Okay – I usually put up a post on Friday with lots of links, but not today.  I’m going to lighten up our Friday by doing something I’ve never done before! I’m asking you to take part in a poll I’ll conduct through the comments section to this post. You can let me know which option you’d pick, or just write in whatever you’d like.

First of all here’s what I’m considering:

Should I shave some portion, or even all, of my beard off?

Just so you’ll have the data you’ll need to register your vote in this momentous moment of potential Marshian history – here’s two pictures of what the old beard looks like!

Here’s your options in this nonbinding poll (Yes, the operative word here is nonbinding!)

1. Yes Louie, shave all of that sad little rug off!
2. Yes, shave some of it, but leave the mustache and goatee for that cool wise older man look!
3. No! Don’t you dare undo all those years of hard work and history!
4. Not only should you not shave it, but you ought to grow you hair longer!  The more that face is covered the better!
5. Shave the beard but leave the mustache, a little tribute to what will become known as your “hairy period!”
   

Okay gang – just pick a number, or write in your response in the comments below. Let the people speak – and may God have mercy on me as I will doubtless need it!

I’ve talked about this twice this week, so it must be on my mind more than I thought it was.  First time was at Men’s Bible Study on Monday morning. We’re going through Mark and have reached chapter ten. I went over it tonight in my small group too, as we are between studies at the moment.  So here’s just part of what we looked at in both studies.

As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him and fell on his knees before him. “Good teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”  “Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good–except God alone.  You know the commandments: ‘Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, do not defraud, honor your father and mother.’”  “Teacher,” he declared, “all these I have kept since I was a boy.”  Jesus looked at him and loved him. “One thing you lack,” he said. “Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”  At this the man’s face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth. Mark 10:17-22 (NIV)

There’s so much here that it’s mind boggling! But let me just note a few things.

1. Jesus tells the truth, no matter what! Notice that he corrects the young man, because he was flattering Jesus with terms that should be reserved for God alone. The young man doesn’t know Jesus is God, and so Jesus calls him on it.
2. Jesus touches the one thing we don’t want to give Him, and demands it. Mark tells us that Jesus loved the young man, yet He was stilling willing to crush him!  Jesus demanded the one thing that the young man couldn’t give, and I believe Jesus knew this was his idol. That’s why He demanded it!  Notice that Jesus love for the not only didn’t stop Him from crushing him, it caused Him too! Love demands our full obedience to God, nothing less will do.
3. Jesus lets people walk away from Him. When the young man walks away notice that Jesus doesn’t call him back. He doesn’t say, “Oh, please don’t go! Let me help you!” He doesn’t nag him, or try to negotiate with him either. He honors the young man’s choice and lets him go.

That’s what true Christian love is like!

It is neither controlling, nor nagging nor self righteous. It speaks the truth in love, and then allows people to use their God given gift of free will do do what they want to do!

Period. End of sentence.

I struggled with this for years, and finally learned that you have to let people do what they are going to do, no matter how foolish their choice might be! If God isn’t stopping them, who do I think I am to try and stop them??

Something to think about I hope.

I just got in from a great time of living out my faith, and noticed two things: 1)  It’s getting late, 2) I have no blog post done!

Happily in my reader I found this article from The Thinklings, and decided I’d give it a go myself. Here’s the main idea:

Rules: Don’t take too long to think about it. Fifteen books you’ve read that will always stick with you. First fifteen you can recall in no more than 15 minutes. [Source]

