Blog Archives - River of Life Church

Ephraim and Church Troublemakers

4/30/2013

While teaching a survey of the Old Testament class, a Bible college professor commented that the tribe of Ephraim was a trouble-making tribe. That comment stuck and whenever I read about the tribe of Ephraim, I tend to notice what kind of trouble they are creating. After Joshua allotted cities, boundaries and land to the twelve tribes, Ephraim complains that they do not have enough land. After Judge Jephthah defeated the Ammonites, the tribe of Ephraim complains that they were not asked to help. Their complaint led to war against their own family, the tribe of Manasseh.

There are complainers in the church, just like the tribe of Ephraim. They are trouble-makers who look for and make trouble. If the church is growing, then there is not enough chairs. If the church is not growing then it is failing and soon to close its doors. They are complainers, divisive and bring disunity.

The disciple John is recognized as the closest friend to Jesus. He is an old man when he writes a letter to his friend Gaius. John commends his friend and others who are living and loving like Jesus. He identifies a trouble-maker named Diotrephes, who is prideful, spreading lies, does not welcome other Jesus followers, prevents others from welcoming them also and kicks them out of church.

3 John 1:9-11
I wrote to the church, but Diotrephes, who loves to be first, will not welcome us. 10 So when I come, I will call attention to what he is doing, spreading malicious nonsense about us. Not satisfied with that, he even refuses to welcome other believers. He also stops those who want to do so and puts them out of the church. 11 Dear friend, do not imitate what is evil but what is good. Anyone who does what is good is from God. Anyone who does what is evil has not seen God.

Do you have any people creating disunity and trouble in your church? What should be done with them and their divisive ways?

John, with wisdom gained by years and tears, tells Gaius that he will confront Diotrephes when he arrives. His counsel is that no one should be like Diotrephes, but should imitate everything that is good. Leadership should confront the trouble-makers and everyone else should be about the business of doing what is good because they are from God.

Stinky Lady Bugs and Sin

4/29/2013

I have declared an all points bulletin on the Asian beetles in our home. I still call them lady bugs because they are the one and the same in my book. My mother-in-law is not real wild about this obsessive compulsive eradication of these pests because I am using her vacuum cleaner to rid the world, or at least our home, of these flying bugs. Once a few lady bugs are sucked into the vacuum bag, the next time you use the vacuum cleaner a terrible smell is emitted. The only thing worse is the smell they leave on your fingers and hands when you manually pick up the lady bugs.

Psychologists probably have a name for this unstoppable habit I have. When I snatch lady bugs with my bare hands, I must sniff my palm or my digits to see if they smell. I know they are going to smell horrible. I detest the smell, yet every time I just have to smell them.

What is it that makes us do what we do not want to do?

The apostle Paul wrote about the pull to do wrong things instead of right things in his life before he allowed God to lead his life.

Romans 7:19-20
For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.

Sounds like my smelling dilemma and when I do other stupid things.

Paul hates smelling the stink of sin on his hands and cries out for a rescuer. His rescuer is Jesus!

Romans 7:24-25
What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? 25 Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!

The next time you and I want to do something we know we will regret, remember the stinky smell of lady bugs and let Jesus rescue us before we smell our life up.

Arbor Day and Trees in the Bible

4/26/2013

Earlier this year, I ordered 25 maple seedlings and 25 pine seedlings from our Soil and Water Conservation office. They will be planted in our tree rows wherever there is a gap. The seedlings are in and today, Arbor Day, I will pick them up.

Arbor is a Latin word meaning, tree. The first Arbor Day was held on April 10, 1872 and an estimated one million trees were planted that day. It originated in Nebraska City, Nebraska by J. Sterling Morton. There are significant trees mentioned in the Bible.

>The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil that Adam and Eve were not to eat from.
> The Tree of Life that Adam and Eve were prevented from eating from in the Garden of Eden.
> The Great Trees of Mamre where Abraham’s lived and the LORD appeared to him by these trees.
> The tree which formed the cross Jesus Christ was crucified upon.
> The Tree of Life that produces 12 crops of fruit, one crop of fruit every month.
Revelations 22:1-2
Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb 2 down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.

Christians are not to worship trees. We worship God who created trees and causes them to grow today.

Plant a tree and praise our God.

