What Guides Us?

Pam and her husband Bob were serving as missionaries to the Philippines and praying for a fifth child. Pam contracted amoebic dysentery, an infection of the intestine caused by a parasite found in contaminated food or drink. She went into a coma and was treated with strong antibiotics before they discovered she was pregnant. Doctors urged her to abort the baby for her own safety, telling her the medicines had caused irreversible damage to her baby. She refused the abortion and cited her Christian faith as the reason for her hope that her son would be born without the devastating disabilities physicians predicted.

While pregnant, Pam nearly lost their baby four times but still refused to consider abortion. She recalled making a pledge to God with her husband: If you will give us a son, we’ll name him Timothy and we’ll make him a preacher.

Pam ultimately spent the last two months of her pregnancy in bed and eventually gave birth to a healthy baby boy August 14, 1987. Pam’s youngest son is indeed a preacher. He preaches in prisons, makes hospital visits, and serves with his father’s ministry in the Philippines. He also plays football. Pam’s son is Tim Tebo..

 Our faith is tested in times like these. Do we believe in what God has called us to? Whom do we serve and who or what really guides our choices? This story is not an amazing because of who the boy became but because obidiance guided the choice of the parents choice. Many mock christians today and accept their fiath until it goes against "logic". I have spent my life makeing decisions, some have been wrong and some of been right. The ones that I made out of faith, beleivng I heard God speak and lead me have NEVER been shown to be wrong. I never threw out common sesnse though. Becuase the Bible is FULL of common sense counsel that guides us in making descisions and evaluting what we believe we believe to be God speaking with scripture. The extremes out there that run around caliming to hear God dramataically and then fall on thier face time and time again have ingored the basic tool God gives to speak, His Word. The parents of Tim didn't just run around thinking doctors where crazy and they only live "by faith". They where guided by scripture and prayer and took wisdom into account to handle their pregnancy well BUT they let the direction of their relationship with God guide them over the logic of their Doctor..and they where right!

If you have never lived a life by faith or prayed knowing that God is speaking and gives direction...how can you possibly know that he doesn't?

Living In The Now

There is a statement I have heard many times over the years; “I am waiting on God for where He wants me to serve Him next”. Granted I heave heard this mostly from those who feel they are called to full time ministry but also from those who feel they are waiting on God for what he wants them to do “next” in their church or are looking for a new ministry to “serve” in.

I recently came across a letter I once wrote to a friend who has saying the things I quoted above. I thought it might be a good word to hear for those of us in our Christian life who are at a spot that we feel is the “in between” times of ministry. So here it is:

The question is not about where or when, it is all about now. What you are doing now is serving God just as much as you were when you were your full time ministry. God does not look at the span of our influence but the depth of our obedience. That is how he defines service to him. Not in a ministry but in a life that is always ministering to him by doing what he wants and honoring him where we are at. It is in the moment of now that obedience and worship occurs. Not in the moments to come. We never know what the next moment of life will be nor is God expecting us to be looking ahead waiting for that moment so we can serve him.

 James 4:14-15

 How do you know what your life will be like tomorrow? Your life is like the morning fog—it's here a little while, then it's gone.

It’s the moment of now that demonstrates who we are before our God. The Future is still waiting to be written.

I know you desire to serve God. I think sometimes we that are in ministry get used to that being who we are. Who we are is not a pastor, or a Sheppard, or a minister. Those are roles God calls us to. Who we are is our character and it’s what we do and how we live in everything, no matter what “role” we have in a stage in life.

You are just as much in God’s service now. No more and no less. And as long as you are obedient to your role he calls you to live in now, in this moment, he is just as happy with you as he would be if you were pasturing a church of 1000 or 2000 or more and you and this role of not having a title is just as much a significant part to his plan as anything you have done or will do. Be in the moments of now! Find your significance, satisfaction, and purpose in the now, in who you are before God, not in what you do before God.

Capitalism Or…?

First let me say I am not an extreme right wing conservative that believes everything but capitalism is evil and of the devil. However, I have been thinking a lot about the contrast of what we do and what we have seen others do economically and with their governments.

