Happy Thanksgiving!

Looking for something to be thankful for?  Well here’s something that the biased Lame Stream Media won’t tell you about – but they should!

It’s the story of a heroic band of Marines in Afghanistan. Against incredible odds they not only held their own, but killed about one fifth of the enemy forces and routed them!  One sniper hero killed about 50 of the enemy, allowing his fellow Marines to carry the day.

By any measure this is an incredible victory, on par with Marine performances in both World Wars and Korea. To be so completely outnumbered and end up by running the enemy off, is little short of miraculous. This is kick butt and take name kind of Marine Corps that my father was a part of, and that I’ve respected all my life. To say “well done” to them, is quite simply a gross understatement.

The men are hero’s – who the Lame Stream Media will refuse to honor – but I’m going to do my little part here!

God bless the Second Battalion, 7th Marines – and all our Armed Forces everywhere!

Now that’s something to be thankful for!

Hat Tip: Blackfive!

I don’t know if you’ve ever thought about why we ought to continue celebrating Thanksgiving here in the USA, aside from getting a day off and lots of great food that is!

I think that this is more than just a tradition and more than simply recalling our history, though of course it is both. The much maligned Pilgrims did our as yet unborn country a world of good when they begin the tradition of Thanksgiving. So did our first President George Washington when proclaimed a day of thanksgiving, and finally of course Lincoln made it offical. You can read more about all that here.

But beyond all that, and far beyond some trite exercise in “being positive,” Thanksgiving ought to remind believers of just how important giving thanks is for us.  The Christian faith ought to be full of the most thankful people in the world, because we and we alone believe that our salvation comes as a gift from God alone.

There are no works involved in attaining salvation in Christian theology.  And in fact we don’t live or serve by works either.  It’s not our strength we rely on, but upon Christ alone.

So why not spend at least a few moments today or tomorrow giving thanks for everything, since it’s by God’s grace and God’s grace alone that we have anything!

Happy thanksgiviing.

BTW – there will be no post on Friday, but I do have something lined up for you tomorrow!  See you on Monday.

Monday morning’s Men’s Bible Study continues to roll along, and I continue to get little bits of insight from it! Here’s what hit me this week as we discussed the passage:

So then, dear friends, since you are looking forward to this, make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with him. 2 Peter 3:14 (NIV)

As we discussed the end of 2 Peter I was struck by the phrase, “looking forward.”  Of course in the context of this passage Peter is referring to their anticipation of the Second Coming, a new heavens and a new earth, etc.

I talked about this, but then took it a step further, and I believe this step is a valid insight from the context of this verse.  Here my little insight from this verse: The Christian faith if a forward looking faith.

Not just looking forward to the second coming, but always looking forward to what God is going to do next. As believers we are not to get stuck or trapped in our pasts. As a believer I live by looking back, learning from my past, and then turning away from the past and looking forward to the future!

Whether that future is just what’s going to happen today, or something a bit further down the road doesn’t matter.  Since it was a Monday morning I talked about how we had a whole new day and a whole new week facing us! If you read this on the day I post it – a Tuesday – you’ve got nearly the whole week!

So look forward and move forward into what God has for you, and don’t get stuck in the past.

When you think about it this is what forgiveness is all about.  To forgive is to let go. Let go of past pain or regret or sorrow or bitterness. We let it all go under the Blood of Jesus, and seek to forgive others as Jesus has forgiven us.

What else is that be being forward looking?

The Christian Faith is a forward looking faith. It’s not trapped in the past, it’s own or anyone else s. The Christian faith is all about being free in Christ to serve him and others, and that too is and has to be, forward looking!

We need to quit whining about our pasts, and we also need to stop looking at the 1950′s as if they were some sort of heaven on earth!  Trust me, they weren’t!  Our obsession with the past, and being seen as people who are trying to turn back the clock, is I believe a major reason so many young people don’t want anything to do with us.

Yes, we must always point to the eternal truths of God. Yes we must always honor and respect our past, and learn from those who’ve gone before us.  But why do we do that?  Not to stay in the past – but to move into the future!

Or to say it another way – we do all this to be forward looking!

So, as Stan “The Man” Lee used to say in his Marvel Comic columns a long time ago – FACE FRONT BELIEVERS!

Yesterday morning our Worship Team did they usual excellent job!  They were really allowing God to use them to move us all closer to Him through the music.  One of the songs they did sparked a thought, that took me on a tangential journey which has resulted in this very post!