Baby Dedication

4/25/2013

This Sunday our church will have a baby dedicated by her parents. Our church has a number of people that were baptized as infants and are curious why we do not baptize infants. At River of Life, we believe that water baptism occurs as an outward display of what has happened inside of those who are saved, become a Christian and are born-again. It is a powerful expression of their faith commitment.

Parents have their children dedicated instead of baptized. Baby dedication is a setting apart and a committing their child to the care of Jesus Christ. Parents are responsible for spiritually feeding their child much like planting and watering, but we know that God causes the growth. Dedicating your child is really a dedicating of yourselves to raise them in the way of the Lord. The faith and commitment of the parents is the focus.

Parents bring children before Jesus like we find in Mark 10:13-16
13 People were bringing little children to Jesus for him to place His hands on them, but the disciples rebuked them. 14 When Jesus saw this, He was indignant. He said to them, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. 15 Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.” 16 And He took the children in His arms, placed His hands on them and blessed them.

The parents make a commitment as follows:
"This morning you are bringing (child) before the Lord to dedicate him/her and for us to pray a blessing over him/her.
Do you agree that with God's help, you will be an example for your child to follow and that you will start now to educate your child and prepare him/her to accept Jesus as their personal savior?"
The parents answer: "We will".
The church prays for the parents responsibilities.

There is a second commitment to release their child into the Lord’s destiny instead of their dreams :
"Parents, are you willing to say this morning, "Lord, this child is yours. Develop his/her talents as you see best for Your glory."
Parents answer, "We will".
The church prays a blessing over the baby/child.

How does your church dedicate babies or children?

2 Reasons Why Your Children Will Leave Christianity

4/24/2013

Research and surveys show that 70% of the children raised in a Christian home leave Christianity once they leave home. They grew up in the church, believed in Jesus Christ, but when they go to college, join the military, move out and into the work force seven out o f 10 ditch Christianity. After a few years half of the 70% recommit to a loving relationship with Jesus Christ, but why the desertion?

I believe there are two primary reasons:
1.       They never “tasted” the Lord.
2.       They never wrestled with the hard questions.

Many children just drafted in the wake of their parent’s belief. They went to children’s church, youth group, made a commitment and got baptized without having a relationship of their own with Jesus Christ. The Bible says to, “Taste and know…” Each of us must experience and encounter the Lord instead of warming our hands around the spiritual fires of others.

Other children grew up and never wrestled with some difficult aspects of Christianity. Why do bad things happen to good people? How do I have a relationship with someone I cannot see or touch? What are the differences between Christianity and other religions? They may have raised questions, but were told to have faith, just believe, and not to doubt. They step out of the church environment and into a very questioning world of college and career.

So, if you have children at home, how do you raise them to taste and wrestle?
1.       Have your child taste with you. Just like sharing a new appetizer, do relationship together with your child. Pray, listen to the Holy Spirit, and serve the Lord together. They will see tasting modeled and will encounter the Lord for themselves with you and on their own.
2.       Share the questions you have had and how you came to a resolve. Share those issues that remain a mystery and why you have chosen to still embrace Jesus Christ. Allow your child to voice questions. You help your child with homework, but a wise parent will not give them all the answers without letting them work at solving the problem. Invite them to dig for answers and guide them towards a solution.

Psalms 34:
Taste and see that the Lord is good;
    blessed is the one who takes refuge in Him.

I am convinced that children who have tasted the Lord and wrestled with the hard questions will leave your home able to stand firm in their love and commitment to Jesus Christ.

What do you do to help your children taste and wrestle?

3 Things Christians Must Do For The Earth

4/23/2013

Christian writer, Charles Colson, wrote that “Christians should be the most ardent ecologists” because we know the creator, and we’ve been given the job of caring for His creation. Many Christians refuse to participate in Earth Day because they feel they would promote the earth as our “Mother” and something to be worshiped instead of God.

Earth Day began 43 years ago on April 22, 1970, the result of Gaylord Nelson’s idea, then a U.S. Senator from Wisconsin, after witnessing the ravages of the 1969 massive oil spill in Santa Barbara, California. He realized that if he could infuse the student anti-war energy with an emerging public consciousness about air and water pollution, it would force environmental protection onto the national political agenda. April 22 was chosen because the majority of campuses were not on spring break and did not have final exams occurring.

