3 Lessons from John 17

In the 17th chapter of John, there is a prayer of Jesus that He prays just before He is arrested. There are three really cool things that stand out to me.

When Jesus prays He gives us a definition of eternal life. And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. (John 17:3 NKJV) Isn't it interesting that when Jesus describes eternal life the element of time is not in the equation? From God's point of view eternal life is not about duration but relationship, a relationship with us. Imagine, the Creator of the universe, the God of miracles, and the all-knowing, all-powerful, and all-present God wants to have a relationship with us. It goes without saying it is a forever relationship.

The second awesome lesson from John 17 is this: And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. (John 17:3 NKJV) Jesus makes a point that I have never though of before and I don't exactly know why but it makes me feel good. As a christian I can trace my getting saved to the testimony of one of the original Disciples! For me it is one more reason to believe in the security of my salvation.

And lastly, doesn't it make us feel good knowing that in the chapter we have the recorded prayer that Jesus prayed for us. I know that the savior who died for me was thinking about me just a few hours before He was arrested and put on trial for my sins. Jesus Himself prayed for us!

The Good News

As I have been praying about the direction of Eastside Assembly of God for the next year, I believe that God is pointing me towards a focus on the good news. After all the gospel is literally the "good news"! All we have to do is look at our world to know that it seems that things are not going too well. Everytime I turn on the news or read a newspaper I hear or see bad news. Our economy is weak, it seems that the moral fiber of our world is on the decline, well, I don't have to recount all the terrible things that are happening right now. But for us who are believers we have hope to hang our hat on -- Jesus!

That's right, while the world around us is falling apart, we know that there is good news! Believe or not God is in control! And we have the "good news"! There is a God in heaven who is working on our behalf. We also have the hope that any day now Jesus will return for His church and we will have the ultimate victory!

So with that in mind, it is my intention to make 2012 a year of "good news". At Eastside Assembly of God, we have much to be thankful for and so this next year my goal is to focus on the "good news".

Here is what we are going to do:
Always remember that the Gospel message is a positive message.
Continue finding ways for us to connect believers with each other and with God.
Be there to support and encourage those who are going through a time of testing or trouble.
Preach and teach the "Good News"!

Continue with the healing & miracle services once a month (first Sunday).
I believe that 2012 has all the makings of being a great year for us! One more thing, ask God to help you become more positive about your life, your church, and your faith. That is a prayer I know God will answer!

Something From God

As I was reflecting on last Sunday's Business Meeting I remembered something I have kept with me. It is a prophecy given in January 2008, one year after I arrived as Pastor of Eastside. Mary Massie gave this message, She has since been promoted to heaven. It still speaks to me about what God wants from us as a Church!

My children, I desire for you to know this day that I am opening a doorway – a doorway for the beginning of why this work was established here. I brought you here as foundational stones and I cemented you in by My Holy Spirit, but I am bringing other stones and I am setting them in amongst your midst. I ask of you to bring them in with you. Show them their place. Help them to find that place because there’s a flood coming.

There was a reason that I established this work here and it is time for its beginning, but you must be ready. I will not bring the wounded and the lost here if you are not ready to love them into My Kingdom, if you are not ready to mentor them and to disciple them. I am bringing others alongside of you. Welcome them into the Kingdom here where you congregate. This is My house, a house of sanctuary, a house of praise. It is a house of prayer. Get on your knees and cry out for the lost. My heart breaks, and I hear their cries – many around you. This is not a place to come and receive and go home in smugness, but it’s a place to receive and become strong.

I say to you My children, your love is there within your heart but let it break free. Let it go in and out of your midst and let it go out among those who need you. I say to you My children, My love for you is so strong, but it’s time for you to stand. Strengthen your legs. Strengthen your arms. Let your voice be heard out there among the lost. They are hungry for something and they don’t know His Name. But you know it. It’s in your heart. I say to you, go out and declare. Jesus is My Son, and He’s calling them to Him. Hear My words and heed them, My children.

What If We Treated The World Like We Treat God?

How successful would we be if we only showed up to work when it didn’t interfere with other plans?

What if we took the corporate handbook and decided to put our own “spin” on it?

What if we just never got around to doing the one thing our boss told us to do?

What if we slept through the staff meeting?

What if we came each day unprepared?

What if we didn’t come for 2/3rd of the time?