First, a list of what we can all agree on that we hate:
1 Greed
2 Poverty
3 Abuse
4 Corruption
5 People Hurting

So this is just a small list but it covers many of the things in the political arena that seem to cover much of what both sides of the political isle should hate. (And they do in their root values)

So now that we agree on what we don’t want, now we have to figure out how to fix it. Well, let’s look through history and answer some questions.

1 Can anyone show an example of a government, country or economics system that did not have all the things in the list above? (I couldn’t find one)
2 What countries across the last century have had the least amount of poverty?
3 What were their government and economic structures and practices?

I keep hearing of the evils of capitalism. Capitalism is not evil. Socialism is not evil, heck; you might be able to make an argument that even a dictatorship is not evil (especially since most of the Old Testament was a form of dictatorships). So since the forms are not evil what is? PEOPLE ARE!

This is what our founding fathers knew and understood clearly. The reason democracy and capitalism is so valued is not because it does not have evilness in it (the people running it are evil) but because it (compared to other forms) empowers an individual and their communities to fight against the evil more then any other form of government or economics.

I do recognize I am combining government and economics, mostly because they are so closely tied together. You really can not separate the two in our globalized world today (at least in my opinion). Now I know this is not an in-depth study but an honest conversation about the critiques I keep hearing. I recently heard the statement: “The overeducated, in all their education, end of not really knowing anything. They are so caught up in their books of discussion and philosophy they forgot to look at their history books.” – There is something of truth in this statement that I find revealing about our culture/political leaders today.

I believe the more power the community and the individuals have the more power they can work to become free from all the things listed above, both in government and economics. That power is best given through a democracy/capitalistic system in today’s global economy.

I know many want to fix the things in the list, I agree! However the solution is not to mimic failed forms that are happening around us and have occurred historically – mainly version of socialism. In an evil world with evil man we want to think we can fix it. Well we can’t! But we can work against it. If we think somehow we can fix it and remove power from one evil man and give it to another and that will fix it… well that just sounds ignorant. I see that way of thinking in things happening today.

Example: We don’t trust the evil insurance companies so now we want the government to do it. Then we will have another group of evil people running it and they will create their own evils. (I know this issue is deeper then this but this is simple yet accurate representation of the dialogue.)

I have been told by some of my more liberal friends that Jesus would support welfare, government insurance etc and that is why they are liberal and why I don’t represent Christ. My response is this: I believe they are very un-biblical because they have put their hope in man in a way that denies the reality of scripture and the sinful nature. They have put their hope in man and their various forms of government instead of what Christ left to do his works, the church.

If we ignore humanity we ignore reality and will be doomed to repeat ourselves over and over again; failing and trapping the very people we wish to free!

OK…thanks for hearing my thoughts on this controversial issue.

The Role of Government

This is simple and I'm purposefully not giving to much of my thoughts on this directly but read it and then ask yourself what you believe and where you fall in this.


“A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse doe to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship.
”Alexander Tyler

‎8 phases of democracy:
1. From bondage to spiritual faith;
2. From spiritual faith to great courage;
3. From courage to liberty;
4. From liberty to abundance
5. From abundance to complacency;
6. From complacency to apathy;
7. From apathy to dependence;
8. From dependence back into bondage

Not only must we ask where we fall in this but we must ask where our nation falls in this. The quote by Alexander is directly tied to how we see the role of government in America today.

Seminary president: Baptists have been 'homophobic' (OneNewsNow.com)

Seminary president: Baptists have been 'homophobic' (OneNewsNow.com)

Time To Start Living It - Follow Up (1985)

This is a perfect follow up from my previous post. It is a good reminder. We are not dealing with a new problem but it is a problem we have yet to deal with...This is from 1985 yet its words ring true. I beg for this to be heard and understood. In myself and my fellow followers of Jesus. What does it take for change to occure and action to speak louder then words and study?

The Book of Eli - Time to Start Living It

I recently saw two movies, The Book of Eli and Avatar. Both gave me many thoughts to ponder on but for this post I will just be talking about “The Book of Eli”. I know there are many out there who have not seen this film so don’t worry, I am not going to give away the ending. My thoughts won’t give much away; it just might give you some pre knowledge to what is going on.