On that first Earth Day, 20 million Americans took to the streets, parks, and auditoriums to demonstrate for a healthy, sustainable environment in massive coast-to-coast rallies. Thousands of college and universities organized protests against the deterioration of the environment. Groups that had been fighting against oil spills, polluting factories and power plants, raw sewage, toxic dumps, pesticides, freeways, the loss of wilderness, and the extinction of wildlife suddenly realized they shared common values.

The first Earth Day led to the creation of the United States Environmental Protection Agency and the passage of the Clean Air, Clean Water, and Endangered Species Acts. "It was a gamble," Gaylord recalled, "but it worked." Earth Day mobilized to a global campaign in 1990 and today the Earth Day Network has 22,000 partners in 192 countries.

King David wrote a psalm that acknowledges God as the maker of the world and everything in it.
Psalms 24:1-4
The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it,
    the world, and all who live in it;
2 for He founded it on the seas
    and established it on the waters.
3 Who may ascend the mountain of the Lord?
    Who may stand in his holy place?
4 The one who has clean hands and a pure heart,
    who does not trust in an idol
    or swear by a false god.

Three Easy Things Christians Must Do For The Earth.
1.       Reduce - get rid of junk mail, pay your bills online, buy in bulk to reduce the amount of packaging, use real plates and glasses instead of paper and plastic, bring your own bag to the store, use a reusable coffee mug when buying your favorite drink, buy only what you need, and shave a few minutes off your shower.
2.       Reuse - Before you buy, consider how you’ll be able to use the item in the future. Make sure it’s something that will last. Share bigger items with neighbors, family, and friends.
3.       Recycle – everything you can, when in doubt – put it in the recycle bin, use recycled products, if your school or workplace does not recycle – ask why and organize the effort to get recycling in place

Christians are to worship God and care for this earth He created for us.
Genesis 1:28
God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”

One of the Biggest Failings Among Christians and the Church

4/22/2013

There are numerous ways the church and Christians are not any different with the rest of the world and we not only should be, we must be different. Divorce, entertainment choices, and values show very little difference among Christians and non-Christians.

Allstate Insurance surveyed 1000 people in December 2012. They discovered that 41% of Americans over the age 18 live paycheck to paycheck and 8% do not earn enough to provide essentials for their families. Barna research has found no noticeable difference in spending, saving or budgeting habits between Christians and non-Christians.

My wife and I are in the 41% category. We are working ourselves out of that position and into a solid financial position. Our church is hosting Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University and it is making a difference among the group of people who have committed nine weeks to learn God’s ways of handling money.

Our first baby step was establishing an emergency fund of $1000. Our second step was a written budget. We are now in the process of telling our money where it should go instead of just watching it disappear. The wife of noble character described in Proverbs 31 is wise in her finances. She honors and respects the Lord with her money.

Proverbs 31:15-25
15 She gets up while it is still night;
    she provides food for her family
    and portions for her female servants.
16 She considers a field and buys it;
    out of her earnings she plants a vineyard.
17 She sets about her work vigorously;
    her arms are strong for her tasks.
18 She sees that her trading is profitable,
    and her lamp does not go out at night.
19 In her hand she holds the distaff
    and grasps the spindle with her fingers.
20 She opens her arms to the poor
    and extends her hands to the needy.
21 When it snows, she has no fear for her household;
    for all of them are clothed in scarlet.
22 She makes coverings for her bed;
    she is clothed in fine linen and purple.
23 Her husband is respected at the city gate,
    where he takes his seat among the elders of the land.
24 She makes linen garments and sells them,
    and supplies the merchants with sashes.
25 She is clothed with strength and dignity;
    she can laugh at the days to come.

She is able to laugh because she does not have financial anxieties or worries because she controlled her money and told it where it should go. She was in a financial position to help other and be generous. I want to be like her.

Can God Help Us?

4/19/2013

God is described as great and good.
Psalms 46:1
God is our refuge and strength,
an ever-present help in trouble.

Everyone agrees that innocent people get hurt and injustice happens in our world every day. Innocent people were injured at the Boston Marathon and three were killed. A fair question to ask is why God did not protect them. Possible options are:
>They did not believe in God, so He was not their refuge.
>God wanted to, but was not able to protect them.
>God was able to protect them, but did not want to.
>God wanted and was able to protect, but did not.

