The Great Separation

Listen to Stacy Lynn Harp and Me.

Listen up - Hey everyone (who still reads this blog or who is finding it for the first time), you might want to click over to the Active Christian Media podcast:

A Writers Chat with Author Hal Paxton

Stacy and I discuss things related to writing and a few things not related to writing. Tips, novels, and testimonies of faith.

I recorded it a week ago and meant to post about it before now, but work and life has been a time eater.

You can find Stacy's blog at Active Christian Media.

The Pursuit of God.

The ultimate chase - Oh how patient God the Father is with us. But God is not patient like a man waiting for a bus to come along and take him to a shop where he will search through isles for the necessities of life only to wait in a long check out line and then again for another bus to take him home.

No.

Like the hunter pursuing his game, God is patient.

In our adult Bible study, we have been studying world views. We are using the DVD study Wide Angle Curriculum from Break Point. I highly recommend it. We've had some very good discussion in our small group of 8 to 14 people.

Last Sunday night we were discussing some of the things that make Christianity different from other religions and world views and it came up that God, the Christian God, is in the business of pursuing us. While I was sitting there it occurred to me again in a more deeper way how wonderful the husband and the wife metaphor in describing the relationship of Christ and the Church really is in describing the relationship God desires with us.

You see God didn't wait for us to find Him. From the beginning, He set out to pursue us and do everything He could to make it possible for us to be able to enter into His presence. Much like a man who pursues the woman he desires by wooing her because he recognizes in her qualities far beyond the physical, the God of the Universe seeks to pursue and woo us because of His great love for us, because He know the qualities He placed in us. How great must that love be, if He would enter into His own creation, suffer, and die just to take upon Himself our sins and reunite us with Himself?

I spoke Sunday night about how God used we Christians in wooing the lost world, how we were the agents that delivered the precious gifts and notes that He gives to those He loves. My dad noted that, really, we were not just the agents but we are the very gifts. How true.

This all came back to mind last night when doing a little reading before bed of a A.W. Tozer's great book, The Pursuit of God, and I read this:

"We have within us the ability to know Him if we will but respond to His overtures. (And this we call pursuing God!)"

Tozer understood. God has been pursuing us all along, not the other way around.

Merry Christmas 2009!

For unto us a Savior is born.

Greetings in the name of the of our heavely Father's most precious and beautiful gift, Jesus the Christ.

This year has been one of a very busy year for me. Full of sadness and joy, setback and triumph. I'm certain that it has been similar for you as well.

One thought ringing through my mind at year end is that we must be willing to sacrifice those things we hold dear. Whether those things we hold dear are material items, dreams, or loved ones.

We are merely stewards. Everything, everyone, in our lives are given us by God. Even our own lives. Should God require back the money, or vision, or loved one He has given us, it is His to take back. It's a hard thing to remember at times, particularly when it is our visions for our lives or the loved ones we hold so close, but it is the reality. There is not a part of the universe - from the smallest element of creation to the largest star in the heavens - that the Father has not given to Jesus, our Savior, our Redeemer.

Merry Christmas!

Divorce and Selfishness thought.

Rumination - Was up minutes before the 5:15 alarm this morning. Then I headed out for a plodding power walk. Mercy, the body didn't want to cooperate this morning. At least the temp was 60 degrees. Though the humidity this morning was up there, the sign of that being how wet I was when I got back to my door forty eight minutes later.

It took a lot of will power to get out there this morning. The temptation to reset the alarm on my cell and stay under the warm and inviting blankets bore upon me. But I managed to push on even though my feelings said I was crazy and to just do what I wanted to do; go back to sleep.

After breakfast and devotion time in the Word, I finally made it to the shower and as is the way my mind works, I started thinking over people I had prayed for, the Bible study I'm currently leading at church on world views, yesterday's sermon by my dad, and the culture at large.

It's a lot to deal with while a shower washes away the morning efforts.

Somehow my mind turned to divorce, perhaps because of several couples and singles I pray for on my walks. I ruminated upon Christ and His bride, the Church, and how that is the model for marriage.

And I thought about our culture and its view of marriage today and it occurred to me that the view was built upon a self-centered position. Not exactly a revelation for many of you I'm sure, and not really a revelation for me. More a clarification of thought.

So many enter into marriage with the mindset that it will complete them, make them whole, satisfy their desires (the world would lie and tell us these are "needs").

This is where marriage I think breaks down for the most part, with this view of the marriage relationship being for self and not for the other. Eventually, the marriage becomes tiring or wearing and fails to satisfy the self.

In essence this mindset is one where the marriage relationship is a tool to meet one's desires and when that tool ceases to work it is disgarded.