1. The Bible. What? You were expecting something else?
2. The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever by Stephen R. Donaldson.  Simply amazing. It really fired my imagination as well as gave me plenty of food for thought. I’ve never read any fantasy that tops the first trilogy, IMHO!
3. Mere Christianity By C.S. Lewis.  Brilliant defense of the faith by sheer reasoning power. Like so many, it made a tremendous impact on my life and faith.
4. The Kingdom of the Cults By Dr. Walter R. Martin.  Actually the book was great, but his teaching tapes (CD and MP3s nowadays) were simply brilliant.
5. The Indirect Approach By Liddel Hart.  As says in the book, it’s not just a book about the power of the indirect approach in battle, but in life itself. Helped me see how important tact can be when used correctly.
6. Escape From Reason By Francis Schaeffer. You could include many other of his books, really challenged my intellect in college and beyond.
7. The Soul of Battle By Victor Davis Hansen – anything he writes if brilliant!
8. Fantastic Four, Mighty Thor, etc. By Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. Yeah I know they were comic books, but they had a profound effect upon my reading and imagination. Besides, this is my list, if you don’t like it go write your own!!
9. Sit, Walk, Stand by Watchman Nee.  Nee’s writings had a huge impact on my early Christian life, and even today although I wouldn’t agree with a lot he said, I still learn from him and hold him in the highest regard.
10. Beast Master by Andre Norton.  This lady, who I thought was a man for quite sometime, really get me interested in Science Fiction in High School, and I still enjoy rereading many of her books.
11. The Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis. Simply fantastic. Children literature that speaks to adults as well. Gotta love it!
12. The Purpose Driven Church by Rick Warren. This book helped get me re focused and renewed at a time when I was down and depressed in my life and ministry. For that reason alone it deserves to be listed here.
13. The Cross of Christ, Romans, etc. by John Stott. This entry covers all his amazing books. His book on the cross is still the best one I’ve ever read on that topic, it really helped get me centered back on the cross in my life and preaching.
14. Where is God When It Hurts By Phillip Yancey. You could put all his books here too. This one, along with C. S. Lewis’s The Problem with Pain helped shape my thinking on suffering and impacted my personal life as well.
15. The Death of Kings (retitled, All The Kings Men) By James L. Johnson.  Johnson also wrote  series of spy novels, all Christian fiction. This book is amazing, and deserves a wider readership than it got, as it is now out of print. Made me stop and think. Johnson’s writings is several cuts above what we usually get in Christian fiction.

Okay – that’s it. What do you think? What you add, subtract, etc.?  Let me know!

I hadn’t planned on doing a part two, until I read something that caught my attention Monday morning. It’s a three part series on Walter Martin. I didn’t know that he died on June 26th, twenty years ago! It doesn’t seem possible that it’s been that long, but it has been. (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3)

I never knew Dr. Martin personally, I never even saw him in a crowd. My entire experience with him was through his tapes, books and video.  But he was a powerful influence on my life. He was the first person I ever heard explain the Trinity in simple, understandable terms. He taught me so much, not only about the theology of the cults, but more importantly about real New Testament theology as well.

He was also a very funny, quick witted man, and had, at times,  a wicked, sarcastic, sense of humor.  Needless to say I loved that!  Nothing like a little spiritual sarcasm to get me going!

He was also very courageous. He stood up for what he believed in, and didn’t care how unpopular that made him, never wavered when he was threatened by lawsuits, and never quit speaking the truth as he saw it!

Amen to that!  I didn’t always agree with Dr. Martin. For example we disagreed on Eternal Security. But he was always willing to accept his brothers and sisters in Christ and not worry about disagreeing on disputable matters, and that was also a hallmark of his life and ministry.

So Why Should We Stop & Remember?

To honor those who have gone before.  But even more importantly than that – to become properly equipped to go into the future that God has for us!  I love to draw strength from great men of God like Dr. Martin, and my own father, not so that I can live in some mellow hued, nostalgic time bubble circa 1985.  That’s not only futile, but I believe it’s a sin!

As believers we are called to look forward and to move forward!  Our call is upward, towards the calling and the prize that God has set before us. We remember and value our pasts so that we can learn from them, be strengthened by them, and then move on into the future!

That’s exactly what we’re starting to do here at KCC, and I hope that’s what each and every one of us will do in our own personal lives.

As far as I know, all people everywhere have celebrated or marked anniversaries. Whether it’s personal, or regional or national or even worldwide, people can’t stop themselves from remembering.  We tend to view certain anniversaries as more important that others, and will often mark them with more pomp and circumstance that others.

First anniversaries are often heralded, and then we advance by tens – with special attention usually given to 50th anniversaries. Then you have the 75th, and of course a centennial is usually a very big event – assuming anyone remembers what their celebrating after all that time. And on it goes.

The power of remembering anniversaries applies equally to events both good and bad, happy and sad. There’s just something in our human nature that insists that we remember.

And it’s a good thing we do. It’s just too bad that we tend to forget much of what we’re supposed to be remembering as soon as the anniversary is over.