The Bible declares that God is good and God is great. I believe that God wanted and was able to protect them from harm. I believe that among the three killed and more than 170 people injured there were likely many of those who believed in God.

There are times when God steps into our world and interrupts what was occurring or what was going to occur. The Bible records events where people were healed of some disease that had afflicted them for many years. Nations were miraculously protected from an attacking nation by God’s intervention. There are events recorded in the Bible when God did not step into to protect or prevent harm. During those times, God grieves over the pain and loss.

God’s gift was creating humankind who are not programmed robots, but free beings with true choices. Our choices to love others as God loves or to not love and harm others are given to us. God often allows those choices to be lived out in this free world. Terrorists are allowed to drop off and detonate bombs. Lives are shattered. People experience pain. God deeply grieves.

Genesis 6:5-6
The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time. 6 The Lord regretted that He had made human beings on the earth, and His heart was deeply troubled.

Emancipation Day

4/18/2013

This year Emancipation Day was overshadowed by the tragic events in Boston. The following is the blog I posted last year with minor editing:

Emancipation Day was established in 1862 by President Abraham Lincoln which ended slavery in Washington DC bringing freedom to 3,100 individuals. The Compensated Emancipation Act was signed on April 16 and is a public holiday in Washington DC.

Historian C.R.Gibbs writes, “News of Lincoln’s action raced through the city. The joy in the District’s black community was dramatic and profound. One black District citizen wrote to a friend in Baltimore, “This indeed has been a happy day to me sights have I witnessed that I have anticipated.”

He then described how he gave the happy news to two female friends of his, one of whom had an enslaved son:

When I entered they perceived that something was ahead and emmediately [sic] asked me “What’s the news?” The District’s free says I pulling out the “National Republic” and reading its editorial. When I had finished the chambermaid had left the room sobbing for joy. The slave women clapped her hands and shouted, left the house saying, “let me go and tell my husband that Jesus has done all things well.” While the cook who is free retired to another room to offer thanks for the blessing sent. Should I not feel glad to see so much rejoicing around me? Were I a drinker I would get on a Jolly spree today, but as a Christian I can but kneel in prayer and bless God for the privilege I’ve enjoyed this day….Would to God that the Law applied also to Baltimore but a little patience and all will be well.”

The Emancipation Proclamation was an executive order issued by President Lincoln January 1, 1863 which immediately freed 50,000 slaves and applied to 3 million of the 4 million slaves in the US at that time. Formal slavery did not become illegal until the end of the Civil War in 1865 which officially ended slavery in our country.

Declared freedom comes before full freedom. The prophet Isaiah, told about Jesus coming to set people free centuries before Jesus came. All who believe and follow Jesus are set free, yet full freedom will happen when Jesus comes back and establishes His kingdom on earth.

A little patience and all will be well.

Galatians 5:1 It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.

Who Do We Blame?

4/17/2013

Where does your suspicion go concerning the recent bombing at the Boston Marathon?

Who we blame often reveals something about our biases.

There is more information about the material that was in the bombs and that one of the bombs was contained in a pressure cooker. Early reports proved inaccurate about a number of things: The fire at the JFK Library was not connected to the bombings. There were no undetonated bombs. A student from Saudi Arabia is not held as a suspect.

Our human tendency is to find the person or persons responsible and bring them to justice. Our suspicions reveal our biases. The evening of the bombing, while the Saudi Arabian student was in a hospital being treated for his injuries, his apartment was searched. Many of our nation’s biases which are based on 9/11, Al-Qaida, and hostile relations with Middle Eastern nations assumed that the terrorist has been discovered.

White-supremist, anti-government groups are another group that is being blamed for the bombing. Until there is more information, clues, evidence and arrests each of us have our suspicions that are motivated by our biases. They may be correct and they may be wrong.

When things go wrong in your work place, school, community or neighborhood, who do you blame? Do you blame young who have lost respect, the elderly who have lost their prime, the unemployed because they lost their job, or somebody else? The blame-game can help raise awareness of your biases and challenge you to ask yourself where those biases originated.

Leviticus 19:15
“‘Do not pervert justice; do not show partiality to the poor or favoritism to the great, but judge your neighbor fairly.”