Category: Christianity

Are You Listening to God Firsthand?

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Can you identify with this situation? Let’s listen in on a brief conversation between Bob and Bill during lunch last Tuesday: 

  • Bob: I just don’t get it. I listen to the same sermon you do each week but I don’t seem to be growing.
  • Bill: If you only had a weekly, 30-minute conversation with your wife, you wouldn’t expect to be very intimate with her, would you? Are you in the habit of listening to God outside of Sunday morning? If you eat only once a week, it’s little wonder that you’re starving! 

ARE YOU REALLY LISTENING?

It’s easy to punch the clock on Sunday mornings in a comfortable pew while listening to the preacher speak for God. After all, he’s been in the Word all week, right? And if he’s “on” he’ll have a passionate message with a joke and a reference to football somewhere in there. But is this the sum total of what it means to hear God speak? 

In Exodus 20:18-19, Moses had just come down from Mt. Sinai with the Ten Commandments. It’s like he told the Israelites, “God has been speaking to me, and now He wants to speak to you. C’mon, I know where to find Him.” But the Israelites wanted no part of it. They told Moses: “You speak to us, and we will listen, but don’t let God speak to us, or we will die” (Exodus 20:19). 

WILL YOU PAY THE PRICE?

I wonder if this is the sentiment of too many American church-going men today, who say, “Study hard, preacher, and make my one hour on Sunday interesting. But don’t expect me to pray or get into the Bible during the week because I’m afraid if I really hear God speak, it will cost me my self-centered life.” 

You know it’s true. It’s pretty tough to continually hear God’s Word and remain happily unchanged. God wants to speak to this generation of men and He wants to change us through what He says in His Word. So my challenge is to listen up because God is speaking! 

BOTTOM LINE

Make sure you’re allowing God to speak to you personally through His Word. That will deepen your relationship with Him like nothing else can.

When Life Goes Unscripted

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In my Bible study class at King’s Grant we are taking a fresh look at the life of Mary. Not a very manly thing to do but the life lessons are very relevant. The first session looked at the topic of “unexpected,” which was certainly what happened to Mary when the angel visited her. The question for each of us is, “How do you respond when unexpected things in life happen to you?” The choices can be as few as two: do you respond in faith or in fear? What’s your story? Loss of a job, marital strife, rebellious kids, health concerns, failure of some kind, home foreclosure, victim of a crime?

 

Now, think about your favorite reality TV show. What do you like best about it? Why are these shows so popular? Answers will obviously vary, but for the most part, we like these shows because they are unpredictable. I read a story about a stage actress who realized no one was watching her perform; their attention was drawn to a cat that wondered onto the stage. Why was the cat suddenly the star of the show? Because no one knew what the cat would do next!

 

Mary had her plans in life; marriage to Joseph, raise a family, influence the community, be a part of the best carpentry shop in Nazareth, who knows? She had her life all scripted out. What happens when we lose the script of our own lives? What are your feelings when life goes unscripted?

 

Take an index card and write out the major events in your life so far: marriage, kids, graduation, career, maybe even some crisis you had to face. Look at your list. Did everything turn out just life you had planned? How did you deal with the surprises? How often did things turn out better than what you had planned?

 

Turn the card over and write out your plans for the next ten years: marriage, children, graduation, a promotion, a new house, retirement? This is act two of your life. When God intervenes, life becomes unscripted. We are moving along at His pace and in His direction rather than our own.

 

What did this unscripted life mean for Mary? She faced divorce, shame, public humiliation, reputation. Nothing was going according to her plans. What did Mary do? She worshiped.

 

Margaret Feinberg writes, “When we make God the center of our lives, we can’t help but worship, no matter what the circumstance. When we don’t worship, we tend to worry. Worship or worry – which do you choose when you’re in a tough situation?”

 

But how can you worship when life is falling apart around you? Margaret says, “Worship is about proclaiming that God is worth more than you. As long as you are able to script your own life, you really don’t need to worship. You are trusting that certain events will give your life meaning. But when those things get taken away … you are forced to acknowledge that God is calling the shots.”

 

Hang in there. God does not promise an easy life, but a guided one! Turn your act two over to God. Verses of encouragement are Proverbs 3:5-6, Matthew 6:33 and Philippians 4:6.

The Origin of Santa Claus

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The model for Santa Claus was a fourth-century Christian bishop named Saint Nicholas. Little is known about the real Nicholas, except that he was probably the bishop of Lycia. In the Middle Ages, when it became popular to venerate saints, legends about Nicholas began to flourish. One said he had given three bags of gold to the daughters of a poor man so that the girls would not have to earn their dowries through prostitution. Another claimed he had miraculously restored three little boys to life after they had been cut up for bacon. Thus Nicholas became known as a giver of gifts and the patron saint of children. His day is December 6. 