I remember when the power that this kind of memory really hit home to me. I was approaching the first anniversary of my divorce. I lived in Kingman back then also (something about Kingman and anniversaries??) and in an unusual flash of insight, knew I’d better be prepared for this one!  So I took off for Las Vegas on that day, and highlighted my first anniversary as a divorced person by going to see Star Trek 2 for the second time.

And oh yes, even though I knew it was come, I cried when Spock died.  Of course, my tears had nothing to do with him, and everything to do with letting go of some of the last remnants of my dead marriage. I don’t think I’d call it a good day, but it sure produced some good results in my life.

Which brings us to today, July 27th, 2009.  One year ago today, at 10:30 AM local time, my father Dan Marsh, died and went home to heaven. Last year the 27th was a Sunday, and I was just beginning second service here when he died. I didn’t know about his death till right after second service, when I got the call.

I know my Father would have approved of my preaching that day. We had agreed years before that if either one or both of my parents died while I was overseas on a Mission Trip, I would complete the trip and then come home. Dad was very humble and wouldn’t have thought it right for me to shirk my duty to be with him.

But part of me still wishes I had.

Whatever “sacrifice” I made is so small that it disappears beside the real sacrifices that thousands of Missionaries, Preachers, etc. have made throughout church history. Mine is made easier knowing that Dad would have approved if he had known.

I plan on taking a few moments at 10:30 this morning, and giving thanks to God for the completely undeserved gift of my father.

God bless you Dad, you are missed.

Gung Ho and Semper Fi!

Well I’ve got some good stuff for you this week – including an exclusive sneak peek of something everyone else will have to wait till Sunday to see! (If you go to KCC, otherwise it’s here and here alone!)  Let’s check things out shall we?

News You Might Not See Elsewhere!

Drug Dealing For Jesus? You’ve got to read it to believe it!

Christian Retail Convention See Huge Drop In Attendance. Are we sure this is a bad thing?

“Band of Brothers” WW2 Vet Passes On – Another real hero gone.

Blog Posts of Interest

The Second Worst Christian Book Ever? Sure sounds like it to me, or at the very least a close runner up!

Stop Reading! Food for thought for compulsive readers like myself

Who Decides To Publish Your Book? For all of us wanna be authors!

Jesus Doesn’t Need More Cowbell Hmmmmm…

Changing The Way People Think About Church Don’t miss this one!!

Site of the Week!

Video Teaching - A new way to get Christian teaching online!

Special Interest For All KCC People!

Covenant Clarification Pastor Brian explains our Ministry Covenants – a must read for KCC’ers!

And now – here it is – The Official First Fall 2009 Teaser

Yes, it’s done by me, so it’s not very good, but it’ll do for now!

“I love it when a plan comes together.” – Col.  John ‘Hannibal’ Smith (George Peppard), The A-Team

I’m sure I’m dating myself by using a quote from the A-Team, but so what?  Everyone who can look at me knows I’m old!

I actually repeated that quote in a meeting I was in this week. The meeting was spawned by my realization that, as I said yesterday (yes, there is a plan to this week’s posts, Heh, heh!)  that KCC needs to start looking forward and getting on with the mission that God has given His church.

I can’t say anything about what we’re planning, because things are still in flux.  If you are a member or attender of KCC and are reading this, then you are already ahead of the curve! One piece of advice before I go on:  We’ll be teasing this Sunday, so don’t miss church!

The reason why I quoted Hannibal Smith was because of what was happening in the meeting.  I got to the office early and began looking over what I had and comparing it to the church calender.  It fit like a glove! Then in further discussion I found that everything we were looking at, and every idea we came up with, was just perfect! It fit the theme of what I was thinking about like a hand in a glove. (Just ignore the OJ trial hand in glove moment, okay?)

Here’s the point of today’s little post:  It never ceases to amaze me how God can bring all sorts of diverse ideas and opportunities together, and tie into a neat little bundle!

It’s amazing! Maybe if I had more faith I’d just be expecting it, I don’t know.  I do know it’s always exciting, moving, motivating and renewing to my faith to see His Spirit move like this.

I can’t wait till Fall!

And that’s all you get for now! 