The song in question was Fields of Grace by Big Daddy Weave.  Here’s the two lines that sent me off on my own little mental journey:

There’s a place where religion finally dies
There’s a place that I lose my selfish pride [Source]

For some strange reason, as we sang those lyrics I thought of them as being different than they are.  Mind you I  know the lyrics, I didn’t misunderstand them, I just started changing them in my head.

I do this a lot actually. I’ll hear something or read something and a connection or linkage will occur to me that’s different from what the speaker or author has in mind. But it’ll grab my attention so off I go! I’m not sure if that’s wired or not, but I am sure it’s me!

Anyway, I thought about not losing my pride, but of losing myself when I allow pride to dominate me. Now I might have thought that because eariler in the song it says…

There’s a place that I lose myself within
There’s a place I find myself again

So perhaps I just took the one line, mixed it with the other one, and came up with own little mini revelation for the day!  Since I didn’t preach yesterday, I had a lot of time to think Sunday morning!  See what happens when my mind is allowed to wander?

I related this to what I had shared on Friday night at Celebrate Recovery. And I concluded very quickly that this is exactly what happens to me or anyone else who gives into pride. I lose myself, my real self that has been created in the image of the Risen Christ, and instead settle for that old, run down, useless old self that Jesus died to free me from!

We use pride to protect ourselves, to make sure people respect us or to keep us from some kind of loss. The irony however is that pride itself robs me of myself! It strips me of the new self and of the Spirit’s guiding power, and leaves me only with my useless flesh.

Not good!

Pride is always rearing it’s ugly head in all our lives in a myriad of fashions. Pride probably hits me in a different way that it hits you.  But the result is the same! I lose my new self when I choose pride over humbly trusting Christ.

Lord, help me lose my pride, and old self, by holding onto you, your Spirit and the new self that you’ve created for me.

Most of you who logged onto my blog for the last week or so probably noticed something pretty odd looking. Or rather, the lack of some things!  The sidebar might have been gone, and for the last two days you probably couldn’t even read my little “poem” about my colonoscopy.

There’s a reason for that, one that I knew about but forgot.  The reason is that most of you use Microsoft Internet Explorer as your browser, and, believe it or not,  Microsoft Explorer isn’t fully compatible with Microsoft Word!

I had copied and pasted text twice in the last week from MS Word into WordPress (my blogging software). It all looked fine in FireFox (my browser and the best there is IMHO!).  However, Explorer took out the sidebar and stopped the page from loading.

Why?  Because of code that MS Word puts in, but that MS Explorer can’t read!!

Microsoft, I just don’t get why you can’t make two of your flagship programs work well together!  Come on!  If FireFox (which is a free download by the way) can handle it, why on earth can’t you!

Sigh – and the beat goes on.

News of Interest:

The Episcopal Snowball Effect The latest in the ongoing saga of the destruction of the Episcopal Church.

“Christian” Dating Site, eHarmony To Offer Site for Gays After losing a lawsuit they’ve caved in, paid bit money and are setting up a site for gays. Sigh.

YouTube For the Troops – TroopTube This is a site run by the Military for the Military, that’s designed to make sure no secrets are given away.

Blog Post of the Week:

In a week filled with good posts – this one is by far the best, or at least deals with the most pressing issue facing preachers today!

A Dangerous Trend Are we leaving the Cross out of the Gospel?

A Brand New Blog!

Bob & Peggy Kuest, missionaries who I travel with, have started a new blog – check it out!

Blog Posts of Interest:

Chesterton’s “Orthodoxy” Turns 100 A fitting tribute to a thought provoking book.

Joe Carter On What The Election Tell Us About Our Spiritual State

Ten Deadly Trappings of Evangelism, Pt 1

Ten Deadly Trappings of Evangelism, Pt 2 Joe’s on a roll this week, great stuff here, read both these posts and ponder what the man is saying!

Keeping Your FOCUS - Good stuff here from Perry Noble.

Have a Great Weekend!

Here’s our brand new logo!  When I first came to KCC I told the Elders we needed a new one, and now after a lot of work from my good friends Phil and Kim Barrera, it’s become a reality!  Pretty soon Brian and I will have new business cards featuring a brand new look and the new logo as well!

Enjoy!

I have several pictures on the wall facing me when I sit at my “desk” (well, okay, it’s really just a table, but I like to pretend it’s a desk okay?) One of them is a photo I bought two years or so ago when I was in San Francisco visiting my friends Jonathan & Maggie.

I love this picture!  It’s shows a large wave crashing onto drenched rock on the shore as the sun is setting behind it. The sky and most of the sea is orange, and there is a huge cloud of froth where the wave impacts the stone.