Can you imagine if Christ felt that way about you?

It saddens me that many in the Western Church today have adopted this world view on marriage. It's a sin of which the Church needs to repent and cast off its leaching embrace.

What Can this Video Teach Us about Oursleves?

God's Best - I saw this video last week and it reminded me of the principle of delayed gratification. It's a principle our society does not practice on the whole and not practicing it continues to lead us down an easy path away from God the Father.

It's a fun video to watch and one I had laugh at, but consider today how our culture teaches that we should give into our passions in life for things like fast money, sex, and success. Take the short cuts the world says. "Why wait? Here's your birth control. You're going to do it anyway." That's a lie from Satan. God tells us to wait for His best. He's provided us the principles to living a life of passion and purity that I believe is so much more better than what the world offers.

Oh, The Temptation from Steve V on Vimeo.

Comments? Feel free to leave them.

Oklahoma Pastor Slain.

Horrific - This is a stunning crime of hatred:

Slaying details of Oklahoma City pastor shocking
SLAIN PASTOR WAS DISCOVERED NUDE IN A ‘CRUCIFIX POSITION’ AT ANADARKO CHURCH

Police found the mutilated body of the Rev. Carol Daniels in a "crucifix position” behind her church altar last Sunday, The Oklahoman learned from sources close to the investigation.

Sources confirmed that Daniels’ bloodied corpse appeared to have been left in the form of a cross with both arms outstretched to the sides. Sources also said investigators were disturbed by two other facts at the crime scene....

Be sure to be in prayer for her family and this community.

Oh, if you follow the link there is a news cast report on the page.

Child Evangelism Fellowship Told By Government to Not Use Name of God or Jesus.

Leave your Jesus at the door - My brother eMailed me a this report found on FoxNews.

Evangelical Group Banned From Tulsa Housing Projects, Chapter Leader Says

I did a search to find more information but oddly, neither Google News nor Bing, had much news covering this story. It looks to me like it was first reported by Charles Biggs on Tulsa Beacon here:

Government tells Bible clubs to not mention God or Jesus

Biggs reports:

The City of Tulsa and the federal government may shut down summer Bible clubs in poor apartment complexes because someone thinks federal policy prohibits religious activity.

A leader of the Bible group said she was told unless club leaders agree not to say “God” or “Jesus” during their lessons at public community centers, they would be forced to take their Bible classes elsewhere.

For more than 10 years, Child Evangelism Fellowship has conducted Bible lessons for children in federally subsidized housing projects. This summer, an employee of Youth at Heart, a United Way agency formed in 2003, informed CEF that according to federal policy, the Bible clubs could continue in the centers but leaders couldn’t say the names of God or Jesus.

“I received a call from the program director of Youth At Heart (Margaret Berry-Biggs), which holds the contracts on Tulsa Housing apartment recreation centers, notifying us that they wanted us to continue holding 5-Day Clubs in the apartment complexes this summer, but they are now under different guidelines due to government and city funding which now bans all groups which do ‘religious’ instruction from using their building facilities,” said Dayla Koehn of CEF. “She told me we were more than welcome to come as long as we didn’t mention God or Jesus. We would need to just teach stories that would encourage the children to love others and develop good moral character or we could probably hold clubs outside.”

This story came out on June 4th and Biggs reports that CEF does not receive any federal monies. The FoxNews report by James Osborne was released today and he does include a little more information in that CEF had a similar problem before with a school who said they couldn't use the school facilities because of the faith based bent of the organization. That was fixed with a letter from the Liberty Council to the school explaining equal access. So I imagine this latest attempt to keep CEF from preaching the Gospel will meet a similar fate particularly based on the rest of Biggs report in the Tulsa Beacon.

But this kind of story really isn't all that unusual. My own church used to work closely with a local public school in tutoring Elementary School age children. We had great success in educationally helping the children. But after a time they cut us off and the gist of it was the whole "Separation of Church and State" argument.

So every so often stories like this crop up. Typically during Democratic administrations. I think there may be a greater sense of freedom to look negatively on Christianity during such administrations. Likewise I imagine one could attempt to make an argument for a reverse effect during Republican control, though I would argue that true conservatism is more concerned with freedom of speech than the liberalism that we find ourselves gripped in today.

My worry is that we will see more stories like this in the days and years to come. Our government is making moves that I would call Fascist in design (and I'm including many in the Republican camp too) and the more I learn about the organization ACORN and President Obama's ties to it the greater my conern grows.

An Urgent Message of Impending Disaster.

