Hoarding Isn’t Pretty

It is amazing the things we find on television today. Producers seem to be fixated on producing reality shows. America can't seem to get enough of watching other people's lives. I'm sure it's the sinful nature in us driving it. My wife and I came across a reality show not too long ago which is really quite interesting and typically has a positive impact on a life. It's called Hoarders. It's interesting to see what triggers the hoarding lifestyle and then the painstaking process to clean up a person's home and then counsel them through it as their life is placed back on track. It is amazing to see the living conditions some of these people find themselves in. It's not pretty.

What is Tithing?

Every group of people has their own language or dialect. In English, there are many dialects, for example, British English, American English, and Australian English. They are all English, but hardly the same. As a matter of fact they are quite different in some cases and you can be left wondering what was just said. I spent almost ten years in the US Navy. We could write a note for someone with no words on it at all, just acronyms, and another sailor would know exactly what it said, yet a civilian would just see a lot of meaningless letters.

Husbands, Love Your Wives

Thirteen years ago today, I stood at an altar and gazed upon my bride walking down the aisle of a church on her dad's arm. I could not believe how absolutely radiant she looked. She had a smile that would rival the lights of Paris, at least in my eyes. It is in the spirit of this that I want to share with you today. Men please don't tune this out or click away. You'll want to read this.

Leave the Judgment and Correction to God

I enjoy football, especially the NFL. I am an avid New England Patriots fan, and before you say it, I was a fan of New England back in the day when people didn't know there was a team in New England. This season did not start out well for the Dallas Cowboys. There was a lot of arm chair quarter backing going on and Monday morning second guessing. Much of the speculation was revolving around the coach. The team was not playing like a team. They seemed to be a lot of good individuals all playing their own game. Eventually the head coach was fired and one of his assistants moved into the job. Something changed. The Cowboys started to win. They didn't have a half bad second half of the season. The new coach did something the prior one didn't seem to do. He made them a team. They were no longer divided. They were no longer a group of individuals.

"Where are you going with this, preacher?" is what you're thinking right? It's actually pretty simple. We were made for relationship. We were made to work together. I've written and preached about that before. We were created with a sense to get something accomplished and the Lord gave us a mission. Go and make disciples. So why aren't we making much progress around the world? Why is Islam growing faster than the Body of Christ? Let's look at scripture for the answer.

Pushing the Envelope

I read a great tweet on twitter the other day that really made me chuckle and think. No matter how much you push the envelope, it will still be stationary. What a great play on words! It is funny in the church today that we get so excited to "push the envelope". This entails making some changes or implementing something new, but not so different or new that it ruffles too many existing feathers. If only a few feathers are ruffled and there appears to be success, we are heralded and the rest go on feeling good about themselves but the problem is you are most likely still in the envelope, though it may be a touch bigger from the pushing and stretching. If too many feathers are ruffled or the idea doesn’t pan out we are told we pushed the envelope too far. Then we tend to say the ruffled feathers weren't spiritual enough or don't see the need.

To really experience deep spiritual growth and make a huge impact in the world, we need to do more than just push the envelope. We need to bust it wide open. The envelope is too small. We need a cargo container, and even that is too small to hold God! The traditions of yesterday have, in large part, lost their meaning and usefulness. They now serve to pad us from the discomfort of the unfamiliar and our own rough edges more often than not. If we are going to carry out Jesus' last command to us before ascending to Heaven, we need to stop being stationary, both figuratively and literally, and get radical. As we follow Jesus, we need to take a no holds barred look at fighting the schemes of Satan and bringing the good news of the Kingdom of God to our world.

Being Genuine Leads to Being Relevant

No matter what industry or social group you find yourself a part of these days there are buzz words. In the advertising world they look at what is fresh and exciting. In the consumer arena we want more bang for our buck. Even churches, especially church leaders, have some buzz words. One of the most prevalent today is relevant. By looking at brochures and e-mails that come my way for conferences and meetings, it seems everyone is looking to help us become relevant. Relevant is an adjective and is defined as "bearing upon or connected with the matter in hand; pertinent".

Many churches and their leaders are evaluating to see if their ministry is relevant. Many individual Christians are asking themselves if their personal testimony and ministry is relevant. While this is a very important evaluation which needs to take place often personally and corporately, we want to make sure our focus is not on the buzz word instead of what it means. There are people who seem to be more interested in being labeled relevant than doing what the Lord has equipped and prepared them to do and actually meeting the needs of the people around them. Some look at relevance as fitting in. I look at relevance as seeing the current issues and needs and allowing the Lord to use me to address those situations and meet those needs. Let's explore a few things about being relevant.

The Crucible of Life

I don't know much about precious metals, other than they make men do some pretty crazy things. One thing I do know about precious metals is they are mined. They are dug out of the earth. The interesting thing is the ore that is mined out of the earth is not pure. There's all sorts of impurities mixed in with the precious metal. No matter how clean it may look, there are impurities that need to be removed from the ore before it can be used. The most common way to purify ore into a precious metal is by refining it with fire. The ore is heated to a molten state in a crucible where the impurities float to the top of the liquefied ore. The impurities, called dross, are then skimmed off the top and discarded. After this, the whole process starts over until the desired level of purity is attained. You can never get a bar of precious metal 100% pure. There will always be a little impurity left, no matter how much it is refined.

Malachi, the Old Testament prophet, relays the word of the Lord to us. In chapter 3 he speaks of the refiner's fire. He speaks of the coming Messiah, and His judgment. He speaks specifically of the Levites being refined in the refiner's fire so they can offer a sacrifice in righteousness. I believe this passages of scripture, as all passages of scripture, can be applied to our lives today. Obviously Malachi is not advocating that the Priests be placed in crucibles and placed in an oven heated to thousands of degrees to be purified. He is saying that the Lord will be like a refiner's fire. He will do the purifying. He will skim the dross off that floats to the top and discard it.