Lost And Found

Lost and Found

They roast marshmallows in Hell's fire,
Singing love songs of a heretical devotion.
They are the Lost and Found.
Lingering in a limbo of a faint awareness far from the embrace of The One searching for them.
They court wolves dressed in the camouflage of universal grace,
Wolves whose fangs drip the blood of the ever-guilty thinking that shallow confessions after a few alter steps was all The Race required.
Forget His instruction!
Forget His lordship!
Forget His lashes!
Forget Him...
Jesus you can keep your sacrifice and your preaching,
While these tares are steadily reaching,
for cliches such as “Blessed and Highly Favored,”
Or speaking of a sacrificial, blood-rich Love that drew islands into nations.
All while hoping Your hardest words in the bible were the scribblings of some mad Hebrew,
Grace is the gift You give a heart You've turned to seek You.

A Christian Love Poem

A Christian Love Poem

Longing to see your face,
I hope to be a man that I may dwell in your place,
In your love that is so complete,
Give me strength over my inadequacies,
Make them easy to defeat.

Let me bow before my love's feet,
Let my best be viewed as the worst,
For I can't be a man of enough worth,
I was cursed at birth. Love from you is grace because I am undeserving,
Let your words be cherished, coveted and at times unnerving.

I will taste milk and honey because of your gift,
So much power that even past death you still uplift.
What rift there was is no longer there,
What was separation is now such a fulfilling and intimate position.
Forgive me my love for seeking happiness apart from you,
For once again in your wisdom, my best you knew.

Finding Deliverance Even In A Fiery Furnace

I have found myself for the first time in the middle of undeniable, evident and certain spiritual warfare. Throughout my life in church I have heard many sermons about spiritual warfare but never really understood this biblical truth for myself. As I have looked at the challenges to my marriage, to my ministry work and the inner-temptations to pursue and indulge certain sins I struggle with, I began to pray for an end to what I felt to be the central issues and asked God for His deliverance to manifest itself in my life. However after a brief reflection on the following verses, I have come to the conclusion that deliverance from spiritual warfare is a lesson in trusting God do the possible, because nothing is impossible to God:

Daniel 3:24-28 (NIV)

“24 Then King Nebuchadnezzar leaped to his feet in amazement and asked his advisers, “Weren’t there three men that we tied up and threw into the fire?”

They replied, “Certainly, Your Majesty.”

25 He said, “Look! I see four men walking around in the fire, unbound and unharmed, and the fourth looks like a son of the gods.”

26 Nebuchadnezzar then approached the opening of the blazing furnace and shouted, “Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, servants of the Most High God, come out! Come here!”

So Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego came out of the fire, 27 and the satraps, prefects, governors and royal advisers crowded around them. They saw that the fire had not harmed their bodies, nor was a hair of their heads singed; their robes were not scorched, and there was no smell of fire on them.

28 Then Nebuchadnezzar said, “Praise be to the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, who has sent his angel and rescued his servants! They trusted in him and defied the king’s command and were willing to give up their lives rather than serve or worship any god except their own God.”

What drew me to this set of scripture as I began to reflect on how to pray and cope during spiritual warfare were the characteristics of King Nebuchadnezzar's attack:

1. Nebuchadnezzar tried to corrupt the faith and relationship The Hebrew Boys had with God.
   1. The faith of a Christian is what makes them a target for spiritual warfare. Satan and The World seek to break our faith and communion with God. The faith of The Hebrew Boys is what I and other Christians must look to as an example of how to conduct ourselves in the face of each trial, each set-back and each obstacle that occurs during the battle.
      
      
2. The “easy way out” presented itself to Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego in the form of the sin of idol worship.
   1. The temptation that presented itself to The Hebrew Boys was that they could have “solved” their own problem by bowing down to the golden idol. However while The Hebrew Boys would have “saved their lives” for the moment, they would have lost an important battle of faith in their personal spiritual war.
   2. Another key point I take away from this story is that when praying for deliverance, we like to frame how our deliverance should look. I would have prayed that God keep me out the fire when in fact...my deliverance would have been found in it!

In conclusion there are many things I have been praying for God to do such as restore my marriage and heal my grandmother who suffered a stroke. However while these solutions would end the spiritual warfare I have been enduring on the terms that I want them to end, I find courage in knowing that things may look dark, gloomy and even fiery but deliverance can always be found in trusting God. Faith requires that we trust God to the point where it seems as if all has failed and God is nowhere to be found. However I see from the story of The Hebrew Boys that the deliverance we seek during our trials and tribulations often lie inside the very fiery furnace we are trying to avoid. Praise be to God for being our deliverer!

Can A Christian's Morals Be Progressive?

During my morning commute I was listening to a sport talk radio host discuss the need for people to be "progressive." The host was talking about Augusta National's recent decision to admit women into their organization as golfing members. Like most people I have heard the term "progressive" being mentioned relative to a whole litany of topics such as politics, race, gender and more recently sexuality. It is this mixed association that has given me pause to reflect as to the merit of being "progressive" as a Christian.

M-W.com defines the word "progressive" as : of, relating to, or characterized by progress or making use of or interested in new ideas, findings, or opportunities.

In order to measure progress, it is implied that there must be two points of reference, a point of origination and a desired end point. To make a judgment on the degree of progress made, one must observe and measure the distance traveled along the path between the origination point and the destination point. Fundamentally speaking, in order to progress and cross the "moral" gap illustrated by my geometric reference there must be movement.

It is that need for movement, change in position, that caused me to consider the validity and value of being progressive. Progressive thinking implies that truth can change and evolve over time relative to cultural and societal pressures. Meaning if I can protest loud enough or boycott long enough then I have a great chance of making society reconsider long-held positions. As a Christian, we believe that:

1. God is the source of absolute truth. Exodus 20, John 14:6
2. Truth is not mutable(subject to change): Numbers 23:19, Malachi 3:6

As Christians we are called to live and adhere to the Word of God for the source of truth (1 John 5:1-5). Given that the source of truth on the Christian's world view is an eternal and immutable God, then our morals cannot be progressive in the sense they they change with social pressure, but that our understanding and growth in God's word promotes us to further shed worldly perspectives and deepen our understanding of biblical truth (Romans 12:1-2).

The reason it is important to understand the implications and dangers of crafting progressive morals is that "moral movement" erodes conviction and leads to sin. One tactic used by proponents of progressive thought is the coupling of secular values that align with biblical values to secular values that do not align with biblical values. For instance, racial equality is often championed as a major accomplishment of progressive thought in America. No Christian can refute the importance and biblical basis for racial equality. However progressive thought runs afoul of Christian beliefs when it tries to draw analogous comparisons of sexual preference(homosexuality) to that of race. In doing so, those in favor of homosexual legislative measures can equate morally the frustrations of homosexuals that stem from the lack of legal support for their lifestyle(marriage, etc...) as being as unjust as the racism experienced by Blacks in America.

In conclusion, the key differentiation the Christian must make in developing moral values is can the proposed moral value be substantiated biblically. If God's Word is being taught accurately in an attempt to orate God's Will for our lives, then we will develop a deeper and richer understanding of biblical morality. Growth in our understanding will promote the courage to stand on conviction when our morals deviate from secular thought, even at the expense of not being "progressive." No avoidance of social pressures, boycotts, protests, or popularity contests is worth the forfeiting our souls and deviation from the perfect and pleasing Will of God.