer is “No. Not typically.”

Question Four: How do we spread this “new” understanding of the Sabbath?

Answer: It is actually quite old. God gave clear instructions and purpose for the Sabbath at creation (Genesis 2:2, 3). The best way to spread it is to invite people to read what the Bible has to say about the Sabbath. Those that really want to know will read every text in the Bible on the subject.

Question Five: Why not just a day in seven? Some say any day in seven will do?

Answer: This is a common argument. As I read the Bible, THE 7th day is the only day God blessed and set apart, not a day every seven days.

Question Six: What about celebrating the Lord’s Day, i.e. the day of resurrection?

Answer: I am all for celebrating the resurrection of Jesus, but that is not the day God blessed or set aside, the seventh day is (Genesis 2:2, 3). It is not the day God commanded us to keep holy (Exodus 20:8-11).

Thoughts on Sabbath

This week’s sermon topic is the Sabbath, so I thought I would share some thoughts regarding the Sabbath and the seven day cycle. One thing I have noticed is that as Seventh-day Adventist we tend to put our focus on keeping the Sabbath legally, but we tend to abuse it emotionally and physically. Not good.

Did you know, we were made in such a way that requires us to stop and rest every seven days? Studies have shown that a weekday of rest is just as important as eight hours a sleep at night. As human beings, we are dependent on rhythms. Life is rhythmic. The most known are the biological rhythms tied to the earth’s movement around the sun. Things like: Body temperature, which reaches its maximum on the afternoons; the heartbeat, which accelerates during the day and slows considerably after four hours of nightly rest; the kidneys and liver which reduce their activity at night, etc... Experts have discovered that we have this internal body clock. One notable rhythm of this internal mechanism is the circaseptan rhythm. It represents a seven day cycle. Why a seven day cycle? Nobody seems to know why? Hmmm. This makes even those who do not believe in God wonder.

The reality is we were created with the need to stop, rest, and rejuvenate every seven days. The physical arrival of darkness every 24 hours reminds us of our need for daily rest, but there is no natural phenomenon that reminds us of the arrival of our weekly rest. I think this is why our Creator said to “Remember. Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.” And, he did so from the beginning (Genesis 2:2, 3).

Oh, well does it matter which day we rest? According to God, “Yes”. According to God, everyday is not the same. There is an ideal day to rest, the seventh-day. He specifically blessed that day. He did not bless the third day, Tuesday. He did not bless the fifth day, Thursday. He did not bless the first day, Sunday. He blessed the seventh day. (Genesis 2:2, 3) And, he set it apart to not only be refreshed physically, but to have time to be refreshed emotionally and spiritually in worship and relationship building.

I am so glad we have a God who loves us and gave us a way to stay healthy physically and emotionally, and connected to him.

Questions I recieved via text on 1.9.10

One: How can you define God to a toddler? from 293-6990
---Tough to know. Best answer I can give you is that since God is love the best way to show them God is by loving them with you actions and words.

Two: I heard all of our names are written in the book of life, but there are names being erased because they don't want to be connected to God. At one point is our name put in the book of life?
from 293-6990
---The short answer is at the judgment. My best understanding is that our names are in the book of life until the judgment, at that point those who have rejected God will have thier names removed. But, this is not God's choice or desire, it is each individual's choice.

Questions I recieved via text on 1.2.10

Question One: What about the Gnostics? From 953-3151

Answer: Gnosticism was the most influential heresy faced by the early Church. The Gnostics did not agree how the New Testament described God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit, so they offered their own writings as inspired scriptures. Some of the most well know are: The Gospel of Thomas, The Gospel of Peter, The Gospel of Philip, and The Gospel of Judas. In essence, Gnosticism is about acquiring knowledge, and is based on matter being evil and spirit being good. The Gnostics prior to Christianity taught that man is composed of body, soul, and spirit. The body and the soul are man's earthly existence, and were considered evil. Enclosed in man’s soul, is the spirit, a divine substance of man. This “spirit” was asleep and ignorant and needed to be awakened. It could only be liberated by this special knowledge.

Question Two: I heard the Catholic Church decided what would end up in the Bible. Is this true? From 481-7312

Answer: No. This is not true. The books in the Bible were chosen over time. The Old Testament books were chosen by Jewish leaders about 200 years before Jesus was born. Jesus validated these choices by calling the Old Testament scripture and inspired. It took about three hundred years for the final New Testament books to be “canonized”, but the ones in the New Testament that were accepted, were widely accepted as inspired right after they were written in the First Century AD. Hundreds of years later, the Catholic Church changed the Ten Commandments and added books, called the Apocrypha, to the Protestant Bible.

Question Three: You said some of the authors were pagan. Who were they and how were they inspired by God? From 508-9876

Answer: My point was that not all the material in the bible came from Christian writers or God followers. One example is Nebuchadnezzar, Daniel 4. Others examples are writers from which biblical writers took material from: Paul quoted from Greek poets, the Edict of Cyrus in Ezra, the poetry of the Psalms, etc...