What if we never talked to our boss?

What if we never said “thank you”?

What if we quit every time we didn’t like something?

“Therefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people with His own blood, suffered outside the gate. Therefore let us go forth to Him, outside the camp, bearing His reproach. For here we have no continuing city, but we seek the one to come. Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name.” Hebrews 13:12-15 (NKJV)

Worship Leaders Needed!

Eastside Assembly of God is a great Church. One of the reasons for this is we have a group of people dedicated to leading the Church in worship. Our worship team devotes many hours of time to their ministry. As matter of fact, I can say without reservation that the members of our team are the some of the hardest working people in the Church. They sacrifice a lot of their time and their talent to lead us into the presence of God. And I have to say that all of their hard work is paying off. I really appreciate their efforts and I thank them because I am never disappointed by their ministry. Each and every Sunday I experience the presence of God in our services!

So if I can, I would like to ask a huge favor from the rest of us at Eastside! Wouldn’t it be great if all of us became worship leaders? We can do this by each one of us responding to our time of worship in an overt way. There are many people who come to our Church each week with a need in their life and sometimes that need could be met by simply experiencing the presence of God. And if we are entering into our time of worship with the idea of invoking His presence many needs will be met. By the way, it is a great thing to be a part of God meeting a need.

So here are some practical suggestions for being a leader of worship:

(1) If you are physically able, stand. I used to wonder why it is so important to stand during worship. Because I believed that the more comfortable I was the better I could worship. (I can focus on God and not my hurting feet.) The reason we stand is very simple – we stand in honor of the presence of God. When someone of importance enters the room we stand – think of the times this occurs. When a king enters, when the President enters, when a judge enters the room we stand as a show of honor. So if we are serious about invoking the presence of God shouldn’t we honor Him by standing? And Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people, for he was standing above all the people; and when he opened it, all the people stood up. --Nehemiah 8:5

(2) Raise your hands. The reason we raise our hands is because we are giving a sign to God and to others that we are surrendering ourselves. There are amazing things the Holy Spirit can do through us when we yield ourselves to Him. By surrendering ourselves and raising our hands we are indicating to God that we are focus totally on Him. I used to wait until I got a certain feeling before I would raise my hands in worship, but I found out very quickly that when I offer to raise my hands in surrender to God I get that same feeling. For some reason raising my hands makes my heart more sensitive to the Holy Spirit.

(3) Focus on the words of the song we are singing. When we are all singing the same words we become unified in thought. The greatest miracles of the Church happen when we are in one accord. That means we are all putting our minds on the same thing. That is why the most effective worship songs have words that are directed to God. Did you ever notice that almost all of the Psalms are directed towards God?

I believe if you will help me with these simple things the worship experience at Eastside will be amazing and we will experience the presence of God in new and exciting ways. Most importantly, people’s needs will be met.

Justification and Propitiation

Yesterday when I was talking about what Jesus did for us when He died on the crossed I spoke about two biblical concepts. And I would like to give you some further insight so that you can really understand what it is that Jesus did for us.

The first being justification. Sometimes I wonder if we don’t take the penalty for sin very seriously. Or if maybe we think that God just arbitrarily decided that there needed to be a price for sin. We need to know that there really is a price or a penalty for sin that must be served. Because if there in not then Jesus’ death was nothing more than some kind of game that God has played with us. I can assure you that Jesus didn’t suffer the excruciating pain of the cross just to placate God. He did it because there really is a cost to sin that must be paid for. So in order to find set us free from sin, we must be made innocent. That’s what Jesus death on the cross does; it makes us not guilty because Jesus took our guilt with Him to the cross. As He hung on the cross He bore are shame and guilt, in effect removing it from us. So we can stand before God justified – Just as if I never sinned.

The second concept I spoke about was propitiation. What this means is that the wrath of God is pointed at sin. God hates sin and yes he also hates those who sin, that is why they cannot be with Him. That is why He hates those things. So when we sin we become the object of God’s wrath…therefore Jesus became that object or propitiation. He substitutes Himself in our place so that when He died on the cross He was the object of the wrath of God.

For these reasons it should break our hearts when we sin. Because in our sin we are not justified and we are the object of God’s wrath. We need to learn to hate having sin in our lives. Because that sin cost Jesus His life.

We love God because He first loved us!