If you were going to pick a few words that would sum up what Christian people are supposed to be like, what words would you pick? Today love would be first on nearly everyone’s list, followed by many others I’m sure.

Today I want to talk about one such word, a small word with a universe of power inside it. It’s something everyone has sometimes, but loses at others. It’s easy to have a counterfeit version of this word, or to place it in the wrong thing. This quality is vital to life itself.

And no, I’m not talking about faith and I’m also not talking about love.

I’m talking about hope!

Hope is vital because hope always looks to the future.  You hope for what you don’t have but for what you very much want to have.  As Paul says,  “For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has?  But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.” Romans 8:24-25 (NIV)

Hope, in the Biblical sense of the word, isn’t placed in luck, or people or things or the universe itself. Hope is placed in God and God alone!  “For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence, for my hope is from him. “  Psalms 62:5 (ESV)

It’s been a long, hot, tough summer here at KCC. But through it all, God has been working. Now is the time to stop looking backwards, and start looking forward! God is on the move, and this Fall will be a season of growth and outreach and community impact if will follow Him with all our hearts!

I believe this firmly, and am really getting pumped up about what God is going to do here at KCC in the next six months!

Are you ready?  Do you remember God’s promise to His followers who reach out to their community with His love and Grace?

“Then your light will break forth like the dawn,
and your healing will quickly appear;
then your righteousness will go before you,
and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard.”
Isaiah 58:8 (NIV)

So wake up and start looking for that rising sun that God is sending our way!  It’s coming, in fact it’s just around the corner!

Are you ready?

Pastor Brian VanDyke, my Associate Pastor, wrote a great little post on his blog yesterday about how we modern Christians tend to be church daters (shoppers) not people who are really committed to serving Christ in His church.

Of course, being Pastors Brian and I deal with this all the time. People volunteer to serve, promise to be faithful, and then skip out whenever it’s inconvenient to serve.  This is often accompanied by a flimsy excuse: “Well golly gee wiz Pastor, an old friend stopped by, they don’t want to come to church and I can’t leave them alone!” Really?  So let me get this straight. You can’t leave a friend, who was inconsiderate enough to stop by without warning in your comfortable home with all the comforts of home.  But you can leave your Lord’s service!

Uh, is it just me, or does that border on the insane?

Anyway, all this got me to thinking about things, and I remembered the famous lines that Thomas Paine wrote so long ago in his pamphlet, The Crisis.

THESE are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value.

I think the last time I actually read those words was in High School! Reading it now after so long they are even more powerful and relevant than ever before!

Are we really committed, or just sunshine Christians?  Have we forgotten that we are indeed in a war against Satan and hell, and neither will be conquered easily?  I think it’s clear that we have. We’re modern people after all, and we want things quick and easy.  Even – and especially – our wars.  Compare the long war against terrorism with the first Gulf War.  One was quick and very popular, the other long and less so.

Yet Paine is absolutely correct from a Christian perspective.  What we obtain too cheaply we do esteem to lightly.  Look at how we tend to treat all our little technical goodies. Here today, gone tomorrow, and on to the next tech toy that everyone knows is designed to be obsolete in two years or less.

If you think you can build a deep and meaningful relationship with God that way, you are wrong.  If you think that building a church or a ministry can be done quickly and on the cheap, you are so sadly wrong that I don’t quite have the words to express it.

It’s time to solider up! We are in the Lord’s Army (as the kids used to sing), and it’s time we got serious about it! We’ve got to look at things from an eternal perspective, and reject the culture that is fighting with all it’s considerable might to shape our minds and souls.

If you’re really serious, you’ll never be alone, and in the end will achieve something that will last for eternity.  I can’t think of anything better than that.

TGIF for sure!!!  Enjoy the links.

News You Might Not See Elsewhere!

Living Together Before Marriage Causes More Divorces! – I’ll be referring to this Sunday in my sermon!

Episcopal Church Approves Gay Clergy

Robot Feeds on the Dead? – Yikes!

Articles & Blog Posts of Note:

The Problem of Pornography

A Sailor Remembers Tawara - The headline says Solider, but he’s a Sailor!

Jimmy Stwart Remembers A Wonderful Life

Spurgeon on Over Professionalism - Good stuff!