The Positive Impact of Sports

Our culture worships the athlete and the sports star. This worship is demonstrated each week as thousands gather in their shrines, temples and churches of sport to heap praise upon their chosen deity. Couple this with the outlandish salaries and out-of-sight tickets prices and it is clear to see that we have created an obvious lack of priorities in our land. A place where a teacher makes a few thousands dollars a year to educate the minds of children and a football player earns multi-millions for catching a football and doing a funky dance.

However, I still love sports. I love the conflict, the skill, the mental toughness, and the stories that come out of it when people embrace what sport and competition is all about. Case in point is a story written by Rick Reilly over at ESPN.com called, "Outpouring of Faith." Take a moment and read it...maybe even with a tissue nearby . You will be glad that you did.

OUTPOURING OF FAITH

Many beliefs, many paths to heaven?

This recent article from USAToday reveals that our culture is becoming a "whatever" culture. Believe, do, or think "whatever" you want just as long as it doesn't affect me. Here is an excerpt from the article.

By Cathy Lynn Grossman, USA TODAY

Most American religious believers, including most Christians, say eternal life is not exclusively for those who accept Christ as their savior, a new survey finds.

Of the 65% of people who held this open view of heaven's gates, 80% named at least one non-Christian group — Jews, Muslims, Hindus, atheists or people with no religion at all — who may also be saved, according to a new survey released today by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life.

FAITH & REASON: A 'crisis' for evangelicals?

This means 52% of Christians do not agree with the doctrines many religions teach, particularly conservative denominations.

Albert Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Louisville, calls the findings "a theological crisis for American evangelicals. They represent at best a misunderstanding of the Gospel and at worst a repudiation of the Gospel." (You can read the entire article here.)

I guess Jesus didn't know what he was talking about when he said, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." ~ John 14:6. As long as I breathe I am going to tell people that there is one way to God and that is through Jesus. I don't say that because I'm mean. I don't say that because I hate. I don't say that because I'm not gracious or forgiving. I say that because it's the truth.

What I Learned From My Recent Doctrine Series

I wanted to share a few thoughts with you regarding what I learned during this recent message series on doctrine. I know, I know. I’m the preacher and I’m supposed to have it all together and know everything about God, the Bible, and all the Christianity stuff. The truth is, I’m just like you. I’m still building a foundation for my faith. You might be shocked at how long I wrestled with what to say on some of the topics. I can tell you honestly, working on this series strengthened my Christian faith. On the flip side, I was surprised at some of the questions you asked via text messages. Not because the questions were bad, but because I had assumed everyone already understood. All in all, I learned a lot about myself, and I learned a lot about you. So with that in mind, I wanted to share with you some of the things I learned from the doctrine message series. Also, I would love to hear what you learned as well (or even didn’t learn). If you get a chance, jot them done and e-mail them to me or drop them off sometime.

So here’s my list, in no particular order.

· The more I study about God the more he blows my mind. It was so difficult trying to describe God and the more I tried the more frustrating it became, and quite frankly I think that’s the way it’s supposed to be. I will tell you this, my worship of God increased the more I studied who He is.

· Life is all about Jesus. A question I kept coming back to the forefront as I went through each message week by week. It was this: What do you believe about Jesus? Everything about life hangs on how you answer that question.

· I still don’t totally get the Holy Spirit and maybe that’s the way it’s supposed to be.

· I need to spend more time in the Bible.

· I was surprised at how many Christians struggle with forgiving themselves.

· I better understand the justice of God. God’s holiness, grace, and love are huge but His justice/ranks right up there too.

· My understanding of salvation was reaffirmed as I studied what the Bible says. There is only one way to be saved and that is through God’s gracious gift of Jesus. However, people are not always in agreement on how one receives the free gift of Jesus. The relatively easy exercise of looking at what the New Testament says about the words, “salvation,” “save,” and “saved” was extremely profitable in reaffirming what I believe. If you haven’t had a chance yet, you need to go to www.Biblegateway.com and do a “key word” search on each of those words and compile the verses for yourself. Believe me, you will be glad that you did.

· What you believe about Jesus affects how you live. For example, if you really believe that Jesus is Lord then you would want to serve him in anyway possible.

· I was reminded about my own mortality. I don’t stop and think about it enough. I know that sounds weird, but when I used the coffin for the message on Heaven and Hell it was a powerful reminder about how short life is and it helped me to prioritize my life better.

· The church is literally the body of Christ. We are to carry on his ministry.

· A lot of people are really close to making decisions for Jesus. Whether it’s a first time decision to accept him as Savior and Lord or a decision to be obedient to what he wants them to do.

I Love Our Worship Team

For many...many months my wife Suzi has carried the load of leading our praise and worship at church, along with being the only instrumentalist (piano), and has done a magnificent job! Well this fall we have added a number of very talented musicians and Suzi is like a kid in a candy store. Not only does she not have to worry about leading week in and week out (Adam Thomas from CCF has been helping out a ton and doing a fabulous job) but now she has many different options when it comes to putting together a worship service. God has been so good to us and it has been fun to see the worship team set the pace for our weekly worship service. God is good...all the time!

Anyway, Adam has lead a song the last two weeks that I had never heard before and it has stuck with me all day today as I've been doing my thing. So, I thought I would share it with you. It's called "Song of Hope." Enjoy!