Nicholas was particularly popular in Holland. It is there that the customs linking Nicholas to Christmas seem to have first begun. Dutch children expected the friendly saint to visit them during the night on December 5, and they developed the custom of placing their wooden shoes by the fireplace to be filled with gifts. Santa Claus is the Americanization of his Dutch name, Sinterklaas. 

Of course, by the time Santa Claus became a part of American lore, children had discovered that you can get a lot more gifts in a sock than you can in a wooden shoe, so that adjustment to the custom was made in the mid-nineteenth century. 

Clement Moore, an American poet, may be more responsible than any other person for popularizing the myth of Santa Claus. He wrote “A Visit from St. Nicholas” in 1822 which begins with the famous line, “‘Twas the night before Christmas,” and it was published in the Troy New York Sentinel. It was immediately popular and has endured ever since.

** Adapted from John MacArthur, in God With Us, the Miracle of Christmas, 1989. More information may be found here.

What Child is This?

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At this time of year, it is a good question to ask, “What child is this?”

  1. Some say He was just a good teacher, but good teachers don’t claim to be God.
  2. Some say He was merely a good example, but good examples don’t mingle with prostitutes and sinners.
  3. Some say He was a madman, but madmen don’t speak the way He spoke.
  4. Some say He was a crazed fanatic, but crazed fanatics don’t draw children to themselves or attract men of intellect like Paul or Luke to be their followers.
  5. Some say He was a religious phony, but phonies don’t rise from the dead.
  6. Some say He was only a phantom, but phantoms can’t give their flesh and blood to be crucified.
  7. Some say He was only a myth, but myths don’t set the calendar for history.

Jesus has been called the ideal man, an example of love, the highest model of religion, the foremost pattern of virtue, the greatest of all men, and the finest teacher who ever lived. All of those descriptions capture elements of His character, but they all fall short of the full truth. The apostle Thomas expressed it perfectly when he saw Jesus after the resurrection, and exclaimed, “My Lord and My God!” (John 20:28).

** Adapted from John MacArthur, in God With Us, the Miracle of Christmas, 1989.

Did the Christmas Angels Sing?

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One of the most popular Christmas carols of all time is “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing.” Did you know Scripture does not say the angels sang? When they appeared to the shepherds, they were speaking, not singing.

In fact, there are only two times in Scripture where the angels are found singing. One is in Job 38:7. Here the message is a bit cryptic: “The morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy.” “Morning stars” refers to the angels; the archangel Lucifer, before he fell and became Satan, was called “star of the morning, son of the dawn” (Isaiah 14:12). Job 38:7 describes the angels’ singing at creation. That took place before Adam sinned—perhaps even before Lucifer fell.

Revelation 5:8-10 describes another incident when angels sing. Four living creatures—these are angels—join with twenty-four elders in singing a new song to Christ: “You are worthy to take the scroll and break its seals and open it. For you were slaughtered, and your blood has ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation. And you have caused them to become a Kingdom of priests for our God. And they will reign on the earth.”

So angels sang before the Fall of man, and after the curse is removed, they will sing again. In the meantime, they apparently minister without singing. It is as if they cannot sing while the earth is under God’s curse.

** Adapted from John MacArthur, in God With Us, the Miracle of Christmas, 1989.

The Turning Point in History

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The birth of Jesus Christ, next to His crucifixion, was the most momentous event in the history of the world. It became the focal point of all history. Everything before Christ looked forward to His birth, and everything since then looks back at Him. It was such a crucial event that now all the world numbers years according to it. B.C. means “before Christ,” and A.D. means “anno domini,” “in the year of our Lord.” Today, in order to minimize Christianity, the phrase has changed to CE (Common Era) and BCE (Before Common Era)…but who are they kidding?

 

Jesus made an impact on the world that has never been, and never will be, equaled by any mere man. In all the annals of the human race, no one is like Him. He never wrote a book. He never held political power. He was not wealthy or particularly influential in His lifetime. Yet He altered the world completely; in fact, no other human being has affected history remotely like He has.

 

He has been opposed, hated, fought, censored, banned, and criticized in every generation since His birth. Yet His influence continues. After two thousand years, the impact of His life goes on so powerfully that it is safe to say not a day passes but that lives are revolutionized by His teaching.

 

** Adapted from John MacArthur, in God With Us, the Miracle of Christmas, 1989.

When was the First Christmas?

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No one really knows when Christ was born. It probably was not December 25, because Scripture says there were shepherds in the fields watching over their flocks, and that would have been highly unlikely in the middle of winter.

Our focus on December 25 came from the Roman holiday called Saturnalia. This was a pagan observance of the birthday of the unconquered sun. Saturnalia began December 19 each year, which, in the, northern hemisphere, is when the days start getting longer, and continued with seven days of festivities.