Get Your Household Ready - In doing some client work this morning I happened to catch a twitter from one of the people that follows my client's twitter account. It was not from someone who is an active Christian but this person thought it worth questioning others about.

It is a message from David Wilkerson who says that the Holy Spirit has laid upon his heart a message that he must proclaim. The message?

I am compelled by the Holy Spirit to send out an urgent message to all on our mailing list, and to friends and to bishops we have met all over the world.

AN EARTH-SHATTERING CALAMITY IS ABOUT TO HAPPEN. IT IS GOING TO BE SO FRIGHTENING, WE ARE ALL GOING TO TREMBLE - EVEN THE GODLIEST AMONG US.

For ten years I have been warning about a thousand fires coming to New York City. It will engulf the whole megaplex, including areas of New Jersey and Connecticut. Major cities all across America will experience riots and blazing fires—such as we saw in Watts, Los Angeles, years ago.

There will be riots and fires in cities worldwide. There will be looting—including Times Square, New York City. What we are experiencing now is not a recession, not even a depression. We are under God’s wrath.

Here is the link to David Wilkerson's blog entry and the full text. If it had been anyone else proclaiming this I probably wouldn't have given it a second look. But David Wilkerson is someone I respect. He's not what I could call a "spot-light-preacher." It is certainly something worth thinking considering in this day and age we find ourselves.

If you don't think it's possible, well, you are wrong. The end of days will be much like this and far worse. As it is, riots have occurred already in Western nations where banking and governments have failed. And just today Warren Buffet said in an interview on the financial news network that we were very close a total meltdown ourselves in the banking industry. We're not out of the woods there yet.

What should you do to be safe? As Pastor Wilkerson notes, it would be wise to stockpile a month supply of food and water.

Interestingly, before hearing about this message, over the weekend in prepping for leading my Bible study Sunday evening a scripture from Ephesians 5:15-16, jumped out at me and wouldn't let me go over the weekend.

Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.

Bass Player for Korn Joins the Family of God.

Praise God! - I just saw this headline on The International Faith Telegraph:

Got The Life: "Korn" Bass Player Becomes Christian

From the AP report:

LAGUNA HILLS, Calif. (AP) - Another member of the heavy metal band Korn has overcome drug addiction by becoming a Christian.

    Korn’s bassist, Reginald Arvizu—who calls himself Fieldy—will release his book, “Got the Life: My Journey of Addiction, Faith, Recovery and Korn” on Tuesday.

How wonderful it is to know of new brother in Christ. Our Savior is wonderful and redeeming of all impurities making us whiter then snow and fit to be in the presence of God the Father!

Wonderful Christian News Site and Portal.

Book mark it. - Just wanted to alert you all to a great new Christian website.

It's called The International Faith Telegraph.

I'm doing a bit of work for them but the news they cover in the missions world is great and encouraging to me.

Here's their press release:

Two Former 'Missionary Kids' Launch News Service: The International Faith Telegraph: World Christian News & Missions News

ALISO VIEJO, Calif., Feb. 18 /Christian Newswire/ -- Newly launched - The International Faith Telegraph: World Christian News & Missions News is a highly informative news website that keeps you in touch with daily Christian world news, as well as missions news and international evangelism worldwide.

The International Faith Telegraph: World Christian News & Missions News, founded by two former "missionary kids," was launched less than a week ago and has already begun making contact with Christians and missionaries around the world.

"In just the first few weeks since we started this project, we have been so blessed to make contact with people all over the world. God has really opened up our eyes to see that there is so much happening in the world today. God is doing so many exciting things, and much of it is found in the stories of individual Christians and missionaries you have probably never heard of," said Co-Founder Laura Larson.

The founders hope to promote a new, rarely promoted, yet highly informative news angle by placing less focus on political news, and greater focus on worldwide news, bringing its readers inspiring missions stories from individual missionaries and organizations around the world. In doing so, this news source provides 'instant' access to how God's people are fulfilling the Great Commission worldwide.

"We believe it is important to stay current with politics; however, it is easy to invest so much emotional energy in U.S. politics, and become so frustrated, that you forget about other subjects near to God's heart, like reaching the lost. And you forget that there is a lot to be excited about today."

The International Faith Telegraph: World Christian News & Missions News also promotes the success of Christian artists, worldwide advancements and trends in technology, and churches worldwide, by publishing articles that are inspiring and give the 'good' news a place to stand out.

Ultimately, The International Faith Telegraph: World Christian News & Missions News hopes to inspire Christians and keep them connected to the worldwide Christian community.

For the latest world Christian news and missions news, all day, anytime, it's now but a click away at www.faithtelegraph.com.

Be sure to check it out. I'm certain you will find it useful on a daily basis.