This past weekend I had a birthday, and with birthdays comes well wishes and being with friends and family. It also makes one a bit reflective of life and having made another trip around the sun. After the friends and family leave, the cake is gone, and the laughter has died out, and you find time by yourself, it makes you think about what is really important in life. For me I would say the connections I’ve made in life have had an enormous impact on me. Several friends that I have made from different parts of the country sent videos congratulating me on another birthday, but the words they said were so impactful and welcoming. The fact that people who were once strangers are now such treasured friends that I couldn’t imagine my life being without is something odd in a way, but yet so wonderful.

Now consider John 15:13 –“No one has greater love than this, that someone would lay down his life for his friends.^” To think that God calls us His friends. We were once strangers to Him because of our rebellion, but now in Jesus we are called His friends even His children. We are the people God wants to hang out with and have parties with and celebrate life with. That is an amazing thought to consider. He treasures us so much that we are not just acquaintances that He might have coffee with or say hello when He sees us in a crowd, but we are treasured friends that He will reveal His heart to and even die in our place. There will be no celebration on earth like there will be in New Creation when all of God’s friends who have become His family celebrate salvation forever with Him as the center of the party.

For the believer joy is a fruit of the spirit. To know that our sins are forgiven, our account is cleared, graced bestowed, and hope granted should create an inner celebration for those who have put their faith in Christ Jesus. Therefore, as followers of Christ, our perspective of life should be different than the rest of the world not rooted in the circumstances of life but in the reality of a loving and forgiving God.

My question for us this week: Is your temperament, mood, or attitude towards life rooted in your circumstances or the reality of God’s love for you?  I’ve heard many times the statement, “Well under the circumstances…” For the Christian one must ask, “Why are you under the circumstances?” Your reality in Christ is greater than any circumstance that comes your way in this life. See beyond today through the spectacles of eternity.

Paul writing to the Philippian church from a Roman dungeon clearly is not under the circumstances of his situation where his hope would be minimal and future dreary. No he is rejoicing at the fact that He knows Christ, he has been recognized by the world as a spokesman for Christ, and is willing to be punished and even die as a prisoner for Christ. Paul would tell us that no matter the circumstances you are in, even if death is inevitable on the immediate horizon of your future, as a believer you have reason to rejoice in Jesus. May we as His followers rejoice in God’s love no matter our circumstances.

Philippians 4:4

Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!

LONE OAK NEWS

Psalm 46:10 – Be still, and know that I am God;

When I was young my mother used to tell me I had “Ants in my Pants” because I wouldn’t sit still much as I was always into something. Sadly, we have become an “Ants in your Pants” society because most of us hate being still. How many people constantly stay on their phone nowadays? We are a culture of little busy-bodies! Over time this kind of approach to life is exhausting to our body and draining to our spirit.

In this little verse, God is calling us to be still, but why? The answer is to know that He is God and not ourselves, or some circumstance or interruption in life. The reason many of us struggle with hearing from God is because our lives are too loud, too busy with our own self-will that we cannot hear as Elijah did ‘the still, small voice of God’ (1 Kings 19:11-13). Sitting in silence, allowing our minds to declutter and detox from the junk of the world is a necessary practice for spiritual sanity. Biblical meditation is refocusing the mind on God unlike the Eastern practice where one attempts to empty their mind which is actually logically impossible. We must learn to recapture the silence and the stillness of life and let the beauty of God rekindle the fire within our hearts. There is a time to be busy, but the joy you get out of the busyness of life will be determined in how connected you are with God in those still moments we create everyday. 

Last week we discussed truth, and I want to continue that discussion this week. Pontius Pilate ask Jesus in John 18, “What is truth?” This is a question that people over the generations and throughout the world grapple with even today. Truth is not mere opinion, perspective, or feelings, but rather a view of God’s reality. In another words, truth is thinking God’s thoughts after Him. If you are in an art gallery, the only person who can tell you the intentional purpose of a painting is the artist who made the painting. In the same way the only One who has the true monopoly on truth is the Creator Himself.

            For truth to exist there must be an absolute reality independent of mankind’s opinions or feelings. We have as a society put too much emphasis on opinions and feelings, and not enough on asking ourselves when God made this or that what did He have in mind. The trouble is mankind in our “progressive arrogance” are trying to redefine what the Creator had in mind. Look at our debates we as a society are having. We question what is male and female, the institution of marriage, and when is a baby a human. To be so pompous in our intellect as a people, we are grappling with questions children can answer, but it’s the adults sadly who are struggling. We have gone from simply being a people within God’s reality to trying to create our own through virtual reality. Nothing wrong with video games and such themselves, but I encourage you if you are a parent to not let your kid’s  video games to become their babysitters. Let your children experience God’s reality out in nature where the creative juices of the mind can take root for a healthy future, and not constantly exposed to some artificial illusion. Teach your kids how to think, not just what think so they can treasure truth the way our Creator designed us.

Abraham Lincoln

How many legs does a dog have if you call the tail a leg? Four. Calling a tail a leg doesn’t make it a leg.

What is Truth? (Part 1)

Love cannot exist without absolute truth. No doubt love is the highest ethic, but love has no place of validation without truth. To illustrate this I want to begin with a short exchange within a conversation once told:

Ravi Zacharias, Christian apologist who speaks around the world, was asked which is more important love or truth, and he responded truth. The questioner quickly disagreed to state that love is the most important to which Ravi responded, “Is that true?”

This little conversation illustrates that love and truth go together, but without truth, there can be no understanding of love or anything else in the world.

We see in our world today, and particularly in our society:

• an erosion of values,
• confusion of identity,
• the extinction of logic and reasoning, 
• the collapse of moral frameworks
• delusional ideologies
• political demagoguery (when a politician or political groups appeal to popular desires and prejudices rather than using rational argument) I’ve seen this in both Republicans & Democrats

These issues exist because we as a people, society, country and world have lost our appetite for truth. Feelings have become the barometer in which we measure values, and critical thinking has become an enemy to many and only a past time for a few. Today, we are quick to believe lies but slow to investigate truth, and gossip is a multi-million dollar business from magazines to news reports. Why is this the case? Because we have left no room for God in our society, our homes, and ultimately our hearts.

Charles Spurgeon

A lie can travel half way around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.

Sanctify them by the truth; Your word is truth. (John 17:17)

Have you thought about how good we have it to be Christians in America? Yes, we may experience push back here and there and be antagonized for our faith, but nothing like many in other countries. Even with how our cultural horizon has changed over the last few years, we still have it so good and many of us as Christians have failed to appreciate this fact.

            How many churches have split over silly things such as the color of the carpet or people gripe about how long they have to sit in church? Or who gets recognized for what? Its all meaningless because there is only one reason to go to church and that is for Jesus. When compared to the early church where they were getting beheaded, burned at the stake or thrown to lions in the colosseum we have it so good. This past Sunday, we at Bull Creek Cowboy Church watched the movie, Paul, the Apostle of Christ, and it is so impactful as it takes you back to the life of Paul and even Luke and the conditions they were in to spread the Gospel. Christianity is a dangerous faith because it shouts truth and love in the face of evil. If you are a believer don’t wear your feelings on your sleeve, but rather let the fire of faith burn within your hearts to share the love of God to all people no matter how good or bad we have it.

Romans 12:21 – Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.