Question Four: After changing the bible into different translations don’t you think the meaning of God’s Word would have changed and led to the meaning of sentences or even paragraphs changing too? From: 569-6727

Answer: That’s what made the finding of the Dead Sea Scrolls so important. Here, they found documents dating back thousands of years, and when they compared them with the current bible translations, they discovered the bible was still 99.9% accurate.

Question Five: Scripture states God won’t give you more than you can handle. Then, why does he put you in situations you can’t get out of? All it does is break your heart in two.

From 480-3042

Answer: First, this saying is actually not in the Bible. It is a misrepresentation of 1 Corinthians 10:13, which says, “God will not let you be TEMPTED beyond your ability…” Second, God never tempts anyone (James 1:13), he is allowing the results of living in a sinful world to run its course. And, third, we will never be TEMPTED beyond our ability to say “No”, but only if we have him by our side.

Question Six: What are the Dead Sea Scrolls? From: 615-977-5974

Answer: They refer to a group of manuscripts discovered in 1947 near the Dead Sea in Israel. About 900 scrolls were found that help establish that the Old Testament we have today is essentially the same as the one 2000 years ago.

Question Seven: How does Ellen White compare to scripture. Some say she is outdated. What do you think? From 694-5885

Answer: There is much to be gained from reading Ellen White. Unfortunately, she is often misused, often placed above scripture by some. She herself said she was “a lesser light pointing to a greater light,” meaning she was not to be placed above the authority of scripture. She stated that ONLY scripture should be used to prove any theological point.

Question Eight: What do you believe happened to the Ark of the Covenant? Has God ever spoken to you? From 326-6565

Answer: Many believe the Ark of the Covenant to be buried in or near Jerusalem. Many believe it will be found before Jesus comes again. My guess is that it was lost long ago. As for second question, the answer is “yes”. But, God speaks to us in many ways. If you are asking if he has spoken to me out loud, the answer is “No”, although sometimes the voice I hear is almost audible.=)

It's a New Year

I am back. It is the start of a new year, so let me tell you the new focus for this blog (at least for a while).

I will posting answers to the questions I receive via text about the sermon. Obviosuly, I can only answer a couple questions there on the spot, so I will be posting answers to all text questions on this blog during the week.

I am not sure what I am getting into....=)

Smile, God loves you!

eDevotional 2

What makes a great leader? We live in an age where unprecedented attention is being paid to leadership. You walk in a bookstore and you find shelves and shelves bulging with books on leadership. There’s servant leadership, visionary leadership, strategic leadership, team leadership, co-leadership, Leadership by the book, Leadership with a Stick, The Marshmallow Leader… (OK, I made those last couple up)

You can get books on what makes a great corporate leader, a great political leader, a great non profit leader…there is even a genre of leadership books about leaders in history:

---Abraham Lincoln on Leadership

---Jesus as CEO

---Attila the Hun’s Leadership Secrets

---Elvis on Leadership (Just kidding!)

But, here’s a book that is hard to find…What makes a great follower? See, very little, if anything is said about the art of following/follow-ship. I think it is because there’s this idea in our culture that follow-ship is what you get stuck with if you don’t get to lead. Have you seen the t-shirt “If you ain’t the lead dog, the scenery never changes”? I think that says a lot about what our culture thinks about leaders and followers.

However, the truth is that followership is a fundamental part of all of our lives. We are born as followers: Little kids follow their parents around and learn from them, players are taught to follow the coach, students to follow their teachers, etc…

More than that, Jesus said that if anyone wants to be associated with him, following is essential. He did not say, “Deny yourself, pick up your cross, and lead me.” See, it is not about doing what I want, but what he wants for us. His one call is “Follow me. Be with me. Watch me. Trust me. Obey me. Devote yourself to me.”

Christians are followers. That is what a disciple does. And, when we follow Christ, we seek to give him our full devotion. That is why our mission statement is “Loving people toward full devotion to Jesus Christ.”

So, what makes a great follower? Great followers are proactive. They are people of initiative. This is countercultural…which says great followers hang around waiting for someone to tell them what to do. This is not a great follower. This type of person is characterized by passivity, by the ability to drift… See, people think of great followers as sheep…who follow the lead sheep over a cliff. The Bible does not call people to this kind of followership.

God wants us to follow him actively, and to invite others to follow as well.

What Makes You Mad?

What makes you mad? I am not talking about your personal preferences. I am not talking about getting mad at the guy that cuts you off in traffic, or at the lady who takes your parking spot. I am not talking about things that annoy you that trigger your anger because of sinful issues in your life. I am talking about righteous anger, things that make you mad on God’s behalf?

Jesus got angry. He once entered the temple in Jerusalem and found merchants who had turned the place into a zoo. They were not interested in honoring God. All they wanted was to make money. So, Jesus made a whip and drove them out! Worship is something that God takes seriously.