More Stuff About Earthquakes

On Sunday I shared a message about the significance of earthquakes. And when I went to the first occasion of a quake in the scripture what I discovered is that it was the very first one to occur. And God when He did it was showing a sign to the nation of Israel.

Then Moses said, "This is how you will know that the LORD has sent me to do all these things and that it was not my idea: If these men die a natural death and experience only what usually happens to men, then the LORD has not sent me. But if the LORD brings about something TOTALLY NEW, and the earth opens its mouth and swallows them, with everything that belongs to them, and they go down alive into the grave, then you will know that these men have treated the LORD with contempt." --Numbers 16:28-30 (NIV)

So I believe that earthquakes are a significant sign. An earthquake occurred at Jesus death and at His resurrection. I am not so sure that earthquakes are as much about the judgment of God but more about being a sign of Jesus’ return. Jesus told us in Matthew 24 that when we hear of earthquakes in various places that we should look up because it means He is returning.

Let me take the opportunity to share with you a couple of things I didn’t get to say on Sunday…We should be reminded when there are earthquakes that they are the natural disaster that we cannot give a warning or even a lot of preparation for. The Japanese found this out…they built with the idea of an earthquake occurring, but were helpless to prepare for the resulting tsunami. So earthquakes have been and for the time being with be the most feared “act of God” we face. According to the Bible it is God who literally holds our world together…For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him ALL THINGS HOLD TOGETHER. --Colossians 1:16-17 (NIV) Once again, we see more evidence of God’s direct involvement in the occurrence of earthquakes.

One last point I want to share. According to Romans 8:19-22, creation itself is seeking for the return of Jesus and its release from the curse of sin. Verse 22 speaks of the creation moaning and groaning as it waits for Jesus to appear. Turns out the ultimate environmentalist is Jesus and the planet will literally be saved when He returns! Is it possible that the earthquakes are the result of a creation that is moaning and groaning? I don’t know for sure, but I do believe it is time to look up for our redemption is near!

PS. I am writing from Cleveland while on vacation and we are having a great time, but I am looking forward to Sunday! I can’t wait to see what God is going to do!

Under the Tree

So in case you missed it we found out yesterday that when the serpent was tempting Eve to eat the forbidden fruit, Adam was right there…

When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. --Genesis 3:6 (NIV)

He was only as far away from her as the reach of her hand with the fruit! So while the Devil was tempting his wife, Adam was standing right there under the tree doing…nothing! I wonder how many wives there are in our churches under the attack of the enemy while the husband is right there doing nothing. I wonder how many children are struggling in their faith and the enemy is doing his number on them while Dad stands by doing nothing. I wonder how many churches and pastors are under attack from the forces of evil while the men of the Church stand by doing nothing.

Guys, to some this may sound chauvinistic, but we are the ones appointed by God to stand up and protect our wife, our kids, and our Church when they need it. I wonder what would happen to Eastside Assembly of God if the men got really serious about their faith. Imagine a Church where young men had role models of what it means to be a real man of faith, a godly husband and father. Imagine a Church where the men were doing spiritual battle.

I also believe there is a message in this for the whole Church, not just the guys…we live in a world that is dying and going to hell. Just like Adam, the Church is right there just letting it happen. Perhaps we are afraid, perhaps we worry what others will think, perhaps we don’t think it will make any difference, and perhaps there will be a too heavy a price to pay!

When I pastored in Bellevue, everyday I looked across the parking lot and saw a school. And I kept hearing how bad things where in the district. One day as I was praying God showed me that the Church was the last line of defense for the children of our community…if we didn’t do something then no one else would. I believe that to be no different in our world…we the Church, are the last line of defense against the sin and corruption of our nation and our world. Why are we just standing under the tree?

Prayer Cloths

Now God worked unusual miracles by the hands of Paul, so that even handkerchiefs or aprons were brought from his body to the sick, and the diseases left them and the evil spirits went out of them. --Acts 19:11-12

I thought I would give some background on prayer cloths. We see from this passage that there came a time in the book of Acts that the early Christians took token items from Paul and when they were received by people who were sick, they were healed and also it says that demons were cast out of people by this method.