Well as most can tell from the previews, this movie portrays a time in earths future were there is no government, the climate has shifted and everything is a dessert waste land with a fend for yourself society. The hero of the story, Eli (played be Denzel Washington) is seen traveling across the wasteland. You find out early on that he is caring a large book; this book turns out to be a bible, the only Bible in existence. After the war that caused the great climate change all the bibles were destroyed because many blamed the Bible or those that followed it for the war. So the character Eli is struggling to take the Bible west, where exactly, he does not know, but he knows that his purpose is to protect this Bible. He also states, and his shows, that he reads the Bible every night.

In the first part of the movie as the plot is being set Eli stumbles on to a robbery murder of some helpless travelers by a gang of thugs. He watches from above as the man is murdered and the women is raped and then murdered, all the time repeating to himself as he clutches the Bible close to his chest something like, “Keep Focused, this is not your fight, keep moving” (not an exact quote but the idea). Using these words be convinces himself to stand by and watch as these murders occur, believing it is his calling to protect this Bible above all else. Well the movie moves on, and it was a good movie, but near the end Eli makes a statement as he is remembering his journey. He says that he been so focused on protecting the Bible that he had forgotten to live by what it said. WOW! That statement jumped out to me like being hit with a ton of bricks. My first thought was “Wow, God that is me. I have been so consumed with doing my “Calling” in church and “protecting” what I think the Bible teaches church should be that I had forgotten to really live by what it says as I seek to fulfill my calling. (Please note my first thought was a personnel conviction before I expanded on it) But then I took it further…

I thought that this is my church, or many times “The church”. We spend our time fighting to protect our prefect theology (That we believe is perfectly accurate) and teaching each other and ourselves all about what the Bible says so we are “Strong”, “grounded” Christians defending our faith. Doing all this sitting in our chairs, services, meetings, and Sunday school classroom while the world around us is being murdered and raped by each other and the devil himself, the one we are supposedly fighting against.

I found my self just sitting and thinking about this. I was and am sad as I reflect and must embrace this reality. Yet I am frozen in my chair, more frozen then before because I am not sure what action to take. I am torn between two worlds but in my heart I know these worlds should not be torn. I am torn because I believe the church is “the hope of the world” and the church has the power to change the world in the name and message of Jesus Christ. Yet I feel trapped in that same organization, in a good and bad way. I can’t leave it because I know it is ordained and called by God and I know my calling is to be in it and to work through it. That is my calling (not to calling of everyone as it is for me). But as I walk through the doors now I can’t help but feel like there is something dead and I am trapped in continuing on as is with no hope in sight of it being any different in my or my world around me. Also trapped because I feel if I speak up about what I see I am perceived as the critical jerk who is not a “team player”.

Do we, Christians, see the world that is being murdered and raped, and are we watching it while sitting in our classes to teach theology and create “growth”. Growth? Growth to do what? Growth to go from class 101 to 201 to class 301? Don’t get me wrong I love learning, I love teaching and I love being a part of that but what is it leading to? What is the point of all the teaching and listening if we grow only to teach each others already in our churches and to start a new class to teach other Christians what we know? When will we be called to take action by the teachings and those teaching it? When will we be called to more by our own leaders who tell us to grow? When will they lead us into action, even by example? (This is also a question I am putting to myself as I struggle through this)

Yes, I am left with more questions and more discouragement then I had at the beginning. But it is in times of disparity that God meets us as we are humbled by our failures and mistakes. But I am crying out saying “God wake more people up! I am tired of feeling helpless to be a part of change that really matters. God I am, right now, tried of it all as I see it happening week in and week out. I am tired the most of what I am see in me!”

I hear the author of “From Good to Great” Say recently. The great success stories are the ones who did not wait for their leaders and coworkers to be strong and successful but worked to be strong and successful despite the failings of those under them and below them. That is the real challenge I guess. There are no excuses left to not see action in me. Now what is my action to be?