I fell in love with this little picture when I saw it on the street in SF, and was happy to buy it. It’s been in my office ever since. Right now it sits along side my favorite quote from Sir Francis Drake and a thank you certificate from the Marine Raiders Association. Pretty good company if you ask me.

So why keep it here where I can see it every day? There’s not Scripture verse printed on it – thank God for that! I think the practice of pasting a Bible verse on a picture or painting and then calling it, “Christian Art,” is ridiculous and usually won’t have that kind of “art.”

The reason I love this little picture is that it captures nature in all her powerful beauty. It’s a little microcosm of how God designed the universe and life in general. There is incredible beauty in nearly all of life’s unexpected fleeting moments.

But if you blink it’s gone. The picture freezes a moment in time, otherwise no one who wasn’t there that day would have see it or know about it. But that’s to the picture, I can appreciate it for as long as I want too.

This picture reminds me that God works in the unexpected, the unseen, and that he often works very quickly. His beauty is there and then it’s gone. If I’m not paying attention or am just moving through life at too quick a pace, I’ll miss it.

And I’ll be the poorer one for that.

So I’m trying to keep my eyes wide open and my pace slow enough to see what God is doing in this great big wonderful world of his.

All in all, it’s pretty amazing!

[Note: I had my first ever colonoscopy yesterday and was so moved by the experience that I composed this little song. Hope you enjoy it!]

Well I had me a colonoscopy today

And afterwords they didn’t really have that much to say

But there’s no cancer in my butt!

But there’s no cancer in my butt!

Thank God I’ve got no cancer in my butt!

The doc asked me if I traveled much to Mexico

I said Myanmar yes, but Mexico no

He said Ah well that explains how

Those two worms are in your colon now

But there’s no cancer in your butt!

There’s no cancer in your butt,

You’ve got worms in your colon but no cancer in your butt!

I’ve got to take some pills to kill those worms

I wonder if I’ll feel their little death squirms?

But me I don’t hate ‘em anyhow

I just want to get them out of my colon now

No I don’t hate ‘em one little bit

I just don’t want to see their corpses floating in my toilet

But there’s no cancer in my butt!

But there’s no cancer in my butt!

I’ve got worms in my colon but no cancer in my butt!

Is there a moral to this story?

Yes there’s a moral to this song,

And to tell it ain’t gonna take very long

If you serve the Lord in Asia be careful where you sit

And think twice about seeing what’s in the toilet

But most of all let the Docs to their thing

And when over I hope you can join me and sing,

There’s no cancer in my butt!

There’s no cancer in my butt!

I’ve got worms in my colon but no cancer in my butt!

Yeah I got worms in my colon,

But no cancer

Not one little bit of cancer,

Not a shred of that cancer

In my butt!

Oh Yeah!

Sunday evening I gave a little “exhortation” at our Men’s Meeting. We ate first of course!  Then we watched part of a great Christian humor video, and finally it was my turn. I spoke from this passage.

But you, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness.  Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses. 1 Timothy 6:11-12 (NIV)

I talked about how difficult it can be for us to distinguish between what men really are or are supposed to be, and the culture that surrounds us.  And in a changing culture, like ours, it gets even more complicated. Consider for a moment the nature of men and women.

If you go back to the 60′s and beyond the stereo type of men and women was almost the exact opposite from what it is today. Women were emotional, ditzy, airheads who made horrible decisions, gossiped all the time, spent money foolishly and were the butt of literally hundreds of thousands of jokes!  If you don’t believe me, just go watch some old episodes of I Love Lucy, and see how she’s the one who’s always making silly decisions and getting into trouble, and her husband Ricky is the one who bails her out.

Today it’s just the opposite. Men are pigs, driven by their hormones and passions. They are stupid, short sighted and rash. In todays television universe it’s the women who are bailing out their dopey husbands and boy friends from all the stupid things they do!

So in the midst of all this, how much of our concept of “manhood” is derived from the culture and how much from Scripture? (For my women readers, how much of your concept of “womanhood” comes from culture and how much from the Bible?)

Here’s the big question I asked but did not answer: WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE A MAN OF GOD ANYWAY? Most of the commands in Scripture are given to everyone, not just men or women. So what are the distinctives of being a Man or a Woman of God?

How are we Christian men called to be different from the men all around us?

I don’t know for sure, but I do know that the best possible starting place to get some answers has to be a close look at the man Jesus! He was a man unlike any other man. Sadly, all too often I’m a man very much like most other men.

So my challenge for today is for you to search the Scriptures, think and pray deeply, and then tell me how you would answer this question.  I’ll be waiting for your answers!