I do think it is important that we understand that there is nothing magical about this because any clear reading of this passage makes it clear that God was the one who caused these healing to occur. The prayer cloths were and are today merely instruments by which our faith can grow. The way I use a prayer cloth is that I tell people to receive this as a way of knowing that someone has prayed for them. So when they are discouraged and feel like God or no one else cares they can know by the prayer cloth that someone has called out their name before the throne of God. All healing is through God and He is gracious enough to honor most of the methods that we need in order to receive that healing.

I Stopped Interpreting the Bible

As a pastor, I spend a lot of time studying the Bible. In the last few years I decided that I would just read the scriptures without trying to interpret the meaning. Why? Because I have come to the conclusion that when anybody, including even the most studied scholar, (by the way, aren’t these the guys who tell us the Bible isn’t really the inspired Word of God!) tries to interpret the Bible they inevitably add their own opinion. It is an inescapable occurrence and there is no way around it! And guess what? God gave us the scripture for us to see Him! So as bad as this may sound, I am simply not interested in someone’s opinion or even my own for that matter other than God’s. So when I read the Bible I take it literally.

Now I know right off the bat that there are going to be those who are going to say that just reading the Scriptures without digging in to find the deeper meaning is ignorant. And that is really what is at the heart of this subject. For too long the way one views the Bible has been used as a determining factor in assigning intelligence or ignorance. Only in my ignorance would I read the Bible without considering that circumstances surrounding its writing. After all, each book of the Bible was written for a specific audience, and I agree, especially the epistles of the New Testament. Even the four books of the Gospels; I get that and acknowledge it. We are also told that the culture was different because the Bible was written at least 2,000 years ago. So when we read what the Bible says we have to take in consideration these things. Well, I am going to show my ignorance and reveal just how shallow of a thinker I am. I don’t care about those things! There I said it, well actually I wrote it, and put it on the internet to forever follow me!

Here is why. I am going to start from the premise that God gave us the Bible in order for us to have a revelation of who He is and to tell us what we need to know about Him. He gave us the scriptures so that we could discover the way to salvation. (Psalm 119:11; 2 Timothy 3:16) If God is going to reveal Himself and the way towards salvation in the cryptic way the smart people tell us He does, then God is cruel! If He really wants us to understand Him and to know the way to salvation then He isn’t going to put the barrier of interpreting His Word and hoping that we get it right! 2 Chronicles 15:2 tells us that if we look for Him He will be found. God wants us to know Him; He wants us to be able to discover Him and His truth. So if that is the case, why would He make it so hard to get at the Truth! But then again, I am taking these verses at face value!

Is it possible that God could give us His Word in such a way that the generations of thousands of years could read and understand? Doesn’t God have the ability and the insight to give us His Word in such a way that we could all read it and understand the message He has sent to us? Couldn’t He have protected His Word even through translations into the different languages so that everyone who reads it could find Him? According to Jesus in Matthew 5:18 the law will be preserved until it all is fulfilled including every dot over the “i” and every cross of the “t”. If that is the case then God has gone to great lengths to see to it that when you and I, no matter how smart we are, pick up the Bible to read about Him, He will be revealed!

Just to be clear about this I want to list come of the things I believe due to my literal view of the Scriptures.

I believe…
· God created the world in six 24 hour days, 6,000 to 10,000 years ago…
· Noah really did build and ark and that every animal was on it...
· Jesus’ mother, Mary was a virgin at his birth…
· Jesus died on the cross for my sins…
· Jesus was resurrected from the dead after three days in the grave…
· The Holy Spirit came on the day of Pentecost and filled the church…
· The gifts of the Spirit are for today–including speaking in other tongues…
· In divine healing…
· In the devil…
· In a literal hell…
· Jesus will return before the tribulation and rapture the church…

I know some of these beliefs make me sound crazy…but that is the way all these things appear in the Bible…literally!

Dogmatic About Creation

I want to share with you the reason I am dogmatic about the creation of the earth. I am very adamant that the earth was created in six literal days. I believe that the Bible is very clear that God started creating on Sunday and that Adam was created on the next Friday. Just to be clear, I believe that God took 144 hours to start and finish the creative process.

I believe that the biblical account of creation is critical to the faith and trust that I can put into the Scriptures. If I cannot believe what the Bible says about creation and the way it says the world was made then how can I ever trust that God loves me and sent His Son the die for my sins? How can I believe any of the other things the Bible says are true? If the Bible at its beginning isn’t truthful then how can I trust the ending, where we are in heaven with God? If I don’t believe that God created the world and that He created me than I do not and cannot believe the Bible is very word of God.

