Places of 2008

Here is a list of all the places I spent at least one night during 2008. My friend Jared Bridges has been doing this for years and I think it is really cool. You can see his lists here.

• Chattanooga, TN
• Orlando, FL
• Oviedo, FL
• Chantilly, VA
• Daytona Beach, FL
• St. Petersburg, FL
• Brandon, FL
• Lexington, KY
• Signal Mountain, TN
  

The Angels Rejoice at Christmas

This is an excerpt from a sermon Martin Luther gave for Christmas. It is included in my church’s Advent Guide. It really struck me because I find my heart very cold at Christmas. It is far too easy for me to just go through the motions of Christmas and not worship the eternal Son who condescended into our time and space as fully God and fully man.

“See what God did in heaven about this birth which the world despised and did not even see and know. The joy was so great that the angels could not stay in heaven, but had to break out and tell man on earth. The angels proclaimed to the shepherds ‘tidings of great joy.’ This is a mighty comfort to us. What the world despised the angels honored. They would have had a much bigger celebration if God had allowed them, but he wished to teach us through his Son to despise the pomp of the world.
All the angels in heaven, not one excepted, sang, ‘Glory to God in the highest.’ What a shame that all men should not preach this word when all the angels in heaven play it on organs and pipes in eternity! The angels had no bigger congregation than two shepherds in a field. They were filled with too great joy for words. And we who hear this message, ‘Behold, I bring you good tidings,’ never feel one spark of joy. I hate myself because when I see him laid in the manger, in the lap of his mother, and hear the angels sing, my heart does not leap into flame. With what good reason should we all despise ourselves that we remain so cold when this word is spoken to us over which all men should dance and leap and burn for joy! We act as though it were a frigid, historical fact that does not smite our hearts, as if someone were merely relating that the sultan had a crown of gold.”

The Good News After the Bad News

The issue of sin is a gloomy one. It is even more so when it becomes apparent that sin is not only an out there issue, but an in here issue. There is Good News, though. God is not unaware of our tremendous need. He knows that are dead, lost, and helpless in our sin, and he has provided the solution in person of Jesus Christ.
God is just. He must punish the sin that seeks to rob him of that which can only be his. God is also merciful. He loves to show mercy. Our sin deserves God’s punishment, but God in his mercy has provided another way. This is through Jesus Christ. It is through what Jesus Christ did and what Jesus Christ promises.
Jesus is God. He is God who took on humanity and lived the sinless life. Jesus was faced with every temptation that we face. The writer of the book of Hebrews said, “we do not have a high priest [Jesus] who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.” Every issue that you face, Jesus faced. There is no pressure, issue or temptation that you deal with that Jesus has not met head on and been victorious. This is the Good News, because we all struggle with issues that constantly seem to drag us down. We all feel the weight of failure before God. We have all felt unworthy. God knows those issues, and he has overcome them. And that victory can be given to you. Instead of the defeat and weight of failure, we can be credited with Jesus’ victory and freedom.
How? Jesus lived the life we could not live and then died the death we deserved to die. Death on the cross was one of the most horrible manners of death. The pain would be excruciating, slow, and brutal. But the physical pain of the cross was not the worst suffering that Jesus faced. He also faced the full wrath of God, paying the full penalty for sin. The punishment that God demanded for sin was fully paid by Jesus. God’s justice had been satisfied, and those who have faith in Christ stand before God as righteous. But that isn’t all, Jesus did not remain in the grave. In a demonstration of the satisfaction of God’s justice and of Jesus’ victory of his enemies, he rose from the dead. Jesus’ resurrection is the proof of his victory for us. Because of what Jesus did, we can believe in what Jesus promises us. The apostle Paul wrote, “For our sake, he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” Jesus’ record of withstanding temptation is given to you through his death and resurrection.
Jesus not only promises us a new record before God, but a new heart. Our heart before Jesus was enslaved to sin. That enslavement has been broken through Christ and he has given us a new heart with new desires. Through Christ our passions are turned so that we long to honor God and enjoy him. We are given the Holy Spirit who empowers and guides our lives. We still live in a world that is dominated by sin and we will continue to feel the affects of sin in our own lives until heaven, but we begin to know the freedom from the bondage of sin.
And the benefit of a new record before God and a new heart for God is added with a new creation. God will completely redeem his world. We will be completely delivered from the power and presence of sin in this world. There will be no more death or pain. Our bodies and souls will be made new and whole. The world will be as it was intended.