Another time, Jesus confronted a bunch of religious leaders about their hypocrisy. He was so upset he chewed them out. I bet his voice was hoarse after that encounter. Integrity is something that God takes seriously.

You know what else I think makes God mad? Those who say they love him, but don't extend that love to others.

Matthew 22:34-40 puts it simply: If you love God, you will love people. Simple, yet profound. I don't think it is a coincidence that Jesus reserved his sternest comments to those who mistreated or took advantage of others.

What's the deal with 2012?

These days there's an increasing amount of talk about the year 2012, and as it nears, it will probably increase. "Why is it that some people are talking about 2012," you might ask?

Well, in December, 2012, at the winter solstice, the Mayan Long Count calendar will come to an end. Why is this a big deal? Because it is one of the oldest calendars in existence. It started 500 years before the pyramids, 1500 years before the exodus, and according to this calendar the end of this world cycle will be December 21, 2012.

In our day, it seems that with something ends, even something as innocent as an ancient calendar, people seem to think up the most extreme possibilities for the end of civilization as we know it. So, how are we to react to this?

My best answer is to look at what the Bible has to say about this. The first thing that comes to mind is Matthew 24:36, "no one knows about the day or the hour (of Jesus' coming), not even the angels in heaven, nor the son, but only the Father." Later on in verses 42, 44, we are told to keep watch, to be ready, because he will come at a time when we do not expect him.

My approach is this: Don't worry about end of the world scenarios that come and go (I remember the same conversation leading up to 1984 and the year 2000), instead focus on being ready today to meet the God that loves you and can't wait to see you.

Role of the pastor

"Pastoral work takes Dame Religion by the hand and drags her into the everyday world, introducing her to friends, neighbors, and associates. Religion left to herself is shy, retiring, and private; or else decorative and proud--a prima donna. But she is not personal and she is not ordinary. The pastor insists on taking her where she must mix with the crowd."

Book Review

I picked this book up last month. I was initially drawn to it by its title, “the monkey and the fish”. Leafing through it, I discovered it was about an area of church that I have been doing a lot of reading and teaching on, culture (not ethnicity), and how culture gets created and formed, and how to understand the culture we live in and connect with it, and the importance of developing a church culture that in outward thinking (instead of inward focused).
This is a pretty short read, just over 200 pages, and the author uses one word to connect his thoughts: liquid. We live in a different world, and the author talks about the cultural shifts at work in the world, and of how important it is to understand these shifts so we can communicate the gospel effectively in our day.
For many years our church culture’s only means of communicating the Gospel has been informational, yet the culture of today, driven by younger generations, learns best relationally. Being liquid is about adaptability, adjusting and communicating the Gospel in a way that resonates with our culture today. The author also use the term, third culture. First culture is the dominant homogenous culture we live in. Second culture is about how folks live who are not comfortable with the first culture. But, third culture is "the mindset and will to live, learn, ad serve in any culture, even in the midst of pain and discomfort." This reminded me of Matthew 5:16, 16In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven. Jesus reminded us that information sharing is not the best avenue to sharing God, our good deeds, our actions are. The author also asks three questions that liquid, third culture Christians should be asking:
(1) Where is Nazareth (Can anything good come from Nazareth)? Where is that area in our town or city where nothing good is happening and how can we serve there?
(2) What is my pain (where he talks about prosperity theology versus the value of pain)?
(3) What is in my hand (what has God given you to do or contribute)? There is so much here for pastors in this short little book. The chart of what the church is known for versus what Jesus was known for is worth the price of the book.

Check out this article by Michael Moore

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-moore/for-those-of-you-on-your_b_308948.html

The changing church?

Our church organization and churches are in an interesting place. The average age of an Adventist in North America is 59, which means that in 20 years, we will barely exist, unless something changes. But, change comes slow, if at all. The median age in our country is between 37-38 years of age, but most local churches are led by those who are 60 and above. It’s no wonder change is not happening. See, you attract who you are.

These days there is a lot of discussion about who different generations think: the “retirees” think differently than the boomers, who think differently than Generation X, who think differently than Generation Y…and what out for the Millenial generation. They are growing up fast!

I am not sure we have thought much about this generational divide that exist. It's in just about every church. Most Adventist churches do not contextualized their message or approach to reach people in different segments of culture influenced by media, music, entertainment and technology. For most, multi-generational church ministry is uncharted territory.

Check it out!

Sabbath

Why do I believe in the Seventh-day Sabbath?
One: It was institued by God at creation (Genesis 2:2, 3). In fact, God did three things with the Sabbath at creation: he told us to rest, he set it apart (or made it holy), and he blessed it. He did not bless Tuesday, he did not bless Thursday, he did not bless Sunday, he blessed the seventh day.

Two: The 4th Commandment (Exodus 20:8-11). Knowing we would forget his commandment, he said, "Remember" and he points back to the reasons given at creation (see above)

Three: Jesus kept the Sabbath (Luke 4:16), his disciples kept the Sabbath...

Seems to me these are some pretty good reasons to start with. What do you think?