I also do not believe that the Bible was given to us to bring confusion to our faith. If I am to follow the logic of Christians who want to reject the manner that the Bible says the world was created, then I am going to be confused. Let give you an example, if God didn’t create the world in six days then why does the Bible say He did? And if the word day doesn’t mean day then why would God use terms that would only serve to confuse and cause me to doubt? As far as I can see, confusion is the method that the enemy uses. It was his first tool – God gave Adam and Eve one rule in the garden. Don’t eat of one particular tree. And everything was fine until Satan decided to bring confusion. The very first words out of the Devil’s mouth were, “did God really say, you shall not eat of every tree of the garden?" You see, confusion is Satan’s tool and that leads to sin. God is a God of order not of confusion. He has no intention of tricking us by bringing confusion. So I choose to believe that when the Bible says days that it really means what it sounds like it means – days.

Lastly, I believe in six twenty-four hour days, because not to opens the door, be it ever so slightly, to the idea that the world was created through the evolutionary process. And the reason I must, as a believer reject that is because the sole purpose of the concept of evolution is to deny the existence of God. Creation is proof of God and it gives me the assurance that God loves me (after all He created me) and it gives me true purpose to why I am here. I was created by Him and for Him – that’s a great plan!

Getting Past the Past…

Four years ago when God brought me to Eastside, I found a Church of great people who had been deeply wounded. They had been struggling to hold their Church together and on top of that had to endure a negative reputation, (not because they did anything wrong; but simply because they stayed and didn’t abandon the ship). I knew the minute I met the leaders of this Church that something really good was at Eastside, it was just hard to see underneath the sadness. As a matter of fact, during my interview there was a time when I had a sense that the committee was broken and so we set the interview aside and began to pray for healing, and we cried together. I knew in that instant that God wanted me to come and lead our Church out of that sadness and into rejoicing.

There is nothing wrong with being sad. However, sadness needs to be a place we only visit and not where we live! I have discovered that many great treasures are hidden under sadness. Underneath sadness I have found people deeply committed to their faith and to their brothers and sisters in the Lord. I also found people willing to do whatever was necessary to help their Church make it through the tough days. There were also people looking for someone to love. All of those things are the making of a very successful Church. All that needed to happen was for the veil of sorrow to be lifted. And that is were the transforming power of God comes into the picture. God won’t let you live in your sadness. Here is a little secret a lot of Christians don’t know…God brings joy!

So after four years I can truly say that at Eastside Assembly of God we laugh. We like to have a good time. And we believe that when people find God; He brings joy and happiness into their life. I have watched as that curtain of sorrow has been lifted from people when they begin to sense the joy of the Lord. Every time I hear our Church laugh I know that God is doing something good to our hearts.

“A merry heart does good, like medicine…” (Proverbs 17:22) in other words it makes us feel better and brings healing to us!

Enduring Doctrine

So I have been preaching about doctrine lately, because I really believe that many of the issues that are arising in the church today are the result of Christians not knowing good doctrine. The Apostle Paul says, “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables.” --2 Timothy 4:3-4.

There’s something I noticed in this passage, Paul says they will not ENDURE sound doctrine. And right there we see the problem; the church perceives doctrine as something to be endured. I don’t know about you but when I feel like something has to be endured I avoid it! Reminds me of peas, they may be good for you but when I eat them, I have to endure them, so I avoid them at all cost. And sadly, many believers feel the same way about doctrine.

But, we need to know church doctrine. Because without it we have no hope of living successfully as Christians. Did you know that the Bible was given to us for the express purpose of teaching us doctrine? Really! God sent us His Word so that we would know Him and know how to find the plan that He has for us! Here is something maybe you haven’t recognized about doctrine. Doctrine is the tool that we use to become the person God has created us to be. You will never find the will of God for your life outside of doctrine.

One last thing, Christianity is about relationship. And all relationships have rules or guidelines to be followed. So while we should be really focused on our relationship with God we should acknowledge the rules that come with that relationship. And doctrine helps us know those rules and helps us get closer to God and fulfill everything God has planned for us.

Ok, with all that said here is my commitment to you: As I teach and preach on doctrine I will try to find ways to make it exciting and not something to be endured! But know this every once in a while you have to eat your peas! (yuck)