Pray for Reform in The Russian Orthodox Church

Alexy II, the Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church died today. I have spent quite a bit of time in Russia over the years. While I can't say that I "have a heart for Russia," it has been the focus of nearly all my overseas ministry. In my experience I have found Russians to be very spiritual, but very skeptical of the Gospel. Their spirituality stems from 1100 years of Christian influence from the Orthodox Church. Their skepticism of the Gospel is not helped by the bad doctrine of the Orthodox Church. I believe that a Reformation in the Russian Orthodox Church will be key to that great land being reached with the Truth of Jesus Christ. Please pray with me for the Russian Orthodox Church. Pray that a new Patriarch who will turn the church to faith in Christ alone will be installed.

The Bad News Before the Good News

Few people would ever deny the presence of sin in the world. We can all pick up a newspaper and see evil and suffering. In this regard, it is easy to see sin. Sin becomes a little trickier, however, when we turn our gaze from 'out there' to 'in here'. It is much easier to ignore personal sin. It often becomes an issue of comparison. “I never killed anyone.” Sin is easier to see or acknowledge in someone else, usually Hitler.
While we’d like to think that sin is a problem out there, it is in reality a problem in here. We all know the thoughts that we have. We all know the how we often do or say that thing that we don’t really want to do or say. We all know that we have made mistakes. We all know that things are not as they are supposed to be. We have felt sin’s corruption and guilt, even if we would like to dismiss it and think of it only in terms of someone else’s problem.
The basic issue of sin is one of idolatry. It is usually the sin beneath the sin. When God laid out his Ten Commandments, they were done in the pattern of an Ancient Near Eastern treaty. The treaty was a promise by God to man that He would be their God and they would be His people. In the pattern of this treaty, the first command is a general overarching command and the following specific commands expand and explain the general. The first command of the Ten Commandments is, “You shall have no other gods before Me.” This first command is that we would love God first. All the other commandments detail the manner in which we are to love God. This is the same way with sin. Our first sin is that we have not loved God. The manner in which we have broken that command is secondary to the fact that we have put something else in the place of God. This is idolatry. We have crafted little idols into which we place our hope, trust and security. We all have turned to idols. The brokenness of the world drives us to idols. The corruption of our heart looks for peace in idols. Our guilt chronicles the pattern of choosing idols throughout our lives. Idolatry is present in all our lives, and it is the underlying issue in each of our hearts.
Now that we’ve come to terms with sin being an 'in here' problem, it is crucial to look at the effects of sin. The apostle Paul wrote to the church at Ephesus that people are dead in their sins (Ephesians 2:1-5). He also wrote to the church in Rome that the result of sin is death (Romans 6:23). We are spiritually dead before God. We stand before him with a guilty record and a corrupt heart in the midst of a broken world. And being dead, there is nothing that you can do about it.
What is your issue? What is your idol? What are you worshipping? The basic message of the Gospel is to turn from your idols and worship the one true God.

A Message about God

There is a God. It is a pretty simple statement with which most people agree. Increasingly, though, people have questioned this most basic of statements. There are many avenues we could look at to try and prove there is a God. But it ultimately boils down to this, there either is or there isn’t a God.
If there is no God, then none of this matters. Really, nothing matters beyond yourself…so if you can get away with something, do it…and enjoy. Eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow you die. And that’s it. You live, you die, nothing of consequence happens in between. It may seem consequential to you, but after you’re dead, it is completely inconsequential to you. That, however, probably doesn’t sit with you. You have a sense that there must be something more. But if there is no God, there is nothing more.
But what if there is a God? If there is a God, what is he/she/it like? If there is a God, has he told us anything about himself? The Bible speaks of a God who is there and who has spoken. There is a God. He is a God who is both infinite and personal. He created all things and knows all things.
There are many attributes of God but two speak with great import to our situation. The first is that God is just and requires punishment for sin. The second is that God is merciful and loves to show grace.
God’s justice is tied to the fact that he is holy. Holiness is being set apart, separate, pure, and undefiled. For God to remain holy, he must eradicate anything which would defile him. God’s justice sees sin as a gross offense and seeks to punish and eliminate it. Our sin is a rebellion against God. God will not tolerate a stain on his perfection. His justice demands that sin be punished. “Yet, he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation,” (Exodus 34:7b) and “…for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury. There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil” (Romans 2:8, 9).
The situation is dire for all humans. There is not a one who has not done evil. None of us can escape the wrath of God based on our own goodness. God will justly mete out punishment.
But God is also merciful. God loves to show grace and mercy. God created all people in his image. He loves us. We are made to reflect his goodness and this pleases him. “As surely as I live, declares the LORD, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live.” Ezekiel 33:11. God desires to show us mercy.
These two attributes are not in opposition to each other. It is not that one of these attributes takes a back seat to other. Both are fully realized. God’s justice has been fully realized and his mercy has been and will be fully realized. They do not oppose each other; rather they meet in one specific point. They meet at the Cross.