Many of our Christmas customs have their origins in Saturnalia, which was marked by feasting, parades, special music, gift giving, lighted candles, and green trees. As Christianity spread through the Roman Empire, the pagan holiday was given Christian connotations. In 336 Emperor Constantine declared Christ’s birthday an official Roman holiday. Some church leaders, such as Chrysostom, rebuked Christians for adopting a pagan holiday, but December 25 has endured as the date we celebrate Christ’s birth.

** Adapted from John MacArthur, in God With Us, the Miracle of Christmas, 1989.

More information on the date may be found here and here.

The Origin of Christmas Trees?

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Christmas trees seem to have their origins in the ancient celebrations of Saturnalia. The Romans decorated their temples with greenery and candles. Roman soldiers conquering the British Isles found Druids who worshiped mistletoe and Saxons who used holly and ivy in religious ceremonies. All those things found their way into Christmas customs. 

Interestingly, however, the first person to have lighted a Christmas tree may have been Martin Luther, father of the Reformation. He introduced the practice of putting candles on trees to celebrate Christmas, citing Isaiah 60:13 as biblical authority for the practice: “The glory of Lebanon will come to you, the juniper, the box tree, and the cypress together, to beautify the place of My sanctuary; and I shall make the place of My feet glorious.” 

** Adapted from John MacArthur, in God With Us, the Miracle of Christmas, 1989.

Christians and Christmas

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Christmas as a holiday was not observed until well after the biblical era. The early church celebrated Jesus’ resurrection, not His birth. In fact, Christmas was not given any kind of official recognition by the church until the mid-fifth century.

Partly because so many Christmas customs seem to have their roots in paganism, Christians have often been resistant to some of the rituals of the holiday. The Puritans in early America rejected Christmas celebrations altogether. They deliberately worked on December 25 to show their disdain. A law passed in England in 1644 reflected a similar Puritan influence; the law made Christmas Day an official working day.

Christians today are generally not opposed to celebrating Christmas. The holiday itself is nothing, and observing it is not a question of right or wrong, similar to what Paul wrote in Romans 14:5-6. Every day—including Christmas—is a celebration for us who know and love Him.

How we observe Christmas is the central issue. Do we observe it for the Lord’s sake or for our own sinful self-gratification? Do we even think about why and how we celebrate it? That is the heart of the matter. Christmas is an opportunity for us to exalt Jesus Christ. We ought to take advantage of it.

** Adapted from John MacArthur, in God With Us, the Miracle of Christmas, 1989.

Freedom of Choice for Teens

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I recently read about Tim Stafford’s advice to hurting parents, regarding a son’s irresponsibility toward himself and his behavior. He mentions “Three Rules of Life” that I find very positive: 

  • Rule 1 – You live and die by your own choices.
  • Rule 2 – You can choose smart or you can choose stupid.
  • Rule 3 – There’s always somebody or some circumstance whose job it is to make your life miserable when you choose stupid.  

Regarding rule # 1 – While we cannot control people or circumstances around us, we can control the way we respond to people or situations. Someone might do something that makes me angry, but it is my choice to actually be angry. The Bible mentions that God has set before us life and death, (Deuteronomy 30:15) and we must make a choice as to which we want. It’s called free will, a gift of God Himself, but with our choices come consequences (leading to rule number 2). 

Regarding rule #2 – The debate might come on how you define that which is smart and that which is stupid. We have a list of the smart choices and our kids have a list of smart choices, but the problem comes when I see something on my stupid list showing up on my child’s smart list. So, the solution is to use a predetermined list from Someone who is all together wise and perfect! Use the Bible as the standard for life and making choices. There may be a few gray areas, but look for the principles, and be fair to the text. But, please don’t pull out verses like Exodus 21:17. 

Regarding rule #3 – If you choose stupid, there always will come a day when it comes back to bite you. If you choose smart, give your kids the credit for making a wise decision! You’ll face a judge (stealing), fail a grade (not doing homework), be in an auto accident (drinking and driving), develop cancer (smoking), catch an STD (for the obvious)… 

You cannot make someone change who does not want to change, which is basic counseling advice. It doesn’t work in a marriage with alcoholics or drug addicts. Secular wisdom tells us that you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him drink. There is nothing that you can do to make your kids change, but you can reward smart choices and give consequences for poor ones. So, our job as parents is to influence our kids in the right direction. Influence is the essence of leadership. 

Years ago I read a book called, ToughLove, and another called Making Children Mind Without Losing Yours, The point of the first was to have rebellious teenagers experience the consequences for their actions, and the latter had a section that challenged parents to at times “pull the rug out from under their kids and watch them tumble.”